Screenwriting From Iowa

Merry Christmas—50 weeks early. When I was driving through Nashville last November after a production I had lunch with William Akers (Your Screenplay Sucks!) and he told me about a video of Orson Welles doing a Q&A with students at USC back in 1981. I’d never seen or even heard of the video, so I figured it would […]

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Warning: Even though I’m dealing with some older films, I still feel I need to mention that there are some spoilers today. “Chucks’s first words of dialogue in the movie is ‘time.’ Time runs his life and for six years time ran our lives as we made this movie. His last words are ‘thank you,’ an […]

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“Clichés, in particular, have always baffled me. You’d think it’d be as simple as, ‘Don’t use clichés,’ but it isn’t. I’ve fallen in love with plenty of great movies that others have insisted were riddled with clichés. Many times I have to admit they’re correct, and yet I still love the movie. The ending of Die Hard has Bruce Willis […]

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“All humor is rooted in pain.”  Commedian Richard Pryor “I think humour does save one’s sanity. We can go overboard with too much tragedy. Tragedy is, of course, a part of life, but we’re also given an equipment to offset anything, a defence against it. I think tragedy is very essential in life. And we […]

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Looking for a New Year’s screenwriting resolution? Here’s one nicely tucked in two sentences that you can adopt: “The road to Hollywood is neither a sprint nor a marathon…it’s a death march. The smartest things you can do to advance your craft and career are to read scripts, watch movies, be up to date on […]

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“Everyone has a big but. Simone, let’s talk about your big but…You can’t just wish for something to come true—you have to make it happen.” Pee Wee Herman Pee Wee’s Big Adventure “The reason why most [comedy screenplays] don’t work is they’re not about anything.” Oscar-winning screenwriter Michael Arndt (Toy Story 3) The screwball comedy (living cartoon?) Pee […]

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“Life is about courage and going into the unknown.” Cheryl Merhoff  (Kristen Wiig) The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013) written by Steve Conrad “I never left [Chicago]. I just feel good here. Ever since I got off the (“L”) train for my interview at college, it felt right to me…It’s an easy city to […]

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“Now that all the decay is over, things are going to get better.” Adam (Brendan Frazier) in Blast from the Past Written by Billy Kelly and Hugh Wilson Who knows how long this will last Now we’ve come so far, so fast The End of the Innocence Bruce Hornsby/Don Henley Watching It’s a Wonderful Life […]

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Money, Money, Money—across film genres as diverse as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,  Pretty Woman, Toostie, Babette’s Feast, The Gold Rush, A Perfect Storm,  Some Like It Hot, The Verdict, Double Indemnity, JAWS and, of course, Wall Street, money plays a key role. That should be no surprise since money plays such a key role in civilization—in survival. As I […]

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It’s interesting that a film that deals with a suicidal man is such a beloved Christmas classic. It’s also interesting that the town of Bedford Falls was actually a 4 acre set—complete with 300 foot Main St.— in Encino, California. And when it was shot in  the summer of 1946 there was a record heat […]

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