Welcome to "Tales from the Script" - Nonfiction Book & Film Project About Screenwriting
Welcome to "Tales from the Script" - Nonfiction Book & Film Project About Screenwriting
Saturday, January 10, 2009
my take on Bernie Madoff exactly
Friday, January 9, 2009
Madoff Hurt Spielberg And Katzenberg In The Millions:
CNBC: I've got to ask you one last question and it's not a good story. Obviously, the Bernard Madoff situation. It's been reported you had money with Madoff. Did you know you were giving your money to Bernard Madoff or was it...
KATZENBERG: I would say two things. The first time I heard the name Bernie Madoff was about three weeks ago when I found out that, you know, he had swindled all this money. And it's -- you know, I'm blessed and fortunate in that this is extremely painful and humiliating for me. It has done extraordinary damage to my philanthropy and the giving that my wife and I is so important to us. What it has done to other people is terrible. It's destroyed many people's lives. People that I know. That this man is actually walking free today I think is a disgrace. And people that have done far less and hurt people in ways that he has not, you know, find themselves locked up in jail. And this guy is living in a $7 million apartment today walking free, there's something very, very wrong. It is extraordinary. And then sending the millions of dollars in watches and jewels to family and friends. It is something deeply wrong with our process and something we all should be ashamed of, that a man could swindle $50 billion. And forget me. But I'm talking about people who have taken their lives over this. It's a disgrace.
CNBC: Jeffrey, thank you for your candor on that.
"Watchmen. A producer's perspective. An open letter.
Who is right? In the Watchmen dispute between Warner Brothers and Fox that question is being discussed, analyzed, argued, tried and ruled on in a court of law. That's one way to answer the question - It is a fallback position in our society for parties in conflict to resolve disputes. And there are teams of lawyers and a highly regarded Federal Judge trying to do just that, which obviates any contribution I could make towards answering the "who is right" question within a legal context. But after 15 plus years of involvement in the project, and a decade more than that working in the movie business, I have another perspective, a personal perspective that I believe important to have on the public record.
No one is more keenly aware of the irony of this dispute than Larry Gordon and I who have been trying to get this movie made for many years. There's a list of people who have rejected the viability of a movie based on Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon's classic graphic novel that reads like a who's who of Hollywood.
We've been told the graphic novel is unfilmable.
After 9/11 some felt the story's themes were too close to reality ever to be palatable to a mainstream audience.
There were those who considered the project but who wished it were somehow different: Could it be a buddy movie, or a team-up movie or could it focus on one main character; did it have to be so dark; did so many people have to die; could it be stripped of its flashback structure; could storylines be eliminated; could new storylines be invented; did it have to be so long; could the blue guy put clothes on... The list of dissatisfactions for what Watchmen is was as endless as the list of suggestions to make it something it never was.
Also endless are the list of studio rejections we accrued over the years. Larry and I developed screenplays at five different studios. We had two false starts in production on the movie. We were involved with prominent and commercial directors. Big name stars were interested. In one instance hundreds of people were employed, sets were being built - An A-list director and top artists in the industry were given their walking papers when the studio financing the movie lost faith.
After all these years of rejection, this is the same project, the same movie, over which two studios are now spending millions of dollars contesting ownership. Irony indeed, and then some.
Click here for the rest...
2009 WGA Awards Screen Nominees
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Burn After Reading
Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Focus Features
Milk
Written by Dustin Lance Black
Focus Features
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Written by Woody Allen
The Weinstein Company
The Visitor
Written by Tom McCarthy
Overture Films
The Wrestler
Written by Robert Siegel
Fox Searchlight Pictures
---
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Screenplay by Eric Roth
Screen Story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord
Based on the Short Story by F Scott Fitzgerald
Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros Pictures
The Dark Knight
Screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan
Story by Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer
Based on Characters Appearing in Comic Books Published by DC Comics
Batman Created by Bob Kane
Warner Bros Pictures
Doubt
Screenplay by John Patrick Shanley
Based on his Stage Play
Miramax Films
Frost/Nixon
Screenplay by Peter Morgan
Based on his Stage Play
Universal Pictures
Slumdog Millionaire
Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy
Based on the Novel Q and A by Vikas Swarup
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Jenny Lumet, Dustin Lance Black, Andrew Stanton, Tom McCarthy, Michael Straczynski and John Patrick Shanley talk about what inspires them to write.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
The writers of "Milk," "The Changeling" and more talk about how to start a script and the madness involved in finishing it
Christ, is nothing Sacred anymore?
Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
Neale Donald Walsch says he convinced himself that he had written an essay that was actually written by Candy Chand.
Neale Donald Walsch, author of the best-selling series “Conversations With God,” recently posted a personal Christmas essay on the spiritual Web site Beliefnet.com about his son’s kindergarten winter pageant.
During a dress rehearsal, he wrote, a group of children spelled out the title of a song, “Christmas Love,” with each child holding up a letter. One girl held the “m” upside down, so that it appeared as a “w,” and it looked as if the group was spelling “Christ Was Love.” It was a heartwarming Christmas story from a writer known for his spiritual teachings.
Except it never happened — to him.
Mr. Walsch’s story was nearly identical to an essay by a writer named Candy Chand, which was originally published 10 years ago in Clarity, a spiritual magazine, and has been circulating on the Web ever since. Mr. Walsch now says he made a mistake in believing the story was something that had actually come from his personal experience.
Ms. Chand said she originally wrote the piece about her son, Nicholas, and his kindergarten winter pageant and published it in Clarity in 1999. In his Dec. 28 blog posting, Mr. Walsch, who also has a son named Nicholas, said it happened at his son’s pageant 20 years ago.
Ms. Chand’s essay was reprinted, with her clearly identified as the author, in “Chicken Soup for the Christian Family Soul” in 2000, as well as on heartwarmers.com, a Web site for inspirational stories. In 2003 Ms. Chand copyrighted the story with the United States Copyright Office. Last June Gibbs Smith, a small independent publisher, released the story, “Christmas Love,” as an illustrated gift book. The story has also been passed around through e-mail and on blogs, sometimes without attribution.
Except for a different first paragraph in which Mr. Walsch wrote that he could “vividly remember” the incident, his Dec. 28 Beliefnet post followed, virtually verbatim, Ms. Chand’s previously published writing, even down to prosaic details like “The morning of the dress rehearsal, I filed in ten minutes early, found a spot on the cafeteria floor and sat down.”
On Saturday Ms. Chand contacted Elisabeth Sams, Beliefnet’s executive vice president of content and community, and on Tuesday morning Mr. Walsch’s post was taken down. “This blog chain has been taken down while Beliefnet investigates the ownership of the previously published material,” a brief statement on the Web site said.
In a statement posted Tuesday afternoon on his blog on Beliefnet, which is owned by the News Corporation, Mr. Walsch said he had made a “serious error” and apologized to Ms. Chand and his readers.
“All I can say now — because I am truly mystified and taken aback by this — is that someone must have sent it to me over the Internet ten years or so ago,” Mr. Walsch wrote. “Finding it utterly charming and its message indelible, I must have clipped and pasted it into my file of ‘stories to tell that have a message I want to share.’ I have told the story verbally so many times over the years that I had it memorized ... and then, somewhere along the way, internalized it as my own experience.”
In a telephone interview, Mr. Walsch, 65, who said he regularly gave 10 to 20 speeches a year, said he had been retelling the anecdote in public as his own for years. “I am chagrined and astonished that my mind could play such a trick on me,” he said.
Mr. Walsch — whose first book in the series “Conversations With God: An Uncommon Dialogue,” published in 1996 by Putnam, a unit of Penguin Group USA, spent 139 weeks on The New York Times hardcover nonfiction best-seller list — added that he would never deliberately copy another writer’s words without attributing them. “It’s not like I’m trying to find an audience or trying to impress anybody with my writing,” he said.
Ms. Chand said in a telephone interview that she did not believe Mr. Walsch’s explanation. “If he knew this was wrong, he should have known it was wrong before he got caught,” she said. “Quite frankly, I’m not buying it.”
Kevin Smith’s Los Angeles Comic Book Store to Close
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
I loved this store and merging with Laser Blazer (my last big DVD run was here) was a great treat.
The Los Angeles location has had a hard time staying afloat since opening a few years ago. In 2007, the Westwood location was shut down and moved into the popular DVD store Laser Blazer. But now the economic downturn has forced Laser Blazer to shut the doors. Here is a quote from Ron, the manager of Laser Blaser on Newsaskew:
“We gave it our best shot and we’re sorry to see another great comic book shop leave L.A. It has been a pleasure taking care of all of Kevin’s fans. If you haven’t been in yet, it’s your last chance to see The Stash and say your goodbyes. All Stash merchandise will be discounted 20% until the final day.”
The final day is January 11th. Here’s hoping that the West Coast Stash find a new home someday, although I doubt it will happen. It’s a tough market, and I don’t think Smith is interested in having a storefront without a friend to run it. Also, in LA, its hard to compete with Golden Apple.
J.M Barrie's Peter Pan House (England)
Sunday, January 4, 2009
INTERACTIVE FLOORPLAN HERE
This is a truly unique and magical, six bedroomed house where once lived J.M Barrie, the creator of Peter Pan, is set back from the road and boasts exceptionally spacious living and entertaining space, with a charming garden and access to beautifully communal gardens.
The property briefly comprises two connecting reception room with access to garden and gorgeous fireplaces, study, dining/breakfast room, lovely kitchen, convenient utility room, six fabulous and generous bedrooms (one with en suite shower room), stunning bathroom, two shower rooms, plenty of storage space, two south-west facing balconies and private garden. Asking price US12 mil
Prolific mystery writer Donald Westlake dead at 75
Donald E. Westlake, 75, a prolific comic novelist who was once described as "the Neil Simon of the crime novel," died Dec. 31 of a heart attack while vacationing in Mexico.
Under a variety of pseudonyms and in a career that spanned almost 50 years, Mr. Westlake wrote more than 90 books, winning three Edgar Awards and the designation of Grand Master from the Mystery Writers of America in 1993. His screenplay for "The Grifters" was nominated for an Academy Award.
Reclusive writer JD Salinger turns 90
Reclusive author JD Salinger, whose seminal novel The Catcher in the Rye has lent voice to the angst and despair felt by generations of rebellious adolescents, turns 90 on January 1.
But this new milestone in the life of one of America's most admired and influential writers is likely to pass without fanfare, in keeping with Salinger's jealously guarded privacy.
Despite the success of the 1951 novel and its laconic anti-hero Holden Caulfield, Salinger has not published anything since 1965 and has not been interviewed since 1980.
Mystery surrounds much of his life over the past five decades.
Since being overwhelmed by his new fame Salinger withdrew from public life, retreating to his house perched on a tree-blanketed hill in the small town of Cornish, New Hampshire.
Memoirs written by his daughter and a former lover affirm that Salinger still writes, but there has been no sign of any new book, even though it would be eagerly seized upon by his legions of fans.
Indeed in a rare 1980 interview with the Boston Sunday Globe in 1980, Salinger said: "I love to write, and I assure you I write regularly. But I write for myself and I want to be left absolutely alone to do it."
News in 1997 that his last published work Hapworth 16: 1924, which appeared in the New Yorker magazine, was about to be reissued in hard print sparked excitement in the literary world. But the publication date has been frequently postponed, with no reason given.
Glenn Goldman, owner of Book Soup, dies at 58
Glenn Goldman, whose independent bookstore, Book Soup, became a Sunset Boulevard landmark known for its tall, teetering stacks and mazes of shelves crammed with titles that attracted entertainment and tourist industry clientele, died Saturday. He was 58.
Goldman died of pancreatic cancer just a day after announcing his decision to sell the legendary store, which opened in 1975 and offered an eccentric mix of works ranging from Star Maps to rare collectibles such as Helmut Newton's $1,500 photo extravaganza, "SUMO."
Goldman, who looked like anything but the stereotype of a big-city bookseller in his casual blue jeans, pullover shirts and Nike athletic shoes, was regarded as a superior businessman who prospered in an increasingly capricious market.
"Glenn brought a highly individual face to the Los Angeles bookselling business," said Doug Dutton, who closed his own Brentwood bookstore, Dutton's, in May. "He was a man of strong tastes and not shy about voicing his opinions. But even if you didn't agree with them, you admired the integrity and honesty of the man behind them."
Jonathan Kirsch, an author and frequent customer of Book Soup, said: "Every bookstore has its own personality. His store had the hippest image in town." Founded across from Tower Records and the original Spago restaurant -- and bookended by head shops and strip joints -- "Book Soup was ground zero for a certain cool West Hollywood cultural vibe," Kirsch said.
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