To suggest that movies are voyeuristic is like calling Ronald Reagan a Republican. I’m no fan of film-student idol David Lynch. He creates quirky, dazzling images well enough, but he’s a lazy writer. He lacks the discipline required to sit alone in a room for weeks and months at a time, facing a computer screen […]
Comments Off on MOVIE SCREENS ARE MADE OF GLASS
Having a fancy title at an elite film school, and also a reputation for providing nifty sound bites, during my decades as a professor in Westwood I was often approached by the press, especially on slow news days, for commentary regarding or another aspect of the media. A question I’ve been asked multiple times is: […]
Comments Off on ORSON WELLES’ LAST WORDS
My sister and her husband are actors. A couple of decades ago, while living in Los Angeles, they went to New York for an extended stay in order to star together on Broadway in Neil Simon’s then-new play: Rumors. Upon their arrival in Gotham a huge party was held in their honor, welcoming them to the city. […]
Comments Off on MY MOTHER THE MOVIE STAR
He was a short, nerdy, geeky, scratchy-voiced little guy, and the most powerful genius I have ever known. The last time I saw him was forty years ago at a party at Randal Kleiser’s house up Laurel Canyon on a street appropriately named Wonderland. Randal, a consummately sweet, decent fellow after all these years, is […]
Comments Off on GEORGE
It’s not an official faculty meeting, a former dean remarked at a UCLA film department gathering, until someone complains about parking. For me, having joined the faculty forty years ago, the cost of parking has risen from about ninety bucks a year to about twelve-hundred. That’s a hike of more than a thousand percent. If […]
Comments Off on Fire, Bloodshed, and Parking
Am I allowed to write a movie (or book or article) about you without your permission? Unequivocally and without hesitation the answer is: maybe. At the time of this writing, a former television reality show host and NY real estate developer has held the office of President of the United States for nearly a year. […]
Comments Off on Life Rights and Wrongs
A letter arrived recently from Screenwriting Newsletter subscriber Ronald M. Sandgrund, a prominent Colorado attorney, law professor, and writer. (Full disclosure: Ron is also my wife’s brother.) We had both read Erik Larson’s masterful bestseller Dead Wake, which recounts the history of the sinking of the ocean liner Lusitania by a German submarine during World War […]
Comments Off on Predicting the Unpredictable
Steve Cuden, author of Beating Hollywood: Tips for Creating Unforgettable Screenplays (December, 2015), has written teleplays for many familiar TV series, such as X-Men, The Batman, Iron Man, Xiaolin Showdown, Loonatics Unleashed, The Mask, Goof Troop, Bonkers, Quack Pack, Gargoyles, Beetlejuice, Pink Panther, RoboCop, Extreme Ghostbusters, Stargate Infinity, ExoSquad, and Mummies Alive. Steve directed and […]
Comments Off on Going Behind the Screen with Steve Cuden
Approximately thirty-five years ago I got an idea for a screenplay called Film School. I like to consider the script an ‘homage’ to Billy Wilder and his Oscar winning Sunset Boulevard. Another way to put it is: I stole the idea from Billy Wilder. If you’re going to steal, steal from Wilder. Sunset Boulevard opens with an oppressed, […]
Comments Off on ESCAPE FROM FILM SCHOOL
Ben Kopit recently sold his first screenplay, THE LIBERTINE, to Warner Bros and is working on another original project with them. Prior to that, he received an M.F.A. in screenwriting from UCLA and garnered a number of writing awards. (2015 Reddit Screenwriting Contest winner, 2014 Austin Film Festival Screenwriting Finalist, 2013 Sloan Screenwriting Fellowship, 2013 […]
Comments Off on Featured Q&A – Behind the Screen with Writer Ben Kopit
