Genre: Spy Premise: When a U.S. physicist defects to North Korea carrying a mysterious suitcase, old school CIA agent Leo Diamond is tasked with helping some young CIA upstarts prevent another Snowden situation, or worse. About: This script sold in 2014 for high six figures. It was written by Ken Nolan, who scripted Black Hawk […]

Genre: Drama/Period/Conspiracy Premise: A young upstart at NASA suggests that in order to beat the Soviets to the moon, the US have Stanley Kubrick fake the moon landing. About: For those of you who caught yesterday’s post, Stephany Folsom is the co-writer of Toy Story 4. She got that job after writing this script, which […]

Is Toy Story 4 yet another unneeded sequel, like Dark Phoenix, or does this fourk-el fly like the phoenix? Genre: Animation Premise: When the toys’ new owner, Bonnie, makes a toy at her first day at kindergarten called Forky, Woody and the crew must ensure Bonnie doesn’t lose him. About: Pixar’s flagship franchise is back! […]

I received an all-timer screenplay e-mail query. I can’t give you the whole thing but here’s the heart of it: “I have ten scripts, but I’m sending 10 query letters (summary) with my bio (last page of Query-10 script) first and then you can decide which one someone you’ll refer to make a movie out […]

Due to a combination of movie economics and the audience’s desire for balance, you need to include “slow” scenes in your script. I put “slow” in quotes for a reason. As you’ll soon find out, “slow” is a relative term. However, I would argue that learning how to write entertaining slow scenes is one of […]