Saturday Hot Links

Time for the 321st installment of Saturday Hot Links, your week’s essential reading about movies, TV, streaming, Hollywood, and other things of writerly interest.

Inside Hollywood’s Craziest Year: Shrinking Box Office, Netflix Rising, and a Harassment Reckoning.

The State of the 2018 Oscar Race.

Disney vs. Netflix will be the great media battle of our time.

Disney/Fox Deal: How The Battle to Beat Netflix Starts Today, What Happens to the Fox Network, And Other Burning Questions.

After Disney-Fox Acquisition, Should Movie Business Be Wary of What Happened to the Music Industry?

Disney Buys Fox: 20 Major Film Franchises and TV Series the Company Now Owns.

Why Disney Fans Should Be Concerned About the Fox Deal.

Hulu’s Future: What Disney-Fox Deal Means for TV-Streaming Venture.

What the Disney-Fox Deal Could Mean For Broadway.

‘The Last Jedi’ Is the Most Populist Star Wars Movie Yet.

Why ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ is Better Than ‘The Last Jedi’.

12 of the Craziest ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ Fan Theories.

10 Plot Threads ‘The Force Awakens’ Set Up that ‘The Last Jedi’ Blew Off.

Did ‘The Last Jedi’ Treat Its Villains Right?

‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’: Carrie Fisher is Responsible For Writing These Emotional Final Leia Quotes.

Let’s Talk About the Ending of ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’.

What They Grow Beyond: Luke Skywalker, the Force, and True Mastery.

“He’s Not My Luke Skywalker”: Mark Hamill Still Has Reservations About ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’.

‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’: Rian Johnson and Mark Hamill Break Their Silence on Luke’s Storyline.

Why Lando Calrissian and Obi-Wan Kenobi Weren’t in ‘The Last Jedi,’ According to Rian Johnson.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi Deleted Scenes: Everything We Know.

Details About Tom Hardy’s Cut Cameo In ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ Emerge.

George Lucas’ Scrapped Idea For The New ‘Star Wars’ Trilogy Revealed.

‘The Last Jedi’ Doesn’t Care What You Think About ‘Star Wars’ — And That’s Why It’s Great.

Alt-Right Group Takes Credit for ‘The Last Jedi’ Backlash, Bashes ‘Star Wars’ For Including More Women.

2017 Has Ruined the ‘Star Wars’ Discourse.

What ‘Star Wars’ and Charles Dickens Have in Common.

The ‘Last Jedi’ Backlash is Another Example of Fandom Gone Wrong.

New ‘Star Wars’ Trilogy Is Failing Galactic Politics 101.

‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ Director Ron Howard Reshot A Lot More Than Was Originally Intended.

Kathleen Kennedy Is One of the Greatest Storytellers in Hollywood.

The Women Who Run the ‘Star Wars’ Universe.

How Liz Hannah defied ‘one in a million’ odds to get her first movie made by Steven Spielberg.

‘The Post’: 16 of the Film’s Stars and Their Real-Life Inspirations.

What Ben Bradlee Would Love About Steven Spielberg’s ‘The Post’.

2017’s Biggest Movie Flops Made the Case Against ‘Cinematic Universes’.

MoviePass Clicks Past 1 Million Subscribers.

GOP Tax Bill: Big Gains for Studios, Not for Showbiz Rank and File.

China Launches Incentive Scheme to Boost Box Office of Local Films.

Sundance: Wes Anderson VR Project, Todd Haynes Retrospective Complete 2018 Lineup.

538: The Next Bechdel Test.

Vivendi Looks to Knock Out Fraud Claim in ‘Spinal Tap’ Suit.

Does Spielberg’s ‘The Post’ Take a Dig at News Outlets Pivoting to Video?

Before He Created The Shield and S.W.A.T., Shawn Ryan Wrote Ads for a Vermont Radio Station.

For Beneficiaries of Hollywood Nepotism, “You Always Fight That Label”.

‘Bright’ Screenwriter Max Landis: No, My Dad Didn’t Give Me My Big Break.

2017 Was the Year of the Replacement Movie Director.

Character Creation: 3 Tips for Crafting a Protagonist.

In 2017, TV’s Streaming Revolution Made Its Biggest Leap Forward Yet.

Amazon Passes on All Three of Its Fall 2017 Pilots.

Amazon’s Absurd Mistreatment of Female-Led TV Hits a New Low.

Apple’s Podcast Analytics Reckoning Is Here.

Apple to phase out iTunes music downloads by the beginning of 2019.

Three More Amazon Executives Move to Apple, Including Kids Programming Head.

Facebook Strikes Licensing Deal With Universal Music Group.

The Rise of Queer Comics.

Author of Viral Short Story ‘Cat Person’ Lands Seven-Figure Book Deal.

Consequence of Sound: Top 25 Movies of 2017.

The Best Filmmaking Tips of 2017.

The Best Films You Probably Missed in 2017.

The Animated Films That Shined in 2017.

The Biggest Hits and Flops of 2017.

The 17 Best Foreign Language Movies of 2017.

The 40 Best Movie Posters of 2017.

The 25 Best TV Shows of 2017.

The 10 Best Musical TV Moments of 2017.

The Most Surreal TV Moments of 2017.

The 10 Best Fantasy Books of 2017.

The Best Board Games of 2017.

Watch: Getting To The Heart Of ‘Coco’.

Watch: How ‘Star Wars’ was saved in the edit.

Watch: Michael Mann: People, Places, Crimes.

Screenwriting Master Class tip of the week

It’s not too soon to be thinking about courses I am offering through Screenwriting Master Class in 2018.

January 8, 2018 — Craft: The Coen Brothers and the Craft of Storytelling
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January 22, 2018 — Craft: Story Summaries — From Loglines to Beat Sheets
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February 5, 2018 — Craft: Handling Exposition
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February 19, 2018 — Craft: Scene Description Spotlight
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March 5, 2018 — Craft: Character Development Keys
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March 19, 2018 — Craft: Create a Compelling Protagonist
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April 2, 2018 — Craft: Write a Worthy Nemesis
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April 16, 2018 — Craft: Scene-Writing Workshop
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April 30, 2018 — Craft: Dialogue-Writing Workshop
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May 14, 2018 — Craft: Pixar and the Craft of Storytelling
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May 28, 2018 — Prep: From Concept to Outline
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June 11, 2018 — Pages I: Writing First Draft
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July 9, 2018 — Prep: From Concept to Outline
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I only offer my Craft classes once per year. Moreover the two Prep and one Pages I workshops I have scheduled in summer 2018 are the only times I will be leading group versions of these courses.

Consider the Craft Package: All 10 Craft classes for $40 per course. Exclusive access to the Craft curriculum. Automatic enrollment in each Craft class.

For more information, go here.

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