Screenwriting From Iowa

“When your heart speaks, take good notes.” 
                                                               Judith Campbell 
 
You’re going to think I’m making this up…and I won’t blame you.
But I’m going to tell you [...]

Original Source…

It was hard for me not to notice that the last couple days I have quoted some of the heavy hitters of screenwriting (Orson Welles, John Huston, Billy Wilder) and it made me wonder what screenwriter has won the most Academy Awards for writing. Turns out there are three writers who each have three Oscars [...]

Original Source…

Orson Wells was born May 6, 1915 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. His mother died when he was nine and his father when he was 15 and I’ve always wondered if there was a part of Welles that resonated with the young boy in Citizen Kane who is separated from his parents. Shortly after his mother died [...]

Original Source…

John Huston was born in Nevada, Missouri in 1906 and long before he died 81 years later he was a Hollywood legend. He won two Oscars, one for directing and one for writing The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. He also directed The African Queen, Key Largo, Moby Dick and The Maltese Falcon.
He not only [...]

Original Source…

“You see, I have this little problem with my apartment.”
                                                          Jack Lemmon’s character
                                 [...]

Original Source…

Before screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin won an Oscar in 1990 for his script for Ghost he spent time in the Midwest. He was born in Detroit and graduated from high school there, he was a student at Indiana University, and was living in Illinois before he and his wife and their two kinds decided to [...]

Original Source…

James Whitmore died yesterday and though he was an Emmy and Tony Award winning actor who was twice nominated for an Oscar I imagine most people today remember him most for his role in The Shawshank Redemption. In that film he played the elderly Brooks Hatlen who upon being released from a long time prison sentence [...]

Original Source…

All week I’ve been working on a production in Sioux City, Iowa which happens to be where Ann Landers and her sister Abigail Van Buren (Dear Abby) were born and educated. Long before Oprah and Dr. Phil were giving advice the identical twins had quite a following.  
In 2006 playwright (and CSI screenwriter) David Rambo wrote [...]

Original Source…

It’s not uncommon for writers to talk about how quickly they wrote a play, book, or screenplay. For instance Arthur Miller wrote Death of a Salesmen in six weeks, Jack Kerouac wrote On the Road in three weeks, and six weeks is also how long it took Diablo Cody to write Juno.
But those numbers are deceptive. For ideas [...]

Original Source…

Though I do appreciate great TV programs like The Twlight Zone, Northern Exposure, Sienfeld, and LOST I’ve never been a big TV watcher. And since I don’t get HBO, CNN, or AMC unless I’m at a hotel, I’m sure I miss some good stuff. But there are only so many hours in a day.
But I had been hearing [...]

Original Source…