Saturday Hot Links

Time for the 315th installment of Saturday Hot Links, your week’s essential reading about movies, TV, streaming, Hollywood, and other things of writerly interest.

Disney-Fox Rumors Underscore Changing Business Landscape, Even for Murdochs.

Here’s the Real Reason Disney Wants to Buy Most of Fox.

Fox’s Future: Here Are Four Different Ways The Network Might Survive or Disappear If the Murdochs Sell to Disney.

Talks For Disney To Buy Fox Are Already Over.

Universal’s “Monsterverse” in Peril as Top Producers Exit.

Was the Beginning of the Dark Universe Franchise Also the End?

Wonder Women: 2017’s Biggest Box Office Breakouts Show How Far Hollywood Still Has to Go.

Lying Government Is No Match for Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks in ‘The Post’.

AFM: Mid-Market Generating Mix of Optimism and Uncertainty.

From ‘The Big Sick’ to ‘The Disaster Artist,’ 2017’s Best Performances Find Actors Playing Themselves.

‘Blade Runner 2049’ To Lose $80 Million.

Is This One of the Worst Crops Ever For Best Animated Feature at the Oscars?

7 Things We Learned at The 2017 Austin Film Festival’s Writer’s Conference.

Next Gen 2017: Hollywood’s Up-and-Coming Execs 35 and Under.

Mark and Jay Duplass’ Campaign to Find America’s Next Generation of Indie Filmmakers Announces Winners.

New ‘Star Wars’ Trilogy in Works With Rian Johnson.

Preacher-Turned-Producer DeVon Franklin Reveals the Secret to Successful Faith-Based Films.

Why Filmmakers Turn to Short Films To Achieve Their Vision.

WME, CAA Leaders Address Sexual Harassment Controversies With Staffers.

USC Students Launch Petition to Remove Bryan Singer’s Name From the School of Cinematic Arts.

Kevin Spacey Dropped From ‘All The Money In The World;’ J Paul Getty Role Recast With Christopher Plummer.

Former ‘Mad Men’ Writer Accuses Matthew Weiner of Sexual Harassment.

Truth in Comedy After Louis C.K.

Stars Skipping Red Carpets to Avoid Sexual Harassment Questions.

Sexual Abusers Are the Asterisk, Not the End, of TV’s Golden Age.

Women in Film To Launch Sexual Harassment Helpline.

Can Hollywood Turn Sex Assault Scandals Into Meaningful Reform: Judd Apatow On How To End Abuse Cycle.

Writers Guild Warns Members on Non-Union Virtual Reality Projects.

Movies Need More Female Villains Like This.

4 cheap tricks horror movies use to scare you.

Numerology Goes to the Movies.

Ignominious Beginnings: ‘The Birth of a Nation’ and The Birth of Hollywood.

Can CBS Grow Quickly Enough To Compete with Netflix and Disney?

How Aline Brosh McKenna Reinvented the Romantic Comedy — for TV.

Bob Dylan wrote and pitched a slapstick comedy to HBO in the 1990s.

HBO to host all of the Harry Potter films starting January 1st, 2018.

17 Execs Explain Why They Keep Renewing Limited Series.

Black Writers Make Up Just 4.8 Percent of TV Writers’ Rooms.

‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Hits 300 Episodes: Shonda Rhimes on an Endgame and What’s Ahead at Netflix.

Here’s Why ‘Stranger Things’ Star Finn Wolfhard Was Forced to Speak Out Against Inappropriate Fans.

Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon Morning Show Drama Lands at Apple With 2-Season Order.

‘ESPN Plus’ Streaming Service to Debut Spring 2018.

‘Star Wars’ Live-Action Series Is Coming To Disney’s Streaming Services For 2019.

Steven Soderbergh’s New App Will Change How You Watch TV.

SAG-AFTRA Members Ratify 3-Year Video Game Contract.

The 14 Shadiest Things Taylor Swift Says on Reputation.

Watch: Aaron Sorkin on His Accidental Screenwriting Career.

Watch: Musical Motifs of Christopher Nolan’s Protagonists.

Screenwriting Master Class tip of the week

Imagine having your very own private script workshop. A structured environment with content and a schedule tailored to meet your specific creative needs. Your own unique online course site. And a one-on-one mentor relationship with a professional screenwriter and educator.

You can do this through Screenwriting Master Class.

The Quest is one such program. It is an intensive 24-week online screenwriting workshop. It consists of three stages:

Core [8 weeks]: Participants learn essential screenwriting principles covering Plot, Concept, Character, Style, Dialogue, Scene, Theme, Time. There are 6 written lectures each week which post daily, then a writing exercise due Sunday to put the theory into practice. I wrote all 48 lectures amounting to over 250 pages of in-depth content and believe it to represent a new, cutting edge way to think about screenwriting.

The approach presented in Core is unique in these respects:

Coherent: Rather than a writer being forced to pick a bit of screenwriting theory from this guru or that, this educational resource or that, the Core content comes from a specific perspective — my own — based on over 25 years experience as a screenwriter and over 10 years as an educator. Every concept presented in Core is tied together by an overall philosophy about screenwriting, writing and creativity.

Comprehensive: The content presented in Core provides writers all the knowledge they need to have to be able to write a professional quality screenplay.

Character-based: Whereas so much of the conversation about screenwriting is focused on structure [and by ‘structure’ most people mean ‘plot’], Core presents an approach that begins and ends with character. In my view, this is not only the best way for a writer to craft unique, compelling, and entertaining multidimensional characters, it’s also the most effective — and frankly logical — way to find your story’s plot.

For 8 weeks in Core, participants in The Quest are immersed in screenwriting theory. At the end of that time, they put their understanding of those essential principles to work writing an original screenplay of their own.

Prep [6 weeks]: Starting with an original concept, participants in The Quest develop it through a series of 6 weekly lectures and writing assignments, each building upon the other until they end up with a thorough outline of their story.

I have been teaching Prep at SMC since we launched in January 2011 and the course has proved to be extremely popular. It picks up on the theory laid out in Core and runs with it in a workshop environment. The six weeks lay out like this:

The first two weeks are about Exploring the Characters, starting with the Protagonist and a series of key questions to help define some of the narrative’s fundamental elements, then a full week’s worth of brainstorming, three different ways to prompt the writer’s creativity and engage the story.

The next two weeks are about Wrangling the Narrative, the primary Plotline points that provide the spine of the plot, and the movements of the Themeline, the story’s emotional plot.

The final two weeks are about Crafting the Structure, scene by scene, sequence by sequence, subplot by subplot until the participant has a detailed outline.

Armed with their outline, the writer can approach the page-writing part of the process with confidence, primed to type FADE IN and go.

Pages [10 weeks]: Using their outline as a guide, participants pound out script pages through a series of 10 weekly lectures and writing assignments. Averaging about 10–15 pages per week, by the end of The Quest the writer has a complete first draft of their original screenplay.

Here, too, the process is founded on the principles presented in Core and put into use in Prep, all reflecting a character-based approach to screenwriting.

The Quest changed my life. It gave me the structure to be immersed in screenwriting and the flexibility needed to write and accommodate work and family life. Not only did I come out with a quality screenplay, but a practical approach that I can apply to each script I write.

Scott’s instincts as a mentor are spot on. He can tell the difference between when you need encouragement and when you need a good kick in the pants. Under his guidance, you become the kind of writer you want to be, the kind that doesn’t need to wait for inspiration.

You can spend your time reading through screenwriting inspiration, tips or shortcuts, thinking it will help more than actually doing the work, or you can take the leap and do The Quest.

— Taylor Gordon

As noted, The Quest is a private screenwriting workshop and that means:

• Weekly writing exercises and assignments
• Detailed feedback on all exercises, assignments, and script pages
• Regular teleconferences
• A structure to motivate the writer through the entire process
• One-on-one mentoring with me as your guide

Here are three big reasons to consider an SMC private script workshop:

• Writing a screenplay involves making thousands of choices about characters, plot, theme and so forth. Wouldn’t it be helpful to have feedback from a professional to help steer you through the process enabling you to avoid huge story pitfalls that could derail your scripting process?
• Writing a screenplay is a thankless, lonely job. Wouldn’t it be great to have the ongoing support of a professional to enable you to overcome inevitable story problems and emotional downswings?
• Writing a screenplay is a mystery. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to learn proven principles and practices from a professional with years of experience working in the entertainment industry, an approach to writing you can use again and again on your future stories?

If your are serious about learning the craft with a coherent, comprehensive, and character-based approach to both theory and practice, check out The Quest. I look forward to the opportunity to work with you.