Saturday Hot Links

Time for the 331st installment of Saturday Hot Links, your week’s essential reading about movies, TV, streaming, Hollywood, and other things of writerly interest.

‘Black Panther’ Earns Record $108 Million in 2nd Weekend, Hits $400 Million Domestic.

‘Black Panther’ Powers Past $300 Million at International Box Office.

‘Black Panther’ Box Office Success Has Theater Owners Asking for More Diverse Superhero Movies.

‘Black Panther’: When Will African-American Films No Longer be Considered Unicorns?

‘Black Panther’: How Wakanda Got a Written Language as Part of its Afrofuturism.

How ‘Black Panther’ Solves Marvel’s Villain Problem.

Every secret Easter egg and reference in ‘Black Panther’ you might have missed

On Killmonger, the American Villain of “Black Panther”.

Disney Opening Oakland STEM Center After Black Panther Success.

What Warner Bros. Needs to Do to Replicate Black Panther’s Success.

The Original ‘Annihilation’ Script Featured a Very Different Ending.

What Makes ‘Annihilation’ a Different Type of Female-Driven Movie.

‘Annihilation’ on Netflix: Moviegoers Need to Take Responsibility For Paramount’s Controversial Deal.

L.A. City Councilmember Declares Feb. 27 ‘Coco’ Day.

Three Billboards outside of Ebbing, Missouri: The Space Between Character Development and Redemption.

Making of ‘Three Billboards’: How a Haunting Greyhound Bus Trip Inspired the Dark Revenge Comedy.

The Feel-Good Fallacies of “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”.

Hollywood Reporter’s Guide to the 2018 Oscars.

The Oscar for Best Picture Goes to…Something You Probably Didn’t See.

Oscar Nominees’ Dilemma: Which Project to Choose Next?

“They Got the Wrong Envelope!”: The Oral History of Oscar’s Epic Best Picture Fiasco.

The Oscars turn 90, and the production team leaves no room for error … this time.

Oscars 2017 fiasco: ‘Oh Shit, This Is Real’.

We Polled New Oscar Voters: How Are They Changing the Way the Academy Thinks?

Why Are Academy Voters So Pissed Off About Netflix’s Oscars Prospects?

Why sci-fi and superheroes are (mostly) ignored during awards season — and how that’s about to change.

The 10 Best Films of the 2018 Berlin Film Festival.

Memo to Distributors: Buy These 9 Movies from the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival.

Austin Film Festival Sets Honor for Roger Corman.

WGA West, Disney/ABC TV Group Set Participants in Writer Training Programs.

Female Directors Scorecard: Six Helmers Grace Disney’s Upcoming Slate.

Hollywood Diversity Shows Some Gains, but Falls Short in Most Areas.

Hollywood Gender Gap Shocker: Women Directed Just 3 Percent of This Year’s Studio Films.

Asian-American Women In Hollywood Say It’s Twice As Hard For Them To Say #MeToo.

French Industry Group Launches Push for Gender Equality by 2020.

MoviePass CEO Expects to Top 5 Million Subscribers By 2019.

Comcast Makes $31 Billion Takeover Offer for Sky.

Weinstein Co Rejects Sale, Says It Will File for Bankruptcy.

Kevin Smith Tweets He Suffered a “Massive Heart Attack”.

Why DC’s ‘Batgirl’ Movie Won’t Happen Anytime Soon.

Roxane Gay Wants to Write the Batgirl Movie.

Star Wars Shouldn’t Need to Get R-Rated to Stay Relevant.

Barbra Streisand on How She Battled Hollywood’s Boys’ Club.

How Greta Gerwig Is Leading by Example.

Growing Up Gerwig: A Guide to an Unofficial Trilogy.

Greta Gerwig Wants to Make Three More Movies About Sacramento.

Franklin Leonard: What Hollywood Could Learn from Frederick Douglass.

John Williams Sounds Done With Star Wars.

The Battle Between Chaos and Order in ‘The Dark Knight Trilogy’.

‘Catwoman’ Writer on Why It Never Succeeded: ‘It Was a S — Movie’ With ‘Zero Cultural Relevance’.

The Ever-Changing Aspect Ratios of the Jurassic Park Franchise.

What Kinds of Movies Earn Perfect Grades From CinemaScore?

Ripe for a kicking: Hollywood’s love-hate relationship with Rotten Tomatoes.

FilmStruck to Offer Movies From Warner Bros. Library.

Disney Toys Are Returning to McDonald’s Happy Meals for the First Time in a Decade.

Stuntwomen From Foxy Brown To Black Panther On Hollywood’s Hardest Job.

The Disappearance of the TV Antihero.

Why Are There So Many Bisexuals on TV All of a Sudden?

Female TV Writers in Britain Demand Better Shot at Top Series.

CBS Launches 24/7 Digital Channel Sports HQ.

N.Y. Times Developing Television News Series.

How to Run a TV Show Where Women Directors Can Thrive.

NBCUniversal Vows to Cut Primetime Ads by 20% Across All TV Networks.

No Chill: Netflix Hits New Stock High, Again.

Netflix Stock Pops to New All-Time High, Company Now Worth More Than $130 Billion.

Steve Martin, Martin Short Set Netflix Comedy Special.

Hulu Buys Madison Square Garden Theater Naming Rights.

Geffen Playhouse Drops Neil LaBute Play.

Commencement Speeches 2018: List of Hollywood Speakers (So Far).

Listen: 3rd & Fairfax (Episode 92 — Liz Hannah and Josh Singer).

Listen: Playback (Episode 63 —Conversations With This Year’s Oscar Nominees).

Listen: The TV Dudes interview Amy Berg.

Listen: Scriptnotes (Episode 339).

Watch: The Filmmaker’s Voice: Vertigo.

Watch: Creative Hooks: How Spielberg Does Action.

Watch: Facing Film.

Screenwriting Master Class tip of the week

One question I get asked about screenwriting theory a lot is what’s my deal with character archetypes? Here’s your chance to find out with the Screenwriting Master Class course: Character Development Keys.

My mantra is this: Start with characters. End with characters. Find the story in between. As per the old adage, Character should equal Plot because it’s their story. By immersing ourselves in the lives of our characters and determining the nature of their interrelationships as well as their respective narrative functions, we can create a character map along the lines of the one above which informs the crafting of your story’s structure.

This process lies at the heart of Character Development Keys, a one-week online class which begins Monday, March 5. There are seven lectures written by yours truly:

1: Character Archetypes and Story Structure
2: Protagonist
3: Nemesis
4: Attractor
5: Mentor
6: Trickster
7: Switch Protagonist

The study script for the course: The Dark Knight, screenplay by Jonathan Nolan & Christopher Nolan, story by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer, based on characters created by Bob Kane.

If you’re a fan of The Dark Knight trilogy, that alone is probably reason enough to take this class because you will understand the films in a whole new way, through the lens of character archetypes.

In addition, you will get the opportunity to put the theories you learn into action by workshopping one of your own stories.

And as a bonus: I’ll be presenting a set of character development tools I have assembled over the years to help you dig into characters even further to uncover their unique personalities and voice including: questionnaires, biographies, monologues, interviews, sit-downs, secondary character archetypes, and much more.

This is a great chance to delve into what I consider to be one of the most fascinating and helpful ways of approaching character development and indeed, the story-crafting process as a whole: character archetypes.

All of that in only 1-week beginning Monday, March 5.

Take advantage of the benefits of online classes where you do pretty much everything on your own time schedule: download and read lectures, review and post comments on the public forums, upload ideas and optional writing exercises. You want to do that in bed in your pajamas sipping coffee? Devouring chocolate bon bons? Be my guest!

There is one teleconference which is live, but I record and upload that, so you can even check that out on your own time, too.

Who should take this course?

Screenwriters, TV writers, novelists, playwrights, and anyone interested in learning tools to dig into their characters and make their stories come alive.

For more information, go here.

Plus there’s this: For nearly 60% off, you can gain immediate access to the entire content of all 10 Craft classes as well as automatic enrollment in each 1-week Craft course. Check out the Craft Package here.

As always, I look forward to the opportunity to work with you!