Black List? Hah. Hit List. Nope. My top 10 screenplays of the year! For those of you disappointed that the end of the world didn’t come, I say to you, chin up! A new year is upon us, which means new possibilities, new frontiers, new chances to sell your script. For a little inspiration, let’s [...]
Say you could clone a younger hotter version of your wife? Would you? Better be prepared for the consequences. Amateur Friday Submission Process: To submit your script for an Amateur Review, send in a PDF of your script, a PDF of the first ten pages, your title, genre, logline, and finally, why I should read [...]
A spec screenplay with no Black List play makes a strong late-year debut and asks the screenwriting community, “How could you miss me?” Genre: Sci-fi Premise: A top secret deep space crew comes upon a strange deserted futuristic ship. After boarding, key members of the crew start experiencing time loops. About: Echo Station was recently [...]
UPDATE: There are still countries where the discount hasn’t updated yet, so I’m going to keep the $4.99 special going on for one more day (Wednesday). Take advantage! The book with more screenwriting tips than you’ll know what to do with is just $4.99 through Christmas Day. Snatch it while you can. And Merry Christmas! [...]
Lincoln’s screenplay reverses the adage of “show don’t tell,” leaving us a show that doesn’t tell us much at all. Genre: Historical Premise: (from IMDB) As the Civil War continues to rage, America’s president struggles with continuing carnage on the battlefield and as he fights with many inside his own cabinet on the decision to [...]
UPDATE: First off, thank you to everyone who applied for free notes! Sometimes, when I’m doing this, I forget that these are all real people with real lives struggling to do this thing that they love. That happens because it’s the internet and I see all these names but never any faces. Hearing your stories [...]
The controversy over this film is at Mach 5. But Scriptshadow doesn’t care about any of that nonsense. I just want to know if it’s a good screenplay! Genre: War/Action/Drama Premise: A CIA agent who experiences countless failures in her search to find Bin Laden, finally becomes convinced she knows where he is. With her [...]
My favorite writer is back! John Jarrell. You may remember him from the awesome interview I did with him a few months ago. The guy has a ton of screenwriting knowledge and unlike us hack bloggers, the man’s actually been in the thick of it for 20 years, fighting the good screenwriting fight, landing those [...]
Amateur screenplay Scion had a promising first ten pages, enough to get a few dozen e-mails of endorsement. Let’s find out how the rest of the script held up. Amateur Friday Submission Process: To submit your script for an Amateur Review, send in a PDF of your script, a PDF of the first ten pages [...]
Keeping in mind that adapting The Hobbit is probably one of the tougher screenplay jobs this side of the slugline, how did Jackson and his co-writers fare? Genre: Adventure Premise: Bilbo Baggins reluctantly joins a band of dwarves who go on a quest to reclaim their kingdom, which has since been taken over by a [...]
Today we go racing back to Black List’s past to see if a forgotten screenplay can sneak its way back onto the Hollywood Highway. Genre: Action/Romance/Drama Premise: A high-speed chase on the streets of LA told through multiple points of view. About: Iranian-born Massy Tadjedin penned today’s script, which landed on the 2007 Black List [...]
100 screenplays ripe for Hollywood’s attention. Black List 2012 is here today! edit: Black List posted – Thoughts on list have been added below… Okay, so today’s review has been postponed until tomorrow because the Black List is coming out today. Franklin’s doing things a little differently this year, tweeting out the Black List scripts [...]
Many time travel stories have contemplated going back in time and killing Hitler. This one tackles going back in time and saving him. To submit your script for an Amateur Review, send it in PDF form, along with your title, genre, logline, and why I should read your script to Carsonreeves3@gmail.com. Keep in mind your [...]
Let’s try not to be this guy. Something that’s been working really well lately is including amateur screenplays in my weekly newsletter. The feedback has really helped me determine which scripts to review and raised the quality of Amateur Friday immensely. That’s not to say I don’t want to ever review a bad amateur script [...]
How does this art-house darling about a paraplegic look on the page? Pull up your wheelchairs and find out! Genre: Drama Premise: When a woman loses her legs in a killer whale accident, she engages in a strange friendship with a street fighter. About: This is a Belgium film that’s heating up the indie circuit [...]
One more quick thing regarding the book. There seems to be a misunderstanding regarding the offer I put out in my newsletter, with people believing that I was offering scripts for positive reviews. This wasn’t the case. I did incentivize readers who read the book to give Amazon reviews for two “mystery” screenplays, but I [...]
Hey everyone. For those of you who read about an offer from me to send you screenplays in return for posting a review of my book on Amazon.com, I need you to know that I can’t provide that exchange. Feel free to read my book and review it, but not with the expectation that I [...]
This project is bursting with backstory to the point where you don’t know what to focus on. Maybe we’ll start here: Is “What Makes Sammy Run” the next Citizen Kane? Genre: Comedy-Drama Premise: In the 1930s, energizer-bunny producer Sammy Glick became one of the biggest producers in Hollywood. But even with all his success, he [...]
A handful of Scriptshadow readers pushed me to review this screenplay. Did the Dracula origin story suck luscious grade-A blood or did it just suck? Genre: Period/Horror Premise: The origin story of Dracula. A young Transylvanian king named Vlad must fight off a Turkish army intent on stealing his only son and destroying his kingdom. [...]
So I was cruising around the net last night and, lo and behold, I found myself a trailer for the next Star Trek movie, Star Trek Into Darkness. JJ continues to kick ass as this trailer basically has me clearing my schedule for the weekend of May 17th. But that’s not the important news here. [...]
