Desperately Seeking Franchises. We continue telling the story of a Hollywood upside down. In our second post devoted to the very relevant book The Big Picture: The Fight for the Future of Movies by Ben Fritz, we will find out…
Continue reading What happened to Hollywood? (PART II): Marvel, Disney & Netflix
The fight for the future of movies. Hollywood is upside down. The Hollywood of 2021 would never have been imagined in 2001. The Big Picture: The Fight for the Future of Movies is a great book, written by Ben Fritz,…
Continue reading What happened to Hollywood? (PART I): The New TV, China & franchises
Along came a cannibal. 30 years have passed since Hannibal Lecter entered many people’s lives, mesmerizing them, becoming an instant icon. The Silence of the Lambs ended up winning 5 Oscars, all the “big ones” (best film, director, script, actor…
Continue reading Honoring THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS 30 years after
Oliver Stone is a film writer and a director with 3 Oscars on his shelf: Best Screenplay for Midnight Express (1978), and Best Director for Platoon (1986), and Born on the 4th of July (1989). After Midnight Express, his writing…
Continue reading Oliver Stone’s Great Autobiography is a Must
Some script experts don’t even mention it. Others, aware of the importance of subtext in movies, mention it all the time. I’ve spent a significant part of my time as a writer and a director thinking about it. Let’s find…
Continue reading Subtext: The Magic Dust of Good Screenwriting
During the first key 10-15 minutes of any movie, the audience takes a fundamental decision: they make their minds about going with the film or just disengaging. 10-15 minutes is the amount of time that filmmakers, in general, have to…
Continue reading Video-Analysis: The First 10 Minutes of HIS GIRL FRIDAY
David Mamet is the renowned dramatist behind theatre plays like Speed-The-Plow, American Buffalo, Sexual Perversity in Chicago and Glengarry Glen Ross (1984 Pulitzer Prize winner). A few of his plays have been adapted into movies. Particularly successful was Glengarry Glen…
Continue reading David Mamet’s Master Class Memo to the Writers of THE UNIT
During the first key 10-15 minutes of any movie, the audience takes a fundamental decision: they make their minds about going with the film or just disengaging. 10-15 minutes is the amount of time that filmmakers, in general, have to…
Continue reading Video-Analysis: The First Ten Minutes of 12 ANGRY MEN
The Keys to Succeeding as a Professional Writer on TV. I have been checking books about TV writing for some time now, and I must say that many get old very quickly. The reason is obvious, the TV drama world…
By now, you should know who William Goldman is. In case you don’t, William Goldman (1931-2018) is one of the best screenwriters Hollywood has seen. He was the author of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (an original script that won him…
Continue reading For Screenwriters: William Goldman on your Working Habits
