Saturday Hot Links

Time for the 294th installment of Saturday Hot Links, your week’s essential reading about movies, TV, streaming, Hollywood, and other things of writerly interest.

‘Wonder Woman’ Worked Because It Was Self-contained.

With The Success Of ‘Wonder Woman’, Hollywood Is Out Of Excuses.

The Future of Superhero Filmmaking Has Never Been More Exciting.

Mark Hamill Says Superhero Movies Are Reaching The Point Of “Oversaturation”.

Inside ‘The Mummy’s’ Troubles: Tom Cruise Had Excessive Control.

Where ‘Rough Night’ Fits into the Mediocre Ensemble Comedy Trend.

Investigating The Reasons Why ‘Cars 3’ Exists.

How Disney and Pixar’s Animated Box Office Reign Could be Dethroned by Universal’s Minions.

6 Filmmaking Tips From Pixar.

6 More Filmmaking Tips from Pixar.

Sony Will Let Directors Opt Out of Clean Versions.

Paramount Names Elizabeth Raposo President of Production.

Why Do Prestige-Horror Trailers Keep Lying to Us?

20 New Movies That Will Define This Year in Indie Cinema, From ‘The Big Sick’ to ‘A Ghost Story’.

As the Los Angeles Film Festival Struggles for Relevancy, a New Director Has Big Ideas For Change.

Will independent film sink or swim in post-Brexit Britain?

How Hollywood’s Agencies Are Trying To Fix The Diversity Problem.

When A Sequel Is Better Than The Original: The 7 Categories Of Movie Sequels.

Netflix, Amazon, Disney Join Forces to Combat Piracy With New Alliance.

Chollywood: Why everyone should embrace Chinese cinema’s rise.

How China’s Futuristic Online Movie Ticketing Works.

How Hollywood Is Squeezing More From China Film Deals.

‘Dangal’ Is Now the 5th Highest Grossing Non-English Movie in Film History.

A Massive List of Summer 2017 Grants All Filmmakers Should Know About.

How the Babadook Became a Gay Icon.

Could ‘The Book of Henry’s’ Critical Drubbing Really Affect Colin Trevorrow’s Star Wars Gig?

‘The Book of Henry’ and the Question of Hollywood’s Sunk Costs.

Joel Schumacher Apologizes Again for ‘Batman and Robin’.

Joss Whedon and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Script: A Wonder Woman Story.

The Anarchic Brilliance of Adam McKay’s Comedies.

Richard Curtis Gave Kumail Nanjiani a Piece of His Favorite Movie, Four Weddings and a Funeral.

How Donald Trump Impacted The Writers Guild Negotiations — And Helped Them Get a Better Deal.

The Secrets of Silent-Film Footage Found Buried in the Earth.

Networks Take a Thrill From License to Kill.

Networks Bypass ‘Big Bang’-Style Comedies for Fall.

How Showrunners Keep the Laughs Coming, Season After Season.

‘Alias’ Writers On How J.J. Abrams Tore Up TV Conventions & Possible Revival.

Why is TV awash in afterlives, hells, and purgatories?

TV Is Moving Away From Finale Fever — Which Is Making for Better TV.

Cable News Wars: Inside the Unprecedented Battle for Viewers in Trump Era.

NBC News Launches Social Video Studio Left Field.

Damon Lindelof Breaks Down The Connection Between ‘The Leftovers’ & ‘Perfect Strangers’.

‘Twin Peaks’: When David Lynch Killed Showtime’s Marketing Campaign, Here’s How The Network Improvised.

‘Broad City’ Will Bleep Donald Trump’s Name This Season.

Ted Sarandos, Jerry Seinfeld, and 10 Ways Netflix Blew Up the Entertainment Business.

Netflix Executive Warns Cannes Won’t Be “Relevant” With Competition Rule Change.

Is Wall Street Giving Netflix a Pass on Sky-High Content Costs?

‘Stranger Things’: How the Duffers Created Their Scary The Upside Down.

This Buddy System Produces Animated Hits for Adult Swim, Netflix.

Netflix, Amazon U.K. Streaming Revenue to Top Box-Office Spend by 2020, PwC Forecasts.

How Amazon’s Whole Foods Deal Is Like Its Entertainment Business.

How ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Changed the Game for Hulu.

Facebook Orders ‘Last State Standing’ Reality Series.

Facebook Gets Closer to a TV-Like Offering.

Apple Is About to Dramatically Change the Podcast Industry.

Endemol Shine North America Shuts Down Digital Studio.

NBCU’s Digital Comedy Platform Seeso Hit With Layoffs.

Short Form Content Attracts Big Interest From Production Houses.

Fox Film Invests in Comic Book Publisher Boom! Studios.

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Named Highest-Paid Entertainer of 2017.

Spotify Passes 140 Million Users, Promises to Pay Labels $2 Billion as Losses Widen.

Yoko Ono to Receive Songwriting Credit on John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’.

This Week’s Script Cavalcade: The Apartment.

Watch: How Horror Cinematography Taps Into Our Primal Fears.

Watch: Supercut: Directors Love Mirrors.

Watch: Title Drops.

Watch: Breaking Bad — Crafting a TV Pilot.

Watch: The Legacy of Paranoid Thrillers.

Watch: ‘Cars 3’ Cast Has Their Own Questions About the ‘Cars’ Universe.

Watch: Neill Blomkamp’s first Oats Studios short film “Rakka”.

Watch: 4 Pixar Story Rules That Make Characters Memorable.

Watch: True Detective vs. Se7en — Creating Light Amongst The Dark.

Screenwriting Master Class tip of the week

A few words about how I handle online writing workshops. Writers who participate in my classes receive my extensive weekly feedback on their writing assignments. Whether it is a Protagonist Character Treatment or Master Brainstorming List in the Prep: From Concept to Outline workshop or 10–15 script pages per week in Pages I: Writing the First Draft, it’s not just peer feedback. That can and often is helpful, but each writer who enrolls in one of my workshops deserves and receives my personal attention to their story. That means comments… critiques… analysis… and suggestions.

In other words, you get the benefit of my 30+ years experience as a screenwriter applied to your story. Week by week, written notes and teleconference interactions.

I make a commitment with each workshop session to help each writer who enrolls to find and write the very best story possible.

I only offer group workshops in the summer, so there are 2 opportunities left in 2017:

Pages I: Writing the First Draft
Starts Monday, June 19

Prep: From Concept to Outline
Starts Monday, July 17

I also have 2 slots left for private script workshops where you work with me one-on-one on your story.

If you are looking for a superior writing workshop experience with a professional screenwriter and educator as your mentor providing extensive feedback and guidance along the way…

Check out my Screenwriting Master Class workshops.

I look forward to the opportunity to work with you!