Archive for the 'Big Fish' Category

• e  32 Writing on demand

  Screenwriting isn’t a career that only happens in hermit-mode.

• e  35 What does “execution dependent” mean?

  What makes one high-concept idea more execution-dependent than another?

• e  45 How long should it take to write a script?

  Knowing the answer is part of the craft, just like a cabinetmaker promising a delivery date.

• e  19 On creating emotion

  How the writer, actor, director and audience work together.

• e  34 Five quick questions

  One writer, five questions.

• e  8 Short questions, short answers

  Why did Edward Bloom leave Ashland? Does beginners luck exist? Shocking answers revealed, inside!

• e  36 How to cut pages

  Just as important, what NOT to do when trying to cut length. Don’t cheat.

• e  13 Return to Spectre

  Derek Frey recently traveled back to Montgomery, Alabama, and took some great shots of the remaining sets from Big Fish. You can see them all here.

• e  49 Rethinking motivation

  Try replacing the question of what the character wants/needs with, “Why is the character doing what he’s doing?”

• e  16 And I barely know who she is now

  At the Grammy Awards last night, my friend Jen pointed to presenter Miley Ray Cyrus and said, “You know she was in Big Fish, right?”

  I insisted that was impossible, and immediately tried to pull up IMDb on my iPhone in order to prove her wrong. But the network inside Staples Center was massively overwhelmed, [...]

• e  22 Blu-ray on a cold day

  With Warners picking Blu-ray, and Paramount rumored to have an escape clause letting it follow right behind, I finally bought my first Blu-ray disc: Big Fish. And a PS3 to play it on.1

  Movies I’ve written are available on both formats, so I didn’t really care who won in the HD DVD vs. Blu-ray battle. I [...]

• e  22 Tin Fish

  I knew that the Tin Man poster looked familiar.

• e  16 Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician

  Daniel Wallace, the dashing and talented writer who wrote Big Fish (the novel), has a brand new book in stores for your purchasing pleasure: Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician. I read it a bazillion years ago — books take a surprisingly long time to go from manuscript to shelf — so I’ll let [...]

• e  9 Fish food for thought

  One benefit of leaving the comment threads open is that sometimes a long-dead post gets a surge of new activity. Over the past month, I’ve noticed a few new comments on a 2004 post featuring this photo…

  …which is, according to Snopes, probably real in the sense that it’s not Photoshopped — though it’s probably [...]

• e  11 Publicity 101

  It would be nice if the general public had some sense that movies are actually written, and that the actors aren’t making up their dialogue.

• e  Comments Off I would have gone with “catfishscan”

  This from Daniel Wallace, the author of Big Fish:

  Big Fish is taking over a small town in Alabama (link). And in this spirit when, just the other day, someone caught another one of those big catfish you hear about. They took it to the hospital and put it under a catscan. I am [...]

• e  98 Clive Cussler really, really dislikes Sahara

  An author rails against his Hollywood adaptation.

• e  4 Update on the promiscuous player problem

  My plea for a DVD player with loose morals and low standards was answered by many thoughtful readers. I ended up picking the Philips DVP-642 ($49 at Amazon), which not only zips through questionably-recorded dailies, but even Peixe Grande e Suas Histórias Maravilhosas, the Portuguese version of Big Fish.

  Thanks again.

• e  20 How accurate is the page-per-minute rule?

  Most screenplays are about 120 pages, and most movies are around two hours. But the conversion rate between paper and celluloid is rarely one-to-one.

• e  17 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 [...]

• e  3 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.

• e  Comments Off Good book vs. movie comparison for ‘Big Fish’

  Boxofficeprophets has a well-considered article by Kim Hollis that looks at the differences between Daniel Wallace’s book and the movie version of Big Fish:

  John August’s screenplay does take great liberties with the story detailed in the novel. Much is added or embellished, which is almost necessary given the brevity of the book. None of the [...]

• e  45 A very, very big fish

  This from Daniel Wallace, a photo of two guys who have apparently caught Edward from BIG FISH.

  Like Mulder from X-Files, I Want to Believe, but in the age of Photoshop, pretty much anything can be faked. But I welcome your opinions. Maybe this really is the biggest catfish in the Ashton river.

   

• e  4 Transcript of my first meeting with Daniel Wallace

  I first met Daniel Wallace, the author of BIG FISH, on October 26, 1998. We met at an IHOP in Richmond, Virginia, and talked about his book and the prospect of making a movie from it.

  I had this interview up at the old site, but it was kind of buried. So here it is, reformatted [...]

• e  3 History of Confederated Products

  Congratulations on Big Fish. I have a silly question concerning the “Confederated Products” throwaway about halfway through that movie. Since that’s a reference to your previous work, rather than Tim Burton’s, how did it get there? That is, did you include it in the script, or did someone else suggest it?

• e  7 Big Fish sells 2 million DVDs in its first week

  According to The Hollywood Reporter, Big Fish sold 2 million DVDs in its first week of release. Many thanks to all of those who bought a copy. Or three. And if you haven’t bought one yet, you can click the pretty picture to buy one through Amazon.

  The screenwriter averages about five cents [...]

• e  3 Big Fish now available on DVD

  BIG FISH came out on DVD yesterday for the U.S. and Canada, and it’s a helluva disc. For starters, it’s prettier than your average DVD: the case is translucent and frosty, the artwork is printed on the reverse side of the cover, and the animated menus are gorgeous. While you’re navigating those menus, [...]

• e  1 Leonard Maltin’s mid-term exam

  I was hoping you could clarify something for me–well actually, a bunch of us from Leonard Maltin’s film class at USC have the same question. One of our potential midterm questions asks: “John August commented that Big Fish differed from typical family films in one specific way. What was the difference he spoke about?”

  Nobody seems [...]

• e  Comments Off Big Fish available on DVD beginning April 27, 2004

  In the U.S. and Canada, BIG FISH will be coming out on DVD (and presumably, VHS) starting April 27, 2004. You can already pre-order Big Fish from Amazon and other sites.

• e  1 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 [...]

• e  26 Metaphors in Big Fish

  My wife and I just saw Big Fish and loved it. We spent hours talking about the metaphors you used, especially what Spectre represented. How do you decide whether to hit people over the head with it or leave it up for interpretation? And are you okay with people coming up with different interpretations?

  –Pete Safran

  Like [...]

• e  Comments Off Paperback version of shooting script now available

  Newmarket Press has published a paperback version of my screenplay for BIG FISH. You can order it here.

  How does the paperback compare to the .pdf version available on this site? Well, it’s the same script, but it adds a kind foreward by Daniel Wallace (who wrote the novel), a very long intro by [...]

• e  4 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 [...]

• e  30 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 [...]

• e  4 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 how [...]

• e  11 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, [...]

• e  2 Big Fish opens wide

  No matter where in North America you live, BIG FISH will finally be “at a theater near you” beginning this Friday, January 9th, 2004. For the last month, the movie has been in very limited release — first in just six theaters, then in 125. We’ve done remarkably well, racking up $20,000 per [...]

• e  3 Big Fish opens in more cities

  Up until now, BIG FISH has only been playing in a total of six theaters in LA, New York and Toronto. On Christmas Day (tomorrow), the movie will expand to 25 cities, with about 125 theaters altogether. (For a point of reference, RETURN OF THE KING is now playing at 3,703 theaters.)

  If BIG [...]

• e  7 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 [...]

• e  3 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 [...]

• e  1 Big Fish opens tomorrow in NY/LA/Toronto

  Although it seems impossible that the date has already come, BIG FISH opens tomorrow (Wednesday, December 10th) in New York City, Los Angeles, and Toronto. It’s only on two screens in each market.

  For LA, these are The Grove and AMC Century 14. Advance tickets for the Century 14 can be found [...]

• e  1 Jinks/Cohen Big Fish interview in The Hollywood Reporter

  BIG FISH producers Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen did a lengthy interview with Martin Grove from The Hollywood Reporter, in which they lay a very good history of the project, and the many challenges involved. It’s a good read if you’re interested in the film’s backstory.

• e  7 Pearl Jam’s “Man of the Hour” in Big Fish

  Pearl Jam has recorded a brand new song called “Man of the Hour” for BIG FISH, which will play over the end credits. I haven’t gotten a legitimate copy of it yet, though I just heard an acoustic version taken from one of their shows earlier this week. This was from a bootleg [...]

• e  Comments Off Big Fish trailer in QuickTime

  The Apple website now has a much better QuickTime version of the movie trailer, available here. Since it’s in QuickTime, you can easily stop it to see some of the stuff that moves by too quickly in the streaming versions, such as conjoined twins Ping and Jing.

• e  Comments Off Big Fish trailer up at Yahoo! Movies

  Daniel Wallace just tipped me off that the Big Fish trailer is now available on Yahoo! Movies. You can find it, and a lot of photos from the production, here. For right now, it’s only available in Real Player and Windows Media Player formats, but Sony is good about getting Quicktime trailers up, so [...]

• e  Comments Off Big Fish on Entertainment Tonight

  On Monday, October 6th, there is supposed to be a segment on Entertainment Tonight about BIG FISH, including the first look at the trailer. In all likelihood, it will be little chunks of the trailer with Bob Goen (or whoever the host is these days) talking over it. But hey, footage is footage.

• e  Comments Off Big Fish trailer to debut on Wednesday

  The theatrical trailer for BIG FISH is finally done, and should be available starting Wednesday. You can expect to see it attached to movies beginning Friday, October 10th.

• e  Comments Off New Big Fish image from Yahoo! movies

  Yahoo! Movies has a posted a few new photos from Big Fish, including this shot that opens the trailer.

  The trailer, by the way, is nearly finished. I’d hope to see it attached to movies within the next few weeks.

• e  Comments Off New Steve Buscemi photo from Big Fish

  The print edition of today’s Variety has a story on Steve Buscemi and the IFP Gotham awards. Along with the article is a new photo from BIG FISH, showing Buscemi as Norther Winslow, the greatest poet of both Ashton and Spectre, who later became a robber and tycoon.

• e  Comments Off Big Fish release date now December 10th

  After absolutely, positively deciding on December 18th as the opening date for Big Fish, Columbia is now apparently moving the release date up more than a week to Wednesday, December 10th. The same release pattern still holds: the movie will start out only in New York, Los Angeles, and Toronto, before expanding into more [...]

• e  Comments Off 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 [...]

• e  Comments Off New Big Fish paperback

  Penguin is issuing a special paperback version of Daniel Wallace’s “Big Fish” with the new cover artwork. (You can see the bigger version of it here.) The cover is essentially the same as the upcoming one-sheet poster.