“I think what I’m trying to say [in Network] is, ‘How do you preserve yourself in a world where life really doesn’t mean much anymore?’ That’s what I was trying to say. The trick is, of course, to say it so that it’s a good movie.” Paddy Chayefsky Interview with Dinah Shore “It’s impossible to describe […]
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Author Archive“The toughest athlete in the world is a 62 year-old woman.” D.L. Stewart, Dayton Daily News “It was an old dream. It was lingering for so long—three decades ago . The only world-class swim that I had sort of tried and failed at in my early 20s was going from Cuba to Florida. It was deep […]
Aug
31
2013
 
Moneyball & Coach Mike FerrellPosted by: screenwritingfromiowa in Screenwriting From IowaOn this repost Saturday I’m reaching back to a post I just wrote two years ago. I know many people in the sporting world are in a football state of mind this week since the 2013 college football season began this week. But I’m in a baseball state of mind because I went to a […] “It doesn’t seem that long ago I had hopes of being the hot kid, selling my first story in ’51 when I was 25. I got on the cover of Newsweek in April 1985, and was seen as an overnight success after little more than thirty years.” Elmore Leonard 1998 Film Comment Interview with Patrick McGilligan P.S. […] “I got an idea for a movie.” Chili Palmer (John Travolta) Get Shorty As a rule [Scott] Frank says, he likes to avoid thinking about “theme” when writing a script (“The work can become pretentious or feel ‘built’”); but with a [Elmore] Leonard vehicle, a thematic idea can help pull together a lot of discursive […] Since today marks the 50th Anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream” speech given in Washington D.C. I thought I’d pull together many of the links related to Martin Luther King and black writers and filmmakers I’ve written about since I started this blog in 2008. The roots of this blog go back […]
Aug
27
2013
The Problem with Hollywood ScreenwritingPosted by: screenwritingfromiowa in Screenwriting From Iowa“[Screenwriting] was a chore [mostly] because you’ve got several bosses. You’re not just writing for yourself. I write for myself. I’m the only one I have to please. When I have to please a producer and a director and so on, then I’m just taking in writing, doing what they want me to do. There […]
Aug
26
2013
Will Simmons’ Road to HollywoodPosted by: screenwritingfromiowa in Screenwriting From Iowa“After graduating in 2007 [University of Miami], I knew I wasn’t ready to move to LA. My chops as a writer weren’t sharp enough to survive the Hollywood meat grinder. I needed time to hone my craft, so I moved back to Boston and worked at an Italian restaurant delivering pizzas. The best part about […]
Aug
24
2013
The Breakfast Club for Writers (2.0)Posted by: screenwritingfromiowa in Screenwriting From IowaOn this repost Saturday I’m going to tap into a post I wrote several years ago where I quoted Elmore Leonard who passed away earlier this week. Here’s the post that originally ran in June of 2009: Finding time to write is one of the biggest struggles for those writers with jobs and a family. […]
Aug
23
2013
Start Small…But Start SomewherePosted by: screenwritingfromiowa in Screenwriting From Iowa“When I wrote 3:10 to Yuma. I sold the original [short] story for $90, and then got $4,000 for the movie rights.” Elmore Leonard (Leonard did add that “a 5,000 word story was a hundred bucks. And in the early ’50s, that wasn’t bad.) “In 1961, Leonard quit his job at the ad agency to […] |
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