Screenwriting From Iowa

“There are an awful lot of Scott Smiths running around the world.”
                                                                          Scott B. Smith
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Original Source…

Most screenwriters don’t jump onto the world stage like Diablo Cody who won an Oscar for the first screenplay she ever wrote. More often than not they follow a 20 year journey like screenwriter John Logan who was 40 years old when he received an Oscar nominated for his part in writing Gladiator. 
Logan was born [...]

Original Source…

The 1985 film Witness is one of those movie that’s pops up again and again in screenwriting books as a fine example of writing. But like Rainman there are a lot of reasons why the film works and it is an example of a collaboration at it’s best. It was a perfect storm of talent and it resulted [...]

Original Source…

The 1985 film Witness is one of those movie that’s pops up again and again in screenwriting books as a fine example of writing. But like Rainman there are a lot of reasons why the film works and it is an example of a collaboration at it’s best. It was a perfect storm of talent and it resulted [...]

Original Source…

“Are you something else I’m going to have to live through?”
                                                                     Erin Brockovich 
                         [...]

Original Source…

You’d think since I’ve written a couple posts on the film industry in Michigan and another post just on Grand Rapids that I would have mentioned screenwriter Kurt Luedtke at some point, but I haven’t. But the the Oscar winning screenwriter of Out of Africa was in fact born in Grand Rapids. Actually, he was off my radar [...]

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Screenwriter David Franzoni (Gladiator, Amistad) might as well be living back home in Vermont (or here in Iowa): 
“In this town (L.A.), if you’re a screenwriter, the two biggest things that are important (are): One, get a life, because the only stuff that’s any good is writing about the life you’ve led, not about the movies [...]

Original Source…

I think it’s going to turn into Daivd S. Cohen week as I pull another quote from his book Screen Plays. This one from screenwriter David Franzoni. Before Franzoni won an Oscar for his role in writing Gladiator or worked with Spielberg on Amistad he was a struggling writer like everyone else. He grew up [...]

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“Really, normal people are not attracted to this business.”
                                                      Madonna
Today I flew from Orlando to Cedar Rapids and I had the double whammy of sitting in a row with an obnoxious woman and a totally undisciplined child.
It wasn’t the fact that they played peak-a-boo over and over, (and over and over again) for 15 minutes [...]

Original Source…

“Really, normal people are not attracted to this business.”
                                                      Madonna
Today I flew from Orlando to Cedar Rapids and I had the double whammy of sitting in a row with an obnoxious woman and a totally undisciplined child.
It wasn’t the fact that they played peak-a-boo over and over, (and over and over again) for 15 minutes [...]

Original Source…