Irish-British writer/director Martin McDonagh has gained cult followings both in the theater world, for plays like The Beauty Queen of Leenane and The Cripple of Inishmaan, and among cinephiles, thanks to the Academy-Award-winning short Six Shooter and In Bruges. His work on both stage and screen stands out for its grounded approach to absurd situations, as well as his nuanced treatment of deeply flawed characters.
McDonagh’s newest film is Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, featuring Frances McDormand as a woman who goes to war against her small town’s police department over her daughter’s unsolved murder. We sat down with him to speak about the film and his idiosyncratic writing process.
The Film Stage: Your scripts don’t follow the usual conventions of Save the Cat screenwriting. Do you follow a story as it goes along? Do you plan certain things out beforehand?
Martin McDonagh: No.
McDonagh’s newest film is Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, featuring Frances McDormand as a woman who goes to war against her small town’s police department over her daughter’s unsolved murder. We sat down with him to speak about the film and his idiosyncratic writing process.
The Film Stage: Your scripts don’t follow the usual conventions of Save the Cat screenwriting. Do you follow a story as it goes along? Do you plan certain things out beforehand?
Martin McDonagh: No.
- 11/9/2017
- by Daniel Schindel
- The Film Stage
“There’s nothing worse than a politician without ambition.” So says the newly inaugurated president of Argentina in Santiago Mitre’s “The Summit.” It’s the kind of boilerplate dialogue you could hear in any broody portrait of politics and power, but it sounds particularly egregious coming from this one. Despite its larger festival platform and starrier cast, “The Summit” remains a wan, frustrating, and narratively unambitious follow-up to Mitre’s Critics Week prizewinner, “Paulina.”
With big-name actors and top-level access, Mitre’s third feature is an impressively scaled-up production. “The Summit” opens in the halls of the Casa Rosada, the sprawling presidential palace in the heart of Buenos Aires, and Mitre shot in the actual palace. As the steadicam rigs sweep from the back entrance to the kitchen to the gilded corridors of power, it introduces us to the characters who make the country run. First among equals is...
With big-name actors and top-level access, Mitre’s third feature is an impressively scaled-up production. “The Summit” opens in the halls of the Casa Rosada, the sprawling presidential palace in the heart of Buenos Aires, and Mitre shot in the actual palace. As the steadicam rigs sweep from the back entrance to the kitchen to the gilded corridors of power, it introduces us to the characters who make the country run. First among equals is...
- 5/24/2017
- by Ben Croll
- Indiewire
“There’s nothing worse than a politician without ambition.” So says the newly inaugurated president of Argentina in Santiago Mitre’s “The Summit.” It’s the kind of boilerplate dialogue you could hear in any broody portrait of politics and power, but it sounds particularly egregious coming from this one. Despite its larger festival platform and starrier cast, “The Summit” remains a wan, frustrating, and narratively unambitious follow-up to Mitre’s Critics Week prizewinner, “Paulina.”
With big-name actors and top-level access, Mitre’s third feature is an impressively scaled-up production. “The Summit” opens in the halls of the Casa Rosada, the sprawling presidential palace in the heart of Buenos Aires, and Mitre shot in the actual palace. As the steadicam rigs sweep from the back entrance to the kitchen to the gilded corridors of power, it introduces us to the characters who make the country run. First among equals is...
With big-name actors and top-level access, Mitre’s third feature is an impressively scaled-up production. “The Summit” opens in the halls of the Casa Rosada, the sprawling presidential palace in the heart of Buenos Aires, and Mitre shot in the actual palace. As the steadicam rigs sweep from the back entrance to the kitchen to the gilded corridors of power, it introduces us to the characters who make the country run. First among equals is...
- 5/24/2017
- by Ben Croll
- Indiewire
More news keeps flowing from the Star Wars Celebration going on right now. With Star Wars: The Last Jedi having just released its trailer, people have already sprung what feel like a million think-pieces and fan theories about what Luke means by his last line "I only know one truth...the Jedi...must end." Chilling, right? But what did he mean by that? Is it just his Robert McKee-mandated... Read More...
- 4/17/2017
- by Damion Damaske
- JoBlo.com
Ryan Lambie Mar 28, 2017
Creepy sets, gore, a sweary Emile Hirsch and lots of gallows humour. We visited the set of indie horror, The Autopsy Of Jane Doe...
Nb: The following contains some saucy language and discussions that some may consider Not Safe For Work.
Half an hour out east on the Hammersmith & City Line, across a busy dual carriage way, just down from a branch of Tesco’s and tucked away in an old warehouse, about 200 people are making a horror film.
The warehouse interior is now, thanks to the ingenuity of production designer Matt Gant and a few dozen set builders, a basement mortuary in Virginia. There are long corridors. Low lighting that picks out the Victorian wallpaper but leaves corners shrouded in deep shadow. A junk-strewn room houses a man-sized furnace, something the production designer jokingly refers to as “the pizza oven”, but is actually a place where...
Creepy sets, gore, a sweary Emile Hirsch and lots of gallows humour. We visited the set of indie horror, The Autopsy Of Jane Doe...
Nb: The following contains some saucy language and discussions that some may consider Not Safe For Work.
Half an hour out east on the Hammersmith & City Line, across a busy dual carriage way, just down from a branch of Tesco’s and tucked away in an old warehouse, about 200 people are making a horror film.
The warehouse interior is now, thanks to the ingenuity of production designer Matt Gant and a few dozen set builders, a basement mortuary in Virginia. There are long corridors. Low lighting that picks out the Victorian wallpaper but leaves corners shrouded in deep shadow. A junk-strewn room houses a man-sized furnace, something the production designer jokingly refers to as “the pizza oven”, but is actually a place where...
- 3/27/2017
- Den of Geek
Veteran screenwriting guru Robert McKee will be the Hall of Fame honoree at this month’s Final Draft Awards, organizers announced on Thursday. In addition, “Insecure” star and creator Issa Rae will receive the first-ever New Voice Award. This year’s ceremony, to be hosted for the third year in a row by comedy writers Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant, will be held on Feb. 23 at the Paramount Theatre on the Paramount Pictures Studios lot in Los Angeles. Also Read: Oscars: Amy Adams, Dwayne Johnson Join New Crop of Presenters “Robert McKee is one of the most sought-after screenwriting lecturers in the world.
- 2/16/2017
- by Thom Geier
- The Wrap
The first night of the 43rd Telluride Film Festival concluded with the world premiere of Wakefield, a low-budget adaptation of E.L. Doctorow's 2008 short story of the same title that was written and directed for the screen by Robin Swicord. Despite a 10 p.m. start at the Werner Herzog Cinema, the film, which does not yet have a distributor, was warmly received, thanks mostly to a tour de force performance by Oscar nominee and four-time Emmy winner Bryan Cranston. While some festivalgoers knocked it for its very literary feel (there's a lot of voiceover narration, Robert McKee
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- 9/3/2016
- by Scott Feinberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Ten commandments. 10 episodes. 10 hours. When it first aired on Polish television in 1989, decades before long-form filmmaking would come to be regarded as the last bastion of auteurism, Krzysztof Kieślowski’s “Dekalog” was one of the most immense undertakings the cinema had ever seen. There had been longer works, and more lavishly financed ones — even when accounting for inflation, “Dekalog” would qualify as a micro-budget project — but the existential girth of Kieślowski’s magnum opus immediately made it feel like a monolith among molehills.
Even in the age of Netflix and “The Knick,” when directors are often responsible for delivering 600 minutes of footage at a time, Kieślowski’s epic still towers above the rest, and still seems somehow fuller than any of the similarly ambitious projects that have sprung up in its wake. It may not be the tallest building on the block, but — crammed with sex, death, love, murder, regret,...
Even in the age of Netflix and “The Knick,” when directors are often responsible for delivering 600 minutes of footage at a time, Kieślowski’s epic still towers above the rest, and still seems somehow fuller than any of the similarly ambitious projects that have sprung up in its wake. It may not be the tallest building on the block, but — crammed with sex, death, love, murder, regret,...
- 8/31/2016
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Following this summer’s Donald Trump-skewering viral short, The Simpsons is once again targeting the Republican presidential candidate in its upcoming 28th season — with a little help from a few familiar names.
VideosThe Simpsons Endorses Hillary Clinton, Rips on Donald Trump
Financial guru Suze Orman, renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and famed screenwriter Robert McKee will serve as a “super team of educators” at a new school founded by C. Montgomery Burns, executive producer Al Jean tells TVLine.
“We have a great episode where Burns goes to Yale and discovers, much to his horror, how politically correct it is,...
VideosThe Simpsons Endorses Hillary Clinton, Rips on Donald Trump
Financial guru Suze Orman, renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and famed screenwriter Robert McKee will serve as a “super team of educators” at a new school founded by C. Montgomery Burns, executive producer Al Jean tells TVLine.
“We have a great episode where Burns goes to Yale and discovers, much to his horror, how politically correct it is,...
- 8/25/2016
- TVLine.com
Aaron Sorkin’s screenwriting MasterClass is now available, and Indiewire has the exclusive clip to prove it. In it, the Oscar winner discusses the importance of rules, which he says are “what make art not finger-painting.” Watch the full video below.
Read More: Watch: Werner Herzog Rips Three Act Structure Screenwriting, Calls It ‘Brainless’
Sorkin’s course will include more than 25 video lessons as well as a 30-page workbook and interactive assignments. (One can only assume that this includes an entire lecture devoted to the walk-and-talk, but we haven’t been able to confirm as of press time.) “There’s a great tradition of writers from one generation giving a hand to the next group coming up — a tradition I got a lot of benefit from,” Sorkin said in a statement when his class was first announced. “I think new screenwriters will come away from the MasterClass with a new sense of confidence.
Read More: Watch: Werner Herzog Rips Three Act Structure Screenwriting, Calls It ‘Brainless’
Sorkin’s course will include more than 25 video lessons as well as a 30-page workbook and interactive assignments. (One can only assume that this includes an entire lecture devoted to the walk-and-talk, but we haven’t been able to confirm as of press time.) “There’s a great tradition of writers from one generation giving a hand to the next group coming up — a tradition I got a lot of benefit from,” Sorkin said in a statement when his class was first announced. “I think new screenwriters will come away from the MasterClass with a new sense of confidence.
- 7/26/2016
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
Over 500 screenwriters applied to WeScreenplay’s inaugural Diverse Voices Screenwriting Competition. The competition was designed to encourage writers who are under-represented in Hollywood, according to the WGA diversity report.
“The contest is focused on diversity in entertainment both behind and in front of the camera,” said Co-Founder and Director of WeScreenplay Mark Stasenko in a recent interview with IndieWire. The contest was not limited to women and minority screenwriters, nor by age, as the Diverse Voices competition is also looking for stories that bring diversity in front of the camera as well. A majority of the 50 judges were readers for production companies with on average three years of professional experience.
Read More:‘How I Sold My Web Series to Netflix’: The Director of ‘EastSiders’ Explains His Secret
“While The Nicholl Fellowship usually has fewer than 30% of their submissions from women writers, Diverse Voices received 60% of our submissions from female writers,...
“The contest is focused on diversity in entertainment both behind and in front of the camera,” said Co-Founder and Director of WeScreenplay Mark Stasenko in a recent interview with IndieWire. The contest was not limited to women and minority screenwriters, nor by age, as the Diverse Voices competition is also looking for stories that bring diversity in front of the camera as well. A majority of the 50 judges were readers for production companies with on average three years of professional experience.
Read More:‘How I Sold My Web Series to Netflix’: The Director of ‘EastSiders’ Explains His Secret
“While The Nicholl Fellowship usually has fewer than 30% of their submissions from women writers, Diverse Voices received 60% of our submissions from female writers,...
- 7/15/2016
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
The Screenwriting Lab at Outfest, Los Angeles’ Lgbt Film Festival, offers a platform to tell important stories. In the program’s 19th year, writers Michael Colucci, Kellee Terrell, Chanelle Tyson, Jen Richards and Michael Walek not only got to work with professionals to hone their skills and develop their stories in a three-day, mentor led workshop, but also got to see their visions come to life during the Screenwriting Lab’s Live Stage Reading at Outfest on Tuesday night.
Read More: Outfest 2016 Opens With A Heavy Heart And A Message of Hope
With actors including Elaine Hendrix, Zackary Drucker, Mather Zickel, Jason Stuart, Kym Whitley and Alexandra Grey, the reading presented select segments from each writer’s scripts. From gay ancient Greeks to a young girl exploring her sexuality to transgender women navigating Chicago, it was a powerful and emotional journey through the important and varied stories of the lab’s fellows.
Read More: Outfest 2016 Opens With A Heavy Heart And A Message of Hope
With actors including Elaine Hendrix, Zackary Drucker, Mather Zickel, Jason Stuart, Kym Whitley and Alexandra Grey, the reading presented select segments from each writer’s scripts. From gay ancient Greeks to a young girl exploring her sexuality to transgender women navigating Chicago, it was a powerful and emotional journey through the important and varied stories of the lab’s fellows.
- 7/13/2016
- by Kyle Kizu
- Indiewire
Read an Excerpt From Robert McKee’s ‘Dialogue: The Art of Verbal Action for Page, Stage, and Screen’
Robert McKee literally wrote the book on screenwriting — or one of them, at least — and though many scribes find his how-to guide more stifling than inspiring, there’s little denying his influence. (Charlie Kaufman even parodied him in “Adaptation.”) McKee’s new book “Dialogue: The Art of Verbal Action for Page, Stage, and Screen” is out today, and Indiewire has been provided with an excerpt from his follow-up to “Story.” Read it below.
Read More: Meet Robert McKee, Film Critic
“We talk.
Talk, more than any other trait, expresses our humanity. We whisper to lovers, curse enemies, argue with plumbers, praise the dog, swear on our mother’s grave. Human relationships are in essence long, long talks into, around, through, and out of the entanglements that stress or bless our days. Face‐to‐face talk between family and friends may go on for decades, while self‐to‐self talk never...
Read More: Meet Robert McKee, Film Critic
“We talk.
Talk, more than any other trait, expresses our humanity. We whisper to lovers, curse enemies, argue with plumbers, praise the dog, swear on our mother’s grave. Human relationships are in essence long, long talks into, around, through, and out of the entanglements that stress or bless our days. Face‐to‐face talk between family and friends may go on for decades, while self‐to‐self talk never...
- 7/12/2016
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
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Sometimes funny, often poignant, narration can be hugely effective when deployed successfully. Ryan picks a few great examples...
“God help you if you use voice-over in your work my friends! God help you. That’s flaccid, sloppy writing. Any idiot can use narration to explain the thoughts of a character.”
So says screenwriting coach Robert McKee in Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman’s 2002 film, Adaptation. Well, not the real screenwriting coach Robert Mckee, but the one played in superbly aggressive style by actor Brian Cox, who stomps about on stage at a writing seminar like an angry bull. Brilliantly, McKee’s condemnation of voice-overs interrupts the interior thoughts, as narrated by Nicolas Cage’s fictionalised version of Charlie Kaufman - a terminally anxious screenwriter with an Everest-sized case of writer’s block.
It’s an example of the quirky, hall-of-mirrors kind of humour that courses through Adaptation,...
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Sometimes funny, often poignant, narration can be hugely effective when deployed successfully. Ryan picks a few great examples...
“God help you if you use voice-over in your work my friends! God help you. That’s flaccid, sloppy writing. Any idiot can use narration to explain the thoughts of a character.”
So says screenwriting coach Robert McKee in Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman’s 2002 film, Adaptation. Well, not the real screenwriting coach Robert Mckee, but the one played in superbly aggressive style by actor Brian Cox, who stomps about on stage at a writing seminar like an angry bull. Brilliantly, McKee’s condemnation of voice-overs interrupts the interior thoughts, as narrated by Nicolas Cage’s fictionalised version of Charlie Kaufman - a terminally anxious screenwriter with an Everest-sized case of writer’s block.
It’s an example of the quirky, hall-of-mirrors kind of humour that courses through Adaptation,...
- 6/7/2016
- Den of Geek
"The art of story makes us civilized, makes life worth living," Robert McKee, the best-selling author (Story: Style, Structure, Substance and the Principles of Screenwriting) and legendary lecturer ("Story: A McKee Seminar") on the topic of screenwriting, says as we sit down to record an episode of the 'Awards Chatter' podcast on the eve of one of his biannual screenwriting seminars in Los Angeles. Virtually everyone in show business knows who the 75-year-old is (if not from his work then from his portrayal in the 2002 film Adaptation), and many have paid good money to find
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- 4/9/2016
- by Scott Feinberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman's Adaptation saw Nicolas Cage on top form. We celebrate a brilliant modern film.
Charlie Kaufman's career-defining moment came in 1999 with Being John Malkovich, the daringly surreal comedy which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay (director Spike Jonze and supporting actress Catherine Keener were also nominated). In many ways, Kaufman's follow-up, 2002's Adaptation, is equally audacious.
The circular, subtle brilliance of Adaptation can all be found in one brief yet oft-celebrated moment. Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) has swallowed his pride and decided to attend a script writing seminar hosted by the irascible Robert McKee (Brian Cox). As Kaufman sits in the audience, sweating, panicking about the script he can’t finish, we hear his rambling narration:
"What the fuck am I doing here? It's my weakness, my ultimate lack of conviction that brings me here. Easy answers. Shortcuts to success.
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Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman's Adaptation saw Nicolas Cage on top form. We celebrate a brilliant modern film.
Charlie Kaufman's career-defining moment came in 1999 with Being John Malkovich, the daringly surreal comedy which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay (director Spike Jonze and supporting actress Catherine Keener were also nominated). In many ways, Kaufman's follow-up, 2002's Adaptation, is equally audacious.
The circular, subtle brilliance of Adaptation can all be found in one brief yet oft-celebrated moment. Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) has swallowed his pride and decided to attend a script writing seminar hosted by the irascible Robert McKee (Brian Cox). As Kaufman sits in the audience, sweating, panicking about the script he can’t finish, we hear his rambling narration:
"What the fuck am I doing here? It's my weakness, my ultimate lack of conviction that brings me here. Easy answers. Shortcuts to success.
- 10/13/2015
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
ScreenCraft has secured three Oscar-winning screenwriters as mentors for its third annual screenwriting fellowship, the platform announced Thursday. Geoffrey Fletcher (“Precious”), Diana Ossana (“Brokeback Mountain”) and Robert Moresco (“Crash”) are three of the mentors for this years fellowship winners. Other mentors include producer Lawrence Grey, literary manager Ari Lubet and writing instructor Robert McKee. These Hollywood veterans will meet with the recipients of the $1,000 writing grant for one-on-one screenplay development and mentorship. Winners will also receive an all-expenses paid trip to Los Angeles for the meetings. Also Read: ScreenCraft, Celtx Launch New Screenwriting Fellowship The annual fellowship is designed to advance the careers.
- 10/1/2015
- by Beatrice Verhoeven
- The Wrap
Read More: Attention, Screenwriters: Apply to this Screenplay Competition ScreenCraft's Third Annual Fellowship has made a call for applications. The fellowship promises to aid developing screenwriters by granting them $1000 and flying them to Los Angeles to connect with mentors in the business. This year's Oscar-winning mentors include "Precious" writer Geoffrey Fletcher, "Brokeback Mountain" writer Diana Ossana and "Crash" writer Robert Moresco. The others mentors are producer Lawrence Grey, literary manager Ari Lubet and creative writing instructor Robert McKee. Applications for the ScreenCraft Fellowship are due January 15, 2016. The application page can be found here. Read More: Submitting to Sundance? 5 Things That Will Help (and 5 Things That Won't)...
- 10/1/2015
- by Karen Brill
- Indiewire
From Buffy to his latest film, Ridley Scott’s The Martian, we chat to screenwriter Drew Goddard about his work to date...
This piece contains a spoiler for World War Z.
If you’re a fan of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel, Marvel’s Daredevil or the superb comedy horror, Cabin In The Woods, you’ll almost certainly have heard of Drew Goddard. Beginning as a staff writer on Buffy and Angel before gradually building his way to directing Cabin In The Woods (which he co-wrote with Joss Whedon), Goddard is now one of Hollywood’s most sought-after writers and filmmakers.
His latest project to reach the screen is The Martian, adapted from Andy Weir’s best-selling novel and now director Ridley Scott’s new movie. A visually captivating account of an astronaut’s survival after an incident leaves him stranded alone on Mars, it features a superb central performance from Matt Damon,...
This piece contains a spoiler for World War Z.
If you’re a fan of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel, Marvel’s Daredevil or the superb comedy horror, Cabin In The Woods, you’ll almost certainly have heard of Drew Goddard. Beginning as a staff writer on Buffy and Angel before gradually building his way to directing Cabin In The Woods (which he co-wrote with Joss Whedon), Goddard is now one of Hollywood’s most sought-after writers and filmmakers.
His latest project to reach the screen is The Martian, adapted from Andy Weir’s best-selling novel and now director Ridley Scott’s new movie. A visually captivating account of an astronaut’s survival after an incident leaves him stranded alone on Mars, it features a superb central performance from Matt Damon,...
- 9/28/2015
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
It's purely a coincidence, according to the publicist, that British director Ben Wheatley wanted to meet up at the massive, towering Trump Hotel while in town for the Toronto Film Festival; given the subject of the new movie he's just unveiled here, however, that claim is highly suspect. The 43-year-old filmmaker had just premiered his adaptation of J.G. Ballard's 1975 cult novel High-Rise at the fest a few nights prior, and those lucky enough to get tickets were treated to a vicious, surreal satire about residents at a multi-story luxury...
- 9/20/2015
- Rollingstone.com
My experience last November at Los Cabos International Film Festival was fabulous! Set up to promote film coproduction and financing among Mexico, U.S., and Canada, the festival allowed all of us to be very close and connected to our peers in the business – international sales agents, writers of all kinds, programmers and filmmakers. There we met the bright new talent, so idealistic and yet so knowledgeable and educated about film in the world. To be able to see films, concentrate on creating business and still have time to mingle -- this is what makes a festival a happy experience.
Among the many people I met there, was Ben Odell, partner at 3Pas Studios, the newly launched production company that he and Mexico’s most beloved and renowned comic star and director, Eugenio Derbez, founded on the strength and success of the $100 million dollar grossing comedy, "Instructions Not Included".
The success of this film also allowed the film’s producer Monica Lozano to establish Alebrije Distribución a new distribution company which will acquire distribution rights for the Latin and North American markets.
Monica has had her hand in 23 productions since her first film, "Amores Perros". Her most recent success was "Instructions Not Included", the Us$ 5.5 million film that became the highest grossing Spanish language film of all time in the U.S., and the second highest grossing film in any language in Mexico.
But to return to Ben and his new company, the subject of this blog: 3Pas in Spanish means three steps, but is also a play on words, something Mexicans like a lot. Tres Pas sounds like tripas, which in English means guts, or tripe. Personally, I too love tripas. Deliciosas!
I Finally met Ben at Los Cabos Film Festival. I say I "finally" met him, because we have so many friends in common and ever since I have been following Latino films and writing my book on Latin America and the film business, I had often heard of Ben as the head of production for Pantelion, U.S.'s only sustained and successful Latino film distributor.
Last September, when Strategic Partners’ Laura Mackenzie in Halifax invited me to moderate a panel on “The Games Maker”, an Argentinean-Canadian-Italian coproduction, Ben’s name was prominent as the one who made the match between Argentina’s Juan Pablo Buscarini and Canada’s Tina Pehme and Kim Roberts.
I always had him pictured as my other friend whose last name is Odell, a slight and wiry, dark haired type. How surprised I was to see this big, handsome blond who exuded warmth and a good-willed wit and storytelling skill. Love at first sight! And I am sure I am not the only one who is smitten with him.
I wish I could convey his spirit, humor and strength as he recounted his life and career(s) to me in the hour we spent together in his new spacious, airy and bright Santa Monica office where Ben Shalom-Martinez was the third person in the new company, manning a phone system not yet working.
I told Ben I had read his mini bio in IMDb, and it made me want to know how he had gotten into the Latino side of the business. I expected him to reveal that, in fact, and in spite of his name, he was Latino.
One year out of college, Ben said, "I worked in editing with the Maysles Brothers. I was a P.A. on the first film John Turturro directed called “Mac”, and I was a reader for Art Linson. And that was my degree in Liberal Arts in Film. I wanted to be a screenwriter but I didn’t feel I had enough life experience. A family friend offered me a job in commercial production in Colombia. It was 1992 and my dad said: “if you love all things Latino, go learn Spanish and become an expert in the Latino market. It’s going to need people that understand it. No one was really talking about its importance then but that piece of advice changed my life. I moved to Colombia to learn Spanish and start what would be a life long journey in all things Latino, from U.S. Latino to Latin America. It’s not a single market but there is a connectivity between all of it.”
Ben grew up in Pennsylvania and when he was six years old, neighbors, who had old friends from Colombia, did an exchange of one of their children with a Colombian child. “My father ended up basically adopting that child for the year he lived with our neighbors and from that grew a friendship with this Colombian family.”
When he was 12 years old the whole Colombian family moved to Philadelphia. “I wanted them to adopt me. They were crazy, emotional, passionate, loving. It was a warmth and lust for life I hadn’t really experienced in suburban white America. And then I realized there was a whole country full of them.” At 15 he went with a friend to Colombia and loved it.
His father eventually married someone from that family. So Ben's connection to Colombia, if not to all of Latin America was very organic. Colombia is not part of the "U.S. Latino market" per se, but Colombia and the rest of Latin America share certain characteristics and commonalities — views on life and death, family, spirituality -- that end up working their way into storytelling that are shared throughout the U.S. Latino market and Latin America along with a larger emotional scale in the tone of their storytelling.
Odell lived in Colombia from 1992 to 2000. He also worked as a freelance journalist before becoming a Spanish language television writer and screenwriter there.
When he was in Colombia working in commercials, he met Tom Quinn, a journalist Iiving there for 25 years, working for Time Magazine and running an English language rag called The Colombian Post. In his youth ,Tom had run with the likes of Hunter S. Thompson. He had lots of adventures and lots of stories of those days.
Ben asked Tom what was the most compelling story they could make into a movie that wasn’t about narcotrafficking, and Tom said one word: “Emeralds.” Colombia supplies 60% of the world's emeralds. The mines in the Emerald Zone have strong drug laundering connections as well, as one might guess. The land is leased by the government to the three or four mining companies and they control everything with no supervision by the government.
The society is totally feudal. Workers labor for the companies for 28 days of the month and on the last two days they are allowed to keep whatever they find. Victor Carranza ran everything. He was The Don, violent and scary. A small man, about 5'2". He died in prison worth over a billion dollars.
Ben thought this was a great story to develop into a movie, and so he went back to New York to the contacts he had made including an exec at Tribeca Films. “They all said the same thing, great story but you are not a writer. Go write the script and then we’ll talk.” Ben returned to Colombia to do research.
In the meanwhile he began writing for Colombian TV. He had never written a feature film script, nor did he speak Spanish. He had, however, taken a course in feature film screenwriting with Robert McKee. And he had a girlfriend who was bilingual. He knew about Colombian TV and he saw the potential for legitimizing the story first as a TV show and then making it into a feature later.
Tom Quinn was very well known in Colombia as he was the Time News correspondent there at a moment when the magazine had a lot of power; the drug wars were one of its most consistent cover stories. They pitched it to Rti TV, and structured it like "The Fugitive".
There is a drug, called Burandanga, scientifically known as Scopolamine. It comes from a plant that grows wild in Colombia. The drugged one loses control of his or her will. He once heard a story about a man in a bar who wakes up in jail accused of a murder he can’t remember. This became the basis of the story. The lead goes into the Emerald Zone and drugged by burundanga, he kills one on the wrong side in a war going on there. He wakes up with no recollection and a full on civil war going on around him. He can't get out of the Emerald Zone until he finds the man who drugged him. The title of this series that Tom and he pitched and in 1998 created was "Fuego verde", like the 1954 Hollywood movie, “ Green Fire” starring Grace Kelly and Stewart Grainger.
As a television writer, he eventually created and wrote over 300 hours of Spanish-language narrative television including “Fuego Verde” -- the first-ever action series. It was one of the highest rated series on Colombian television. He also co-wrote the Colombian political satire feature film, “ Golpe de estadio”, which was nominated for Spain's Academy Award, the Goya in 1999, and was Colombia's nomination to the Oscar in 2000. It is still one of the highest grossing Colombian films of all time.
In the film, "Golpe de estadio", (Golpe de Estado means “Coup d'état”but it also could mean “Coup d’ Stadium”), an oil company has set up a camp for geological research in a small village in Colombia that has been named New Texas. It becomes the target of the guerrillas who are constantly clashing with police in the area. The confrontation is put on hold however during the TV transmission of the world Cup qualifiers. The two sides declare a sort of truce so that they can all watch the match between Colombia and Argentina on the only working TV in the town. Colombia wins the game, 5 to 0, (a victory, in real life, infamous in the annals of world cup) and of course the Colombian police and guerrilla find themselves cheering for the same team.
"Golpe" was released in theaters in 1999 while the drug wars and war between the guerrillas and the government were moving into peace talks. It came out during the war, and Ben naively believed it could make tangible impact on the country. Instead they received death threats. It was a very volatile time.
He left Colombia and put together a business plan to make movies for Latino audiences. He was too green and he was way ahead of his time so instead he went to film school at Columbia University.
He went to film school thinking it was only to network and realized he knew nothing about film writing or production. "Going to film school's more valuable if a student already has some experience," Ben says.
"Confess", a feature length film he produced in his second year of film school (2005) was one of his thesis projects. It was made for a couple of hundred thousand dollars. Ali Larter and Melissa Leo starred in it (way before she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Role in “The Fighter”). The movie was about a disgruntled computer hacker of mixed race, who struggles to adjust to life after a jaunt in prison. He takes his anger online forcing confessions out of those who slighted him. Eventually his focus becomes political. “It had all the trappings of a first time filmmaker. But conceptually it was scratching the surface of trends that wouldn’t appear online until years later. This was several years before YouTube took hold, which is a lifetime in human years.”
"For my second film, we had Scorsese as an executive producer. When we started preproduction we quickly discovered that one of our two investors really didn’t have the money. He signed a contract to invest while he was still trying to raise the funds“
At this point in our discussion Ben and I went off on a tangent...Money that falls out at the last minute is such a common story. Do these guys think the money will come just because they have "bet" on it, using the film as collateral?... Do they just want to go for the ride, as far as they can go?... are they sociopaths, liars, gamblers, on drugs or what? I remember when I worked at Ifa (until it became ICM); at the Motion Picture Division's meetings that Mike Medavoy held every week, agents would sometimes report on someone wanting to invest in film, and once Mike said "No. Not him. He has a very bad reputation, and his money is not good. We don't want that kind of money." But young producers know very little about vetting financial prospects.
This digression is only to illustrate the fact that that in this person-to-person business it is important to know who you are dealing with.
But Odell’s luck was going to change. Just a few weeks after the implosion of the film, he got an email from Jim McNamara. NBC had bought McNamara's Telemundo for Us$ 3 billion . McNamara had been CEO of New World, a position once held by Harry Sloan and Jon Feltheimer. Feltheimer went off to Sony TV which had a majority stake in Telemundo. McNamara, who had just been president of Universal TV worldwide, was brought in to run Telemundo
After leaving Telemundo, he went back to Feltheimer, in the early days of building Lionsgate, to discuss his new idea. At the time -- this was 2006 -- there were two Spanish language networks, 600 Spanish language radio stations, 2,000 Spanish language newspapers, and no one was making movies in Spanish. Felt liked it and they made a deal. Panamax was born.
McNamara knew of Odell when he was buying TV series for Telemundo. He bought a lot of the TV shows Odell had written.
Panamax’ made a six picture deal with Lionsgate. Odell became President of Production at Panamax Films and produced many feature films and TV movies both in Spanish and in English for the Hispanic market.
On one of their first scouting trips, Odell and McNamara went to see a play called “Latinologues” written by Rick Najera. In it, there was a Mexican actor named Eugenio Derbez. Derbez was known only for Spanish language TV at the time. He wrote, directed, produced and starred in his own shows for Televisa. These shows also played on Univision in the U.S. and were building a huge fan base in both countries as well as much of the Spanish-speaking world.
Latinologues was made up of multiple monologues from different actors playing roles as Latino archetypes. Derbez did three or four different characters. “When he came on stage,” recalls Odell, “He was electrifying, hilarious, magnetic. And then I met him afterwards. He was the humblest man, quiet, and a bit shy. I realized what an amazing talent he was, he had that ‘it factor’ – when he turned it on, it turned on the room.”
At the time Odell and McNamara were packaging a project called "Under the Same Moon" and suggested Derbez for a role. They flew the director, Patricia Riggen, to N.Y. to meet him. While Lionsgate ended up not financing the project, Derbez stayed in the picture. “Looking back, I think a significant part of why that movie did $20 million in box office between U.S. and Mexico, was Eugenio. He was already a mega star. No one really knew it in the general market because they weren’t paying attention to the success of his shows. Hollywood tends to ignore the Spanish speaking market, but the U.S. is the second biggest Spanish speaking country in the world and Eugenio has built a huge following there.”
Ben also made the art house Spanish language thriller, "Padre Nuestro" in 2007 which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. IFC changed the title to “Sangre de mi Sangre” for its U.S. release. It also played at New Directors/ New Films at Museum of Modern Art in New York in the Spring of 2007, received two Independent Spirit Awards nominations, for Best First Feature (for which Odell was nominated) and Best Screenplay. Odell also produced “Un Cuento Chino” aka “Chinese Take-Out” (a Spanish/ Argentinean co-production), starring Argentina’s most popular actor, Ricardo Darin (“El Secreto de los Ojos”), written and directed by Sebastián Borensztein. In Spanish, referring to a story as a cuento chino is equivalent to calling it a tall tale.
“Chino” was the top grossing Argentinean film of 2011 and one of the highest grossing Argentinean films of all times. In its international release it has broken box office records for Latin American films in both Latin America and Europe. It won the Argentinean Academy Award for best feature and the Goya, the Spanish Academy Award, for Best Latin American Film. It won numerous festivals including the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the Rome Film Festival.
When Odell was developing the script with Borensztein in 2009, he sent the script to Derbez, who immediately expressed interested in remaking it. “I loved the original story and movie,” Derbez said. “There is a heartfelt relationship that develops between these two very different people set around a whimsical, comical and magical world.”
Odell was also an executive producer on the English language 3D family thriller, “ The Games Maker”, starring Joseph Fiennes and Ed Asner. Made as a coproduction with Disney Latin America, the movie was produced in Argentina by Pampa Films and directed by Juan Pablo Buscarini, one of the producers of “Un Cuento Chino”. It was released widely across Latin America in the summer of 2014 and continues its theatrical release around the world.
Several years into Panamax’s deal with Lionsgate, a joint venture was created between Panamax, Televisa and Lionsgate called Pantelion Films. McNamara became chairman of Pantelion and Ben became President of Production.
Under the new deal he produced the 2012 coming of age comedy “Girl in Progress”, directed by “Under the Same Moon” director Patricia Riggen and staring Eva Mendes, Eugenio Derbez, Mathew Modine and Patricia Arquette
His most recent film was the inspirational true story, “Spare Parts”, starring George Lopez, Jamie Lee Curtis and Marisa Tomei which was released in January 2015.
While Eugenio was making his breakout film "Instructions not Included” neither he nor Ben had any idea it would be so big. “Instructions Not Included,” was released in 2013 by Pantelion and grossed $44.5 million, making it the highest-grossing Spanish-language film ever released in the U.S. It grossed another $55 million overseas making it the number one Spanish language movie in the world.
The two realized, this was The One Time In A Career To Capitalize, and they decided to go together, to focus on brand-building, based on Eugenio's popularity and to go beyond his own work, in English and Spanish. Together they formed 3pas Studios which signed a first-look deal with Pantelion in August 2014.
They are in development on many feature films including “Un Cuento Chino”, a remake of the French comedy, “The Valet” and an untitled original script about an aging Latin lover from writers Chris Spain and Jon Zack (“The Perfect Storm”) which Derbez will star in and produce with Ben.
“We are developing multiple projects with an eye to shooting one at the end of 2015,” Odell said.
Meantime, Eugenio Derbez just filmed roles in Warner Brothers’ “Geostorm” with Gerard Butler and Sony Pictures “ Miracles from Heaven” with Jennifer Garner, and Queen Latifah. The latter was directed by Patricia Riggen who directed Derbez in both “Under the Same Moon” and “Girl in Progress”.
Ben is sure that his producing partner will go way beyond his current core Latino market “He is so lovable to watch. He has a magic about him that is undeniable and transcends language and culture.”...
Among the many people I met there, was Ben Odell, partner at 3Pas Studios, the newly launched production company that he and Mexico’s most beloved and renowned comic star and director, Eugenio Derbez, founded on the strength and success of the $100 million dollar grossing comedy, "Instructions Not Included".
The success of this film also allowed the film’s producer Monica Lozano to establish Alebrije Distribución a new distribution company which will acquire distribution rights for the Latin and North American markets.
Monica has had her hand in 23 productions since her first film, "Amores Perros". Her most recent success was "Instructions Not Included", the Us$ 5.5 million film that became the highest grossing Spanish language film of all time in the U.S., and the second highest grossing film in any language in Mexico.
But to return to Ben and his new company, the subject of this blog: 3Pas in Spanish means three steps, but is also a play on words, something Mexicans like a lot. Tres Pas sounds like tripas, which in English means guts, or tripe. Personally, I too love tripas. Deliciosas!
I Finally met Ben at Los Cabos Film Festival. I say I "finally" met him, because we have so many friends in common and ever since I have been following Latino films and writing my book on Latin America and the film business, I had often heard of Ben as the head of production for Pantelion, U.S.'s only sustained and successful Latino film distributor.
Last September, when Strategic Partners’ Laura Mackenzie in Halifax invited me to moderate a panel on “The Games Maker”, an Argentinean-Canadian-Italian coproduction, Ben’s name was prominent as the one who made the match between Argentina’s Juan Pablo Buscarini and Canada’s Tina Pehme and Kim Roberts.
I always had him pictured as my other friend whose last name is Odell, a slight and wiry, dark haired type. How surprised I was to see this big, handsome blond who exuded warmth and a good-willed wit and storytelling skill. Love at first sight! And I am sure I am not the only one who is smitten with him.
I wish I could convey his spirit, humor and strength as he recounted his life and career(s) to me in the hour we spent together in his new spacious, airy and bright Santa Monica office where Ben Shalom-Martinez was the third person in the new company, manning a phone system not yet working.
I told Ben I had read his mini bio in IMDb, and it made me want to know how he had gotten into the Latino side of the business. I expected him to reveal that, in fact, and in spite of his name, he was Latino.
One year out of college, Ben said, "I worked in editing with the Maysles Brothers. I was a P.A. on the first film John Turturro directed called “Mac”, and I was a reader for Art Linson. And that was my degree in Liberal Arts in Film. I wanted to be a screenwriter but I didn’t feel I had enough life experience. A family friend offered me a job in commercial production in Colombia. It was 1992 and my dad said: “if you love all things Latino, go learn Spanish and become an expert in the Latino market. It’s going to need people that understand it. No one was really talking about its importance then but that piece of advice changed my life. I moved to Colombia to learn Spanish and start what would be a life long journey in all things Latino, from U.S. Latino to Latin America. It’s not a single market but there is a connectivity between all of it.”
Ben grew up in Pennsylvania and when he was six years old, neighbors, who had old friends from Colombia, did an exchange of one of their children with a Colombian child. “My father ended up basically adopting that child for the year he lived with our neighbors and from that grew a friendship with this Colombian family.”
When he was 12 years old the whole Colombian family moved to Philadelphia. “I wanted them to adopt me. They were crazy, emotional, passionate, loving. It was a warmth and lust for life I hadn’t really experienced in suburban white America. And then I realized there was a whole country full of them.” At 15 he went with a friend to Colombia and loved it.
His father eventually married someone from that family. So Ben's connection to Colombia, if not to all of Latin America was very organic. Colombia is not part of the "U.S. Latino market" per se, but Colombia and the rest of Latin America share certain characteristics and commonalities — views on life and death, family, spirituality -- that end up working their way into storytelling that are shared throughout the U.S. Latino market and Latin America along with a larger emotional scale in the tone of their storytelling.
Odell lived in Colombia from 1992 to 2000. He also worked as a freelance journalist before becoming a Spanish language television writer and screenwriter there.
When he was in Colombia working in commercials, he met Tom Quinn, a journalist Iiving there for 25 years, working for Time Magazine and running an English language rag called The Colombian Post. In his youth ,Tom had run with the likes of Hunter S. Thompson. He had lots of adventures and lots of stories of those days.
Ben asked Tom what was the most compelling story they could make into a movie that wasn’t about narcotrafficking, and Tom said one word: “Emeralds.” Colombia supplies 60% of the world's emeralds. The mines in the Emerald Zone have strong drug laundering connections as well, as one might guess. The land is leased by the government to the three or four mining companies and they control everything with no supervision by the government.
The society is totally feudal. Workers labor for the companies for 28 days of the month and on the last two days they are allowed to keep whatever they find. Victor Carranza ran everything. He was The Don, violent and scary. A small man, about 5'2". He died in prison worth over a billion dollars.
Ben thought this was a great story to develop into a movie, and so he went back to New York to the contacts he had made including an exec at Tribeca Films. “They all said the same thing, great story but you are not a writer. Go write the script and then we’ll talk.” Ben returned to Colombia to do research.
In the meanwhile he began writing for Colombian TV. He had never written a feature film script, nor did he speak Spanish. He had, however, taken a course in feature film screenwriting with Robert McKee. And he had a girlfriend who was bilingual. He knew about Colombian TV and he saw the potential for legitimizing the story first as a TV show and then making it into a feature later.
Tom Quinn was very well known in Colombia as he was the Time News correspondent there at a moment when the magazine had a lot of power; the drug wars were one of its most consistent cover stories. They pitched it to Rti TV, and structured it like "The Fugitive".
There is a drug, called Burandanga, scientifically known as Scopolamine. It comes from a plant that grows wild in Colombia. The drugged one loses control of his or her will. He once heard a story about a man in a bar who wakes up in jail accused of a murder he can’t remember. This became the basis of the story. The lead goes into the Emerald Zone and drugged by burundanga, he kills one on the wrong side in a war going on there. He wakes up with no recollection and a full on civil war going on around him. He can't get out of the Emerald Zone until he finds the man who drugged him. The title of this series that Tom and he pitched and in 1998 created was "Fuego verde", like the 1954 Hollywood movie, “ Green Fire” starring Grace Kelly and Stewart Grainger.
As a television writer, he eventually created and wrote over 300 hours of Spanish-language narrative television including “Fuego Verde” -- the first-ever action series. It was one of the highest rated series on Colombian television. He also co-wrote the Colombian political satire feature film, “ Golpe de estadio”, which was nominated for Spain's Academy Award, the Goya in 1999, and was Colombia's nomination to the Oscar in 2000. It is still one of the highest grossing Colombian films of all time.
In the film, "Golpe de estadio", (Golpe de Estado means “Coup d'état”but it also could mean “Coup d’ Stadium”), an oil company has set up a camp for geological research in a small village in Colombia that has been named New Texas. It becomes the target of the guerrillas who are constantly clashing with police in the area. The confrontation is put on hold however during the TV transmission of the world Cup qualifiers. The two sides declare a sort of truce so that they can all watch the match between Colombia and Argentina on the only working TV in the town. Colombia wins the game, 5 to 0, (a victory, in real life, infamous in the annals of world cup) and of course the Colombian police and guerrilla find themselves cheering for the same team.
"Golpe" was released in theaters in 1999 while the drug wars and war between the guerrillas and the government were moving into peace talks. It came out during the war, and Ben naively believed it could make tangible impact on the country. Instead they received death threats. It was a very volatile time.
He left Colombia and put together a business plan to make movies for Latino audiences. He was too green and he was way ahead of his time so instead he went to film school at Columbia University.
He went to film school thinking it was only to network and realized he knew nothing about film writing or production. "Going to film school's more valuable if a student already has some experience," Ben says.
"Confess", a feature length film he produced in his second year of film school (2005) was one of his thesis projects. It was made for a couple of hundred thousand dollars. Ali Larter and Melissa Leo starred in it (way before she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Role in “The Fighter”). The movie was about a disgruntled computer hacker of mixed race, who struggles to adjust to life after a jaunt in prison. He takes his anger online forcing confessions out of those who slighted him. Eventually his focus becomes political. “It had all the trappings of a first time filmmaker. But conceptually it was scratching the surface of trends that wouldn’t appear online until years later. This was several years before YouTube took hold, which is a lifetime in human years.”
"For my second film, we had Scorsese as an executive producer. When we started preproduction we quickly discovered that one of our two investors really didn’t have the money. He signed a contract to invest while he was still trying to raise the funds“
At this point in our discussion Ben and I went off on a tangent...Money that falls out at the last minute is such a common story. Do these guys think the money will come just because they have "bet" on it, using the film as collateral?... Do they just want to go for the ride, as far as they can go?... are they sociopaths, liars, gamblers, on drugs or what? I remember when I worked at Ifa (until it became ICM); at the Motion Picture Division's meetings that Mike Medavoy held every week, agents would sometimes report on someone wanting to invest in film, and once Mike said "No. Not him. He has a very bad reputation, and his money is not good. We don't want that kind of money." But young producers know very little about vetting financial prospects.
This digression is only to illustrate the fact that that in this person-to-person business it is important to know who you are dealing with.
But Odell’s luck was going to change. Just a few weeks after the implosion of the film, he got an email from Jim McNamara. NBC had bought McNamara's Telemundo for Us$ 3 billion . McNamara had been CEO of New World, a position once held by Harry Sloan and Jon Feltheimer. Feltheimer went off to Sony TV which had a majority stake in Telemundo. McNamara, who had just been president of Universal TV worldwide, was brought in to run Telemundo
After leaving Telemundo, he went back to Feltheimer, in the early days of building Lionsgate, to discuss his new idea. At the time -- this was 2006 -- there were two Spanish language networks, 600 Spanish language radio stations, 2,000 Spanish language newspapers, and no one was making movies in Spanish. Felt liked it and they made a deal. Panamax was born.
McNamara knew of Odell when he was buying TV series for Telemundo. He bought a lot of the TV shows Odell had written.
Panamax’ made a six picture deal with Lionsgate. Odell became President of Production at Panamax Films and produced many feature films and TV movies both in Spanish and in English for the Hispanic market.
On one of their first scouting trips, Odell and McNamara went to see a play called “Latinologues” written by Rick Najera. In it, there was a Mexican actor named Eugenio Derbez. Derbez was known only for Spanish language TV at the time. He wrote, directed, produced and starred in his own shows for Televisa. These shows also played on Univision in the U.S. and were building a huge fan base in both countries as well as much of the Spanish-speaking world.
Latinologues was made up of multiple monologues from different actors playing roles as Latino archetypes. Derbez did three or four different characters. “When he came on stage,” recalls Odell, “He was electrifying, hilarious, magnetic. And then I met him afterwards. He was the humblest man, quiet, and a bit shy. I realized what an amazing talent he was, he had that ‘it factor’ – when he turned it on, it turned on the room.”
At the time Odell and McNamara were packaging a project called "Under the Same Moon" and suggested Derbez for a role. They flew the director, Patricia Riggen, to N.Y. to meet him. While Lionsgate ended up not financing the project, Derbez stayed in the picture. “Looking back, I think a significant part of why that movie did $20 million in box office between U.S. and Mexico, was Eugenio. He was already a mega star. No one really knew it in the general market because they weren’t paying attention to the success of his shows. Hollywood tends to ignore the Spanish speaking market, but the U.S. is the second biggest Spanish speaking country in the world and Eugenio has built a huge following there.”
Ben also made the art house Spanish language thriller, "Padre Nuestro" in 2007 which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. IFC changed the title to “Sangre de mi Sangre” for its U.S. release. It also played at New Directors/ New Films at Museum of Modern Art in New York in the Spring of 2007, received two Independent Spirit Awards nominations, for Best First Feature (for which Odell was nominated) and Best Screenplay. Odell also produced “Un Cuento Chino” aka “Chinese Take-Out” (a Spanish/ Argentinean co-production), starring Argentina’s most popular actor, Ricardo Darin (“El Secreto de los Ojos”), written and directed by Sebastián Borensztein. In Spanish, referring to a story as a cuento chino is equivalent to calling it a tall tale.
“Chino” was the top grossing Argentinean film of 2011 and one of the highest grossing Argentinean films of all times. In its international release it has broken box office records for Latin American films in both Latin America and Europe. It won the Argentinean Academy Award for best feature and the Goya, the Spanish Academy Award, for Best Latin American Film. It won numerous festivals including the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the Rome Film Festival.
When Odell was developing the script with Borensztein in 2009, he sent the script to Derbez, who immediately expressed interested in remaking it. “I loved the original story and movie,” Derbez said. “There is a heartfelt relationship that develops between these two very different people set around a whimsical, comical and magical world.”
Odell was also an executive producer on the English language 3D family thriller, “ The Games Maker”, starring Joseph Fiennes and Ed Asner. Made as a coproduction with Disney Latin America, the movie was produced in Argentina by Pampa Films and directed by Juan Pablo Buscarini, one of the producers of “Un Cuento Chino”. It was released widely across Latin America in the summer of 2014 and continues its theatrical release around the world.
Several years into Panamax’s deal with Lionsgate, a joint venture was created between Panamax, Televisa and Lionsgate called Pantelion Films. McNamara became chairman of Pantelion and Ben became President of Production.
Under the new deal he produced the 2012 coming of age comedy “Girl in Progress”, directed by “Under the Same Moon” director Patricia Riggen and staring Eva Mendes, Eugenio Derbez, Mathew Modine and Patricia Arquette
His most recent film was the inspirational true story, “Spare Parts”, starring George Lopez, Jamie Lee Curtis and Marisa Tomei which was released in January 2015.
While Eugenio was making his breakout film "Instructions not Included” neither he nor Ben had any idea it would be so big. “Instructions Not Included,” was released in 2013 by Pantelion and grossed $44.5 million, making it the highest-grossing Spanish-language film ever released in the U.S. It grossed another $55 million overseas making it the number one Spanish language movie in the world.
The two realized, this was The One Time In A Career To Capitalize, and they decided to go together, to focus on brand-building, based on Eugenio's popularity and to go beyond his own work, in English and Spanish. Together they formed 3pas Studios which signed a first-look deal with Pantelion in August 2014.
They are in development on many feature films including “Un Cuento Chino”, a remake of the French comedy, “The Valet” and an untitled original script about an aging Latin lover from writers Chris Spain and Jon Zack (“The Perfect Storm”) which Derbez will star in and produce with Ben.
“We are developing multiple projects with an eye to shooting one at the end of 2015,” Odell said.
Meantime, Eugenio Derbez just filmed roles in Warner Brothers’ “Geostorm” with Gerard Butler and Sony Pictures “ Miracles from Heaven” with Jennifer Garner, and Queen Latifah. The latter was directed by Patricia Riggen who directed Derbez in both “Under the Same Moon” and “Girl in Progress”.
Ben is sure that his producing partner will go way beyond his current core Latino market “He is so lovable to watch. He has a magic about him that is undeniable and transcends language and culture.”...
- 8/5/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Jason Statham movies come with certain, modest expectations. "Wild Card," in which Jason Statham plays a character named Nick Wild, only adds to those expectations. And so, it's a bit baffling that this second attempt (the first is a mostly forgotten 1986 Burt Reynolds vehicle) at bringing William Goldman's novel "Heat" to the big screen — adapted by the legendary screenwriter himself — seems uncertain what to do with the star, or the material. Trying to find a middle ground between an action packed Statham vehicle, a '70s style mood piece, and a '90s era character-actor packed crime tale, "Wild Card" is not surprisingly an unsuccessful marriage of those ill-fitting genres that strains to fill the already meagre, barely ninety minute runtime with anything of substance. "...do not waste the audience's time. Bring the Inciting Incident into the story as soon as possible," screenwriting guru Robert McKee told Storylink in...
- 1/28/2015
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Another Earth director Mike Cahill returns with a new sci-fi drama, I Origins. Here’s what he had to say about that and other things...
Could the unique makeup of the human eye hold the key to life after death? That’s the tantalising mystery at the heart of director Mike Cahill’s latest film, I Origins. Cahill’s no stranger to making sci-fi dramas on a budget; in 2011, he brought us After Earth, an atmospheric, thought-provoking movie with some great performances from his frequent collaborator Brit Marling and former Lost star William Mapother.
I Origins is cut from the same indie cloth. It’s about a young scientist who’s investigating the evolutionary origins of the eye, and following a shocking personal tragedy, finds himself veering off on a different and less mainstream scientific direction.
Shot on a budget slightly higher than Another Earth, but still tiny by Hollywood standards,...
Could the unique makeup of the human eye hold the key to life after death? That’s the tantalising mystery at the heart of director Mike Cahill’s latest film, I Origins. Cahill’s no stranger to making sci-fi dramas on a budget; in 2011, he brought us After Earth, an atmospheric, thought-provoking movie with some great performances from his frequent collaborator Brit Marling and former Lost star William Mapother.
I Origins is cut from the same indie cloth. It’s about a young scientist who’s investigating the evolutionary origins of the eye, and following a shocking personal tragedy, finds himself veering off on a different and less mainstream scientific direction.
Shot on a budget slightly higher than Another Earth, but still tiny by Hollywood standards,...
- 9/24/2014
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
Paramount Pictures
Going to the cinema these days can inspire a special sort of deja vu. We’re not talking about the constant churn of sequels or remakes, or attending a special screening of either Groundhog Day or that one scene of the cat from The Matrix (we’re not sure why any cinema would partake in the latter), by the way; we’re talking about the fact that every film seems to be exactly the same. You can take films as diverse as, say, Guardians Of The Galaxy, The Great Gatsby and Gravity, and still come away feeling like that was something familiar about each of them. They had something in common, besides taking place in space.
Unless you’re a screenwriting geek, then you probably haven’t been able to put your finger on what exactly those similarities are. What exactly do adventures of Peter Quill, Nick Carraway...
Going to the cinema these days can inspire a special sort of deja vu. We’re not talking about the constant churn of sequels or remakes, or attending a special screening of either Groundhog Day or that one scene of the cat from The Matrix (we’re not sure why any cinema would partake in the latter), by the way; we’re talking about the fact that every film seems to be exactly the same. You can take films as diverse as, say, Guardians Of The Galaxy, The Great Gatsby and Gravity, and still come away feeling like that was something familiar about each of them. They had something in common, besides taking place in space.
Unless you’re a screenwriting geek, then you probably haven’t been able to put your finger on what exactly those similarities are. What exactly do adventures of Peter Quill, Nick Carraway...
- 9/16/2014
- by Tom Baker
- Obsessed with Film
As the plight of illegal immigrants remains a hot-button issue in American and international politics, many current films have looked at this struggle in unique, singular ways. Titles like Sin Nombre, A Better Life and Dirty Pretty Things have dramatized a collection of sad, squalid tales that need to be told in today’s inflamed political arena. However, few of them boast much in the way of laugh-out-loud comedy.
Samba, the new film from The Intouchables directors Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, uses the appeal of its lead star, Omar Sy, to generate crowd-pleasing moments in what is likely the cheeriest movie ever made about the immigrant’s plight. Despite its light touch, the levity works.
Sy plays Samba Cissé, a man from Senegal who has worked a lot of low-paying jobs after arriving in France a decade earlier. He sends much of his measly paycheck to his family back home.
Samba, the new film from The Intouchables directors Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, uses the appeal of its lead star, Omar Sy, to generate crowd-pleasing moments in what is likely the cheeriest movie ever made about the immigrant’s plight. Despite its light touch, the levity works.
Sy plays Samba Cissé, a man from Senegal who has worked a lot of low-paying jobs after arriving in France a decade earlier. He sends much of his measly paycheck to his family back home.
- 9/8/2014
- by Jordan Adler
- We Got This Covered
Bioware
Veteran screenwriting guru Robert McKee has a lot of opinions about what makes a good story, but perhaps the most important is making sure you’ve got a strong third act. In his non-fiction tome Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting, essential text for all aspiring screenwriters and adapted from McKee’s own lecture series, he makes the point that you can have a film that’s strong all the way through, but if the ending sucks? That’s going to be people’s lasting impression of the film. The last part was crummy, so their most recent feelings towards the film are negative.
Video games and films have a lot in common, and increasingly the big budget storylines are pretty much identical between Aaa titles and blockbuster movies. Sure you get to control the protagonist from time to time, but the actual structure of the...
Veteran screenwriting guru Robert McKee has a lot of opinions about what makes a good story, but perhaps the most important is making sure you’ve got a strong third act. In his non-fiction tome Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting, essential text for all aspiring screenwriters and adapted from McKee’s own lecture series, he makes the point that you can have a film that’s strong all the way through, but if the ending sucks? That’s going to be people’s lasting impression of the film. The last part was crummy, so their most recent feelings towards the film are negative.
Video games and films have a lot in common, and increasingly the big budget storylines are pretty much identical between Aaa titles and blockbuster movies. Sure you get to control the protagonist from time to time, but the actual structure of the...
- 8/12/2014
- by Tom Baker
- Obsessed with Film
House of Cards will air on UKTV's Drama from Saturday (July 12) - but the star of this four-part serial is not Kevin Spacey's ruthless Us official Frank Underwood, but rather Tory chief whip Francis Urquhart, played with charming malevolence by Ian Richardson.
Adapted by Andrew Davies - writer of Mr Selfridge, Pride and Prejudice and many more - from Michael Dobbs's original novel, the UK iteration of House of Cards was a smash hit on both sides of the Atlantic. Scoring BAFTA and Emmy wins in the early '90s, it went on to inspire the acclaimed Netflix series.
"I feel flattered that Netflix chose to reconstruct it," says Davies. "And I'm delighted that ours has been rediscovered, and that it's going to be shown again on Drama."
Francis vs. Frank
But how does the original House of Cards compare to its modern counterpart? Though in many ways a...
Adapted by Andrew Davies - writer of Mr Selfridge, Pride and Prejudice and many more - from Michael Dobbs's original novel, the UK iteration of House of Cards was a smash hit on both sides of the Atlantic. Scoring BAFTA and Emmy wins in the early '90s, it went on to inspire the acclaimed Netflix series.
"I feel flattered that Netflix chose to reconstruct it," says Davies. "And I'm delighted that ours has been rediscovered, and that it's going to be shown again on Drama."
Francis vs. Frank
But how does the original House of Cards compare to its modern counterpart? Though in many ways a...
- 7/7/2014
- Digital Spy
Sonny Vrebav and Alijin Abella in Hunter n Hornet..
Hunter n Hornet, a new Australian comedy series made primarily for iPhone viewing, follows the plight of two wannabe Lotharios and their struggle to seduce women.
Created by Nida graduates Sonny Vrebac and Aljin Abella, the 21 part series focusses on loveless characters Sade and Cade and their journey throughout Sydney hot spots in pursuit of finding their dream women. Too scared to actually speak to the women they covet, Sade and Cade practice their pick-up techniques on each other instead.
.Initially it started off as a writing exercise,. Vrebac tells If. .I had a feature film idea and I just finished reading Robert McKee.s scriptwriting book [Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting] and it was sort of saying that instead of tackling the whole feature film, you really need to master a scene first.
.And so this idea came about. It was just me and a...
Hunter n Hornet, a new Australian comedy series made primarily for iPhone viewing, follows the plight of two wannabe Lotharios and their struggle to seduce women.
Created by Nida graduates Sonny Vrebac and Aljin Abella, the 21 part series focusses on loveless characters Sade and Cade and their journey throughout Sydney hot spots in pursuit of finding their dream women. Too scared to actually speak to the women they covet, Sade and Cade practice their pick-up techniques on each other instead.
.Initially it started off as a writing exercise,. Vrebac tells If. .I had a feature film idea and I just finished reading Robert McKee.s scriptwriting book [Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting] and it was sort of saying that instead of tackling the whole feature film, you really need to master a scene first.
.And so this idea came about. It was just me and a...
- 6/3/2014
- by Emily Blatchford
- IF.com.au
Screenwriting guru Robert McKee has a principle that when an audience is watching a story unfold, they have to be slightly ahead of what is going on. If the audience is left behind, they will be confused and frustrated. If they are too far ahead, they have too much foresight and will tune out the conflict as it plays out. However, staying just ahead of where the story is allows a viewer to create expectations on how things will play out. Alas, the best scenes are ones that subvert expectations; therefore, if a writer can set up a confrontation or big moment with clarity but keep the viewer on his or her toes by turning the story in a slightly different direction, the scribe should follow that impulse.
So, if Jack Bauer is trying to assume a false identity to get entrance into a high-security clearance site and we see...
So, if Jack Bauer is trying to assume a false identity to get entrance into a high-security clearance site and we see...
- 5/13/2014
- by Jordan Adler
- We Got This Covered
If there is list of filmmakers out there with plenty to teach about the art of cinema, Werner Herzog would have to be towards the top. Lucky for aspiring directors, he is doing just that. Werner Herzog has announced he'll be hosting his fifth weekend-long "Rogue Film School" this August 22-25 in Los Angeles. Past seminars have taken place in La, London, and New Jersey. If you think this is a standard Robert McKee-style seminar, you are dead wrong. Just take a look at this description from the release: Some of the topics covered will be the art of lock picking. Traveling on foot. The exhilaration of being shot at unsuccessfully. The athletic side of filmmaking. The creation of your own shooting permits. The...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 4/11/2014
- Screen Anarchy
Wilt by Tom Sharpe
There are a lot of definitions of comedy floating around out there. My personal favorite is the theory of "bad to worse." There's something about watching someone go from bad to worse, but still bring cheerful, even upbeat about it, that just cracks me up. It certainly works in Curb Your Enthusiasm, the reigning heavyweight champ. You'll also see it on The Simpsons. Family Guy, ditto. The hell with the three-act, Robert McKee, story-structure hoo-haa. Instead of getting someone up a tree, throwing sticks at him, and getting him back down again, in comedy, for me, it's just about throwing sticks at him. Then trees. Then the whole frickin' Great North Woods. You get the idea.
Wilt, a book by a Brit named Tom Sharpe, a book written way back in the mid-'80s when women's lib and sexual lib and educational lib were all the rage,...
There are a lot of definitions of comedy floating around out there. My personal favorite is the theory of "bad to worse." There's something about watching someone go from bad to worse, but still bring cheerful, even upbeat about it, that just cracks me up. It certainly works in Curb Your Enthusiasm, the reigning heavyweight champ. You'll also see it on The Simpsons. Family Guy, ditto. The hell with the three-act, Robert McKee, story-structure hoo-haa. Instead of getting someone up a tree, throwing sticks at him, and getting him back down again, in comedy, for me, it's just about throwing sticks at him. Then trees. Then the whole frickin' Great North Woods. You get the idea.
Wilt, a book by a Brit named Tom Sharpe, a book written way back in the mid-'80s when women's lib and sexual lib and educational lib were all the rage,...
- 4/1/2014
- by Ken Krimstein
- www.culturecatch.com
The screenwriter of Basic Instinct and Flashdance talks about his feud with Gibson and other fights in his Hollywood career
At 68 years old, a survivor of throat cancer, and with only one produced screenplay to his name since 1997, Joe Eszterhas has done the unthinkable: he's become a scriptwriting teacher. Well, not exactly – he's on his way to London to deliver a headlining lecture at the London screenwriters' festival – but anyone who has even the smallest familiarity with his books will know the contempt in which he holds teach-yourself-screenplay-writing gurus such as Robert McKee.
"Wannabe screenwriters sorely lack getting the truth from these so-called scriptwriting teachers," says Eszterhas, his post-cancer voice gravellier than ever. "McKee is the perfect example: he's had one TV movie made, and yet he pontificates on how to write scripts." He also has beef (one that's been going for decades, it seems) with other big-name scriptwriters, accusing...
At 68 years old, a survivor of throat cancer, and with only one produced screenplay to his name since 1997, Joe Eszterhas has done the unthinkable: he's become a scriptwriting teacher. Well, not exactly – he's on his way to London to deliver a headlining lecture at the London screenwriters' festival – but anyone who has even the smallest familiarity with his books will know the contempt in which he holds teach-yourself-screenplay-writing gurus such as Robert McKee.
"Wannabe screenwriters sorely lack getting the truth from these so-called scriptwriting teachers," says Eszterhas, his post-cancer voice gravellier than ever. "McKee is the perfect example: he's had one TV movie made, and yet he pontificates on how to write scripts." He also has beef (one that's been going for decades, it seems) with other big-name scriptwriters, accusing...
- 10/25/2013
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
Producer Alison Owen says it is “crazy to say the internet is going to kill off movies”.Scroll down for full speech
Alison Owen, managing director of Ruby Film and Television, has used her keynote speech at the BFI London Film Festival to defend the art of movie storytelling and play down the threat of the internet.
Speaking at the Curzon Soho this afternoon, Owen said: “There’s many a Cassandra touting the death of the movie industry. But is that true?
“It is crazy to say the internet is going to kill off movies… The problem is not technology per se but the management of that technology – and the lack of a pervasive business model.”
Using YouTube clips such as “Charlie bit my finger”, Owen said such content was “incredibly simple” and that “people still want good stories”.
“As digital comes of age, there’s going to be more and more demand for content,” she said.
“If...
Alison Owen, managing director of Ruby Film and Television, has used her keynote speech at the BFI London Film Festival to defend the art of movie storytelling and play down the threat of the internet.
Speaking at the Curzon Soho this afternoon, Owen said: “There’s many a Cassandra touting the death of the movie industry. But is that true?
“It is crazy to say the internet is going to kill off movies… The problem is not technology per se but the management of that technology – and the lack of a pervasive business model.”
Using YouTube clips such as “Charlie bit my finger”, Owen said such content was “incredibly simple” and that “people still want good stories”.
“As digital comes of age, there’s going to be more and more demand for content,” she said.
“If...
- 10/18/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Producer Alison Owen says it is “crazy to say the internet is going to kill off movies”.Scroll down for full speech
Alison Owen, managing director of Ruby Film and Television, has used her keynote speech at the BFI London Film Festival to defend the art of movie storytelling and play down the threat of the internet.
Speaking at the Curzon Soho this afternoon, Owen said: “There’s many a Cassandra touting the death of the movie industry. But is that true?
“It is crazy to say the internet is going to kill off movies… The problem is not technology per se but the management of that technology – and the lack of a pervasive business model.”
Using YouTube clips such as “Charlie bit my finger”, Owen said such content was “incredibly simple” and that “people still want good stories”.
“As digital comes of age, there’s going to be more and more demand for content,” she said.
“If...
Alison Owen, managing director of Ruby Film and Television, has used her keynote speech at the BFI London Film Festival to defend the art of movie storytelling and play down the threat of the internet.
Speaking at the Curzon Soho this afternoon, Owen said: “There’s many a Cassandra touting the death of the movie industry. But is that true?
“It is crazy to say the internet is going to kill off movies… The problem is not technology per se but the management of that technology – and the lack of a pervasive business model.”
Using YouTube clips such as “Charlie bit my finger”, Owen said such content was “incredibly simple” and that “people still want good stories”.
“As digital comes of age, there’s going to be more and more demand for content,” she said.
“If...
- 10/18/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Hollywood screenwriting is a big business. It’s practically a law that anyone with opposable thumbs who lives in Southern California write a screenplay, lured in by the knowledge that even uncommissioned spec scripts used to make between six and seven figures just a few short years ago. With so many people chasing the dream, it was only natural that another cottage industry sprung up alongside it: one filled with screenwriting “gurus." John Truby, Syd Field, Lew Hunter, Robert McKee – all guys who have written books and hosted seminars designed to show aspiring Shane Black wannabes how to craft their story so studio bosses (or, more accurately, lowly secretaries and freelance readers) get excited about the project and pass it up the line. The ideas behind...
Read More...
Read More...
- 7/20/2013
- by Mike Bracken
- Movies.com
Welcome to a new series of articles we’re running here at WhatCulture, prior to a new section of the site that will be opening up soon – one which will focus entirely on the subject of screenwriting.
Previously, I’ve looked at both The Dark Knight Rises and Prometheus. Today, I’m going to see what lessons we can take from Quentin Tarantino’s spaghetti western/blaxploitation hybrid Django Unchained.
In this day and age, it’s becoming more and more difficult to see a movie at the theatre and come out feeling completely satisfied. Two decades ago, I don’t think that would’ve been such a huge problem, and I’m somewhat envious of those movie-goers who went to the movies without the excessive baggage brought on by relentless marketing campaigns, trailers and advertisements: with all that going on, it’s nearly impossible not to build up a huge set of expectations,...
Previously, I’ve looked at both The Dark Knight Rises and Prometheus. Today, I’m going to see what lessons we can take from Quentin Tarantino’s spaghetti western/blaxploitation hybrid Django Unchained.
In this day and age, it’s becoming more and more difficult to see a movie at the theatre and come out feeling completely satisfied. Two decades ago, I don’t think that would’ve been such a huge problem, and I’m somewhat envious of those movie-goers who went to the movies without the excessive baggage brought on by relentless marketing campaigns, trailers and advertisements: with all that going on, it’s nearly impossible not to build up a huge set of expectations,...
- 4/18/2013
- by T.J. Barnard
- Obsessed with Film
Robert McKee, who gives seminars on screenwriting and whose book Story has spawned hundreds of young writers in Hollywood and abroad says that an essential part of any scene, and therefore the story as a whole, is an arc. And what better catalyst for the arc than the movie villain? The villain gives the audience a detestable character that helps them bond with the protagonist in their mutual disdain. The villain creates drama which pushes the action forward, giving the film its cohesive introduction, buildup, climax and denoument.
Some of the most famous movie villains are utterly despicable. Guys like John Huston’s Noah Cross from Chinatown are willing to go to horrible depths to consolidate their power. Others, like No Country for Old Men’s Anton Chigurh, are almost literally the embodiment of fate and judgment, terrifying movie-goers long after the picture has ended. And still others, like Rebecca’s Mrs.
Some of the most famous movie villains are utterly despicable. Guys like John Huston’s Noah Cross from Chinatown are willing to go to horrible depths to consolidate their power. Others, like No Country for Old Men’s Anton Chigurh, are almost literally the embodiment of fate and judgment, terrifying movie-goers long after the picture has ended. And still others, like Rebecca’s Mrs.
- 3/15/2013
- by Nick F
- Obsessed with Film
This coming Saturday, December 15th, the Cinefamily (located at 611 North Fairfax Avenue in Hollywood, CA) is presenting their 2nd Annual Fantastic Elastic 24 Hour Holiday Telethon and Tfh is proud to be a part of it.
Here's a rundown of the star-spangled event:
Opening (1:00pm-4:30pm):
Robert Downey, Jr. opening a time capsule, Mark Mothersbaugh, Phil Lord presenting Lego fan films, Miwa Matreyek’s live animation, and More!
Primetime (4:30pm-8:00pm):
Jason Schwartzman joins us for dinner, Joe Dante’s Trailers From Hell, Neil Hamburger, Dave Franco & Cristopher Mintz-Plasse premiere their new short, and More!
Midnight Madness (8:00pm - midnight-ish):
Nick Offerman, Cut Chemist, Rob Schrab & Dan Harmon’s Telethon “Found Crap”, Everything Is Terrible!, and More!
The Nite Owl (midnght-ish - 6am):
An epic late-night talk-show sesh with John Hawkes, Udo Kier, Guy Maddin, Eric Wareheim, Brie Larson, Ron Lynch,...
Here's a rundown of the star-spangled event:
Opening (1:00pm-4:30pm):
Robert Downey, Jr. opening a time capsule, Mark Mothersbaugh, Phil Lord presenting Lego fan films, Miwa Matreyek’s live animation, and More!
Primetime (4:30pm-8:00pm):
Jason Schwartzman joins us for dinner, Joe Dante’s Trailers From Hell, Neil Hamburger, Dave Franco & Cristopher Mintz-Plasse premiere their new short, and More!
Midnight Madness (8:00pm - midnight-ish):
Nick Offerman, Cut Chemist, Rob Schrab & Dan Harmon’s Telethon “Found Crap”, Everything Is Terrible!, and More!
The Nite Owl (midnght-ish - 6am):
An epic late-night talk-show sesh with John Hawkes, Udo Kier, Guy Maddin, Eric Wareheim, Brie Larson, Ron Lynch,...
- 12/11/2012
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
This article originally appeared in If Magazine #147 (June-July 2012).
Director Matthew Saville has three features in development: Dark Victory, an adaptation of David Marr and Marian Wilkinson.s book of the same name about the Tampa crisis; Felony, an original thriller written by and to star Joel Edgerton; and Month of Sundays, a comedy about real estate.
If Magazine asked Saville about his plans after he won two Australian Directors. Guild Awards: for the mini-series cloudstreet and for Harry.s episode in The Slap in the category for drama series.
He only answered in terms of features . later suggesting that perhaps he only has the stamina to get to 100 pages . but made it very clear how important television is to him.
.TV has a faster turnaround and gives you the opportunity to have an output, rather than be in development forever,. he said. .It is important for directors to stay match-fit...
Director Matthew Saville has three features in development: Dark Victory, an adaptation of David Marr and Marian Wilkinson.s book of the same name about the Tampa crisis; Felony, an original thriller written by and to star Joel Edgerton; and Month of Sundays, a comedy about real estate.
If Magazine asked Saville about his plans after he won two Australian Directors. Guild Awards: for the mini-series cloudstreet and for Harry.s episode in The Slap in the category for drama series.
He only answered in terms of features . later suggesting that perhaps he only has the stamina to get to 100 pages . but made it very clear how important television is to him.
.TV has a faster turnaround and gives you the opportunity to have an output, rather than be in development forever,. he said. .It is important for directors to stay match-fit...
- 8/17/2012
- by Sandy George
- IF.com.au
Writer/director Whit Stillman‘s name hasn’t graced the big screen since his slightly divisive The Last Days of Disco hit thirteen years ago. That’s quite a long time between features, but if it takes Stillman that amount of time to write the dialogue he’s regarded for, then the wait is more than worth any inconvenience. So, it’s with Damsels in Distress that the breakout filmmaker of the ’90s returns with his signature wit and style. Speaking with the self-depreciating Stillman, it was clear his process is never quick and easy. From going through screenwriting books to attending Robert McKee‘s course, the Damsels in Distress director knows there is no right way to tell a story. What he unquestionably knows is musical dialogue, which, as he tells it, informs his stories. Here’s what Whit Stillman had to say about being rejected by Nyu, how the director is the only one allowed...
- 4/13/2012
- by Jack Giroux
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
As I Said Last Week And The Week Before And The Week Before That – Warning: I’m assuming that people reading this have seen the movie and thus will be fine with my discussing elements of the plot. If you’re one of those who haven’t watched the movie, do yourself a favor and Don’T Read This. See the movie instead and have your own experience with it. Trust me. You’ll be glad you did. If you need a plot synopsis, imdb has a good one here.
This is the fourth and final installment in my examination of the classic Warner Bros. film, Casablanca. Not that I couldn’t go on (and on and on) about it further but I figure there are limits to the patience of all of you out there and I thank you for indulging me thus far in looking at one of my own favorite films.
This is the fourth and final installment in my examination of the classic Warner Bros. film, Casablanca. Not that I couldn’t go on (and on and on) about it further but I figure there are limits to the patience of all of you out there and I thank you for indulging me thus far in looking at one of my own favorite films.
- 4/8/2012
- by John Ostrander
- Comicmix.com
Warning: As I said last week, I’m assuming that people reading this have seen Casablanca and thus will be fine with my discussing elements of the plot. If you’re one of those who haven’t watched the movie, do yourself a favor and Do Not Read This. See the movie instead and have your own experience with it. Trust me. You’ll be glad you did. If you need a plot synopsis, IMDb has a good one here.
This week, as we continue to focus on Casablanca’s 70th Anniversary, I want to set my sights on story elements. Robert McKee, in his classic book on writing Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting, uses Casablanca as one his teaching examples. (Side note: Story – while principally about screenwriting – is full of knowledge and wisdom about writing in general and is very applicable to comic book script writing.
This week, as we continue to focus on Casablanca’s 70th Anniversary, I want to set my sights on story elements. Robert McKee, in his classic book on writing Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting, uses Casablanca as one his teaching examples. (Side note: Story – while principally about screenwriting – is full of knowledge and wisdom about writing in general and is very applicable to comic book script writing.
- 3/25/2012
- by John Ostrander
- Comicmix.com
At times, "Being Flynn" is a gorgeous, compelling adaptation of Nick Flynn's gritty memoir, "Another Bullshit Night in Suck City." However, it constantly strains from attempting to do justice to its source. Flynn's experience with his deadbeat dad, a struggling alcoholic writer whose aspirations resemble Flynn's own shortcomings, takes the form of an elegant, stylized character study. But when the style belongs to the book, it shows up in the movie with choppy results. Voiceovers, as screenwriting guru Robert McKee famously observed in a hilarious meta moment in "Adaptation," can often ruin a movie. And so it's an immediate red flag in "Being Flynn" when twentysomething Nick (Paul Dano) puts his pen to a paper and gazes longingly at nothing in particular while his narration draws from Flynn's book: "What do you do if both of you are lost and you both wind up in the same place waiting?...
- 3/1/2012
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Accusations of ageism fly around Hollywood all the time, but they seemed to be fairly definitively refuted in recent weeks when a 78-year-old became the hottest screenwriter in town after his film sold, attracted Ridley Scott and Michael Fassbender, and was fast-tracked into production this May. Of course, it helps if that 78-year-old is Cormac McCarthy, the Pulitzer prize-winning author of "Blood Meridian," "All The Pretty Horses," "The Road" and the source material for Best Picture winner "No Country For Old Men." But it's still a rare achievement, to get a film from the page to a greenlight, with A-list talent attached, in only a matter of days.
As so often happens with hot spec scripts, McCarthy's screenplay "The Counselor," leaked almost immediately, and like many others, we managed to get our grubby hands on a copy. And as one of the most talked-about scripts in a while, we thought...
As so often happens with hot spec scripts, McCarthy's screenplay "The Counselor," leaked almost immediately, and like many others, we managed to get our grubby hands on a copy. And as one of the most talked-about scripts in a while, we thought...
- 2/28/2012
- by Oliver Lyttelton
- The Playlist
When I suggested two weeks ago that the producers of Glee replace Will Schuester with a more decisive character, I had no idea they would do it with that evening’s episode. After initial trepidation, Will grew a pair and asked Emma to marry him, but only after getting most of the cast into bathing suits. This is a promising start.
Now, Glee, here’s another suggestion: Make it gay.
I know the nay-sayers will argue that Glee is already gay enough. After all, it’s replaced Brokeback in the lexicon as America’s favorite semi-derisive reference. But I say Glee isn’t gay enough.
Take the last episode, in which characters dated, shared a suggestive mobile phone picture, got engaged, got married, got dumped and then treated to ice cream and the Lifetime Channel for ovaries, waiting for Beaches to come on. That’s as much action as Glee...
Now, Glee, here’s another suggestion: Make it gay.
I know the nay-sayers will argue that Glee is already gay enough. After all, it’s replaced Brokeback in the lexicon as America’s favorite semi-derisive reference. But I say Glee isn’t gay enough.
Take the last episode, in which characters dated, shared a suggestive mobile phone picture, got engaged, got married, got dumped and then treated to ice cream and the Lifetime Channel for ovaries, waiting for Beaches to come on. That’s as much action as Glee...
- 1/31/2012
- by Bigdillo
- The Backlot
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