News From The Web - Industry Archive
Plan Your Journey - You Can't Make the Trip if You Don't Know How to Get There
Spec Scripts That Sold for Millions, but Were Never Made
Ken Miyamoto
Screencraft
The script market has drastically changed since the screenwriting boom of the 1990’s. At that time, the industry was coming off of the 1988 WGA Strike and there was a high demand for content, resulting in a plethora of original screenplays — spec scripts — that were sold for millions.
Warner Bros. Facing $900 Million Lawsuit Over 'The Conjuring' Franchise
Ashley Cullins
The Hollywood Reporter
Gerald Brittle, author of a 1980 book on the paranormal investigators, claims not only to have had an exclusive deal with Lorraine Warren, but that producers substantially lifted his work.
The Conjuring franchise has been fraught with litigation, but the latest complaint includes a $900 million damages claim that is sure to spook producers.
10 Writers to Watch in 2017
Variety Staff
Variety
Running a television show is a strange job. It takes writers — a group known historically for stubbornness, social anxiety and antipathy toward numbers — and turns them into the heads of multimillion-dollar companies. The same goes for Variety’s 10 TV Scribes to Watch for 2017. Each has proven a hit in aspects of the business. Now each is making the leap to first-time showrunner, bearing ultimate responsibility for the endeavors in their charge.
‘Kung Fu Panda’ Hoaxer Gets 2-Year Prison Term In $12M Fraud Scheme
David Robb
Deadline.com
Jamye Gordon, who attempted to defraud DreamWorks Animation out of more than $12 million in a hamfisted scheme in which he falsely claimed that he was the creator of Kung Fu Panda, has been sentenced to two years in federal prison and ordered to pay $3 million in restitution.
How To Survive Rejection In Hollywood
David Silverman
Hollywood Therapy
“Rejection just motivates me to keep trying and to try and get better.” Sasha Grey. If it were only that simple. The truth is, rejection in Hollywood can really crush your soul.
A New Wave at the Box Office
Sean Fennessey
The Ringer
A new Tom Hanks movie opened in more than 3,000 theaters this weekend. Did you notice? Don’t worry, no one else did either.
Hanks’s The Circle, an adaptation of the Dave Eggers novel of the same name, was nearly as anonymous as Hanks’s last Eggers novel adaptation, A Hologram for the King, which was released almost exactly one year ago. That performance was poor, rendering it largely invisible and already forgotten.
WGA Screen Credits Manual
Writers Guild of America
Curious to know how the WGA hands out the credits on a feature film. Find out with the WGA's Screen Credits Manual.
How Adaptive Studios Is Hacking "Development Hell" By Buying Abandoned Screenplays
Dan Soloman
FastcoCreate.com
Fans and filmmakers alike lament the fact that Hollywood has moved very much toward tentpole features—smaller movies that could have been solid base hits for the studio that made them in years past have fallen out of favor as studios look to turn big-budget pictures into massive box office successes, which means that movies that might have been successful examples of great storytelling just a few years ago end up not getting made at all now. It's unfortunate, but it also means that there's a lot of opportunity for a company like Adaptive to take advantage of the gap in the market.
Film Czar Ken Ziffren: Franchise Films Are in a "Boom or Bust Era"
Ashley Cullins
The Hollywood Reporter
Los Angeles film czar Ken Ziffren wouldn't give the state of the entertainment industry a thumbs up or a thumbs down Wednesday in his eighth annual presentation before a crowd of Beverly Hills Bar Association members.
“There’s change and there’s opportunity and there’s risk,” he said in summary of his hourlong talk, which covered current issues in film, TV and digital.
The following is a snapshot of Ziffren's perspective on issues that have impacted the entertainment industry in the past year, broken down by topic.
HBO Exec Chris Salvaterra Offers Perspective On the Business Side of Screenwriting
Jeanne Veillette Bowerman
ScriptMag.com
The landscape of Hollywood has morphed over the years, requiring us writers to continually shift our strategies for breaking in. It has never been more critical for us to understand the business of screenwriting. When I come across people whose insights can aide us on this crazy path to becoming produced screenwriters, I stop, listen and appreciate.
Here’s How the New Crowdfunding Rules Will Change Indie Film Financing
Mark Litwak
Indie Wire
Buckle your seat belts because there may soon be a wave of new indie films produced under relaxed government regulations. The Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), after a long delay, has finally adopted rules to permit companies to offer and sell securities through crowdfunding. Several years overdue, the new Regulations for Crowdfunding are to implement the requirements of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act ("JOBS Act"), enacted on April 5, 2012.
NOBODY WANTS TO MAKE YOUR FUCKING MOVIE
Aaron Keene
Medium.com
If you’re just getting into filmmaking — and by “just getting into filmmaking” I mean “in your first ten years of filmmaking” — the most important thing you need to realize is this: NOBODY WANTS TO MAKE YOUR FUCKING MOVIE!
How to Make a Short Film: 7 Simple Secrets for Making an Outstanding Short Film
Timothy Cooper
ScriptMag.com
Have you heard of the short films Doodlebug,Supermarket Sweep, or Electronic Labyrinth THX 1138 4EB? No?
Then how about Christopher Nolan, Darren Aronofsky, or George Lucas? Okay, good. They directed those short films at the very beginning of their careers.
So why make a short film? Because it’s probably the best calling card for an upcoming writer or director.
'Walking Dead' Lawsuit Spills Obscene Emails and Tales of Greed Over TV's Billion-Dollar Hit
Eriq Gardner
The Hollywood Reporter
In seven years, The Walking Dead has likely booked more than $1 billion in gross receipts based on an analysis of newly filed court documents that shed unprecedented light on the economics of the show and on Hollywood in general. But after Walking Dead premiered in October 2010, AMC decided to cut the show's second-season budget by 25 percent.