by John | Apr 16, 2021 | Industry News, Updates
On April, 16th 1889, writer, filmmaker, actor and icon, Charlie Chaplin was born. His films have gone on to be loved and enjoyed universally, and a frontrunner in showing the power of film and what it can emotionally do to an audience.
From his first feature film, ‘The Kid’ (1921)’, where the world first lay witness to his infamous ‘Little Tramp’ character. To genre-defining films such as the romantic comedy, ‘Modern Times’ (1936)’, and political satire ‘The Great Dictator’ (1940)’, he truly helped shape cinema and comedy.
To celebrate this, we asked Shintaro Ogai, winner of our 2020 Fall Contest, with his script ‘Riding With Charlie’, why he thinks Charlie Chaplin is so loved universally.
Here is his response:
WriteMovies: “Why has Charlie Chaplin been loved by people all over the world for over a century?”
Shintaro Ogai: “Because his films address issues important to people of every era: the ideas of class consciousness and status. His character, The Little Tramp, was influenced by his own experiences of financial hardships during his childhood. Throughout time, the themes of class, wealth, and social standing play an important part in every one of our lives, and Charlie’s comedy sheds light on all of these topics.”
If you want to read more about Shintaro Ogai and his winning script ‘Riding With Charlie’, click here!
by John | Apr 8, 2021 | Our Winners
Second place in our Winter Contest went to a gripping sci-fi TV pilot in which mysterious events put the International Space Station in danger and change the very face of reality: REVELATIONS by Johnny Gilligan!
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by John | Apr 5, 2021 | WMC
The standard deadline for both the WriteMovies Spring Contest and our Sci-Fi and Fantasy Award is in just one week on Sunday April 11th! As the world tries to get back to normal, producers are looking for scripts that could tempt audiences back into movie theatres. Could one of those script be yours?
There’s been plenty of positive news for the movie industry over the last couple of weeks. GODZILLA VS. KONG has set a pandemic record, taking $48.5 million at the box office – a clear sign that people are eager to get back to the cinema and that sci-fi and fantasy will continue to be strong performers.
Other genres are seeing investment too. There’s been recent news that Netflix are making a $400 million deal for two sequels to Rian Johnson’s KNIVES OUT, with the first due to start shooting as soon as June. This shows that original IPs are still sought after by producers, and that successful franchises don’t have to be built around aliens and magic!
All the news coming out of industry indicates that it’s getting back on its feet. Audiences are eager for content and producers are investing in new projects and scripts for future productions.
We’ll be pitching all of our winners – of both the Spring Contest and the Sci-Fi and Fantasy Award – to industry. This is the right time to be getting your script out there, and submitting to our competitions is the perfect way to do it! We also provide Development Notes to all our winners, making sure that it’s pitch perfect and giving it the best chance of success.
Enter by the standard deadline on Sunday and you’ll save $10 on your submission. What are you waiting for? Submit your script to be in with a chance of winning some great prizes, including our $3500 Grand Prize – click HERE to see the full list of prizes and enter the Spring Contest, or click HERE for the Sci-Fi and Fantasy Award!
by John | Apr 2, 2021 | Our Winners
Want to find out what it takes to be one of our winners? Check out this Q&A with Paul Howard Hunt, who took 3rd place in our Winter Contest and won our Romance and Comedy Award, for insights into how he writes, where his inspiration comes from, and his tips for writers!
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by John | Mar 29, 2021 | Industry Diary, Industry News, Pitching
A year ago, we gave you a sneak peek at the industry diary of our director, Ian Kennedy, as he pitched our winners projects in Los Angeles. Now, as we start a new pitching push, we look back at a year like no other and how it’s shaped our plans for the future.
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by John | Mar 26, 2021 | Our Winners, WMC
It’s time for our Winter Contest to come to an end with a brand new set of winners! Our deserving Grand Prize winner walks away with $3500, and the top three all receive pitching to industry, script development, and more.
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by John | Mar 22, 2021 | Sci-Fi and Fantasy Award, Writing Insights
Worldbuilding is a key component of genre fiction, and with the new WriteMovies Sci-Fi and Fantasy Award now open, a lot of you will now be hard at work creating new worlds! But how do you do it successfully? Here are what we see as the first principles of great worldbuilding.
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On April, 16th 1889, writer, filmmaker, actor and icon, Charlie Chaplin was born. His films have gone on to be loved and enjoyed universally, and a frontrunner in showing the power of film and what it can emotionally do to an audience.