✍🏾 Writer’s Quotes to Live By
“Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.”
— Franz Kafka
✍🏼Carla Ching Heads from Theater to AMC Series Pickup
Playwright/tv producer, Carla Ching, is partnering with actor Daniel Dae Kim (Hawaii Five Oh) to develop the dramedy Fast Company, which is based on the award-winning play by Ching for AMC Studios.
The story follows a family of con artists who regroup following years of separation from the fall-out of one of their schemes.
Carla has written on Hulu’s The First, Amazon’s I Love Dick, AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead and USA’s Graceland.
Carla will also pen the adaptation and produce under Dae Kim’s production banner 3AD Media, which also produces ABC’s The Good Doctor.
✍🏼Bo Burnham Visits ‘Sesame Street’
It is confirmed that stand-up comedian/ screenwriter Bo Burnham (Eighth Grade) is penning songs for the upcoming Sesame Street movie, which is set to hit theaters on January 15, 2021. The WGA Award winner for best original screenplay will be bringing his gift of song and story telling to the legendary children’s show.
Jonathan Krisel will be directing from a script penned by Chris Galletta, who wrote the most recent draft.
Mike Rosolio wrote the first draft of the script. The official shooting draft is written by Barry Schwartz along with Chris Galletta.
Sesame Workshop holds the right to the series and will be involved with project development.
Here’s the official synopsis:
Big Bird and his Sesame Street friends are mysteriously expelled from their neighborhood, finding themselves in Manhattan. They team up with Sally Hawthorne, a plucky history-show host who’s on a quest to save her program and prove that Sesame Street actually exists. Obstacles are created by the “evil” mayor, with reasons of his own for keeping Sesame Street hidden from the world.
This childhood staple for a new generation still bears the question, ‘can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street?’.
Competition Alert
Just a reminder the good people over at Script Pipeline are hosting their annual Great Idea Contests and they are searching for original feature film and television series concepts.
This is great for busy writers who have an idea, but are currently in the middle of other projects.
To enter: ALL YOU NEED is a written pitch:
A two-sentence logline to a full treatment--entirely up to you on how to best present your idea.
The best format is usually comprised of a logline, which is a half-page to a page-long summary, and any other notes or comments on the originality of the premise.
The submissions are geared towards finding writers who are ‘industry ready’ without the backing, and connections.
Winner receives $2,000.00, along with developmental notes to prep the logline for sending out to potential studios, producers and other companies for development.
Regular deadline submission date is June 15th, extended deadline is July 7th.
Good luck, everyone!
✍🏼 Legendary Western Screenwriter Bill Wittliff Rides Off Into The Sunset
Let’s put our pens down for a moment to honor the work of Bill Wittliff, a celebrated writer, filmmaker and photographer. Wittliff, who wrote the screenplay for the iconic 1985 television miniseries “Lonesome Dove” and who also co-founded a popular archive of Southwestern writers and other artists at Texas State University, died Sunday from a heart attack. He was 79.
“It’s impossible to overstate the influence Bill had on writers, photographers and filmmakers, all throughout Austin, Texas and United States,” his friend, author and journalist Stephen Harrigan said on Monday.
“He made it possible for people with raging ambition to plant flag in Austin and Texas and make this their hometown. He defied the dictum that you had to move to Hollywood to be successful. He is completely irreplaceable”.
Wittliff’s film credits also included screenplays for the films:
“Raggedy Man” (1981, starring Sissy Spacek)
“Barbarosa” (1982, starring Willie Nelson)
“Legends of the Fall” (1994, starring Brad Pitt & Anthony Hopkins)
The 2000 box-office blockbuster “The Perfect Storm,” starring George Clooney
He also wrote and directed the 1986 film “Red Headed Stranger,” which starred Willie Nelson and Morgan Fairchild
We tip our hat to you cowboy!
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