by John | Apr 8, 2020 | Industry Diary, Pitching
We guarantee to pitch ALL our winners’ scripts to industry, and with two new competitions now open – the Sci-Fi and Fantasy Award 2020 and the Summer 2020 Screenwriting Contest – we already can’t wait to get more great scripts into the hands of top producers! To give you an idea of how we do that, we’ve been giving you an inside look at Ian’s LA Pitching Diary. Here’s the final instalment – featuring more conversations with key decision-makers and a request for scripts from our slate… (more…)
by John | Oct 23, 2023 | Alex Ross, News, Our Books, Script Mentoring offers, WriteMovies News
InkTip partnership, Royal Historical Society, Newsweek, Amazon news
It’s been another lively period for us, and the end of the WGA strike opens up many doors for us and our winners again – but a lot was already happening, as you can see here! Lots to tell you about from this period including impressive new acclaim for Dr. Alex Ross!
- We’ve renewed our partnership with InkTip, enabling us and 4 of our winners to gain significant exposure to successful producers – more on this soon!
- Alex Ross has been made a fellow of the Royal Historical Society – some accolade! Alex says: “It’s a pretty cool honour as the fellowship is the highest form of membership and really tough to get”! Read about it here.
- The next book by Dr. Alex Ross is also shaping up as a blockbuster insight into a hugely talked-about movie – we’re looking forward to revealing this soon!
by John | Feb 8, 2023 | News, Our Winners, Screenwriting Contests
A glimpse under the hood at how we’re developing our winners, forging industry links and pitching.
Developing scripts with our winners, and readying them for the right time to pitch, is a unique pleasure of our position in the industry. We’ve been working intensively with many of our recent winners in January and we’re looking forward to introducing you to them and their work over the coming months – always looking for that perfect moment when their script is best placed to capitalize on its potential, or even on renewed topical interest in its themes and subject matter. We’ve got a fascinating slate right now and we can’t wait to share it with you.
It takes a lot of long-term relationship-building behind the scenes to make this kind of thing possible. Not just with our writers, but of course with producers and industry talents as well. Those relationships and connections take many forms. Our founder Alex Ross has completed his groundbreaking book BLOCKBUSTED on the evolution of Hollywood’s calculated blockbuster, packed with interviews and industry insights. And he’s already completed lots of interviews with the team behind one iconic cult movie, for his next book, which will be all about that film. We’ll reveal all about it soon and tell you the fascinating people he’s been meeting to gain never-before revelations about some of its most famous questions!
So often, writers are thinkers. They tell stories by engaging with the issues and dilemmas of their times, and playing those issues and conflicts out through characters and their choices and challenges. It gets strangely prescient sometimes watching news stories unfold when you know that one of your writer clients or friends already wrote a script about that very issue, and totally nailed why these things happen in the world. It comes from working with talented writers over many years, that often, major news stories don’t come as a surprise at all. Sometimes writers serve as the conscience of their times, and as the early warning of the dangers and mistakes ahead of us if we don’t make the right choices now. Sometimes it’s all these things at once. That’s what I’ve been thinking in response to a major news story this week. As it unfolded, I was remembering how much of it exactly mirrored a different true story that was adapted years ago by one industry professional we speak to regularly. That story foreshadowed – sadly almost fully – many of the exact same situations and issues which have now happened again and have once again become a massive news story. Sometimes, the more things change, the more they stay the same!
2023 is shaping up to be an exciting and fascinating year for us, and we’ll continue to blog about it whenever we can.
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by WriteMovies | Sep 9, 2021 | Industry Diary, Industry News, Updates
Oh, and in other industry news, apparently there’s a Bond movie out this Fall as well. I’m guessing we can’t say “you heard it here first!” but anyway! In honor of it, this is the 007 Stage at Pinewood Studios photographed by our Director between meetings there.
It’s been an exciting time for our winners – as well as the new Success Stories we’ve already shared with you about exciting deals that Vanisha and Elizabeth have done thanks to their wins with us, we’ve got at least two more to come, which we’re itching to be able to reveal! Watch this space… but that’s just the start. We’ve got a lot of other entertainment industry discussions and activity to share with you this Fall. Here are other exciting discussions and outcomes we’ve been gearing up for this summer: (more…)
by John | Oct 22, 2021 | Industry Diary
We’ve been keeping up with our work pitching our winners’ scripts lately, making sure that we’ve got everything ready as we reach out to industry. Here are a few of the things we’ve been up to…
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by WriteMovies | Jun 30, 2021 | Industry Diary, Industry News, Pitching
Our engagement in the wider industry never stops, even while we’re deep in judging scripts for our major contests. In fact we’re having some fascinating conversations right now, and we share them with you in our Industry Diary articles when we can. Here’s what we’ve got up to in June, including our best practice tips for linking writers and producers… (more…)
by John | May 6, 2021 | Industry Diary
The past month in our Industry Diary: It’s been a long year, but we’re always looking to get our scripts pitched to industry. As productions get back on their feet, here’s an update about what we’ve been up to lately:
- One of our winners provided an excellent new draft of his powerful script yesterday, refined following our latest free Development Notes to get it pitch-ready. We’ve immediately sent the script on to Oscar-winning producers who asked to see the new draft once ready. Really excited to see what they think of it!
- I attended the WGGB Open Session discussing the impact of Covid-19 and Brexit has had on the industry, and information and guidance people can receive in the future. I also heard stories from people’s personal projects that were postponed, cancelled, or fortunate enough to be adapted to go ahead during the pandemic.
- Making enquiries through IMDb Pro with potential producers about some of our winners such as END OF THE LINE, RIDING WITH CHARLIE and MAKE THE WEATHER. You can read all about the writers and the scripts in the articles linked.
- We’ve been communicating with our latest winners to get their work pitch ready. All our winners have now received Development Notes from our analysts and are hard at work on new drafts of their scripts. We’ve also been putting together one-page pitches for them, a key tool for us when pitching.
- One of our recent winners is reworking their script into a different format after an expression of interest from one of our contacts, who is looking to pass on sci-fi scripts for an award-winning Hollywood professional to direct. Loglines for all our winners scripts were also sent out to top producers for consideration.
