Archive for the 'News' Category

• 11.03.08 Vote.

  There’s a strong likelihood that the networks (and the internet) will announce the presidential winner before the polls close in California. But if you’re headed to vote after work — or if you’re waiting in lines for hours — I’d urge you not to head home just because the big race has been decided. [...]

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• 10.13.08 Two from the file

  The mailbag gets a little backed up here. I thought I’d reach back a few years to look at two unanswered questions.

  I am working on a romantic comedy and much of the comedy is situational, physical comedy. Is it appropriate to specify in the script a generic location and the physical actions of the characters? [...]

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• 09.23.08 WGA West board elected

  Results are in, and here are the eight members elected to the WGA Board:

  John Bowman Katherine Fugate David Goodman Howard Michael Gould Mark Gunn Karen Harris Kathy Kiernan Aaron Mendelsohn

  Katherine Fugate, Karen Harris and Howard Michael Gould are new to the Board; the other five are incumbents. Congrats to all of them.

  In particular, I’m happy to see Howard [...]

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• 09.10.08 Working on the feeds [u]

  So forgive any wonkiness for the next few minutes. I’m hunting for a single blank line.

  UPDATE (2:03 PM): The problem was a single blank line at the start of the XML file, introduced by extra blank lines at the end of the (hacked) Live Comments Preview plug-in.

  I took advantage of the downtime to move all [...]

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• 09.08.08 Scrippets 1.0

  There’s now an official Scrippets plug-in for WordPress, available here.

  It’s been working well in the test sites we’ve seeded it to, but if any issues come up in its wider release, plug-in creator Nima Yousefi will be able to send out one-click upgrades. 1 So if you’re running a WordPress blog, by all means [...]

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• 09.08.08 New server, some issues

  Hope to be 100% in a few hours.

  Surprisingly, it all seems to be working okay. Even the wiki, which I was certain would break.

  If you notice anything broken, leave a comment, or email ask (you know the symbol) johnaugust (dot) com.

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• 08.28.08 Scrippets are go

  Thanks to the hard work of Nima Yousefi, Will Carlough and Andy Maloney, we have a Scrippets plugin that seems to be working pretty reliably. It’s installed at this site now, and we’ll be seeding it out to a few other screenwriting-oriented websites over the next few days to make sure it plays well [...]

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• 08.25.08 Scrippets available for testing

  I won’t throw around terms like “beta,” but if you’re interested in checking out what we have working on the scrippet front, you can visit the test blog and leave a comment to see how it works.

  You can leave feedback either here or there.

  There’s still more testing to be done to make sure it works [...]

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• 08.04.08 I will never forget Barack Obama’s birthday

  Because it also happens to be mine. And it’s today. So in lieu of a brand new article, here’s a brand new plug-in: Random Post.

  (Comments are closed, but thank you.)

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• 07.27.08 A bunch of marriage news

  It’s been weirdly under-reported, but Proposition 8, the November ballot initiative that seeks to amend the California constitution to ban same-sex marriage, had its official language changed earlier this month. It used to read as follows:

  LIMIT ON MARRIAGE. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.

  Amends the California Constitution to provide that only marriage between a man and a woman [...]

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• 05.15.08 I’m getting married

  This morning’s decision by the California Supreme Court means I no longer have to be an unwed father. And for a change, even our Governor is onboard:

  I respect the court’s decision and as governor, I will uphold its ruling. As I have said in the past, I will not support an amendment to the constitution [...]

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• 03.18.08 Anthony Minghella

  I was very surprised and saddened to read that writer-director Anthony Minghella has died. His adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley is both justly acclaimed and criminally under-appreciated: every shot, every line, every performance is dead on. Every time I watch it, I’m filled with envy and self-doubt — a strangely empowering combination when seen [...]

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• 10.11.07 Heroes: Origins

  I’m writing and directing one of the Heroes: Origins episodes.

  News of this leaked out over the past few weeks — it even shows up on my IMDb page — but it wasn’t official until quite recently, so I didn’t want to blog about it.

  For those who haven’t been obsessively following All Things Heroes, Origins [...]

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• 10.01.07 Strike authorization vote

  This afternoon, the WGA announced a strike authorization vote — which is a very different thing than calling a strike. But it’s apt to be misreported wildly in tomorrow’s papers.

  If voted through, a strike authorization allows (but does not require) the WGA to call a strike after the contract expires October 31, 2007. [...]

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• 08.16.07 Cannibals in canoes

  Honestly, I feel like I’m cheating on all of you when I guest-blog for EW.com. But I did it again.

  And then there are the non-Nines variables: babysitting grandparents, geriatric pugs, and the Tim Burton retrospective I want to attend. Plus eight more lessons of Pimsleur Italian, so I can politely explain why I’m [...]

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• 08.16.07 Me in Men’s Health

  I have a long essay in this month’s Men’s Health, the one with Jamie Foxx on the cover. It’s not specifically about The Nines, but that’s the main reason I agreed to do it. To buy a single-page ad in the magazine would be more than our entire marketing budget. But for a [...]

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• 08.14.07 The big Fox deal

  In addition to Shazam! and The Nines, the other project that’s been keeping me busy for the past few months is a new deal over at 20th Century Fox, in which a group of 12 screenwriters will be getting first-dollar gross and a range of creative rights on their scripts. It was just announced.

  The [...]

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• 08.10.07 The Advocate

  Ryan and I did an interview for The Advocate about the movie, the business, and our trip to Malawi. It should be on stands now (or soon), with Ryan on the cover.

  Yes, the headline reads, “Hollywood’s hottest young star runs off with his gay director.” They conveniently left off, “…to help paint an [...]

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• 08.02.07 Student Films Across America

  Tonight, I attended the LA screenings of Student Films Across America, a traveling film festival that highlights great shorts made by film students nationwide. I was one of the judges this year — months ago, I watched a bunch of screeners. So it was nice to see the final results.

  And here’s where I beg [...]

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• 07.23.07 The Nines goes to Venice

  A reader alluded to it in the comments of an earlier post, but today we can officially announce that The Nines was chosen to play the Venice Film Festival as part of Critics’ Week.

  (At least, I assume we can announce it. We were sworn to double-super secrecy, which is presumably now over, since it [...]

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• 07.19.07 My role in Transformers

  Are you in TRANSFORMERS? There’s a quick shot of a soldier escorting someone away from a helicopter. On screen for two or three seconds. Looks EXACTLY like you.

  Just curious.

  – Ben Los Angeles

  I haven’t seen the movie yet, but as far as I know, I am not in Transformers. I have [...]

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• 07.14.07 Home

  I’m back from Africa — physically, at least.

  Mentally, I’m still floating somewhere over Dakar. The potent combination of jetlag and unprocessed emotion is making it very difficult to commit to that last leap over the Atlantic. I was only gone two weeks, but it felt like months. Like an alternate timeline, [...]

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• 06.28.07 Summer Reruns

  Over the next two weeks, you’ll notice a bit of deja vu at this site: old articles suddenly popping up on the front page, with new dates and old comments. It’s not a technical glitch. I’m putting the site into reruns while I’m out of the country and off the grid.

  I’m going to Africa — [...]

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• 06.24.07 Summer Sundance

  I’m up at Sundance for the summer filmmakers’ lab, where I’ve worked as an advisor for the past seven years.

  For those unfamiliar with the labs, it’s a workshop in which newer filmmakers (generally writer-directors) meet with established screenwriters in one-on-one sessions to sort out issues in their scripts. There’s a winter lab, which occurs [...]

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• 06.22.07 Watch out for Dana

  Hearty congrats to Dana Fox, who shows up in Variety’s Ten Screenwriters to Watch feature this morning. Dana was my assistant between Rawson and Chad, and has worked steadily since. Her latest script, What Happens in Vegas, goes into production soon.

  In the picture which accompanies the article, you can see her with the [...]

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• 05.28.07 Screenwriters’ dinner

  Last week, I attended the First Annual WGAw Screenwriters’ Dinner. I’m not sure one should call a first-ever event “annual,” but it was successful enough that it merits a repeat in 52 weeks.

  Since screenwriters tend to work alone, there’s not a lot of water-cooler talk on a daily basis. Message boards [...]

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• 04.17.07 Chad sold a spec

  Yesterday’s post was the first mention of New Assistant Matt, which naturally begs provokes the question: What happened to Chad?

  Well, by the headline, you can probably guess he sold a spec. Written by Chad and his wife Dara Resnik Creasey, B.F.F. is a high school romantic comedy, roughly Hughesian in nature. Rogue [...]

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• 04.10.07 Feeds and subscriptions

  In a bit of misguided tweaking, I completely screwed up the RSS feeds for the site. It was a few weeks before I realized the damage I’d done. (I was redirecting through FeedBurner, but only certain formats, leaving other feeds lying dormant. Bad.)

  I think everything is fixed now. I’m back to the [...]

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• 04.01.07 Goodnight Moon, Hello Movie

  I’m happy to finally be able to announce the next thing I’m writing after Shazam!/Captain Marvel — an adaptation of one of the best-selling children’s books ever: Goodnight Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown.

  Anyone who’s ever had a baby has probably read this book, so it’s no surprise that Hollywood’s been trying to adapt it [...]

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• 03.19.07 Writer/Directors and Co-Ops

  This weekend brought two stories of interest to screenwriters, particularly those of the Hollywood bent.

  The first was Rachel Abramowitz’s article in the LA Times about the recent batch of screenwriters-turned-directors, which included bits about Scott Frank, Mike White, and Charlie Kaufman, among others. I spoke to her about The Nines:

  “Most of what I do [...]

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• 03.15.07 Publicity 101

  Last night, the Writers Guild Foundation held a panel discussion about publicity. I was one of the panelists, but I ended up learning a fair amount myself.

  For example, according to a Variety editor, it’s perfectly okay for a screenwriter to pick up the phone and call a writer at the trades when [...]

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• 03.09.07 The Big Red Cheese

  And now, the answer to speculation about why I was busy reading up on DC Comics mythology. As announced today in The Hollywood Reporter, I’m writing Captain Marvel. And I’m very, very stoked.

  The movie is set up at New Line, with Pete Segal attached to direct. For those who aren’t rabid fans [...]

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• 03.01.07 After the digg

  I’ve seen a lot of articles about the Digg Effect and what a site can expect after having a bunch of new visitors arrive to check out an article, as happened with my recent post on Warcraft.

  The general prediction is that readership drops to normal levels pretty quickly, and that’s borne out by the stats. [...]

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• 02.22.07 The Week in Review

  It’s been a busy week, and the next few days promise to be equally action-packed. So I thought I’d do a quick recap before two weeks go by without any real updates.

  Boulder

  I gave a lecture on screenwriting at the Boulder International Film Festival. It’s always weird going back to your home town, and even [...]

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• 02.12.07 GreeneStreet acquires The Nines

  At the Berlin Film Festival this morning, GreeneStreet Films International announced that they’d picked up the movie for all markets outside North America. It’s news I’ve been sitting on since basically the day after the Sundance premiere. The company really dug the movie and were very aggressive about getting it, so I’m happy [...]

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• 01.18.07 Sundance panels

  In addition to the screenings, I’ll be a panelist at two different events at the festival.

  HD House

  Cinematographer Nancy Schreiber and I will talk about the HD of it all, with clips from the movie. Monday, Jan. 22nd, at 7 p.m. Yarrow Theater 2 More info here.

  BMI Composer Roundtable

  Composer Alex Wurman and I will be talking about the music [...]

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• 01.11.07 Sell out

  No, that’s not my advice to aspiring screenwriters.

  The Nines sold out its first three screenings at Sundance, including the 1300-seat premiere. As of this morning, the only tickets available are for the final screening on Sunday, January 28th at the Rose Wagner.

  Keep in mind, everything sells out at Sundance. That Ukrainian [...]

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• 01.03.07 Four for four, or Hooray for Chad

  Longtime readers will note that my former assistants have done well for themselves. Rawson has directed two movies, Dana has become an in-demand screenwriter, and Sean is a TV staff writer with a pilot in production.

  I’m happy to add Chad to the list of successes. After many delays, his script “Sydney [...]

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• 12.04.06 More in the Store

  I’ve had the Store sitting in the sidebar for a few months now, with Amazon links for DVDs of movies I’ve written. To my surprise, people do actually buy some of these — I made a whopping $16.43 in referrals last quarter. That almost covers, oh, half of the hosting fees for this [...]

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• 11.30.06 The Movie is premiering at Sundance

  After months of vague hints, I can finally reveal information about The Movie I wrote and directed this summer.

  It’s called The Nines.1 It stars Ryan Reynolds, Hope Davis and Melissa McCarthy. It’s a drama. Funny in places, suspenseful in places, but basically a drama. It will be premiering at the Sundance Film Festival.

  This last point [...]

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• 11.08.06 Introducing jaWiki

  When I redesigned the site in February, the major goal was to allow better access to the archive information. Unlike most blogs, the bulk of the content on johnaugust.com is equally relevant today or four years from today — unlike celebrity marriages, the answers to screenwriting questions pretty much hold solid.

  Although I think it’s [...]

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• 11.05.06 Chicago: The Musical. No, not that one.

  I spent a few days in Chicago1 to see the premiere of my friends’ new musical Asphalt Beach, which is workshopping at Northwestern University. The show was terrific, and vindication for my decade of belief in my friends’ talent.

  I took advantage of being away from L.A. to start writing something brand new. That’s my [...]

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• 10.21.06 Back from Austin

  Two flights, three panels and five beers later, I can say I had a good time at the Austin Film Festival. It was certainly the best time I’ve had in Austin, largely because I got off my ass and went to the parties and screenings. (Although some of the credit for that has to [...]

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• 10.17.06 Final Draft buys Script magazine

  Today’s Variety reports that the makers of Final Draft have bought Script magazine and some related assets from Forum Publishing.

  The deal probably makes sense for Final Draft. Rather than buy a big ad every month, why not just buy the whole magazine? Plus, Final Draft probably has a huge mailing list from its [...]

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• 10.05.06 Austin Film Festival schedule

  In case any readers want to see how much less articulate I am in person, I’ll be speaking on three panels at the upcoming Austin Film Festival. Here are the descriptions the organizers sent out:

  The Art of the Pitch SFA Hotel, Assembly Room Oct. 19th, 2:45 p.m. – 4 p.m.

  Pitching yourself is as important as [...]

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• 09.29.06 Two thoughts on the future of video

  This morning’s paper had two interesting articles about home video.

  Warners will be releasing Superman Returns on DVD in China today, two months ahead of the rest of the world, priced almost as low as the ubiquitous counterfeit versions.

  How do you make money selling a DVD for 14 yuan ($1.75)? Well, [...]

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• 07.17.06 J.J. Abrams got a $55+ million deal

  Actually, it’s two deals: one for TV at Warners, and another for film at Paramount. Though I’ve never met the guy, I’m very happy for him. It honestly couldn’t happen to a more deserving guy. Not only has he consistently created great material in the past, he clearly has great work ahead [...]

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• 07.11.06 NPR interview postponed

  Daryl G. Nickens, who edited Doing It for Money, passed away over the weekend. So the interview scheduled for this afternoon — which was supposed to be Daryl, Chris Brancato and myself — has been pushed back to some unspecified date. I’ll let you know when I know.

  Daryl worked mostly in television, with [...]

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• 07.08.06 Who’s that mumbling screenwriter on NPR?

  Barring some sort of Actual News Event, I’ll be one of the guests on Airtalk this Tuesday, July 11th at 11:30 a.m. (At least, that’s the time for Los Angeles listeners.)

  Host Judy Muller will be talking with Chris Brancato and me about the book Doing It for Money: The Agony and Ecstasy of [...]

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• 06.24.06 So I made a movie

  My extended absence from johnaugust.com can now be explained: I’ve just finished shooting a movie, an honest-to-God feature film. A tiny film, to be certain, more likely to be seen at festivals than fourteen-plexes, but a movie nonetheless.

  Officially, it’s my directing debut, but it hasn’t really felt like it.

  As screenwriters go, I’ve always [...]

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• 05.28.06 Gone fishin’

  Since I haven’t posted for more than a week, several readers have written in to make sure I hadn’t gotten trapped in an air vent, or shanked by a pencil-wielding grammar prescriptivist.

  I assure you I’m fine. Great, actually. I’m just busy as hell on a new project that will keep me away from [...]

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• 02.03.06 Redesign, part one

  Readers who visit the web site, as opposed to getting it through the feeds, will notice a few changes, both cosmetic and architectural.

  We’ll start with the obvious stuff. The blue header is a little bluer, the footer is fatter, and there are fewer entries per page.

  There’s now an archive listing on every page of [...]

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• 01.06.06 Something weird with the RSS feed

  If you’re reading this site through the feeds, an FYI: the plain-old RSS feed (the 0.92 version) isn’t working right for some reason. You’d be better off with the 2.0 version or the Atom feed, both of which seem to work fine.

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• 12.08.05 Dude, I got a Grammy nomination

  This morning I opened my email to find a note from my friend James LaRosa, congratulating me on my Grammy nomination. I had no idea what he was talking about.

  But I went to the Grammy site, and lo and behold, there’s my name. Apparently the announcements were this morning in New [...]

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• 11.29.05 About the Store

  Over in the right-hand column, you’ll see a link for the Store. The link has been there for a couple of weeks now, but I neglected to mention it — originally because I didn’t want to seem gross and commercial, and later because I forgot. But if you’re reading this site strictly through [...]

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• 10.25.05 Comments are working again

  Apologies to any readers who found that their comments over the last few days fell into a black hole. The culprit was a new comment-spam filter which proved to be 100% effective.

  It blocked everything. Sigh.

  Everything should be fixed now. You’ll also notice that any new comments from John now show up with a [...]

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• 10.10.05 What happened

  On Sunday morning, I woke up, fed my daughter, and read the Los Angeles Times. There was a good article about Joss Whedon’s Serenity, which managed to shoot in Los Angeles at a reasonable budget, largely because of smart planning.

  Yet another reason to admire Joss Whedon.

  I headed out the office to blog [...]

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• 10.09.05 Yes, some stuff is broken

  I’ve upgraded the installation, which has broken certain sections. I’m working on getting most of it up this afternoon.

  It’s a long, and kind of interesting story about what happened, which I’ll post once things are working a little more smoothly.

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• 09.16.05 My NY Times profile, Rashomon-style

  This past May, the New York Times had a very nice profile piece on me in the Arts and Leisure section, written by Bob Baker. I liked it. Many people called to say they’d seen it. And that was that.

  It was only as I was sifting through the referrer logs on Friday [...]

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• 09.02.05 O Great Rosenfeld!

  The fifty or so friends and family on my Christmas card list this past year got signed copies of Daniel Wallace’s O Great Rosenfeld!, which tells the story of a hapless prehistoric tribe.

  Daniel describes it as a kid’s book for adults. Being a crass Hollywood type, I say it’s Quest for Fire [...]

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• 08.22.05 New server on the way

  Good news for those readers frustrated by the all-too-frequent outages at this site: we’re moving to a new server, which will hopefully not flake out as often. If it does, I’ll change service providers. Again. Sigh.

  There may be a little turbulence this week as the new server settles in. Caveat browser.

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• 08.11.05 Big Fish’s Karl the Giant has died

  Matthew McGrory, who played Karl the Giant in Big Fish, died Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 32.

  While his character in the film was about eleven feet tall, in real life, Matthew was “only” a bit over seven feet. While he was big, you didn’t really sense he was a giant until you [...]

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• 07.21.05 Two big debuts

  This past weekend, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory opened to strong reviews and a hefty $56.2 million at the box office. I’m happy, of course, but that good news was eclipsed by even better news: the birth of my daughter on Monday.

  Her long-awaited arrival explains my lack of posting this past week, and the [...]

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• 06.16.05 Hey look! err..Listen! John’s on NPR. Briefly.

  After meeting a friend-of-a-friend at a birthday party over the weekend, I ended up getting pressed into service for a story on NPR’s Day to Day.

  Reporter Mike Pesca wanted to talk about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s challenges converting his action-movie persona into a consensus-building governor, and wanted to talk to a screenwriter about it. [...]

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• 06.13.05 Introducing Off-Topic

  This website is billed as “a ton of useful information about screenwriting,” but I have many interests that don’t fall within that framework, no matter how broadly I try to stretch it.

  So as a way to service these off-topic interests, I’m happy to introduce Off-Topic.

  Off-Topic is not about screenwriting. At least, not [...]

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• 05.23.05 Weekend numbers

  It’s not quite the Slashdot effect, but Sunday’s article in the NY Times did result in a spike in readership, as the chart shows:

  Average traffic for a Sunday is about 2,800 sessions; yesterday, the total was 5,500. (A “session” is a way of measuring individual visitors to a site, while “hits” simply refers to [...]

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• 05.21.05 Greetings NY Times readers

  If you’re coming to johnaugust.com after reading the story in this weekend’s Calendar Arts & Leisure section, welcome. Please feel free to poke around.

  This site isn’t used to a crush of visitors, so if things load a little slowly, please be patient. And if everything grinds to a halt, please come back later [...]

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• 05.18.05 Recycled articles

  One of the suggestions from the survey was to highlight previous articles from the archives. I agreed, because (a) the readership has grown quite a bit recently, and (b) the archives are kind of daunting right now.

  So, every once in a while, I’ll be pulling old articles up to the front — generally entries [...]

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• 05.06.05 Readers speak, part two

  Yesterday, I went through the top survey suggestions related to the site’s content. Today’s topic is everything else, from usability to new features.

  THE ARCHIVES

  Feature the archived stories and threads a little more prominently. There is some great information in those old postings that many don’t know exist.

  Good suggestion. I may dust off older entries [...]

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• 05.05.05 Readers speak, part one

  In the recent survey, I got a lot of hard numbers to back up and/or refute my assumptions about who reads johnaugust.com. I also got a lot of good suggestions from Question 10, which read: “If I could do one thing to improve johnaugust.com, I would…”

  Here’s a sampling of what people wrote, and how [...]

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• 05.02.05 Sundance Screenwriters Lab announces projects

  For the past four years, I’ve been one of the creative advisors to the twice-yearly Sundance Screenwriters Lab, a program which connects working screenwriters with emerging independent filmmakers. Because of work commitments, I’ve actually missed the past three labs, so I’m happy to be going back again this June.

  The Sundance Institute recently announced the [...]

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• 04.25.05 Who are you? Where do you come from?

  On Sunday, I had lunch with Mary Edrington, my former marketing professor from Drake. She was one of the best teachers I ever had, because she did the near-impossible: she made me care about boring numbers. Even though I was much more attuned to the creative side of marketing, I always appreciated [...]

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• 04.04.05 Back to the Word Factory

  This is my soliloquy, spoken directly to the audience, somehow unheard by the other characters onstage: I love to travel, but mostly, I love to get home.

  Vacation trips always seem to last one day too long — except when they’re entirely too short. No matter how long the voyage, it’s usually [...]

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• 03.27.05 Happy Easter from Beijing

  I’m in China for a week of sight-seeing, research for one those Someday Scripts I hope to eventually write. The project is very much Old World, so most of my time has been spent tromping around the Great Wall, the Summer Palace and the Forbidden City, getting a feel for the architecture and details [...]

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• 03.08.05 Archives section working, sort of

  The Archives link, which has been broken ever since switching hosts, is now un-broken — which is not to say fixed.

  In its previous incarnation, the Archives section could be sorted by category and date, in a variation on the familar Sortable Nicer Archives kludge for WP. (Click here for an example.) However, [...]

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• 01.21.05 Archives section (temporarily) broken

  As someone pointed out — and many others have discovered — the Archives link on the right is broken. Click it and you’ll get a bunch of MySQL gibberish, which is actually the result of a few PHP commands that aren’t doing what they’re supposed to.

  The move from the old web host [...]

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• 01.06.05 A new year, new technical difficulties

  I’m back from two weeks in Australia, a country that’s just as great as everyone makes it out to be. While I was gone, there was all kinds of behind-the-digital-scenes drama at johnaugust.com, most of which hopefully wasn’t visible to Loyal Readers.

  Basically, the webhosting company moved the site to a “non-production server” [...]

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• 11.28.04 Back to work

  After the trip to Miami for the Urban Challenge, and an extended Thanksgiving weekend, it’s finally back to work. That is, if I can avoid the life-destroying forces of World of Warcraft.

  For those who are curious, I’ll eventually get the full write-up of the Miami race posted. The short version is that we [...]

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• 11.16.04 Off to Miami

  I’m heading to Miami tomorrow morning for the Urban Challenge championships, so don’t expect any other updates until Monday.

  For those who are keeping track, we qualified for the national race back in July, by placing in the top 10 in the Los Angeles race. The Miami race itself is on Saturday, but we’re [...]

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• 11.01.04 New comment spam blocker

  Over the weekend, the site got hit by more than 130 comment spams. These are junk messages added to the comment sections of individual articles, usually consisting of links to off-shore gambling, viagra and vioxx. Spammers use automated scripts to leave the same message on article after article, site after site. It’s [...]

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• 10.27.04 Good “Choose or Lose” spot

  I haven’t written at all about the upcoming election, for two main reasons. First, a sizable percentage of readers live outside the United States. Second, it’s none of my damn business who you want to vote for.

  I have definite opinions about the candidates and issues, but this site is about writing and filmmaking. [...]

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• 10.18.04 Back from Austin

  The screenwriting portion of the Austin Film Festival was the past weekend, and I was happy to be a panelist. I was in three sessions. The first was about writer’s block; the second was the action genre; the third was on editing your script.

  For the writer’s block panel, I referred to a book [...]

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• 10.14.04 Good Daniel Wallace interview up

  Strange Horizons has a new interview with Daniel Wallace, the novelist who wrote BIG FISH. It’s definitely worth checking out his perspective on the movie, and how the original writer deals with seeing his work changed in the process of adaptation.

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• 10.13.04 Writers Guild agreement reached

  Suddenly, the five-month pause in negotiations between the Writers Guild and the studios has ended, with a tentative agreement announced today.

  For those who haven’t been following the situation, film and television writers have been working without a contract since June 2nd. The Writers Guild walked away from the studios “last, best offer” because [...]

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• 10.04.04 New Fox show announced

  Both The Hollywood Reporter and Variety had stories today about the new one-hour drama that I’m developing for Fox with Jordan Mechner, the writer of Prince of Persia.

  The show is about two guys, business partners, who work as private military contractors. They run their own startup firm. Week-to-week, they find themselves in the [...]

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• 09.10.04 My schedule for the Austin Film Festival

  As I mentioned previously, I’m going to be one of the panelists at the Austin Film Festival this October 14-17. I now know my schedule, so I can at least pretend to be prepared to talk about the following topics of interest.

  (Standard caveat: everything is subject to change.)

  Saturday, 10/16

  10:45AM - 12PM Writer’s Block When your [...]

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• 09.09.04 All the Feeds you can eat

  The Feeds section is now up and running, offering RSS and Atom feeds for all the content on the site. If you’re subscribing to one of the old feeds, update it now, because the old ones won’t be functional after this week.

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• 09.09.04 Get yer Downloads here

  I’ve moved all of the .pdfs from the old site into one handy repository: the new Downloads section, which is available on the right-side menu.

  All of the scripts and outlines from Go, Big Fish and The Circle are there. You’ll also find the scripts for my first ill-fated TV show, D.C., which staggered through a [...]

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• 09.07.04 New look, new engine

  It’s been a while in coming, but I finally converted johnaugust.com over from Movable Type to WordPress, and redesigned a few things along the way. Well, okay; I redesigned pretty much everything. For people who are used to the old tabs-across-the-top layout, it may take a little while to get used to, but [...]

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• 08.25.04 Speaking at the Austin Film Festival

  I’m going to be headed to the Austin Film Festival from October 14-21, 2004, where I’ll be speaking on a few yet-to-be-determined panels.

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• 07.28.04 Off to Phoenix

  Tomorrow, I’m giving a short talk at the Art Institute of Phoenix. I talk to a lot of classes, so that’s not unusual. But a couple of things are making me feel strangely corporate. For instance:

  I’m just flying in for the day. I’m flying out of Burbank, rather than LAX. I’m giving a PowerPoint [...]

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• 07.18.04 Urban Challenge re-cap now available

  There’s a recap available of our experience in the Los Angeles Urban Challenge.

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• 07.12.04 Back from vacation, and the Urban Challenge

  I’m back from a much-needed vacation on the East Coast, where I was literally on an island, away from all movies and television. Cell-phone service was spotty, and internet was of the dial-up variety. Like Robinson Crusoe, it was primitive as can…well, it wasn’t that primitive, actually.

  The truth is, I was staying in [...]

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• 06.16.04 Everyone in London smokes

  For the past week, I’ve been in London working on the last details for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. My eyes have been really dry and scratchy, which made me worry I was geting conjunctivitis (a.k.a. “pink eye”) or a stye (a.k.a. “who hit you?”). For various reasons — stress, lack of sleep [...]

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• 05.30.04 Panelist at the Nashville Screenwriters Conference

  For readers in the Nashville area — or those up for drive — I’ll be speaking on one of the panels at the Nashville Screenwriters Conference this coming weekend, June 4-6, 2004.

  I don’t know the full schedule yet — or even the specific topic upon which I’m supposed to dispense wisdom. However, [...]

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• 05.11.04 Article about Rawson Thurber in the June issue of Premiere

  The June issue of Premiere magazine — on newstands now! — has a nice article on Rawson Thurber, who longtime readers will recall was my faithful assistant from ‘99 to ‘02. He wrote and directed this summer’s DODGEBALL: A TRUE UNDERDOG STORY, which I’ve seen twice and highly recommend. If you watch [...]

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• 05.08.04 Screenwriting software survey results are in

  Two weeks ago, I set up a survey to gauge how screenwriters felt about the screenwriting software they used. This morning, I closed the survey, which capped out at 130 responses — most of them coming the first week. My thanks to all the writers who participated.

  Is 130 responses a statistically valid sample? [...]

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• 04.22.04 Survey up for screenwriting software

  The ongoing conversation about screenwriting software, prompted by the release of Final Draft 7.0, has gotten a lot of readers wondering why a better program isn’t out there. After all, compared with the complexity of editing video or managing a website, simply formatting a script should be cake. It’s just words, after all. [...]

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• 02.19.04 British Film Awards in London

  I just returned from London, where I was attending the Orange British Film Awards, also known as the Bafta’s. Big Fish was up for seven awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay. We won exactly zero. But it was a very fun time, and truly an honor to have been nominated.

  A few observations: Stephen Fry is [...]

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• 02.09.04 Script in March 2004 Esquire

  I have an 11-page piece in the March 2004 issue of Esquire, the one with Mark Ruffalo on the cover.

  A bit of backstory: When doing publicity last year for Big Fish, I agreed to model for this fashion piece Esquire was doing. Considering that I loathe having my picture taken, this [...]

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• 01.27.04 Big Fish receives Oscar nomination for Best Score

  This morning, Danny Elfman’s score for BIG FISH was nominated for an Academy Award. It’s well-deserved. His score is subtle, never flashy, and really works to support the movie rather than call attention to itself.

  While I’m delighted we got this nomination, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed [...]

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• 01.27.04 Big Fish script

  Newmarket Press will be publishing a paperback version of the BIG FISH screenplay in February. It will be loaded with extras, including photos, production notes, and intros by Daniel Wallace and John.

  In the meantime, you can download a .pdf version of the final shooting script here. Print it out on three-hole [...]

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• 01.20.04 Big Fish receives seven BAFTA nominations

  Yesterday, BIG FISH got seven nominations from BAFTA, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. The BAFTA awards are the closest thing to a British Oscar. Our categories are Film, Direction, Adapted Screenplay, Actor in a Supporting Role (Albert Finney), Production Design, Visual Effects and Make Up & Hair.

  I love [...]

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• 01.11.04 Big Fish opens at #1

  According to Sony’s figures — which agree with most of the others I’ve seen reported — BIG FISH came in at number one for the weekend, earning about $14.5 million, compared to RETURN OF THE KING’s $14.1 million.

  Since it’s only now Sunday, how can studios say how much they earned for the weekend? Well, [...]

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• 12.20.03 Big Fish gets four Golden Globe nominations

  On Wednesday at about 5:36 a.m. Pacific Time, we found out that BIG FISH received four Golden Globe nominations: Best Picture (Musical or Comedy), Best Supporting Actor (Albert Finney), Best Song (Pearl Jam’s “Man of the Hour”) and Best Score (Danny Elfman). We were happy. Sony was happy. The marketing people [...]

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• 12.20.03 Big Fish gets five Broadcast Film Critics Award nominations

  Earlier this week, we were happy to learn that Big Fish got five Broadcast Film Critics Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director (Tim Burton), Best Writer (John), Best Song (Pearl Jam’s “Man of the Hour”) and Best Score (Danny Elfman). Although I never believe it when I hear other people say it, it’s [...]

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• 10.27.03 Interview up at charliesangels.com

  Mike Pingle, who runs the Angelic Heaven website, has posted the transcript of a recent phone interview he did with me regarding the new FULL THROTTLE DVD, which came out last week.

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• 10.24.03 GO at Arclight tickets available

  Tickets for the special screening of GO at Arclight in Hollywood on November 25th are now available for sale. The movie starts at 7:00 p.m., followed by a Q&A with John, hosted by MENACE II SOCIETY screenwriter Tyger Williams.

  A couple of nice coincidences: the Arclight is just down the street from the supermarket [...]

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• 09.19.03 Special GO screening Nov. 25th at the ArcLight

  On Tuesday, November 25th, GO is being screened as part of the “Story to Glory” series at the ArcLight Cinema in Hollywood, followed by a Q&A with me. Will I say something profound and brilliant? No. But I’ll hopefully be coherent.

  I haven’t seen GO on a big screen since 1999, so I’ll probably just watch it beforehand so I remember the plot. Plus, the ArcLight is by far my favorite movie theater in Los Angeles, since they let you reserve your individual seat. Along with my TiVo and my Prius, the ArcLight is one of my favorite modern conveniences.

  The ArcLight theaters are big, so I’m not expecting it to sell out. But as soon as there is ticket information, I’ll put it up.

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• 09.18.03 Daniel Wallace website now open

  Daniel Wallace, author of the novel Big Fish, has opened his own website with information about his books, illustrations and screenplays. It’s great. In fact, it has me sick with envy. Daniel even has links through which you can buy his books from Amazon — which you should, because that way he’ll get [...]

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• 09.10.03 New RSS Feed

  This site now has an RSS feed, located here. If you click on the link, you’ll see that it comes up as badly formatted text. That’s because it’s designed to be used by something other than a standard web browser. Depending on your level of jadedness, RSS is either a brilliant new solution for content [...]

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