People & News

The Buzz
The newest way to write your screenplay?
On your phone, thanks to a new
application from Black Mana Studios.

People: Daniel Ragussis
Daniel Ragussis turned a script about
Sigmund Freud into a $20,000 Grand Prize in the 2009 Screenwriting Expo Screenplay Contest – and got  representation in the process!

People: Roberta Pieczenik

When Roberta Pieczenik read a book she felt should be made into a movie, she tried her hand at screenwriting. The result? A win in the 2009 AAA Screenplay Contest.

Anatomy of a Spec Sale
How do you sell a spec in today’s tight
market? Have great material, know a
man on the inside and don’t be afraid
to ditch your day job. Just ask Andy
Knauer, who made his first sale with
his action-thriller spec, Last Stand.

Why I Write
Adapting The Lightning Thief for the
screen was a natural step for Craig Titley
(Scooby-Doo, Cheaper by the Dozen)
along his own hero’s journey, one
he writes and lives every day.

Lost Scenes: Inglourious Basterds
Quentin Tarantino delivered one of the best original scripts of 2009 with Inglourious Basterds and, like any great screenplay, he had to cut some of the more interesting scenes from the final film.

Last Words

An American man is bitten and cursed
to life as a werewolf in The Wolfman.

Now Playing

The Wolfman
Screenwriter David Self is good at heart
and says his prayers at night...even so,
he still had to deal with a title character
who only shows his hairy face once
every four weeks.
BY PETER CLINES

A Couple of Cops
With the fallout of the writers’ strike
casting doubt on their future in television,
brothers Mark and Robb Cullen took
some advice from a few famous friends
and sat down to write the feature
they’d long wanted to.
BY ADAM STOVALL

A Single Man
Transitioning from bespoke suits to film
sprockets, Tom Ford maintains a personal touch in his adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s novella, building on a script by David Scearce.
BY PETER DEBRUGE

Creation
John Collee and Jon Amiel explain the evolution of a screenplay about Charles Darwin and the book he almost didn’t write.
BY PETER CLINES

The Last Station
Writer-director Michael Hoffman tackles a
complex novel about Leo Tolstoy’s final days by latching onto a young character to explore the existential problem of love.
BY PETER DEBRUGE

The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond
For Jodie Markell, who had been fascinated with the work of Tennessee Williams since she was 16, bringing to life the Pulitzer Prize winner’s long-lost original screenplay was a dream come true.
BY PETER N. CHUMO II

Legion
Peter Schink and Scott Stewart discuss
how a freak snowstorm, Sam Shepard
and time spent in the shower led them
to write about the biblical apocalypse.
BY ADAM STOVALL

Youth in Revolt
Gustin Nash worked 20 hours a day adapting C.D. Payne’s epistolary novel into one of the most anticipated films of the new year.
BY ADAM STOVALL

Daybreakers
Twilight may be sucking the box office
dry, but Michael and Peter Spierig’s
Daybreakers gives vampires their
bite back.
BY DAVID MICHAEL WHARTON

Crazy Heart
By scrapping his biopic plans to adapt an
out-of-print novel instead, screenwriter Scott Cooper told the late-career story of Merle Haggard and his fellow country legends.
BY PETER DEBRUGE

White Ribbon
Auteur Michael Haneke nabbed the Palm
d’Or at Cannes in 2009 with his excellent
film The White Ribbon, a cautionary tale
still relevant in today’s times.
BY JEFF GOLDSMITH

Columns

Agent's Hot Sheet
The (Not Especially) Long Haul
If you work hard enough and long enough and have a small amount of luck, you may just make it as a screenwriter. But how long will the gravy train run, and what can you do to keep it on the rails?

BY JIM CIRILE

Our Craft
20 Ways to Be More Productive in 2010
BY KARL IGLESIAS