Last-minute reminder to download all the Oscar screenplays before the Academy Awards — they’ll be taken down soon. Happy reading!
Author Archive | The Reader
John Carter’s Massive Bomb and Screenwriting Beats – Part 3
Click here to read Part 1 and Part 2 of this post. Let’s more carefully investigate exactly why John Carter didn’t work. What are the lessons learned from this? Analysis: Flashback and Voice Over Not to overstate the obvious, but within the opening minutes of this $600mm trainwreck, there are two separate instances of voice […]
John Carter’s Massive Bomb and Screenwriting Beats – Part 2
Click here to read Part 1 of this post. Click here to read more about screenwriting beats. What went so wrong with John Carter? Well, let’s look at the beats. Here’s a basic breakdown of the beats of Act 1. 1. Open on Mars with the space wars going on. Fast and furious voice over […]
John Carter’s Massive Bomb and Screenwriting Beats – Part 1
If you are unsure what screenwriting beats are or need a quick refresher, please read my article on beats first. Now… The film John Carter was a very expensive, massive bomb in the spring of 2012, almost five years ago now. (Reading online that it was estimated this film would have needed to gross $600mm […]
WESTWORLD, aka Real Doll’s Big Day Out
Westworld is the new HBO show based on Michael Crichton’s film from 1973. It’s set in a futuristic Western-themed Disneyland where robots are programmed to act out set storylines. The guests participate in these pre-defined scenarios. It’s a bit Groundhog Day (every day is the same), a bit The Searchers. Human visitors come and go […]
Shocker.
She’s BAAAACCCCKKKKK. It’s been a long silent stretch, but I am finally back to the blog. Stay tuned for weekly posts and more. In 2015 I started teaching screenwriting, so get ready for more detailed information — breakdowns, beat sheets, more detailed analysis of beats, genre analysis, analysis of current material. As promised, a lot […]
Screenwriter-to-Screenwriter.com Online Writers Group
Screenwriter-to-Screenwriter.com Online Writers Group So now that I am officially back in Santa Fe, my wonderful, amazing LA writers’ group kicked me to the curb and said I had to drop (boo, hiss). Practical, but I miss them — they were my writing team. I have reached out here to try to find a new […]
From One Screenwriter to Another…
There’s an adage in Los Angeles that everyone has a script. If you’ve ever been out during the middle of the day – when people should be working, but yet the coffee house is packed – you get the creeping feeling that this is true. And a major bummer for anyone trying to break into […]