Past Scriptland columns

July 15, 2008

SCRIPTLAND

Ensuring a series is combat ready

When David Simon ("The Wire") considered HBO's proposal to script Evan Wright's book "Generation Kill," he knew the journalist should stay in the picture, he told television critics at their annual press tour last week. Simon, who worked on the Baltimore Sun's city desk for 13 years, was introduced to script writing by Tom Fontana, who adapted Simon's first book, "Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets," into the NBC series"Homicide: Life on the Streets."

May 7, 2008

SCRIPTLAND

‘House Bunny’ duo spend work hours at play

Who says you have to suffer for your art? The unofficial Karen Lutz/Kirsten Smith manual states that nothing makes writing fun faster than a partner, a pool and a couple "bottles of Woo!"

April 2, 2008

Scriptland

There's room for all in Hollywood's buying frenzy

For a while there, the spec market was starting to look as undernourished as your average Hollywood starlet. Well, the industry's body of original work seems to be upping the carbs. When Sony picked up Roland Emmerich and Harald Kloser's apocalyptic "2012" right after the Writers Guild strike ended in February, it was a good, but unsurprising, sign. But when 27-year-old unknown Brad Ingelsby recently sold his revenge thriller "The Low Dweller" to Relativity Media for $650,000 against $1.1 million (if it is produced), it announced in flashing neon that Hollywood buyers were still very interested in spending big money on original material.

February 20, 2008

SCRIPTLAND

Oscar-nominated writers went deep in portrayals

Character is destiny. Score one for Heraclitus, whose succinct aphorism seems especially apt in describing screenwriters' path to the Oscars this year.

6:03 PM PST, January 22, 2008

SCRIPTLAND

'Pest Control' can't be exterminated

You can't throw a skim latte in L.A. without hitting a writer who has a screenplay that's been stuck in the system since grunge was breaking. But there are very few who can say that in the intervening years they've turned the same story into a well-reviewed novel, a German radio play and a potential Broadway musical.

December 5, 2007

SCRIPTLAND

SCRIPTLAND: Writers finding solace, stories on picket lines

As the Writers Guild tries to fortify itself against the inevitable slow bleed of numbers and commitment among its membership in its fifth week of striking, many gung-ho writers continue to find novel ways of surviving the monotony and social awkwardness of the picket lines.

10:13 AM PST, January 30, 2007

SCRIPTLAND: 'Departed' sequel in the works

The elegiac title and murderous conclusion of "The Departed" may have signaled a brutal, blood-red finality, but in Hollywood any potential franchise can be revived by a strong-enough dose of green.

September 27, 2006

SCRIPTLAND

Former gambler now in the chips

Scriptland is a new weekly feature on the work and professional lives of screenwriters.

September 20, 2006

SCRIPTLAND

King of the world of adaptation

Scriptland is a new weekly feature on the work and professional lives of screenwriters.

September 13, 2006

SCRIPTLAND

Reading Charlie Kaufman's Next Project

Scriptland, launching today, is a new weekly feature on the work and professional lives of screenwriters.