Posted: November 27, 2016 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Alison Sudo, Amy Adams, Arrival, Auli’i Cravalho, Collin Farrell, Dan Vogler, David Yates, Denis Villeneuve, Dwayne Johnson, Eddie Redmayne, Eric Heisser, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Finally, Forest Whitaker, J.K. Rowling, Jeremy Renner, Jon Voigt, Michael Stuhlbarg, Moana, Ted Chiang | 990 Comments »
For questions: hcasner@aol.com
First, a word from our sponsors: I am now offering a new service: so much emphasis has been given lately to the importance of the opening of your screenplay, I now offer coverage for the first twenty pages at the cost of $20.00. For those who don’t want to have full coverage on their screenplay at this time, but want to know how well their script is working with the opening pages, this is perfect for you. I’ll help you not lose the reader on page one.
Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r
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Warning: SPOILERS
I think their might be a competition for the use of the geekiest hero in thrillers these days.
In the movie The Da Vinci Code, Tom Hanks plays a symbologist who races to uncover a mystery in order to save Christianity and the Catholic Church.
Now we have the film Arrival in which Amy Adams is a linguist who is called in to save the world from a possible alien attack.
What’s next? A philatelist? A trademark attorney?
The basic premise of Arrival revolves around a group of spacecraft that suddenly appear and hover above the earth in twelve different locations. In order to try to communicate with them and discover why they are here and what they want, they bring in Louise Banks (Adams), a college professor, someone who, it seems safe to say, is just a bit out of touch with her fellow man-the day after the craft arrive she comes in to teach her class and seems a little put out that no one else showed up. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: October 7, 2015 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Aksel Hennie, Andy Weir, Benicio del Toro, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Daniel Kaluuya, Darius Wolski, Denis Villeneuve, Drew Goddard, Emily Blunt, Harry Gregson-Williams, Jeff Daniels, Jessica Chastain, Joe Walker, Johan Johannson, Josh Brolin, Kate Mara, Kristen Wiig, Matt Damon, Michael Pena, Pietro Scalia, Ridley Scott, Roger Deakins, Sean Bean, Sebastian Stan, Sicario, Taylor Sheridan, The Martian, Victor Garber | 143 Comments »
First, a word from our sponsors: I am now offering a new service: so much emphasis has been given lately to the importance of the opening of your screenplay, I now offer coverage for the first twenty pages at the cost of $20.00. For those who don’t want to have full coverage on their screenplay at this time, but want to know how well their script is working with the opening pages, this is perfect for you. I’ll help you not lose the reader on page one.
Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r
and check out my Script Consultation Services: http://ow.ly/HPxKE
Warning: SPOILERS
Sicario, the new thriller about the drug war written by Taylor Sheridan (a first film) and directed by French Canadian flavor of the month Denis Villeneuve (Incendies, Prisoner, Enemies), is, in many ways, two movies for the price of one.
The first is an action/adventure film full of car chases and gun battles and plot twists (many of which, if truth be told, I found just a tad tenuous at best) of the action/adventure variety.
The second is a treatise on the drug war.
The first film is often quite successful and impressive. The second is, at least from my perspective, quite shallow and unconvincing.
This means that for much of the time, Sicario is definitely and highly entertaining. Sheridan and Villeneuve, along with the incredibly soaring cinematography of Roger Deakins (one of our finest today), the film editing of Joe Walker, and the heart throbbing music of Johan Johannson, have crafted an edge of your seat story that never really stops and never really lets you stop watching. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: March 23, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Denis Villeneuve, Enemy, Isabella Rossellini, Jake Gyllenhaal, Javier Guillon, Melanie Laurent, Sarah Gadon | 1 Comment »
Before I begin, a quiz:
Let’s say that you were watching a movie and you saw someone in said movie that was the spitting image of yourself, and I mean, as far as you can tell, he could be your identical, not fraternal, twin. You know, like in that movie starring Haley Mills (okay, okay, if you really feel the need to brag and say you are too young to have seen that, then the one starring Lindsay Lohen). Would you: Read the rest of this entry »
