Saturday Hot Links

Time for the 330th installment of Saturday Hot Links, your week’s essential reading about movies, TV, streaming, Hollywood, and other things of writerly interest.

2018’s Oscar Nominations Got Weird, Surprising, And Mostly Awesome.

This Year’s Best Picture Nominees Have the Lowest Grosses in Six Years.

The Brilliance of ‘Black Panther’ Helped It Avoid a Common Tentpole Movie Trap.

How ‘Black Panther’ Asks Us to Examine Who We Are To One Another.

The Future of Hollywood Is Now. Will We Embrace It?

What Does ‘Black Panther’ Mean for the Future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Untangling the Marvel Studios Phase 3 Timeline.

Marvel Comics Announces ‘Fresh Start’ for Its Superheroes.

Mark Millar Has an Interesting Theory About Why Marvel Movies Work and DC Movies Don’t.

‘Star Wars: Episode 9’ Has a Script; J.J. Abrams to Begin Filming in July.

Screenwriting Competition ‘Million Dollar Screenplay Fellowship’ Launches.

Joss Whedon Exits ‘Batgirl’ Movie.

Why a Female Director Can Give Us the ‘Batgirl’ We Deserve.

Ava DuVernay Looks Back at the Career Moments That Define Her.

Ava DuVernay on Why She Made ‘A Wrinkle in Time’.

Student Writers Present Short Films Inspired by Ava DuVernay’s ‘A Wrinkle in Time’.

Jordan Peele Explains How ‘Get Out’ Script Change Reshaped The Film.

‘Get Out’: The First Great Movie of the Trump Era.

‘Lady Bird’ Director Greta Gerwig on Focusing on a Female Protagonist Who Doesn’t Need a Guy.

Paul Thomas Anderson Is Working On A Family-Friendly Script With His Eight-Year-Old Daughter.

‘The Post’ Writers on Working With Meryl Streep: “She’s Like a Heatseeking Missile With Scenes”.

Lionsgate Unveils ‘Studio L’ Digital Slate With ‘Honor List,’ ‘Most Likely to Murder’.

What Kinds of Movies Earn Perfect Grades From CinemaScore?

Sound Is 50% of the Movie, but Hollywood is Often Tone-Deaf.

Global Scam Ravaging Hollywood: Silver-Tongued Imposter Poses As Top Female Producers To Catfish Victims.

Porn Producers Offer to Help Hollywood Take Down Deepfake Videos.

USA TODAY Surveys Women in Hollywood, Finds 94 Percent Have Been Harassed or Assaulted.

What Ever Happened To Brendan Fraser?

Why Women Directors Are Thriving on Television.

‘Blair Witch’ TV Series in Development at Lionsgate.

Disney Planning Another ‘Muppets’ Reboot for Its Streaming Service.

Watch: The Florida Project Should’ve Been Nominated.

Watch: Star Wars — How to Create Character Arcs.

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!