Screenwriter pushes into dark corners

From The Orlando Sentinel: Screenwriter Sergio G. Sanchez may have figured out the reason for the success in America of films like Pan's Labyrinth and his own, The Orphanage: "When a Spanish or European or even Mexican film dares to go into those dark corners, you get the feeling that's something people would not welcome here. Strangely enough, though, American audiences seem to love that . . . . It's daring enough to go into places that audiences are rarely pushed into by American movies."

Labels: screenwriters, screenwriting

 

Stripper turned screenwriter generates heat

From The Toronto Star and The New York Times: Given that she's a Catholic schoolgirl turned stripper turned hot indie-screenwriter, it's not surprising that Diablo Cody has become a media it-girl, profiled most recently in The Toronto Star and The New York Times. We'd say its sexist -- would she get this kind of press if she hadn't been a stripper, even with all the Oscar-talk swirling about her? -- except that anybody who can use the word "porcine" in a sentence (see the Times article) doesn't need us to defend her.

Labels: Diablo Cody, Juno, screenwriters, screenwriting

 

Screenwriters accept risk to gain creative control

From The Hollywood Reporter: Screenwriter-director Robin (The Jane Austen Book Club) Swicord talks about the advantages of directing her own script, and the Writer's Co-op, whose members take less money up-front in order to have a bigger say during production.

Labels: Robin Swicord, screenwriting, Writer's Co-op

 

If there's a writers' strike, hunker down

From National Public Radio: "Is Hollywood afraid of what's going outside of Hollywood? You bet. Does that play into the current negotiations? Yes, that's a big part of it." Veteran TV writer Jeffrey ("Dawson's Creek") Stepakoff offers nuggets of wisdom on why, thanks to media consolidation and and digital media, the next writers' strike may be the toughest yet.

Labels: Jeffrey Stepakoff, television writing, Writers Guild of America

 

Video games: not just about the bang-bang

From Eurogamer.net: Will the E-script Gofer soon have to open a new page just for video games? Writer-producer Katie Ellwood says The Getaway "has the same kind of emotional drive that a movie has."

Labels: gaming, Katie Ellwood, scriptwritng

 

A fantasy screenplay, in more ways than one

From A Dribble of Ink: So you're a beginning screenwriter and you have this favorite novel and you think it'd be fun to turn it into a movie. But then you think: naaah, they won't give me the rights and, even if they did, who'd buy a screenplay from me?

Think again.

Labels: Eldon Thompson, fantasy, screenwriting, Terry Brooks, The Elfstones of Shannara

 

The big question for screenwriters

From The Telegraph (UK): Ellin Stein asks: "The big question is why anyone would want to pursue a screenwriting career when they could earn decent money and a lot more respect writing for TV drama." The answer, we suspect, is that most writers would be happy with either.

Labels: screenwriting, TV writing