Saturday Hot Links

Time for the 261st installment of Saturday Hot Links, your week’s essential reading about movies, TV, streaming, Hollywood, and other things of writerly interest.

Every upcoming ‘Star Wars’ movie to 2021 and beyond.

Star Wars: Daisy Ridley Responds to Rey Being Called a Mary Sue.

‘The Incredibles 2’ Moves Up to Summer 2018, ‘Toy Story 4’ Pushed to 2019.

Is Paramount “Unsalvageable”?

Motherhood Plays a Prominent Role in Oscar Actress Races.

Halloween Isn’t the Best Time for Indie Horror: Why Distributors Are Avoiding the Spooky Release Date.

Horror Movies Make Tough Times Less Scary for Studios.

Horror’s Spooky Secret: Why Serious Scary Movies Like ‘The Witch’ Get No Respect.

From ‘Babadook’ to ‘Raw’: The Rise of the Modern Female Horror Filmmaker.

13 great horror movies which bombed at the box office.

Chinese Box Office: October 21–23, 2016.

A dramatic box-office slowdown in China has Hollywood nervous.

Wanda’s Massive Studio Plans Leave Hollywood Anxious.

How The Power-Broker Koch Brothers Are Killing The Florida Film Business.

Is There Still Room for Spoof Movies on the Big Screen?

6 Reasons Why ‘Boo! A Madea Halloween’ Slayed at the Box Office.

AT&T Is Buying Time Warner Because the Future is Google.

AT&T-Time Warner Deal: 5 Big Things to Know About the Proposed Merger.

AT&T-Time Warner Merger: What Will It Mean for HBO?

AT&T Time Warner Merger Could Kill the Skinny Bundle.

What Happens If Regulators Nix AT&T-Time Warner Deal?

The Single Most Important Year in Superhero History Was 1986.

Marvel Addressing Gender Inequality, Says Studio Exec VP.

Tribeca Announces Second ‘Through Her Lens’ Women’s Filmmaker Program.

Women Directors Are Everywhere, But Film Festivals Are Still Catching Up.

Film Independent Forum: Effie Brown on How Shame and Money Can Bring About Diversity.

Is 2016 The Year Of The Female Directors In Bollywood?

‘Moonlight’ Could Be This Year’s Indie Box Office Breakout.

Movie Ticket Prices Rise 3 Percent in Q3 Compared to 2015.

iPic’s Big Gamble: How a High-End Theater Chain Hopes to Change the Way We Go to the Movies.

Here’s Proof California’s New Tax Credits Create More Jobs in Film, TV.

American, Canadian Animation Digital Studios Merge to Create Wow! Unlimited.

Why You Should Watch More Foreign Language Films.

Film School Rejects Buys One.Perfect.Shot.

George Lucas Not Involved With ‘Indiana Jones 5’ Story.

Hawke As Linklater: Exploring Form & Story.

Joe Swanberg’s Filmmaking Factory: How the DIY Filmmaker Is Supporting a Community of Directors on the Rise.

Why Terrence Malick Still Believes You Should See Movies On the Big Screen.

6 Filmmaking Tips From John Hughes: The master of the high school movie taught us valuable lessons.

Unknown Ingmar Bergman Script to Be Made Into Film by Swedish Director Suzanne Osten.

Surrealist Cinema: 100 Years Of Psychedelia.

A Film Technician Who Discovers Gems in the Outtakes.

How A Fake British Accent Took Old Hollywood By Storm.

Surely you can’t be serious: An oral history of Airplane!

Young Storytellers Biggest Show 2016.

Meet The Smartest Dog In Hollywood.

6 filmmakers tackle the question: What is documentary?

Documentary, Now: Three Rock Stars Who Run The Fast-Changing Nonfiction World.

Why High-Concept TV Shows Are Suddenly All the Rage (Again).

The Meta-Politics of “Westworld”.

In Praise of Westworld’s Dolores: Television’s Stereotype Smasher.

What With All the Orgies, Hollywood and Westworld Had a Lot in Common for Michael Crichton.

How Nickelodeon Got America Hooked on Cable.

‘Jessica Jones’ Hires All Women Directors for Season 2.

Netflix Raising $800 Million More Debt to Fuel Original Content.

How the web series is redefining TV.

The studio behind ‘The Hunger Games’ wants to turn YouTube gurus into movie stars.

Apple Unveils New TV App.

The Streaming Revolution.

Twitter Is Shutting Down Vine.

Vine Founder Regrets Selling to Twitter: ‘Don’t Sell Your Company!’

Showtime’s ‘Billions’ Would Have Never Happened Without Vine, Co-Creator Says.

SAG-AFTRA Video Game Strike Begins.

Shakespeare’s ‘Henry VI’ Plays Have a Co-Writer, According to Oxford.

The Ultimate NaNo Prep Post (good for the rest of the year too).

Watch: ‘The Shining’ — Quietly Going Insane Together.

Watch: Tarantino’s Cinematic Universe.

Watch: VHS Tapes — Were they as bad as we remember.

Screenwriting Master Class tip of the week

Nearly everything I’ve ever read on the subject of ‘theme’ in relation to screenwriting has felt either confusing or impractical.

What does theme mean? How should we understand it? How can we use it in our writing?

The ironic thing is theme is incredibly important:

* Important in helping us find the focus of our story.

* Important in mining the story’s emotional and psychological depth.

* Important in elevating the impact of the events that transpire in our story.

That is why I created Core VII: Theme. And starting Monday, October 31, I will be teaching this unique one-week online screenwriting class.

The course, one of eight Core writing theory courses I have created, consists of six lectures I wrote, 24/7 message board discussions, insider tips, and an optional writing exercise to workshop one of your stories. All of those you can do on your own time, everything from downloading and reading lectures to posting comments.

There is also a 90-minute teleconference between class participants and myself where we discuss the course content and anything screenwriting related.

In this course:

• You will learn a coherent take on theme, how it relates to the overall story, and tips on how to weave thematic material into your scripts.
• You can put to use what you have learned by workshopping one of your own stories.

Scripts we will study in the class: The King’s Speech, The Silence of the Lambs, Tootsie, The Shawshank Redemption, Bull Durham, As Good As It Gets, The Dark Knight, The Social Network among others.

When I introduced this class, the response from participants was hugely favorable, the major sentiment that this approach to theme not only clears up a confusing subject, but also provides practical tools a writer can use to work with themes in their own stories. Like this testimonial:

Your “Theme” class for aspiring screenwriters is not just helpful, it is essential. From the personal attention to the numerous “A-Ha!” moments throughout the class, I was thrilled to simply KEEP LEARNING. How many teachers can boast about that with their students? — Heather Thompson

So sign up now for the class which begins next Monday, October 31!

I look forward to the opportunity to work with you!