screenwriters
Lucky WGA Writer Tumbles Down Ukrainian Rabbit Hole, Discovers Scribe-Worshipping Wonderland
6:04AM Mark | Recognizing that striking writers could really use a positive story to lift their flagging spirits after enduring so many disheartening months of marching in circles and dodging the occasional vehicular manslaughter attempt by lead-footed studio employees, this week’s LAT Scriptland column relates the inspiring tale of improbably named WGA member Billy Frolick, who, by accepting “a mysterious offer” to script a Ukranian animation project, suddenly found himself transported to a kind of Bizarro Hollywood where scribes were not only not regarded with typical scorn, but treated as royalty. We join our narrative in progress, as Frolick alights in Kiev to meet his new collaborators: More »
Short Ends: Checking In With America’s Favourite Crazy-In-Love Astronaut
6:10AM Defamer Hollywood | Remember, Lisa Marie Nowak, adult-undergarment-wearing, crazy-in-love astronaut? When Toni Collette finally gets the call for Breaking Orbit: The Lisa Marie Nowak Story, this clip of her asking to be freed of her cumbersome electronic ankle monitor will help the actress more fully inhabit the surefire Emmy-winning role. “Hey, that Hannah Montana show/Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode sounds a lot like my idea for a secret-rockstar-in-high-school show/third-place-winning script contest entry!” say aggrieved writers in different stages of the tilting-at-studio-windmills process. Don’t watch this if you’d like to avoid seeing moving images of Jack Nicholson eating a sandwich while shirtless. The Dirty Sanchez crew is including a barf bag with their DVDs; don’t be surprised if their stateside competitors decide to up the ante by packaging a fart mask in a special directors’ cut of Jackass 2. The world held its breath when Katie Holmes nearly fumbled Suri while twisting an ankle in Paris, but quickly exhaled once it saw that her omnipresent baby-retention team was on hand to make sure no harm could come to the infant. More »
The Hollywood Pitch Festival: Where Crazy Screenwriting Dreams Meet Bored Development Execs
2:00AM Defamer Hollywood | Given that being locked in a room with 200 desperate, aspiring writers willing to pay $US400 a head to have a representative of Legitimate Hollywood politely nod through their pitches for “Transformers meets Harry Potter, but where the transforming wizards are all animated woodland creatures” sounds like a genital-punishing exercise outside of the pain threshold of even the most masochistic, CBT-loving of producers and agents, one might wonder if participating in events like the recent Fade In Hollywood Pitch Festival is worth the unlikely reward of hearing a new voice among the crazy-idea-spewing din. As it turns out, there’s at least one attractive benefit for the reps grudgingly agreeing to pitchfest duty, as the NY Times reports: “I feel like I’m on ‘American Idol,’ and I’m crushing people’s dreams,” said a talent agent from Endeavor after having swiftly nixed six hicks’ pix. Citing her company’s policy, she insisted on anonymity. More »
Affleck And Damon To Surf Their Way To Second Screenwriting Oscar
7:30AM Defamer Hollywood | After almost ten years of creative paralysis brought on by wondering when the Academy repo men would arrive to snatch the Good Will Hunting Best Original Screenplay Oscar from his mantel as punishment for every career-sabotaging choice he’s made since 2002, Ben Affleck has decided to stop living in fear and take proactive steps towards winning a second one, phoning partner/lifelong BFF Matt Damon and inviting him on a creative retreat in Hawaii. Reports Us Weekly in their new Procrastinating Screenwriters, They’re Just Like Us! feature: “They’re really excited about it,” says the source. [...] More »
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Writer Takes Crazy Staffing Season Dream To YouTube
8:14AM Defamer Hollywood | Today’s LAT publicises the plight of local TV-writing hopeful David McMillan, who after completing the CBS Diversity Institute’s Writers Mentoring Program and enduring three unsuccessful staffing seasons, has this year decided to distinguish himself from the other faceless hopefuls watching their careers quietly die in the spec script slush pile by harnessing the power of the internets for some self-promotion. He’s seized control of his own destiny by posting a clip of the top ten reasons he should be given a staff gig, then mailing off the URL to his industry contact list. Career suicide, or clever stunt that will land him a few meetings with executives anxious to meet the YouTube guy so that they can brag to their friends over lunch at the commissary that they met the YouTube guy? You be the judge. More »
