screenwriting

  • Movie News

When Scarface Was In Trouble: Oliver Stone Looks Back in An Exclusive Excerpt From Chasing the Light

Before Scarface launched a boatload of T-shirts, posters, memes, and dubious imitations of Al Pacino’s cocainized Tony Montana, the film,…

4 years ago
  • Movie News

How Dave Chappelle Inspired a Dolemite Is My Name Scene With Wesley Snipes

Dave Chappelle, it turns out, was the inspiration for a memorable scene in Dolemite Is My Name in which Wesley…

4 years ago
  • Movie News

How Dolemite Is My Name Writers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski Went From Roommates to Masters of the Biopic (Podcast)

Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski were USC film students, waiting in line, when they struck up a conversation about horror…

4 years ago
  • Movie News

Star Wars Is More Than a Hero’s Journey—Harness the Power of ‘The Force’ in Your Next Screenplay

Star Wars is back in theaters with another blockbuster episode, The Rise of Skywalker, and at this point, it’s a…

4 years ago
  • Movie News

Quentin Tarantino: What Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood Borrows From The Stuntman

Quentin Tarantino says part of the story structure of Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood is built around an idea…

4 years ago
  • Movie News

Read Queen & Slim Creators Lena Waithe and Melina Matsoukas’ Introduction to Their ‘Love Letter to Blackness’

Queen & Slim writer Lena Waithe and director Melina Matsoukas introduced the film at its worldwide premiere Thursday night at…

5 years ago
  • Screenwriting

Thanos Is the Hero of Avengers: Endgame and Avengers: Infinity War, Films’ Writers Say

Thanos is the hero of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, the films' screenwriters, Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus, said…

5 years ago
  • Spring 2019

MovieMaker’s 15 Submission-Worthy Screenwriting Competitions of 2019, Presented by Coverfly

In his must-read tome Adventures in the Screen Trade, the late, great author William Goldman states: “Writing is finally about…

5 years ago
  • Movie News

Defying the Expectations of Romcom: Long Shot Director Jonathan Levine on Portraying a True Relationship

Jonathan Levine knows what you think about his movie. Schlubby guy, gorgeous woman. He’s funny, was at one time employed,…

5 years ago
  • Annual Lists

Austin Film Festival’s 25 Screenwriters to Watch in 2019, Presented by MovieMaker

Whether you're grinding it out in a large or small market, the first stage of moviemaking—screenwriting—is unenviably lonesome, full of endless…

5 years ago
  • Screenwriting

Making Your Own Breaks: What Resources to Tap and What Rules to Break as a First-Time Screenwriter

When I wrote the screenplay for What They Had, my debut feature about a family thrown into crisis as they…

6 years ago
  • Directing

Maternal Intrigue: Ramón Salazar on Constructing Characters for Sunday’s Illness and How Netflix Saved the Film   

Engaged in muffled psychological warfare, a mother and the daughter she abandoned over three decades ago channel resentment, guilt, and…

6 years ago
  • Screenwriting

Austin Film Festival’s 25 Screenwriters to Watch in 2018, Presented by MovieMaker

Screenwriters are the first to step forward when called upon to deliver their often thankless, solitary labor, and they still tend…

6 years ago
  • First Draft

First Draft: Five Must-Read Classic Holiday Movie Screenplays

In partnership with Creative Screenwriting and ScreenCraft, “First Draft” is a series on everything to do with screenwriting. What makes great holiday movies…

6 years ago
  • Screenwriting

Finding the Human: Dan Gilroy Talks Script Formatting and Writing Roman J. Israel, Esq. on Spec for Denzel Washington

Dan Gilroy's newest movie, Roman J. Israel, Esq. stars Denzel Washington as a legal savant—a civil rights attorney who's been…

6 years ago
  • First Draft

First Draft: Wield These Tips To Conceive, Write, and Format Your Feature-Length Musical

In partnership with Creative Screenwriting and ScreenCraft, “First Draft” is a series on everything to do with screenwriting. You have a great story,…

6 years ago
  • First Draft

First Draft: Remember These Three Key Differences Between Short and Feature Scripts

In partnership with Creative Screenwriting and ScreenCraft, “First Draft” is a series on everything to do with screenwriting. A short script can’t just…

7 years ago
  • Movie News

ICYMI: The Best of October 2017 on MovieMaker.com

October 2017 was an especially spooky month on Moviemaker.com. With the brand new introduction of The World's 15 Best Genre…

7 years ago
  • Movie News

First Draft: Best “Plant and Payoff” Scenes Screenwriters Can Learn From

In partnership with Creative Screenwriting and ScreenCraft, “First Draft” is a series on everything to do with screenwriting. “If, in the first chapter,…

7 years ago
  • Movie News

Hollywood’s Four Classic Narrative Types, Part II: Hero Versus the World

The four narrative types established in my previous article, Celebratory, Cautionary, Tragic, and Cynical have one thing in common: they…

7 years ago
  • Screenwriting

Hollywood’s Four Classic Narrative Types, Part I: When the Bad Guys Win

Cinematic stories give lessons on human thought and behavior. This is their most basic social purpose. The story places a…

7 years ago
  • Directing

Elizabeth Blue: Using the Power of Film to Rewrite the Dialogue Surrounding Mental Illness

It’s amazing to me that I not only made a feature film, but that it’s actually going to be in…

7 years ago
  • First Draft

First Draft: Spec Scripts That Sold for Millions, But Were Never Made

In partnership with Creative Screenwriting and ScreenCraft, “First Draft” is a series on everything to do with screenwriting. The script market has drastically changed…

7 years ago
  • Best Of

The Best Film Schools in the U.S. and Canada 2017: Film Programs to Shape You Into the Next Moviemaking All-Star

Perhaps you’re someone who dreams of a career in moviemaking, and has come to the realization that the discipline, experimentation and…

7 years ago