You may be aware that members of the Writers Guild of America are on strike, sending late night talk shows into reruns and threatening the remainder of the television season. I am one of them.
You may have no idea why. Here’s a short video that explains what’s at stake:
No, not books TO movies, books IN movies, used as props or set dressing. Whenever I see a character reading, I want to know what they’re reading. All too often you can’t tell, but when you can, it’s usually informative.
The AMC series “Mad Men” has had some fun book cameos. Set in the 1960s New York City advertising world, the show consciously references books and films of the time. I noticed in the first episode that the main office set appeared to be an imitation of the office in the film version of Rona Jaffe’s The Best of Everything (with lighting and camera angles borrowed from The Apartment). Somewhere around episode 4 or 5, one of the characters is shown reading Jaffe’s book–which, of course, would be true to the time period. Continue reading
I’m often asked what I look for when I evaluate books for the movie biz.
First and foremost, I look for the elements that are important to my employers–things that they are specifically looking for in terms of genre, execution, etcetera. I read for a couple of different places, and each has a slightly different mandate.
In general, in order for a book to become a movie it has to have a strong, forward-moving plot line, and a premise that you can easily picture on a poster or in a TV ad campaign. Deal killers are: Continue reading
Synopsis:
Christine Vachon is an independent film producer, and in this book she tells the story of how she made films like Far From Heaven, Boys Don’t Cry, and more. Continue reading
