It’s how Thelma and Louise got made — Iconic Hollywood Golden Age executive Samuel Goldwyn (the G of MGM) was notorious/legendary for his use and, especially, his misuse of the English language. Declining to participate in the production of a particular film, for example, he is reported to have invented the phrase, “Include me out.” On another occasion…

It’s lonely at the top — According to too many critics, if a movie is great, it has to be due to brilliant directing. Likewise, if it’s lousy, it must have been poorly written. Pity poor Peter Berg. He directed 2012’s summer disaster BATTLESHIP. …

Here’s the trick if you want to tell a joke in China — Over the years I have traveled the world lecturing, conducting master classes and seminars. …

Let’s talk about sympathy in screenwriting — Some years ago I addressed an Evangelical Christian convention — five hundred pastors gathered for the weekend in Chicago. Full disclosure: I am not an Evangelical; indeed, I am no kind of Christian. As I told the pastors, I don’t belong to any organized religion — I’m a Jew. So…

Genius requires quality — Einstein told us there is only one constant in the universe, one property that remains unchanged under specific conditions: the speed of light. Al got it wrong, however. There is one more: The Rolling Stones. The first time I saw them was October of 1965, in Syracuse, New York, when…

How about actors and athletes? — More than forty years ago, when I was not a professor but a student, not at UCLA but at USC, I found myself working as Teaching Assistant to the nuttiest professor of them all. Jerry Lewis was teaching a course in directing. As a kid I had laughed myself silly…

If you teach screenwriting, don’t discourage young talents — There is a sorry old joke: those who can, do; those who can’t, teach. Still worse, those who can’t teach, teach teachers. Full disclosure: I write here about teaching teachers. All of the instructors in our Master of Fine Arts screenwriting program at UCLA belong to the Writers Guild of…

It’s not what you know, agents don’t read new writers, and you have to write a happy ending — Here on the range, where the skies are not cloudy all day, we’ve had a fiercely, beautifully wet winter, bringing to an end years of drought, during which time water was increasingly scarce. Myths and hoaxes regarding the entertainment business, however, are forever in ample supply. Let’s review a handful…

It’s probably not what you think — I am beyond excited to announce to my blog post readers and podcast listeners, and anyone else who’ll pay attention, that I’ve signed a contract with Heresy Press for Deadpan, a comic novel treating an unfunny subject: hate speech and bigotry. Keep an eye out for it, come winter. In…