Saturday Hot Links
Time for the 221st installment of Saturday Hot Links, your week’s essential reading about movies, TV, streaming, Hollywood, and other things of writerly interest.
Oscars 2016: All the Nominees.
Oscars 2016: All the Major Snubs and Surprises.
Oscars 2016: The Biggest Shocks, Snubs & Surprises.
Oscars 2016: Shocking Stats and Fun Facts.
Oscars 2016: Best Picture Box Office Numbers.
Oscars 2016: Fox Dominates Studios With ‘The Revenant,’ ‘Martian’.
Oscars 2016: Indies Knock Box Office Hits off Best Picture List.
Oscars 2016: What the Nominees Are Saying.
Oscar 2016: Now It’s a Whole New Race (Analysis).
Oscars 2016: 5 Reasons ‘Star Wars’ Didn’t Get a Best Picture Nomination.
Oscars 2016: Why the Academy’s Diversity Effort May Take Years to Pay Off.
By The Numbers: The 2016 Oscar Nominations.
The State of the Race: How the Five Nomination Ballot Keeps Doors Slammed Shut.
14 Award-Worthy Performances by Non-White Actors the Academy Overlooked.
Is the Academy Hurting Most Documentary Filmmakers?
Oscar Throwback: See the Seating Chart and Invitation for the First Academy Awards.
Golden Globes: The Winners List.
Golden Globes: Fox Leads Film Distributors With Six Wins.
Golden Globes: Winners and Sinners (Analysis).
Here are the 19 Documentaries Selected for the 2016 MacArthur Foundation Grant.
Jon Hamm, Shane Carruth, Lena Dunham, Franklin Leonard, More Selected for 2016 Sundance Fest Juries.
30 Must See Films of Sundance 2016.
Here Are All the Movies Opening This Weekend.
9 Biggest, Baddest Box Office Showdowns of 2016.
Upcoming video game movies for 2016 and beyond.
6 Indigenous Filmmakers Set to Premiere Their Films at the Sundance Film Festival.
Infographic: An illustrated guide to iconic fictional locations.
WGA Awards: ‘Friends’ Co-Creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane to be Honored.
Athena Film Festival’s 2016 Lineup Released: Dawn Porter’s ‘Trapped’ Will Open Fest.
‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ Is the Best Reviewed Movie of 2015.
How the Women of ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ Divorce Violence from Strength.
The Big Short Turns the Financial Meltdown Into a Heist Comedy.
Why the Razzies Are (Still) the Worst Awards Ever.
‘Good Dinosaur’ Plods Toward Pixar’s All-Time Low at Box Office.
Any Movie Studio Can Make Its Own Star Wars Movie Right Now.
Wanda’s Legendary Buy Is Just the Beginning of China’s Investment in Hollywood.
Dumb Money or Shrewd Buy: Analyzing Wanda’s $3.5B Legendary Deal.
Disney, Other Media Stocks Slammed Amid Broad Market Plunge.
How Hasbro grabbed the lucrative Disney doll business from Mattel.
Activision Blizzard Sets Stacey Sher To Spearhead Film, TV Projects.
Black List Alien Invasion Comedy ‘The Shower’ Landing at Warner Bros.
30 Fake Production Titles That Fooled the World.
Arthouse Audit: New Year, Same Awards Candidates as ‘Anomalisa’ and ‘Carol’ Expand.
El Chapo Speaks with Senn Penn.
Golden Globes: ‘Spotlight’ Screenwriter Slams Sean Penn for ‘El Chapo’ Interview.
Revisiting all 8 of Freddy’s nightmares, the richest of the slasher franchises.
Werner Herzog Talks Virtual Reality.
GoPro’s Zander Lurie Exits as Entertainment Head, Company to Lay Off 100.
Finally, A Movie Shot Entirely On a Toyota Prius Backup Camera.
Amy Nicholson Will Be MTV’s Lead Film Critic.
The 20 Movies That Need to Be Released in 2016.
How to Keep Up With ‘Too Much TV’ in 2016.
ATX Festival, Black List Partner for TV Writing Program.
‘Billions’: Can Showtime’s Big Bet Be TV’s First Wall Street-Based Hit?
ABC Family Detaching From ‘Hallowed’ Brand Associations with Freeform Name Change.
Pop Cabler Will Add 8 Million Homes, Defying TV Gravity.
Al Jazeera America to Shut Down.
What Killed Al Jazeera America — Besides the Name.
ESPN.com Adds Dedicated eSports Coverage.
‘Jessica Jones,’ ‘Narcos,’ ‘Master of None’ Viewership Revealed as NBC Exec Asks For Netflix ‘Perspective’.
Why It Just Got Harder to Trick Netflix.
How Self-Driving Cars Could Make Streaming TV the Next Radio.
The Great Celebrity Book Bust: Lena Dunham, Aziz Ansari Underperform for Publishers.
Marvel Confirms Shelving ‘Fantastic Four’ as Ongoing Comic Book Concern.
An Exclusive Guided Look Inside the Upcoming Hamilton Book.
Guest Post: Submitting Like a Man: My Year Resubmitting Scripts As A Dude.
Eric D. Snider: What’s the Big Deal: Dr. Strangelove (1964).
Chuck Wendig: Self-Care For Writers: Some Tips!
Chicks Who Script: Episode 71 (Craig Mazin).
The Movie Guys: Episode 132 (Guest: Franklin Leonard).
Scriptnotes: Episode 232.
Serious Eats: Brian Koppelman.
WTF with Marc Maron: Episode 671 (Charlie Kaufman).
Watch: Red: A Kubrick Supercut [video].
Watch: Kubrick in Color [video].
Watch: 6-Minute Video Essay Investigates The Problem With Movie Trailers [video].
Watch: 9-Minute Video Essay Explores The Influence Of Neo-Realism & Post-Modernism In Martin Scorese’s Films [video].
Watch: 9-Minute Video Essay About Steven Soderbergh’s Debut Feature Film ‘Sex, Lies, And Videotape’ [video].
Watch: Directors Who Cameo in Their Own Films: A Self-Indulgent Supercut [video].
Watch: “Gone with the Wind” Auditions from Your Favorite Celebrities [video].
Alan Rickman Dead at 69.
Daniel Radcliffe, J.K. Rowling Pay Tribute to Alan Rickman.
Emma Thompson on Alan Rickman: “I Trusted Him Absolutely”.
Interview: Alan Rickman (April 2015).
David Bowie dies at 69.
David Bowie Dies: Hollywood Reacts.
David Bowie’s Son, Director Duncan Jones, Mourns Father With Heartbreaking Image.
The 8 Essential Movie Performances Of David Bowie.
Sound + Vision: 12 Great David Bowie Soundtrack Cuts.
David Bowie’s 1999 Video Game Is Free Until Jan. 22.
David Bowie’s last days: an 18-month burst of creativity.
1976 interview of David Bowie by a young Cameron Crowe.
Cameron Crowe Recalls David Bowie’s L.A. Years: ‘He Careened Beautifully Into the Future’.
Screenwriting Master Class tip of the week: Starting January 25 and running through the next few months, I will be offering my 8 Craft classes for the only time in 2016. Each is a one-week online course focusing on specific aspects of the writing craft (as compared to my Core classes which are more theory based). Here is the Craft lineup:
January 25: Craft: Pixar and the Craft of Storytelling
February 8: Craft: Story Summaries: From Loglines to Beat Sheets
February 22: Craft: Handling Exposition
March 7: Craft: Scene Description Spotlight
April 4: Craft: Character Development Keys
May 2: Craft: Create a Compelling Protagonist
May 16: Craft: Write a Worthy Nemesis
May 30: Craft: The Coen Brothers and the Craft of Storytelling
A few words about the format: I’ve been teaching online since 2002, worked with over 1000 writers in that context, and honestly believe it is superior to the onsite class environment in many ways:
* You can do virtually everything on your own time: Download lectures, read forum conversations, add your own comments, upload writing exercises and assignments. In your pajamas. In bed. Drinking coffee. However you want to access online course content, you can do it.
* As opposed to listening to a teacher present lectures verbally, you get to download lectures and read them. Again at your leisure, but even more importantly, instead of feverishly trying to jot down notes from a verbal presentation, here you get everything laid out for you. I take great pride in my lectures, as they not only provide great content, they also have a narrative flow to them. Yes, they tell a little story.
* Feedback and conversations online tend to be much more thoughtful and therefore beneficial than onsite settings. Why? Because instead of off-the-cuff, random comments, participants online tend to spend more time and reflection in composing posts for online.
Finally I’m constantly amazed at how much of a community emerges in online class environments. Writers from all around the world and somehow we bind together into remarkably vibrant learning communities, time and time again.
So if you’ve never tried an online screenwriting class, come on in! The virtual water’s fine!
As an added incentive, you can sign up for the Craft Package which not only gets you automatic enrollment in all eight one-week classes, you also get exclusive and immediate access to an online site where you can go through all of the Craft content on your own time and at your own pace. Plus as a bonus, there is free 9th course called Character Introductions, tracking multiple proven techniques to help you usher new characters into your script in entertaining and memorable ways.
All this for nearly 50% off the regular price!
Upgrade your writing skills by taking my Craft classes, starting with one of my most popular courses: Pixar and the Craft of Storytelling which begins Monday, January 25.
Finally if you like the content and community here at Go Into The Story, you can support that ongoing effort by taking some Screenwriting Master Class courses.
As always, I look forward to the opportunity to work with you!
Onward!