Saturday Hot Links

Time for the 355th installment of Saturday Hot Links, your week’s essential reading about movies, TV, streaming, Hollywood, and other things of writerly interest.

The Top 25 American Film Schools including DePaul University School of Cinematic Arts.

6 L.A.-Based Film Schools With Hollywood Ties.

The Top 15 International Film Schools.

Summer Box Office Report Card: Grading Popcorn Season by Studio.

TIFF 2018 Announces Platform Lineup, Including New Films From Karyn Kusama, Alex Ross Perry, and Tim Sutton.

Tribeca Film Festival Sets 2019 Dates, Launches Critics Week Sidebar.

What the Oscars’ New “Popular Film” Category Says About the Art — and Business — of the Movies.

11 Movies That Could Have Won a Best Popular Film Oscar.

Meet the 2018 Student Academy Awards Finalists.

Women’s Groups Blast Venice Film Festival for Lack of Female Representation.

Sarajevo Film Festival Signs Gender-Parity Pledge.

When Is Time Really Up? #MeToo Movement Grapples With Paths to Redemption.

Hollywood’s biggest studios are blatantly still working with men fighting #MeToo accusations.

A Latino TV Writer Calls B.S. on Hollywood’s Diversity Excuses.

Disney Makes Final Decision To Not Rehire James Gunn After “Courtesy” Meeting.

Disney Finds It’s Not So Easy to Sue Over Knockoff Characters at Birthday Parties.

Univision, The Onion Hit With $2 Million Lawsuit by Former Financial Advisor.

Hollywood Assistants Know Everything — And Might Be Ready to Start Talking.

Why Spike Lee Included Charlottesville Riot Footage in ‘BlacKkKlansman’.

Topher Grace Calls Police After Getting Threatening Phone Call Over ‘BlacKkKlansman’ David Duke Role.

The Twisted Power of White Voice in “Sorry to Bother You” and “BlacKkKlansman”.

‘BlacKkKlansman’ Co-Writer on Spike Lee’s Vision, Living in a “Very Racist Time” and His Day Job as a Professor.

The Long Crazy Road to ‘Crazy Rich Asians’.

The Stakes Are High for ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ — And That’s the Point.

Crazy Rich Asians Turned Down a Massive Netflix Offer to Make Sure It’d Be Seen in Theaters.

How to Watch “Crazy Rich Asians” Like an Asian-American.

Exploring ‘Blindspotting’ and Its Harrowing, Sobering Portrait of Privilege.

Paramount Sets First Look Deal With Adam McKay & Will Ferrell’s Gary Sanchez & Gloria Sanchez Labels.

This is why you get terrible movies from Hollywood and it’s not even about politics.

A Star is Manufactured: Robot Actor to Lead Tony Kaye’s ‘2nd Born’.

Tim Tebow Breaks Into Filmmaking With Faith-Based Movie.

MoviePass Now Limited to 3 Movies Per Month.

MoviePass Continues to Get Worse, Only Makes Two Movies Available at a Time.

MoviePass Continues Downward Spiral: Parent Company Posts $126M Loss, Shareholders Sue, And That’s Not All.

Seattle city council unanimously votes to save the Showbox from demolition.

Amazon Explores Acquisition of Landmark Theatres.

Can Viacom’s Reboot Strategy Revive Nickelodeon?

“Imagineering” A Disney Takeover Of The Academy Museum.

Legendary, Warner Bros. Near Distribution Deal.

Hollywood Chrises Might Not Be Getting Enough Millions to Stick With Star Trek.

How Johnny Depp Could Soon Disrupt Hollywood Dealmakers.

Jim Carrey’s (Reluctant) Return to Hollywood: At Home With an Actor, Artist and Trump-Era Agitator.

UMich acquires archive of ‘Silence of the Lambs’ director Jonathan Demme.

Revisiting the Nick Hornby Cinematic Universe.

Why ‘Slender Man’ Feels Years Too Late.

As the Financial World Crashed, the Marvel Cinematic Universe Took Shape.

Here’s What a ‘Catwoman’ Solo Movie Starring Michelle Pfeiffer Could Have Been About.

Was the Inception ending real or not? Michael Caine finally has the Nolan-approved answer.

There’s Still So Much to Learn About Storytelling From ‘Seven Samurai’.

20 Movies That Are Basically ‘Die Hard’.

Archivist Finds Long-Lost Marilyn Monroe Nude Scene From ‘The Misfits’ After More Than 50 Years.

The Romantic Comedy Ideology.

12 Ways to Solve A Love Triangle.

The Future of Television Is … More Television.

The Diminishing Returns of TV Reboots and Revivals.

The sisterhood behind ‘Queen Sugar’.

Hulu Is on Track to Lose $1.5 Billion in 2018.

Are Walmart’s streaming plans too little, too late?

For Disney Theatrical, video fuels the Broadway star.

Microsoft’s sassy teenage bot is popping up on podcast talk shows.

Blumhouse’s First Scripted Podcast Will Recreate the Inside of Trump’s White House.

Hundreds of Stolen Passwords for Netflix, HBO, Hulu and More Discovered for Sale on ‘Dark Web’.

Listen: The Rise and Fall of Female Moviemakers in Hollywood.

Watch: A Weed Expert Fact-Check Stoner Movies.

Aretha Franklin, Singer and Queen of Soul, Dies at 76.

Screenwriting Master Class tip of the week

In the Core content of The Quest, we work with eight screenwriting principles, and the very first one is this: Plot = Structure.

On Monday, August 27, I will be starting a new cycle of Core classes, eight of them in all, beginning with Core I: Plot.

I have reduced the price of the Core classes to make them available to as many people as possible! Details below!

In this 1-week online course, you will learn the importance of Plot = Structure as well as:

• Key theoretical concepts from Aristotle, Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung
• The reality of Hollywood and the “Whammo” theory
• The External World and Internal World of a screenplay universe
• Metamorphosis: Screenplay structure grounded in character
• Analysis of movies including Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Silence of the Lambs, Shakespeare in Love, The Verdict, The Sixth Sense, Up, and others

And much more.

The course consists of four components:

• Lectures: There are six lectures written by me, each posting Monday through Saturday.
• Logline Workshop: This optional writing exercise offer you the opportunity to workshop one of your own loglines.
• Teleconference: We will have a Skype teleconference call to discuss course material.
• Forums: The online course site has 24/7 forums where you may post questions and we engage in conversation about the craft.

For those of you who have not taken an online class, the interface is extremely easy. Plus online classes can be an amazing experience. Most of the activities you can do on your own time — download and read lectures, review and respond to forum discussions, upload loglines and track comments. In addition, I’ve been teaching online for over a decade and it never ceases to amaze me how much of a community emerges in such an environment.

If you’re new to screenwriting, have intermediate experience, or you’ve read it all, but want to learn the basics of what I teach in The Quest — character based screenwriting — here is your chance to learn the foundation of screenplay structure that goes beyond formula.

I only teach my Core classes once a year and the 2018 cycle begins next month. Everything you need to know about screenwriting theory in this unique curriculum based on eight principles: Plot, Concept, Character, Style, Dialogue, Scene, Theme, Time.

CORE I: PLOT — A one-week class which begins with the principle Plot = Structure and explores the inner workings of the Screenplay Universe: Plotline and Themeline. Start date: August 27.

CORE II: CONCEPT — A one-week class which begins with the principle Concept = Hook and examines multiple strategies to generate, develop and assess story ideas. Start date: September 10.

CORE III: CHARACTER — A one-week class which begins with the principle Character = Function and delves into archetypes: Protagonist, Nemesis, Attractor, Mentor, and Trickster. Start date: September 24.

CORE IV: STYLE — A one-week class which begins with the principle Style = Voice and surfaces keys to developing a distinctive writer’s personality on the page. Start date: October 8.

CORE V: DIALOGUE — A one-week class which begins with the principle Dialogue = Purpose and probes a variety of ways to write effective, entertaining dialogue. Start date: October 22.

CORE VI: SCENE — A one-week class which begins with the principle Scene = Point and provides six essential questions to ask when crafting and writing any scene. Start date: November 5.

CORE VII: THEME — A one-week class which begins with the principle Theme = Meaning and gives writers a concrete take on theme which can elevate the depth of any story. Start date: November 19.

CORE VIII: TIME — A one-week class which begins with the principle Time = Present and studies Present, Present-Past, Present-Future and time management in writing. Start date: December 3.

These eight Core classes represent decades of my work on the front lines of the entertainment business as a writer and producer, and engaging the craft as a teacher as well, over time pulling together a coherent, comprehensive, and cohesive approach to screenwriting theory.

This is not about secret systems or magic formulas, rather the Core content presents a story-crafting process that starts with characters, works with characters, and ends with characters. That process of engaging you with your story universe through your characters and getting you in touch with these living, breathing individuals informs every step of your creative process, leading you to story structure, themes, conflict, subplots, and all the rest. As I say, Character Based Screenwriting.

I provide feedback and am actively involved in our online chats. That includes a 90 minute teleconference for each Core class.

This cycle, I am offering a special sale price. Normally the Core classes are $95 each. In 2018, each is on sale for $79!

A popular option is the Core Package which gives you exclusive access to the content in all eight Craft classes which you can go through on your own time and at your own pace, plus automatic enrollment in each 1-week online course — all for nearly 50% off the normal price of each individual class. If you sign up now, you can have immediate access to all of the Core content.

“I’m a huge fan of Scott’s classes, and I signed up for his Core Package, which I cannot speak highly enough about. If anyone wants to take a serious look at improving their writing, there is more than enough material to keep you busy for a few… dare I say, lifetimes? He’s the best. No bones about it.”

~ Heather Farlinger

To learn about any of the Core classes, click here.

I look forward to the opportunity to work with you!