Saturday Hot Links
Time for the 266th installment of Saturday Hot Links, your week’s essential reading about movies, TV, streaming, Hollywood, and other…
Time for the 266th installment of Saturday Hot Links, your week’s essential reading about movies, TV, streaming, Hollywood, and other things of writerly interest.
Gotham Awards: Winners List.
National Board of Review Names ‘Manchester By the Sea’ Best Film of 2016, Other Winners Include ‘Moonlight’ and ‘Arrival’.
New York Film Critics 2016 Winners: ‘La La Land’ Named Best Film.
‘La La Land’ Leads Critics Choice Awards With 12 Nominations, Other Big Nominees Include ‘Moonlight’ and ‘Arrival’.
How Metacritic Can Sink a Contender’s Oscar Chances, and How Critics’ Groups Fight Back.
Sundance Film Festival Unveils 2017 Competition, Next Lineups.
13 Movies At The 2017 Sundance Film Festival That Immediately Deserve Your Attention.
Sundance 2017 Announces New Frontier Lineup, Including 22 VR Experiences and 11 New Installations.
Infographic: Sundance 2017, By the Numbers.
Why the Post-Donald Trump Sundance Film Festival Will Be Even Stronger.
Slamdance Film Festival Announces Narrative and Documentary Feature Film Competition Lineup.
Santa Barbara Film Fest: Denzel Washington to Receive Modern Master Award.
The Rapidly Accelerating Backwards Creep of Oscar Season.
Feinberg Forecast: The State of the Oscar Race As the Indie Community Weighs In.
African American Film Critics Association Deems 2016 the ‘Best Ever Year for Blacks in Cinema’.
Which Critics’ Choice Noms and Snubs Could Actually Change the Fortunes of Oscar Hopefuls?
Big Studios Consider the Unthinkable: Home Viewing of Movies Two Weeks After They Hit Theaters.
Amazon Studios to Sponsor the 2017 Athena Film Festival’s Athena List.
Writers Guild Sets Negotiating Committee for Producer-Union Talks.
Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures Launches Video-Game Division.
Annapurna Pictures and Hollywood’s Social Impact.
How ‘Network’ — 40 years ago — predicted the insidious rise of ‘fake news’.
How ‘Star Wars’ made (and then ruined) modern Hollywood.
‘Rogue One’ Writer Tony Gilroy to Make Millions Off Reshoots.
Tony Gilroy’s Big Paycheck for ‘Rogue One’ Reshoots Included Fixing the Ending.
‘Rogue One’ Won’t Screen in Time for Critics’ Awards: Is There Something Wrong With This Picture?
Why ‘Star Wars’ Search for an Experienced Female Director Isn’t Good Enough.
Jeff Bridges Helped Rewrite ‘Iron Man’ at the Last Minute.
The Auteurs Changing Cinema: It’s been a banner year for directors who write their own films. Here are seven.
Taylor Sheridan: How a struggling actor became one of the hottest Oscar contenders of 2016.
Is It Harder to Be a Novelist or a Screenwriter?
CAA Fires Back After AMC Vows to End Packaging Fees Amid ‘The Walking Dead’ Profits Fight.
Chinese B.O.: Nov. 25–27, 2016.
Sorry Hollywood, The Chinese Market is No Longer Easy Money.
New Studio Ghibli Short Film Coming To U.S. Theaters For The Very First Time.
Why 2016 was one of the greatest years for horror movies ever.
The Strange Villainess: How Hollywood Uses Traditional Feminine Norms Against Women.
A New Model of Female Producers: The WP Lab.
She’s the Hollywood Power Behind Those Seeking a Voice.
In a Different Light: How Women are Lit On Screen.
You Can Kick Ass But You Can’t Talk: Why Women Have Less Than 20% Of Dialogue In Movies.
NYT: From Moguls to Mortals.
Hollywood Walk of Fame Stars in Disrepair as Honorees Cry Foul: “It’s Troubling”.
Every Single Movie That Jackie Kennedy Watched in the White House.
Film School Rejects: The Movies We’re Thankful For in 2016.
How ‘Moonlight’ Beat the Odds to Reach Theaters In African-American Neighborhoods.
“Room” to be Adapted for the Stage.
The 20 Best Movie Posters Of 2016.
14 of the best films of the 21st century, ranked by historical accuracy.
12 Onscreen Relationships Destroyed by a Man’s Novel.
Variety Names 10 Directors to Watch for 2016.
The 6 Emotional Arcs of Storytelling, Why You Should Use Them, and Which One is Best.
State of the Entertainment Industry Conference Addresses TV Growth in Foreign Markets.
Big Four Broadcasters Pull Out of Winter TCA Exec Sessions; Amazon Scraps Press Tour.
Disney Not Giving Thanks to Cord Cutters: ESPN Loses 2 Million Subscriptions in 2016.
Has Big Cable’s Legacy of Bad Service Made it Easier for Streaming Services?
AT&T Unveils DirecTV Now and Sets Channel Pacts With Taylor Swift, Reese Witherspoon.
What DirecTV Now Means for Hollywood, Netflix, Pay TV.
Turner’s FilmStruck Movie-Subscription Service Now on Apple TV.
Netflix Launches Downloads for Offline Viewing on Smartphones, Tablets.
Downloadable Netflix is a Boon For Parents and Original Programming.
Will Amazon Go Global to Challenge Netflix?
HBO and Cinemax Are Now Available Through Amazon Prime.
YouTube Is Now Live Streaming in 4K.
Snapchat vs. Instagram: Who’s Copying Whom Most?
The 15 Best Unreleased Beatles Songs That You Can Listen to Now.
You can buy the late Dennis Hopper’s record collection for $150,000.
SiriusXM Could Pay up to $99M as Part of Flo & Eddie Settlement.
The Year of Death: It’s Time We Bury 2016.
New York Times: 100 Notable Books of 2016.
Hunter S. Thompson to Be Memorialized With His Own Weed Brand.
‘Hamilton’ Hits a New High: The Most Money Grossed in a Week on Broadway.
Two Ways to Bring Shakespeare Into the Twenty-First Century.
‘Westworld’ Director Michelle MacLaren Breaks Down Challenging Arnold Reveal and William’s Terrifying Turn.
The Hollywood Reporter: Westworld, Episode 9.
Indiewire: Westworld, Episode 9.
The Mary Sue: Westworld, Episode 9.
Nerdist: Westworld, Episode 9.
New Yorker: Westworld, Episode 9.
Uproxx: Westworld, Episode 9.
Vulture: Westworld, Episode 9.
The Wrap: Westworld, Episode 9.
‘Westworld’: Now We Know What the Maze Is.
‘Westworld’: How Many Separate Timelines Have We Seen So Far?
90-Minute ‘Westworld’ Season Finale Set As Showrunners Promise “Most Of The Questions Viewers Have Will Be Resolved”.
‘Westworld’: 7 Predictions for the Season Finale.
Chronological ‘Westworld’ Timeline: All Of Your Time Period Questions Answered.
Westworld Theories: Bernard/Ford Inconsistencies, Charlotte’s Role, That Photo, & Elsie’s Whereabouts.
Predicting Westworld: Our pre-finale theory blowout.
Warner Bros. Boss Talks ‘Game of Thrones’-Sized Dreams for ‘Westworld’.
How ‘Westworld’ Overcame Setbacks to Shine as HBO’s New Tentpole
Listen: Scriptnotes (Episode 277).
Watch: How Character and Story are Hidden in Dialogue.
Watch: Every Story is the Same.
Watch: Silence is golden — the quietness of Soderbergh.
Watch: The World Of Tomorrow (A Tribute).
Watch: Mad Shelia (疯狂希莉娅, 2016) chinese Mad Max rip-off trailer.
Screenwriting Master Class tip of the week
Tom Benedek and I launched ScreenwritingMasterClass.com in January 2010 and over the last six years, we have witnessed an amazing community of writers emerge from that online educational experience.
Screenwriting Master Class alumni have set up projects at major studios including Paramount, Warner Bros., and Legendary Pictures, TV networks including ABC, AMC, HBO, and USA, and signed with top agencies including CAA, The Gersh Agency, UTA, Verve, and WME, as well as managers including Circle of Confusion, Grandview, Lee Stobby, Madhouse Entertainment, Mosaic, and MXN Entertainment.
Our curriculum has grown over the years to cover just about everything a writer needs to know about writing for movies and TV.
Tom and I have just finalized our schedule of online classes and workshops for 2017, and I’m excited to announce I will be adding two new courses as part of our Craft offerings: Scene-Writing Workshop and Dialogue-Writing Workshop.
Here is our tentative 2017 lineup through the first half of the year:
January 9 — Pages I: Writing Your First Draft
presented by Tom Benedek
January 16 — Craft: Pixar and the Craft of Storytelling
presented by Scott Myers
January 23 — Pages II: Rewriting Your Script
presented by Tom Benedek
January 30 — Craft: Story Summaries — From Loglines to Beat Sheets
presented by Scott Myers
February 6 — Pages TV: Original TV Pilot Script Workshop
presented by Tom Benedek
February 13 — Craft: Handling Exposition
presented by Scott Myers
February 20 — Prep: From Concept to Outline
presented by Tom Benedek
February 27 — Craft: Write a Worthy Nemesis
presented by Scott Myers
March 6 — Pages I: Writing Your First Draft
presented by Tom Benedek
March 13 — Craft: Character Development Keys
presented by Scott Myers
March 20 — Pages II: Rewriting Your Script
presented by Tom Benedek
March 27 — Craft: Create a Compelling Protagonist
presented by Scott Myers
April 3 — Prep: From Concept to Outline
presented by Tom Benedek
April 10 — Craft: Write a Worthy Nemesis
presented by Scott Myers
April 17 — Pages TV: Original TV Pilot Script Workshop
presented by Tom Benedek
April 24 — Craft: Scene-Writing Workshop
presented by Scott Myers
May 8 — Craft: Dialogue-Writing Workshop
presented by Scott Myers
May 22 — Craft: The Coen Brothers and the Craft of Storytelling
presented by Scott Myers
June 5 — Prep: From Concept to Outline
presented by Scott Myers
June 19 — Pages I: Writing the First Draft
presented by Scott Myers
July 17 — Prep: From Concept to Outline
presented by Scott Myers
Two important notes. First, I will be providing more information on the new Craft classes, Scene-Writing Workshop and Dialogue-Writing Workshop in the next few weeks, but if you enroll in the Craft Package, I am including these two courses for free. That’s right. You can take all 10 Craft classes at a savings of nearly 60%.
Second, due to my position as Assistant Professor at the DePaul University School of Cinematic Arts, I do not teach any Prep or Pages workshops from September through May. However if you want to work with me on your story in a group setting, I am offering the Prep workshop twice in the summer 2017 and the Pages workshop once.
I do work in a private screenwriting workshop setting with select writers: Prep: From Concept to Outline, Pages I: Writing Your First Draft, Pages II: Rewriting Your Script, and The Quest. If you are interested in the possibility of working with me one-on-one during the first half of 2017, email me. I have limited space for enrollments, so best to act sooner rather than later.
At Screenwriting Master Class, we offer a combination of benefits you won’t find anywhere else:
- Over 60 years combined experience working in the Hollywood movie and television business, and a deep understanding of how the business works.
- Over 20 years teaching experience so we know how to communicate ideas and theories effectively to participating writers.
- Unparalleled mentoring in all SMC workshops and feedback in all SMC online classes, not just peer review, but comments and suggestions directly from Tom and myself.
And there’s this: Tom and I love Story and storytellers. We support writers of all stripes and backgrounds, helping you to learn the craft and find your voice, because we want Hollywood to work with writers from all over the world with unique perspectives and stories to tell.
As I always say, you don’t need to pay a dime to learn the craft. You can learn everything you need to learn by doing these three things: Watch movies. Read scripts. Write pages. But…
If you are a beginner, intermediate, advance, or pro writer…
If you want a structure to help facilitate your progress as a writer…
If you want support and mentoring to guide you through the learning process…
If you want to immerse yourself in a comprehensive, coherent approach to screenwriting and TV writing…
Screenwriting Master Class is the online resource for you.
We look forward to the opportunity to work with YOU!