My Screenwriting Book - News

My Screenwriting book is to be published in March 2011. That's next month. I've just finished proof reading and can't belive how much I've written. It's so much longer than I originally planned.

And I'm happy to say that it is like no other screenwriting book out there.

I'll keep you posted on the exact publication date.

Oscars - Academy Awards Nominations

Oscars Academy Awards - Who's on the list?
King's Speech has 12
True Grit has 10
Social Network has 8
What do you think of the screenplay nominations?

Original screenplay
Another Year - Mike Leigh
The Fighter - Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson (screenplay); Keith Dorrington, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson (story)
Inception - Christopher Nolan
The Kids Are All Right - Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg
The King's Speech - David Seidler

Adapted screenplay
127 Hours - Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
The Social Network - Aaron Sorkin
Toy Story 3 - Michael Arndt (screenplay); John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich (story)
True Grit - Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
Winter's Bone - Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini


Best motion picture of the year
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King's Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter's Bone
Performance by an actor in a leading role
Javier Bardem (Biutiful)
Jeff Bridges (True Grit)
Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network)
Colin Firth (The King's Speech)
James Franco (127 Hours)
Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Christian Bale (The Fighter)
John Hawkes (Winter's Bone)
Jeremy Renner (The Town)
Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right)
Geoffrey Rush (The King's Speech)
Performance by an actress in a leading role
Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right)
Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole)
Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone)
Natalie Portman (Black Swan)
Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine)
Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Amy Adams (The Fighter)
Helena Bonham Carter (The King's Speech)
Melissa Leo (The Fighter)
Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit)
Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom)
Achievement in directing
Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan)
David O Russell (The Fighter)
Tom Hooper (The King's Speech)
David Fincher (The Social Network)
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (True Grit)

Best animated feature film of the year
How to Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
Toy Story 3
Best foreign language film of the year
Biutiful (Mexico)
Dogtooth (Greece)
In a Better World (Denmark)
Incendies (Canada)
Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi) (Algeria)
Art direction
Alice in Wonderland - Robert Stromberg (production design), Karen O'Hara (set decoration)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 - Stuart Craig (production design), Stephenie McMillan (set decoration)
Inception - Guy Hendrix Dyas (production design), Larry Dias and Doug Mowat (set decoration)
The King's Speech - Eve Stewart (production design), Judy Farr (set decoration)
True Grit - Jess Gonchor (production design), Nancy Haigh (set decoration)
Achievement in cinematography
Matthew Libatique (Black Swan)
Wally Pfister (Inception)
Danny Cohen (The King's Speech)
Jeff Cronenweth (The Social Network)
Roger Deakins (True Grit)
Achievement in costume design
Colleen Atwood (Alice in Wonderland)
Antonella Cannarozzi (I Am Love)
Jenny Beavan (The King's Speech)
Sandy Powell (The Tempest)
Mary Zophres (True Grit)
Best documentary feature
Exit through the Gift Shop (Banksy and Jaimie D'Cruz)
Gasland (Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic)
Inside Job (Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs)
Restrepo (Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger)
Waste Land (Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley)
Best documentary short subject
Killing in the Name (Nominees to be determined)
Poster Girl (Nominees to be determined)
Strangers No More (Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon)
Sun Come Up (Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger)
The Warriors of Qiugang (Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon)
Achievement in film editing
Andrew Weisblum (Black Swan)
Pamela Martin (The Fighter)
Tariq Anwar (The King's Speech)
Jon Harris (127 Hours)
Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter (The Social Network)
Achievement in makeup
Adrien Morot (Barney's Version)
Edouard F Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng (The Way Back)
Rick Baker and Dave Elsey (The Wolfman)
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (original score)
John Powell (How to Train Your Dragon)
Hans Zimmer (Inception)
Alexandre Desplat (The King's Speech)
AR Rahman (127 Hours)
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (The Social Network)
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (original song)
Coming Home (from Country Strong, music and lyrics by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey)
I See the Light (from Tangled, music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Glenn Slater)
If I Rise (from 127 Hours, music by AR Rahman, lyrics by Dido and Rollo Armstrong)
We Belong Together (from Toy Story 3, music and lyrics by Randy Newman)
Best animated short film
Day & Night (Teddy Newton)
The Gruffalo (Jakob Schuh and Max Lang)
Let's Pollute (Geefwee Boedoe)
The Lost Thing (Nick Batzias, Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann)
Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary) (Bastien Dubois)
Best live action short film
The Confession (Tanel Toom)
The Crush (Michael Creagh)
God of Love (Luke Matheny)
Na Wewe (Ivan Goldschmidt)
Wish 143 (Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite)
Achievement in sound editing
Inception (Richard King)
Toy Story 3 (Tom Myers and Michael Silvers)
Tron: Legacy (Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague)
True Grit (Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey)
Unstoppable (Mark P Stoeckinger)
Achievement in sound mixing
Inception (Lora Hirschberg, Gary A Rizzo and Ed Novick)
The King's Speech (Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley)
Salt (Jeffrey J Haboush, Greg P Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin)
The Social Network (Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten)
True Grit (Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F Kurland)
Achievement in visual effects
Alice in Wonderland (Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi)
Hereafter (Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell)
Inception (Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb)
Iron Man 2 (Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick)

Original screenplay
Another Year - Mike Leigh
The Fighter - Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson (screenplay); Keith Dorrington, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson (story)
Inception - Christopher Nolan
The Kids Are All Right - Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg
The King's Speech - David Seidler

Adapted screenplay
127 Hours - Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
The Social Network - Aaron Sorkin
Toy Story 3 - Michael Arndt (screenplay); John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich (story)
True Grit - Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
Winter's Bone - Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini
Original screenplay
Another Year - Mike Leigh
The Fighter - Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson (screenplay); Keith Dorrington, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson (story)
Inception - Christopher Nolan
The Kids Are All Right - Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg
The King's Speech - David Seidler

Best motion picture of the year
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King's Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter's Bone
Performance by an actor in a leading role
Javier Bardem (Biutiful)
Jeff Bridges (True Grit)
Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network)
Colin Firth (The King's Speech)
James Franco (127 Hours)
Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Christian Bale (The Fighter)
John Hawkes (Winter's Bone)
Jeremy Renner (The Town)
Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right)
Geoffrey Rush (The King's Speech)
Performance by an actress in a leading role
Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right)
Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole)
Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone)
Natalie Portman (Black Swan)
Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine)
Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Amy Adams (The Fighter)
Helena Bonham Carter (The King's Speech)
Melissa Leo (The Fighter)
Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit)
Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom)
Achievement in directing
Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan)
David O Russell (The Fighter)
Tom Hooper (The King's Speech)
David Fincher (The Social Network)
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (True Grit)

Best animated feature film of the year
How to Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
Toy Story 3
Best foreign language film of the year
Biutiful (Mexico)
Dogtooth (Greece)
In a Better World (Denmark)
Incendies (Canada)
Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi) (Algeria)
Art direction
Alice in Wonderland - Robert Stromberg (production design), Karen O'Hara (set decoration)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 - Stuart Craig (production design), Stephenie McMillan (set decoration)
Inception - Guy Hendrix Dyas (production design), Larry Dias and Doug Mowat (set decoration)
The King's Speech - Eve Stewart (production design), Judy Farr (set decoration)
True Grit - Jess Gonchor (production design), Nancy Haigh (set decoration)
Achievement in cinematography
Matthew Libatique (Black Swan)
Wally Pfister (Inception)
Danny Cohen (The King's Speech)
Jeff Cronenweth (The Social Network)
Roger Deakins (True Grit)
Achievement in costume design
Colleen Atwood (Alice in Wonderland)
Antonella Cannarozzi (I Am Love)
Jenny Beavan (The King's Speech)
Sandy Powell (The Tempest)
Mary Zophres (True Grit)
Best documentary feature
Exit through the Gift Shop (Banksy and Jaimie D'Cruz)
Gasland (Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic)
Inside Job (Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs)
Restrepo (Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger)
Waste Land (Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley)
Best documentary short subject
Killing in the Name (Nominees to be determined)
Poster Girl (Nominees to be determined)
Strangers No More (Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon)
Sun Come Up (Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger)
The Warriors of Qiugang (Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon)
Achievement in film editing
Andrew Weisblum (Black Swan)
Pamela Martin (The Fighter)
Tariq Anwar (The King's Speech)
Jon Harris (127 Hours)
Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter (The Social Network)
Achievement in makeup
Adrien Morot (Barney's Version)
Edouard F Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng (The Way Back)
Rick Baker and Dave Elsey (The Wolfman)
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (original score)
John Powell (How to Train Your Dragon)
Hans Zimmer (Inception)
Alexandre Desplat (The King's Speech)
AR Rahman (127 Hours)
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (The Social Network)
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (original song)
Coming Home (from Country Strong, music and lyrics by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey)
I See the Light (from Tangled, music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Glenn Slater)
If I Rise (from 127 Hours, music by AR Rahman, lyrics by Dido and Rollo Armstrong)
We Belong Together (from Toy Story 3, music and lyrics by Randy Newman)
Best animated short film
Day & Night (Teddy Newton)
The Gruffalo (Jakob Schuh and Max Lang)
Let's Pollute (Geefwee Boedoe)
The Lost Thing (Nick Batzias, Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann)
Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary) (Bastien Dubois)
Best live action short film
The Confession (Tanel Toom)
The Crush (Michael Creagh)
God of Love (Luke Matheny)
Na Wewe (Ivan Goldschmidt)
Wish 143 (Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite)
Achievement in sound editing
Inception (Richard King)
Toy Story 3 (Tom Myers and Michael Silvers)
Tron: Legacy (Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague)
True Grit (Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey)
Unstoppable (Mark P Stoeckinger)
Achievement in sound mixing
Inception (Lora Hirschberg, Gary A Rizzo and Ed Novick)
The King's Speech (Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley)
Salt (Jeffrey J Haboush, Greg P Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin)
The Social Network (Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten)
True Grit (Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F Kurland)
Achievement in visual effects
Alice in Wonderland (Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi)
Hereafter (Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell)
Inception (Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb)
Iron Man 2 (Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick)

Hamlet as a Woman

The BFI are screening a new print of a remarkable film of Hamlet with live piano accompaniment on January 27th.
I studied this 1920 silent film when I was preparing research on the performance history of Hamlet for the third Arden edition of the play. It was a complete revelation.
The main character is a woman who has been brought up as a boy so that the family's dynasty can be maintained in the aftermath of war.

Asta Nielsen, who plays Hamlet, was a role model for Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo, and was one of the leading actors of her generation.

Director Sven Gade’s amazing retelling of the play also offers insights into the European psyche in the wake of Germany's defeat in the First World War.

What I find so extraordinary about Shakespeare's Hamlet is how so many people in so many different parts of the world find emotional and political resonances that speak to their own history and culture.

And that's one of the reasons Hamlet is essential reading for every screenwriter.

There's a terrific short film about a group of musicians accompanying Asta Nielsen's scenes in the film live at the Berlin Festival. Click on the link to watch it:

Shakespeare's Indoor Theatre

When I was Leverhulme Research Fellow at Shakespeare's Globe, I was thrilled to be involved, watching the building take shape, working with the directors and actors on the first productions there. It was an immense sadness to everyone that Sam Wanamaker who worked so hard to realise his dream of recreating the Globe did not live to see the first performances.

He also planned on reconstructing an indoor Jacobean theatre on the site, and when the Globe was built, the shell of the indoor theatre was built, but we knew that this would have to be delayed until there were the resources to develop the space.

So I'm thrilled that now that is going to happen. I can't wait to see The Tempest in the indoor theatre. It was for a theatre space like this that Shakespeare wrote his wonderfully surreal masterpiece.

And that's got me thinking about film adaptations of The Tempest...

Why Every Screenplay Needs Subtext for Everything

A single image can express deep meaning, speak to the story's theme and communicate a character's inner emotions more powerfully and eloquently than words.

This is how subtext works. It's not just for dialogue. I find it really helpful to 'watch' my characters in a situation, and then wait. Wait for them to tell me what to write. It can be speech, of course, but very often I find that one simple image can express what my character is feeling without having to tell the audience.

Nuanced development of a character often means letting your visual storytelling powers take over.

That wonderful scene in La Dolce Vita at the Trevi Fountain - look how eloquent that visual subtext communicates everything we need to understand and most importantly, feel the characters' emotions.

The BAFTAS - The King's Speech has 14 Nominations. True Grit has 8

The BAFTAS 2011 List of Nominations is out.
The King's Speech has a whopping fourteen including Best Original Screenplay, Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Editing.

The Coens' True Grit got zero nominations at the Golden Globes, but they're on the BAFTA list for eight including Best Film, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematographer (the Coens' regular, Roger Deakins, Best Actor (Jeff Bridges) and Best Actress (Hailee Steinfeld)

I always find it interesting to compare the current nominees of screen awards with the winners of the previous years.

You can compare this year's BAFTA nominations with the winners from 2010 and 2009
here. Click on BAFTAS on the left hand menu:

http://www.unique-screenwriting.com

What do think of the Screenplay Nominees?

Best original screenplay

Black Swan - Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz, John McLaughlin

The Fighter - Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson

Inception - Christopher Nolan

The Kids are All Right - Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg

The King's Speech - David Seidler

Best adapted screenplay

127 Hours - Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Rasmus Heisterberg, Nikolaj Arcel

The Social Network - Aaron Sorkin

Toy Story 3 - Michael Arndt

True Grit - Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

How the Coen Brothers Write Their Scripts

In an interview on the WGA site, Ethan and Joel Coen are uncharacteristically fulsome in their answers about their latest filmTrue Grit and offer some fascinating insights into how they write their scripts.

If anyone has to be convinced of my repeated plea for screenwriters to stop worrying about the '3-Act structure' or building a ready-made template for their story, the Coens have done a very persuasive job for me.

They don't set out with a clear outline and then squeeze everything in. Joel says:
'It’s much more the case that there’s a discussion about what comes next extending a certain way into the script that often gets batted about verbally and then just gets written as opposed to writing it all down with one subset of A, B, C, D, and E, you know? It’s like, "Okay, this will happen, and it will lead to this, and then we don’t know what."'

Ethan agreed: 'That’s true. It’s kinda mushy. We don’t do an outline in terms of mapping out the whole thing but then, on the other hand, we don’t exactly write scene A and then stop and say, "Ok, what’s scene B?"

Joel: Yeah, it might be, "Ok, this will happen and lead to this and this and then we get here, and we’ll figure it out." If we’re writing scene B, we have some clear idea of what scene C might be and a slightly fuzzier idea of what D might be and a vague idea of what the ramifications of that might be – or maybe not. It just kind of falls off into darkness.'

True inspiration for all screenwriters!

Read the full interview with the Coens by Dylan Callaghan at http://www.wga.org/