“Juno delivers uproarious laughs, fully fleshed personalities, honest uplift and tender moments when the throat goes dry and the eyes grow moist. Much of the credit goes to the deservedly acclaimed script by former Twin Cities scribe Diablo Cody, whose blogs-to-riches story seems destined to culminate in a spotlight solo at the next Academy Awards.”
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If you’ve read Malcom Gladwell’s bestselling books The Tipping Point and Blink then you are familiar with his interesting way of looking at the world. You may not always agree with his conclusions, but his observations are always thought provoking. His recent book Outilers is no different. In fact, it is the perfect book for [...]
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Walt Disney was a little like Moses. He never made it to the promised land. Disney died a few years before his dream project, Walt Disney World, opened in Florida in 1971.
I remember going to Disney World that opening year and it was magical. Central Florida was not the sprawling Central Florida that it is [...]
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This morning I had a video shoot in Pella, Iowa which if you have never heard about is a taste of Europe right here in Iowa. Not only in terms of the Dutch-inspired buildings, but it’s known for its Dutch letter pastries.
The town was founded in 1847 by Dutch immigrants and the word Pella means [...]
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“In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”
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Do you ever hang out at your local library just reading through things you don’t usually read? I did that Saturday afternoon with a stack of magazines. One of those magazines was Sunset whose cover story was on the “best small towns for ocean and outdoor fun, great food, and green living.” The magazine’s emphasis [...]
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The truth is there won’t be any government bailouts any time soon for Hollywood. They don’t really need one.
If the box office numbers continue at the same pace they’ve been the first two months of the year then it will be Hollywood’s biggest growth in 20 yeara. Movies like Paul Bart; Mall Cop, Taken, Slumdog Millionaire, [...]
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Hollywood has a problem and it’s not my fault. Really it isn’t. But if you’re a screenwriter living outside L.A., L.A.’s problem is your opportunity.
Don’t blame me if Hollywood is the new Detroit. I just started “Screenwriting from Iowa” last year. L.A.’s runaway problem has been going on for the last decade. Runaway production is [...]
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The Wrestler is the first movie that made me wake up sore the next day. Watching Mickey Rourke on screen had some kind of psychosomatic effect on me where I felt the pain of a lifetime of wrestling. Just as pro wrestling sometimes blurs the lines of fake and reality (even staged body slams have [...]
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Genevieve Jolliffe & Chris Jones have written several books which are packed full of useful infomation for filmmakers including The Guerilla Film Makers Handbook which weighs in at 720 pages. Here’s one little Q&A from the book.
Q-What single piece of advice would you offer?
Dov S. S. Simens: Read 200 scripts this year. If you don’t [...]
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