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Welcome to the new-look site for 2019!

Welcome to the new-look site for 2019!

We’ve been working hard to improve our interface, moving from heavier graphics to icon-based, more lightweight and faster-download ones with animation built in. What do you think?

Check out new versions of our different sections, and more are to follow: the Homepage, our Academy, and this news article.

Share your thoughts on our Facebook page here! https://www.facebook.com/WriteMoviesScripts/

I wanted to write a short note to say how much I enjoy working with WriteMovies. The professional way in which you work with the writers and the analysts makes the experience of giving and receiving screenplay notes a painless one and as a result allows the creative process to flow smoothly. Any writer looking to move their script to a higher level can’t go wrong by turning to WriteMovies for feedback.

Tom Craig

Producer of SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, RAIN MAN and many other top films

A new WriteMovies for 2019!

A new WriteMovies for 2019!

20 years promoting great global storytelling!

WriteMovies has now been helping writers succeed for two decades – and in our 20th anniversary year, we’ve got a lot of exciting changes on the way. WriteMovies 2019 is a new WriteMovies, campaigning for great, vital stories in 2019!

 

So what have we got going on in WriteMovies 2019? Take a look…

  • Potentially our last contest in the format you’re used to, our Winter 2019 Screenwriting Contest closes in just 9 days! With a $2500 Grand Prize, plus a year of free script development worth up to $3200 and guaranteed pitching to industry for the top three scripts, it’s not an opportunity to be missed. Enter your script before January 13th for a chance to win!
  • We’ll be making a lot of improvements and enhancements to our website, with new hosting and other changes to enhance it and our email systems.
  • TalentScout International Management will also be getting a makeover, becoming a creatives’ agency run for and by creatives. TSIM will be a vital part of our work as we pitch our winners’ scripts to industry!
  • As we continue to roll out WriteMovies Academy, our unique virtual film school, we’ll be launching weekly videos about screenwriting. These will give you a sneak peak at some of the Academy content – as well as providing invaluable help for creating your own projects!
  • We’re relaunching our French services under auteur filmmaker Nicolas Bodereau. We’ve already received commissions for Nicolas to translate scripts from French to English, so if you’ve got any translation needed yourself, email auteur@writemovies.com!

WriteMovies 2019 looks to be better than ever before. A place for great global storytelling, we’re going to be expanding our and growing, championing the stories we believe in. Watch this space for more news coming soon – we’ve got a lot of exciting stuff coming up!

“What would you do if you could…?” – A Stan Lee tribute

“What would you do if you could…?” – A Stan Lee tribute

WriteMovies Director Ian Kennedy explores the works of Stan Lee and why superhero stories unleash our imaginations better than any other kind of stories…

At the heart of every superhero story is a central question that fires our imaginations every time, and nobody took it further than Stan Lee. The extraordinary array of well-known characters he brought into the world, which return again and again across many formats and platforms, is testament to that.

Cosmic stories like the creation of the universe are just too big to really relate to as stories, at least in the scientific telling – but many mythologies and religions make these stories relatable by ascribing these vast events to recognisably humanized figures. Gods like Zeus/Jupiter and Odin/Woden are presented like more powerful versions of human beings, able to shape the world with their powers and the sometimes arbitrary logic of their choices and lives; ancient heroes like Hercules and Beowulf are humans but given extra powers or significance. Superhero stories are clearly following in this tradition – and grasp towards almighty powers at times (DOCTOR STRANGE, CAPTAIN MARVEL, The Phoenix in X-Men).

By bringing these forces down (or up – SPIDER-MAN!) to our scale, we get to explore how people like us would act if they were capable of so much more than we are. It’s no coincidence that the modern superhero genre and many of its biggest characters have their origins in the Great Depression – when ordinary people were powerless against global economic forces. The flimsy justifications that the storytellers find for giving these figures their powers, are really just an excuse to let our imaginations run riot, and are quickly delivered and forgotten about in most of the origin stories, so that we can get onto the fun and exciting bit.

Nobody grasped the potential of these stories more, or took them further, than Stan Lee and the teams of writers and illustrators and filmmakers who he has worked with – the list of now-famous characters he created is vast. But at the heart of all these stories is just one very powerful central question, which is deceptively simple but really fires our imaginations. “What would you do if you could…?”

Superheroes and supervillains both play out these powers and their potentials and hazards throughout every story. Here are some of our favorites at WriteMovies from Stan Lee’s creations.

If you could… move and sling webs like a spider!
On the one hand, Peter Parker is just an ordinary teenager, worried about the same kind of things as any other teenager – on the other, he finds himself equipped with the awesome powers that make him SPIDER-MAN. We can all relate to his troubles at school while rooting for him to become a true superhero as he learns an important lesson: “with great power comes great responsibility”.

If you could… fly around in an armored suit!
IRON MAN’s Tony Stark is basically another Bruce Wayne, but with much quirkier personality. As an outright arms manufacturer, he’s also more morally compromised than Wayne. While Wayne has an orphan sob-story, Stark has an ego. And unleashing an ego that size, on a suit that powerful, creates excellent conflict throughout – so much so that in CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR, he can fight against many of our other heroes, without losing our empathy.

If you could… use you other senses to fight despite being blind!
DAREDEVIL has found immense success on Netflix, and with good reason. Matt Murdock is a deep, conflicted character, living in a world of darkness after being blinded as a child. With his other senses heightened, the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen is so captivating because he doesn’t just overcome his physical disability but turns it into a strength, proving that anyone – even someone who is blind – can become a superhero.

If you could… shrink to the size of an ant!
Scott Lang may be a former criminal, but his desire to reform himself makes us support him all the same. As ANT-MAN, he proves that even the smallest person can make a huge difference – and all while showing us a crazy world around us too small for us to even see!

Stan Lee has given us plenty of amazing creations over the years, and the world is a lesser place without him. Take a look too at our thoughts on two films based on his other superheroes, THOR: RAGNAROK and BLACK PANTHER!

Pitch meetings, success stories, and more VFX-driven scripts wanted for a 2x Oscar nominated director!

Pitch meetings, success stories, and more VFX-driven scripts wanted for a 2x Oscar nominated director!

We’ve been hard at work lately having pitching scripts to industry, having pitch meetings with producers and distributors about our many projects! Alex and Ian had a productive meeting at BAFTA recently, discussing the slate and future opportunities. So, what have we been up to? Let’s take a look…

  • Ian Kennedy at Bafta

    Ian Kennedy, our Director of Worldwide Development, at BAFTA

    Following on from Alex and Habib’s successful tour of Hollywood, we’re still looking for more great VFX-driven scripts for Habib to direct. We’re in discussion with many studios to confirm the next wave of projects and welcome more submissions through our Winter 2019 Contest.

  • The movie we made in 2007, THE LIST, is now back in our hands after ten years in a distribution deal with Warner Bros. This charming romantic comedy stars Wayne Brady (WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY?) and Sidney Tamiia Poitier (DEATH PROOF), and includes a breakout role for Jane Lynch as a TV dating guru which helped lead to her iconic role in GLEE. We’ve had several meetings and enquiries with distributors and sales companies keen to take this project further.
  • THE LIST is a great example of our work as a full circle: script agency and production house. With our contests and consultancy services including elite mentoring, we offer entry to the market from just $39 and can carry your project all the way through production, distribution, and “the long tail”. Enter now with your VFX driven or any other genre of script to take it to the next level and break through to success.

We’ve also recently had pitch meetings with many companies including Film4 and several of our winners’ projects have been going from strength to strength!

We guarantee pitching to industry for the top three scripts from our competition – so enter our Winter 2019 Screenwriting Contest today from just $44, and you can follow in the footsteps of our past winners and get your script out there!

Introducing the Winner of our Best Short Script Award!

Introducing the Winner of our Best Short Script Award!

Our International Screenwriting Contest isn’t just for full length screenplays – we accept short scripts as well! In our Spring 2018 Contest, the winner of Best Short Script also made it all the way to the semi-finals: ROLL WITH IT by Rosie Byrnes!

As most of our readers know, writing a screenplay is tough work that takes diligence, planning, and a whole lot of hours spent typing. It might seem like writing a short script is easier, but it brings with it an entire set of challenges you won’t find elsewhere. Imagine trying to cram a 120 page story into 10 pages and you’ll see how difficult it is!

Congratulations to Rosie for winning in this category; her script charmed us with its rich story, likeable characters, and colorful concepts. She now receives a copy of our Confidential Studio Manual and exclusive previews of our Virtual Film School as her prizes, plus a set of Development Notes to give her professional feedback on her work.

Read on to find out more about this short script which captured our hearts: ROLL WITH IT!

Here’s Rosie’s summary of her script…

rosie byrnes

“Max is the king of the roller disco, and he knows it—that is, until the spunky (and far more admirable) Lucy arrives at the rink. His crown threatened, Max challenges her to the ultimate dance-off. But he’s in over his head, and finds that he’s head over heels for the gal who knows what it means to be groovy.”

And a short biography of Rosie, too…

“Rosie Byrnes is a writer, a second grade teacher, and a notorious ice cream lover. Originally from Colorado but currently residing in Tainan City, Taiwan, Rosie has spent most of her life writing outlandish stories. Only after following her crush into a college screenwriting class did she realize that, hey, it’s actually pretty neat. Her most recent passion project is a feature-length screenplay about Bigfoot (who’s a big softie, deep down), and she currently holds the “Worst Female Bowler” title in her hometown’s championship.

Rosie can be found on Twitter via the username @rosiebwrites.”

Rosie has won previews of the WriteMovies Academy, and Phase 1 opens on September 15th – join now to take your work to take your screenwriting and production skills to the next level!

Spring 2018 Contest – Introducing the Winner of our Best Stageplay Award!

Spring 2018 Contest – Introducing the Winner of our Best Stageplay Award!

The winner of our Best Stageplay Award in our Spring 2018 Contest also made it all the way to the final, receiving an Honorable Mention: THE CRACK IN PEGGY SUE’S FLOOR, by John Woodard!

Our congratulations to John for this achievement; stageplays are judged on their screen potential but equally the quality of the writing. “Viability” is the deciding factor here! John now receives a copy of our Confidential Studio Manual and exclusive previews of our Virtual Film School as his prizes.

Read on to find out about the stageplay which took the prize in this category: THE CRACK IN PEGGY SUE’S FLOOR!

Here’s John’s summary of his script…

“In 1944 racist Georgia, a black drifter saves a white recluse by killing her lecherous neighbor — setting in motion a chain of deadly events while uncovering secrets better left hidden.”

And a short biography of John, too…

“John Woodard is a multiple award winning screen, teleplay, and stageplay play writer living in Los Angeles, Ca..  Winner of The 2016 Beverly Hills Theatre Guild Youth Theatre Award for his play “The Princess Parodies.”  John has written screen and teleplays in a variety of genres that have all gone on to win various contests, including The Scriptapalooza Grand Jury Prize, Several Nicholl Fellowship finalists, Rhode Island International Grand Jury Prize, 2nd Place Story Pros Screenplay Contest, Page and Page International and many others.

John looks forward to seeing the first production of “The Crack in Peggy Sue’s Floor” on stage as well as his screenplays on the big screen!

If you’ve got a stageplay that would adapt well to the screen, why not commission our help to get it there?

With our Summer Offers running until 31st August 2018, you can get all the professional feedback you need at great prices – take a look at our Script Report services!

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