Saturday Hot Links
Time for the 140th installment of Saturday Hot Links.
Today: The We Remember Eli Wallach Edition.
Legendary character actor Eli Wallach dead at the age of 98.
17 Joss Whedon quotes on his 50th birthday.
2014’s 10 best works of fiction so far.
Plot details emerge on Wachowski’s Netflix sci-fi series “Sense 8”.
Speaking of plot: The 20 biggest plot holes in world history.
Publisher’s Weekly Books of the Week: June 23, 2014.
10 mystery movies that will blow your mind.
Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis recreate their famous Thelma & Louise selfie [photo].
Nothing better than listening to World Cup goals by their home country announcers [videos].
Related: USA-Portugal match nets ESPN’s highest rated World Cup rating.
Related: USA-Germany match nets yet more strong viewer ratings.
Related: 12 memorable biting incidents in sports history.
Related: Who will win the World Cup… of drinking [infographic].
Related: The strangest soccer match ever played [video].
Related: You are more likely to be bitten by Luis Suarez than a shark.
Related: Will Ferrell called in as substitute player by U.S. men’s soccer team [video].
10 potentially great TV shows that never aired.
7 great one-hit novelists.
10 lesbian filmmakers you should know about.
Paris Review interview with poet Ted Hughes.
25 biopics everyone should see.
50 collective nouns to bolster your vocabulary.
Man inserts his dog into classic Jurassic Park scene [video].
Hollywood’s leading men arranged shortest to tallest [infographic].
Did ostriches and emus ever fly.
North Korea denounces Seth Rogen / James Franco comedy about North Korea.
Sting: My kids won’t inherit my fortune.
Total Film: 30 weirdest movie myths.
Whitey Bulger’s Santa Monica apartment for rent.
25 years ago, Warner Bros. released Batman and you can see a documentary on it here.
8 beers you should stop drinking immediately.
Related: The 33 best beer bars in the country.
The one thing you never noticed about Back to the Future.
9 awful cultural figures who would go away if we ignored them.
Pauline Kael’s house is for sale.
Scientists study brains of writers and discover this.
Disney joins bidders for red-hot Vice Media.
The four coolest science experiments happening on the International Space Station right now.
Anne Thompson: Setting the record straight on Nikki Finke, Peter Bart and Mike Fleming.
Never run out of story ideas by asking this quick question.
Women directors in the studio system [infographic]. Warning! It ain’t pretty!
Pearl Jam covers “Let It Go” from Frozen at an Italian concert [video].
David Sedaris, Mike Daisey and the problem with American storytelling.
“Like a Rolling Stone” draft sells for a record $2m.
7 facts about The Dark Knight you probably didn’t know.
10 things you probably didn’t know about The Incredibles.
30 facts about The Lion King.
Our brains are made for enjoying art.
5 huge movies that stole their plots from other hit films.
14 flight attendant slang terms explained.
How Steven Spielberg’s malfunctioning shark transformed the movie business.
Why do koalas hug trees.
George Lucas museum to open in Chicago.
6 embarrassing grammar mistakes you don’t want to make.
18 things you learn after interviewing 80 or so comedy writers
Watch lightning strikes in real time.
The 55 essential movies kids must watch before they turn 13.
Japan’s android newscaster totally freaks me out [video].
How storytelling can serve science.
Medical marijuana farmer’s market to open in… where else… Los Angeles.
Save 7 hours with this 3-minute recap of the four Transformers movies [video].
8 sensational female murderers from history.
Geena Davis shares two simple steps for making Hollywood less sexist.
10 spiky facts about stegosaurus.
5 major differences between HBO’s “Game of Thrones” and George R.R. Martin’s books.
32 video game movies in development.
Nice feature on writer-director Richard Linklater.
A brief history of the ice cream truck.
20 movies you might not know are based on books.
27 responses to the question “What is art”.
Indiewire’s Eric Kohn and Anne Thompson wonder if indie filmmakers can survive the ‘Transformers’ age [podcast].
Realty TV producers and writers work in “sweatshop” conditions.
Aero Supreme Court ruling: Winners and Losers (analysis).
7 ways to tell you’re a woman in a Michael Bay movie.
Seth MacFarlane will match “Reading Rainbow” Kickstarter donations to the tune of $1M.
The most unnecessary sequels of all time.
Finally Lawrence O’Donnell returns to “The Last Word” and tells a moving story of his recovery from a car accident [video].
Screenwriting Master Class tip of the week: Tom Bendek and I finalized our SMC schedule through the end of 2014. Here it is:
June 30 — Craft: Pixar Scene Writing Tool Kit (Tom Benedek)
July 7 — Core I: Plot (Scott Myers)
July 14 — Prep: From Concept to Outline (Tom Benedek)
July 21 — Core II: Concept (Scott Myers)
August 4 — Core III: Character (Scott Myers)
August 18 — Prep: From Concept to Outline (Scott Myers)
August 25 — Craft: The First 15 Pages — Tarantino Style (Tom Benedek)
September 1 — Core IV: Style (Scott Myers)
September 8 — Pages I: The First Draft (Scott Myers)
September 15 — Core V: Dialogue (Scott Myers)
September 22 — Prep: From Concept to Outline (Tom Benedek)
October 6 — Network Hollywood (Tom Benedek)
October 13–4 Day Quest Writing Workshop — Chapel Hill (Scott Myers)
October 27 — Core VI: Scene (Scott Myers)
November 3 — Writing the Original TV Pilot (Tom Benedek)
November 10 — Core VII: Theme (Scott Myers)
December 2 — Core VIII: Time (Scott Myers)
December 9 — Craft: Writing the Character Driven Script — Alexander Payne Style (Tom Benedek)
As I always say, you can learn the craft on your own just by reading scripts, watching movies and writing pages. However if you want to expedite your learning process with a pair of professional screenwriters who together have over 60 years of experience working in the movie and TV business, along with over two decades as teachers, consider the courses and workshops we offer through Screenwriting Master Class!