Monday, November 23, 2015

Lancelot Link: Women!

Lancelot Link Monday! This week's links not only have the first photo from the WONDER WOMAN movie, also a swell article on the Women In Hollywood... oh, amnd the #1 film this weekend stars one of those women we speak of. Yes, there should be more of them working in the business, so let's do something about that! While you're thinking about that, here are this week's links to some great screenwriting and film articles, plus some fun stuff that may be of interest to you. Brought to you by that suave and sophisticated secret agent...




Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...


1) Weekend Box Office Estimates:
1 Hunger Games #3 P2............. $101,025,000
2 Spectre......................... $14,600,000
3 Peanuts......................... $12,800,000
4 Night Before.................... $10,100,000
5 Secret Eyes...................... $6,633,000
6 Coopers (not mini)............... $3,925,000
7 Martian.......................... $3,700,000
8 Spotlight........................ $3,603,466
9 The 33........................... $2,240,000
10 Bridge Spies..................... $1,945,000


Though part 2 of MOCKINGJAY opened $20m below part 1's opening, but foreign brings it up to $247 million... and it's days before Thanksgiving and 2 weeks after SPECTRE... with STAR WARS around the corner. Some of the estimates were $100m, and it made $101m, so it's not a failure. Heck, it made a pile of money in the first 3 days! Total box office for the year is still 4% over last year... with STAR WARS on the horizon.

2) John Gregory Dunne On Screenwriting.

3) Stacy Keach On Working With John Huston On FAT CITY.

4) The Women Of Hollywood Speak Out! (unfortunately, this is probably all of them.)

5) Carter Burwell's (BLOOD SIMPLE) Score For CAROL, Based On The Patricia Highsmith (STRANGERS ON A TRAIN) Novel.

6) STAR WARS Auditions From SNL.

7) Christopher McQuarrie Returns For MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 6.

8) WONDER WOMAN Starts Filming.

9) MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS Remake. Will This Open The Door To Mystery Films?

10) LEGEND Actress Emily Browning On Working With Tom Hardy Times Two.

11) A Dozen Things You Need To Know Before Writing TV.

12) DP John Seale On Shooting MAD MAX: FURY ROAD.

And the Car Chase Of The Week:



From KILL ME THREE TIMES.

Bill

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IMPORTANT UPDATE:

-
Dinner:
Pages:
Bicycle:

Movie:

Monday, November 16, 2015

Lancelot Link: Bill's Day Off

Lancelot Link Tuesday! A day late and a dollar short... so if all of you could send me a dollar, I'd appreciate it. Sorry this is a day late - but weather in Los Angeles on Sunday (and Monday) was cold and windy, so I decided to skip work and stay home near the heating vent and drink cocoa and watch TV and relax. I actually wrote a couple of pages on my short story, but not enough to matter. Some times you just need to take a day off. By the way - what does a cat do on it's day off? The opposite of what it does every other day? While you're thinking about that, here are this week's links to some great screenwriting and film articles, plus some fun stuff that may be of interest to you. Brought to you by that suave and sophisticated secret agent...




Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...


1) Weekend Box Office Actuals:
1 Spectre......................... $33,681,104
2 Peanuts......................... $24,013,538
3 Love The Coopers................. $8,317,545
4 Martian.......................... $6,712,171
5 The 33........................... $5,787,266
6 Goosebumps....................... $4,633,112
7 Bridge Of Spies.................. $4,268,772
8 Prem Ratan Dhan Payo............. $2,425,585
9 Hotel Transylvania............... $2,314,063
10 Last Vin Diesel Movie............ $1,482,463


Box Office is 4.4% ahead of this time last year... and STAR WARS hasn't opened, yet. Oh, and the last HUNGER GAMES movie comes out this weekend. Looking to be a good year.

2) Screenwriter Emma Donoghue On Adapting THE ROOM.

3) Screenwriter Steve Kloves (FABULOUS BAKER BOYS) On Writing, Outlining, Moments.

4) Spec Sale News.

5) Where Nightmare Are Created.

6) Why There Are Few Women Directors In TV.

7) The Next 100 Sequels In The FAST & FURIOUS Franchise Announced.

8) 25 Best Action Flick Opening Sequences.

9) MEMENTO Reboot (or is it a prequel?)

10) Screenwriter John Sayles On Writing And Directing Indie Films.

11) WGA Picks 101 Funniest Comedies.

12) Answers To Common Questions About Los Angeles (Movie Capital Of The World). A bunch of great articles about the birth and growth of the city.

And the Car Chase Of The Week:



Okay, it's a foot chase. But with all of the screenwriter interviews this week, it kind of made sense.

Bill

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Thursday, November 05, 2015

Raindance Film Festival Awards 2015

Another thing that happened while I was doing the 13 Films Of Halloween was the Raindance Film Fest gave out their awards.

** denotes the winner in the category.



Best International Feature:
Fires On The Plain
**Alice In Marialand
Chorus
Happy 140
That’s It
Echoes of War

Best British Feature:
**Kicking Off
Love/Me/Do
Mile End
The Return
Swansong
God’s Acre

Best Debut Feature:
Le Dep
**Princess
Bob And The Trees
Racket Shelter
Out of My Hand

Best Documentary Feature:
Sila And The Gatekeepers Of The Arctic
Digital Dissidents
**Gored
The Arms Drop
Horizontes
Broken Land

Best International Short
**Home
Winter Light
Chute Fighter
Shabu Shabu Spirit
Harry & Judy
A Hole In My Heart

Best UK Short
Into The Surf
Dating Eliza
**North
The Earth Belongs To No-One
Just Desserts
Strange Weather

Best Animated Short
N0-A
**Palm Rot
The Mechanical Waltz
The Alchemist’s Letter
Nowhere Line – Notes from Manus island
Last Day Of Freedom

Best Documentary Short
I Thought I Told You To Shut Up
Transmitting Thought: The Maimonides Dream Lab
The Champion
Rattle The Hocks
Rock’n’Roll Island
**Walking Through Havana

Feature Film of the Festival
All features in the festival are eligible. It is awarded to the film that best embodies the spirit of Raindance.
**Datuna: Portrait of America

Short Film of the Festival*
All shorts in the festival are eligible. The winner of the Short Film of the Festival award will be eligible for Oscar consideration.
** Winter Light

Special Jury Prize for a Short**
All shorts in the festival are eligible. The winner of the Special Jury Prize for a Short will be invited to pitch for next year’s festival trailer.
**The House Job

Best Music Video
All music videos in the festival are eligible.
**Stealing Sheep – Not Real

Congratulation to all of the winners!

- Bill

Wednesday, November 04, 2015

BEAT THE CAT!

The new BREAKING IN Blue Book has not even gotten close to beating THE CAT on Amazon! How can that be? The previous Blue Books had all battled SAVE THE CAT for the #1 position on Amazon by this point and won... for a day or two. THE CAT always returns to the top spot!

So how about helping me BEAT THE CAT?

If you want the new Blue Book and haven't bought it yet - BUY IT FRIDAY (11/6/15). If enough people buy it on the same day, it can battle the CAT for #1!

But *why* should you buy the BREAKING IN Blue Book? It's 419 pages long! That's like *2* books worth of material! Did I charge extra? Nope - still only $3.99. (But look for all of the Blue Book prices to go up a buck sometime next year... there are $5 screenwriting "books" on Amazon that are under 50 pages...) The problem was, the old paper version of the Blue Book was (and is) only around 40 pages of material, so it could only focus on the very basics of getting your script out there... nothing about making connections and networking, nothing about assignments, nothing about meetings, nothing about options, nothing about contracts, nothing about side doors into the business, nothing about *most* of the aspects of the business. Once I typed the words:

"Though this book is titled “Breaking In” that is kind of a misnomer, because it should be called the Everything About The Business Blue Book. There will be much more involved in your screenwriting career than selling screenplays, so I covered as much as I can. It's really the BREAKING IN AND HAVING A CAREER AND STAYING IN Blue Book.

I knew I was in trouble, because now I'd have to address all of those things! I'd have to go beyond query letters and look at all of the things that happen once your career begins, and you need to know all about meetings and assignments. Things you need to know in order to make connections that get you into the business. All of the back doors and side entrances into the business... what about contests? Pitchfests? Hey, what can you expect when you do a round of meetings and where will they make you park? How do you find a manager? Do you need a lawyer? There are so many aspects of the screenwriting business that I know even at 400 pages I have left things out... but eventually you have to type Fade Out and release it into the world. So here it is...

BRAND NEW!

bluebook

405 Pages!

*** SELLING BLUE BOOK *** - For Kindle!


Should really be called the BUSINESS BLUE BOOK because it covers almost everything you will need to know for your screenwriting career: from thinking like a producer and learning to speak their language, to query letters and finding a manager or agent, to making connections (at home and in Hollywood) and networking, to the different kinds of meetings you are will have at Studios, to the difference between a producer and a studio, to landing an assignment at that meeting and what is required of you when you are working under contract, to contracts and options and lawyers and... when to run from a deal! Information you can use *now* to move your career forward! It's all here in the Biggest Blue Book yet!

Print version was 48 pages, Kindle version is over 400 pages!

Only $3.99 - and no postage!



USA Folks Click Here.



UK Folks Click Here.

German Folks Click Here.

French Folks Click Here.

Espania Folks Click Here.

Canadian Folks Click Here.

Other countries check your Amazon websites... it's there!

Seriously - TEN TIMES larger than the paper version (still on sale on my website)! That's just crazy!

The next 3 Blue Books will be DESCRIPTION, STRUCTURE, and BLOCKBUSTERs (all 3 in 2016 I hope). Everyone wants the OUTLINES Blue Book, and I've promised it for the past couple of years, but the problem is I don't have enough ideas for new chapters, yet... and I want to get it up to 200 pages. I hope that over the next year I'll come up with some new chapter ideas and get that out at the beginning of 2017.

Thank you to everyone!

Bill

Monday, November 02, 2015

Lancelot Link: Merry Christmas!

Lancelot Link Monday! Halloween candy is 50% off and every store has their Christmas stuff up. Couldn't we create homne decorations that switched from scary Halloween to fun Christmas with the flick of a switch? While you're thinking about that, here are this week's links to some great screenwriting and film articles, plus some fun stuff that may be of interest to you. Brought to you by that suave and sophisticated secret agent...




Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...


1) Weekend Box Office Estimates:
1 The Martian..................... $11,400,000
2 Goosebumps...................... $10,210,000
3 Bridge Of Spies.................. $8,060,000
4 Hotel Tranny 2................... $5,830,000
5 Burnt............................ $5,038,000
6 Last Vin Diesel.................. $4,750,000
7 Pair Of Normal................... $3,450,000
8 Our Brand........................ $3,430,000
9 Crimson (not Twin)............... $3,110,000
10 Jobs............................. $2,580,000


Some folks have been making a lot out of BURNT and OUR BRAND IS CRISIS - two star driven vehicles - not making piles of money this weekend. Those people are morons. Both films are not commercial vehicles, but "Oscar bait" movies - and I don't think anyone expected them to make a lot of money. They expected them to get good reviews and be remembered when the Oscar nominations are announced. Halloween is traditionally a dead weekend - people are Trick Or Treating and going to parties - not the movies. So it's the perfect time to release a film that is not expected to sell a lot of tickets. Hey, both ended up in the top ten...

2) What is "Deathwave"? Jason Blum answers.

3) Deathwave Part 2

4) Horror Comedy - Per Roger Corman.

5) Emmett-Furla (FEAST) make a big deal with Lionsgate.

6) The Stars Of FINAL GIRLS Interviewed.

7) Jar Jar Binks, and evil Jedi Master?

8) WORLD WAR Z: PART II gets new screenwriter.

9) Stan Lee's New Movie Is *NOT* With Marvel

10) Top Spec Script Agent Leaves WME!

11) The Legal Problems With True Stories: STRAIGHT OUTTA HARVARD LAW?

12) The Dramatic Return Of Steve Guttenberg To Modern Cinema.

And the Car Chase Of The Week:





Bill

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