From their first moments of preparation for the profession, screenwriters are ingrained with the imperative that they need to be smarter than anybody else on the project. Not more intelligent, or more knowledgeable with respect to all of the talents that must be gathered and exercised to execute their vision. But smarter in the context of knowing every beat of their screenplay backwards. A good screenwriter makes certain that...

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Wow! 86 of these Sunday things. I wonder if it’s time for a new act? Rather than wasting all that time and energy trying to find something that isn’t already viral on the Internet, maybe it’s time to move on. Y’see in American slang “86” means to get rid of something. The term apparently comes from the New York State Liquor Code, Article 86 of which describes the circumstances whereby a patron...

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I did a couple of things that were out of character for me this summer. One was conscious, the other --- not so much. The conscious decision was taking a University course on Hannibal. Ever since I was a kid and saw the absolutely terrible movie version of Hannibal’s war with Rome, starring Victor Mature, I’ve had a fascination with the subject. A couple of times I’ve tried to envision it as a script but couldn’t figure...

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It seems we’ll be back into the never ending Canadian TV Regulation Wars in the coming weeks, with the CRTC now announcing two (“Count ‘em, two!”) sets of Fall hearings on the state of the industry. How often do these guys need to make the same decision, anyway? Is it a Best of Five series? Seven? However, I have to say the field has become more interesting with the arrival of a new player, the Harper Government, who seems to...

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The Emmy Awards will be handed out this evening, celebrating the best the last American TV season had to offer. Some of your favorite shows will be honored. Some of them will be robbed. And twenty years from now, the ones that mattered to you will still hold a special place in your heart. What we watch and why we watch it is always ethereal, always changing. But what remains constant is the drive...

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Since all the working journalists in this city seem to be up to their eyes at the Toronto International Film Festival covering where George Clooney was partying, who that woman with Colin Farrell was and if you could really see Jennifer Connolly’s nipples, the actual research into slightly more important show biz news has fallen to some of us “untrustworthy” scribes on the internet. Last week, Canadian filmmaker John Greyson,...

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Where does inspiration come from?Everywhere.Enjoy your Sunday.Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vim...

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Despite the fact that she has already single-handedly established her blog as the Go-To site for information on Canadian Television, TV, Eh? creator/manager Diane Kristine Wild keeps coming up with new ways of encouraging, coercing and practically bribing people to watch Canadian shows. And not just watch – now she’s looking for reviews, opinions and feedback. Y’know, that stuff us guys in the business need to hear so we can...

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“So where’s the Cannes Film Festival being held this year?”     ---- Christina Aguilera               Movie people have a long history of championing social causes.  Some have been less than laudable. In one of the first successful feature films ever made, D.W. Griffith framed the Ku Klux Klan as the heroes. Leni Riefenstahl used...

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One of the Country DJ’s I listen to recently had a contest to find the song “Guaranteed” to being a tear to your eye. Like everybody who listens to Country music, he’d heard his share of Hurtin’ songs. The genre is simply chock full of lost loves, lost dreams and lost dogs. Every Cowboy roadhouse has a string of selections on the jukebox you hesitate to play because it might strike the wrong chord in the quiet loner sitting...

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