Saturday Hot Links
Time for the 109th installment of Saturday Hot Links!
Today: The World Order Dance Videos Edition.
Life after “Breaking Bad”: What’s next for the creators, the actors, the network and you.
Relive 5 seasons of “Breaking Bad” in 7 minutes [video].
Jeffrey Katzenberg offered to pay $75M for three additional “Breaking Bad” episodes.
Harvard Business School professor reveals the hidden truth about hits.
What happened to wedding night sex?
BBC discovers lost 60’s “Dr. Who” episodes, puts them on iTunes.
11 Nintendo games based on classic works of literature.
Michael Apted’s 56 Up to debut on PBS October 14.
The first words of 11 famous people.
11 notable movie characters without names.
What percentage of people actually enjoy going to work? It ain’t much!
Hot spec script “Section 6” creates studio frenzy.
An interview with Nobel Prize winning author Alice Munro.
New Yorker with nice feature on screenwriter Brian Koppelman’s 6-second Vine craft advice.
The 50 scariest books ever.
7 fun facts about the White House movie theater.
Vulture: Everything Jonathon Franzen currently hates.
15 horror films that offered the most bang for the buck.
The cookie Oreo has over 34M Facebook likes.
FilmSchoolRejects: 23 things we learned from Joss Whedon’s commentary track on Much Ado About Nothing.
Former “Walking Dead” showrunner Glen Mazzara on the necessity of killing off good characters.
The sperm bank for Nobel Prize winners.
3D lessons Hollywood could learn from Gravity.
10 things to know about Gravity.
No, George Clooney did not write that pivotal scene in Gravity.
An alternate theory about the ending of Gravity.
Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson critiques the science in Gravity.
Julian Assange writes a letter to Benedict Cumberbatch.
5 things they don’t tell you about being a first-time movie director.
First movie theater in the world to reopen.
7 reasons to write an entire first draft before going back to the beginning.
Watch TV on Twitter? That’s what Comcast is planning.
The many worlds of Darren Aronofsky.
Harrison Ford has discussed Blade Runner 2 with Ridley Scott.
How the director of Escape from Tomorrow, a crazy guerilla film in Disney World… and got away with it.
ABC nabs conspiracy drama from Chris Morgan and Len Wiseman.
Will Ferrell shot 70 car ads as Ron Burgundy [videos].
A scene from an abandoned live-action Star Wars TV show [video].
Nielsen to measure Tweets.
In a surprise move, Pixar Canada closes.
Alphabets of Europe [infographic].
6 rules for how to design a movie superhero’s costume.
The 6 worst things you can say to an unemployed friend.
“Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury” viral sensation sells as musical comedy to Showtime.
Tom Hanks: The Movie [video].
Hanks has Type 2 diabetes.
Panasonic will stop selling plasma TVs in 2014.
Emily Blake on receiving criticism on your script.
Magnolia to give films pre-theater releases on airlines.
Why life is really the ultimate IQ test.
Ryan Kavanaugh’s strategy to turn film flops into TV gold.
5 creativity exercises to find your passion [via @tannerc].
Syfy orders Jim Henson’s “Creature Shop Challenge.”
Is predictive policing making Minority Report a reality.
Unpacking all the movie references in Guillermo del Toro’s Simpson’s “Treehouse of Horror” opening [video].
Studying the science behind child prodigies.
Gavin Polone: To fix Hollywood, studios need to act like indies.
Is there an introvert craze because of technology.
15 things you might not have known about Wes Anderson’s films.
Daydreaming: A personal perspective [by Scott Kaufman].
Patton Oswalt on his Whedonverse crushes.
SNL’s “50 Shades of Grey” casting tapes [video].
How to create a YA phenomenon in 9 easy steps.
Quentin Tarantino’s Top 10 of 2013.
12 sex facts you won’t learn from “The Masters of Sex.”
Uninspired film titles.
Twitter is making kids smarter.
Bill Murray infographic.
The Feynman lectures on physics now free online.
The greatest scream queens in horror cinema.
Miley Cyrus, Sinead O’Connor duet in unofficial “Wrecking Ball” remix [video].
Narcissism breeds belief in one’s own creativity.
Were the 60s film’s most innovative decade.
Is Hollywood embracing fact-based dramas.
Film critic Stanley Kaufman dead at 97.
HT to Shaula Evans for several links this week.
Screenwriting Master Class Tip of the Week: While I am a believer in the value of watching movies, reading scripts and writing pages, and that it’s possible to learn what you need to know about the craft of screenwriting just from immersing yourself in the world of cinema, one thing I’m struck by as a consistent piece of feedback from writers who work with me through SMC is how the experience accelerates and focuses the learning process.
That makes sense. The combination of lectures, based on over two decades of working in the business and thinking about the craft, insider tips, and actual workshop experience reflects my focus on providing writers with a comprehensive, grounded, hands-on and realistic take on screenwriting.
I don’t claim the content holds some sort of magical key or secret formula. There are no such things and anybody who tells you there is is lying to you. Screenwriting requires years of practice and lots of hard work.
But in all of the SMC classes I have created and teach, there is an underlying philosophy that ties them all together, a consistent focus and emphasis on working with characters as the path to understanding everything about the craft.
On Monday, October 21, you have the opportunity to test it out with my Core VI: Scene class. When you boil it down to the basics, screenwriting is scene-writing, and this course provides you with a set of key questions you can ask for every scene you write to help you craft every beat in your script. It’s a great class with a nifty workshop component where you have the opportunity to put theory into practice by writing your own original scenes.
Why not join me in this exciting 1-week online class? It’s an excellent way to test out the online experience, just about the best way I know to learn the craft in an educational setting.
For more information, go here.
I look forward to the opportunity to work with you.