Screenwriting Best of the Web 16/08/09

Here’s our weekly selection from the blogosphere. Feel free to recommend anything you believe might be of interest.

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• John August notes that According to Wikipedia, at least one draft of Groundhog Day included an explicit reason for the time loop. In the movie version, it goes unexplained.
• Alex Epstein reports that Mad Men is breaking with convention and will bypass traditional broadcasters in Canada in favor of an exclusive online deal with Apple.
• “TV is a highly moralistic universe.  Good almost always triumphs over evil.  There are, of course, gray areas”, writes Lisa Klink.
• UNK wonders how much you’d be willing to pay if you were “pretty sure that a movie by your favorite writer and or director was going to be a worthwhile experience“
• The screenplay of Lawrence of Arabia is now available over at SimplyScripts.
• I have decided not to run to see movies by Quentin Tarantino any longer. But I’ll forever remain a fan of Kermit Tarantino.
• Let’s share in Mystery Man’s celebration of Hitchcock’s 110th birthday.
• Remember this? The feature based on it will be upon us soon. And it sounds very promising: District 9.
• I am constantly asked about how to sell scripts or get them produced. I’m not the only one.
• This post by Seth Godin inspired me to thank the wonderful interns that have helped out in The Story Department over the past couple of years: Caroline Faerber, Yvonne Festerling, Susanne Jeran, Lauren Ashley, Tanya Cohen, Filiz Peksen, Marian Koedel, Diana Anders, Cleo Mees, Cherie Lee and Ross Williams.
• Have you figured out on what basis Harrison Ford picks his screenplays?

COMING SOON to the Story Department:

• “Confessions of a Scriptwriter”, the new guest article from Jack Feldstein, who spoiled us with his TERRIFIC series “The Psychology of Scriptwriting”.
• “Maximising Your Success In Face-To-Face Script Pitching”, by Steven Fernandez.
• Natasha Gadd on story for documentary.
• The Fastest Pass: How to improve your entire screenplay draft in less than an hour.