Screenwriting News links: 2012

Scott Myers

06 Jan 2013 • 2 min read

It’s funny how things evolve on GITS. When I started the blog, I’d occasionally post odd news items I’d pick up in my daily click-through routine on the web. Then I collected them into Saturday Hot Links. Then I began adding links to news items about screenwriters, specifically spec sales, pitch deals, writing gigs, and so forth to Saturday Hot Links. And then in February of last year, it occurred to me, why not break those out into a weekly Sunday post called Screenwriting News?

These lists are valuable for at least three reasons:

* First, I like to do everything I can to celebrate screenwriting and promote screenwriters, in part because mainstream media does such a crappy job of it [how many times have you seen features on a movie where they talk to the director, actors, producers, yet never mention the writers].

* Second, this is a great way to track what Hollywood is buying and greenlighting now. If you’re judging the acquisition and development market by what’s being released in theaters, you’re about 2–5 years too late as that’s likely when those movies were first bought.

* Third, you can familiarize yourself with current working writers. Why is this important? How about this: I just interviewed a writer who recently broke into the business via a spec script that landed on the 2012 Black List. He told me one of the ways he has learned the craft is by reading scripts by contemporary writers, even those still in development. As a side benefit, that has helped him in the whirlwind of general meetings he has taken as those are some of the exact same names of writers producers and studio execs know.

In other words, information = enlightenment and empowerment.

So without further ado, here are all the links for Screenwriting News 2012:

February 5-February 11

February 12-February 18

February 19-February 25