Lancelot Link Thursday

Lancelot Link Thursday! For those of you who buy Playboy for the articles, here are some articles about screenwriting and the biz that may be of interest to you. Brought to you by that suave and sophisticated secret agent...



1) Yes, they are doing a Broadway Musical version of AMERICAN PSYCHO!

2) Fun Facts About This Year's Oscars!

3) GLADIAVATAR? It's like GLADIATOR meets AVATAR.

4 POCAHAVATAR? It's POCHAHONTAS meets AVATAR.

5 FERN GULLAVATAR? You know AVATAR really is the same movie as FERN GULLY.

And...
HELP SPREAD THE WORD!

The Script Secrets website is funded out of my pocket - I pay for the web hosting, I pay to keep the pop-up ads off the messageboards, I paid for an ad in Movie Maker Magazine... I pay for everything! And I do everything - from writing the code to writing the script tips to writing the script tips themselves. Since this site costs me money to run, my "payment" is in the number of people who read the tips everyday. I want to get as many people to come to the website as possible, and you can help!

1) Tell your writer friends about Script Secrets - www.ScriptSecrets.Net !
2) Mention it on writing message boards!
3) Talk about the site at writer's group meetings.
4) Link it in your writer's group's newsletter!
5) Get a tattoo on your butt with the website address and moon everyone you see!

Help me get the word out about my website! Thanks!

- Bill

IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: 110 Pages - No Waiting - and why there's always an available parking space in the movies.
Dinneer: Subway sandwich - spicy Italian, if you must have all of the facts.
Movies: EDGE OF DARKNESS - review to come.

Pages: Okay, this is the "reading period" on one of my assignments, so I'm using it as a writing period on an unfinished spec from last year - 2nd Son. I wrote over 7 pages today, and 3 the day before and 5 the day before that. Took a while to get back into the story, but that is where I am now. This block of story I'm working on now is exposition and character stuff - my people have been running for a while and stop to catch their breath. One of the things I seem to do often in scripts is to have this midpoint where everyone questions what they are doing and it turns into a debate about what is the best plan of action and who should lead and is the guy who is the protagonist on the right track or a complete idiot who is going to get them all killed. That's the scene I just finsihed up. I'm feeling great because I'm writing a script that is *mine* and I don't have to worry about weird notes and ideas from some guy in marketing that suck. And the script is fun - I keep forgetting how *fun* it is to write.

Ten Worst List - Empire Magazine

Here is Empire Magazine's list of the 10 most disastrous movies ever made: (http://www.empireonline.com):

1. "Batman and Robin" starring George Clooney, Alicia Silverstone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Uma Thurman

2. "Battlefield Earth" (2000) starring John Travolta, Forest Whitaker

3. "The Love Guru" (2008) with Mike Myers

4. "Raise the Titanic" (1980) with Jason Robards, David Selby

5. "Epic Movie" (2007)

6. "Heaven's Gate" (1980)

7. "Sex Lives of the Potato Men" (2004)

8. "The Happening" (2008) with Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel

9. "Highlander 2: The Quickening" (1991)

10. "The Room" (2003)

Somehow, I missed making the list... and missed seeing SEX LIVES OF THE POTATO MEN. I own two of these movies on video.

- Bill

IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Show The Goal - and SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE.

TWEET DEALS!



ALL SIX CLASSIC SCREENWRITING CLASSES!
Why break up a set? Get all of the Classic Classes on CD for one low price - and save on postage, too! SIX CDs packed with information! From IDEAS & CREATIVITY to WRITING INDIES to WRITING HORROR to the 2 part WRITING THRILLERS to GUERRILLA MARKETING. These classes used to sell for $15 - for a total of $120 with postage & handling. Buy the whole set on this TWEET DEAL and get 'em for only $50 plus postage and handling (USA). Ends Today.

The OSCAR Nominess Are...

And the 82nd Annual OSCAR Nominees are....

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

“District 9” Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
“An Education” Screenplay by Nick Hornby
“In the Loop” Screenplay by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher
“Up in the Air” Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner

Writing (Original Screenplay)
“The Hurt Locker” Written by Mark Boal
“Inglourious Basterds” Written by Quentin Tarantino
“The Messenger” Written by Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman
“A Serious Man” Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
“Up” Screenplay by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Story by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy

Best Picture

“Avatar” James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers
“The Blind Side” Nominees to be determined
“District 9” Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, Producers
“An Education” Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers
“The Hurt Locker” Nominees to be determined
“Inglourious Basterds” Lawrence Bender, Producer
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, Producers
“A Serious Man” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Producers
“Up” Jonas Rivera, Producer
“Up in the Air” Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, Producers

Actor in a Leading Role

Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart”
George Clooney in “Up in the Air”
Colin Firth in “A Single Man”
Morgan Freeman in “Invictus”
Jeremy Renner in “The Hurt Locker”

Actor in a Supporting Role

Matt Damon in “Invictus”
Woody Harrelson in “The Messenger”
Christopher Plummer in “The Last Station”
Stanley Tucci in “The Lovely Bones”
Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds”

Actress in a Leading Role

Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side”
Helen Mirren in “The Last Station”
Carey Mulligan in “An Education”
Gabourey Sidibe in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
Meryl Streep in “Julie & Julia”

Actress in a Supporting Role

Penélope Cruz in “Nine”
Vera Farmiga in “Up in the Air”
Maggie Gyllenhaal in “Crazy Heart”
Anna Kendrick in “Up in the Air”
Mo’Nique in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”

Animated Feature Film

“Coraline” Henry Selick
“Fantastic Mr. Fox” Wes Anderson
“The Princess and the Frog” John Musker and Ron Clements
“The Secret of Kells” Tomm Moore
“Up” Pete Docter

Art Direction

“Avatar” Art Direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Kim Sinclair
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” Art Direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro; Set Decoration: Caroline Smith
“Nine” Art Direction: John Myhre; Set Decoration: Gordon Sim
“Sherlock Holmes” Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
“The Young Victoria” Art Direction: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Maggie Gray

Cinematography

“Avatar” Mauro Fiore
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” Bruno Delbonnel
“The Hurt Locker” Barry Ackroyd
“Inglourious Basterds” Robert Richardson
“The White Ribbon” Christian Berger

Costume Design

“Bright Star” Janet Patterson
“Coco before Chanel” Catherine Leterrier
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” Monique Prudhomme
“Nine” Colleen Atwood
“The Young Victoria” Sandy Powell

Directing

“Avatar” James Cameron
“The Hurt Locker” Kathryn Bigelow
“Inglourious Basterds” Quentin Tarantino
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels
“Up in the Air” Jason Reitman

Documentary (Feature)

“Burma VJ” Anders Østergaard and Lise Lense-Møller
“The Cove” Nominees to be determined
“Food, Inc.” Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein
“The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers” Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
“Which Way Home” Rebecca Cammisa

Documentary (Short Subject)

“China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province” Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill
“The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner” Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher
“The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant” Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
“Music by Prudence” Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett
“Rabbit à la Berlin” Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra

Film Editing

“Avatar” Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron
“District 9” Julian Clarke
“The Hurt Locker” Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
“Inglourious Basterds” Sally Menke
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Joe Klotz

Foreign Language Film

“Ajami” Israel
“El Secreto de Sus Ojos” Argentina
“The Milk of Sorrow” Peru
“Un Prophète” France
“The White Ribbon” Germany

Makeup

“Il Divo” Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano
“Star Trek” Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow
“The Young Victoria” Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore

Music (Original Score)

“Avatar” James Horner
“Fantastic Mr. Fox” Alexandre Desplat
“The Hurt Locker” Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
“Sherlock Holmes” Hans Zimmer
“Up” Michael Giacchino

Music (Original Song)

“Almost There” from “The Princess and the Frog” Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
“Down in New Orleans” from “The Princess and the Frog” Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
“Loin de Paname” from “Paris 36” Music by Reinhardt Wagner Lyric by Frank Thomas
“Take It All” from “Nine” Music and Lyric by Maury Yeston
“The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from “Crazy Heart” Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Short Film (Animated)

“French Roast” Fabrice O. Joubert
“Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty” Nicky Phelan and Darragh O’Connell
“The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)” Javier Recio Gracia
“Logorama” Nicolas Schmerkin
“A Matter of Loaf and Death” Nick Park

Short Film (Live Action)

“The Door” Juanita Wilson and James Flynn
“Instead of Abracadabra” Patrik Eklund and Mathias Fjellström
“Kavi” Gregg Helvey
“Miracle Fish” Luke Doolan and Drew Bailey
“The New Tenants” Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson

Sound Editing

“Avatar” Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle
“The Hurt Locker” Paul N.J. Ottosson
“Inglourious Basterds” Wylie Stateman
“Star Trek” Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin
“Up” Michael Silvers and Tom Myers

Sound Mixing

“Avatar” Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson
“The Hurt Locker” Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett
“Inglourious Basterds” Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano
“Star Trek” Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J. Devlin
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson

Visual Effects

“Avatar” Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones
“District 9” Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken
“Star Trek” Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton

The official destination for the 82nd Academy Awards:
The Oscars

Okay - who do you think should win? Why?

- Bill

IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Making Hollywood Connections - part 2.

TWEET DEALS!



ALL SIX CLASSIC SCREENWRITING CLASSES!
Why break up a set? Get all of the Classic Classes on CD for one low price - and save on postage, too! SIX CDs packed with information! From IDEAS & CREATIVITY to WRITING INDIES to WRITING HORROR to the 2 part WRITING THRILLERS to GUERRILLA MARKETING. These classes used to sell for $15 - for a total of $120 with postage & handling. Buy the whole set on this TWEET DEAL and get 'em for only $50 plus postage and handling (USA). Ends Wednesday.

And The Nominees Are....

The nominations for the 30th Annual Razzie Awards, honoring the very worst films made by Hollywood, have been announced! Here is your complete list!

Worst Picture of 2009

All About Steve - 20th Century-Fox

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra - Paramount / Hasbro

Land of The Lost - Universal

Old Dogs - Disney

Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen - Dreamworks/Paramount

Worst Actor of 2009

All Three Jonas Brothers - JONAS BROTHERS: THE 3-D CONCERT EXPERIENCE

Will Ferrell - LAND OF THE LOST

Steve Martin - PINK PANTHER 2

Eddie Murphy - IMAGINE THAT

John Travolta - OLD DOGS

Worst Actress of 2009

Beyonce - OBSESSED

Sandra Bullock - ALL ABOUT STEVE

Mylie Cyrus - HANNAH MONTANA: THE MOVIE

Megan Fox - JENNIFER’s BODY and TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN

Sarah Jessica Parker - DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE MORGANS?

Worst Supporting Actor of 2009

Billy Ray Cyrus - HANNAH MONTANA: THE MOVIE

Hugh Hefner (as Himself) - MISS MARCH

Robert Pattinson - TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON

Jorma Taccone (as Cha-Ka) - LAND OF THE LOST

Marlon Wayans - G.I. JOE

Worst Supporting Actress of 2009

Candice Bergen - BRIDE WARS

Ali Larter - OBSESSED

Sienna Miller - G.I. JOE

Kelly Preston - OLD DOGS

Julie White (as Mom) - TRANNIES, TOO (TRANSFORMERS 2)

Worst Screen Couple of 2009

Any Two (or More) Jonas Brothers - THE JONAS BROTHERS 3-D CONCERT EXPERIENCE

Sandra Bullock & Bradley Cooper - ALL ABOUT STEVE

Will Ferrell & Any Co-Star, Creature or “Comic Riff” - LAND OF THE LOST

Shia LaBeouf & EITHER Megan Fox OR Any Transformer - TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN

Kristen Stewart & EITHER Robert Pattinson OR Taylor Whatz-His-Fang - TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON

Worst Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel
(Combined Category for 2009)

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Land of The Lost

Pink Panther 2 (A Rip-Off of a Sequel to a Remake)

Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen

Twilight Saga: New Moon

Worst Director of 2009

Michael Bay - TRANNIES, TOO

Walt Becker - OLD DOGS

Brad Silberling - LAND OF THE LOST

Stephen Sommers - G.I. JOE

Phil Traill - ALL ABOUT STEVE

Worst Screenplay of 2009
(Bill's note: Lots of adaptations this year, just like the Oscars!)

All About Steve - Screenplay by Kim Barker

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra - Screenplay by Stuart Beattie and David Elliot & Paul Lovett, Based on Hasbro’s G.I. JOE® Characters.

Land of The Lost - Written by Chris Henchy & Dennis McNicholas, Based on Sid & Marty Krofft’s TV Series

Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen - Written by Ehren Kruger & Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman, Based on Hasbro’s Transformers Action Figures

Twilight Saga: New Moon - Screenplay by Melissa Rosenberg, Based on the Novel by Stephenie Meyer

Worst Picture of the Decade
(Special Category!)

Battlefield Earth (2000) - Nominated for 10 RAZZIES® / “Winner” of 8 (Including Worst Drama of Our First 25 Yrs)

Freddy Got Fingered (2001) - Nominated for 9 RAZZIES® / “Winner” of 5

Gigli (2003) - Nominated for 10 RAZZIES® / “Winner” of 7 (Including Worst Comedy of Our First 25 Yrs)

I Know Who Killed Me (2007) - Nominated for 9 RAZZIES® / “Winner” of 8

Swept Away (2002) - Nominated for 9 RAZZIES® / “Winner” of 5

Worst Actor of the Decade

Ben Affleck
Nominated for 9 “Achievements,” “Winner” of 2 RAZZIES® DAREDEVIL, GIGLI, JERSEY GIRL, PAYCHECK, PEARL HARBOR, SURVIVING CHRISTMAS

Eddie Murphy
Nominated for 12 “Achievements,” “Winner” of 3 RAZZIES® ADVENTURES of PLUTO NASH, I SPY, IMAGINE THAT, MEET DAVE, NORBIT, SHOWTIME

Mike Myers
Nominated for 4 “Achievements,” “Winner” of 2 RAZZIES® CAT IN THE HAT, THE LOVE GURU

Rob Schneider
Nominated for 6 “Achievements,” “Winner” of 1 RAZZIE® THE ANIMAL, BENCHWARMERS, DEUCE BIGALO: EUROPEAN GIGOLO, GRANDMA’s BOY, THE HOT CHICK, I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK & LARRY, LITTLE MAN, LITTLE NICKY

John Travolta
Nominated for 6 “Achievements,” “Winner” of 3 RAZZIES® BATTLEFIELD EARTH, DOMESTIC DISTURBANCE, LUCKY NUMBERS, OLD DOGS, SWORDFISH

Worst Actress of the Decade

Mariah Carey
The Single Biggest Individual Vote Getter of the Decade: 70+% of ALL Votes for Worst Actress of 2001 GLITTER

Paris Hilton
Nominated for 5 “Achievements,” “Winner” of 4 RAZZIES® THE HOTTIE & THE NOTTIE, HOUSE of WHACKS, REPO: THE GENETIC OPERA

Lindsay Lohan
Nominated for 5 “Achievements,” “Winner” of 3 RAZZIES® HERBIE FULLY LOADED, I KNOW WHO KILLED ME, JUST MY LUCK

Jennifer Lopez
Nominated for 9 “Achievements,” “Winner” of 2 RAZZIES® ANGEL EYES, ENOUGH, GIGLI, JERSEY GIRL, MAID IN MANHATTAN, MONSTER-IN-LAW, THE WEDDING PLANNER

Madonna
Nominated for 6 “Achievements,”“Winner” of 4 RAZZIES® DIE ANOTHER DAY, THE NEXT BEST THING, SWEPT AWAY

For more information, and to get an official ballot and *vote*, THE RAZZIE AWARDS.

- Bill

IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: The Balance - and those TERMINATOR movies... all 4 of them.

TWEET DEALS!



ALL SIX CLASSIC SCREENWRITING CLASSES!
Why break up a set? Get all of the Classic Classes on CD for one low price - and save on postage, too! SIX CDs packed with information! From IDEAS & CREATIVITY to WRITING INDIES to WRITING HORROR to the 2 part WRITING THRILLERS to GUERRILLA MARKETING. These classes used to sell for $15 - for a total of $120 with postage & handling. Buy the whole set on this TWEET DEAL and get 'em for only $50 plus postage and handling (USA). Ends Wednesday.

This Is Not Conflict, Nor Drama

Monty Python's I'M HERE FOR AN ARGUMENT...


You know how many screenplays I've read that have scenes like that? How many movies I've seen that have scenes like that? Not comedy scenes - I'm talking about scenes that were supposed to be dramatic. You don't want junk conflict, you want conflict that is part of your story and moving your story forward.

- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: The Balance - and those TERMINATOR movies... all 4 of them.
Yesterday's Dinner: Burgers at Burger King.
Pages: Saturday - 5 rockin' pages on an old spec I want to get finished and Sunday - 3 pages, but I'm still going!

This Time, Hitler Has Problems With The iPad

In the continuing saga of Hitler having problems with stuff and losing his temper, this time he has some issues with the new Apple iPad that ruins his day.



- Bill

This Is The End!

Ever wonder what Bill Murray whispered at the end of LOST IN TRANSLATION? Well, NASA scientists using high tech sonic enchancing software have the answer!

- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Man With A Plan - Your protagonist *always* needs a plan that the audience understands.
Yesterday's Dinner: Heart attack inducing Pastrami Sandwich at Togos - lotsa Pastrami!
Bicycle: No - but it was sunny and beautiful, so maybe tomorrow.

Now That's Inspirational!

Having a bad day at the keyboard? Just got rejected... before you even pitched them the script? Did the one person you gave your script to completely hate it... at it was your mom? What you need is *inspiration*. Here is the most inspirational speech I have ever heard:


Wow... I'm inspired!

- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Forging Characters - You have to put your character through hell.
Yesterday's Dinner: *Great* BBQ Chicken at this formica table Japanese place on Alameda in Burbank (near a Little Caesar's Pizza). Not only delicious, the presentation was way too beautiful for a neighborhood place.
Bicycle: No - Rained again.
Movies: BOOK OF ELI.



ALL SIX CLASSIC CLASSES!
Why break up a set? Get all of the Classic Classes on CD for one low price - and save on postage, too! SIX CDs packed with information! From IDEAS & CREATIVITY to WRITING INDIES to WRITING HORROR to the 2 part WRITING THRILLERS to GUERRILLA MARKETING. These classes used to sell for $15 - for a total of $120 with postage & handling. Buy the whole set and get 'em for only $70 including postage and handling (USA).

Conan's Expensive Jokes

Wednesday night... the return of the Masturbating Bear! Plus Conan spends as much of NBC's money as possible in his final week on the air...



And last night...



- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Likeable Leads? - Are they required? And the mess of a movie that was SWING VOTE.
Yesterday's Dinner: Soylent Green.
Bicycle: Are you kidding? It's raining buckets!



ALL SIX CLASSIC CLASSES!
Why break up a set? Get all of the Classic Classes on CD for one low price - and save on postage, too! SIX CDs packed with information! From IDEAS & CREATIVITY to WRITING INDIES to WRITING HORROR to the 2 part WRITING THRILLERS to GUERRILLA MARKETING. These classes used to sell for $15 - for a total of $120 with postage & handling. Buy the whole set and get 'em for only $70 including postage and handling (USA).

Team Conan

I was a big fan of Conan's 12:30 show - his skits were hysterical. Sure, everyone wets themselves when Triumph crashes some party somewhere and starts asking all of the questions that no one should ask... but the Masturbating Bear and Pimpbot and The Year 2000 and that evil puppy and Abe Vigoda and Mr T and all of those other crazy skits were gold. When he took over the Tonight Show, the powers at NBC made him give up the skits they thought were too crass for 11:30... and I think the show has suffered because of it.

Now it seems Conan is getting the boot so that Jay can have the Tonight Show back... and here's what Jay had to say about that in 2004... when he announced his retirement:

Jay's 2004 Announcement - watch more funny videos

The real tragedy of this whole thing - NBC has decided that the Masturbating Bear is their property (they did the same thing with Letterman when he left) and none of the skits created by Conan's writers for Conan's show can ever be used again by Conan. See, all of that stuff was "work for hire". Now, the pisser is that NBC has no plans to ever use any of that stuff - there is no 10pm Masturbating Bear Show in the works to replace Leno - so we will never see those skits again. They go into that RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK storage facility... warehoused forever.

Those skits were written by TV writers... just as some script for a movie you might write as "work for hire" that you put your heart and soul into... but may get shelved forever. That's a pisser. Especially a pisser if you have worked hard on a script that's a work for hire, and the producer scraps your version of the story for some other version by some other writer that sucks. The sucks version gets made and your good version will never be seen by anyone. Studios sometimes have several different writers working on different versions of the same script, and then they pick the one they like and shelve the others. Frustrating. Too bad we can't at least keep our work and try to find another producer or studio... but a work for hire is a work for hire (even if it began with your pitch).

We will never see the Masturbating Bear again.

I'm going to miss him.

- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Edgy Scripts - and four guys in two canoes.
Yesterday's Dinner: Panda Express.

Martin Scorsese - Golden Globes

Here's the clip montage and Scorsese's speech from last night's Golden Globes... brilliant (except for the commercial for SHUTTER ISLAND they stuck in there). Great iconic images, and his speech is all about giving the audience an experience.



- Bill

Upcoming Nic Cage Movies...

Can't get enough of that KNOWING star? Well, he's got plenty of movies in the pipeline, and there is a whole blog devoted to his new projects...

Nic Cage Projects!

- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Playing With Time Periods - and that little film film from last year that won all of the awards - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE.
Yesterday's Dinner: Fast food between raindrops - Carls Jr Big Carl burger. It was okay.

Golden Globe Winners!

FILM AWARDS

Best Picture, Drama
Avatar WINNER
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
Up in the Air

Best Picture, Musical/Comedy
The Hangover WINNER
500 Days of Summer
It’s Complicated
Julie & Julia
Nine
Best Director
James Cameron, Avatar WINNER
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Clint Eastwood, Invictus
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

Best Actor, Musical/Comedy
Robert Downey, Jr., Sherlock Holmes WINNER
Matt Damon, The Informant!
Daniel Day-Lewis, Nine
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 500 Days of Summer
Michael Stuhlbarg, A Serious Man

Best Actress, Musical/Comedy
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia WINNER
Sandra Bullock, The Proposal
Marion Cotillard, Nine
Julia Roberts, Duplicity
Meryl Streep, It’s Complicated

Best Actress, Drama
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side WINNER
Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious

Best Actor, Drama
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart WINNER
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Tobey Maguire, Brothers

Film, Best Supporting Actress
Mo’Nique, Precious WINNER
Penelope Cruz, Nine
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Julianne Moore, A Single Man

Best Supporting Actor
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds WINNER
Matt Damon, Invictus
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones

Best Screenplay
Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air WINNER
Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell, District 9
Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker
Nancy Meyers, It’s Complicated
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

Best Animated Film
Up WINNER
Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess & The Frog

Best Song
“The Weary Kind,” Crazy Heart WINNER
“Cinema Italiano,” Nine
“I Want to Come Home,” Everybody’s Fine
“I Will See You,” Avatar
“Winter,” Brothers
Best Score
Up WINNER
The Informant!
Avatar
A Single Man
Where the Wild Things Are

Best Foreign Language Film
The White Ribbon WINNER
Baria
Broken Embraces
The Maid
A Prophet

Cecil B. DeMille Award
Martin Scorsese

MLK Post From 2008

In honor of Martin Luther King jr Day, here is a post I wrote two years ago...

Martin Luther King Day.

- Bill

Did James Cameron write AVATAR?

Here's a swell article from the LA Times about screenwriting credits...

Who Really Wrote AVATAR?

- Bill

WGA Awards - Nominee List...

Full List of 2010 WGA Awards Nominees in Movie:

Original Screenplay:

•"500 Days of Summer" - Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber
•"Avatar" - James Cameron
•"The Hangover" - Jon Lucas & Scott Moore
•"The Hurt Locker" - Mark Boal
•"A Serious Man" - Joel Coen & Ethan Coen

Adapted Screenplay:

•"Crazy Heart" - screenplay by Scott Cooper
•"Julie & Julia" - screenplay by Nora Ephron
•"Precious: Based on the Novel PUSH by Sapphire" - screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher
•"Star Trek" - screenplay by Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman
•"Up in the Air" - screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner

Documentary Screenplay:

•"Against the Tide" - Richard Trank
•"Capitalism: A Love Story" - Michael Moore
•"The Cove" - Mark Monroe
•"Earth Days" - Robert Stone
•"Good Hair" - Chris Rock & Jeff Stilson and Lance Crouther and Chuck Sklar
•"Soundtrack for a Revolution" - Bill Guttentag & Dan Sturman

- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Pick Up The Pace! - all about your screenplay's pacing - what makes a script fast paced?
Yesterday's Dinner: Fish & Chips & Guiness at The Belltower in San Francisco with old film friends. Food was great!
Movies: Then we went to see BITCH SLAP - and more on that later!



ALL SIX CLASSIC CLASSES!
Why break up a set? Get all of the Classic Classes on CD for one low price - and save on postage, too! SIX CDs packed with information! From IDEAS & CREATIVITY to WRITING INDIES to WRITING HORROR to the 2 part WRITING THRILLERS to GUERRILLA MARKETING. These classes used to sell for $15 - for a total of $120 with postage & handling. Buy the whole set and get 'em for only $70 including postage and handling (USA).
It's the big deal - You SAVE $50!!!!

Do Pretty Girls Fart?

Mythbusters did an unaired episode on whether pretty girls fart or not, and you will be disappointed to learn that they do.



Pretty girls are not perfect... and neither is anyone else. We all make mistakes. We are all learning. Even the smartest person in the world does dumb things sometimes, and doesn't know everything.

What does this have to do with screenwriting? (aside from - when you are on set stay away from Beyonce's butt)?

Hey, maybe your first draft sucks? Maybe your dialogue stinks? Maybe your characters are thin? Maybe you can’t seem to finish this script or this scene... and you feel like a failure. Maybe you give the script you think is perfect to some friends to read... and they all hate it.

Hey, no reason to beat yourself up. We all make mistakes! You don't look stupid when you write something that isn't perfect, you look just like the rest of us - you were learning. It was a first draft (or a tenth draft - some of us are slow learners). You know, there is no shame in *learning*, and you have to make mistakes in order to learn.

So, don't worry so much about looking like you may not have known something - nobody knows everything. We are all still learning. The first step in learning is to realize everyone makes mistakes, and no script is perfect. Be open to that criticism. Don’t be defensive about it, don’t be depressed by it. Everyone screws up! Everyone farts. If not, they explode - and that's even worse! You think farting in an elevator is bad, exploding is worse.

It’s a new year - time to make some new mistakes and learn from them.

And, stay away from Beyonce’s butt.

- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Conflict Driven - how every story needs a conflict, and that conflict needs to make sense... even if your name is George Lucas.
Yesterday's Dinner: Final home cooked meal from mom before I return to LA - cornbread, scalloped potatoes, corn, chicken. Perfect!



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Bitch Slap!

Rick Jacobson directed 2 of my scripts, and he's one of... I guess it's *two*... directors I enjoyed working with. A couple of months ago I posted a car chase clip from BLACK THUNDER, and that was his work. He is a nice guy (kind of amazing on its own) who can take a low budget film and make the action scenes rock. Most of the other directors I've worked with just wanted to get the action scenes over with. They disliked them, didn't understand them, and the results are some really crappy and bland action scenes. Rick *cared* about the action scenes, and tried to make them the biggest scenes possible with the money they gave him. There is a massive action scene at the end of BLACK THUNDER that is filled with explosions and stunts shot for the movie (ie: not stock footage). He put the money on the screen, not in his pockets.

Well, Rick has a new film opening in cinemas on Friday - select cities, limited release - called BITCH SLAP! It seems to be a Russ Meyers homage of some sort. You may have seen one (or more) of the female leads interviewed on some of the off the beaten path cable talk shows - I saw them on some video game talk show a couple of weeks ago. I'll be seeing the film this weekend in San Francisco before heading back to Los Angeles. Here is the trailer...



That looks cool!

- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Gag Reel - how to use "gags" and details to add depth and texture to your scenes, using THE 39 STEPS as example.
Yesterday's Dinner: Salad at La Scala in Walnut Creek, CA.



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Portable Grindhouse

The strangest part of my so called career are the ripples. Over a decade ago, Roger Ebert talked to Gene Siskel about me on that little TV show they had. I'm quoted in a bunch of books. I now have four novelists who either thank me in their books or mention me on their blogs. And that danged Movies For Men Network in the UK keeps showing my movies every damned week! I've stopped posting them here because I'd have to list them every week, and after a while I stopped caring (I'm sure you stopped caring the first time I posted the airdates and times... but it's *my* blog, baby!)

But the latest thing is even more of a ripple...

More of an echo from events long ago...

A book about the rise and fall of movies on VHS, focusing on the cool box art, has an example of VHS box art on the back cover...

And it is from a movie I wrote!


Someone on a messageboard mentioned a B Movie blog that I'd never heard of, so I thought I'd check it out, and yesterday's blog entry was all about buying this new book on Amazon, and they had a scan of the cover, and one of my movies was on it! This is almost as good as when I was channel flipping and passed NIGHT HUNTER in Spenish on one of the L.A. Mexican channels! That was kind of surreal.

So, I have ordered my copy from Amazon (the picture is a link) and can't wait to see if any of the box art from my other films made the cut.

- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Are Those Real? - levels of reality in your screenplay, and how to create the illusion of reality in your screenplay, and ADVENTURELAND.
Yesterday's Dinner: El Faro Burrito - it's a burrito bigger than my head! On Monument Blvd in Concord, CA.



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Script Magazine - January Issue Is Out!

The new issue of Script Magazine is out now! It's the Awards Issue - all about the Oscar hopefuls and other best pictures!





Writers on Writing: A Single Man
Thankfully, each awards season brings a fresh voice, full of surprises for a familial industry. In 2009, that fresh voice belonged to someone already well-known to the family, though no one could have suspected his fashion savvy would translate so readily to screenwriting. Here Tom Ford talks about what drew him to the singular A Single Man.

Win, Place & Showbiz: Handicapping the Writing Awards for 2009
An Oscar®-season tradition, Bob Verini talks to the scribes in the running for the Academy’s coveted statue. But, with a dramatic change in the Best Picture category -- the noms have been increased from five to 10 -- the race for the golden guy is truly up in the air. As usual, Verini lays the odds on 2009’s writerly offerings.

Taking on Tyson
For the past decade, filmmaker James Toback has held the idea of a special project, a story so personal to him that it had to be done just right, his way, when ready. The long-awaited result? The critically acclaimed Tyson -- a revealing documentary of the polarizing and enigmatic figure that is Mike Tyson.

Script to Screen: The Road
Stage veteran Joe Penhall toned down some of the gore in Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic novel The Road -- but only to keep it from getting boring. As director John Hillcoat and Penhall explain, their vision for the film was often debated but never questioned ... and both are eager to hear reaction from the audience and avid McCarthy fans.

Block Blocking
It happens to us all -- from the Oscar-winning writer to the aspirant. Writer's block is a cruel reality, but one that can be managed, according to the likes of Eric Roth, Simon Kinberg, and Stephen Susco. See if some of their tips, or the tips from some Script readers, will work for you.

Brothers: Where Art Thou?
Screenwriter David Benioff made two vows: He'd never do a remake and, after The Kite Runner, wouldn't revisit the subject of Afghanistan. He talks to Script about his new film Brothers, a remake of a Danish film about the war in Afghanistan.

The Agony of the Unproduced
Plenty of people make a living as screenwriters, but an important variable -- the screen variable -- can leave even those with a steady stream of writing gigs feeling less-than-accomplished. Read how a few writers have overcome the unproduced feeling.

Small Screen: Leverage
Showrunner John Rogers began his career on Cosby, a warm family sitcom that revolves around aging spouses. His current show centers on a family of a different sort -- a family of thieves. Find out how Rogers and his staff involve fans in the stories for Leverage's merry band.

New Media: Web Innovators
For most Web innovators, new-media projects have been high on experimentation and low on measurable results. But for BarretSwatek and Taryn Southern, the Internet has been a very stable place where both have found homes for their existing talents, and discovered talents they never knew they had.

Independents: Awards Driven
What can we learn from the winners of film festivals? Perhaps what drives each lauded story from Fade In to The End; or how each film’s engine differs from the others in competition? Bill Martell attends the 17th Annual Raindance Film Festival in London to find out.

10 Things a Rep Will Never Tell You
Do you really want to know? Are you sure? Because Jim Cirile, and a host of reps, are ready to tell you why neediness isn’t endearing, there’s no market for your masterpiece, if a script hasn’t sold yet it likely never will, and seven other daunting truths.

So, what subjects would you like me to cover in the new year? I'm about to start my article for the May issue, and have no idea what it will be about.

- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: What's The Plan, Man? - and planning your 2010 writing to get things done!
Yesterday's Dinner: Pizza. Frozen. Cardboard.



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New Script Tips & Facebook Hack

Yes, I promised new Script Tips, and they are rolling out... but there may be some delays because of one of those crazy things that happen in our new electronic world...

Someone hacked my Facebook account yesterday. For a whole day some lunatic was posting a bunch of crazy stuff and even interacting with my friends. That’s kind of the creepy part. I’d say I have no idea how it happened, but I suspect I clicked on one of those links - Hamsters Flood or more likely some famous hottie who loses her top. Those things are always scams or some kind of hack. I usually make it a policy never to click on anything from a friend that doesn’t have a message that seems like it would have come from them, but I now have so many “friends” on FB that I don’t know - so it’s hard to tell what some dude I have never met might say.

It used to be different. When I first got on FB it was going to be ONLY my actual friends. I was going to use MySpace for anyone who wanted to be my cyberfriend and get the daily tip link and blog links and a certain number of jokes and smart ass remarks, and FB would be people I really know. Then MySpace became a ghost town and I just stopped posting there... and opened the doors at FB to *anyone* who wanted to be my friend. And that may have resulted in someone else getting hacked and then me getting hacked yesterday.

The strange part about having your FB account hacked are the messages. Who sits around typing this nonsense:

“When lottery hits $640m, play 2, 4, 23, 38, 46, mega 23.”

Yeah, right - like the lottery is ever gonna get that high! The highest lotto payout *ever* was $390m in March of 2007. And the hacker thinks it’s gonna be double that someday? And what the hell does this mean:

“11-11-29 BofA stock - buy.”

I’m supposed to buy Bank Of America stock? Is this one of those Make Millions Buying Penny Stock scams - just with Bank Of America? I don’t even bank there, why would I buy their stock? The hacker posted a bunch of weird stuff like this. Just an endless stream of crazy things that don’t make sense to me - and probably made my FB friends (both the ones I know and the ones I have never met) think I’ve gone crazy. You post a “sorry, I was hacked” message, but how many people see it in the stream and how many people miss it and think you lost your mind yesterday... but seem to have found it today (between the sofa cushions, along with some loose change).

The worst part of all of this were the direct communications with people I actually know. There are some of these where I don’t really know what I should do - apologize? For things some hacker said? And the hacker said *weird* stuff - he/she/transgendered person posted a note on one friend’s wall telling them how much I appreciate the things they have done for me in the past, even if I never said it. Now, I actually *could* have posted that - what’s weird about this is that’s really how I feel - but, I feel that way about many other people the hacker didn’t post crap to. The message gets creepy at the end, though, when it says that when they are on vacation they should not fly from Dubai to India on Air India Express Flight 812. What the hell does that mean? Is this hacker some travel agent that gets a better commission if they take some other airline? The problem is - I want to explain that some hacker wrote that nonsense... but it’s in the same message as kind of a heartfelt thing about how much I (well, really the hacker) need to say how much I care about this person. Can’t take back the crazy stuff without taking back the good stuff (even if I didn’t post it - I really do feel this way about this person). Oh, and the weird thing is - they have been talking about going to the Middle East and India and want to compare the wealth of Dubai with the poverty of India... so this crazy thing about what airline to fly seems like part of a conversation we had a few months ago.

Yikes! What if I was sleep FBing or something! And why couldn’t I be sleep New Tip Writing instead?

But if I *don’t* tell these people all of these weird heartfelt messages were from the hacker, what do I say to them when I see them next? What it someone *asks* about the weird thing about “Don’t drive 1-35 @ 10-14-2 - just stay home that day” - what the hell does that even mean? They should *only* drive over 35mph? How do they start the car? The problem is this hacker has created a bunch of weird little ticking timebomb problems for me, and I don’t know what I should say if one of my friends asks me what that crazy stuff means. But if I tell them it was just me being hacked - it kind of means the nice things the hacker said were lies. This hacker was *devious*!

Some of you already know how I handled this - and I’m sorry if it upset you. I decided to send e-mails (not FB) saying that I was hacked and the heartfelt messages with the weird endings like “you can’t climb down a chimney to enter a house - the flue gets in the way” were fakes. Of course they were fakes - why would I send a message about chimneys to a *doctor*? And that the heartfelt parts were true - even though some crazy hacker wrote them. Problem is, I think some people are mad at me... and feel like I said something nice, took it back, then tried to say it again. Freakin’ hacker has hurt some of my real relationships, and that’s worse than any of the weird posts like “10-11-2 - bag of money BofA MDR Admirality - dye pack!”. (Hacker has a thing for BofA!) So, if you are one of those who are angry with me now, I’m sorry. It wasn’t my fault, it was just part of this crazy high-tech world where someone pretends they are you and ruins your life... then vanishes. I have no idea how you recover from stuff like this - it reminds me of the Harlan Ellison story SHATTERDAY about the guy who has an exact double... who is *nicer* than he is. That’s the biggest problem with this devious hacker - he/she/tyransgendered person said *nice* things along with the crazy things, so if you take back one you have to take back the other.

So, that’s why the new Script Tips may take a while to post this month. I’m still dealing with having my FB account hacked for *one day* (imagine if this hacker had decided to post crap for a week or a month!). Everything seems to be normal now... so I’d better get back to work on the tips.

- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: That's Episodic! - and one of 2009's worst films: YEAR ONE.
Yesterday's Dinner: Three Brothers Chinese in Pleasant Hill - Shanghai Porkchops.
Bicycle: No - I'm home for the holidays without a cycle, but I walked a few miles to burn off some of this holiday weight.



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Movies: AVATAR - I saw AVATAR with a couple of old friends over the holidays... and everybody wants to know what I thought of it. We saw it in 3D but not in IMAX - I’m not really a fan of IMAX showings of movies not shot in that format - and the first thing I would say to anyone who hasn’t seen AVATAR yet but is planning on it, is to see it in 3D. I’ll get to the reason why in a minute. My friends - one is an award winning documentary film maker who actually won an award for a film he made last year, and the other is a theatre (stage) director in the San Francisco Bay Area (oh, and a produced playwright, too) - and both of them liked AVATAR more than I did. That doesn’t mean I disliked it, just that these two guys wanted to race out and buy a ticket for the next showing... and I thought I might see it again... sometime.

Wait... but what did I think of it? Well, someone at the New Years Eve party I went to asked me that, and here’s how I answered...

Story-wise, AVATAR isn’t anything new - it’s basically the same story as DANCES WITH WOLVES and THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS (which also co-starred Michelle Rodriguez). We have our young soldier going undercover to bring down an enemy. In F&F he hooks up with the enemy chief’s sister, in AVATAR he hooks up with the enemy chief’s daughter. In F&F there’s another member of the gang who does not accept him... until he proves himself, and in AVATAR it’s the chief’s daughter’s fiance who doesn’t accept him until he proves himself. In both films our undercover guy reaches a point where he isn’t sure what side he’s on - he’s left the reservation and gone native. In F&F the undercover guy has a foot in both camps until he realizes that he has to take down the enemy... but tries to find a way to do it without hurting his new friends too much. In AVATAR the undercover guy has a foot in both camps until he comes to realize his side is wrong... and he joins the enemy side to take down his own people. That’s more like DANCES WITH WOLVES. But the story follows the path created by other movies without ever veering too far into the jungle.

And the dialogue in AVATAR is just there to get it from one point to the next, nothing as cool and memorable as “You have to look with better eyes than that.” from THE ABYSS, but also nothing as awful as “Jack, this is where we first met!” from TITANIC... though the name of the planet and the mineral they are mining come damned close. Mostly the dialogue is just there. Sometimes it’s the most obvious thing to say, but it’s never just awful. I wish someone had been brought in to make it more clever, more memorable, more interesting... but we just get bland and average dialogue.

While they were rewriting the dialogue they could have taken care of some of those nagging little things like the military not firing a nice big missile in one of the end battles, but flying some sort of barge filled with pallets of C4 and just dumping them on the Navi stronghold. Sure, there was that line of dialogue about how missile guidance systems didn’t work in that region, but we fired missiles long distances and hit targets long before we had guidance systems... and the helicopter missiles seemed to work okay in that region. This stuff needed some work!

Same can be said for the characters - we kind of get the same major characters as in ALIENS, just taken from the other side. We have the Corporate Creep who will do anything to make sure the company makes a big old bag of money - Giovanni Ribisi playing the Paul Riser role. We have our gung-ho military guy who has all kinds of nice weapons for use in close encounters - Stephen Lang playing the Michael Biehn role. We have a scientist who starts out a company flunky and ends up saving the day - Dileep Rao playing the Lance Henrickson role (Dileep’s second scene stealing role after working for Sam Raimi in DRAG ME TO HELL). And we have the bad-ass babe soldier - Michelle Rodriguez from FAST AND THE FURIOUS playing the Jenette Goldstein role. Plus the guy who panics and the protective mother alien and, of course, Sigourney Weaver. Everybody does okay with what they are given, and even though we are often missing some character shading, each character serves their purpose and even has that little scene where they shine. Basically, “okay” but not “great”... so what the hell is good about AVATAR?

The world.

I have a Script Tip in rotation called “Take Us Someplace Cool” about the importance of taking the audience into an interesting world, whether it’s the world on con men or the world of wizards or that world in LORD OF THE RINGS... and this is where AVATAR gets bonus points. For two and a half hours you are not on Earth... you are in a very real alien world filled with all kinds of interesting details. It’s like watching a National Geographic special that takes you somewhere that humans have never seen before... maybe the bottom of the ocean. In fact, so many of the elements of this world look like things you would see on a voyage to the bottom of the sea... and Cameron has been down there... that I suspect that world was the main inspiration for “Pandora”.

The trailer, in 2D, made it look like a bunch of blue cartoons running around. Watching the movie in 3D I believed that these were living creatures. And there were a million different types of creatures and plants and birds and... well, it was like a travelogue - which is another mark in the plus column. We got to experience a world completely unlike our own - to be somewhere else for 2.5 hours. Complete escape.

That’s one of the things some writers may underestimate - creating that world that is a complete escape from reality. Many writers think that screenwriting is about the facts, about reality... but that’s what *journalism* is. Screenwriting, from Melies' magical silent films to Lang’s Mabuse spy films and METROPOLIS to STAR WARS and James Bond, movies are traditionally not reality. They give us larger than life stories and exciting fantasies. It’s “Let’s Pretend” on a mass scale. Kids play cops & robbers and cowboys & indians and all kinds of fantasy role-playing games... and movies offer the same thing without the wooden horses. Creating that world that provides an escape into an exciting fantasy world is *job one* for a screenwriter - and AVATAR’s fantasy world is rich in details... plus, just about everybody is nekkid except for a loin cloth and way too much neck jewelry on the women.

AVATAR is an *experience*.

That’s why you have to see it in 3D... it’s not so much a story as a chance to live in another world for 2.5 hours... and 3D makes that world seem as if it is all around you. You could reach out and touch it. None of the 3D is DR TONGUE”S HOUSE OF 3D BEEF with gotchas and paddle-balls zooming out of the screen, the 3D in AVATAR is just used to create depth. Took me a while to get used to it, but after a while the 3D was a natural part of being immersed in this world. Cinders from a fire float down on you. Seed pods float on aircurrents past your head.

I’m saving some of the AVATAR stuff for a new Script Tip, but here’s one of the things that was a stroke of genius: A big problem I have with story notes is that you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t - there is no “yes” in the word “notes”. If you don’t motivate a character to do something unusual, you will get a note about it. But if you *do* go to the trouble of creating a motivation for a character to do something that is “movie stupid” like going into that haunted house where the legend has it a dozen people were brutally killed, you’ll get the note “We don’t really need that, it’s a movie convention that high school kids go into the haunted house - no explanation required!” So you end up with more stupid unmotivated high school kids walking into a house where no one has ever walked out alive. I would rather have them motivated - and always make sure anything that a normal person would not do has some reason behind it. The audience may not go into that death house themselves, but when a character with some sort of *reason* goes inside, instead of thinking “They’re complete idiots” they think “That’s a mistake”. Hey, people make mistakes. You can still care about someone who makes a mistake... but someone who does something downright stupid? They deserve whatever happens to them.

So, a major element that allows us to understand why Jake Sully would want to keep going back to the Navi world and even turn against his own people... is that wheel chair. That’s one of the things that pulled me into that fantasy world and made the blue cartoons into *people*. When Sully can walk again as a Navi... and then starts *running* with his new Navi legs... it’s something I can completely understand. That was a great moment - a big emotional human moment (even though the dude was a blue alien at that point). When Sully keeps going back - even though the Navi world becomes less attractive - I completely believed it because he *had legs* as a Navi. He could walk, run, climb! And if you had to choose between a world where you could walk and a world where you were a physical person who could no longer be physical - which would you pick? Even though you may not personally turn against the humans invading the planet, you can *understand* why Sully might. The military guy promises if Sully helps bring down the Navis they will give him the best doctors available to try to get his legs working again... but as a Navi he already has legs right now. Making Jake Sully an injured soldier in a wheel chair is one of those little things that pays off big time.

There were *many* other great visual things in the film - places where a picture really was worth a thousand words. Easy for some writers to miss those things and focus on the bland dialogue. But the main thing that AVATAR has going for it - the reason why it seems some people may be seeing it again (it is the third fastest movie to make $300m domestic... and is just broke $1 *billion* worldwide) is the world it takes us into. That escape into an interesting place we have never seen before, filled with wonder and details and all of those things we watch National Geographic to experience. It’s a 2.5 hour vacation... and I suspect if I were to see it again I would notice all kinds of things about that planet that I missed the first time. It is a film rich in detail... and somebody *created* that world and those details.

Somebody *wrote* that.

- Bill

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone!

- Bill

Films That Are Now National Treasures

A list of the 25 films being added to the National Film Registry... and on the list is one of my favorite films from when I was a kid - INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN. That may have been the film that started me reading Richard Matheson novels. Two more great films I love are also on the list - THE MUPPET MOVIE and ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. It's great when amazing works of art like these are acknowledged. Oh, and DOG DAY AFTERNOON and MARK OF ZORRO and the others on the list aren't bad either!




• "Dog Day Afternoon" (1975)

• "The Exiles" (1961)

• "Heroes All" (1920)

• "Hot Dogs for Gauguin" (1972)

• "The Incredible Shrinking Man" (1957)

• "Jezebel" (1938)

• "The Jungle" (1967)

• "The Lead Shoes" (1949)

• "Little Nemo" (1911)

• "Mabel's Blunder" (1914)

• "The Mark of Zorro" (1940)

• "Mrs. Miniver" (1942)

• "The Muppet Movie" (1979)

• "Once Upon a Time in the West" (1968)

• "Pillow Talk" (1959)

• "Precious Images" (1986)

• "Quasi at the Quackadero" (1975)

• "The Red Book" (1994)

• "The Revenge of the Pancho Villa" (1930-36)

• "Scratch and Crow" (1995)

• "Stark Love" (1927)

• "The Story of G.I. Joe" (1945)

• "A Study in Reds" (1932)

• "Thriller" (1983)

• "Under Western Stars" (1938)


- Bill

KICK ASS trailer - red band - bloody!

Yes, there is blood in this trailer, and violence... lots of violence. But there is also an adorable little girl who is sugar and spice and everything nice!



Okay, I lied about the "everything nice" thing. Sorry.

- Bill

Intermission....

So, there may be some blog entries over the next few days and there may not. Both Script Secrets and the blog are one holiday until January 4th. Script Secrets has a tip for all of these days, but they are older ones and you must manually click on them. Here on the blog, if something amazing happens I may post... but most likely not.



- Bill

How Santa Makes His Rounds On Christmas Day

You may be wondering how one fat dude manages to deliver all of those gifts on one day. Here is top secret film from Santa's training camp that explains everything...



Happy Holidays!

- Bill

Arkham Tales

At the beginning of the year, one of my longest online friends Nathan started a cool online magazine called Arkham Tales that featured original weird tales. He asked if I would let him promote it on my message boards, and the answer was “Of course!” But then I was unbelievably stupid by not plugging it here on the blog, since this has many more readers than that ghost town I call my message boards. I just didn’t think of it. And when every new issue came out, I still didn’t think of it. Now Nathan has announced that this is the last issue. That’s terrible, because it’s a cool magazine.

So, here is a link to the last issue. The magazine is free - actually a donation thing - and if you read it and like it and want to donate, maybe there will be enough interest that Nathan might think about keeping it going. And if you read it and like it and have a blog or newsletter, spread the word.

And now, fasten your seat belt and prepare for a walk on the weird side...




- Bill

New *Improved* Movie Plan

Okay, some of you folks have been wondering what the heck happened with that movie I was making... and so have I! Well, there have been some hurdles and some plot twists and some major changes. Here’s what happened...

At the end of last year, when I landed the top secret studio remake gig, I was also planning on making my own little ultra-low budget movie to retain my sanity, have fun, experiment with the internet as a delivery system, recapture my youth by working with a bunch of old friends I used to make movies with when I was in my 20s, and get some practical experience for a proposed book on writing low, ultra-low, and no budget movies. All I need was enough disposable income to make the movie... and the top secret remake gig would provide that.

I had an old story that I really liked called NEAR HIT that was ambitious as hell, but I would have a pretty good cushion with that top secret remake income, so if I went over budget I could still finish the film. I wouldn’t film myself into the poorhouse, or end up with half a film and no money to finish it... and the cast scattered to the wind so that when I *did* have the money to finish it I could not find the lead actor, or maybe he shaved his head for a role or got a sex change or something.

Before I sold the script that allowed me to tell my boss at the warehouse to take this job and shove it, and I moved to Los Angeles for the fame and fortune of being a professional screenwriter, I used to make movies on Super 8mm film, 16mm film, and video. Because I owned a video camera and deck and lights and a union day job, I produced some projects that my friends directed. At one point I came up with a TWILIGHT ZONE type project for public access TV called SHADOWS. I wrote a few 24 minute scripts, provided the camera and deck and lights and sometimes meals and other costs, and my friends and I directed them. Though this was supposed to be fun, all kinds of complications ensued including one friend pretty much screwing over everyone he knew and doing many things that were shocking and unforgivable. Sorry, there will be no blog entry to explain that.

Anyway, back to the lead actor getting a sex change thing... My friend Curt Wells was one of the people making episodes and I wrote him a cool one called GIRL OF MY DREAMS about a guy in a dead end job and failing marriage who suddenly begins dreaming about that one big love he had in college. Remember your first real love? After having these dreams, he becomes obsessed with her - where is she now? Does she still dream of him the way he dreams of her? He hires a private eye to track here down while he comes up with a scheme to embezzle a bunch of money from his company and dump his nagging wife so that he and dream-girl can live happily ever after in some exotic local. So Curt finds an actor to play this guy and starts making the film - there is no pay for anyone, all of this is for the actor’s reel and for fun. Curt gets about halfway through filming and something happens - probably health related, because Curt had heart problems - and filming stops. When Curt gets ready to do some filming again, the unpaid actor has literally shaved his head and looks completely different... and Curt can not find any wig or toupee on a no-budget budget that looks even close to real. This means the project is shelved until the lead actor decides to grow his hair back... if he ever decides.

Um, I didn’t want that to happen to us on NEAR HIT, so it was important that we shoot all of it at once and not have to close down production because I ran out of money because the project was too ambitious for the amount of money I had in my disposable income column. When the secret studio remake thing kept being delayed... and then completely lost momentum and seemed to be shelved... I realized I would have to come up with something much less ambitious than NEAR HIT.

So I decided the best bet might be to do some sort of anthology movie, like the SHADOWS project many years ago. That way, we could make it one episode at a time and wouldn’t have to worry about some lead actor shaving their head because we could probably make an episode in 1 or 2 weekends. My killer mouse SHADOWS episode was made in 2 weekends and ran 24 minutes. If we could make 3 or 4 episodes and do a wrap-around, we could easily get to 85-90 minutes, even if some of the episodes were short. But what would be the hook? I started to look for something, and discovered some work by a writer in public domain. This writer was not known for horror stories, but like all writers, was struggling to earn a living and if someone was paying for horror stories he wrote them. The horror stories were practically unknown, but had once been collected in a book that was available used. Bought it, and the horror stories lacked... horror. No wonder nobody knew this guy wrote horror stories - they sucked. All had a kernel of horror in them, but the writer went in the wrong direction!

But, I could “adapt” the stories and take them in the right direction. Use the set up from the original stories and make them work as horror. The plan was to write up the first one and shoot it over the holidays (basically - now). But the added problem with these stories was that they were period stories, and tough to adapt to 2010, and that the least complicated one - that I would want to start out with - took place out doors. And it rains in my home town over the holidays... and is freezing cold when it is not raining. Probably better to schedule this for summer.

And the anthology format is kind of iffy in the low & no budget world.
And horror seems to be saturated right now.
And I really wasn’t sure that this old writer would be enough of a hook to sell the film.
And I might be trading one set of complications for another - period and outdoors.

Then my flurry of meetings and projects hit, and I would have no time to shoot anything over the holidays - I have writing to do!

Now I might have enough disposable income to do something less complicated (unless the top secret studio remake kicks in), but what?

Well, 15 years ago a producer wanted me to come in and pitch some sequel ideas to a low budget thriller they had made. I came up with a way to expand that GIRL OF MY DREAMS Shadows episode into a feature with all kinds of twists and turns and 3 times more new material. The 24 page script would become 90 pages. They loved my pitch, but there was one big complication - I landed a better paying script job. I think that was one of the years where I had 3 films made in one year. I was too busy to write this low paying sequel... but I had a friend. My buddy hadn’t sold a script, yet, but I’d read one of his that just kicked ass. So I gave him a call and asked if he wanted an assignment that I didn’t have time for. Of course he said yes. The producer made one of the conditions that I would have to guarantee his work - do a rewrite on my friend’s script if it wasn’t good enough. I reluctantly agreed, wondering where I would squeeze in the time to do that rewrite. I warned my friend that he needed to schedule in a couple of days before handing in the script to polish it so that they would have confidence in him and let him do the rewrites instead of calling me. Not a problem. So I wrote out all of the notes from my pitch as well as any ideas I had and any suggestions on how to make the script cool. I had a complete step outline, plus the 24 page original script, too. This was like an instant script - just add writing. He could do anything he wanted with characters and dialogue and scenes and actions, as long as he followed the basic story I had pitched to the producer. And the producer would pay him half in advance and half when he handed in the script. My friend would be a professional writer - and have a produced script.

And then everything went wrong. He choked. That happens more often than you might imagine. I’m thinking of doing a Script Tip about it. Writers think, “If only I had a chance”, then someone gives them that chance and the fantasy turns to reality and they worry that they might fail... and all of that worry actually makes them fail. Hey, it’s just a bunch of writing on paper! No reason to worry. If you get to the point where someone is going to give you that chance, it’s because you have *earned it*. You are good enough. So, just write it! Well, my friend did not write it. And he had to give back the advance. And the producer was not happy with me, and also needed a finished script like yesterday so that they could make their film, and ended up buying something off the street and hammering it into a sequel to their film.

And I still have that step outline and all of those notes... somewhere.

Because that was a low budget movie, it had limited locations and limited characters and limited effects... but all kinds of cool ideas that could be filmed for next to nothing. Most of the story took place in a house... and one of my cohorts on this low to no-budget film project has a brand new luxury house in the Bay Area. Hmmm, a set we own and control! A limited cast, so less chance of someone shaving their head... though this was the same project where that happened and ruined Curt’s film.

But the big problem: where did I put those notes from 15 years ago?

In my office is the Closet Of Doom - filled with hundreds of notebooks and binders and scripts and short stories and half written novels and anything else that I think I will probably never need again. It was in one of those hundreds of notebooks. Problem is, it wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I began writing an index on the outside of my notebooks for the contents within. So for the 13 years worth of notebooks between when I began writing the contents on the front covers and the notebook I was looking for... oh, and all of the notebooks *before that*... I had no way to know what was inside except opening them up and looking at page after page. VERY time consuming.

Add to that - I am busy right now with this flurry of meetings and assignments and it may take weeks of searching to find this stuff. Would be nice to see what it is now, so that I can tell my cohorts about it over the holidays. I knew that in the outline for the new 75 pages (unwritten) there were all kinds of cool ideas... but what were they? I can’t remember. All I can remember is that the producer thought they were cool ideas, too. When I reread the 24 page version of the script, I could not figure out how the hell I’d come up with any way to expand it. It was self contained. It had a beginning and middle and end. It was 24 pages. So I decided to give myself one hour to search through all of those notebooks in the Closet Of Doom. One hour.

And I find it within that hour. By accident.

So I now have the step outline and all of the notes to turn GIRL OF MY DREAMS into a feature - and the ideas really are cool. There’s a big high concept grafted on that works perfectly and turns this into a low budget MATRIX kind of thing (outline written before THE MATRIX, and going in a different direction than that film). And there’s a cool subplot grafted on that is filled with inexpensive thrills and plot twists. Some of the things that were off screen because they were too expensive to shoot in 1995 are now possible to do onscreen digitally for little or no money. This is gonna be cool. The problems on the horizon are all talent related. We will be shooting it in the San Francisco Bay Area, and one of the female roles may be difficult to cast... and we also need someone who does practical effects up there. There is no pay.

The NEAR HIT project is not abandoned, nor is that public domain anthology thing; they are just postponed until I find the money to do them. The plan has always been that if the first one works out, we just keep making one every year for fun. Using anything made on the last one to pay for the next one, and hopefully each one gets bigger.

So, once I get done with this flurry of projects, I use this ancient step outline to expand that short script and hopefully we film it in the summer when it isn’t raining. Hopefully we will figure out the casting and practical effects stuff between now and then. Oh, and I have to come up with another title and figure out how to break this story up into 5 to 7 minute webisodes and maybe add a couple of “confined cameos” so that I can cast some actor friends from Los Angeles if I find some extra money.

- Bill

IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Story Is Change - and the new Clint Eastwood movie INVICTUS.
Yesterday's Dinner: Pork Roast and salad at home.




SCRIPT SECRETS STORE
Top 10 Films About Underpants T Shirt: SALE $9.99

Meeting Flurry!

Nothing like those McDonald's milkshake things.

Screenwriters are part outlaw. Other people punch a time clock or have some set hours where they have to be at work - screenwriters can pretty much show up whenever they want to and do as much or little work as they feel like doing. We are freelancers. I joke that I don’t do mornings, but that’s kind of true. Unless I have a meeting, I’m sleeping until 10am and then lounging around drinking coffee until around noon, then I think about riding my bike to some coffee shop and doing a little work. Hey, and if I’m up all night doing something, I may not wake up until noon! I can work whenever I want, do whatever I want... and there’s no one to fire me because I’m self employed!

All of that outlaw freedom comes with a price - no regular pay checks. The worst part about being a freelancer is that you might write a whole stack of spec scripts... and sell none of them! And if you do sell one, there is no guarantee that you will ever sell another. A screenwriter I know sold a script for big money, it was in the trades and two top starts were fighting over playing the lead... and that was it. They never made the movie, and after a bunch of meetings and assignments that never got made, well... people forgot who he was. There was a whole new bunch of new screenwriters to take his place. The new writers got the assignments he had been getting, and that big name agent who signed him has some of those new writers and my friend ended up back at square one, having to break in all over again.

That’s the tough part about being a screenwriter - no regular pay checks, no job security, and about half of the WGA is unemployed every year. When you get that big check, you have to bank it because odds are next year you will get nothing. That Ferrari you dreamed of buying? Well, better to save the money and keep driving the old Toyota.

At the end of every year I am amazed and thankful that I have managed to make a living as a screenwriter... and wonder how the hell I’m going to make a living writing next year.

The past couple of years have had additional obstacles: the WGA strike, the potential SAG strike, and just when you thought it was safe... the financial meltdown.

In 2008:

My post strike airplane project crashes and burns before I get paid... though I have half the script finished by then on the promise of a contract being put together. There’s a long story here - but the statute of limitations has not passed yet. But I now own half of a cool script called AIR FORCE ONE DOWN, if anyone is interested.

My Hawaii project gets postponed due to a potential SAG strike... and doesn’t get made. No production bonus, but I do get a basic screenplay fee, and that covers expenses for the year. Hey, I can eat!

An action script I began writing for a producer fell apart right away - before I was paid a cent! That was kind of a pisser, because I really liked the idea. I think much of this was due to bad economy kicking in.

Several other projects also do not happen - great for my post strike bank account! You always want to be ahead, so that you can relax and be picky about projects... not just have the expenses for one year covered so you are always scrambling for work.

But at the end of 2008 I manage to snag this top secret studio remake gig. The good news is that it looks like the basic expenses of 2009 are covered by this gig... the better news is that the production bonus is nice... The best news is that this is a high profile project and the moment it his the trades, my phone will start ringing.

In 2009:

My top secret studio remake... seems to stall out. After a pretty exciting few months where I was walking red carpets and seeing a movie every week *starring* one of a series of actors attached to the project, things just slowed down. The producer had 2 films released in 2009 and has many things going on, and I think my project just fell through the cracks as he focused on other things.

The biggest problem with this is not the money as much as the *heat*. Because the producer had not announced this project, I kept it quiet... and that means no one has any idea that I wrote this script. If it had been in Variety and Hollywood Reporter, it would have generated a bunch of meetings and that would have generated some jobs, and that would have generated another paycheck... but nada. When the project stalled out, it took a bunch of future screenwriting jobs with it.

It was difficult to get anything going because of the bad economy - box office records this year, but no money available to finance movies!

Had a couple of projects crash and burn because the producers wanted to buy my script and make a movie... but there was no money available to do that. Lots of people *wanted* to buy my scripts, they just couldn’t afford to.

I began watching the stock market every day... hoping it would go up so that producers had money to buy scripts.

I went to AFM, and it was a ghost town - no one seemed to be looking for scripts or screenwriters, they needed to sell the movies they made last year before thinking about making any new movies. Usually AFM generates some interest in scripts and some meetings that might eventually turn into deals the next year. Even if they don’t turn into deals, they keep me out there in the world and somewhere some screenwriting gig surfaces. But this year - nada. Would 2010 be a bust for me? 2009 was looking so good! I thought the top secret studio sequel would be a big career changer... but it just stalled out!

So, here we are going into 2010, and I have no idea where my next check is coming from. At Raindance I met an Italian producer who said, “We should work together”, but doesn’t everyone say that?

Then, some strange things happened a couple of weeks ago, resulting in a flurry (not the McDonald's milkshake thing) of meetings:

One: The Italian sent me a book to read so that I could script it and we could work together. I’m reading it now.

Two & Three: Then two different companies called to ask for scripts - I am so hoping that this time THE COMPLEX ends up on screen because it keeps *almost* getting made. One of the times, a producer paid a director to fly to Montreal and scout locations and bring pack pictures for my rewrite... then the company had a change in management and the new guys pretty much tossed out all of the old guy’s films, including my project. The only one to get paid that time - the director! THE COMPLEX has another chance, now - and so do a few other scripts being read.

Four: Then Bill from Pulp 2.0 and I were talking about how depressing AFM was, and how movies today seemed to all be based on games and breakfast cereals... and we decided to try to set up my ANDROID ARMY script as a video game and a movie and a floor wax and a dessert topping at the same time... and we have since had some meetings about it, and things are moving right along. We also had lunch with John Rogers - Kung Fu Monkey & producer/writer of LEVERAGE (one of my favorite shows) to pick his brain about video games and new media possibilities. That was cool.

Five: Then, another Bill called with a potential assignment writing a horror movie that I can not tell you about right now... and there was a meeting on that Monday where story and contract stuff was discussed and now a lawyer is typing up a contract for me to sign... and I’m already working on that project. This looks like it’s actually going to happen.

Six: Plus I got an e-mail from the top secret studio remake producer - he wants to get the project in the studio pipeline first thing next year when the studio has money again. (Biggest problem this year is that everyone ran out of money a couple of months ago, and stopped developing projects.) So that’s back on - I just need to do a little rewrite.

Seven: And the Hawaii film may also be back on! Got an email from that producer, too. No more potential SAG strike, and there seems to be some money flowing for the new year, and that adds up to the film being back on the boards.

So, 2010 is looking pretty good right now. Hey, it may all crash and burn, but at this point in time I figure one of these things is going to happen and pay the rent for 2010. Always nice to know I don’t have to practice saying, “Would you like fries with that?” Always nice to know I have another year as a screenwriter. Always nice to know the scripts are still opening doors for me. Always nice to know I get to keep doing what I love.

But I’ve had a busy couple of weeks... and it looks like the next couple of months will be busy, too.

The good news for all of us is - the economy seems to be stabilized enough so that money will become available again for the making of frivolous things like motion pictures, the new year brings production and development money to the studios, producers who haven't been making movies need to have some films in the pipeline for next year, and 2009 is looking like a record breaking year in Box Office and probably ticket sales. So I won’t be the only one with a flurry of meetings on projects, you may have them, too!

- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Here A Key - and my film BLACK THUNDER.
Yesterday's Dinner: Mom's meatloaf.



SCRIPT SECRETS STORE
Top 10 Films About Underpants T Shirt: SALE $9.99

I Am Scum

Have you ever picked up some awful movie on DVD and found it filled with extras like director's commentaries and behind the scenes stuff from the world premiere? And you wondered just what the director says for 90 minutes of crap film? Excuses? "Perfect!" Details about how he got that shot of the plastic space ship on the obvious string & stick in his mom's backyard?

Here is the Making Of special feature from one of the worst films ever made, CHILDREN ON SCUM...

Children of Scum: A Retrospective from Danny Grossman on Vimeo.

Today - meeting on a project. I'll do an entry soon about all of this.

Potential Oscar Scripts

- Bill

Compulsions Web Series

Monday night I went to the premiere of a new web series at Cinespace (a bar/restaurant/cinema in Hollywood). They showed the trailer and first four episodes, then did a Q&A with the cast and crew. Because I am planning to do a web series, this was very interesting to me.

The great thing about each episode was that it was 5 minutes long (including credits) and hit the ground running. Just - WHAM - you're in the middle of the story. And each episode is packed with story, packed with character, and so extreme that you feel the compulsion to watch the next episode to see what happens. As I was watching the first episode, wondering just what the hell this is and how could it possibly be anything I would want to see again... a character pulls out a dossier and the story kicks in - this is not just some random event, this is part of a larger story that will play out piece by piece in each episode. You have to tune in every day to find out just what this story is all about. All of that in 5 minutes, folks!

COMPULSIONS - a new web series that is sick and twisted and might not be safe for work (sledgehammers and people meet). Three people who seem to be "normal" actually lead secret lives. That dull guy working in the cubicle next to you? Don't get him angry! Here's the show...

Compulsions Episode 1: Unleash
by compulsions

The great technique they use is *contrast* - the dull day job and seemingly dull employee constrasting with his after work life which is anything but dull. Using contrast gives the story an automatic hook... and makes the character automatically interesting. By showing us two extreme sides of the same person, we want to know more about them. There's an episode every day if you want to find out more...

Compulsions Episode 2: Friends
by compulsions

- Bill