Several of Hollywood's top screenwriters are banding together as "collectives" to negotiate deals with studios under which they accept lower upfront fees for their scripts but receive a percentage of the movie's gross plus greater control over their material, the Los Angeles Times reported today (Wednesday). The latest deal, the newspaper observed, was signed with Fox and a group called Writing Partners, who include the writers of such films as Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Little Miss Sunshine, Collateral, Scary Movie 3, and Big Fish. Each writer receives a $300,000 fee for his script, 2.5 percent of the gross, and will have a say over which notes from studio brass he's willing to accept and whether to allow another writer to come on board to work on his script.

Posted by Michael Seidelman at 12:23 AM | Permalink

George Clooney and Warner Brothers specialty studio have teamed up to buy the movie rights to "The Innocent Man," John Grisham's first non-fiction book.

"The Innocent Man" tells the true story of Ron Willamson. A former baseball player who spent 11 years on death row in Oklahoma wrongly convicted of rape and murder.

The terms of the book deal were not disclosed by the studio. But Daily Variety is reporting that Grisham will be paid a seven-figure sum for rights to his book and receive a share of the gross receipts should the film be produced.

The film would be produced by Smoke House, the company co-owned by George Clooney and his long-time friend and collaborator, Grant Heslov.

Read the whole story from Reuters

Posted by Mike Laverdiere at 12:57 AM | Permalink

A continuing feud between IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees - representing film and theatre technical crews) and the Writers Guild of America has heated up dramatically. On Tuesday, IATSE president Thomas Short accused the writer's union of "irresponsibility and incompetence" for backing out of early producer negotiations for a new film and TV contract.

WGA president Patric Verrone and executive director David Young cancelled early talks aimed at settling a new contract between writers and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers before September. The current contract expires on October 31, 2007.

"The fact that the WGA backed out of their own proposed talks shows their complete and utter disregard for the vast majority of motion picture and television workers in the entertainment industry," Short said. "A small faction inside the WGA is determined to undermine the health and welfare of an entire industry."

Short warned if a contract was not settled upon by September, as planned by the WGA, it would lead to an actual strike in Hollywood effecting 100,000 IATSE members.

Nick Counter, lead negotiator for the producers union, said that the WGA's resistance to early talks on a film and TV contract could prompt studio and network execs to act as if a "de facto strike" were in effect and begin to slow production almost immediately.

The WGA president sent an e-mail to WGA members this week calling Counter's 'de facto strike' talk as rhetoric and underscored his intent to delivering a new contract without a shut down. On Tuesday, the Writers' Guild responded to the Short statement from earlier in the day.

"The 'de facto strike' threat is a boogeyman conjured up by the AMPTP to try to intimidate Hollywood unions into giving up their most effective leverage," WGAW exec director David Young said. "It is unfortunate that president Short has joined with the AMPTP in using this scare tactic.

The flare-up is related to an ongoing debate over the jurisdiction of reality TV writer jobs. WGA has been campaigning to unionize reality "storytellers" because of the grueling work hours and lack of benefits from producers of reality TV.

Several months ago, the writers for "America's Next Top Model" went on strike for better working conditions only to be fired by the show's producers. The two unions are waiting for a decision by the National Labor Relations Board to determine if the fired writers should be represented by IATSE or the WGA.

On Monday, technical crew members of "America's Next Top Model" voted by secret ballot to be represented by IATSE. The union is now negotiating their first contract.

There's more to this story in The Hollywood Reporter

On The Web:
IATSE International Website
WGA West Website
AMPTP Website

Posted by Mike Laverdiere at 2:31 PM | Permalink

WGA West members rallied in LA's Pan Pacific Park in an effort to drive home the message to reality TV producers that the guild plans to organize reality TV writers.

Reality writer-producers have considered unionizing in recent months because of long work hours, no benefits and lower non-union wages. Networks have generally been apathetic to their cause.

Among those addressing the crowd in the park, Marc Cherry ("Desperate Housewives") and Shawn Ryan ("The Shield").

"The truth of quote-unquote reality shows is that some of them require people to write them," Cherry told a reporter. "I know the networks would like to avoid that reality because it costs them money. But to me, it's just a simple matter of fairness."

The rally eventually moved to CBS' nearby LA headquarters where the march represented a demand for support for organizing "America's Next Top Model." Twelve of the show's writer-producers have been on strike as of late and Wednesday was the season premiere of the reality show on the CW network - co-owned by CBS and Warner.

Many industry insiders suggest that the WGA and other guilds are intensifying organizing efforts of reality shows to keep the networks from using cheaper reality programming to fill primetime schedules during a strike. The current WGA film and TV contract expires in October 2007 and the SAG and DGA pacts are up for negotiation the following year.

But management-side sources say that any aggressive campaign to organize reality show employees would be futile as networks have embraces reality TV largely because of it's lower production costs.

Read the FULL STORY in The Hollywood Reporter

Posted by Mike Laverdiere at 11:02 AM | Permalink

C/Net had this bit of amusing / horrifying news earlier this summer. A screenwriter sued the telephone company SBC when one of its employees deleted copies of his screenplay from his hard drive when installing SBC's DSL software.

Police blotter: SBC sued over deleted screenplay

What: An aspiring writer sues SBC (now AT&T) after a technician installing a DSL link allegedly deleted three screenplays from his computer.

When: A California appeals court ruled on July 5.

Outcome: Screenwriter basically gets no money.

What happened, according to court documents:
When Nicholas Boyd asked SBC to install a digital subscriber line (DSL), he got more than he bargained for.

More on news.com >>

I have two responses to this:

Learn how to use your computer. When you do, you realize never to allow any minimum-wage earning telephone employee anywhere near your computer.

Also BACK UP. You will be crying whether it is your fault or someone else's fault that you overwrote, mis-named, corrupted the only copy of your screenplay. For godsakes, burn them to a DVD/CD and store them in another location. Do this today!

Posted by Keith Loh at 8:37 AM | Permalink

The Bungie / Microsoft megaselling science fiction action game property that was quickly sold to both Universal and Fox is edging close to turnaround with the news that Alex ("28 Days Later") Garland's draft will be shelved in favour of a new draft yet to be written by DB Weiss. This pushes the project out of a summer 2007 tentpole target.

In the "Halo" games the player adopts the role of "Master Chief", a futuristic trooper lost and on his own on a ring-shaped alien world after alien warriors force the evacuation of his spaceship. "Lord of the Rings" and "King Kong" helmer Peter Jackson was signed on to produce the film property last year.

DB Weiss was also tapped to write an adaptation of another science fiction property with a long development history, Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game" that lately has Wolfgang Petersen attached to it.

More in Dark Horizons >>

Posted by Keith Loh at 11:58 AM | Permalink

Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest smashed box office records over the weekend ($135 Million + for it's first 3 days!!!) but a screenwriter wants a piece of that pie.

Writer Royce Mathew claims he created "drawings" and a "screenplay" for a project he called "Supernatural Pirate Movie" - and now he fears his ideas have been turned into a Disney blockbuster. Royce states he even called the pirate ship in his film treatment the Black Pearl - the same name used for Johnny Depp's craft, and the subtitle for the original film. And he also created a lead characters called Will Turner - the same name as Orlando Bloom's swashbuckler in the Disney films - and Elizabeth - the Christian name of Keira Knightley's character. The screenwriter insists he registered the drawings and his screenplay with the US Copyright Office, and is now suing the The Walt Disney Company, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Touchstone Home Video and producer Jerry Bruckheimer, claiming movie bosses used his ideas as a blueprint for the Pirates of The Caribbean films.

Source: Internet Movie Database

Posted by Michael Seidelman at 11:50 PM | Permalink

David Trottier from the Writersstore.com lays down what he thinks are the new rules on spec style formatting: cut out camera direction, forget the continues, keep the action lean. The bottom line, Trottier writes, is:

Keep in mind that your audience is the reader of your script (not movie-goers) and that he/she is weary of reading scripts. So don't encumber his/her read with technical directions. Just let the story flow like a river. That river will flow if you use visual, clear and concrete language that directs the eye without directing the camera and touches the heart without dulling the senses.

Finally, don't get paranoid about formatting rules; the story is the thing.

Posted by Keith Loh at 8:47 AM | Permalink

This is a good article by Lynda Sandoval, a police officer and novelist in Denver:

Cops don't say, "We had a really bad accident on the highway." What is a "bad" accident to civilians is a "good" accident to a cop. A good crash, a good brawl, a good sex assault. It's not a value judgment. No one really thinks a sex assault of any type is good. Bad is good, because 99.9% of cops want to handle the bad incidents, so when they happen, that is "good." When a cop returns from days off or vacation, you'd most likely hear him/her asking, "Did anything good happen while I was gone?"

"Good" means bad.

Posted by Keith Loh at 10:27 AM | Permalink

Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco, cowriters of the Oscar winning Crash this year picked up the Humanitas Prize Wednesday for writing the film judges said "[reaches] out with respect and compassion". The Humanitas screenwriting prize honours works in film and TV that 'liberate, enrich and unify society."

Other winners include the Al Gore film "An Inconvenient Truth", "Quinceanera", the HBO film "The Girl in the Cafe" and Fox's medical series "House".

More in the Globe and Mail >>

The Humanitas prize >>

Posted by Keith Loh at 12:53 PM | Permalink

Longtime writing partners Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are the interview subjects in the latest Creative Screenwriting magazine podcast. In the audio file - which you can download to your trusty iPod or iTunes player - Kurtzman and Orci talk about the progression of their career from becoming staffed on "Hercules" to working for JJ Abrams in "Alias" which lead to them writing under his direction in "Mission Impossible III" and will lead to them writing a pass for his upcoming Star Trek film. Along the way they talk about how working on a TV series prepared them for collaboration and taking notes; how each of them and JJ Abrams outlines; how they conceived "Mission Impossible III" as 'Marriage Impossible'; and their theories on how a page of a screenplay should look.

Download the podcast here to iTunes >>

Posted by Keith Loh at 8:57 AM | Permalink

Don't Wait!

The AAA Contest ends June 1st. That's just 16 days away!

To submit your screenplay right now, click here!

Call for Entries!
Breaking into the world of screenwriting is no easy task. Creative Screenwriting Magazine is proud to sponsor the AAA Screenplay Contest, a chance for a few talented writers to take the next step in their writing career.

Access
The winning script and synopses for the top ten screenplays have been requested by 350 producers, development executives, agents, and managers including:

* A Band Apart
* Atlas Entertainment
* Beacon Pictures
* BenderSpink
* BET - Black Entertainment Television
* Brillstein-Grey Entertainment
* The Broder, Webb, Chervin, Silberman Agency
* Conundrum Entertainment
* David Foster Productions
* Davis Entertainment
* The Donner Company
* Endeavor
* Escape Artists
* The Gersh Agency
* Gunnfilms
* Guy Walks Into a Bar
* Hofflund/Polone Management
* International Creative Management
* Michael De Luca Productions
* New Line Cinema
* Paradigm
* Radar Pictures
* The Radmin Co.
* Regent Entertainment
* Section Eight
* Single Cell Pictures
* Spring Creek Pictures
* Weed Road Pictures
* Weintraub/Kuhn Productions
* VH1
* Winkler Films
* Zide/Perry

For an updated and complete list of companies, click here.

Acclaim
The winner of the AAA contest will be profiled in Creative Screenwriting magazine and the names of the top ten finalists will be published in CS Weekly. Finalists and their screenplays will also be publicized in press releases sent to industry publications.

Achievement
Prizes include $5,000 cash for the Grand Prize winner, plus the winning script mailed to over 350 agents, managers, and development executives who have requested it, screenwriting software, a subscription to Creative Screenwriting, and free admission to Screenwriting Expo 5.

Second and third places receive $500 cash, free software, subscription, and admission. Plus the top ten have synopses for their scripts submitted to over 350 agents, managers, and producers who have requested them.

Submit your best work in any genre. Only $40 to enter.

Deadline: June 1, 2006.

For complete details, click here!

To submit your screenplay right now, click here!

Contact Information
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
email: info@creativescreenwriting.com
voice: (323) 957-1405
web: http://www.creativescreenwriting.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Posted by Adam Fulford at 9:51 PM | Permalink

Fees are going up four per-cent for Canadian film and TV screenwriters in the next three years, the Writers Guild of Canada said after reaching a collective agreement with the Canadian Film and Television Production Association. Furthermore, writers of TV movies and miniseries will receive a 6.5 per cent increase, agreeing to work for no less than $32,457 per two-hour show.

More in the CBC >>

Posted by Keith Loh at 4:50 PM | Permalink

The annual Nebula awards given for outstanding creative accomplishment in science fiction were handed this weekend by the Science Fiction Writers Association of America. Winning for best screenplay was Joss Whedon for the screenplay he would eventually shoot as Serenity, the feature release that ends the story began in his TV series: Firefly. Firefly followed the adventures of the crew of a frontier-travelling cargo spacecraft as they tangled with authorities, outlaws and a fringe of cannibalistic spacefarers. Despite cult acclaim, Firefly was cancelled after one season. In "Serenity" the crew uncovers a conspiracy maintained by the ruling powers that puts them on the run.

Joss Whedon has been a favourite of speculative fiction fans for his work as the showrunner of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", its spinoff "Angel", as well as for "Titan A.E." , "Toy Story" and a draft of "Aliens Resurrection". Whedon is currently bringing "Wonder Woman" to the big screen.

More about this year's Nebula awards here: http://sfwa.org/awards/2006/.

Posted by Keith Loh at 3:31 PM | Permalink

Tired of only being able to talk of screenplays in development, David Levinson decided to to turn to service work in order to feel the fulfillment of having done something that people appreciated.

"I'd written a lot of movies that hadn't been made. I went year after year talking about the same movies that were in development. I had projects that were stuck in development hell for years," he said. "I wanted to do something that had tangible results. Something you didn't have to ask yourself why you were doing it."

More in the LA Times >>

Posted by Keith Loh at 10:13 AM | Permalink

The Praxis Centre for Screenwriters is taking applications for 2006 Story Internship until Friday May 5th.

The opportunities for interns to observe and work with senior professionals are invaluable for developing the complex skills required - not only the ability to analyze story, character, genre and theme, but also the interpersonal skills required in the delicate task of guiding creative work and mediating between writer and producer.

Applicants must send in a resume, industry references and examples of notes they've given on screenplays.

For more information see Praxis' website:
http://www.praxisfilm.com/en/newsevents/news/default.aspx?item=25&year=2006

Posted by Keith Loh at 6:03 PM | Permalink

Starting May 11, UBC will be offering a night course in screenwriting called "Screenwriting Beyond The Conventions." Marlene Rodgers will be the instructor for the course which will run Thursdays 7:00pm to 10:00pm from May 11 to June 15, 2006.

It costs $245 to enroll and will be held at the Neville Scarfe Building, Room 1022, 2125 Main Hall at UBC in Vancouver.

Click Here for More Details

Thanks to Fab Napoleone for submitting this information.

Posted by Mike Laverdiere at 4:12 PM | Permalink

The Observer's movie critic Mark Kermode argues that movie adaptations of video games such as the recent "Silent Hill" have 'lost the plot' as it were because they represent content that thrives on interactivity but when translated to the screen, lose the element they need. He further argues that bowing to audience pressure such as through audience testing or more 'interactivity' will result in more mediocrity.

While popular movies were once dominated by ripe melodramas (All that Heaven Allows, Written on the Wind) and so-called 'women's pictures' (Now, Voyager, Stella Dallas, Mildred Pierce) which offered masterclasses in the art of storytelling, today's boy-friendly blockbusters often boast nothing more than a collection of spectacular interludes assembled in the manner of a catalogue rather than a chronicle. Even kids' movies have fallen foul of this decline. The biggest movie of the season is Ice Age: The Meltdown, a collection of slapstick animated episodes which not even the kindest critic could accuse of having anything vaguely resembling a story.

In the end, Kermode asks, what do you think? Well, what do you think?

Read the rest of the article here >>

Posted by Keith Loh at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Writers Guild of Canada last night honoured the writers of the series "Corner Gas", "Slings & Arrows", movie of the week "The Man Who Lost Himself", and the feature "Dark Hours" in a gala hosted by Scott Thompson, Gordon Pinsent and Eric Petersen. The 10th anniversary English-language awards is voted on by members.

The Writers Guild of Canada >>

More in the CBC >>

Posted by Keith Loh at 9:12 AM | Permalink

The June 30th deadline for the Praxis Centre for Screenwriters fall competition is fast approaching. The fall competition, which accepts feature-length screenplays awards 4-6 submitters with a week-long session with veteran screenwriters / producers plus other events. The competition is open to any Canadian citizen or landed immigrant.

The Praxis Centre for Screenwriters is run by SFU's School for Contemporary Arts and is partially funded by Telefilm and other film bodies.

More about the Fall competition here on the Praxis website >>

Full disclosure: the submitter is a past winner of this contest.

Posted by Keith Loh at 11:53 AM | Permalink

The Writers Guild of America has named Julius J. Epistein, Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch's "Casablanca" the top screenplay of all time. "Casablanca" an adaptation of the play"Everybody Comes to Rick's" by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison, topped the list of the WGA's "101 Greatest Screenplays of All Time".

The list was presented at a gala hosted by Premiere magazine. Attending were a who's who of the screenwriting world including Robert Towne, Nora Ephron, Callie Khouri, Curtis Hanson and Buck Henry.

Rounding out the top five are "The Godfather", "Chinatown", "Citizen Kane" and "All About Eve".

The 102 screenplays were voted on by the members of WGA West and WGA East out of 1400 screenplays.

More recent screenplays also on the list include "Memento" by Christopher Nolan at 100, Alexander Payne's "Sideways" (90), M. Night Shamalyan's "The Sixth Sense" (50), and Charlie Kaufman's "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" at the 24th position.

The list is available for download as a .pdf on the WGA website here >>

Continue reading "WGA names "Casablanca" top script" »

Posted by Keith Loh at 12:27 PM | Permalink

A French screenwriter is suing the makers of Oscar-winning oil thriller Syriana over allegations of plagiarism.

Stephanie Vergniault has filed legal action against Warner Bros, George Clooney's production company Section Eight and director Stephen Gaghan.

Ms Vergniault claims Syriana copied entire scenes from a script she wrote called Oversight.

A spokesman for Warner Bros said the case was "without merit", adding: "We will defend our position in court".

Clooney won a best supporting actor Oscar this year for his role in the political thriller about people involved in the oil industry and those affected by the world's need for oil.

Book inspiration

Ms Vergniault says she saw the film after being alerted by a friend and alleges at least 15 scenes were lifted from a script she developed between 1997 and 2003.

She said that she had read the book by CIA agent Robert Baer which director Gaghan said heavily inspired his film. But she added it did not resemble any of the movie's scenes that she claims were copied from her script.

Ms Vergniault said she is "furious" over the alleged plagiarism and is seeking two million euros (£1.4m) in damages.

Gaghan, who wrote the screenplay for Traffic, originally entered the film into the best adapted screenplay Oscar category but organisers moved it to into the original screenplay section.

The director admitted he did veer from Robert Baer's See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism, but he still considered his work to be an adapted screenplay.

From BBC News

Posted by Mike Laverdiere at 2:15 AM | Permalink

The Praxis Centre for Screenwriters is hosting veteran director Agnieszka Holland FRIDAY 31 MARCH 7:30 p.m.
SFU HARBOUR CENTRE, TERASEN CINEMA Main Floor, 515 W. HASTINGS. She will speak and take questions after the screening of her 1990 award winning film "Europa, Europa". "Europa, Europa" is about a Jewish boy who disguises himself as non-Jewish after the takeover of the Nazis. The boy at first hides out in a school for Hitler Youth, then joins the German army and eventually is taken prisoner by the Russians, all while hiding his true identity.

TICKETS $10/$7 PRAXIS MEMBERS & STUDENTS
praxis@sfu.ca / (604) 268-7880
Doors 7 p.m.

Posted by Keith Loh at 8:52 AM | Permalink

Dark Horizons reports that crime writer James Ellroy ("L.A. Confidential") has been tapped to adapt the Nicci French novel "Land of the Living" for New Line. The story concerns a woman who has been survives being kidnapped and tortured by a serial killer only to be accused of falsifiying her story by friends and police.

Posted by Keith Loh at 7:43 AM | Permalink

From the March 31st, 2006 print edition of Entertainment Weekly
Written by Michelle Kung and Hannah Tucker

The Black List is back. But this time, screenwriters are fighting to get their names on it. Why? This version has nothing to do with anticommunist hysteria. It's actually a hush-hush report that ranks 2005's ''most liked'' screenplays, as voted on by more than 90 influential insiders at talent agencies, management companies, and film studios. Heavily circulated among the creative and business classes in Hollywood, the document has taken on a life of its own, catapulting careers and becoming something of an informal Tinseltown secret.

The author — a development executive at a powerful production company who agreed to speak to EW anonymously — hatched the idea last December. ''A large part of my job is reading really bad scripts,'' he says. ''I wanted to figure out how I could read as many good scripts as possible.'' Turning to his Rolodex, the Black Lister asked friends to nominate the 10 best unproduced screenplays they'd read that year. Then he pored over almost 300 titles, ordering the list according to popularity. (Only 13 received more than five votes.) The resulting document blazed a path through Hollywood, turning somewhat anonymous scribes into minor sensations. ''The Black List was a great nod to Juno, '' says Sarah Self of the Gersh Agency, who signed the screenplay's stripper-turned-scribe Diablo Cody in August 2004. ''We were thrilled.''

''I've had managers calling — not knowing that I'm the person who did it — telling me, 'I've got these great clients, they were on the Black List this year!''' says the List author. ''I hope at some point to be able to look back and say, 'The 2005 Black List, where are they now?' Maybe they've become Best Picture winners.'' Is there a hope in hell of that happening? EW reviewed not only the list but the three highest-rated screenplays. Our take on the winners below:

TOP THREE SCRIPTS

1 THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE
Susanne Bier will direct this subtle family drama for DreamWorks. It's a fun read, but Fire may burn too slowly for the screen. B-

2 JUNO
Diablo Cody's smart and quirky tale about a teenage mother found a director in Brad Silberling, but success will depend on who is cast as the lead. A-

3 LARS AND THE REAL GIRL
Ryan Gosling will play a socially awkward man who finds love...with a sex doll. Director Craig Gillespie will bring this warm, kooky story to life. B+

Link to Entertainment Weekly website

Posted by Michael Seidelman at 12:13 AM | Permalink