Saturday Hot Links

Time for the 277th installment of Saturday Hot Links, your week’s essential reading about movies, TV, streaming, Hollywood, and other things of writerly interest.

Oscar Spotlight: The Screenplays.

How Much Do Movies REALLY Profit from Oscar Nominations and Wins?

How Lion, Arrival, and Other Oscar Movies Are Revamping Their Awards-Season Narratives.

‘Hidden Figures’ and ‘black-ish’ Win Big at 48th NAACP Image Awards.

Thought Your Mind Was Blown by Arrival? Wait Until You See the Clues You Missed.

Announced: USC Scripter Awards.

Shut Out: The Snubbing Of Horror Films During Award Seasons.

The New Power of “Yes”: Who Actually Has Greenlight Authority at the Movie Studios.

As Rumors Swirl, Is Brad Grey Long For Paramount?

Inside Paramount’s Shakeup: Why Brad Grey Is Out, and Who Could Replace Him.

Universal Takes Minority Stake in Steven Spielberg’s Amblin.

‘Star Wars’ Force Friday to Return in September as Strong Box Office Helps Drive Toy Sales.

China’s Recon Group in Talks to Acquire Millennium Films.

When the Villain Becomes the Main Character of a Movie Franchise: Could the Marvel Cinematic Universe really go there?

New York City to Add 100,000 Sq. Feet Production Facility for Film and TV in New $136 Million Campus.

Why Make a Microbudget Film? Five Questions for Director Paul Harrill on the Virtues of Ultra-Low Budgets.

Major Hollywood Studios ‘Systematically Discriminated’ Against Female Directors, EEOC Finds.

Producer Lynda Obst’s No-B.S. Advice for Fighting Hollywood Gender Inequality.

Pixar Launches Free Online Course About Storytelling Featuring Studio’s Filmmakers.

A ‘Ghostbusters’ Deleted Scene from 1984 Has Been Unearthed.

“With most other genres you need movie stars, with horror, you just need a story”.

Why the Writer Who Turned Audrey Hepburn and Douglas Fairbanks Into Stars Never Won an Oscar.

The wild, untold story of ‘The Good Life’.

Longreads: A Brief History of Disney.

Disney’s Live-Action Films in the Works.

John Carpenter Producing New ‘Halloween’ With ‘Eastbound & Down’ Team.

‘Arrival’ Writer Eric Heisserer on How ‘Interstellar’ Forced Him to Change the Ending.

Broad Green Pictures Is Missing Release Dates and Angering Filmmakers. Here’s Why.

Broadcast TV Scorecard 2017: Complete Guide to What’s New, Renewed and Canceled.

Disney Taps Company-Wide Talent for TV “Pitch-a-Palooza”.

Is TV Writers Income In Decline? Fact-Checking WGA Leaders’ Claims In Pre-Negotiations Manifesto.

How Westworld Season 1 secretly tells you everything about Season 2.

How Starz Chief Chris Albrecht Struck Gold With Overlooked Audiences.

Amazon Reportedly Wants To Launch Paid Cable Channel.

Theater Group President: No, Netflix Isn’t Killing the Multiplex.

Finalists Announced for ATX-Black List Second Annual TV Writing Program.

MTV News Unionizes With Writers Guild of America East.

Stephen King and J.J. Abrams Are Bringing ‘Castle Rock’ to Hulu.

Digital Media CEO Hopes PewDiePie’s Sponsors Dump Him: ‘What an Idiot’.

Here Are Your 2017 Grammy Winners.

Listen: Scriptnotes (Episode 288).

Watch: The Big Script Film Incubator Heats Up, Unveils Five Short Films.

Watch: Film Noir: The Case for Black and White.

Watch: Halloween/It Follows (atmosphere).

Watch: The Most Uncomfortable Movie Scenes of All Time.

Watch: ‘The Leftovers’, Season 3 teaser trailer.

Watch: ‘La La Land’: How to Shoot Musical Number.

Screenwriting Master Class tip of the week

If there’s one question I get asked about screenwriting theory more than any other it’s what’s my deal with character archetypes? Here’s your chance to find out what that deal is with the Screenwriting Master Class course: Character Development Keys.

It’s a 1-week online class where you do pretty much everything on your own time schedule: download and read lectures, review and post comments on the public forums, upload ideas and optional writing exercises. You want to do that in bed in your pajamas sipping coffee? Be my guest!

There is one teleconference which is live, but I record and upload that, so you can even check that out on your own time, too.

As to the course itself, there are seven lectures written by yours truly:

1: Character Archetypes and Story Structure
2: Protagonist
3: Nemesis
4: Attractor
5: Mentor
6: Trickster
7: Switch Protagonist

The study script for the course: The Dark Knight, screenplay by Jonathan Nolan & Christopher Nolan, story by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer, based on characters created by Bob Kane. If you’re a fan of this movie, that alone is probably reason enough to take this class because you will understand the film in a whole new way, through the lens of character archetypes.

In addition, you will get the opportunity to put the theories you learn into action by workshopping one of your own stories.

And as a bonus: I’ll be presenting a set of character development tools I have assembled over the years to help you dig into characters even further to uncover their unique personalities and voice.

This is a great chance to immerse yourself in what I consider to be one of the most fascinating and helpful ways of approaching character development and indeed, the story-crafting process as a whole: character archetypes.

All of that in only 1-week. The course runs begins Monday, March 13. And again, you can do the entire course in your pajamas! Sucking down caffeine! Devouring chocolate bon bons! The beauty of the online experience!

For more information, go here.

Plus there’s this: For nearly 60% off, you can gain immediate access to the entire content of all 10 Craft classes as well as automatic enrollment in each 1-week Craft course. Check out the Craft Package here.

As always, I look forward to the opportunity to work with you!