On Writing a Muslim-American Cop Show for HBO

February 11, 2015
Playwright, attorney, new media journalist and consultant Wajahat Ali writes in The Atlantic about his experiences of writing a Muslim-American cop show for HBO alongside Dave Eggers.

"In hindsight, we believe HBO wanted MJ to be “Homeland–meets-The Cosby Show,” but we can’t be sure. They definitely didn’t want “The Wire with Muslims” and they told us that from the beginning. They had no interest in re-treading old ground and we had no interest in duplicating someone else’s narrative. What we did know was that we didn’t want MJ to explore the similar “find the terrorist” national-security terrain of Homeland and 24. Both of those shows had already excelled in that genre."
 

John Byrne in Highland Life

February 10, 2015
There's quite an extensive interview with playwright and artist John Byrne in the latest edition of Highland Life. The tabloids have picked up on his comments about Glasgow School of Art, but the interview cover a lot more topics. You can read the whole thing, and indeed the whole magazine, at this link.

"When I won my first Bafta [For 1987's BBC TV series Tutti Frutti, which scooped six] I'd never heard of the awards. I went into the BBC to talk about the upcoming one, which would be Your Che...
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The Novel in Retreat from Screenwriters

February 9, 2015
Bill Morris in The Millions looks at the Best Adapted Screenplay race at this year's Oscars. He makes the observation that only one script is based on a novel.

"But the novel is now in retreat — and not only in Hollywood — as screenwriters and moviegoers turn their gaze to movies based on established franchises, comic books, graphic novels, musicals, non-fiction books and magazine articles, TV shows, memoirs, and biographies. There’s nothing inherently wrong, or particularly new, about ...
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Darren Hanlon - When You Go

February 8, 2015
This is the video for Darren Hanlon's single 'When You Go'. I'm looking forward to his new album out next month.


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SBIFF 2015 - Writers Panel "It Starts With The Script"

February 7, 2015
At the Santa Barbara International Film Festival Writers Panel several of this year's Oscar nominated writers spoke about their films and their writing process.

Daily Nexus has a summary of the event.

Max Frye (“Foxcatcher”) likes to take an old-fashioned route via yellow legal pad and felt pen. But when he takes it to the computer, the transcript is, in essence, already a rewrite. The blend of old and modern writing tools seems effective, though Frye admitted that procrastination was still...
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20th Century Flicks

February 6, 2015


Following on from my post on Wednesday about Scarecrow Video, the BBC website today has a video feature on 20th Century Flicks, a video shop from Bristol. They still rent VHS tapes and have 18,000 titles on video and DVD. Here it is.

There's also a really good article on them from Rife Magazine (also where I nicked the photograph from.) They were also featured in The Guardian in October 2014.

"Celebrity patrons have included Ken Russell, Paul McGann and Edgar Wright. Simon Pegg still owes a £4...

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Richard Pryor on Sesame Street

February 5, 2015
Richard Pryor recites the alphabet on Sesame Street.


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Scarecrow Video

February 4, 2015
When I lived in Edinburgh I used to go to Alphabet Video. Here you could find all kinds of obscure or out-of-print videos. I remember renting 'Bang The Drum Slowly' from there. Those types of video shops are all but extinct these days. Scarecrow Video in Seattle, Washington is one of those video shops, and appears to be fully operational.

Dave Chen of Slash Film made this entertaining short film about the shop.

Inside Scarecrow Video from David Chen on Vimeo.


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Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now

February 3, 2015
One of my favourite films of last year was The Skeleton Twins. I watched it again the other night. What's now become one of my favourite scenes of all time is the scene where Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig lip-sync to Starship's 1987 hit single 'Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now'. That's the scene below, but you really should watch it within the movie itself. 


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How SNL Sets Get Built

February 2, 2015
Vulture has some behind-the-scenes at Saturday Night Live insight. This is a feature on how the many sets are built for the show. According to designer Joe DeTullio, this week has been less impossible than most.

“We’ve built a lot of castles over the years,” he says. Castles are nothing compared to, say, the exploding whale built for a show in May. (“I was really worried about that one,” says Raywood. “There was going to be guts flying all over the place. But it worked out.”)
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