by John | Jun 3, 2019 | Updates
We first launched the WriteMovies Sci-Fi and Fantasy Award because we wanted to be transported to amazing, fantastical new worlds – and boy, did you guys deliver! Our entrants spanned the deepest reaches of space, magical lands, and all of time: past, present, and future!
The imagination is a writer’s most powerful weapon, and it was on full display here. Well done to everyone who entered; the quality was so consistently high that you made it extremely difficult for us to pick a winner!
Some of the things that helped us make our choice include:
- Originality of concept – giving us something truly unique instead of something we’ve seen before
- Depth and complexity of worldbuilding – making the universe of the story feel like a real, lived in place
- Impressive visual elements – taking full advantage of these genres’ strengths
- Great characters – ensuring that the human element doesn’t get lost!
So here it is… The first ever winner of the inaugural WriteMovies Sci-Fi and Fantasy Award is…
THE TIME-TRAP
By Mark Flood
A big congratulations to Mark, who has won guaranteed pitching to industry, two sets of Development Notes, and continued script development from us! Well done also to all of our Honorable Mentions, who you can find listed below.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
| OMEGA POINT, James Bingham |
ENDANGERED SPECIES, Mark Flood |
GODLESS SKIES, Joshua David Harris |
| FABLE OF THE JADE TIGER, Jason Fisher |
SHIRO, Pascal Kulcsar |
THE LAST PRISON, Richard Geiwitz |
| THE REVOLT OF THE WHALES, Michael Rhodes |
MARS GENESIS, Don Ternyila |
RACE MUSIC, Eric Weber |
by John | May 29, 2019 | Industry News
It’s always important to keep up to date with what scripts are selling, and there are some interesting things to note from Script Pipeline’s last couple of reports on sales from March and April…
First of all, sales have slowed lately because a dispute has led to most WGA members firing their agents. That alone is worth keeping an eye on; how script sales will be conducted in the future, and how practices will change as a result of this, could have major ramifications for our industry.
Apart from this, here are some of the things that caught our eye in these latest reports…
- There’s been some controversy over the casting of Will Smith as Richard Williams, the father of Venus and Serena, in biopic KING RICHARD. With Smith set to also produce, however, it’s unlikely that the casting will change. This could be a powerful sports biopic if handled correctly.
- The DC Extended Universe will continue with THE FLASH – and unusually, it seems they’re allowing Ezra Miller, who plays the title role, to write it as well.
- Although they haven’t traditionally fared well (DETECTIVE PIKACHU excepted), another video game adaptation is being attempted in the form of SAINTS ROW. Lacking the brand appeal of franchises like POKEMON or ASSASSIN’S CREED, it remains to be seen whether there’s really an audience for this.
- On a similar note, last year’s TOMB RADIER reboot is getting a sequel. We weren’t too impressed with it ourselves, but it’s clearly done well enough at the box office to deserve a follow up.
- With recent adaptations of IT and PET SEMETARY, bringing the works of Stephen King to the screen is popular right now. That trend continues with ‘SALEM’S LOT – here’s hoping it’s more like the former than the latter in terms of quality.
If you want to see what else has been sold these last couple of months, take a closer look at Script Pipeline’s report on March Script Sales by clicking here, or click here for sales from April!
by John | Feb 25, 2019 | Updates
Whatever you think about the Oscars, there’s always something to be learned from them. Last night was no exception: there was the usual number of sure-fire wins mixed with a few shocks that leave us scratching our heads. Here’s our take on what happened at the Oscars 2019…
- The big news of the night was the surprise win of GREEN BOOK for Best Picture. This may not have been the most competitive year for this category, but stacked up against films like BLACKKKLANSMAN and ROMA, it’s still not what we expected. Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times even went so far as to call it “the worse best Picture winner since Crash“. Ouch. But the main thing to take from this? ROMA might have been the favorite on the night (rather than THE FAVOURITE… okay, it’s a bit confusing) but the Academy isn’t ready to give highest honors to a Netflix film just yet. The big studios continue to guard their territory.
- Spike Lee finally has an Oscar, winning Best Adapted Screenplay for BLACKKKLANSMAN. When it comes to films about race, the Oscars have generally favored less hard-edged material than Lee makes, so at first glance, this looks like it could indicate a shift for film’s biggest awards ceremony. However, that’s all kind of cancelled out because…
- The winner for Best Original Screenplay also went to GREEN BOOK, which has come in for a lot of criticism for perpetuating the “white savior” trope and couldn’t be more of an opposite to BLACKKKLANSMAN if it tried. Take a look at that article from Chang and you’ll see why it’s so confusing that the two screenplay awards went to these two films. On the one hand, a film that takes an intense, no-holds barred look at racism – on the other, a film that deals with it through a feel-good story. One thing is clear – Hollywood still hasn’t figured out how it wants to deal with this kind of subject matter.
- Away from the main controversies, superhero stories are starting to gain some traction at awards ceremonies to go with their popular appeal, with BLACK PANTHER picking up three awards and SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE winning Best Animated Feature. This is where the real money is right now – and it looks like there’s even the possibility of picking up some nice shiny awards to go with it.
- On a similar note, BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY took home four awards. Even though the only big one here was for Rami Malek’s performance as Freddie Mercury, it’s a surprise to see a film that got mixed reviews from critics fare so well at the Oscars. Is the Academy really becoming more democratized to reflect popular opinion? We’ll have to wait and see how next year unfolds…
From a screenwriting perspective, the main thing here is the confusion of seeing two totally contrasting films take home the awards for Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay. Here at WriteMovies, we’ll be keeping a close eye on this, with several of our past winners – such as BLACKOUT.COM by Ruben Bush III dealing with this kind of subject matter.
The Oscars 2019 may not have had the drama of the wrong winner being announced for Best Picture like a couple of years ago, but they’ve certainly given us a lot of food for thought…
