by John | Aug 28, 2017 | Movie Reviews and TV Reviews, WriteMovies News, Writing Insights
GAME OF THRONES Season Review – Spoiler Free! By Jamie White
The latest season of GAME OF THRONES has perhaps been the most divisive amongst fans and critics.
Now it’s well past the books, THRONES’ showrunners have had more creative license with the show. It’s arguable if that’s a good thing, though…
The 7-episode length of the season gave the show a noticeable problem – how to pace itself. It began fine, and the quick travel and teleportation of characters is something viewers have almost always questioned and just let go. But with ultimately less screen time, the show has struggled to purvey the same fulfilling content as it has done in previous seasons.
In what started as a briskly paced season, it turned into a season that accelerated so fast, I personally felt like I needed a filler or a bottle episode (like THE FLY, S3E10 from BREAKING BAD). I ended up feeling like a car sick passenger with the driver putting the foot all the way on the gas.
This has still been a season with some magnificent moments, and one of the best episodes in the entire series. But it has been hindered by forced, rushed, and sometimes just damn silly plot developments. I’ve still enjoyed the season, but it doesn’t have the same substance as it once had…
This season of GAME OF THRONES has also been marred by leaks and hacks – some from incompetence, some from hackers. And this signifies the ever-changing world both TV companies and even Hollywood must adapt to.
Cyberattacks on big names like HBO and Sony must mean these honchos must adapt how they do business and how they produce film and television. (I even have my own theory that Sony has been releasing trash like THE EMOJI MOVIE to deter potential hackers…)
You can read more on Hollywood’s need to adapt to avoid cybercrime here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-11/hackers-are-threatening-the-way-that-hollywood-does-business
Here’s a few links where you can find discussion on the current season of GAME OF THRONES:
https://www.reddit.com/r/gameofthrones/
https://www.reddit.com/r/freefolk/
http://www.slashfilm.com/category/features/slashfilmcast/a-cast-of-kings/
http://fightinginthewarroom.com/category/storm-of-spoilers/
https://www.youtube.com/user/JaiWbio
Exclusive to WriteMovies – To syndicate this content for your own publication, contact ian (at) writemovies dot-com.
© WriteMovies 2017
by John | Aug 25, 2017 | Elite Consulting, Highlights, Pitching, WriteMovies News, Writing Insights
Our new Elite Consultant, multi-produced screenwriter Bobby Lee Darby, shares his pitching tips on how you should approach pitching to Hollywood, how to plan for it, and how to ace it! (more…)
by John | Aug 21, 2017 | WMC, WriteMovies News
As we’ve done with our book entries, creating the award for “Book with the Best Screen Potential”, we are doing the same for our television script entries to the Summer 2017 Contest.
The “Best Teleplay or Pilot” award will be given out to the best television script submission we receive. The winner of this award will receive free Development Notes to help make their teleplay or pilot break through. With on-demand bringing the best shows into our homes whenever we want them, the appetite for scripted TV shows is massive and so are the range of new ways to get them made – we want to give you the best chance possible. We will even pitch your script ourselves to the top of the industry if you finish in our top 3 for the main contest.
We support all writers, of all scripted formats, and we want them all to flourish. We’ve opened up these specific prizes for books and television script to reward these writers and their scripts, just as much as we would for a feature length screenplay.
You can win these new special “Best Teleplay or Pilot” or “Book with the Best Screen Potential” awards by entering the Summer 2017 Contest now.
by John | Aug 18, 2017 | Industry News, WriteMovies News, Writing Insights
Why Hollywood loves book adaptations… and how we can help with yours!
A recent article from The Verge earlier in the year caught our eye. It’s an excellent piece on why Hollywood are so into book adaptations right now. Here’s our summary on the article and our own thoughts on it…
“Why Hollywood is turning to books for its biggest productions” by Andrew Liptak. https://www.theverge.com/2017/1/26/14326356/hollywood-movie-book-adaptations-2017-expanse-game-of-thrones
“The book is better than the movie!” – it’s a complaint we’ve all heard from audiences. So, why does Hollywood keep the faith with adaptations? In recent times, adaptations have taken off dramatically, all starting with Peter Jackson’s THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy, and the best current example being GAME OF THRONES – the biggest TV show in the world right now.
Some reasons why book adaptations work so well for Hollywood:
1. There’s already a plot and a story for them – there’s less risk of them creating a bad story if a good one already exists.
2. There’s a positive knock-on effect to book publishers. A successful film release probably means increased sales of the book itself.
We definitely agree with the first point. Low risk, high-yield when it comes to book adaptations. But good books have more than just a good story. They already have a fanbase. Studios see this fanbase as a guaranteed audience, guaranteed cash in the bank. Then they’ll try to appeal to as many other people as possible, too.
Here at WriteMovies, we’ve always championed books with great screen potential, and generated the first novel commission for acclaimed author Cornelia Kempf. Enter our Summer competition with YOUR book to have the chance of winning our contest itself, and ALSO of our award for ‘Book with the Best Screen Potential’ which could be the breakthrough your book is waiting for as you seek adaptation to the screen. The ‘Best Screen Potential’ winner gains free Development Notes to help you adapt it yourself or attract a leading screenwriter to the project.
Read the full article by Andrew Liptak at The Verge here: https://www.theverge.com/2017/1/26/14326356/hollywood-movie-book-adaptations-2017-expanse-game-of-thrones
Exclusive to WriteMovies – To syndicate this content for your own publication, contact ian (at) writemovies dot-com.
© WriteMovies 2017
by John | Aug 15, 2017 | WMC, WriteMovies News
Book your place in the industry with our Summer writing contest, for a special prize!
Our Summer 2017 Writing Contest isn’t just the place for your feature scripts, shorts, and pilots.
We also accept entries from all of you novelists – and we’re creating a special category in our Summer writing contest, for the “Book with the Best Screen Potential”. The winner will get FREE Development Notes to help them adapt it to a screenplay or documentary, or to help them find a screenwriter who can. This could be a great breakthrough for you.
We love comparing our book entries to the screenplays to find new angles and stories that the world’s gonna be looking for. So we thought we’d dedicate our social media this week to books!
- Enter a book of your own for a flat fee of $69!
- We’ll assess your book based on its own merits and its screen potential.
- We’ve had successful book writer in the past. Cornelia Kempf, a previous WriteMovies winner, has had many novels published thanks to us!
- Don’t forget, that up to August 21st, we are offering a free copy of the Confidential Studio Manual, to be given away at random, for free! And we’ve got special discounts on ALL consultancy reports in August… CLICK HERE.
So, book your place in our Summer Writing Contest with your book, or novel, or novella. We love receiving book entries just as much as scripts and assess their screen potential exactly like we do the screenplays and teleplays we receive.
by John | Aug 11, 2017 | Industry News, Our pick of the web for writers and producers, WriteMovies News
Our pick of the web for July 2017 – From the @WriteMovies Twitter Feed!
Our @WriteMovies Twitter feed has been sharing lots of exciting things giving our tips of the best new articles, insights and offers for screenwriters and producers on the web. And in case you’ve missed anything there, here is our pick for July 2017…
by John | Aug 7, 2017 | Featured Script of the Month, Our Winners, WriteMovies News
We are proud to be able to announce QUEEN OF HEARTS by Ethan Westgate as the winner of our Featured Script of the Month for scripts submitted in June and July 2017.
With our Summer Contest only opening late in June, we decided to combine our free monthly contest for all submissions from its opening period this time around.
We’re delighted to reward the most interesting script from those submissions, with a free Judging Feedback and re-entry! As ever, this is just a bonus prize and has no effect on any of our other contest results, but we love rewarding writers who are prepared to take risks to achieve distinctive scripts, and help them progress their scripts to the next level.
Honorable Mentions:
A FRIEND LIKE FILBY by Mark Wakely.
FACSIMILE by Gary Makin.
ÁNH SÁNG by Barry Brennessel.
Here is a short biography on Ethan…
Ethan Westgate currently resides in Chicago, IL. He has been working on screenplays for the last two years, Queen of Hearts is his first feature screenplay. Ethan graduated from St. John’s college in 2012.
Here’s a short introduction to the script written by Ethan:
In a world where everyone is united by a global thought-network, a small minority of people are unable to access this network. Molly Dark must lead others of her kind in a race to survive as the Network turns violently against those Unconnected.
Enter into the Featured Script of the Month contest for free. Just enter the Summer 2017 Contest or order a Consultancy and you’ll gain your free entry.
Here is a short biography on Ethan…