biz

‘Golden Compass’ Breaks A Record. Of Sorts.

So interesting. New Line bites it. Warner Brothers eats it up. Nom! Nom! Nom! Using the failure of The Golden Compass as an indicator of the sign o’ the times. But wait! It wins an Oscar (a deserved one, at that,) AND it’s the first movie EVER to break $300 M overseas while failing to […]

WGA Strike in New Mexico

A week ago I joined several other WGA members, aspiring writers and even a few SAG members in Albuquerque to do a little picketing. I was surprised to find out that there was a WGA contingent out here big enough to pull something like this together. I met a couple of the organizers at a […]

Strike News: Cute Animals

I’m off to get my tooth drilled. Since I don’t want to let the morning slip away without a WGA strike-related post, enjoy this piece of clever WGA strike you-tubery. I think that’s David Cross as the scab.

Speechless #15: Just What’s On The Page

Here’s another of the Speechless shorts. This one was directed by Paul Haggis and stars (in order of appearance) Demi Moore, Martin Sheen, Dulcy Rogers, Marguerite Moreau, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Deitrich Bader, Olivia Wilde, Marcia Cross, Chris Redman, Josh Brolin, Jenna Elfman, Elizabeth Pena, Polly Shannon, Kamala Lopez and James Franco. Brolin’s final reaction is priceless.

WGA Strike Swag

Writers come up with the best slogans. Get one on your shirt and support the cause by visiting the WGA Strike Swag site. I just ordered myself a shirt. Order one for yourself as well. My favorite slogan? “We write. They wrong.”

Speechless #20: Woody Allen

Director George Hickenlooper and writer Alan Sereboff have teamed up to create a series of mini-shorts designed to throw light onto the issue of writers. Using top – tier SAG artists and clever presentation of ideas, they’ve put together a whole series of these amazing pieces. They began “airing” on Thanksgiving an United Hollywood.com. Of […]

Soul Coughing – Ruby Vroom

Soul Coughing - Screenwriter’s Blues

A World Without Writers

These are very clever. Reminds me of the “Somebody Wrote That” series that the WGA used to have all over their walls and publications. The House one made me burst out laughing. I stumbled across an alternative, NSFW video clip with the same title that has a sort of puerile entertainment value. Find that here.

AMPTP Contact Info

My soon-to-be-laid-off friend Ryan channeled both Franklin W. Dixon and Carolyn Keene yesterday and managed to track down a long list of numbers for various stations at the AMPTP, who kinda keep these things close to the vest. The list reads pretty much as written, which means he can’t vouch for the spelling of any […]

PLEASE STOP THE STRIKE

Writers are trying to position themselves to gain proper compensation for new media and to keep producers from taking back what writers deserve. The negotiatons didn’t go well. Now we’re on strike. Simple. But actually, it’s not so simple. First, read this, written by my buddy Ryan, one of the hardest working guys in show […]

WGA Strike: Voices Of Uncertainty

This has been making the rounds. It’s nicely assembled and pulls the words straight from the mouths of executives and turns them back on them, not unlike the Donald Rumsfeld stuff we saw a few years ago (“I never said there were weapons of mass destruction” “Oh really? Let’s watch the tape.” “That was out […]

WGA Gets Tough

The last time there was a full-fledged Writer’s Guild strike, I wasn’t in the Writer’s Guild. That was many many years ago. I remember hearing about the strike and then all of a sudden, Dark Shadows with Ben Cross was on TV. And while I’m in the Guild now, I haven’t actually been an active […]