Saturday Hot Links

Scott Myers

24 Dec 2011 • 4 min read

Welcome to another installment of Saturday Hot Links. Today accompanied by your grandmother’s holiday fruit cake… from last year!

Today: The Writer Gets Notes On Film Script “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer” Edition!

Part 1

For all you sports loving couch potatoes: College Football Bowl Schedule.

Jean Shephard reads “A Christmas Story” [audio].

Amazon selling one millions Kindles per week.

265 movies: That’s how many are technically eligible for this year’s Oscars.

Forty years ago this week, A Clockwork Orange was released. Do you remember when you saw it for the first time?

Remember the dude who inspired the movie Rudy? Well, he got in trouble with the SEC for a stock scam. And another American icon bites the dust.

While we’re in a cynical mood, here is Salon’s 2011 Hack List.

Truly weird: In the Czech Republic, more than 15,000 people list “Knights of the Jedi” as their official religion.

Speaking of religion, does Hollywood really have a war against Christmas? Variety columnist Peter Bart takes a look and decides that “Christ has helped spread the wealth”.

Something to reflect on as you spend your New Year’s Eve in the local Motel 6: The World’s Most Expensive New Year’s Eve Hotel Suites [photos].

10 crazy early roles of famous actors, like Clint Eastwood in Revenge of the Creature (1955).

James Bond is a role Daniel Craig must like because he is in talks to play 007 five more times.

Another actor — Martin Freeman — talks about The Hobbit.

One more actor item: NYU professor claims he was fired because he gave a D letter grade to James Franco for missing 12 of 14 classes.

The Tribeca Film Institute doles out a cool $150K to 10 filmmakers for their documentary projects.

A reminder: If you use two spaces after the end of a sentence you type, you are wrong [at least in this guy’s view].

The original screenplay for National Velvet sells for $170,500. That’s right, the actual script. Any interested zillionaire out there, I’ve got a copy of Trojan War around here somewhere…

Other auction items: Orson Welle’s Citizen Kane Oscar sells for $860K to magician David Copperfield.

Louis C.K. goes direct… and it pays off.

Revered NYT columnist George Vescey retires… then starts his own blog.

Total Film: 49 movies that will define 2012.

Here are 18 facts about your favorite Christmas TV specials.

Real estate news: Big sales in Hollywood this week: Ellen DeGeneres buys Brad Pitt’s House, Renee Zellwegger selling.

Huh? Facebook threatens to sue Mark Zuckerberg.

More legal: Warner Bros. settles The Hangover 2 lawsuits.

Still more legal: The Atlanta Braves have filed a trademark objection against Pixar over the title of their upcoming movie Brave. Get it: Braves? Brave?

In the same vein, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” author Jeff Kinney files trademark lawsuit against the publishers of upcoming book “Diary of a Zombie Kid.”

And more legal: James Cameron sued again re Avatar… for $2B!

Yet more legal: Judge awards $12M to plaintiffs in Crash case. One of the plaintiffs: Writer-director Paul Haggis.

And the biggest legal: Apple wins patent suit. Has Google in its crosshairs?

Mystery writer James Scott Bell: 10 reasons why I am self-publishing.

Is National Geographic Films and Entertainment dead?

“Drunk History Christmas” with Ryan Gosling and Jim Carrey [video].

Part 2

In screenwriting news, more background on the Matt Damon-Tony Gilroy-Bourne flare-up.

The WGA restores blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo’s screen credit on Roman Holiday.

Melissa Rosenberg is now the highest-grossing female screenwriter. A little thing known as Twilight will do that for your career.

David Fincher has seen Steve Zaillian’s script for The Girl Who Played With Fire and says it’s “really good”.

Speaking of Zaillian, he wants to write and direct a remake of Timecrimes.

Plus this interview with Zaillian.

And evidently Bill Murray didn’t think much of the Ghostbusters 3 script penned by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis.

Just what we all need: 20 strategies to defeat the urge to do useless tasks… like reading Saturday Hot Links!

The Sundance Film Festival adds four movies to its 2012 program.

The case for women! A nifty infographic.

The sale of Michael Jackson’s furniture fetches $1M.

The Wire with its top 20 videogames of 2011.

The latest issue of the WGA journal “Written By” is now online [HT to @LaFamiliaFilm for the link].

The year in book publishing — by the numbers.

THR with its weekly top 5 book deals.

Think about this headline: Jet Li’s ‘Flying Swords of Dragon Gate’ Debut in China Draws $2.5 million on Imax Screens. What would Chairman Mao think?

Ridley Scott provides a few tidbits about Prometheus.

Meanwhile J.J. Abrams serves up a bit of news about Star Trek 2.

The best food books of 2011.

Another best book list from 2011: Top 10 memoirs.

It’s the adventures of Ninja Cow. Perfect for Adult Swim, don’t you think?

Thanks to FlavorWire, we now have a ranking of musicians by how much they look like Jesus.

A nice piece on Vaclav Havel, playwright turned political leader who died this week.

Someone else who died: Christopher Hitchens. Here are 15 memorable quotes from a man who switched political sides of the field and was famous for tweaking convention.

More death: Steve Jobs receives posthumous Grammy Award.

[Side note: In a 1976 letter, Jobs is described as a “joker” and “flakey.”]

Final death notice: Did you know that recently deceased North Korean leader Kim Jung Il was a huge movie fan, so much so he wrote a book called “On the Art of Cinema.” You can buy a used version of it here for $438. Or download a PDF of it here.

TotalFilm: 50 greatest Dark Knight Rises facts.

German B.O. tops $1.1B in 2011.

For some yucks: The 50 funniest headlines in 2011.

In case you missed, Fast Company had this article on the Black List. Even mentions me.

William Shatner heading to Broadway with a one-man show.

The top 10 movie posters of 2011.

No better way to say “Merry Christmas” than with exploding ornaments!

Family feud going on in India between two super rich media mogul brothers.

Are you ready for two more Fast & Furious movies? You should be.

Shocking, bewildering and depressing: 50 Economic Numbers From 2011 That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe.

Director Terry Gilliam gives advice to… directors.

Part 3