Writing for Video Games: The world is your Sandbox
Jamie White continues his thoughts on writing for video games. This time it’s all about the difficulties of writing open world games… (more…)
Three STAR TREK Scripts on the table
Zachary Quinto has revealed that there are three STAR TREK scripts being written for the fourth film in the franchise. The scripts are being written by the likes of Doug Jung, Simon Pegg, and even Quentin Tarantino.
It would be really exciting to see what sort of script would come from Tarantino for the Star Trek universe – no doubt, the blood, swearing, and Samuel L. Jackson appearances would rise significantly. Even one of his screenwriting competitors for the gig, Simon Pegg, has stated before that Tarantino could be the guy to take Star Trek forward (see THIS article).
We’re certainly down for a Tarantino Trek – what about you?
Read more at http://www.joblo.com/movie-news/zachary-quinto-says-that-there-are-several-star-trek-scripts-in-the-works-332
Joaquin Phoenix Teases New Joker Role
Joaquin Phoenix has been teasing potentially playing the new Joker in Todd Phillips’ upcoming Joker origin film. Phoenix has refused to rule out the possibility of the Joker and has said “I don’t know… it could be an interesting character, I don’t know,”
Phoenix would certainly be a great choice for the role, but while the project is still in development we can continue to speculate.
I’d love to see an older Joker with the likes of Willem Dafoe or Mark Hamill (who voices Joker in many animated iterations of the character). Hamill has even said before that he’d be interested in portraying a live-action version of the Joker. Who would you like to play the clown prince of crime the next time he shows up in Gotham?
Read more on Phoenix’s response here: http://www.joblo.com/movie-news/joaquin-phoenix-won-t-talk-joker-role-but-admits-it-could-be-interesting-200
First Look: READY PLAYER ONE Review
We go into the Oasis to see what Steven Spielberg’s latest sci-fi action flick really has to offer… First Look: ready player one review by Jamie White.
I’m sure there’s a lot to like about READY PLAYER ONE. The adrenaline pumping action scenes, the unique and intriguing concept about virtual reality video gaming, the discourse it has about our current culture and gaming. The skepticism about how advanced technology can just take over our lives, and even give us an outlet to create a new life. I, however, did NOT enjoy this. At all.
You may hear that a producer will only read the first 10-20 pages of a script – all the busy people we would be pitching to, rely on a great first ten pages to convince them a script is worth reading. This script would not (or should not have) made the cut.
The constant, highly expository voice-overs from the main characters, lazily doing the heavy lifting (the world building). It was infuriating. And oh boy did the voice-over not end there. Dear God… I could go on and on about how the script let this film down, but I’m sure I won’t waste too much of your time, so here’s a quick list.
- That exposition throughout the first ten minutes. Then when the title card finally hit I thought “Oh thank ****! The actual film can start.” What was the first thing you hear next? That’s right – another voice-over. Man, oh man, did they overuse voice-overs in this film.
- The dialogue was incredibly cringey. Anyone could’ve written the dialogue for this.
- Certain “twists” or reveals were uninspiring and predictable. (People’s real-life identities, for example).
- There was no sense of time in this film – it really felt like everything happened within 2-3 hours.
- Character relationships were rushed, and, you guessed t, incredibly conventional and stereotypical. The romantic subplot advanced to “I love you” within 5 interactions between the love interests. I mean, c’mon.
I’ll stop there before I get too frustrated, but I do just want to add on one small thing. This film was set in 2040, but there was nothing to suggest that (other than the massive virtual reality world). Every reference or cameo was to something that was made over 20 years prior. Anything from Overwatch to Sonic to Asteroids was used – but we didn’t get any notion of what 2040 pop culture was like. Maybe it’s a criticism of the huge focus on franchises, but it still felt very jarring. As was the very 80s centric soundtrack – I get why they went that route, but it felt so wrong – GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY pulled it off perfectly, READY PLAYER ONE did not. If you wanna have the 80s culture play such an integral part have the protagonist be an 80s freak – it otherwise just felt out of place.
Phew! OK, so there’s my little rant. I didn’t wholly dislike the film, but there was much in there that took me out of the experience, and that’s what killed it for me.
What did you think of READY PLAYER ONE? I hope you enjoyed more than I did!
Writing For Video Games Part 2: All about the story
With the recent arrival of a new Elite Mentor joining the team (one who specializes in video games), Jamie White continues his look at how you can be successful at writing for video games. (more…)
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Our Year: 2017 – 2018 Teasers: A Year in the life of a Script Agency
A year in the life of an innovative Script Agency… Facts and figures to mark two years since our successful relaunch in 2016.
It’s that time of year again where we look back on the previous 12 months and say “you know, we’ve had a pretty good year…” And we have!
Our Year…
Since our successful relaunch 2 years ago, we’ve been constantly growing and evolving our online presence – which you can see from these infographics!
As well as updating and reshaping our website organically over the last two years, we’ve also been highly active on social media, screenwriting forums, and providing insightful newsletters, of course! So, here’s a couple of snippets celebrating WriteMovies online in the past year.
We’ll bring you more tomorrow it’s all about “Why We Matter…” And then… the full graphic in all its glory!