December 2020 Script Sales
WONDER WOMAN 3, a remake of REVENGE OF THE NERDS, and some interesting spec scripts – looking at script sales from December 2020 can help us predict what the industry might look like after the pandemic.
This Week’s News – STAR WARS, Disney, and streaming services
2020 hasn’t been the year anyone expected for movie releases, and the entertainment world has changed a lot. This week’s entertainment news shows the ongoing shift towards streaming services as movie theatres continue to struggle, with huge new projects for STAR WARS and a price rise for Disney+. Here’s our pick of the news…
- A new adaptation of ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT is said to be one of the biggest budget films to ever be made in Germany, and it’s already been picked up by Netflix. Streaming services are competing more and more in the biggest leagues with movie theatres shut worldwide because of the pandemic; how this will affect the future remains to be seen, but Warner Bros already announced that they plan to simultaneously release all their productions in 2021 simultaneously in cinemas and on HBO Max. – Variety
- Subscribers to Disney+ in the United States will see a price rise in 2021, increasing by $1 to $7.99 per month. With Disney shifting a number of major films from cinema to streaming releases, and with their streaming service becoming increasingly more popular, this is unsurprising – but also demonstrates how significant streaming is now. – The Verge
- The price rise comes as Disney lays out their plans for Marvel going forward. They announced that THE FANTASTIC FOUR will receive a new movie (hopefully better than the last one…), Chadwick Boseman’s iconic role in BLACK PANTHER will not be recast, and explained how the films and TV shows will interweave with one another from now on. – Hollywood Reporter
- Keeping with Disney news, they’ve announced a whole lot of new STAR WARS projects for the next ten years, including new seasons of THE MANDALORIAN and new Disney+ series such as RANGERS OF THE NEW REPUBLIC and AHSOKA. The next STAR WARS feature film has also been announced: ROGUE SQUADRON is set to be directed by Patty Jenkins, best known for WONDER WOMAN. – Hollywood Reporter
- Among other Star Wars news, the original actor for Darth Vader, Dave Prowse, sadly died this week at the age of 85. The character was voiced by James Earl Jones, but Prowse was responsible for the iconic physical performance that made him so intimidating. Darth Vader will live on though; it’s been revealed that Hayden Christensen is set to return for the role in the OBI-WAN miniseries, which will also star Ewan McGregor. – Entertainment Weekly
- Good news for fans of Robert Eggers (like us here at WriteMovies), who directed THE VVITCH and THE LIGHTHOUSE: he’s completed production of his latest feature film, THE NORTHMAN. In a year when so many productions have been delayed and disrupted, it’s great to know that significant progress is being made by one of the most exciting directors out there right now. – IndieWire
We’re always keeping a close eye on our industry, and it’s something all screenwriters should do too. Because we pitch all our winners to industry, we need to know the lay of the land – and the landscape keeps changing rapidly at the moment!
If you want us to get your script out there, submit now to our contests. Enter our Romance and Comedy Award and you’ll also get free entry to the Winter 2021 Screenwriting Contest, with the chance to win script development, pitching to industry, and the $3500 Grand Prize!
AVENGERS: ENDGAME conquers the box office
It’s no secret what kind of films are doing well at the box office these days – and which film in particular right now. Riding the wave of superhero successes, AVENGERS: ENDGAME, the 22nd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is destroying all the competition in its path.
To put the success of ENDGAME into context, the film broke more than a dozen records in its opening weekend alone, as reported by this article by Variety. Most notably, it had the biggest worldwide opening of all time and took just five days to reach $1 billion.
And it goes on. The Marvel movie is charging towards the all-time worldwide record held by AVATAR having now made $2 billion. It took AVATAR 47 days to hit that threshold. ENDGAME has managed it in just 11.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe was already the biggest grossing franchise in movie history, and looking at this unprecedented success, it’s easy for writers and producers alike to start thinking that franchises are the way forward – hence the DC Extended Universe and the attempted Dark Universe from Universal, which got off to a rocky start with their 2017 reboot of The Mummy.
But before you start planning out your own movie universe, a few words of caution. Looking at the other biggest grossing franchises, only two out of the top ten aren’t based on pre-existing books or comics. So it’s tough to create one from scratch.
It’s also worth noting that neither of those two – STAR WARS or THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS – set out trying to create a franchise from the start. They began with stand-alone films and grew from there.
Even the MCU did something similar with its earliest films, rather than trying to introduce too much all at once. It may have shown the potential for vast, interwoven universes in film, but it didn’t overreach itself in the beginning. It also relied on the strength of its source material.
So before you start writing that massive series you’ve got planned out in your head, you might want to start on a smaller scale. The MCU may be wildly successful, but it’s tough to replicate that kind of success.
“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!
First Look: THOR: RAGNAROK Review
Disney. Marvel. Superheroes. Every time I feel like I’m done with the genre, Marvel seems to release a film that draws me back in… well, a little bit. This year that film was not THOR: RAGNAROK, it was SPIDERMAN: HOMECOMING. But without Spidey’s refreshing re-introduction I wouldn’t have even thought about watching the third THOR installment.
Before the SPIDERMAN reboot, my interest in the MCU had fallen so low.
I have no strong feelings, one way or the other about these films. I didn’t care for CIVIL WAR, which I still haven’t watched, and to be honest, I don’t think I’ve missed anything from it. But there is no doubt that Marvel still produce some solid and entertaining films, even if they have no massive impact on my life.
THOR was a very nice mix of superhero, steampunk sci-fi, and comedy – a real good dose of comedy. I was impressed with how the film and director, Taika Waititi, balanced the odd blend of tone and genre. The comedy certainly had the New Zealand subtle, monotone style which Waititi employed brilliantly in one of his previous films, EAGLE VS SHARK. The comedy came naturally within the story and characters and hit all the right beats. Hell, this film might be the confirmation that Chris Hemsworth is more of a comic actor.
MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD… The story had a solid premise – with the death of Odin, Thor’s evil and power-hungry sister (Cate Blanchett, who is her usual brilliant self) was released from an other-worldly prison, and she was set on taking her throne back. The film takes Thor to unique and interesting places, but as with most superhero films, you don’t ever feel he’s in any danger.
THOR: RAGNAROK represents my biggest issue with the Marvel films, though. Yes, it’s solid, it’s funny, it has decent action, it keeps your attention but… it doesn’t do anything else. This is the type of movie you put on TV if there’s nothing else to watch – you don’t hate that you’re gonna watch it, but there’s better things out there. For me, that is every single Marvel film. There is no film in the entire roster, from IRON MAN to THOR: RAGNAROK where I would go “Oh man, I gotta watch this again!”
These Marvel films just don’t do anything spectacular – not really. They aim to grab and maintain the attention of most of its main demographic, and hey, they do that super well, but at some point, we (and by we, I mean me) need something a bit more different. There was some variety here, in HOMECOMING and even in ANT-MAN, but each of these felt like there were two hands on the wheel – the director and Marvel. As much as I could see Waititi’s style on THOR, or Edgar Wright’s on ANT-MAN, I could feel Marvel’s influence just as much.
THOR: RAGNAROK was a fine film, I enjoyed it, but that’s it. Each Marvel film is a solid 7 out of 10 now – they’ve got their formula and it works. But there’s no WOW factor. Sooner or later there needs to be some change, some variation in these films and the genre as a whole… otherwise, I might think about watching some DC films… OK maybe not, but you get my point!
What did you think of THOR: RAGNAROK? Was it another home run for Marvel, or just another superhero flick? Let us know on our Twitter and Facebook pages.
© WriteMovies 2017. Exclusive to WriteMovies – To syndicate this content for your own publication, contact ian (at) writemovies dot-com.
Our pick of the web for July 2017 – From the @WriteMovies Twitter Feed!
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…
- Why Hollywood is ready for subtle storytelling at last. Part 2: MANCHESTER BY THE SEA’s complex Protagonist – https://writemovies.com/hollywood-ready-subtle-storytelling-last-part-2-manchester-seas-complex-protagonist/
- “If you’re having trouble getting started with your script, pick scenes from your story you WANT to write — any scenes — and write them.” – https://twitter.com/GoIntoTheStory/status/881246029953331203
- This Inside Out Screenwriting Video Challenges the Age-Old Advice “Write What You Know” https://www.themarysue.com/this-inside-out-screenwriting-video-challenges-the-age-old-advice-write-what-you-know/
- Star Wars: Someone Is Selling The Last Jedi Script http://whatculture.com/film/star-wars-someone-is-selling-the-last-jedi-script
- So-called comedy desperately needs a script https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/entertainment/movies/so-called-comedy-desperately-needs-a-script-432397353.html#sthash.vhYzdLQW.uxfs
- WriteMovies Spring 2017 Screenwriting Competition – Final Results – https://writemovies.com/writemovies-spring-2017-screenwriting-competition-final-results/
- Civil War, Kingsman Writer Calls Spider-Man: Homecoming Marvel’s Best Movie http://comicbook.com/2017/07/07/civil-war-kingsman-writer-calls-spider-man-homecoming-marvels-be/
- Script Development Key to Resurgence of Central, Eastern European Film Biz http://variety.com/2017/film/global/karlovy-vary-script-development-as-key-central-and-eastern-european-film-industry-1202488381/
- ‘Spies Like Us’ and the Two Best Pages of Screenwriting Ever https://filmschoolrejects.com/spies-like-us-two-best-pages-screenwriting-ever/
- Writing Tips and Submissions Tips – https://writemovies.com/writing-tips-submissions-tips/
- Why Hollywood is ready for subtle storytelling at last. Part 3: The ARRIVAL of a new, subtler wave in cinema? – https://writemovies.com/hollywood-ready-subtle-storytelling-last-part-3-arrival-new-subtler-wave-cinema/
- Disney’s Aladdin getting a script re-write http://www.criticalhit.net/entertainment/disneys-aladdin-getting-script-re-write/
- Paramount Buys Joe Epstein Script For Darren Aronofsky http://deadline.com/2017/07/darren-aronofsky-joe-epstein-paramount-pictures-project-1202130433/
- Black List, Women in Film Set Female Writer Labs, Young Adult Script Fellowship http://variety.com/2017/film/news/the-black-list-and-wif-female-writers-1202498281/
- A hidden piece of the ‘Game of Thrones’ season 7 premiere script reveals how the White Walkers could invade Westeros http://uk.businessinsider.com/game-of-thrones-hound-sandor-fire-white-walkers-2017-7?r=US&IR=T
- Two New ‘Harry Potter’ Books to Be Published in October http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/two-new-harry-potter-books-be-published-october-1022438
- Meet our Spring 2017 Screenwriting Contest Third Placed Winner: BURNER by Bob Canning! https://writemovies.com/meet-our-spring-2017-screenwriting-contest-third-placed-winner-burner-by-bob-canning/
- Stallone Teases a Drago, Adonis Showdown in ‘Creed’ Sequel Script He Wrote http://ew.com/movies/2017/07/24/stallone-drago-adonis-showdown-creed-sequel-script/
- EXCLUSIVE: Is Mark Bomback writing the Ben Affleck-Less BATMAN? http://splashreport.com/batman-script-matt-reeves/
- Meet our Spring 2017 Screenwriting Contest Second Placed Winner: THE FACTION by Kevin Karp! https://writemovies.com/meet-our-spring-2017-screenwriting-contest-second-placed-winner-faction-by-kevin-karp/
- Bobby Lee Darby and Nathan Brookes – Our new Elite Script Consultants https://writemovies.com/bobby-lee-darby-nathan-brookes-new-elite-consultants/
- ‘Games Of Thrones script stolen’ as hackers target HBO http://www.burytimes.co.uk/leisure/showbiz/15445075.___Games_Of_Thrones_script_stolen____as_hackers_target_HBO/?ref=twtrec
- ‘The Princess Diaries 3’ Has A Script, Meaning Fans Are That Much Closer To An Actual Movie https://www.bustle.com/p/the-princess-diaries-3-has-a-script-meaning-fans-are-that-much-closer-to-actual-movie-73598
- Writing an Educational Script? Tips from a New York Emmy Award-Winning Scriptwriter https://www.voices.com/blog/writing-an-educational-script-a-new-york-emmy-award-winning-scriptwriter-gives-her-tips/
- ‘Deadwood’ Movie Update: HBO Exec Praises David Milch’s ‘Terrific’ Script http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/deadwood-movie-david-milch-hbo-1202507726/
Our pick of the web for March 2017 – From the @WriteMovies Twitter Feed!
Our pick of the web for March 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 March 2017… (more…)