“After a checkered career like mine, it’s nice to be an overnight success.” Screenwriter David Seidler (The King’s Speech) LA Times “I had no real money, no reputation, no real career.” David Seidler Upon arriving in L.A. at age 40 (33 years before winning an Oscar) How long did it take for David Seilder to [...]
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“My father always said to me I would be a late bloomer.” Oscar-winning screenwriter David Seidler (The King’s Speech) “The last 7-8 years I’ve had a manager, but no agent because quite frankly no agency would take me because of my age.” David Seidler (Note: After the success of The King’s Speech, Seidler had many [...]
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“Over and over again we have tried to find a peaceful way out of the differences between ourselves and those who are now our enemies.” King George VI (Colin Firth) The King’s Speech, Oscar winner; Best Film, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Screenwriter That above quote is the kind of the history of the world [...]
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“Dating you is like dating a StairMaster.” Erica Albright (Rooney Mara) The Social Network INT. COLLEGE BAR — NIGHT Two young people sitting at a table talking and drinking beer. MALE: I can’t believe it’s three minutes shorter than American Pie. FEMALE: The movie? MALE: The song. FEMALE: What are you talking about? MALE: The opening [...]
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“Cinema has always been marriage of technology and human talent.” Francis Ford Coppola (older filmmaker based in Napa Valley) “I think every filmmaker needs to make 20 awful films before they can make one good one. And I made my share of totally awful films with my friends.” Bradley Jackson (younger filmmaker based in Austin) [...]
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“A-B-C. A-Always, B-Be, C-Closing. Always be closing, always be closing.” Blake (Alec Baldwin) in Glengarry Glen Ross Do you remember Pete Jones? He’s the guy who was the first writer/director picked by Project Greenlight to have a movie made. He has a new movie out today called Hall Pass starring Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis. [...]
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What in the hell is an “objective correlative”? And why do so many movies and plays have one? There are things in your life that you’ve attached meaning to. When you see them they conjure up memories of people, places and events. If I give my wife Toblerone chocolate it’s a fond reminder of a [...]
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One of the great things about watching films over and over again is you begin to notice little details and see patterns emerge. Ideally the first time you watch a movie you are simply engaged in the story. Then you go back as a screenwriter looking for clues as to what made the films work, [...]
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Since in the past few days I’ve written about two Hollywood screenplays that not only featured mathematical geniuses (A Beautiful Mind, Good Will Hunting) but both happened to win Oscars for their screenwriters. So I thought it appropriate to crunch some numbers and look at the going script length of screenplays in the marketplace today. [...]
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“At first the screenplay (Good Will Hunting) seemed perhaps a little wordy. As Matt (Damon) joked on the set when we shot the movie, the Good Will staging was usually two people sitting in chairs across from each other and talking. Only the backgrounds and the characters changed, and usually only one of the characters [...]
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