Box Office Failure

“Any filmmaker who tells you s/he ‘doesn’t read reviews’ just doesn’t want to admit how much they sting.” Screenwriter Sean Hood Yesterday, I wrote about Spectacular Failures in general—today we’ll look at what happens when a screenwriter has a box office failure.  The $90 million Conan the Barbarian movie was released earlier this month and stumbled out of [...]

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Spectacular Failures

“If you aren’t prepared to fail, you’ll never do anything creative. So you have to put yourself in a position to go outside of what you know, and when you’re there you’ll fail, and when you fail you’ll learn, and then you’ll become a better artist. And then you can even fail harder the next [...]

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“To Have and Have Not”

Yesterday I mentioned that one of the 100 plus writing credits for screenwriter Jules Furthman (1888—1966) was To Have and Have Not. There were a few hands in that pot; The novel was written by Ernest Hemingway, Howard Hawk directed the movie that starred Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, and novelist William Faulkner is credited alongside [...]

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“Jet Pilot” Screenwriter

“There should be no sorrow at this funeral because The Great Santini lived life at full throttle, moved always in the fast lanes, gunned every engine, teetered on every edge, seized every moment and shook it like a terrier shaking a rat.” Pat Conroy A Fighter Pilot’s Eulogy (The book & movie The Great Santini [...]

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A Soldier & His Dog

The photograph from Rockford, Iowa taken this week of the black lab Hawkeye lying by the casket of his owner, fallen Navy SEAL Jon Tunilson, is one touching photograph. Tumilson was one of 30 American troops killed earlier in the month in Afghanistan. The photograph was taken by Lisa Pembleton, Tumilson’s cousin, during the funeral [...]

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Apple, Steve Jobs & Dying

For the past 15 years virtually every video project and short film I’ve produced has been edited on an Apple computer, and 99% of every Screenwriting from Iowa post has been written on an Apple. Yes, I think the Apple iPhone is one great useful invention. And I’m sure someday I’ll even warm up to Final [...]

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Off-Screen Quote #25 (Steve Jobs)

“When you’re young, you look at television and think, There’s a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that’s not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want. That’s a far more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can [...]

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Screenwriting Quote #163 (Tate Taylor)

“I think what’s interesting about The Help and why it’s become the phenomenon that it is is it’s so truthful. And it’s in a period where truthful stories aren’t being told that much… And people grabbed on to this book and I think it was—’Finally, this is being written.’ This isn’t about vampires or adultery [...]

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Screenwriting from Church Hill, Mississippi

Yeah, I know, you have to live in LA to be taken seriously as a screenwriter. But don’t tell screenwriter Tate Taylor that because after kicking around New York and LA as an actor and filmmaker for 15 years, last year he bought a home in Church Hill, Mississippi. How’s it working out for him? [...]

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“The Help” Smackdown

“The Help is an old-fashioned grand yarn of a film, the sort we rarely get these days.” Tom Long Detroit News  It really wasn’t a fair fight. Sure Conan the Barbarian has that big sword, but it was three against one. Conan verses Aibileen, Skeeter, and Minny. Three strong women played by Viola Davis, Emma [...]

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