HOLLYWOODSCRIPT.COM NEWSLETTER

[Craig Kellem]

Welcome to the latest edition of the Hollywoodscript.com Newsletter,
which is published by script consultants Craig Kellem, Judy Kellem
(http://www.hollywoodscript.com <http://www.hollywoodscript.com>

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____________________
HOLLYWOODSCRIPT.COM CONGRATULATES ITS CONSULTATION CLIENT, SERGIO
BAMBAREN AND HIS COMPANY, DOLPHIN FILMS, AS TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX
ACQUIRES NORTH AMERICAN RIGHTS TO BAMBAREN’S SOON TO BE RELEASED FILM,
“THE DOLPHIN, STORY OF A DREAMER”

For Immediate Release

LOS ANGELES, CA November 05, 2009 – Twentieth Century Fox today
announced that the company has acquired North American rights to the
CGI Animated Film, THE DOLPHIN, STORY OF A DREAMER. After the
successful release across Latin America and Brazil, Twentieth Century
decided to extend the distribution agreement to the US and Canada. The
announcement was made today by TCF Senior Vice President of
Acquisitions, Tony Safford. The film is scheduled to be released by
the end of the year.

Produced by Dolphin Films in co-production with Password - Italy and
in association with DDG – Germany, the film is directed by the gifted
filmmaker, Eduardo Schuldt. “THE DOLPHIN, STORY OF A DREAMER”, is a
CGI Animated screen adaptation of the bestselling novel, “The Dolphin:
Story of a dreamer”. Published in 1996 by Sergio Bambaren, the book
has been translated into more than 40 languages and has sold over 15
million copies worldwide.

Regarding this news, Sergio Bambarén, CEO of Dolphin Films, and
producer of the film stated: “This is definitely a dream come true.
When we started as a company almost 4 years ago, we never imagined we
would come this far. But we always believed in our Company´s
philosophy: Make your best effort, love what you do, and never, never
stop dreaming, the rest will come by consequence. I guess time proved
we were right, audiences loved the film in Latin America and they will
love it in the rest of the world as well.¨

THE DOLPHIN shows the magical journey of a teen dolphin named Daniel
who abandons the safety of his pod and ventures into the unknown in
quest of a dream: to discover the true purpose of his life. The
journey won’t be easy: danger and challenges will appear throughout
the journey, as well as friends and enemies; but, Daniel will have to
trust the voice of his heart to accomplish his task.

The deal was brokered on Twentieth Century Fox’s side by Senior Vice
President of Acquisitions, Tony Safford and Vice President of Business
Affairs, Megan O’Brien with Andrew Hurwitz, president of The Film
Sales Company on behalf of the filmmakers.

Sales for the rest of the world are handled by Paris based sales agent
Celluloid Dreams.

Twentieth Century Fox is a unit of Fox Filmed Entertainment, a segment
of the Fox Entertainment Group.

******“Judy, Craig, never forget that this would have never happened
without your wise advice and the wonderful help Judy provided in
writing and editing the English script. It's been real teamwork.
Spread the word in your wonderful newsletter about all the
collaboration you two gave us when the going was tough. Hopefully this
will help your readers realize that nothing is impossible, if you
truly believe in it and you work hard to achieve your dreams.
Sergio Bambarén, CEO of Dolphin Films, and producer of the film***********

# # #

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NEW LIVES
Well, folks, our past Monthly Contest winner, JOANNE WANNAN - whose
winning script on which we consulted was made into a Lifetime
Television Movie in 2006 (OBITUARY) - has done it again! She's just
published a new book entitled, “NEW LIVES: How Rescued Dogs are
Helping, Healing and Giving Hope.” This book offers a collection of
deeply moving stories about dogs that have been rescued from certain
death on the streets or in shelters and are now being trained as
service dogs for the physically and emotionally disabled. We are
pleased to have been able to also consult with her on this fine piece
of work. For details please go to: www.3BlackDogs.org
<http://www.3BlackDogs.org
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COMMITMENT AND PASSION
As we go into our 11th year of this satisfying work, our sense of
commitment and passion remains as hot as it ever was. We help writers
all over the world with both SCRIPT CONSULTATIONS and our WORKS IN
PROGRESS option (which is all about helping with the process of
development . It’s also a fine way to learn more about the craft,
while actually writing something). Our MONTHLY CONTEST (free to
consultation clients) remains an important vehicle for getting worthy
scripts initial industry exposure. And our extensive homegrown,
“USEFUL AND IMPORTANT ARTICLES” section continues to provide lots of
important craft and marketing suggestions for
free--http://www.hollywoodscript.com/articles.html
______________________

MAKE YOUR LIFE BETTER BY THINKING OF IT AS A MOVIE

Mark Miller

One theory about cinema attendance holds that people go to the
movies as an escape from their hum-drum lives. Whether or not this is
true, it's a dangerous theory, and not just because it contains the
term "hum-drum," whose origin cannot be traced to any living or dead
language on this or any other planet.
It's dangerous because it invites continual, depressing comparisons
between your drab life and Julia Roberts' more exciting universe, your
nothing job and Robert Redford's jet-setting, multi-millionaire
status, your husband and Brad Pitt. It's a wonder movie theater
lobbies don't have rows of suicide hotline phone booths.
But don't despair. I have come up with an easy and fun way to
avoid these My Life Bites comparisons, and that is to begin thinking
of your entire life as though it were an actual movie. And not just
"a" movie--a great movie, a thrilling movie, the mother of all movies!
How do you do this? By applying positive quotes, all those
superlatives, from actual movie ads to your own miserable, pathetic,
soul-draining existence.
Try it. You've watched plenty of movies. You've seen a gazillion
movie ads. You have all the raw material at hand to turn your sad,
boring, problem-plagued life into something truly special. At least,
in your own mind. Ladies and gentlemen, what I am proposing is
nothing short of the fact that you have the power to change your own
perception of your own reality. And I'm sure that there are many out
there, even besides the Moody Blues and the various pharmaceutical
companies, who would agree.
Let's take a look at how this might work for an average woman named Kathy...
Monday morning, Kathy wakes up in Movie Quote Mode, looks at
herself in the bathroom mirror, and notes her appearance as
irresistible, delicious, one of the triumphs of the year. She gets
dressed, fixes herself the breakfast of a lifetime, and says good-bye
to her two cats, in a manner that is touching, hilarious, and
unforgettable.
Kathy drives to work, enjoying the coastline view. It is a
must-see view, the view of a lifetime, a view that redefines nature.
Naturally, Kathy arrives at work feeling on top of the world. And why
not? Her job as a factory assembly line worker is something truly
special, an adrenaline rush, pure entertainment.
Delivering a tour-de-force performance on the job, Kathy treats
herself to a lunch which is nothing short of extraordinary, stunning,
magical. Later, Kathy's supervisor takes her aside and informs her
that her on-the-job performance shows off a vibrant intelligence,
demonstrates a virtuoso's exhilarating grasp of all aspects of
assembly line socks packaging, and represents nothing less than the
reinvention of mainstream American factory production.
After work, Kathy enjoys a blind date with a man whose conversation
reveals such depth, wit, and blazing originality that it places him in
the front ranks of American marital possibilities. Kathy isn't just
engrossed by him, she is actually intoxicated by his presence--high on
the discovery of how pleasurable a man can be. Before taking leave,
Kathy admits both to herself and to him that she finds him passionate,
captivating, and gloriously alive.
Stopping for groceries on the way home, Kathy engages the produce
manager in a conversation about the ripeness of the melons. His
discourse on fruit proves to be an absolute laugh riot from beginning
to end. Kathy realizes that she's not just having her question
answered, she's also having a gleefully merry time. She thanks him,
grateful for his rich pockets of humor and sweetness.
Kathy makes one last stop, to pick up the painting she had framed.
She finds it to be an overwhelming vision, pure gold, the single
best-framed painting of the year. At home, Kathy places it on the
wall, steps back, and takes it in. It is even more joltingly alive
now than it was in the store--gripping, grabbing, a head-on collision
of thought-provoking emotions.
As usual, Kathy calls her mother to share the details of her day,
which she describes as the year's most heart-stopping
drama--thrilling, unforgettable, glowing with substance and charm. In
one of their most vibrant and dazzling conversations to date, Kathy
and her mother capture something special between them. It is indeed a
conversation which should be heard by anyone who cares about great
American conversations.
Hungry now, Kathy decides to prepare a pasta dish containing a
mixture of tastes she finds rhapsodic, erotic, and stunning--a
voluptuous blend of seafood and sauces. The meal is a masterwork.
Kathy can't help but shout, "Bravo!" The feeling even carries over to
her doing the dishes, which she finds infectiously entertaining, a
compelling, edge-of-her-seat adrenaline rush.
Moving to her closet, Kathy selects her clothing for tomorrow. She
chooses an old fashioned, romantic dress that sweeps her up in its
grandeur. It is everything you put on a dress for--a feast for the
eyes, the ears, and the heart. Kathy congratulates herself upon once
again choosing an outfit which is rich, understated, delightful, and
seamless.
Suddenly, Kathy hears a strange noise. It is terrifying,
gripping, chilling. The suspense is entertainment of the highest
order. Hearing it does for one-bedroom condos what "Jaws" did for the
beach. Kathy finds herself swept up in its intense, searing,
startling, heart-pounding mystery. When at last she finds it was
only her cat knocking over a vase, Kathy experiences a gleefully merry
time, one of the most memorable relief experiences she's likely to
have this year.
Kathy's nightly flossing session is indeed a towering achievement, a
stylish, fast-paced, slickly energetic rarity which touches her heart
and mind. Kathy's resulting smile is immensely affecting, powerful,
miraculous. Kudos to this contagious, irresistible smile which kicks
off the night on a high note.
Turning to face the full-length mirror, Kathy takes herself in,
pronouncing herself superb, heroic, wonderfully touching, nothing
short of sensational--a woman who celebrates the art of survival, the
gift of laughter, and the miracle of connection. She, truly, is a
woman of the highest order--a bravura, must-see woman. Finally,
intoxicated by the promise of tomorrow, realizing that she is living
the legend in a beguilingly unpredictable fashion, once again, Kathy
gives herself and her life two enthusiastic thumbs up!


Mark Miller has written for TV, movies and celebrities, performed
stand-up comedy, and been a humor columnist for the Los Angeles Times
Syndicate. He can be reached at markmil...@ca.rr.com.

_________
The following article was passed along to us from one of our industry
friends. Thought you might find it interesting…



IT’S NO CONTEST!

In the latest salary tug of war between studios and the talent they
employ, actors and filmmakers are getting less up front. Execs have
all the muscle.

By Patrick Goldstein

It wasn't so long ago that, after putting in years building up his
career, Denzel Washington finally cracked the $20-million star salary
club. But now he's taking a sizable pay cut to star in the upcoming
20th Century Fox film, "Unstoppable" after the studio threatened to
pull the plug on the picture in order to get its costs down.

David Fincher used to make $8 million to $10 million per picture,
along with a nice piece of first-dollar gross, as an A-list director.
But he's taking considerably less money -- and no first-dollar gross
-- to get his new Sony Pictures film, "The Social Network," off the
ground.

The same goes for, "Dinner for Schmucks" star Steve Carell and
director Jay Roach. They may be two of the top comic talents in the
business, but the duo aren't getting their usual salary quotes for the
upcoming Paramount movie. When Julia Roberts told Disney she wouldn't
cut her salary to star in the recent comedy, "The Proposal," the
studio bailed on Roberts, hiring Sandra Bullock for even less than
what it had offered Roberts. The movie turned out to be one of the
summer's biggest comedy hits.

What's going on here? In Hollywood, whenever a studio executive would
sit down to negotiate with an agent for an actor, writer or filmmaker,
one of the first questions volleyed across the table was: What's your
client's quote? If you'd written, directed or starred in a big hit, or
even enjoyed a couple of modest successes in a row, your quote went
up. And unless you ran off to make some nutty labor-of-love indie film
where everyone committed suicide in the third act, your salary level
was assured. That quote stuck like glue. Even after a few stinkers, a
big star could still get their $15- or $20-million fee.

Not anymore. For basically everyone except Will Smith, salary quotes
have evaporated, simply vanishing into thin air, as have the
much-coveted first-dollar gross deals that top actors and filmmakers
used to get. As one successful producer put it: "Quotes and
first-dollar gross have just flown out the window -- the studios
simply won't make those deals anymore," he explained. "It's all about
what the role is worth in that particular movie. The studio pays for
the lead actor or actress, but after that, well, the talent is just
getting grinded. Everyone else is lucky to be working."

(You'll notice that no one is quoted by name here because, in addition
to the natural Hollywood aversion to talking about salaries, the
studio chiefs don't want to look like they're gloating about reining
in talent costs -- although they often are, gloating that is -- while
the agents and managers don't want their clients to think that they've
been largely powerless to stop the new austerity measures, for fear
that their talent will skedaddle to another agency.)

In Hollywood the new mantra is: "cash break zero." Instead of paying
out first-dollar gross, where top talent would start collecting huge
wads of cash right off the top from the very first box-office
receipts, the studios are now constructing deals where the talent
participates in the profits from a film only after the studio has
recouped both its production and marketing costs. The new arrangement
can still lead to huge windfalls -- in part because the studios are
now giving top talent a far bigger piece of the home video take than
they could get before. But the talent only reaps the rewards if they
are willing to bet on themselves and can deliver a hit.

Just ask Michael Bay, who has boasted that he made $80 million from
his share of the box office (and merchandising) from the first,
"Transformers" film. Director Todd Phillips is also enjoying a
lucrative payday from Warners after making, "The Hangover," where he
gave up a chunk of his up-front salary in return for a bigger piece of
the back end. But not every movie is a monster hit. In the new "cash
break zero" universe, if a film flops, or simply underperforms, the
star isn't walking away with the first batch of money that comes
rolling in. If the studio doesn't get to its break-even point, the
talent (except for their reduced up-front salary) is walking away
empty-handed.

Why did the movie studios finally get tough with talent? And is this
really good for the movie business? Bad for talent? Or just a rare
sign of fiscal sanity?

In Hollywood, everything revolves around leverage. When the business
was flush (and at some point, it will be again), talent had the edge.
If one studio wouldn't do a deal, usually someone else surely would.
But in lean times, it's the studios who have all the muscle. While
some talent reps smell collusion, it's more likely that the talent is
being hurt because of the way film budgets are put together. At its
most basic, a movie has below-the-line costs and above-the-line costs.
Below-the-line costs are basically the actual production expenditures
on a film, including special effects, soundstage rentals and crew
salaries.

Shift in Power

Those are essentially fixed costs -- call them unmovable parts --
whether it's union salaries for the crew or the cost of filming each
day, either on location or at a studio soundstage or special effects
house. Since no one wants to rob a movie of its production value,
which is ultimately what wows an audience, a studio can't simply say,
"Shoot the picture in 60 days instead of 80." So when a studio tells a
producer to cut 10% out of a film's budget, guess what gets cut? The
negotiable part: the cost of talent.

So today, the actors who used to make $15 million are making $10
million. The filmmakers who used to make $10 million are making $6
million. The writers who used to get a three-step deal, guaranteeing
payments on a series of rewrites, now get one. As one prominent agent
put it: "In terms of prices and quotes, everyone is in free fall. It's
just brutal out there. The balance of power has totally shifted from
our side to their side."

Studio chiefs say that in the old days -- meaning five years ago --
everyone was enjoying boom times. Year after year, DVD revenues kept
soaring. In an up market, it was easy to be generous with back-end
profits, since it looked like there was plenty of profit to go around.
The studios didn't mind if the talent got rich, just as long as it
wasn't at the studios' expense. But times have changed.

"Two years after you'd made a movie, you'd look at the P&L [profit and
loss] statement and the numbers always turned out better than they
were when you'd greenlit the movie," says one top studio executive.
"Even a movie that you'd thought was a break-even proposition turned
out to be a nice moneymaker. But now it's the complete opposite. The
DVD revenues keep going down. You look at a movie two years later and
the numbers aren't anywhere near where you'd originally projected
them. When the Walt Disney Co. reports earning losses in back-to-back
quarters, it's very compelling evidence that the entire business is in
trouble."

The steep downturn in the DVD market, where revenues are down close to
25%, might have been enough in itself to prompt studios to get tough
with talent. But with marketing costs still skyrocketing, with the
collapse of the capital markets leading to far less money pouring in
to help studios assemble film slates, something had to give. According
to another popular theory, the writers strike turned out to be
incredibly bad for talent -- notably writers -- since the months of
enforced production stoppages gave studios a rare opportunity to sit
back and analyze their business, a process that had especially
disturbing consequences for talent.

"It's never a good thing when studios have time to think, especially
if they're going to be thinking -- exactly why are we paying all these
people all this money?" one top talent rep said. "They started looking
at their overall TV and movie deals and before you knew it, a ton of
talent had lost their deals, because the studios had the time to study
who'd actually made them money and who hadn't delivered the goods."

New Austerity

The end result is a huge recalibration of the money being paid out to
talent, especially in an era where a surprisingly large percentage of
the biggest hit films, such as, "Up," "The Hangover," "Star Trek" and
"Transformers," are star-free movies, potential franchises that
involve interchangeable parts. There are some who see this new
austerity as a potential boost for creativity. If studios can make
movies for less money, in theory the studios who still retain any
artistic ambitions -- all two of them -- could green-light some
riskier, more filmmaker-friendly efforts, knowing that the price tag
would be far less than it was a few years ago.

But right now everyone is still trying to get their bearings. In the
old days -- like 2005 -- when a studio chief told a talent agent that
his meal ticket would be taking a pay cut, the agent would act
offended, loudly complaining that the studio's offer was an insult.
The star would never stand for that kind of abusive treatment.

But today? "Everyone has been going through all the stages, from
denial to anger to rationalization to acceptance," says one high-level
studio executive. "But the world has really changed. I think most of
the talent is in the acceptance stage now."
_________________

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