Saturday Hot Links
Back with another edition of Saturday Hot Links… today with a side order of grits!
This week’s theme: Cute puppies!
For tons of links, see you after the jump!
Favorite headline of the week: Hungary considers taxing porn to pay for straight films.
Spec scripts and pitches on the movie side of things isn’t the only hot market: Check out what’s going on with TV.
For any of you writers who might be working on a story with a psychopath, here are some tips on their language patterns.
George Lucas makes a surprise appearance at the Spike TV Scream Awards: Darth Vader named Ultimate Villain.
Great story as reported by my hero Rachel Maddow: Check out how a Northampton, MA independent video outfit, forced to go out of business, has gotten enough donations to give all their DVDs into perpetuity at the local library.
Do you remember the story about the writer who sold the pitch “Rome, Sweet Rome” based on a Reddit post? More background here.
But wait. Does Warner Bros. really own that project? Reddit contributors are lawyering up!
Similarly have you ever wondered what causes certain videos to go viral in a big way? This article provides some insight: What Does It All Meme?
Here are 10 things not to do when you are a wedding guest.
Fresno State grads win Nicholl Screenplay Fellowship with unique Hmong story.
George Clooney compares actors and politicians.
Watch a stop-motion short film directed by Spike Jonze here [video].
Julian Barnes wins Britain’s Man Booker Prize for fiction for his 150-page novella “The Sense of an Ending.”
River Phoenix’s final film to be released after 18 years.
David Fincher’s excuse for not hiring Scarlett Johansson for the lead role in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo: “The thing with Scarlett is, you can’t wait for her to take her clothes off.”
Screenwriter Robert Towne is selling his Pacific Palisades house. Asking price? A cool $14M [HT to @UnkScreenwriter for the link].
Chuck Wendig with 25 questions to ask as you write.
Why Australia’s film and TV business has Hollywood buzzing.
New talent signings at CAA, ICM, UTA, APA.
Screenwriter William Monahan has ideas about how to do a sequel to The Departed.
Speaking of Monahan, here he talks about writing Sin City 2.
More screenwriters: John Orloff (“Band of Brothers”) hired to write Battlestar Galactica reboot.
And an interview with Orloff about the project.
George Romero does not watch “The Walking Dead”.
The new Muppets movie has some purists rattled.
Just in time for Halloween: The United States of Scary Things infographic.
Another cute puppie!
Meet Phoenix Jones, Seattle’s self-proclaimed real life superhero!
How about the 8 coolest fictional motorcycle gangs?
The Gotham Independent Film Awards, the first of the award season nominations, is out and you can read the list of nominees here.
But THR asks do the Gotham awards impact the Oscars?
David Foster Wallace left these instructions on how to edit his work.
Lana and Andy Wachowski return to sci fi with “Jupiter Ascending”.
Flavorwire: Fake books from fiction we wish we could read.
David Thomson on Bill Murray.
Is Hollywood becoming Holy-Wood? THR notes: Hollywood suddenly hot for the Bible.
This week’s Legal Spotlight: Man sues producers of The Hangover II claiming they stole the idea from his script… based on his real life experiences.
More jurisprudence: Director John Singleton sues Paramount for a nifty $20M.
Hold on, not done yet: Actress sues IMDB for $1M. Why? Because the online info site revealed her age.
Annika Wood sends along this Wired article: The Web Is Dead. Long Live The Internet.
This writer really didn’t like the prequel version of The Thing, starting at the story’s very beginning and an anti-Joseph Campbell moment.
Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz is not a fan of the prequels.
A list of the top 10 filming locations. LA and NYC top the list. Can you guess what cities come after?
Deleted scene from Captain America released.
Here are some strange day jobs authors had before they were famous.
New WGA prez Christopher Keyser promises more activisim.
Maybe Keyser means this: Will The Dark Knight Rises film at at Occupy Wall Street?
And if you haven’t seen The Brown List — the Most-Liked and Least-Liked entertainment executives as voted on by Hollywood assistants — go here to find out who’s been naughty… and who’s been nice.
Zombieland screenwriters Reese & Wernick to pen “Micronauts”.
Finally what’s better than one cute puppie, but five cute puppies!
Screenwriting Master Class tip for the week: Character = Function. It’s one of the essential principles of screenwriting. In a screenplay, every character must have a reason to exist. They must advance the Plotline and connect to the Themeline. That’s the starting point of Core III: Character, a 2-week online SMC course. You will learn about five archetypes — Protagonist, Nemesis, Attractor, Mentor, Trickster — and four specific tools to help you to dig into, develop and understand your story’s primary and secondary characters. Tom Benedek will be teaching the next session of Core III which begins Monday, October 31. Remember the special 10% discount for GITS readers. Code: Discount10. For more information, go here.
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