Saturday Hot Links
Time for the 112th installment of Saturday Hot Links!
Today: The Some Of The Musicians I Have Been An Opening Act For Edition!
Breaking news: Batman saves San Francisco!
FXX pays $750M for syndication and VOD rights for “The Simpsons”.
15 ambitious plans to colonize the Moon.
11 movies with insanely long gaps between sequels.
Creativity Post: A defense of the humanities from the perspective of practical value.
Funny thing about 2013: 8 comedies will hit $100M at the box office.
A prophetic letter from a Dallas citizen begged JFK not to visit the city.
How Amazon Studios went from grass roots idealist to Hollywood threat.
Why does sex make men sleepy.
Oprah Winfrey moved to tears while discussing 12 Years a Slave.
Here’s where teens are going instead of Facebook.
Pixar founder’s memoir to provide inside look at company’s history.
9 worst airplane ripoffs.
Lena Dunham interviews Mindy Kaling.
24 unintended scientific discoveries.
“Beowulf” TV series in development at Syfy.
Artist adds Star Wars figures into landscape paintings.
World War Z an G.I. Joe sequels in development at Paramount.
Flannery O’Connor’s prayer journal.
WGA announces contract negotiation committee.
Prada presents a Wes Anderson short film.
10 great (and not-so-great) TV games shows.
Disney breaks worldwide box office record.
Sex and alcohol make people happier than kids and religion.
Who really created the Inception BRAAAAM!
How do postal workers decipher really sloppy handwriting.
New list: Hollywood’s A-list vastly overpaid.
Why pain is expressed differently in different languages.
Honest Trailer: Man of Steel.
Tips for setting up your home office without breaking the bank.
Watch 20 women recreate When Harry Met Sally famous orgasm-in-the-diner scene.
NBCUniversal acquires full ownership of Sprout cable channel.
11 famous Mayflower descendants.
Interview with one of Hollywood’s most intriguing persons: Jeff Skoll, Participant Media.
11 defunct football names Washington can use.
6 things the film industry doesn’t want you to know about.
11 literary classics you can download for free.
30 movie scripts written by the book’s authors.
How muggers size up your walk.
John Waters golden rules of moviemaking.
The best way to pee into a urinal
Disney teams with screenwriter William Goldman for a Broadway Play on their minds.
Don DeLillo on writing.
How to ace your audition for Star Wars: Episode VII.
The secret lives of four common condiments.
Shakespeare in Love becoming a London stage show.
40 female filmmakers to follow on Twitter.
How about the Shukla Test for race in film.
Watch “Susan 313,” the previously unreleased Sarah Silverman TV pilot [video].
Why we love Back to the Future.
The strong women in Thor: The Dark World.
The biggest movie franchise you’ve never heard of.
25 movies about terribly dysfunctional families.
Changing the channel: TV directors transitioning to features.
50 pieces of filmmaking advice from Wim Wenders.
Ken Levine: The best screenwriting advice I could give.
PG-13 movies have more gun violence than R-rated films.
James L. Brooks and others talk “The Simpsons” and the state of the toon market.
Revisiting John Cassavetes’ groundbreaking films.
Last movie rented at Blockbuster? This is the End.
@MysteryExec: Let’s kick Hollywood in the crotch.
Screenwriting Master Class tip of the week: I am offering one more class in 2013: Core VIII: Time, a one-week online screenwriting course about the essentials of screenplay time, everything from tapping into the power of writing in the present to the use of narrative devices like Flashback, Montage and Nonlinear Storytelling. To sign up, go here.
Next week, I will be talking about the 4-Day Quest Workshop which I hosted in Santa Monica in October. It was an unqualified success and has got me thinking about doing more in-person events.
So Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver, anywhere I can gather 10 writers together at one time, I am looking to go on the road several times a year in 2014 with this unique, cutting edge four day workshop. More information soon!
Onward!