Vol. 5, Ed. 3 - Summertime, along with the big summer movies, is just around the corner! New Daddy Cruise is taking over the universe with MI3, and everyone is waiting to read the X-Men 3 reviews. Hollywood is unleashing all the big guns, Superman, The Da Vinci Code and Poseidon, in the hopes that the 2006 box office will look significantly better than summer 2005. What are about you? Have you started working on that script that, with any luck, in 2007 make its mark?
 



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BASELINE STUDIOSYSTEMS &
THE HOLLYWOOD CREATIVE DIRECTORY

present:

A complete breakdown of film development project tracking:

- A-Z listings by title
- Spec screenplays sold
- Hot studio projects
- By studio, production company and genre

Keeping track of the Studios' frenzied activity can prove daunting for even the most well-informed of professionals. With this in mind, the Hollywood Creative Directory and Baseline StudioSystems are proud to present The Studio Report: Film Development.

This great new directory consists of an alphabetical listing of all in-development projects that have achieved a forward-moving milestone some time in the last five months. Subsequent sections sort and cross-reference the information to highlight various aspects of the projects.

All for only $39.95

Use Code: BSS0306

Click Here to Purcase your own copy.





Biography:
MICHAEL TOLKIN

Michael Tolkin gives a good interview. While clearly an adept Hollywood player, he casually peppers his conversations with allusions to serious literature, philosophy, cultural criticism, art cinema, and American film history. Tolkin's film projects similarly reveal his status as a rare commodity in today's movie industry--a feeling intellectual. As a screenwriter, he pens tough-minded social satires without sacrificing compassion for his characters. Tolkin's worldview reflects a profound and rather refreshing ambivalence. He refuses to scapegoat potentially easy targets because he views all of us as accomplices in society's shortcomings. This journalist turned novelist turned screenwriter began to flex his muscles as a writer-director in several unconventional Hollywood films of the early 1990s. All of his stories to date have been set in Los Angeles, a city as central to his vision as New York is to Woody Allen or Martin Scorsese.

The scion of a show business family--his father was a TV comedy writer, his mother a VP in Legal Affairs at Paramount--Tolkin was born in New York and transplanted to L.A. at age ten. He began directing plays in high school and went to college in Vermont. Tolkin moved to NYC and wrote feature articles for various publications including VILLAGE VOICE, DAILY NEWS and THE LOS ANGELES TIMES. He began his entertainment career rather inauspiciously as a story editor of "Delta House" (ABC, 1979), the unlamented, short-lived TV version of John Landis' 1978 comedy hit, "Animal House". He achieved a modest breakthrough in features as the screenwriter and associate producer of "Gleaming the Cube" (1988), an offbeat action thriller about a skateboarder (Christian Slater) searching for the killer of his adopted Vietnamese brother. A few years later, he followed up with several remarkable films set within a universe in search of values.

Tolkin's directorial debut, "The Rapture" (1991), was a haunting story about a contented but unfulfilled sensualist who, practically overnight, becomes a born-again Christian preparing for the final reckoning. With a fine central performance by Mimi Rogers, the film is ambitious if flawed. Perhaps best described as a low-budget, fundamentalist variation on "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", "The Rapture" boldly and seriously contemplates spiritual matters rarely dealt with in Hollywood fare. An observant Jew himself, Tolkin refused to caricature the sincere beliefs of others. A major new cinematic sensibility had arrived.

The absorbing and unsettling if more conventional "Deep Cover" (1992), meanwhile, directed with suitably edgy style by Bill Duke, presented a black narcotics cop who loses sight of which side of the law he is on. Tolkin's original screenplay (from his story) was rewritten by Henry Bean ("Internal Affairs" 1990) but it seems firmly set in the same morally slippery universe as his other works. As critic Gavin Smith noted in FILM COMMENT: "All his characters abandon or fall from the social mainstream and enact dramas of self-redefinition."

Tolkin adapted his first novel, "The Player", for the 1992 Robert Altman film that brought the writer his greatest exposure and acclaim and revitalized the director's career. A highly reflexive, cynical satire of contemporary Hollywood, "The Player" was clearly the work of people who understood, hated, and loved the industry from the inside. Tolkin returned to the director's chair to helm his own screenplay for "The New Age" (1994), an examination of modern love and morality starring Peter Weller and Judy Davis as a financially overextended couple who open a chic boutique in L.A. The film, interesting and consistent in many ways with his earlier work, opened to mixed reviews and tepid box office.

Additionally, Tolkin received screenplay credits on such films as “Mission Impossible II”, “Changing Lanes” and “Domestic Disturbance”.

All data from Baseline StudioSystems. For more information on writers, directors, actors, and producers, please visit BaselineFT.
 


CALLING ALL ENTRIES!

ScriptShark Insider is not just about winning awesome prizes, it’s about really moving your career forward. With the final judging conducted by reputable industry producers, this contest puts you right in the middle of the real, professional market-place!

  • PROFESSIONAL Judging by people at high levels in the industry...
  • Manager Colin O'Reilly to guide Grand Prize Winner as they develop and shop a pitch...
  • Grand Prize Winner to receive one-on-one pitch coaching from Good in a Room.
  • Finalists distributed to Hundreds of agencies, management, and production companies...
  • All entrants to receive a FREE 6-month Spec Market Posting

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SCRIPTJOURNAL QUICK TIP:

This month’s QUICK TIP has been provided by Stephanie Palmer, founder of Good in a Room, the industry’s premier pitch consulting firm.

Dear Scriptshark members,

You’ve worked for months (or even years!) on your project and you’ve gotten the call that someone wants to meet with you. It takes so much work to actually get in the room with a decision-maker and you want to be prepared to take full advantage of the opportunity. As a studio executive at MGM, I saw first-hand how poor meeting skills can doom viable projects.

I founded the consulting firm Good in a Room in 2005 and I’ve helped my clients get signed at the major agencies, set up their television shows at networks and sell their features to studios. I’m pleased to share my monthly column [Inside the Room] with you and I look forward to answering your questions in upcoming issues.

All the best,

Stephanie

....................

 

Welcome to the first issue of [Inside the Room].

This column focuses on how you can use pre-meeting research to improve your ability to make a positive impression on decision-makers.

I think it’s pretty hard to get a studio meeting. Of the 4000+ submissions we received per year when I was the Director of Creative Affairs for MGM, only a small fraction of those people would get a meeting. I participated in over a thousand meetings with creative people presenting their ideas. Some were incredible, a few were terribly embarrassing and the vast majority were unremarkable and ineffective overall. It was amazing how many creative people failed to properly prepare before the meeting so they could take advantage of the opportunity.

In more than half of the meetings, it seemed as if the screenwriters didn’t have a clue about the people or the company they were meeting. Before you set foot in your next meeting, use your investigative reporting skills to learn about the people who will be sitting across the desk. Here are some key questions to help you get started:

  • You’ll know the name and job titles of the people whom you are scheduled to meet, but who are the other principals of the company? If the CEO decided to join your meeting at the last minute, wouldn’t it be more impressive to know who he or she was without having to ask?
  • If you were evaluating your project from the executive’s point of view, how is your project similar and different from the other projects they are currently supervising?
  • What is the most recently released movie in a similar genre/budget/style to your project and how did it do at the box office?
  • What are the company’s past credits and upcoming releases?
  • Put yourself in the executive’s shoes. What are their current major issues? A recent flop or big success? A shift in management? A speculative article in the trades?

The more you know about the company and people you’re meeting, the more effective you can be at presenting your ideas in a way that meets their specific need. If you’re willing to make the effort, whether by online research or asking your representatives and other contacts for insight, you can join the ranks of the well-respected professionals who arrive at meetings knowledgeable and prepared.

All the best,

Stephanie

P.S. I am leading a workshop May 6-7 th for eight producers, writers and directors. Producer Peggy Rajski (BEE SEASON, HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS, LITTLE MAN TATE and others) and I will give you detailed feedback to improve how you pitch your project. Go to www.goodinaroom.com/workshop.html for more details.

Stephanie Palmer is the founder of Good in a Room (www.goodinaroom.com), a consulting firm which helps creative professionals present their ideas in a compelling, marketable way so they get purchased and produced.

To submit questions to Stephanie, which will be answered in the next ScriptJournal’s advice column, please email us at: scriptshark@blssi.com

 

WRITERS BOOT CAMP'S IMMERSION PROGRAM helps you turn your script idea into a fully developed first draft in one month's time.  Beginning June 11, 2006 with a six-day intensive of instruction and creative support, Immersion provides practical, hands-on tools for solidifying a strong conceptual foundation on which to build a draft over the remainder of the program.  A standout Industry Panel (past panelists) complements the daytime program.  Experience the unique, potent tools that have helped many alumni achieve success.  ScriptShark members receive a $200 discount through May 5th.  To register or for more info visit www.writersbootcamp.com or call 800/800-1733.

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Presents:

Development Snapshot
New projects in D at the studios:

UNSPORTSMANLINKE CONDUCT
Writer:
Jonathan Davis
Producer:
Todd Garner, Hunt Lowry
Production Co:
Emmett/Furla Films, Brooklyn Films
Studio:
 Columbia Pictures
Logline: A major-league baseball expansion team hires a statistician to assemble the league's best available players. But that numbers-only strategy leaves the team with all of the league's head cases.
   
LIFT EVERY VOICE
Writer:
Bobby Smith, Jr.
Producer:
Mark Ordesky
Production Co:
New Line Cinema, Releve Entertainment
Logline: A young minister returns to the mean streets of Camden, New Jersey, and creates a gospel choir to keep kids away from drugs, gangs and violence. The choir begins to win gospel competitions, culminating in the national championship.
   
UNTITLED JIMMY HENDRIX PROJECT
Writer:
Lenny Kravitz
Director:
Quentin Tarantino
Production Co:
Dragon Slayer Productions
Logline: Much awaited biopic of the legendary rocker Jimi Hendrix.
   
ART OF MAKING MONEY
Writer:
Jason Kersten
Producers:
Brian Robbins, Michael Tollin
Production Co:
Tollin/Robbins
Studio:
Dreamworks SKG
Logline: T he exploits of counterfeiter Art Williams who conterfeited up to $10 million.
....................

All data from Baseline-StudioSystems.  For more information on writers,
directors, actors, and producers, please visit BaselineFT.
 

The entertainment industry's ultimate searchable archive of intellectual property. With thousands of professionals using Baseline for their daily business needs, the stage is set for The Spec Market to become the most important new talent discovery system available to writers.

*Targeted browsing provides direct professional access to your material.
*Superb system architecture shapes effective professional search patterns.
*Attractive new design to make your project look professional.
*Detailed information on your work provides professional accessibility.
*Advanced searches give your material an opportunity to be discovered by executives and reps.
*Submit any type of filmed entertainment: features, television, and even media-based projects.

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