People – The Thinking Writer

Sider-ways

Writer/Screenwriter Rex Pickett, whose unpublished novel became the basis for the screenplay Sideways (and then the novel got published) is out with the sequel novel, Vertical. Pickett is thrilled with Alexander Payne, but not thrilled with the book’s original publisher. To get hopelessly depressed about both the movie industry and the publishing industry, read about his travails in the Yamhill Valley News Register. (Yamhill Valley is Oregon wine country and apparently part of the new novel.)

Hollywood Won’t Let Him Do Good

Oscar-winning screenwriter Ben Affleck says that Hollywood won’t let him make a movie about the strife in the Democratic Republic of Condo, which is one of his passion causes. I wonder if Ben knows that big stars can make little important films outside of Hollywood. [Via Yahoo/AFP]

Who Wrote The King’s Speech?

The Jewish Journal has a fascinating article about screenwriter David Seidler, who escaped from Nazi’s, was almost torpedoed on his way to America, and grew up escaping into writing as a refuge from his own speech impediment, then later drew from these experiences to write the screenplay for The King’s Speech. It is worth a read.

If You Know These People, Suck Up

Everything Is Copy

Nora Ephron with a vampire — flickr|david_shankbone

Nora Ephron tells the Kansas City Star how coming from a f%^&d-up family helped her to be a successful screenwriter/novelist/director/etc. If only that were they key….

Disarming Interview

Here’s a quick interview with screenwriter Simon Beaufoy, writer of highly entertaining, but excruciating film 127 Hours. (Via Critics Choice Movies YouTube channel.)

He Really Wanted To Be A Lawyer

Liam O’Donell moved to Los Angeles in order to try to get into law school. Good thing he took a screenwriting course in college to have something to fall back on. His new film is Skyline. Do you want to scream or pout?

Commie, Pinko, Screenwriter

Today, how about a Marxist book review (are there really still Marxists?) of a new tome about brilliant (communist) American screenwriter John Howard Lawson. If you do not know Lawson, consider that his book Theory and Technique of Playwriting and Screenwriting (1949) today sells used on Amazon.com for $225. It is a seminal work on dramatic writing and much more thoughtful than the still ever-popular Lajos Egris book The Art of Dramatic Writing (1946). However, you can get Egris’ book for less than $15 new. Sounds like a socialist plot.