Screenwriting & World Domination

“There’s no excuse for arrogance, especially in a business where the odds of success are so razor thin.” William M. Akers As I read more of William M. Akers’ book Your Screenplay Sucks!, and read more about Akers himself, it’s obvious that he’s well read and well-educated (an MFA from USC). His academic credentials include [...]

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Your Screenplay Sucks!

Not my title but it is an attention getter isn’t it? Your Screenplay Sucks! 100 ways to make it great is a fairly new book by screenwriter William M. Akers. I finally picked up a copy this week and have been enjoying it. It’s hard to say new stuff on screenwriting— or present proven thoughts from [...]

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Coppola and Rewriting

Okay, after ten straight days of blogging about Coppola and/or his Godfather films I promise this will be the last one…for a little while. James Lipton: “(Production designer) Dean Tavoularis says, ‘with Francis the script is like the newspaper, a new one comes out  everyday.’” Francis Ford Coppola: “It’s true I rewrite a lot. You know, [...]

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Coppola & Roger Corman

“Of all films I ever directed, the one that survived the longest as a genuine ‘cult classic’ is the one I did the fastest and the cheapest. It only took two days on a leftover soundstage to shoot the principle photography for The Little Shop of Horrors.” Roger Corman After Francis Ford Coppola earned his [...]

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Coppola, Castro & Capitalism

“As a schoolgirl, my suspiciousness about those who attack American ‘materialism’ was first aroused by the refugees from Hitler who so often contrasted their ‘culture’ with our ‘vulgar materialism’ when I discovered that their ‘culture’ consisted of their having servants in Europe…” Pauline Kael For Keeps, 30 years at the Movies One of the interesting [...]

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Coppola vs. Smith

In March/April of ’09 I quoted writer/director Kevin Smith four days in a row because I found some good quotes by him. Quoting him also doubled my daily views, something I mentioned (Screenwriting Quote of the Day #63) that quoting Orson Wells or Diablo Cody hadn’t done. This past week I ended up doing five [...]

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Coppola, Criticism & the Internet

“Criticism is often wrong, as we know through history. Carmen, which is now the most popular opera in the repertoire, was a tremendous flop [when it premiered]. Why did they hate it?” Francis Ford Coppola “What I look for with critics is more that they’re going to write about something I did and I’m gonna read [...]

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Writing “The Godfather” (take 5)

“Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.“ Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) quoting fatherly advice Ranked #58 on AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movie Quotes After the screen success of The Godfather the studios were interested in making a sequel. Wrtier/director Francis Ford Coppola, who did not enjoy the process of making The Godfather, was not as [...]

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Writing “The Godfather” (take 4)

“In both of my Mafia books (The Godfather, The Last Don), I’ve wanted to show the parallel between the normal business world and the Mafia. Both operate with power. They crush their opposition. Hollywood can be as ruthless as the Mafia and just as clannish. Mario Puzo Interview by Robert Fleming Though we usually refer [...]

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Writing “The Godfather” (take 3)

I first became aware of Francis Ford Coppola’s prompt book for The Godfather at Scott Myers’ blog Go Into The Story. The book is several inches thick and contains Mario Puzo’s book The Godfather with note after note by Coppola as he details what parts he wants to extract and emphasize in the movie. The prompt book was [...]

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