The 5 Final Alfred Hitchcock Films
I have always been a fan of Alfred Hitchcock’s movies, and it’s not controversial to say he’s one of the best directors of all time (his personal life is another […]
The Lesson Learned from Logan
With the success, both financially and critically, of Logan, many people claimed that its R rating is the reason for it being among the best comic book movies ever made. This […]
So the Oscars…
Who would’ve thought the most exciting moment of the Academy Awards show in years would be a mix-up with the card announcing a winner (at least until the Slap Heard […]
Growing Up with Star Trek
I don’t remember a time in my life when Star Trek wasn’t a part of me. It’s not that I ever set out to be a Trekkie, or that it ever consumed […]
Fun at Sony
For several years, I had teamed up with Lee Shapiro to co-write screenplays with him. We wrote three together and each of us also had our own individual ones. We […]
Killing Story Structure with the Killing Joke
Warner Bros. Animation released Batman: The Killing Joke for two days in theaters prior to it hitting home video, scoring $3.8 million in that limited release. This is the first animated Batman film […]
Fan Films and Copyright
When I was eleven, my friends and I made a Super-8 knock-off of Star Wars that we creatively entitled “Galactic Wars”. It had a “cantina” scene, aliens made with papier-mâché masks, spaceships, […]
How Much Research Is Too Much?
As I’m working on the novel adaptation of my screenplay Maelstrom, I’m finding that I need to do a lot more research than I did for the script. Movies are pretty […]
The Creative Mind of Stephen King
Anyone who knows me can attest that I am a huge fan of Stephen King’s writing. I have virtually all of his books in hard cover, including a few duplicates. […]
The All-Important Opening
One bit of advice that is often given to writers is to “grab the audience” right away with a “hook”. That’s great, but what does it mean? Essentially, it’s saying […]