Hey guys, for any of you who were thinking about buying the Final Draft software, today is the last day for the 20% off. This is the screenwriting software I use and it’s the screenwriting software pretty much everybody in the industry uses. It really is the best option. So, if you want to get [...]
Genre: ComedyPremise: (from the writers) An American screenwriter and his nemesis, “The South Korean Julia Roberts”, get kidnapped and taken to North Korea, where they’re forced by Kim Jong Il to make a propaganda musical glorifying the revolution, all the while falling in love and plotting their escape. About: Every Friday, I review a script [...]
Yes, after many long hours of reading, the Nicholl finalists have been revealed. First of all, congratulations! Are you on this list? I would love to check out these scripts myself, so feel free to send them my way. And best title of the list and possibly of the year definitely goes to: “Fig Hunt: [...]
Before you start this review, I’m going to need you to do something. Go to your kitchen, grab yourself a large Tupperware container, and place it under your computer screen. You’re going to need that to collect all my drool, because even though we’re entering the best time of year for movies, I’m pretty positive [...]
Genre: Comedy Premise: A family of private investigators investigate each other just as much as they investigate their cases. About: This is a low-level 2008 Black List script based on the novel of the same name, written by Lisa Lutz. Lutz started out as a screenwriter, writing a screenplay titled “Plan B,” which by all [...]
Genre: ThrillerPremise: While investigating a recent murder spree, a cop gets lured into the unique lifestyle of his main suspect, an ex-rocker turned club owner. About: This script sold back in 1994 to Savoy Pictures. At the time, it was the richest deal for a screenwriter ever made. Joe got $1 million up front with [...]
Genre: ThrillerPremise: An ex-military man is brought in to help figure out the mystery behind a mass sniper shooting.About: This is going to be Tom Cruise’s next, after that strange musical he’s making. It’s based on the book of the same title written by Lee Child. Cruise brought in his Valkyrie writer, Oscar winner Christopher [...]
Genre: Romantic ComedyPremise: (from writer) A marine biologist, up to her ankles in oysters, flounders on Capitol Hill trying to save the Chesapeake Bay from a silk suited, Republican lobbyist.About: Every Friday, I review a script from the readers of the site. If you’re interested in submitting your script for an Amateur Review, send it [...]
I was originally going to post something else today but had to scrap it at the last second. So I decided to post my character checklist document instead. This is something I’ll occasionally send off to people I give notes to who are having trouble creating interesting characters. The problem with most screenplays isn’t that [...]
Something happened with the bogus joke of a blogging system that is Blogger, and when I woke up this morning, the look of my page had changed. I’m not sure why this happened and since I haven’t gone into the design segment of Blogger in over a year, it’s probably going to take me a [...]
Genre: ComedyPremise: A pair of pharmaceutical reps, one crazy, one conservative, travel to a drug expo to try and land the most important deal of the year.About: This finished on the lower half of the 2009 Black List. Outside of that, little is known about the script. It appears to be Eric Lane’s breakthrough screenplay. [...]
Genre: DramaPremise: A young woman at a care facility for at-risk teenagers deals with an unexpected pregnancy. About: One of the winners of the 2010 Nicholl Fellowship. Writer: Destin Daniel CrettonDetails: 121 pages (This is an early draft of the script. The situations, characters, and plot may change significantly by the time the film is [...]
Genre: ThrillerPremise: An air marshal finds himself in the middle of a unique terrorist attack.About: This script sold very recently, I believe two or three weeks ago. It sold via the popular method of the writers developing it with a producer, who got it to a point where he liked it, then went out and [...]
Genre: ThrillerPremise: When a group of bank robbers kidnap his wife, an accountant must try and save her. But when they all end up in a strange Rube Goldberg-like trap-filled mansion, the kidnapping becomes the least of their worries.About: John Burch, the writer, has informed me that he plans to shoot the first 11 minutes [...]
So in the last two weeks since I wrote the GSU article, I’ve been asked a lot of questions about movies that ignore some, or in a few cases, all of the GSU variables and still manage to work. The truth is, goals stakes and urgency aren’t the only way to keep your audience interested. [...]
Genre: Drama/ThrillerPremise: After a young couple accidentally records the killing of a mailman, they try to collect on a little-known reward the government hands out for proof in the killing of federal workers. About: This is Roberto Patino’s first breakthrough script, which landed on the bottom half of the 2009 Black List. Right now, Matt [...]
Genre: Horror/ThrillerPremise: A single mother on her last financial leg meets a rich charming man with a dark secret. About: This is a spec script that was purchased a couple of years back. Haimes is the same writer who wrote the recently reviewed Jitters and since I enjoyed that script, I decided to read this [...]
Genre: Thriller/DramaPremise: A young woman comes to live with her estranged sister who is married to a mysterious and dangerous man.About: Jamaica Inn was a best selling novel back in the 1930s which was eventually made into a film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The script appeared on last year’s Brit List, which is the British [...]
We’re back for our last day of Star Wars Week. To find out more, head back to Monday’s review of The Empire Strikes Back. Genre: Sci-fi/FantasyPremise: (from IMDB) After three years of fighting in the Clone Wars, Anakin Skywalker concludes his journey towards the Dark Side of the Force, putting his friendship with Obi Wan [...]
We’re back for Day 4 of Star Wars Week. To find out more, head back to Monday’s review of The Empire Strikes Back. Genre: Sci-fi/Fantasy Premise: (from IMDB) Anakin Skywalker shares a forbidden romance with Padmé Amidala while his teacher, Obi-Wan Kenobi, makes an investigation of a separatist assassination attempt on Padmé which leads to [...]
