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The 50 Greatest Movies Never Made
By Chris Gore
Paperback
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101 Greatest Screenplays: The Writers Guild of America List of Best-Written Screenplays
by East and West Writers Guild of America
Paperback
A fascinating, factoid-full, annotated guide to the first-ever Writers Guild's list of best-written screenplays, from Oscar® winners to Hollywood classics to influential indies, from the 1930s through the present--a must for all who are interested in film and writing.
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The Big Deal: Hollywood's Million-Dollar Spec Script Market
by Thom Taylor
Paperback
Amazon.com: So, you want to write a movie. You could do worse than read The Big Deal, a collection of funny, horrible, and/or inspiring stories of Hollywood break-ins by former Oliver Stone employee Thom Taylor. What's most striking about the book is the madly random nature of films' gestations. Allison Anders got her break (and off welfare) via the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Nicholl Fellowship (one of several competitions Taylor recommends). Total Recall was optioned for $1,000 16 years before it got made. The Elephant Man script got to its producer because the coauthor's girlfriend baby-sat for him. Alien only got made because Steven Spielberg liked it. Andrew Kevin Walker, the Tower Records clerk who wrote Seven, wrote a letter to then barely known screenwriter David Koepp (Bad Influence), who improbably hooked him up with a deal that collapsed partly because the studio's co-owner was distracted by becoming the president of Italy. Various moguls rejected and almost destroyed the story; Brad Pitt saved it, and it grossed $340 million. "If Hollywood scoured the earth looking for the world's top furniture designers," Taylor writes, the studios "would bring them all to Los Angeles to design $6 plastic chairs to sell at the local Wal-Mart." But it's the only Hollywood we've got, and Taylor has got its number.
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Chaplin and Agee: The Untold Story of the Tramp, the Writer, and the Lost Screenplay
by John Wranovics
Paperback
More a dual biography than a close analysis of a literary document, Wranovics's account is a deft profile of two artists he clearly admires, and he takes care to underscore the surrounding social and political concerns. But while the book is well-researched, it's bogged down by dry prose, out-of-place commentaries, and lengthy asides. More seriously, Wranovics fails to present an illuminating argument about the two men's friendship, admitting, "to what extent, if any, Agee's ideas served as an influence on Chaplin is impossible to say." But while the novice historian's thesis could be sharper, there's no denying the cultural significance of his study.
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Clause by Clause: The Screenwriter's Legal Guide
by Stephen Breimer
Paperback
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The Dorama Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese TV Drama Since 1953
by Jonathan Clements, Motoko Tamamuro
Paperback
Deeply connected to Japanese anime, manga, music, and film is . . . Japanese TV. This encyclopedic survey of the next cultural tsunami to hit America has over one thousand entries--including production data, synopses, and commentaries--on everything from rubber-monster shows to samurai drama, from crime to horror, unlocking an entire culture's pop history as never before. Over one hundred fifty of these shows have been broadcast on American TV, and more will follow, perhaps even such oddball fare as a Japanese "The Practice" and "Geisha Detective." Indexed, with resources for fans, couch potatoes, and researchers.
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Gotta Minute? Sell Your Screenplay: Your Guide to the Independent Film and Television Producer
by Andrea Leigh Wolf
Paperback
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The Hollywood Rules
by Anonymous
Paperback
They say that the one rule in Hollywood is there are no rules. There are, however, a series of "conventions" that exist, that if properly adhered to, will significantly smooth that otherwise rocky road to a career in film and television. While there's no substitute for talent and just plain old perseverance, there's also no excuse for handling yourself naively in a pitch meeting or acting like an ass when meeting a Really Big Star. Here, with this insider's guide, you'll be able to avoid the traps and pitfalls that have stymied so many other creative people and realize your full potential as a writer, director or producer.
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I Liked It, Didn't Love It: Screenplay Development from the Inside Out
by Rona Edwards, Monika Skerbelis
Paperback
The most commonly used rejection line spewed by studio executive honchos when they do not buy a script is, "I liked it, didn't love it." What happens to your screenplay or novel when it leaves your hands and is submitted to a studio or production company? What happens to it after it's optioned or sold? What does "in development" really mean? Rona Edwards and Monika Skerbelis will shed light on all those questions for both those who are new to the business, and those already journeying through the "storied" halls at a film studio, television network, or production company.
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The Making of Memento
by James Mottram
Paperback
A behind-the-scenes look at the cult film that's taken critics and audiences by storm. Christopher Nolan's Memento -- the deceptive, ambiguous tale of a man with short-term memory loss consumed by the need to avenge the rape and murder of his wife -- has already been hailed by critics as "a new classic" (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone), provoked more discussion than any other film of 2001, and in a near-instant established Nolan as a major player in the industry.
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Party in a Box: The Story of the Sundance Film Festival
by Lory Smith
Hardcover
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"The Script is Finished, Now What Do I Do?" 4th Edition: The Scriptwriter's Resource Book and Agent Guide
by K. Callan, Barry Wetmore (Illustrator)
Paperback
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Screenwriters' Masterclass: Screenwriters Talk About Their Greatest Movies
by Kevin Conroy Scott (Editor)
Paperback
Journalist and film industry insider Kevin Conroy Scott presents an invaluable screenwriting masterclass featuring extensive, never-before-published interviews with acclaimed screenwriters ranging from Hollywood pros to top writers in the US and European independent scenes. Each interview guides the reader through the entire creation process: how the writer handled the painstaking process of creating a three-dimensional world out of their imagination, what worked and what didn't in the finished film--and why, collaborating with directors and actors, and the revision process.
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Sharp Cut: Harold Pinter's Screenplays and the Artistic Process
by Stephen H. Gale
Hardcover
Best known as one of the most important playwrights of the twentieth century, Harold Pinter has also written many highly regarded screenplays, including Academy Award-nominated screenplays for The French Lieutenant's Woman and Betrayal, collaborations with English director Joseph Losey, and an unproduced script for the remake of Stanley Kubrick's 1962 adaptation of Lolita. In this definitive study of Pinter's screenplays, Steven H. Gale compares the scripts with their sources and... read more
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Sundancing: Hanging Out and Listening in at America's Most Important Film Festival
by John Anderson
Paperback
Book Description: Every winter, 8,000 feet above sea level in the Utah snow, the hopes and dreams of young moviemakers are put on display at the Sundance Film Festival -- the haven for independent films where you can show up a kid and go home a star. John Anderson, chief film critic for New York Newsday, attended his ninth Sundance in 1999, but this time he did more than screen films and leap for tables at overbooked restaurants. He interviewed performers and filmmakers of all kinds, including top prize winners, but also uncovered the effect of all this ballyhoo on the indie film scene--and on the bemused Park City locals. Together, they form the most candid, most fascinating, most hilarious, and most human-sized coverage of the Sundance Film Festival ever achieved.
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This Business of Screenwriting
by Ron Suppa
Paperback
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This Business of Television
by Howard J. Blumenthal, Oliver R. Goodenough
Hardcover
Long awaited and extensively revised, this definitive resource offers complete reference information on television, cable TV, and video, from programming and distribution to industry changes, audience measurement, advertising data, and world markets.
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The Oxford History of World Cinema
by Geoffrey Nowell-Smith
Paperback
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The Writer Got Screwed (But Didn't Have To): A Guide to the Legal and Business Practices of Writing for the Entertainment Industry
by Brooke A. Wharton
Paperback
You've got to love a lawyer who advises, "Don't make your lawyers rich." Entertainment lawyer Brooke A. Wharton provides an authoritative and, yes, entertaining primer for the beginning entertainment writer not just on the legal and business issues of writing for the industry, but also on how to get a career jump-started. The first section covers copyright, libel, and contracts, so that if you can't "control the exploitation of your scripts and written work ... at least [you'll] know when you're being screwed." The following section delineates the murky differences between the roles of agent, lawyer, and manager. The gist of it is that you don't need all three, but which ones you need depends on the type of person you are and the type of agents/lawyers/managers they are (industry insiders are not prone to job-title limitations). The next section has a series of interviews with writers, agents, and a producer, all of whom help to enlighten us about the various writing jobs the industry offers, from film to television to cyberspace. (If you're surprised to learn that "most writers working in the film industry do not make their living from the sale of a spec screenplay," I've got a good deal for you on some land in Florida.) Finally, there are lists of competitions, fellowships, internships, and agencies. And what about jump-starting that glamorous career? Contacts, baby. Contacts. And wouldn't you know, if you ain't got 'em, Wharton's got great advice on how to make 'em.
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