Craig and I are considering dates and venues for Scriptnotes Live in Los Angeles this summer. Basically, we’d be doing the show in front of a live audience, with guests and questions from the crowd. Maybe even some alcohol if it’s a nighttime thing. Possibilities include the end of June and the end of July. [...]
I’m hosting a panel for the Academy next Wednesday, May 15th, to discuss how technology impacts cinema — both the kinds of stories we tell, and how we tell those stories.
Craig and John look at two recent court decisions that could have a big impact on how movies get sold and resold — and how writers get paid. First-Sale Doctrine is one of those intractable issues that involves freedom and control, bits and atoms, creators and consumers.
Craig and John discuss the big Veronica Mars/Kickstarter news in one of the more contentious podcasts to date. If you like umbrage, this is the show for you.
I spoke with KPCC’s Alex Cohen about Courier Prime last week.
Craig and John discuss a new report that tallies spec script sales for 2012 — with the reminder that selling a spec isn’t necessarily the most important thing for new writers.
Courier Prime is a better version of Courier designed specifically for screenwriters. It’s free and available today.
With last week’s news that home video stopped its free-fall and actually grew a little bit in 2012, John and Craig discuss whether studios might ease off on one-step deals and other development austerity measures.
Big Fish will begin performances September 5 at the Neil Simon Theatre. Opening night is set for October 6.
To commemorate the making and remaking of Karateka, Earl Newton shot a terrific series of behind-the-scenes videos, the first two of which are embedded below.
John and Craig discuss the big movie news of the week: Disney buying Lucasfilm, and with it, the rights to Star Wars.
John and Craig talk about the new show John sold to ABC, which leads to a conversation about the differences between studios and networks, and how writers end up having relationships with both.
Josh Friedman and I just set up a new show called Chosen, produced by 20th Television for ABC. I’ll write the pilot, and if the show goes to series, Josh will run it.
Diablo III squanders a lot of pixels and talent on a middling, uninvolving story.
The new beta of Highland addresses .fdx export issues, Unicode characters, and support for Snow Leopard (OS 10.6).
John and Craig discuss the small, currently leaderless world of Walt Disney Studios, along with its challenges and opportunities.
Craig and John just have to talk about the double-barrel craziness of the Joe Eszterhas/Mel Gibson spat. How often do you have screenwriters lobbing incendiary accusations at movie stars?
The deal between Starz and Netflix expires March 1st, so if you have any titles you’re eager to watch online, get cracking. Among my movies, that includes Go and the first Charlie’s Angels. The Nines and Titan A.E. will still be available.
This week, Craig and John get all Miss Manners to talk about best practices, bad behavior and throwing writers under the bus.
Our new screenwriting utility, Highland, converts between three major formats screenwriters use: PDF, Fountain and Final Draft. It’s in beta today.
Fountain lets you write screenplays in any text editor on any device, from computers to iPads to smartphones. It’s as simple as we could make it, which is what makes it so useful.
In a move that will help absolutely no one, Warners has apparently convinced Netflix to make their site slightly worse for users by imposing a 28-day delay before users can even add a DVD to their queue.
Our new Mac app, Bronson Watermarker, does exactly one thing: watermark PDFs. There are other apps that let you do that (including Adobe Acrobat), but none of them are particularly good. They make simple jobs complicated, and they cost a lot more.
Earlier this year, I was asked to come up with a name for a line of sunflower seeds, part of a Canadian school program aimed at increasing environmental awareness, through gardening, for elementary school children.
Craig and John explain what producers do — at least, what they’re supposed to do — and discuss the myriad subclasses of producers that litter the opening titles of many movies.
