With Twilight, the series of teen-lit vampire romance novels that have courted 13-year-old girls and their mothers more heroically than Miley Cyrus ever could, there are two factions: The uninitiated and the over-initiated. But come November 21, only the latter bloc will remain as the first novel's movie adaptation, directed by Catherine Hardwicke and starring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, will be released in the United States. A few weeks before the predictable chaos of screaming fans and swooning pre-teens reaches its tipping point, MM spoke with screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg, who was unaware of Twilight altogether (blasphemous, we know) when she was offered the job of adapting it for the screen.

As eye the home stretch of the 2008 presidential race and brace for the endless "I approved this message" tags, it may seem cruel and unusual punishment to consider a raft of political films. But these 15 standouts offer a useful primer on politics American-style.

With the release of Changeling, J. Michael Straczynski's first feature screenwriting credit and the latest directorial effort for Clint Eastwood, starring Angelina Jolie and John Malkovich, Straczynski has turned into a wanted man in Hollywood. His list of upcoming collaborators reads like the guest list at a Steven Spielberg dinner party: Tom Hanks, Ron Howard, Paul Greengrass, Tom Cruise, the Wachowski brothers. In between working on numerous scripts for these (now-fellow) A-listers, Straczynski took a break to speak with MM about his transformation into an in-demand Hollywood scribe and the challenges of trying to make the truly unbelievable real-life story of Christine Collins and her lost son seem believable.

The so-called “Italian Hitchcock” makes horror movies unlike any other. His movies are renowned for their inventive, sinuous camerawork, elaborate, intense set pieces that build to acts of graphic violence and strange, unreal atmospheres in which everything seems dream-like and slightly illogical. With their odd acting, blaring soundtracks and shocking violence, his movies take place in a surreal otherworld, one in which Argento is the demonic puppet master, pulling the strings of eager-to-be scared horror fans all over the world.

After years of working in film and theater production, Eli Roth won the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films' Filmmaker’s Showcase Award for his first movie, Cabin Fever and went on to direct and produce Hostel, one of the most famously brutal, violent horror movies to come out of Hollywood in recent decades. This young director, who has been called “the future of horror” by friend and frequent collaborator Quentin Tarantino, still has a long career ahead of him to thrill and chill audiences and shake up the horror genre.

Screenwriters know the panic all too well: Their 125-page masterpiece is just five pages over the typical screenplay length for a feature film, leaving their work somewhere between the realm of never-to-be-seen or, at best, a producer’s trash can. So with margin change after margin change, fonts reduced, line heights diminished until words are nearly sitting atop each other, page numbers duplicated and the screenplay’s format looking strangely stretched on the special lightweight paper purchased to fool those who pick the script up, the script has been successfully “cheated,” right?

There have been countless comparisons made between Lorene Scafaria, the talented screenwriter behind Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, and Juno writer Diablo Cody since both of them penned indie-minded comedies that attracted understated charmer Michael Cera to star. But the similarities between the two promising writers end there. Unlike Cody, Scafaria has been in the business for quite some time, writing screenplays (Nick and Norah is merely her first to be produced) and appearing in independent films.

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist debuted third at the weekend U.S. box office, but before the movie made a splash with audiences, MovieMaker spoke with Lorene Scafaria about the movie, her inspiration and projects on the horizon.

While he’s only directed a handful of movies, many of Clive Barker's frightful stories have made it to the big screen, like Candyman and The Midnight Meat Train (2008), and he's produced movies like Gods and Monsters (1998). With Tortured Souls: Animae Damnatae, his first directing gig in 14 years, and a remake of Hellraiser on the way, now is a good time to catch up with the moviemaking triple-threat.

You’ve seen him in movies and on TV. He’s that smarmy, balding, authoritative guy in State and Main (2000), In Good Company (2004) and this year’s blockbuster Iron Man (2008); on the hit CBS sitcom “The New Adventures of Old Christine” he plays Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ ex-husband. Yet, what you might not know is that he’s also a founding member and former artistic director of the Atlantic Theater Company in New York and made his screenwriting debut with the successful 2000 Robert Zemeckis thriller What Lies Beneath, starring Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer. On September 26th, Choke, his directorial debut and one of the most talked about movies at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, will be released into theaters. What’s this versatile guy’s name again, you may ask? Meet Clark Gregg.

Beginning writers (read: unemployed writers) look for merely two characteristics in their screenwriting software: Low price and a tolerable level of functionality. And if need be, the latter will be waived for the former. Thanks to a new partnership between Scripped and Write Brothers Inc., this sacrifice may not be necessary anymore.

After 30 years in the making, screenwriter John Fusco's The Forbidden Kingdom made it to theaters, featuring the martial art talents of none other than Jackie Chan and Jet Li. On September 9th, Lionsgate released the movie on a two-disc special edition DVD and Blu-ray disc. Before the release Fusco spoke with MM about The Forbidden Kingdom, screenwriting tricks of the trade and how the industry has changed since the beginning of his career.

In 1999, a plastic ball floated in the wind—the most beautiful thing ever seen by the strange boy next door—and with that, Alan Ball won an Academy Award for his very first screenplay, American Beauty. Nine years later, he's making his feature directorial debut with Towelhead, which, even before its release, is confronting controversy for its title and few key scenes.

A multi-generational tale about an undocumented farm worker and his widowed daughter-in-law could be the unexpected box office hit of the Fall. Or, at least, that's what writer-director Chris Eska is hoping for when his first feature film, August Evening begins rolling out in theaters September 5. Winner of the 2008 Spirit Awards’ John Cassavetes Award and the Best Film Awards at the Los Angeles and Woodstock Film Festivals, August Evening has already acquired buzz on the festival circuit. Now, it awaits a larger national audience.

For his first feature, writer-director Aaron Wiederspahn has made a winding drama of epic proportions. The challenge, Wiederspahn says, was clear from the beginning: He must take the difficult route if he were to really bring this screenplay to life. In the end that means a movie that revolves around six main characters looking for resolutions to their shared problems. From the estranged father and son to the son’s problems with the law and his own young family, from a mourning brother to a lonely mother, the relationships Wiederspahn created weave a complicated tale of loss and rebirth.

Like the misplaced souls of its story, The Sensation of Sight has gone through a period of uncertainty when after many festival screenings it ended up with a rather unconventional distribution deal. It is this and more that Wiederspahn explains to MovieMaker on the occasion of the movie’s DVD release.

After working as a script doctor for several years, Jeffrey Nachmanoff got his first major credit as the screenwriter of the box office hit The Day After Tomorrow, which he co-wrote with director Roland Emmerich. Now he's getting a chance to show he can do it all himself with the release of Traitor, which hits theaters on August 27th. The film, which stemmed from an idea from Steve Martin (yes, Three Amigos Steve Martin), was written and directed by Nachmanoff and stars Don Cheadle and Guy Pearce. Shortly before the film's release, Nachmanoff talked with MM about the luxury of starting a screenplay with the end already in place and the challenges (and perks) of directing actors who only speak Arabic.

From A Little Princess to What a Girl Wants to The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Elizabeth Chandler has made a career out of writing movies that feature female protagonists. Her latest project, this summer’s The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, is the story of “four young women who share an unbreakable bond” and was adapted from Ann Brashares’ best-selling book series. Previously, it was Chandler who brought Sarah Crewe of the Frances Hodgson Burnett classic A Little Princess to the screen for the 1995 film of the same name. And it was her again who adapted Laura Zigman’s novel Animal Husbandry into 2001’s Someone Like You, starring Ashley Judd as the lovelorn Jane Goodale, who takes romantic matters into her own hands. Throughout her career Chandler has managed to adeptly adapt plucky heroines from the page to the screen. This year proves no different.

Best-known as one of Hollywood's most bankable funnymen, Ben Stiller has always been more interested in what's going on behind the camera. His upcoming slate of films, including Tropic Thunder, which he produced, directed and stars in, is proof positive.

When Ben Stiller was penning his latest film, Tropic Thunder, he probably never imagined the kind of controversy a subplot would create: A call to boycott the film from more than 20 disability advocacy organizations, just days before Tropic Thunder’s August 13th premiere.

Drunk with ideals of fame and fortune like many film industry wannabes who come to Los Angeles mesmerized by the expansive back lots and star-seeking paparazzi on Robinson Blvd., writer-director Stephen Susco quickly realized that he needed to pull his head out of the clouds if he wanted to make it any further in Hollywood. As a graduate student at USC's School of Cinematic Arts, Susco immersed himself in the craft of screenwriting and wrote away, day in and day out. His unrelenting discipline and passion for the craft eventually lead him to his first professional job, with director Ted Demme, before he even received his diploma from USC.

Let’s face it: Without the help of a high-profile agent, a famous uncle or a replenishing bank account, it can be extremely tough to “make it” as a Hollywood screenwriter. As most production companies refuse unsolicited scripts, agencies keep their contact information hidden and nearly everyone you meet in Los Angeles claims to have a screenplay (or even multiple) in the works, the odds of standing out from the rest of the starry-eyed crowd seem like they are hardly ever in your favor.

Othello director Oliver Parker trims about 50 percent of the text, delivering an audience-friendly two-hour running time without muddling the play’s clear plotting. His script severely restricts the dialogue entrusted to Desdemona (played by Irène Jacob) and handicaps Laurence Fishburne, who exudes hearty sexual swagger and adopts a rich, almost Caribbean accent, but pentameters are alien to an actor more at home in the expletive-ridden worlds of 1990s thrillers like King of New York.

Freddy, Jason and Leatherface have packed it up—and horror legends like George Romero are having a tough time at the box office. What does the future hold for the horror genre?

For years, studio executives have followed a simple formula to cash in on certain franchises: Take a widely acclaimed television show, modernize and condense it into a 90-minute script and out comes an instant crowd-pleaser. Though a handful of TV adaptations have triumphed and achieved critical acclaim, many television-to-film adaptations fail miserably, ultimately revealing that oftentimes the jokes, drama and supernatural should be left to the small screen.

“What is a doorman without a door?” That is the question that director Wayne Price explores in his new movie, The Doorman, a film that balances the line between fact and fiction. The movie is a faux documentary that focuses on exclusive club doorman Trevor W. (Lucas Akoskin) who tries to maintain the façade of his elite lifestyle after the loss of his job. Largely improvised, The Doorman features both actors and non-actors in an interesting (and sometimes comedic) look at the club lifestyle and what happens when one man loses his position of power within that world.

In a world where every cell phone has camera capabilities, the realities of the world are brought into our homes with relative ease. And for the first time ever this means the realities of war are brought along too. Soldiers, armed not only with guns but very often small, one-chip cameras are documenting their war-torn lives.
Everyone’s a moviemaker. But while these affecting stories are making their way beyond army barracks and war zones via email and other Internet tools, rarely do they reach the masses. Sometimes it takes a skilled hand and a known face to alert the public to a greater social purpose. In her second film, STOP-LOSS, writer-director Kimberly Peirce—along with the film's stars, Ryan Phillippe, Channing Tatum, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Abbie Cornish—has put a mirror to the government, asking that they see soldiers as more than numbers, but as human beings—with families—deeply and forever affected by their experiences at war.

On June 12, 2008, legendary Hollywood star Warren Beatty received the 36th AFI Life Achievement Award. The event will air on the USA Network, Tuesday, July 8th at 9 p.m. Guests including Beatty’s wife, Annette Bening, his sister Shirley MacLaine, Julie Christie, Robert Downey Jr., President Bill Clinton, Gene Hackman and old pal Jack Nicholson gathered to honor the multi-faceted moviemaker's contributions and lifetime commitment to cinema.

After playing Marc Antony in the 1950 and 1970 Julius Caesars, Charlton Heston had become obsessed with adapting Antony and Cleopatra, which he considered Shakespeare’s finest work, but which had never previously been filmed at feature length. His love affair with character and play reached a rocky conclusion in this overlong epic.

The press alternately booed and applauded the Cannes premiere of Atom Egoyan's new film, Adoration, and few came to greet the director at his press conference. Granted the film, which tells of a boy who reinvents the mundane story of his parents' death as an international terrorist conspiracy only to face the truth at the end, falls as flat as the bomb that never went off on the plane.

After the disaster that was Lady in the Water, seems like M. Night Shyamalan's backers have got another marketing trick up their sleeve as they release his latest film, The Happening: Promote the hell out of the fact that it's the director's first R-rated movie. It's probably not enough of an incentive to outdo The Incredible Hulk as the summer season box office continues to heat up, but the reviews so far have been on Shyamalan's side. As the sci-fi auteur awaits the final tallies, MM takes a look at the roller coaster ride Shyamalan has his taken critics and audiences on since The Sixth Sense.

Sure Zak Penn can write you a surefire blockbuster. He has proven that time and again with X-Men, Elektra, Fantastic Four. But that's not all he can do. The Grand, an improvisational comedy set in the world of competitive poker that he wrote and directed, contains neither a superhero nor a highfalutin special effect, and is on DVD now. And with his long-awaited adaptation of The Hulk in theaters now, MM asked the in-demand scribe to share the "things he's learned" in the business.

Seems like all those promos must have paid off—first at Cannes, then the TV commercial onslaught—as Kung Fu Panda kicked some serious butt at the box office over the weekend, out-grossing Adam Sandler's new film, You Don't Mess With the Zohan, by 50 percent. The animated action flick, featuring the voices of Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman and Jackie Chan, took in $60 million over the weekend—while Zohan earned $40 million.

Harrison Ford and Shia LaBeouf's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull held strong in the number three position with $22.8 million, while last year's surprise topper, Michael Patrick King's Sex and the City, saw a more than 62 percent decline in ticket sales, with a weekend total of $21.3 million.

In 2004, during the final season of HBO’s “Sex and the City,” Carrie Bradshaw dangerously flirted with love in Paris and the seed for a movie version of the show was planted. As the series came to a climactic close—ending a heady era of Manolo Blahniks, cosmopolitans and candid girlfriend camaraderie—creative leader and executive producer Michael Patrick King toyed with the idea of taking the fabulous foursome to the big screen.

Indiana Jones proved he's still got what it takes—at least in box office clout—as the latest film in the George Lucas-Steven Spielberg franchise, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, whipped the competition, with a box office total on track to be the second biggest Memorial Day movie opening ever. The film, which brings Harrison Ford back in the titular role alongside Cate Blanchett and Shia LaBeouf, brought in just over $125 million for the holiday weekend, putting it just behind Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, which had a Friday-through-Monday total of $139.8 million in 2007.

Though he had previously had minor parts in everything from Sixteen Candles to Broadcast News, John Cusack first made an impression on audiences in Cameron Crowe’s 1989 teen drama Say Anything. Like older sister Joan, he’s been in this business for over 25 years and has damn near done it all. From playing the love interest to the innocent victim of hauntings. Behind the scenes he has taken on the role of writer and producer for some of his most memorable movies. Cusack’s last film, Martian Child, didn’t fare so well with audiences—or critics—but this week he’s getting back to business, starring in War, Inc., which he also co-wrote and produced. Before you head out to see the film in limited release, spend some time revisiting Cusack’s movie career with MM.

Today’s stars keep themselves in better shape than ever before, and audiences seem to like that. In fact, box office receipts for recent flicks featuring some of our favorite aging action heroes are so encouraging that studio execs are practically rubbing their hands together in anticipation of the new Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) and Sylvester Stallone (Rambo) vehicles. Stallone certainly didn’t hurt himself when his more famous screen persona—Rocky Balboa—earned critical acclaim and a respectable $70 million in last year’s titular blockbuster, chasing doubts that the actor-director was simply giving himself a starring role in order to slow a career slide.