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Screenwriting
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Jeffrey Nachmanoff Discovers a Traitor
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.
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Elizabeth Chandler Sticks with the Sisterhood
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.
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Ben Stiller's Days of Thunder
Reluctant funnyman still doing his own thing with Tropic Thunder
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.
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Tropic Thunder Creates Storm of Controversy
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.
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Stephen Susco Sees Red
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.
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Anton Diether and Writers Literary: Your Screenplay Connection
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.
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Shakespeare on Film: Othello
The language of Shakespeare trips up the actors in MM's 10th week of Shakespeare on Film
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.
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Is Horror Dead?
Does a changing of the guard mean the end of a genre as we know it?
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?
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The Truth Is Out There: TV Adaptations Don’t Always Succeed
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.
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The Doorman Opens Up
Wayne Price straddles the line between fact and fiction
“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.
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Recalled: Kimberly Peirce Shows the Depths of War in STOP-LOSS
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.
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Warren Beatty Honored with AFI Life Achievement Award
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.
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Shakespeare on Film: Antony and Cleopatra
In MM's sixth week of Shakespeare on film, we examine why Charlton Heston's Antony and Cleopatra didn't fare too well.
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.
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Atom Egoyan's Adoration in the Internet Age
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.
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M. Night Shyamalan Happens
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.
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Zak Penn's Incredible Journey
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.
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Kung Fu Panda Drop Kicks the Competition
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.
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Michael Patrick King Talks About Sex
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.
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Indiana Jones Whips the Competition
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.
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Being John Cusack
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Lights! Camera! Geritol!
Are audiences ready for a rickety Indiana Jones?
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.
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Last Exit to Film Geekdom
Film geeks like to show off; it's in their job description. Whether it's debating the merits of Lars von Trier or discussing which Evil Dead film is the true masterpiece, it's just what they do. Well, thanks to entrepreneur Mike Ford, what they do has just gotten a bit easier to show off. Ford's UK-based company, Last Exit to Nowhere, sells T-shirts based on fictional companies and locations from films. And although the movies represented tend to skew a bit toward cult favorites (designs include the Winchester Tavern from Shaun of the Dead, the Urban Achievers from The Big Lebowski and Jaws' Amity Island), Ford says this was not deliberate.
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David Mamet in Pictures
There isn't anyone quite like David Mamet, the American writer who brought us such films as the steamy 1981 remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice and the groundbreaking 1996 film American Buffalo. More than just a screenwriter, Mamet has brought his characters to life on screen as a director and on stage as a Tony Award-nominated playwright. This week, as audiences prepare for his latest directorial effort, Redbelt, MM revisits some of the work that made him the moviemaker we know today.
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Harmony Korine’s Golden Rules
Harmony Korine first gained notoriety at the age of 22, when his screenplay for Kids, about 24 hours in the life of an HIV-positive teen, was made into a feature film by Larry Clark. Two years later, Korine made his debut as a writer-director with the feature film Gummo, followed by Julien Donkey-Boy in 1999. Nine years later, Korine has returned to the indie film landscape with Mister Lonely, in theaters now courtesy of IFC. Here, Korine shares his 10 "Golden Rules" of moviemaking.
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Harry Potter’s World Comes to a City Near You
It’s really impossible to hear something like “sorting hat” or “invisibility cloak” and not feel at least a little of the allure of Harry Potter's universe. When the films brought the J.K. Rowling books to life, it was through the costuming, set design and props. In 2009, “Harry Potter: The Exhibition” will bring 10,000 square feet of artifacts from the enchanting films to 10 or more cities around the world over a five-year period.
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Nancy Oliver Gets Real
The story of a man and his blow-up doll isn't the first logline that comes to mind when thinking "Oscar nominee," but that's been the real-life experience of screenwriter Nancy Oliver. "It’s been a total trip and surprise and my mind is blown that it all happened," admits Oliver of her script for Lars and the Real Girl, which scored a nomination for Best Original Screenplay earlier this year. Though it's her debut as a feature film scribe, Oliver is no stranger to the writing game. In 2005, she became a co-producer and writer on HBO's "Six Feet Under," a show created by her longtime friend Alan Ball. Today, Oliver's busy collaborating with Ball once again, this time on the new HBO series, "True Blood," and is in the early stages of another film project.
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Tom McCarthy Welcomes The Visitor
It’s worth recounting the central premise of Tom McCarthy’s The Visitor to emphasize that what sounds potentially cloying or cringe-worthy on the page, and would probably sound like fingernails on a chalkboard to studio executives in a pitch meeting, can become something graceful, intimate and incredibly moving in the right hands.
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Independent Spirit
Independent moviemakers explain the inspirations behind their most recent films.
Six independent moviemakers talk of the state of independent moviemaking today and explain the inspirations behind their most recent films.
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Paula Mazur Imagines Nim's Island
For most moviemakers, the only place to go after winning an Oscar, ACE and Emmy award is down—or rehab. But multi-hyphenate Paula Mazur is changing the rules. Best known as a producer, Mazur has spent the last three decades building a reputation as a moviemaker with a discerning eye for high-quality content, whether in television or film, fiction or documentary. After shifting gears to make her directorial debut in 1992, Mazur is adding a new title to her business card, this time as a screenwriter on Nim’s Island.
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Anthony MInghella: 1954 - 2008
Sometimes an artist creates a work you love so much that he or she just become an integral part of your life, etched in your psyche and on your heart, without your ever even having come into actual contact with the person. That is an artist's job—to move and in many ways define you—and when you have a true artist, as Anthony Minghella was, they leave an imprint on your life that never fades.
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Newmarket Press Publishes Best Scripts of 2008
The acclaimed Newmarket Shooting Script series, known for publishing books of renowned screenplays, offers several of this year’s Academy Award-nominated scripts, including Atonement, Juno, The Savages and Michael Clayton. Other 2007 Shooting Scripts include Knocked Up, Dan in Real Life and Margot at the Wedding. In addition to the screenplay itself, Newmarket Shooting Scripts include introductions, still photos and full cast and crew credits. Many books in the series also include interviews with the screenwriter.
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David Magee Lives for Miss Pettigrew
A self-described Midwestern boy from Michigan, screenwriter David Magee is frequenting Hollywood these days. Magee, who actually started as an actor and later honed his writing skills doing novel abridgments, scored both Oscar and Golden Globe nods for his “freshman” feature-length script, Finding Neverland. Now he awaits the release of his “sophomore” effort, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, starring Amy Adams and Frances McDormand, which he calls a lovely, light comedy.
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Oscar’s Biggest Winners
On Oscar night, it's when the telecast ends that the real fun begins. MM catches a glimpse of some of the night's biggest winners—Daniel Day-Lewis, Javier Bardem, Marion Cotillard, Diablo Cody and Joel Coen—at Oscar night's biggest event, the Governors Ball.
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Juno Storms the Spirit Awards
Juno cleaned up at Film Independent's Spirit Awards last night, taking home awards for Best Feature, Best First Screenplay for Diablo Cody and Best Female Lead for Ellen Page. Philip Seymour Hoffman won the Best Male Lead award for Tamara Jenkins' The Savages, with Jenkins herself taking the Best Screenplay Award. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly claimed two of the night's top honors, including Best Director for Julian Schnabel and Best Cinematography for Janusz Kaminski. Irishman John Carney's Once won for Best Foreign Film and Cate Blanchett matched director Todd Haynes' Robert Altman Award with her own for Best Supporting Actress for I'm Not There.
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MovieMaker Goes for the Gold
Academy members may have the final say on who will walk away with the gold at this Sunday’s Oscar ceremony. But that doesn’t mean that we here at MM can’t have a little fun getting in on the action, too. Here, five editors and longtime contributing writers weigh in on Oscar’s hits, misses and most egregious snubs!
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