posted November 28, 2005 05:00 PM            

by Jeff Newman

Precious few professional screenwriters, once they get an idea for a screenplay that enthuses them, simply put fingers to keyboard and start writing. Instead, most writers, prior to writing, do some *prewriting*. They may have done otherwise once or twice, and found that just "rushing to the writing" actually takes a lot more time in the end: they wind up with a goopy, droopy ultra-rough first draft that needs far more than pruning and polishing. After doing that once or twice, they now look (and think) before they leap.

As the saying goes, "Well begun is half done." And part of beginning well is spending some time thinking, making some tentative decisions, and organizing one's thoughts.

This is the first article in a series called "Prewriting: Before You Write "Fade In." And the first step in the prewriting process is creating your concept: coming up with the idea, and then clarifying and "massaging" it -- tinkering and toying with it -- until it's an interesting, compelling, dramatically viable concept. Furthermore, it should be a concept that you are willing, nay eager, to spend some time with; it should be an idea that really enthuses you, that you are excited or passionate about.

And finally, to be realistic and practical, it should be a concept that will be marketable. Not necessarily mass-marketable (although that would be great), but ... would many producers, agents, prodco executives, and major actors agree to read a screenplay based on this concept? Would enough movie-goers want to see it so that the film would turn a profit?

After all, movie-making isn't just an art; it's a business (show *business*). Compared to publishing books or staging plays, movies are expensive to make (and to distribute and market). If a film based on a particular idea is likely to attract only a tiny, niche audience, it had better be one that could be made for a very low budget. If it's going to be something that would take an average movie budget to produce, it had better be an idea likely to attract a whole lot of people.

So before committing to a concept -- before you spend weeks or months developing it and writing a screenplay based upon it -- take the idea out for a test drive. Make sure it's a solid idea: one you want to write, and that enough others are likely to want to read and see. We'll talk more about that in a bit, but first: how does one think up good ideas in the first place?

COMING UP WITH IDEAS

Once you've been writing a while, finding ideas you want to write about won't be a problem. The problem will be finding time to write all the concepts you keep coming up with. You'll have more ideas than you could ever possibly find time to execute. If, however, you are trying to restrict yourself to sure-fire, slam-dunk, "high concept" ideas ... that's different. No matter how experienced you are, coming up with those kinds of fresh, highly commercial, mass-market ideas will always be a challenge. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Good ideas are worth a lot more. And high-concept ideas are as rare as diamonds in a dung-heap. Well, just about.

But when writers are just starting out -- and especially if the writer is young -- then finding good ideas is often quite hard. It seems that all the ideas they come up with are either not likely enough to create interest among others, or else they've been done. At first, it just seems almost impossible to come up with new ideas, when so many movies and other stories have already been produced.

So the efforts of a new writer to come up with a good idea are similar to the efforts of a pro trying to come up with a high-concept idea. How to proceed?

There's no magical or one-size-fits-all answer. But here are some strategies that work for many.

1. The Power of Self-Suggestion Followed by Relaxation

Once you are in "idea search" mode, spend some time thinking about the kind of movie you'd like to write, in terms of subject matter, tone, and/or genre. Think of other movies along those lines -- ones you like and would be proud to have written. Once in a while, a good idea will quickly spring out at you. Not usually, though. But at least you've let your subconscious know that you're seeking an idea, and roughly what kind of an idea.

Then: relax. Go about your business, your life. If an idea doesn't suddenly strike you from out-of-the-blue, then keep reminding yourself every now and then. Especially just after going to bed. And every now and then at various times during the next few days.

Chances are now good that an idea will suddenly bubble up from your subconscious. It often happens while in the shower, taking a walk, or driving. Or while drifting off to sleep, or even while dreaming. A "Eureka" moment will occur. Note: be sure to write the idea down -- at least a few notes about it. You *think* you'll remember it, but you might not. This is especially important if it comes as part of a dream in the middle of the night. Write ... it ... down.

After thanking your subconscious mind, now it's time to start playing around with the idea. And, if necessary, improving it. And testing its worthiness.

But before we get to that process ...

What if this approach doesn't work? It usually does, but not always. So what's another idea-generating approach?

Continued On Our Website at: http://www.hollywoodlitsales.com/cf/journal/dspJournal.cfm?intID=3088

posted April 12, 2006 05:20 PM            

Start with five $120 million epics. Add 12 comedies and a movie about a horse. Our reporters on the industry's strategy for the season.

By SAM SCHECHNER and JOHN LIPPMAN
April 7, 2006; Page W1

It's a comedy. It opens with a wedding. Owen Wilson shows up. He worms his way into the family. Cut to hilarious mayhem.

Last year's hit "Wedding Crashers?" Yes. And also this summer's "You, Me and Dupree." But the new movie not only has the same star and some of the same plot devices as the old model, it's also being released on the same day of the year -- the second Friday after the Fourth of July.

Owen Wilson 2005 Wedding Crashers
Every summer, Hollywood serves up formula movies. But in recent years, the entire popcorn season has become a formula, too -- from the number of movies with budgets of more than $120 million (about five), to the number of major-studio comedies (a dozen), to the release dates for movies with a particular director. Ready for the latest spoof from the Wayans brothers? Check your local theaters in early July. That's when the rotating roster of comedic siblings released their hits "Scary Movie" and "Scary Movie 2" and it's also when you'll see this summer's "Little Man," in which Shawn Wayans mistakes an unusually short criminal for his adopted son.

It's a tough time for studios and theaters. Facing decreasing attendance and increasing competition from TV, they saw annual domestic box-office revenues slump by 6.2% last year, and the summer falloff was even steeper -- down 8.5% to $3.62 billion. In part, Hollywood's summer-by-the-numbers approach is an attempt to focus on what has worked in the past, including time-tested plot devices and rollout strategies. For example, after Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" scored the best July opening of 2003, the studio did the logical thing: It scheduled this summer's sequel in the same weekend. "There is a little bit of superstition in all of us," says Disney's president of movie distribution, Chuck Viane. "You always gravitate back to where you've done well."

We crunched the data on films going back to 2000 -- using data from a number of sources including Exhibitor Relations Co. -- examining plots, genres, stars and budgets. What emerged was an insight into how the movie business programs summers at the multiplex, from May's first multimillion-dollar explosion to Labor Day's last raunchy hurrah.

The result: Hollywood's popcorn recipe.

THINKING OUTSIDE THE POPCORN BOX

Some summer movies are breaking from formulas -- and taking risks. Here is a sample.
Little Miss Sunshine
Fox Searchlight, June 28
The comedy, about a family trip to a beauty pageant for kids, got a thumbs-up from critics at Sundance -- but it includes little girls dolled up like adults and a hint of impropriety between a grandfather and granddaughter. Steve Carrell, Toni Collette, Greg Kinnear and Alan Arkin star.
Strangers with Candy
Thinkfilm, June 28
The movie amps up the lewdness and profanity of the Comedy Central cable series on which it's based. Amy Sedaris plays a 47-year-old ex-con/drug addict/prostitute who seeks to redeem herself by entering high school.
A Scanner Darkly
Warner Independent , July 7
The animated technique used in this sci-fi drama -- processing live actors Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder in a graphic-novel style -- failed to draw an audience the first time director Richard Linklater used it, in 2001's "Waking Life." But Mr. Linklater may have more luck here. It's an adaptation of a Philip K. Dick tale -- as were previous hits "Minority Report," "Total Recall" and "Blade Runner."
Apocalypto
Disney, Aug. 4
When Mel Gibson last directed a movie in an exotic tongue, it was Aramaic in "The Passion of the Christ." Will that film's jumbo audience come back for another tale in a foreign tongue? (This time around, it's a violent action picture about the ancient Mayans, with a no-star cast speaking a Mayan dialect.) Mr. Gibson has put up $40 million of his own money to find out.
The Science of Sleep
Warner Independent , Aug. 4
Offbeat director Michael Gondry had a modest success in the 2004 comedy "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" -- but he also had Jim Carrey. "Sleep," a surrealistic romantic fantasy, has young Mexican heartthrob Gael García Bernal.
Idlewild
Universal and HBO Films, Aug. 25
"Hustle & Flow" meets "Moulin Rouge": It's a musical, set in a prohibition-era Southern speakeasy and starring Andre "Andre 3000" Benjamin and Antwan "Big Boi" Patton of the hip-hop group OutKast. Universal delayed the $15 million film's release so the duo could finish an album with music from the movie. (The album will come out in June.)First, take the biggest movie weekends -- early May, Memorial Day and July Fourth -- and mix in the most expensive pictures, such as comic-book adaptations, disaster films and boys-with-toys action flicks. (Among this summer's contenders are "Mission: Impossible III" and "X-Men: The Last Stand.") These releases need to open early in the season to recoup their budgets. Fold in a computer-generated animated feature such as "Cars," which is one of four this summer. Top with two romantic comedies featuring egregiously bad behavior -- this June it's "The Break-Up" -- and dust with a tween-bait movie, preferably with the word "princess" or "Cinderella" in the title.

Save room in the season's back end for junk food. The dog days bring scary-animal thrillers in the vein of "Eight-Legged Freaks" -- there have been five in the past six summers, and this season, it's "Snakes on a Plane." Sprinkle liberally with dumb, crude comedies -- like last year's "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo" and this August's "Beerfest," in which two dudes journey to Germany for some competitive guzzling. These movies are cheaper to make, so they need less time to turn a profit, movie executives say.

Not every summer release, of course, fits the formula. There's always room for a major-studio oddball, such as this August's "Apocalypto" from Mel Gibson, whose characters speak a language understood by less than a million people world-wide. (Granted, the movie's Mayan dialect is practically mainstream compared with the last language heard in a Gibson film -- Aramaic, from "The Passion of the Christ.")

Studio executives say there's logic to their rollout schedule. Some of it has to do with the school year. Summer vacation in many urban areas doesn't start until the end of June, while it ends in some parts of the South in August. The result: Movies targeted at the broadest possible audiences aim for midsummer release dates. For example, since 2000's successful "X-Men," studios have tried to launch or relaunch big superhero-franchise movies in midsummer -- with "Superman Returns" slotted for release this June 30.

Some patterns, though, may be coincidental. Warner Bros. is releasing "Lady in the Water," the latest plot-twist thriller from M. Night Shyamalan, on July 21. All but one of Mr. Shyamalan's movies since 1999's "The Sixth Sense" have come out within two weeks of Aug. 6. One possible reason: That's his birthday. But Dan Fellman, president of distribution for Warner Bros., says he didn't even know when Mr. Shyamalan was born when the studio scheduled "Lady in the Water." Says Mr. Fellman: "His movies have had great success during that time frame."

Here's a look at some of the major movies out this summer season:

Mission: Impossible III

THE PITCH: Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Leverage a billion-dollar global franchise.

BACKSTORY: It was nearly Movie: Impossible for Paramount Pictures. The last installment of the studio's most valuable franchise hadn't had a sequel in six years. Last summer, weeks before shooting was to begin, star Tom Cruise and Paramount jettisoned their initial director, Joe Carnahan, because his vision for the movie was too dark. Mr. Carnahan dropped out due to "creative differences." So Mr. Cruise, a fan of the hit TV show "Alias," turned to its creator, J.J. Abrams, to rewrite the spy-thriller and take over as director. At a cost of about $150 million, "M:I-3" is the most expensive film ever made by a first-time feature director. Opens May 5

BUZZ: Critics have complained that the two previous "M:I" plots bordered on the incomprehensible. Does it matter? Together, the movies took in $1 billion at the box office world-wide. And this year's villain is Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Owen Wilson 2006 You, Me and Dupree
Poseidon

THE PITCH: There's got to be a morning after... 35 years later.

BACKSTORY: Director Wolfgang Petersen follows up "Das Boot" and "The Perfect Storm" with another where's-this-water-coming-from movie. This time, he channels the 1970s disaster "The Poseidon Adventure," which garnered eight Oscar nominations, a win for its theme song and permanent cult status for Shelley Winters. The characters are different, but it's still all about the upside-down cruise ship. Petersen had two giant sets built on the Warner Bros. lot: One with the ship right side up and the other with the ship inverted in a 1.3-million gallon pool. The sets alone accounted for $100 million of the movie's $150 million cost. Josh Lucas, who plays a shipboard hustling gambler, says he spent so much time in the water, "my skin became so soft I could cut it with my fingernail." The pool water grew dirty, he says. "It was a Petri dish." May 12

BUZZ: Critics could try to torpedo it. Plus, at this price, it will have to appeal to more than audiences old enough to remember the original.

The Da Vinci Code

THE PITCH: The book sold 40 million copies. Average U.S. ticket prices are $6.40. You do the math.

BACKSTORY: Four years back, Joel Surnow, creator of the hit Fox counterterrorism series "24," had an idea: Turn Dan Brown's megahit novel into the story line for the show's third season. He approached his boss, independent producer Brian Grazer. But before Mr. Grazer could acquire the rights for himself, Sony Pictures snapped them up for a whopping $6 million. Then Sony hired Mr. Grazer to produce the film. For "DaVinci," Mr. Grazer teamed up with director Ron Howard, his longtime partner on movies including "Apollo 13." Tom Hanks, a fan of the novel -- whose plot involves a conspiracy to cover up the secret marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene -- signed on without seeing a script. Messrs. Hanks, Grazer and Howard agreed to defer some of their cumulative $30-million-plus in fees until after revenue flows in. That kept Sony's upfront production costs to about $125 million. May 19

BUZZ: For a movie this size, Sony's marketing campaign has been strikingly low-key.

The Break-Up

THE PITCH: Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the housing market... Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn fight over real estate.

BACKSTORY: First-time screenwriters Jeremy Garelick and Jay Lavender were talking to actor Mr. Vaughn about their idea for this movie. Then came Mr. Vaughn's appearance in last summer's "Wedding Crashers." When early testing of that film suggested a smash hit, Messrs. Garelick and Lavender wrote "The Break-Up" for the star in four weeks and sold the script for $2.4 million to Universal, a huge payout for rookie screenwriters. In the movie, Mr. Vaughn and Ms. Aniston plan to split and fight over who gets to keep their condo. (In real life, Ms. Aniston broke up with husband Brad Pitt and became romantically linked to Mr. Vaughn during filming.) The original script called for a downbeat ending, in which the couple splits up. But then the studio showed an early cut to a test audience, and -- get me rewrite. June 2

BUZZ: Universal hopes "The Break-Up" will be this summer's "Wedding Crashers," but people close to the movie say that's a long shot.

Owen Wilson 2000 Shanghai Noon
Cars

THE PITCH: "Toy Story" with wheels.

BACKSTORY: Pixar, now part of Walt Disney, is hoping to extend a winning streak with this tale of a cocky sports car who gets stranded on Route 66, and learns life lessons in a town full of vintage autos. The studio tried hard to make this animated film a must-see for car fanatics: Filmmakers attended Nascar races, researched stock paints and moldings and recorded the sounds of each model's engine. (It didn't hurt that writer-director John Lasseter is the son of a parts manager at a Chevrolet dealership.) Two years ago, he unveiled the first clips from "Cars" not to Hollywood insiders, but at the annual AutoWeek Design Forum in Detroit. June 9

BUZZ: Parents beware: The movie is even longer than 2004's "The Incredibles," breaking the two-hour mark.

Click

THE PITCH: Adam Sandler vs. his remote control.

BACKSTORY: This summer's Sandler vehicle comes out late in June -- the same as his previous comedies, "Big Daddy" and "Mr. Deeds." Says Jeff Blake, vice-chairman of Sony Pictures: "The third weekend in June has been very lucky for Sandler and Sony." This year's model is the tale of an overworked father whose world spins out of control when a TV remote-control begins to run his life. The film reunites the NYU posse -- Mr. Sandler, director Frank Coraci, producer Jack Giarraputo and writer Tim Herlihy -- who went to college together and have worked, in various combinations, on hits such as "The Wedding Singer" and "The Waterboy." The movie includes 600 visual-effects shots, which helped push the movie's budget up to $80 million. June 23

BUZZ: Test audiences liked it, but Mr. Sandler's most costly movie yet will have pass to $125 million at the U.S. box office to become profitable.

Superman Returns

THE PITCH: After disappearing from the big screen for a decade, the Man of Steel tries to leap "Spider-Man" and "Batman" franchises in a single bound.

BACKSTORY: The last Superman movie, starring Christopher Reeve, hit theaters in 1983. Warner Bros. has spent the last 11 years trying to develop a new one. The studio went through five directors -- the fourth fell out because he had a fear of airplanes and refused to fly to the movie's Australian shooting site -- and innumerable scripts before picking Bryan Singer, who made hits out of the first two "X-Men" movies. In the movie, too, Superman returns to Earth after inexplicably disappearing. The superhero, played by unknown actor Brandon Routh, finds that Lois Lane, now an unwed mother, has moved on. The superbudget totaled more than $200 million, but tax breaks from making the movie overseas cut the costs for Warner to about $185 million. The studio has virtually copied its successful 1989 teaser campaign for its first "Batman" movie: The superhero's logo is the only image on the poster. June 30

BUZZ: The film's darker, more introspective take on our guy in leotards could turn off some superhero-movie geeks. Because comic-book heroes translate well overseas, the film could bring in several hundred million dollars world-wide.

Miami Vice

THE PITCH: Speedboats, pastels and stubble -- updated for the new millennium.

BACKSTORY: Universal's bid to remake the iconic 1980s TV series about two Miami undercover drug cops turned into a Technicolor headache. Actor Jamie Foxx -- tapped to play Ricardo Tubbs, opposite Colin Farrell's Sonny Crockett -- tried to bump his previously negotiated fee to $20 million from $7 million after he won the Oscar for "Ray," but Universal pushed him down to $15 million, a person close to the production says. A representative for Mr. Foxx says there was no renegotiation but declined to disclose his fee. Hurricanes Rita and Wilma interrupted location shooting in Miami. Director Michael Mann, who produced the TV series, continually reshot scenes -- in such places as Uruguay, Columbia, the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Brazil. Result: The $120 million budget mushroomed to close to $150 million. July 28

BUZZ: Mr. Mann's previous box-office best is $101 million for 2004's "Collateral." Hollywood insiders say this one is a longshot to top $100 million in the U.S. -- and could be a hard sell internationally.

World Trade Center

THE PITCH: Sept. 11, the movie, by Oliver Stone.

BACKGROUND: Originally developed for Universal Pictures, "World Trade Center," was picked up by Paramount. (Universal instead went ahead with "United 93," which will open on April 28.) The movie stars Nicholas Cage and Michael Pena (from the TV series "The Shield") as two Port Authority cops who were among the last people rescued from the rubble. Told from their point of view, the movie contains no scenes of planes crashing into the buildings or the towers collapsing. "There was no need to do that because everyone has seen it," says producer Michael Shamberg. Paramount built a detailed replica of Ground Zero on a one-acre lot in suburban Los Angeles, where much of the filming was done. Aug. 9

BUZZ: Not the usual Stone conspiracy project. "World Trade Center" is an unabashed paean to heroes and the spirit of hope.

posted June 07, 2007 10:59 AM            

In an article for Maclean's magazine this month, Calgary-based author Rebecca Eckler details similarities between her book and the film, in which an up-and-coming TV reporter gets drunk at a party and then gets pregnant from a one-night stand.

Eckler writes that in her 2004 book, the character is an up-and-coming newspaper reporter who gets drunk and "knocked up" after celebrating at her engagement party.

She claims that while pitching her book to Hollywood producers, she learned of Apatow's project and the script, which she says had on it a picture of a martini glass with a pacifier around the stem -- the same as the cover of her book.

Apatow said in a statement through his representatives that the book and film were very different.

"Anyone who reads the book and sees the movie will instantly know that they are two very different stories about a common experience," said the statement, posted on celebrity Web site TMZ.com.

The lawsuit claiming copyright infringement was filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles in January and seeks unspecified damages.

posted December 30, 2007 11:22 AM            

Installment #5

Today’s piece is written by Greg Berlanti, Executive Producer of Dirty Sexy Money and Brothers and Sisters.

I’ve never considered myself much of a writer. I’m not particularly great at it. On my best day I don’t have half the talent of many people I’ve been lucky enough to hire and to work with. And this is not false humility. Ask any writer who works with me, they’ll tell you how much I rely on their abilities, how often I struggle to craft the simplest of scenes. I know a lot of other writers feel like they suck too, but that doesn’t make it easier (I know this because a large part of my day is convincing other writers they don’t suck. Once finished, I go back into my office and convince myself I do suck all over again). The problem is, regardless of my limited writing talent, I love telling stories. Creating a character, a world, a whole universe out of nothing. That part I can’t get enough of. I think about myself and storytelling the way Bill Clinton described himself and the Presidency, and I’m paraphrasing here, “There are guys who have done it better, but there’s no one who’s enjoyed it more.”

As a kid, the first storyteller I wanted to be was Jim Henson. I designed and built puppets and had a business performing for birthday parties. If you’re curious what the rock bottom of the middle school caste system is, it’s The Kids Who Play With Puppets. Seriously, The Kids Who Played With Magic used to beat the crap out of me. Anyway, a day or so before the birthday party (even then I needed a deadline), I would sit and design a story based on the little facts of the birthday boy or girl’s life. Each time I sat down to do this, staring at the blank page in my Trapper Keeper, I would grumble to myself, “I hate this… stupid birthday… I’m never gonna think of anything. I’m the WORST BIRTHDAY PARTY PUPPET GUY EVER!” And then inevitably, I’d get some small idea that would lead to the next idea, and to the one after that, and in a few hours I had a story. At which point I would think to myself, “I love this! I’m a genius! I’m the best BIRTHDAY PARTY PUPPET GUY EVER!” Eventually, because I liked the idea of having sex in this lifetime, I dropped the puppets. But the internal monologue and its cycle from self loathing to self fellating is still pretty much the same.

Okay, so now let’s fast forward to 1996. It was about a year after I moved to Los Angeles and I was paying my bills working as a phone operator at the prestigious Sherman Oaks Galleria Center. The girl that trained me was leaving for junior college to study “hotels and stuff” and because she knew I wanted to be a writer she promised to introduce me to her high school friend, Ricky Schroeder, as soon as she got back. At night I would drive home to the studio apartment I rented in Beachwood Canyon, beneath the Hollywood Sign, and think to myself, “I’ve never been further from Hollywood in my whole life.” But the worst part about this time? I had stopped writing. And I had never stopped writing before. From middle school to college, puppets had let to plays, which lead to screenplays. But after having my first few masterpieces resoundingly rejected by every studio and agency in town (I was one of those dudes who thought a color script cover would make a difference) I had let my discouragement consume me. A good friend of mine from college named Julie Plec (now a writer herself on the show Kyle XY) took me out for lunch where she read me the riot act for giving up on my dream before I even had a chance to fail at it. I tried to offer up some lame excuses, “I’m tinkering with a new idea, I’ve got a meeting with Ricky Schroeder, etc.” But she knew it was all bullshit. I finally opened up about how Hollywood had confirmed my own instincts about my lack of talent. Julie reminded me that there was a time in my life when I never cared about how successful I was at writing, just how much I loved it. I went home that day and began work on my fourth script, which was… also resoundingly rejected. As were my fifth thru ninth scripts. But my tenth script, my tenth script I wrote in Los Angeles got me a lawyer, an agent, and my first job as a paid writer.

What’s the rest of the story? How did I get here from there? Writing. See, that’s why I write. Not because I’m great at it. As I mentioned above, most days I feel barely passable. I write because I love telling stories. And as I share my stories with the world, my own story gets better and better. Writing has been responsible for almost every amazing thing that has ever happened to me. I’ve met thousands of people, made hundreds of friends, had my scripts shot all around the country, worked with stars I grew up admiring, and seen other actors go from oblivion to household names. I’ve had crew on shows I’ve created meet, get married and have children all because I had an idea one day while I was driving and had the fortitude to see that vision through. When I think about my life now, all thanks to writing, I think about that classic exchange from Broadcast News between William Hurt and Albert Brooks, courtesy of everyone’s writing hero Mr. James Brooks,

“What do you do when your life exceeds your dreams?”

“Keep it to yourself.”

I guess that’s the other reason I write. One day, if I’m lucky enough, I hope to write a line half that good.

posted November 21, 2008 10:18 AM            

If screenwriting guru Robert McKee has the plot right, Hollywood is the villain in the piece and TV is the hero. But how the story ends is another question.

"Hollywood films? The death rattle of a dying industry," said the acclaimed screenwriting instructor, in Paris for one of his sold-out "Story" seminars.

"The best writers are creating TV series. It's all in TV," he told AFP.

Undisputably one of the globe's top story-masters, the 60-something former actor, theatre-director, script-writer and consultant, has delivered three to four-day seminars to some 50,000 paying students in the last couple of decades.

Among them are David Bowie, Ed Burns, John Cleese (three times), Kirk Douglas, Quincy Jones (three times), Emilio Estevez, Diane Keaton, Meg Ryan and Brooke Shields.

While his best-seller "Story" is required reading for students at Harvard and Yale universities, McKee himself was portrayed in the Academy Award-nominated film "Adaptation" in which Brian Cox played the writer.

On his own count, attendees imbued with his insights have scooped 27 Academy Awards, the most recent including Akiva Goldsman for "A Beautiful Mind," or Peter Jackson, who won best picture and best director Oscars for "Lord of the Rings".

Thoughtfully pacing the stage in a Paris auditorium packed with more than 300 people who paid up to 1,000 euros (1,250 dollars), McKee holds forth with a free-wheeling jibe-peppered banter, more stream-of-consciousness than power-point lecture.

"If you make a film it's to make a film about people, a film that's yours, without references to the past, to Hollywood, to movements," he said.

"I don't get involved in movements," said McKee, who has a deep hatred of art movies. "Self-conscious unconventionality was poisonous."

"Only artists should be concerned with art," he added. "Thank goodness the post-68 syndrome is ending. It's been 40 f...... years!"

McKee explained how a writer chooses a setting, a time, and makes sure the intrigue fits. "If a story is set in Beverley Hills, there can be no race riots because there's only one race and no riots -- these people only shop!".

To get the right location, characters, and a plot that works, the answer, he emphasized, lies in research.

"Writers love the idea they're free. But wanting to be free is one of the stupidest ideas an artist can have."

Writers, he told the audience, need to dig into their own past and knowledge, spend time reading and researching, and put down everything they feel, think and discover on paper.

"Daydreaming is not research. Taking a walk along the river to be creative is s...." he said. "The idea that writing is a creative process is mythical. Writers who take the time to research see the story almost writes itself."

Citing a film like "Dr Strangelove", built around just three sets, or huge Russian works "War and Peace" or "Crime and Punishment" contained to a couple of families and a microcosm, McKee said successful screenwriters must build worlds where they have all the answers.

"The world of a story must be small enough that you can become the God in it," he said. "If you have a huge canvas it's impossible to be the God of that universe and you'll write cliches."

Speaking to AFP, McKee contended that today's most creative writers have sought refuge in television, citing "American Beauty" writer, Alan Ball, who after failing to find takers for subsequent projects wrote cult series "Six Feet Under".

"We're going through a wonderful period of television," he said, also citing "Damages" or "In Treatment". "In US television, the writers have all the power."

But this admirer of Ingmar Bergman had a few comforting words for the big screen, hailing the emergence of a new generation of directors in their 30s who "are not interested in the esthetics of the past."

Among films he enjoyed were "Let The Right One In" by Tomnas Alfredson of Sweden, "Reprise" by Norwegian Joaquim Trier, "Run Lola Run" from Germany's Tom Tykwed and French director Guillaume Canet's "Tell No One".

posted November 25, 2008 09:42 AM            

American screenwriter John Michael Hayes has died of natural causes at the age of 89.

Hayes - who wrote some of director Alfred Hitchcock.s best-known films - passed away on 19 November in a retirement community in Hanover, New Hampshire.

He adapted four of Hitchcock's films, including 1954's Rear Window, starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly, and his work on 1955 project Mystery Writers of America gained him an Academy Award nomination and won him an Edgar Award.

In addition to Rear Window, Hayes also adapted the director's 1955 films To Catch a Thief, starring Cary Grant, and The Trouble With Harry - as well as a remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much, in 1956.

Besides his work for Hitchcock, Hayes was known for writing Peyton Place, a 1957 screenplay also nominated for an Oscar.

He began his career as a radio writer, after serving in the Army in World War II, with earlier film credits including 1953's Thunder Bay, directed by Anthony Mann and starring James Stewart.

He later wrote adaptations of The Children's Hour and Butterfield 8 - a 1960 film starring Elizabeth Taylor.

Through the 1980s and '90s, he wrote television movies and began teaching film at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.

posted January 03, 2009 10:06 AM            

3 January 2009 5:54 AM, PST

British actress Emma Thompson has long struggled with depression and insists the only way to beat her condition is to use creative therapy techniques.

The Oscar-winner first experienced the illness during a stint on the London stage in her twenties and admits it was one of the darkest times of her life.

She says, "I'm prone to depression and to all sorts of mental illnesses. I did a musical in the West End - I became clinically depressed even though I was being paid to be cheerful. I had no life at all. I lived like a nun. I didn't drink. I didn't have sex. I was 24, for crying out loud. No wonder I was depressed."

Thompson reveals that the condition often comes back to haunt her, with her most recent episode of serious depression occurring as she struggled to get pregnant with her daughter, Gaia, who was born in 1999.

But she has now found a new way to manage her moods.