“There’s an Iowa kind of special, Chip-on-the shoulder attitude, We’ve never been without.” Iowa Stuborn from The Music Man Written by Meredith Willson Composer, conductor, songwriter, and playwright Meredith Willson is most well known as the creative forced behind The Music Man. He was born in Mason City, Iowa in 1902 and educated at what [...]
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“Unfortunately, people believe that their first thing should be great. Writing is like anything else. You’re not supposed to write a page and expect it to be good. You have to write a thousand pages and expect it to be good. It’s as if we were training for the 20-yard-dash, and instead of waiting until [...]
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“[David]Magee struggled to find the right voice and tone for the screenplay. The book [Life of Pi], after all, ranged in content from philosophical musings on religion and zoology to the slapstick silliness of young a young schoolboy. How to encompass both in one screenplay? It wasn’t until late June of 2009, during a trip [...]
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Though the film Life of Pi was shot in Taiwan, I just learned about the screenplay’s Midwest roots. Not only was David Magee born in Flint, Michigan but: “Magee has had an unusual career path for a screenwriter. A graduate of the University of Illinois (where he studied theater around the same time as Lee did), [...]
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“A deep part of us continues to yearn for some direct access to the unknown.” Life of Pi director Ang Lee “My track record as a writer didn’t show much promise. My first effort, a collection of short stories, sold all of eight hundred copies in Canada. My first novel only did a little better, [...]
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“A whole new UNIVERSE of ADVENTURE is about to open up for you! Trailer for Robinson Crusoe on Mars “Here’s my guilty secret, I have always loved the literature and the cinema of the fantastic. From earliest memory. The earliest movies I saw on televison as a kid were Wolfman, Dracula, Frankenstein—the first movie I [...]
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“I was reminded of how badly television used to suck. And you will be reminded if you go buy like a DVD set of any show that was popular prior to, I don’t know 1990-something. And you take your favorite show from the 80s—I promise you it sucks. They’re simpleminded, they’re stupid, television used to [...]
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“I learned a lot of my values growing up watching movies. Of course, they made a lot more movies like that then than they are currently.” Frank Darabont In the Q&A with Frank Darabont at the Zürich Film Festival he was asked if the DVD sales from The Shawshank Redemption were his safe security in [...]
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“Shawshank is basically It’s a Wonderful Life in a prison.” Frank Darabont, Writer/director of The Shawshank Redemption That observation by Darabont came during a Q&A at the Zurich Film Festival where he also made this comment: “To me, aside from I really dig movies and a good story well told, I think there is sort [...]
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“Orphans always make the best recruits.” M (Judi Dench), Skyfall This year marks the 50th anniversary of the on-screen debut of Agent 007 (Sean Connery in Dr. No), and those six words above spoken by actress Judi Dench pack many layers of meaning. Back in ’09 I wrote the post Orphan Characters (Tip# 31) and looked [...]
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