Screenwriting News! Links! Shout-Outs!

In the clip above, Roger Ebert opens the 2007 Ebertfest and speaks (with the assistance of an electronic device) before a screening of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. For more 2007 EbertFest coverage, including photos, visit Scanners.

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New Script:

Little Children


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Around Scribosphere:

Billy Mernit’s superb Vonnegut for Screenwriters:
4. Every sentence must do one of two things -- reveal character or advance the action.
Because what else is it doing there, describing scenery? Fine, if the scenery is speaking to character ("His furniture was as cheap as he was") or moving the story along ("The woods are quiet tonight -- too quiet!"). Otherwise? Zzzzzzz... Poetry is poetry. A good story, lyrical though it may be, functions like a shark: it must keep swimming forward to keep breathing. GMTA: Here's producer Lindsay Doran on the subject -- "Scheherezade was a woman who had to make her stories so interesting she didn't get killed that night. That's exactly how I feel. We all have to keep our stories so interesting that... if the reel suddenly broke, everybody would rather die than leave that theater and not be able to find out what happened next."

John August’s The Perils of Coincidence:
Like several million people worldwide, I saw Spider-Man 3 this past weekend. And like a substantial percentage of these viewers, I got frustrated by the number of unlikely coincidences in the movie.

Dix’s Pulling a Levy…:
I was thinking someone needs to write a new vehicle for Judy Greer.

Piers Beckley’s Why Talent is Irrelevant:
Some people claim that writing can't be taught. That there's an indefinable spark in a few which, in time, will blossom. That if you don't have such a spark, training will do nothing for you. That hard work and experience is not as important as talent. This point of view is, in a word, bollocks.


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Around the World:

Brittany Murphy Elopes With Screenwriter
...just eight months after calling off a previous engagement, the actress has secretly got hitched to her screenwriter boyfriend, Simon Montjack.

SCRIPTLAND: 'Genie Bob' resurrected, poof, out of the lamp
A screenplay about a genie, which has been shelved three times, is granted a fourth wish.

Cinematical Seven: Ways They Could Have Made 'Spider-Man 3' Better
It's screenwriting 101, especially in a movie of this kind. By the end of Act One, you better be damn sure your audience knows who the antagonist is...

Desert storm
Screenwriting teacher Robert McKee was paid $73000 to assess Cussler's script for Sahara, as an expert witness for the Anschutz side...

Under Sandler's wing, he's taken off
"We bought a screenwriting book," says Swardson. "I would stay at his house and he would talk me out of going out drinking and he would pay me cash out of his own pocket. I wrote a draft in two weeks."

CLOONEY’S BRINGING ‘EM BACK
I know lots of Chewers share screenwriting aspirations, and we’ve enjoyed a lot of success tales lately from the likes of Dave Davis and Jeremy Slater.

Bogus Brit Rumor of the Day: Brad Pitt to Play He-Man?
No word on whether screenwriter Adam Rifkin is still attached (last month he claimed the film was still going to be made)

Georgia Rule
Screenwriter Andrus ("As Good as It Gets") drew upon his Mormon upbringing to tell the story of Rachel, a trouble-making California teen

Luke Wilson: I Need "Old School 2"
As long as the original screenwriter and director are in place, Wilson has no concerns for the sequel's quality.

Biel a Street Fighter?
Screenwriter Justin Marks has been hired to pen the script for the movie which will center around the game's prolific female fighter, Chun Li. Other details of the story are being kept secret.

The Cinema Breakdown with Mark Burger
Screenwriter/producer Carl Foreman had been blacklisted only a few years before, but he picked up Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Screenplay

Douglas returns to Wall Street
Screenwriter Stephen Schiff (Lolita, True Crime) is currently working on the script and is expected to complete it by the end of the year.

Amanda Peet discusses her delivery and large supply of milk
... O'Brien and talked about her "okay" delivery of Frances Pen, 10 weeks, and how some extra breast milk excited her husband, screenwriter David Benioff.

Julianne Moore and Tom Hanks for Western flick
Boone's Lick is adapted from a book written by Brokeback Mountain screenwriter Larry McMurtry.

Queer as Folk screenwriter tops UK's Pink List
Topping the list is Russell T. Davies, screenwriter for the groundbreaking Queer as Folk, who was named Industry Player of the Year

Who'll Be the Villains in "Spider-Man 4"?
Word is that screenwriter David Koepp might be brought back to the series for the next go-round, what with the latest Spidey flick thwapping every box office…

A hard day's Knightley
Knightley is excited about working with that film's screenwriter, her mum, Sharman Macdonald.

Leah McLaren
Or as one struggling screenwriter friend of mine puts it jokingly: “For years, I searched for a matchbook-sized vessel to hold the ashes of my hopes and dreams, and now I've finally found it.”

Joe Eszterhas: Plagiarist?
A section of Hollywood screenwriter Joe Eszterhas’s 2006 book, The Devil’s Guide to Hollywood, offers advice on how to keep from being ripped off by Hollywood sharks. He cheekily defines the term “parallel creativity” as “the phrase that will be used by someone who has plagiarized you.”


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Cyberscreenwriter:

History.com Developing Digital Originals
History.com is bringing history into the digital age with the launch of five original digital brands. They include exclusive short-form original series, featuring rarely seen historical footage and a military blog that will enable users to experience soldiers' stories directly from the front-lines.


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Hollywood Reporter:

Duo has small screen on Slate
LONDON -- U.K. movie production banner Slate Films, founded by Andrea Calderwood and Vicki Patterson in 2000, is ramping up its small-screen activities in a bid to diversify after more than six years as a player in the film arena.


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Moviebytes:

GAFFERS Announces Contest Winners
The Global Arts Film Festival has announced the finalists for their 2007 screenwriting competition.

Scriptapalooza 1st Place Winner Optioned
Scriptapalooza's 2006 1st place winner, CAN'T LIVE WITH 'EM by Chris Pentzell has been optioned by Bullet Heart Productions.

WorldFest 2007 Announces Competition Results
WorldFest has announced their screenplay competition winners for 2007.

IndieProducer.com Announces Contest Winner
IndieProducer.com has announced Ann Maciver's The Code Switch as the winner of their 5th Annual Screenwriting Competition.


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Variety:

Lionsgate finds 'Love'
Knightley, Miller, Murphy star in Maybury film

Eurimages funds van Dormael pic
'Nobody' receives $800,000

Landon to lead 'The Flock'
Warner picks up 'Disturbia' scribe

It's hip to hate critics
Reviewers just happy to be noticed

Paul M. Kimatian, 61, writer/photographer
Work includes 'Taxi Driver,' 'Deuces Wild'

BSkyB, Sony renew movie deal
Pact extended to new services

Intrepid singles out 'One'
Production unit acquires rights to comic

Bavaria Film picks up Cannes pair
Company buys rights to 'Toilet,' 'Tourists'

Bleiberg acquires rights to 'Man'
Slater, Macy, Cuthbert star in 'Quiet'

Twisted horror film to debut online
Break.com makes 'Killer' deal

Bruckheimer finds his 'Gemini Man'
Benioff to write action film for Disney

Fox heads back to 'Street'
Studio puts stock in 'Money'

Warner wants 'Weekend Warrior'
Actor Birch to write supernatural comedy

Averill to head special interest group
Exec to top Women and Film and TV

'Star Wars' 30th anniversary
How Lucas, ILM redefined business-as-usual

DreamWorks, Peter Jackson unite
Studio picks up 'Lovely Bones'

Wookieepedia tracks 'Star Wars'
Web site covers all aspects of film's universe

Arclight to sell Lights' foreign rights
'Ten,' 'Brooklyn,' 'Descent' on Cannes slate

'Sputnik' takes off for HBO
Nitzberg to write wrestler's biopic