by Tom | Jan 11, 2025 | Alex Ross, Elite Consulting, News, Updates, WriteMovies News, Writing Insights
Blade Runner and AI Technology – Have the creative minds of this 1982 cult classic predicted the realities of our age? This is what WriteMovies founder Dr Alex Ross discusses in his new article “Can the prescience of Blade Runner engender a deeper understanding of our relationship with AI technology?” that’s been recently published in the Institute of Physics, Harvard, The Smithsonian and NASA!
The article examines how Blade Runner (1982), despite being a work of science fiction, has become a significant cultural and intellectual touchstone for understanding the ethical, societal, and technological implications of advanced AI and robotics. It highlights the film’s visionary narrative, which reflects many concerns of today’s world, such as corporate monopolization, technological overreach, and the fluid definitions of personhood and humanity.
“The world that we painted is virtually knocking on the door of this world that we’re in now.” – Ivor Powell, Producer of Blade Runner
Key points in the article include:
- Science and Technology in the Film: including biotechnology, bioengineering, and neuroscience. It looks at how the film’s portrayal of Replicants as man-made biological humanoids and their connection to current research in artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, and organ production.
- Corporate Power and Ethics: drawing parallels between the fictional Tyrell Corporation and real-world tech giants like Google, Amazon, and Tesla, emphasizing the unchecked power and lack of transparency in these monopolies.
- Philosophical Questions: The film’s narrative raises critical questions about the nature of personhood, consciousness, and morality. What are the ethical implications of creating life and the societal impact of advancing technologies?
- Cultural Significance: Blade Runner‘s lasting impact and how its prescient themes have sparked debates in AI, robotics, philosophy, ethics, and even ancient mythology, drawing connections to classical thinkers who imagined artificial life millennia ago.
To explore the profound connections between Blade Runner and today’s technological and ethical challenges, read the full article here.
If you have a script you want to see succeed, through WriteMovies.com you can get mentoring direct from Dr Alex Ross – there’s nobody better qualified to tell you why films succeed and fail. Click here to get mentoring from Alex.
by Tom | Jul 5, 2024 | Alex Ross, Development Notes, Elite Consulting, Script Mentoring offers, Studio Consulting, Updates, WriteMovies News
WriteMovies Founder Dr Alex Ross discusses Disney and Pixar in Recent Newsweek Article!
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by Tom | May 24, 2024 | Elite Consulting, News, Script Mentoring offers, Studio Consulting, Updates
From elite mentoring to industry pitching, elevate your scripts with consultancy services from WriteMovies – starting at just $45!
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by John | Oct 20, 2023 | 2023 Screenwriting Contest, Development Notes, Elite Consulting, Industry Diary, Matt Rose, News, Pitching, Screenwriting Contests, WriteMovies News
Our Development Notes have been getting our winners ready for industry.
Major wins for all writers this month with the WGA and AMPTP reaching a tentative deal expected to end the strike, and meeting many of the WGA’s demands! For a breakdown of the deal, see the WGA’s Summary of the 2023 WGA MBA. And thanks to this, we’re resuming pitching and relishing it!
With the strike coming to a close, we are thrilled to soon resume pitching our winning scripts from the last contest cycle! Polished through a cycle of incisive WriteMovies development notes and exciting rewrites by our wonderful writers, we are ready to cast a wide net in pitching these stories to studios, producers, and financiers. We have been researching a wide variety, from big names to indie powerhouses, to contact with our pitches and strategically crafted one-sheets when the time is right. And that time is near!
Maintaining relationships with our winning writers, our team has offered their analysis and insight on numerous drafts, in order to make these scripts as compelling as they can be and ensure they pop off the page for potential producers. As we reach the climactic pitching preparations for our last contest cycle, we are also ramping up on a new screenwriting contest that is currently accepting submissions. Resuming pitching is an exciting time for all of us and we’d love you to be a part of it too…
Have you written your next (or first!) masterpiece but you’re not sure how to get it off the ground? Need the motivation to finally finish a story you’ve been yearning to tell? Get your script in before the submission window closes! A contest submission guarantees your script is getting out in the world and getting read by a panel of analysts and industry judges. Winners will receive development notes and the full pitching force of WriteMovies.com. For all entrants, we guarantee feedback on your first 10 pages, and you may opt-in for full-on development notes as well. We look forward to reading your stories! (And, hopefully, one day, watching them on the big screen!)
See our current contests here!
by John | Mar 31, 2023 | Alex Ross, Elite Consulting, Our Books
Exclusive reveal from Dr Alex Ross’s groundbreaking new book.
Due out in May, this fascinating new volume will open up unique insights into how Hollywood invented and evolved its ‘calculated blockbuster’, and its future in the age of streaming. Check out the book’s newly-unveiled cover, including inspiring quotes and testimonials we’ll share below! Just another example of the value we at WriteMovies bring to the industry and to your projects: all our consultancy services can be delivered by Dr Alex Ross directly. Get in touch today!
Consultancy Services by Alex Ross at WriteMovies.com
Here’s the cover to BLOCKBUSTED…
And here’s what it has to say…
“This book outlines in extensive and unique detail how studios make money not just on blockbusters, but also eventually from all movies, as Alexander Ross uses his vast experience, inside knowledge, and scholarly expertise to lay out both the successes and the mistakes of the ‘blockbuster era.’ I highly recommend it to scholars in film studies and business, film school students working toward a career in the film industry, and budding film producers and studio executives.”
– Hal Lieberman, Former Head of Production at Universal Pictures
“This book provides an original and welcome contribution to the literature about Hollywood. Building on his ears of experience in the film industry, insights from prominent industry actors, and rigorous research, Alexander Ross offers a compelling account of the risk of the modern blockbuster business model through details case studies of seminal movies, and of its viability in the streaming video-on-demand age. A valuable read for cinema students, scholars, and professionals.”
– Allègre Hadida, Universty of Cambridge
“In these case studies, Ross debunks many myths built up about them. His case studies demonstrate the relentless attention of studio executives to the possibilities of generating revenue. This book captures this practice and, in so doing, provides a valuable contribution to the hard-nosed worldview of Hollywood.”
– John Sedgwick, Oxford Brookes University
In this book, Alexander Ross highlights how creative entrepreneurs saved the Hollywood studios in the 1970s by establishing the calculated blockbuster, consisting of key replicable markers of success, as Hollywood’s preeminent business model. Ross demonstrates how visionary individuals such as Coppola, Spielberg, Lucas, and Zemeckis helped create the modern, calculated blockbuster business model (BBM). However, with the rise of streaming giants and the studios struggling to compete, many consumers of entertainment now elect to partake from the comfort of their homes, making the difference between “cinema” and “television” anachronistic. Revisiting the history of those 1970s blockbusters and their ongoing impact on contemporary filmmaking, Ross offers distinct analysis on whether the calculated blockbuster can continue to lead, or if the streamers will continue to generate their own content and, eventually, fully control the dissemination process. For scholars and students in film, pop culture, and business along with aspiring filmmakers, screenwriters, producers, and executives, the book will be a valued resource.
Alexander Ross is a researcher in history at New College, University of Oxford.
by John | Feb 16, 2023 | Alex Ross, Elite Consulting, Our videos
Value your time – consult with a Hollywood professional.
Dr. Alex Ross says: “Value your time, always run a new script idea by an industry pro first. I have 20+ years of experience in the film industry. I work with all the studios and major agencies. Several of my clients have received Academy Nominations.
At whatever stage of writing you are, just let me know what you need. No one reads a rewrite. My feedback will optimize your script…”
by John | Jan 19, 2023 | Alex Ross, Elite Consulting, Our Books
Blockbusted is a new book charting the evolution of Hollywood’s calculated blockbuster, and will be released in the coming months – but the book has already been recognized and acclaimed by leading industry professionals. It’s even challenging the industry’s long-held assumptions, as you can see below. Check out these first endorsements – just the start of the industry acclaim for Blockbusted we’ll be updating you with over the coming months. Get the input of the book’s author Dr. Alex Ross into your own project at here – or email us at info@writemovies.com to get the ball rolling!
Universal Pictures former Head of Production and Paul Sammon
“This book outlines in extensive and unique detail how studios make money not just on blockbusters, but also eventually from all movies, as Alexander Ross uses his vast experience, inside knowledge, and scholarly expertise to lay out both the successes and the mistakes of the ‘blockbuster era.’ I highly recommend it to scholars in film studies and business, film school students working toward a career in the film industry, and budding film producers and studio executives.”
– Hal Lieberman, Former Head of Production at Universal Pictures
“You are holding a volume which, to my relatively seasoned mind, adds a unique contribution to text-based cinema studies. This book is a persuasive, rigorously researched study of the evolution of the contemporary Hollywood blockbuster. It lays down a parallel track which posits an apparently astonishing argument, flagrantly challenging a long-held bit of supposed critical wisdom – William Goldman’s oft-quoted dictum that “nobody knows anything.” Indeed, Alexander Ross maintains that certain players inside The Dream Factory’s upper echelon of studio chiefs, producers, and mega-agents are not only intelligent, sophisticated mavens, they actually know what they’re doing.”
– Paul Sammon, film industry professional and author
These are the first examples of the industry acclaim for Blockbusted we’ll be sharing with you over the coming months.
