by John | Oct 16, 2017 | Highlights, Monthly Contest Winners, Our Winners, Updates, WMCm, WriteMovies News
Latest Free Writing Contest Winner – Our September Featured Script of the Month is SEEMINGLY HARMONIOUS by Dengxian Cao.
We chose Cao’s script from a host of September submissions for its unique and interesting concept – which is what this free contest is all about!
For winning the Featured Script of the Month, Cao now receives free Judging Feedback and publicity on our website, Twitter feed, and Facebook page. Cao will also get the chance for a free resubmission of his script to our current main screenwriting contest! A great set of prizes for a free writing contest!
Here’s the logline to this very interesting script…
When terrorists use a Mind Transfer Device to control the bodies of US officials, including the president, a Secret Service agent must battle against his seemingly own people to prevent a nuclear war.
Check out a short biography on Cao, too!
Cao Dengxian: Born in Shandong Province of China, Dengxian Cao has works including several film screenplays and a collection of stories.
Seemingly Harmonious Awards: 2014 Hollywood International Screenplay Contest science fiction finalist; Third in 2015 India International Film Festival; 2016 The 14th Annual FilmMakers International Screenwriting Awards PLATINUM PRIZE WINNER. Another American Writers Festival, the creative world, and any other semifinals.
Props to our Honorable Mentions, too!
- DIAMOND BAR by Andrew Crane and Jay Pickett
- THE HEALER by Ken Floyd
- And PATHS by Anthony Vieira!
Enter our Featured Script of the Month Contest with any contest entry (such as our upcoming Winter Contest, which opens next Monday) or by purchasing any one of our top, studio-quality mentoring services.
by John | Oct 13, 2017 | WriteMovies News, Writing Insights
Is this best screenwriters list write on the money? Screenwriters working right now pick their top 100 screenwriters of all time – who are your top writers? Check out the list right here: http://www.vulture.com/2017/10/100-greatest-screenwriters-of-all-time-ranked.html
This is a very well put together list by a group of currently working screenwriters. Although we’d question how low down Spielberg is (he’s below the likes of Judd Apatow) this got us thinking as to how exactly a top top screenwriter should be defined. Sure, the story needs to be there, the characters engaging and empathetic, but all of the screenwriters in this excellent list have achieved this, so what else is there?
Variety – a top screenwriter should be able to write a wide range of characters, stories and genres. Of course, writers like Hitchcock, Allen, and Wilder all have their set genres they go to, but looking at their slates, they all have variety to their game.
Relationship with the director – Looking at this list, there are a few writers in that top 10 that are writer-directors. They write the script, they make the film. This is a commendable trait that someone can create a concept then bring it to life. Yet, there is also a brilliance in succeeding while never needing to be a director. A director’s knowledge of what to do with a script should be just as commendable as those writer-directors.
We’ll keep adding to this list periodically, so keep coming back for more on what we think makes the best screenwriters the best.
© WriteMovies 2017. Exclusive to WriteMovies – To syndicate this content for your own publication, contact ian (at) writemovies dot-com.
by John | Oct 11, 2017 | Industry News, Movie Reviews and TV Reviews, WriteMovies News
The latest STAR WARS trailer for episode VIII, THE LAST JEDI, has just dropped and it is a master at disguising its true intentions – just like Palpatine…
While the trailer gives away a lot of action that will be happening – round 2 between Kylo and Rey, Luke training Rey – these situations were highly expected even before the trailer released. What the trailer did expertly was to not just hide plot details, but to dress them up as something else and misdirect the audience.
Here’s just a few examples
Raw power…
Both Luke and Snoke mention the massive, raw power of an individual. Luke says “I’ve seen this strength only once before. It didn’t scare me enough then… it does now.” Snoke says something very similar at the start of the trailer. The way the trailer sets these lines up makes the audience immediately think that Kylo Ren is the common factor here. However, this is just jumping to conclusions. They could both be referencing Luke himself – what the trailer does brilliantly is to make us think one way so that our expectations are subverted when we see the actual film.- Family reunion?
There’s a little moment between Kylo and Leia in the trailer… only it doesn’t happen. There’s an intercutting of the shots to make it appear like a “shot-reverse shot” technique, giving the illusion the scene we see are connected. But, of course, they’re almost certainly not. Is it possible those scenes are connected? Possibly, but there’s ambiguity and a lack of certainty that we can’t be sure about. Just like…
- Finding a Rey of hope…
A line uttered to what the trailer makes us believe to be Kylo. This is amplified by Kylo offering a hand to Rey – or so we think. Again, the trailer has been edited to make us believe that Rey is speaking to Kylo and that it Kylo is offering his hand to Rey. How sure are you of both of those things? Rey could be speaking to Luke, Leia, or even Snoke. The hand could be Luke’s or Kylo’s. That hand may have no relation there at all.
What this trailer has done is offer so much to audiences and nothing at the same time. Fans can now theorize on what will happen based on the trailer and based on its misdirects. There are so many doors Episode VIII could go down.
Both Mark Hamill and director Rian Johnson initially urged fans to stay away from promotional material for the film, assumedly because it would give too much away. But having watched the trailer it’s really given us the best of both worlds. It gives us a feeling of what we can expect, it hypes up certain interactions and duels while giving away very little.
Just remember, “This is not going to go the way you think.”
© WriteMovies 2017. Exclusive to WriteMovies – To syndicate this content for your own publication, contact ian (at) writemovies dot-com.
by John | Sep 21, 2017 | Industry News, WriteMovies News
We have an exclusive Habib Zargarpour interview coming soon all about his work on BLADE RUNNER 2049. Habib also reveals how his teams achieved such awesome effects in A PERFECT STORM, TWISTER, STAR TREK: GENERATIONS and many other films!
Our Director of World Wide Development, Ian Kennedy, has been speaking with the VFX expert, Habib Zargarpour. Keep reading to learn about his experience on the BLADE RUNNER sequel, working on the same project as Ridley Scott, his previous work and becoming a writer-director on his next film THE SQUADRON.
Ian and Habib talk about everything BLADE RUNNER – the sequel, Ridley Scott vs Denis Villeneuve, whether this is the most anticipated sequel ever, if Deckard is a replicant, and the art of VFX… and how yogurt holds the key. Habib has also worked on movies for STAR TREK, STAR WARS, BOURNE, A PERFECT STORM, JUMANJI, THE MASK and so many more – you don’t wanna miss this!
We’ll be publishing the interview in stages over the coming days… watch our Twitter and Facebook feeds for the latest releases!
Check out Habib’s IMDb page and learn more about him HERE.
Exclusive to WriteMovies – To syndicate this content for your own publication, contact ian (at) writemovies dot-com.
© WriteMovies 2017
by John | Sep 8, 2017 | Industry News, WriteMovies News, Writing Insights
With the success of MOONLIGHT, GET OUT and many more, just why exactly are black leads in films and script in right now?
We’ve been noticing a trend recently among the leads and protagonists for films – more and more successful flicks have leading black characters. It seems like maybe the current state of the States is why these films are growing so well.
As well as Oscar winner MOONLIGHT, this year has seen the likes of GET OUT, which became the highest-grossing debut film of all time. Directed by Jordan Peele, and starring Daniel Kaluuya. A black director and black lead – this film shows the appetite for movies that tackle the issues of black identity in America in new and distinctive ways.
Halle Berry and Sam Jackson have both been driving forces this summer, but they’re already well-established black actors. The big one, for me, is Idris Elba in THE DARK TOWER. Originally in Stephen King’s books, Elba’s character, the Gunslinger, was white. Now people may complain about this being PC, but this shows the pull and power of black actors such as Elba that a studio is willing to alter a character’s race to positively benefit the film.
The new black led superhero film, BLACK PANTHER, is also coming soon and this represents how strong commercially black actors and black led scripts and films are becoming. Samuel L. Jackson, Morgan Freeman, and Denzel Washington have all been big names for years now. You can even go back to the 70s when Pam Grier was a mainstay in Blaxploitation cinema – this was hugely popular back in the day. But now more than ever, black actors are headlining huge Hollywood films.
Read more on black actors heating up the Summer scene here: http://www.eurweb.com/2017/08/stay-cool-this-summer-as-these-black-actors-heat-up-the-scene/
Based on the quality of the scripts and their commercial potential, our last two Grand Prize winners have coincidentally been black-led scripts – but then, maybe the extra edge of having a black lead helped dynamize these scripts in our eyes. For example, let’s look at our Spring 2017 and Winter 2016 Contest Grand Prize winners, RINGMASTER by Tory Williams and BLACKOUT.COM by Ruben Bush III.
Here’s their loglines…
RINGMASTER: “An African-American student enters an underground MMA tournament to pay his way through college.”
https://writemovies.com/meet-our-summer-2016-screenwriting-contest-winner-ringmaster-by-tory-williams/
BLACKOUT.COM: “Two young African-American men find a unique and dangerous way to handle white supremacists and help their community.”
https://writemovies.com/meet-winter-2016-screenwriting-contest-grand-prize-winner-blackout-com-ruben-bush-iii/
We believe these are particularly prescient scripts and concepts. And as our Elite Script Mentors Bobby Lee Darby and Nathan Brookes say “scripts with black leads are big right now”. Considering the current social, cultural, and political climate, we’d like to think that with the right script development support paying off, these scripts are right on the money.
If you have a black protagonist in your script – now is the time to get it out there – and with just over a week to go in our Summer Contest you can trust that we’d give it the attention it deserves.
https://writemovies.com/summer-2017-screenwriting-competition/
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© WriteMovies 2017
by John | Sep 4, 2017 | Monthly Contest Winners, Our Winners, Updates, WMCm, WriteMovies News
A new winner is revealed for our free writing contest, the Featured Script of the Month Contest…
Our August winner of the Featured Script of the Month is DEAD POSSUM by Jared Wayne Raun.
We chose Jared’s script from a host of August submissions for its unique and interesting concept – which is what this free contest is all about!
Hell, we’ll show you what we’re talking about. Here’s a quick summary on the script by Jared:
“A boy discovers he is dead, but resists leaving his body so he can save his living girlfriend from a gang of zombie bikers, despite protestations from his spirit guide.”
And here’s a short bio on Jared:
Jared is a longtime lover of movies, comics, music, and episodic storytelling. He graduated from USC film school in the late nineties and spent the first decade of his career working in production. Around ten years ago he switched his focus to writing and though he has written over ten feature scripts and a web series, this summer marks the first attempt he has made to get his work out to the public through screenwriting contests. He is honored to receive this award and hopes to see Dead Possum on screen sometime in the near future.
In addition to many more feature scripts queued up to write, Jared has several animated and live action projects he hopes to direct, the first being a horror/fantasy web series pilot set to shoot in early 2018.
For winning the August Featured Script of the Month Jared now receives free Judging Feedback and publicity on our website, Twitter feed, and Facebook page. Jared will also get the chance for a free resubmission of his script to our current main screenwriting contest! A great set of prizes for a free writing contest!
Let’s also give a hand to our Honorable Mentions:
EMILY’S STARS by Bill Baber.
WEST DAKOTA by Mark J. Rose,
And TOUGH THE FIRE by Kevin Karp.
You could be our next Script of the Month winner – you enter for free whenever you enter one of our Contests or order a script mentoring service.
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
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© WriteMovies 2017
