Screenwriting From Iowa

Before screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin won an Oscar in 1990 for his script for Ghost he spent time in the Midwest. He was born in Detroit and graduated from high school there, he was a student at Indiana University, and was living in Illinois before he and his wife and their two kinds decided to [...]

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James Whitmore died yesterday and though he was an Emmy and Tony Award winning actor who was twice nominated for an Oscar I imagine most people today remember him most for his role in The Shawshank Redemption. In that film he played the elderly Brooks Hatlen who upon being released from a long time prison sentence [...]

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All week I’ve been working on a production in Sioux City, Iowa which happens to be where Ann Landers and her sister Abigail Van Buren (Dear Abby) were born and educated. Long before Oprah and Dr. Phil were giving advice the identical twins had quite a following.  
In 2006 playwright (and CSI screenwriter) David Rambo wrote [...]

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Though I do appreciate great TV programs like The Twlight Zone, Northern Exposure, Sienfeld, and LOST I’ve never been a big TV watcher. And since I don’t get HBO, CNN, or AMC unless I’m at a hotel, I’m sure I miss some good stuff. But there are only so many hours in a day.
But I had been hearing [...]

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It’s not uncommon for writers to talk about how quickly they wrote a play, book, or screenplay. For instance Arthur Miller wrote Death of a Salesmen in six weeks, Jack Kerouac wrote On the Road in three weeks, and six weeks is also how long it took Diablo Cody to write Juno.
But those numbers are deceptive. For ideas [...]

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It’s not uncommon for writers to talk about how quickly they wrote a play, book, or screenplay. For instance Arthur Miller wrote Death of a Salesmen in six weeks, Jack Kerouac wrote On the Road in three weeks, and six weeks is also how long it took Diablo Cody to write Juno.
But those numbers are deceptive. For ideas [...]

Original Source…

But February made me shiver
With every paper I’d deliver.
Bad news on the doorstep.
I couldn’t take one more step.
                                                            Don McLean
                 [...]

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Though Iowa’s own Kurt Warner and the Arizona Cardinals came up a little short it was another case of the Super Bowl being super. And that game winning ballet catch in the closing seconds of the game by Santonio Holmes brought memories of Lyn Swann.
The game being played in Tampa this year also brought back memories to [...]

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Screenwriter William Blinn has been at it for more than 40 years. He won two Primetime Emmy’s for his work on Roots and Brian’s Song, and was nominated for three more for his work on Fame. He also wrote scripts some of the classic TV programs; Gunsmoke, Bonaza and Eight is Enough, as well as being [...]

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