Saturday Hot Links
Time for the 387th installment of Saturday Hot Links, your week’s essential reading about movies, TV, streaming, Hollywood, and other…
Time for the 387th installment of Saturday Hot Links, your week’s essential reading about movies, TV, streaming, Hollywood, and other things of writerly interest.
WGA to Members: ‘There Is No Deal,’ Fire Your Agents
‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Boss: Why I Left My Agent, Despite the Sales Pitch
Here’s Why Hollywood’s Writers Are Publicly Firing Their Agents This Weekend
WGA Sues Talent Agencies in Battle Against Packaging Fees
Agencies Call Writers’ Plan to Deputize and Pay Managers “Unlawful Conduct”
ATA Says It Will Fight WGA’s Attempts To Throw Industry Into “Abyss” Of “Chaos”
Amid Writers’ Fight, Directors Guild to Examine Agreement With Agencies
Dramatists Guild Lends Support to Writers in Battle Against Agents
Box Office: ‘Shazam!’ Earns $25M to Stay №1; ‘Hellboy’ Goes Up in Flames With $12M
Box Office Preview: Disney-Fox Era Begins With ‘Breakthrough’
Box Office: Hollywood Hoping for “Herculean Reversal of Fortune” After Worst Early Slump in 6 Years
Why ‘Avengers: Endgame’ Leak Is Causing Fan Panic
Cannes Film Festival: Terrence Malick, Pedro Almodovar, Ken Loach and Xavier Dolan in Competition
20 Shocks and Surprises From the 2019 Cannes Lineup, From Werner Herzog to Xavier Dolan
Marvel Announces New ‘Star Wars’ Creative Team, New Comics Focusing on Finn, Rey and More
Warner Bros. Expands Burbank Soundstages, Office Space
Spyglass Media Group Lands Warner Bros. as Strategic Investor
AT&T Steps Up Search for New Warner Bros. Studio Chief
Disney Scraps ‘Mouse Guard’ Two Weeks Before Production Set to Begin
Filming in Los Angeles Down Nearly 10 Percent in Early 2019
M. Night Shyamalan Says Bad Reviews of ‘Glass’ Made Him Cry
Emma Thompson tells Hollywood: respect the scriptwriters
As Hollywood Embraces Diversity, Jobs for Female Directors Remain Sparse
Sera Gamble on Her Banner Year and Deconstructing Tropes in ‘You’ and ‘The Magicians’
“You Will Lose Everything”: Inside the Media’s #MeToo Blacklist
The wild, 20-plus-year journey of the most snakebit movie in Hollywood: The Six Billion Dollar Man
Can a computer write a script? Machine learning goes Hollywood
“He Just Knows What’s Funny”: Hollywood’s Secret Comic Whisperer Finally Gets His Own Spotlight
‘Killing Eve,’ ‘Pose,’ ‘The Good Place’ Among Peabody Entertainment Winners
Will It Soon Be Legal to Say Curse Words on Broadcast Television?
MTV to Launch RealityCon in Summer 2020
Bob Greenblatt, Casey Bloys on Pushing HBO’s Boundaries and the Race for More
Meet the Woman Who Is the ‘Best Thing That Ever Happened’ to ‘Game of Thrones’
‘Game of Thrones’ Premiere Ratings Surge to New Series High — 17.4 Million Viewers
Why Disney+ Will Be Tough to Beat
Netflix Adds Nearly 10 Million Subscribers as Competition From Disney, Apple Looms
‘Netflix Killers’? Why Netflix May Actually Benefit From Disney+ and Other Streaming Entrants
Netflix to Launch New York City Production Hub
Netflix ‘buys 50 literary projects in last year’
Netflix Picks Up Its First Animated Series From Africa, ‘Mama K’s Team 4’
‘Stranger Things’ Creators Headed to Trial for Allegedly Stealing Idea for Netflix Series
Hulu Buys Back AT&T’s Stake at $15B Valuation
AT&T may have just signaled the end of Hulu as you know it today
‘Foundation’ Co-Showrunner Josh Friedman Departs Apple Drama
Inside Univision’s troubled acquisition of Gizmodo and The Onion
‘Basically playing favorites’: Apple News+ gets off to a rocky start for some publishers
Amazon and Google End Boycott of Each Others’ Video Services
15 Months of Fresh Hell Inside Facebook
Are podcasts killing music or just wasting our time?
What Makes A Great Podcast Studio? Here’s a Hint: You Won’t Be Able To Hear It
The Myth of Comic Book Startups as the “Next Marvel”
Sony Unveils Details of “Game Changer” Next-Generation Console
Screenwriting Master Class tip of the week: Dialogue-Writing Workshop
Some say the ability to write dialogue is a talent one is born with… or not. While I think there are writers who have a natural ear for dialogue, it is certainly a skill which can be honed and developed.
In my upcoming one-week online Dialogue-Writing Workshop, you will learn and put into practice numerous techniques and tips to elevate your ability at writing dialogue. However the single most critical thing you can do to make your dialogue come alive is this: Immerse yourself in the lives of your characters. For when you get to know them, they will start talking to you.
The late great playwright August Wilson was once asked how he wrote such compelling, realistic dialogue. His answer: “I don’t. They do.”
‘They’ as in characters.
That’s the focus on the Dialogue-Writing Workshop. In it, you will start from scratch in choosing a single character to work with, then over the course of the week use several proven character development techniques with a specific focus on getting them to speak to you.
As August Wilson suggests, it’s much easier to write good dialogue… if your characters are largely doing it for you.
This Dialogue-Writing Workshop is a new Screenwriting Master Class course and if it’s anything like the Scene-Writing Workshop, it will be a great learning opportunity for each and every participating writer.
COURSE DETAILS
- Analyze great dialogue from notable movies
- Download seven lectures written by Scott Myers
- Put theory into practice by writing and workshopping your own scenes
- 24/7 online forum Q&As moderated by instructor
- Pro insider writing tips
- A 90-minute live teleconference with instructor and class members
WHO SHOULD TAKE THIS COURSE
Screenwriters, TV writers, novelists, playwrights, and anyone interested in upgrading their ability at writing dialogue.
The ability to write dialogue — not just characters talking, but good dialogue — is a critical skill-set for anyone wishing to work as a writer in the film or TV business.
So if you feel like your dialogue-writing chops could use an upgrade…
If you want to learn techniques you can use to write better dialogue…
If you would like to see how developing your characters can result in their voices emerging for you to tap into and use in your own writing…
Check out my Dialogue-Writing Workshop. It begins Monday, April 29.
I look forward to the opportunity to work with you.