Screenwriting Quote of the Day #111 (Ernest Lehman)

Did you know that before screenwriter Ernest Lehman wrote North by Northwest that he actually went to South Dakota to research climbing Mount Rushmore? It all started with a suggestion by Alfred Hitchcock who told him,  ”I always wanted to do a chase across the faces of Mount Rushmore.”
So Lehman took a train to Rapid City [...]

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Screenwriting Quote of the Day #110 (Paul Haggis)

In 2006 the first person in more than 50 years to win back to back Oscar Awards in screenwriting was Paul Haggis. He then followed his award-winning scripts Million Dollar Baby and Crash with another Academy Award nomination in 2007 for his screenplay Letters from Iwo Jima.
Haggis had a background in theater and construction before [...]

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Screenwriting Quote of the Day #109 (Shane Salerno)

According to IMDB Shane Salerno has co-written or re-written four films that have opened #1 at the box office; Armageddon, Breakdown, Alien vs. Predator, Shaft (though not always credited). He got a jump start in the business when he made an award winning documentary in high school that landed him on Larry King Live. That opened [...]

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Screenwriting Quote of the Day #108 (James Salter)

Flipping through the TV channels today I came across a 1969 film starring Robert Redford that I had not seen before and it was quite good. So I decided to find out about the screenwriter of Downhill Racer. From what I can gather the film was written by James Salter based on a novel by [...]

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Screenwriting Quote of the Day #106 (Nancy Meyers)

Producer/writer/director launched her career back in 1980 by co-writing Private Benjamin for which she won the WGA Award for Best Comedy Writing and earned an Oscar nomination. She went on to write hits scripts and produce film such as Baby Boom and Father of the Bride before turning her hand to directing What Women Want [...]

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Screenwriting Quote of the Day #105 (Shauna Cross)

Screenwriting quote #104 was from legendary writer Robert Benton (Places of the Heart) who grew up in Texas and has had a tremendous Oscar-winning Hollywood career. Today we’ll look at another writer from Texas who is just starting her career as her first film (Whip It) was released yesterday. Whip It does a super job [...]

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Screenwriting Quote of the Day #104 (Robert Benton)

Writer/director Robert Benton grew up in Texas where he suffered from Dyslexia, failed his only creative writing class before dropping out of college, but went on to write Bonnie and Clyde on his way to being nominated for six Oscars.
“Now it’s a side of my inability to deal with reality that I decided to be [...]

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Screenwriting Quote of the Day #103 (Woody Allen)

Often times there is a lot of talk about “life affirming” films. Films that raise up the spirit of the audience. A film like It’s a Wonderful Life is life affirming. But since I’m still in a New York state of mind I thought I relay that that is not the goal of at least [...]

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Screenwriting Quote of the Day #102 (Alfred Hitchcock)

“I don’t want film to be a ’slice of life’ because people can get that at home, in the street, or even in front of the movie theater. They don’t have to pay money to see a slice of life. And I avoid out-and-out fantasy because people should be able to identify with the characters. [...]

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Screenwriting Quote of the Day #101 (Joel Hopkins)

This week I watch Last Chance Harvey on DVD and really enjoyed it and wondered who wrote the script that attracted the acting talents of Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson. Turns out it was Joel Hopkins who also directed the film.
Though I know little of his life story, what I do know shows the difficulties [...]

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