Saturday Hot Links
Time for the 117th installment of Saturday Hot Links!
Today: The Christmas Movie Trailers Recut As Thrillers Edition
Franklin Leonard did an AMA on Reddit this week.
Full-size LEGO car actually drives.
Variety ranks the top 10 movie soundtracks of 2013.
Is the world ready for the Chipotle of pizza.
Bruce Willis is an hilarious bad ass in Die Hard blooper trailer [video].
You a writer? Want to own a house? For free? In Detroit? Look here.
James Schamus tapped for Writers Guild of America East honor.
David Simon to receive the WGA Ian McClellan Hunter Award.
African-American woman to run humorous “Harvard Lampoon” magazine.
Why cable mergers could dominate in 2014.
The 4o most insane things that happened this year in Florida.
7 shows to stream with your family over the holidays.
David Mamet developing a miniseries at Fox.
Robots are the not-too-distant future of war.
Screenwriters Choice Award nominees announced.
How the vitamin industrial complex swindled America.
8 first-time directors who got hired for major films.
Hell explained by a chemistry student.
Do women prefer films by women filmmakers.
How diamonds became the de facto engagement stone.
Watch this tribute to TV shows and characters we lost in 2013 [video].
Father and daughter beautifully recreate wedding photos of late mother.
Dwayne Johnson is the top grossing actor of 2013.
18 facts about your favorite Christmas TV specials.
Discovery greenlights series about American West from Robert Redford.
12 famous novelists who became Hollywood screenwriters.
The 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees are…
We are very, very bad at washing our hands.
14 amazing YA books with kick-ass heroines.
Female superheroes’ worst enemy? Toy sales.
Why Ted Chiang’s fiction is so indispensable.
6 awesome things Billy Murray has done.
10 great movie quotes from 2013.
We are very near the end of civilization as we know it.
What 2013’s top Google searches say about us.
How A Christmas Story kept Peter Billingsley normal.
10 important facts about A Christmas Story’s leg lamp.
5 lazy sitcom tropes that should never be used again.
Lionsgate unveils first ever cash dividend [can you say Catching Fire].
The Dissolve: The best films of 2013.
Are you ready for a TV series about the founding of Twitter.
Scene of the year: The torturous moments in 12 Years a Slave. I concur!
China’s Wanda Group commits to building 120 Imax screens by 2021.
Best and worst of 2013: Hollywood’s boldest moves of the year.
50 scariest move moments in 2013.
Vulture: Bests, worsts and other superlatives from the year in entertainment.
In the White Room with black writers: Hollywood’s “diversity hires”.
Where are the black women in Hollywood.
A 1988 letter from Akira Kurosawa to Ingmar Bergman.
Finally Ned Vizzini, TV writer and author, dies at 32.
Interview: Ned Vizzini talks about depression, suicide and writing.
Godspeed, Ned Vizzini. May you finally find peace.
I’m going to forego the usual Screenwriting Master Class tip of the week in order to promote a musical group called Carloman. They were introduced to me by Adam Neustadter who I met at the recent Austin Film Festival. Here is what he wrote in an email to me:
Wanted to pass along some music that you might dig. I remembered a conversation we had in Austin about concept albums, and how they don’t really exist anymore. I think I mentioned my friends who made this strange album about Carloman, the younger brother of Charlemagne who nobody knows about. The band and album (both named Carloman) are fantastic.
Well, Carloman just released a new album called Carloman II. And yes, it’s about Carloman II. You haven’t heard of him either! Both are really beautiful albums that shouldn’t work nearly as well as they do. The word epic is thrown around a lot these days, but this is the real deal. Thought I’d share.
I don’t know how to describe the music other than to say it’s like Medieval indie folk-rock. And it flat out works! Here is a cut from their first album “March of the Beasts”:
You can check out all their songs and all three albums (they have a Christmas one, too) by going to their website here.
You can go here for an interview with Carloman, the historical figure as ‘inhabited’ by the musicians.
Very cool stuff. Do like I do and buy their albums for someone you know who loves interesting music.
Hail the creative spirit!