Saturday Hot Links

Time for the 329th installment of Saturday Hot Links, your week’s essential reading about movies, TV, streaming, Hollywood, and other things of writerly interest.

Box Office: ‘Black Panther’ to Snare More Than $200 Million Over President’s Day Weekend.

Why Marvel Spent More on Getting ‘Black Panther’ Just Right.

‘Black Panther’ Is More Than a Superhero Movie.

‘Black Panther’ Works Because Its Stakes Are Human.

The Passionate Politics of “Black Panther”.

‘Black Panther’: Why the relationship between Africans and black Americans is so messed up.

‘Black Panther’ Has Highest-Grossing Opening Day At UK & Irish Box Office.

Every Time Hollywood Made the ‘Black Version’ of a Successful Movie.

Get to Know the Screenwriters Nominated for the 2018 Oscars.

Awards Box Office: How Did the Oscar-Nominated Shorts Do?

2018 Writers Guild Awards: ‘Get Out,’ ‘Call My By Your Name,’ and ‘Jane’ Win Film Honors.

43rd Annual Humanitas Prize Winners Include ‘The Post’ and ‘Lady Bird’.

‘Call Me by Your Name,’ ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Win USC Libraries Scripter Awards.

2018 Independent Spirit Awards Presenters: Spike Lee, Kumail Nanjiani, Ethan Hawke, and More.

Ava DuVernay, Netflix, HBO & Dan Lin Partner With City Of L.A. On Inclusion Incentive.

Berlin: Film Industry Explores Diversity’s Challenge, Opportunity.

Why Are International Companies Buying U.S. Cinema Chains?

The Humanizing Power of Immigrant Filmmakers.

How Canada Became a Springboard for Female Directors.

Women Masturbating on Film: The Radical Sexuality of ‘The Shape of Water’ and ‘Princess Cyd’.

Time’s finally up for Hollywood’s Lolita complex.

Are We Sanitizing Abuse? A Look At Age Disparity In Hollywood Casting.

BFI and BAFTA Announce New Anti-Bullying and Anti-Harassment Guidelines.

Is It Finally Time to Worry About Pixar?

How does Disney Write Songs in Different Languages?

‘The Florida Project’ Kids Pitch Their Dream Film Projects, Including An Emma Watson-John Boyega Romance.

Why Are Rom-Coms Filled With Impossibly Gorgeous Homes?

Kathleen Kennedy Explains Why Lord and Miller Were Fired from Solo: A Star Wars Story.

J.J. Abrams: ‘Star Wars’ Fans Who Didn’t Like ‘Last Jedi’ Are ‘Threatened’ By Women.

Emma Thomas: Meet the Woman Behind ‘Dunkirk’.

How ‘Disaster Artist’ Writers Created Story of Friendship for Director-Star James Franco.

Do ‘Den of Thieves’ and ‘Mile 22’ Really Need Sequels?

Miramax Makes First Overall Deal: Kevin Williamson To Create Genre Films.

Behind the Scenes of 2001: A Space Odyssey, the Strangest Blockbuster in Hollywood History.

ICM Partners Promotes 6 Agents to Partner Status.

Who Could Be the Next Mega-Producer to Move to Netflix?

Listen: Scriptnotes (Episode 337).

Watch: What Makes A Great Meet Cute.

Watch: The Avengers — Defining an Act.

Watch: Mastering the Movie Color Palette: Guillermo del Toro.

Watch: VoiceOver according to Martin Scorsese.

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!