Story. Screenplay. Sale.
To be a working screenwriter, one needs to write AND sell.
In Variety’s Top 100 telecasts for 2021, Yellowstone features as the only cable show on the list. And while all other major scripted shows – NCIS and The Equalizer – are written by a sizeable writers’ room, Yellowstone springs from the MacBook of just 1 guy: Taylor Sheridan. Given that “Yellowstone” is technically in competition with the enduringly popular … Read more
After seeing Sicario and sourcing the script in 2015, I instantly fell for the voice of this new writer. But Taylor Sheridan was not new. His script Comancheria hit the Blacklist a few years earlier, and would hit cinemas the next year under the title Hell Or High Water. Today, Taylor Sheridan is the most … Read more
Isn’t it remarkable how a simple synopsis, a seemingly innocuous 1-page text, can give a writer a world of pain. If it’s such a drag, then why bother? Plain and simple: nobody wants to be bored reading 100 pages if we can bore them with only one. It makes sense to read 10 pages of … Read more
Get Out was initially written to be a Rosemary’s Baby type dark psychological horror, yet some people seem to call it a comedy. How can a film that fits both bills possibly be so successful? Or how does it even work at all? The film shows the descent of a young black male into the underworld of … Read more
Loglines can predict failures. This week, I watched a movie where the writer had not adopted critical notes. The film failed. I’m not saying that it would have succeeded if he had heeded the advice. If only things were that simple. The draft I read could be summarised in a one sentence logline. Based on that logline, … Read more