HEY! WE ALL HAD TO START SOMEWHERE: an interview with Nicole Jones-Dion, author of Dracula-The Dark Prince and Tekken 2

This is the next post in a series of interviews with writers who have had their first films, web series, television assignment, etc. make it to the big or small or computer screen. It is an effort to find out what their journey was to their initial success.

First, a word from our sponsors. I am now offering a new service: take the Howard Casner 20 pages for $20.00 screenplay challenge. So much emphasis has been given lately to the importance of the opening of your screenplay, I now offer coverage for the first twenty pages at the cost of $20.00.  For those who don’t want to have full coverage on their screenplay at this time, but want to know how well their script is working with the opening pages, this is perfect for you.  I’ll help you not lose the reader on page one.

Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r

and check out my Script Consultation Services: http://ow.ly/HPxKE

 

 

Next up: an interview with Nicole Jones-Dion, author of Dracula-The Dark Prince and Tekken 2

 

Nicole Jones-Dion is an award-winning screenwriter who specializes in genre films. After starting out in the video game industry, she then segued into comics, television and film. Her feature credits include DRACULA – THE DARK PRINCE, starring Academy Award-winner Jon Voight; and TEKKEN 2, based on the best-selling martial arts video game. She has also written on assignment for producers Sean Cunningham (FRIDAY THE 13TH), Mark Lester (COMMANDO), and Barney Cohen (SABRINA THE TEENAGED WITCH), among others.

 

1. What is the name of your first screenplay that was produced, or your first project that was produced, or your first writing assignment?

My very first writing assignment was for Kickstart Entertainment (the company that produced WANTED, starring Angelina Jolie). My manager told them I had a background in comics, so they sent me a box full of graphic novels that they’d optioned and asked if I’d be interested in adapting one of them to the screen. The one that really jumped out at me was a psychological thriller about a girl with multiple personalities called THE SCRIBBLER by Daniel Schaffer. Even after Kickstart’s option expired, I was still very passionate about the material. Flash forward a few years, and I introduced it to New Artists Alliance and Caliber Media who ultimately produced a film with Katie Cassidy (from ARROW) playing the lead.

A TALE OF TWO JESSES: American Ultra and The End of the Tour

First, a word from our sponsors: I am now offering a new service: so much emphasis has been given lately to the importance of the opening of your screenplay, I now offer coverage for the first twenty pages at the cost of $20.00.  For those who don’t want to have full coverage on their screenplay at this time, but want to know how well their script is working with the opening pages, this is perfect for you.  I’ll help you not lose the reader on page one. 

 

Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r

 

and check out my Script Consultation Services: http://ow.ly/HPxKE

 

Warning: SPOILERS

I’ve always had mixed feelings about the actor Jesse Eisenberg. His stuttering performances, his “gee gosh” can’t look you in the face acting technique, his off beat visage, have actually, if I must be honest, and I guess I must, I must, put me off at the beginning and often quite annoyed me.

And, as I also said to my friends: Aren’t Jesse Eisenberg, Michael Cera and Paul Dano actually the same person? I mean, have you ever seen them in a room together?

As time has gone on, as time is want to do, as we know from Casablanca, and as Eisenberg has made more and more interesting choices in film roles (from The Squid and the Whale to The Social Network to Night Moves to The Double), he’s sort of won me over and I even look forward to his next endeavor.

Well, his next endeavor, nay, endeavors, we now have, and they come in the form of two new films: American Ultra and End of the Tour.

American Ultra is about a slacker, stoner Peter Pan, called Mike, who works at a convenience store in a small town that he can’t seem to leave because he has an agoraphobic reaction whenever he tries. He lives with a long suffering girlfriend Phoebe who he has decided to ask to marry him. But something happens that causes his best laid plans to go awry.

My recommendations for movie watching this week in L.A. 8/29-9/4/2015

First, a word from our sponsors: I am now offering a new service: so much emphasis has been given lately to the importance of the opening of your screenplay, I now offer coverage for the first twenty pages at the cost of $20.00.  For those who don’t want to have full coverage on their screenplay at this time, but want to know how well their script is working with the opening pages, this is perfect for you.  I’ll help you not lose the reader on page one. 

 

Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r,

 

And check out my script consultation services http://ow.ly/HPxKE

My recommendations for movie watching this week in L.A. 8/29-9/4/2015

ON NETFLIX: Marvin’s Room, written by Scott McPherson from his own play and directed by Jerry Zaks, is an often funny, but also deeply moving movie about love and death, so of course it stars Diane Keaton (who battles it out with co-star Meryl Streep for acting recognition—Keaton got the Oscar nom, Streep the Golden Globe). Bessie needs a bone marrow transplant so she looks to her estranged sister Lee and her troubled nephew Hank. The cast is filled out with Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Hume Cronym, Gwen Verdon, Dan Hedaya, Margo Martindale and Cynthia Nixon.

ON HULU: In Belle de Jour, the ravishing Catherine Deneuve plays a housewife who can’t bring herself to sleep with her husband so she works afternoons being ravished as a prostitute. Leave it to sly, naughty writer/director Louis Bunuel to come up with this one, with screenplay help by one of the finer European screenwriters Jean-Claude Carriere.

SPECIAL SHOWINGS: Nuart Theater is showing Forbidden Games, the classic French film about a little girl orphaned by an air raid during WWII who ends up living with the family of a young boy. They become fast friends and try to come to terms with death by creating rituals and a cemetery for dead animals. Georges Poujouly, who played the boy, later appeared in such classics as Elevator to the Gallows and Diabolique, and Brigitte Fossey, the little girl, was later seen in films like The Man Who Loved Women and Cinema Paridiso. The director Rene Clement also directed Purple Noon and Joy House.

FIRST RUN and OPENING: Z for Zachariah; American Ultra; Grandma; Straight Outta Compton; Mistress America; Shaun the Sheep Movie; Diary of a Teenage Girl; Ricki and the Flash; The Gift; Cop Car; Tangerine; Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation; I Touched All Your Stuff; Butterfly Girl; The Second Mother

BOYS WILL BE BOYS: Goodnight Mommy and Cop Car

First, a word from our sponsors: I am now offering a new service: so much emphasis has been given lately to the importance of the opening of your screenplay, I now offer coverage for the first twenty pages at the cost of $20.00.  For those who don’t want to have full coverage on their screenplay at this time, but want to know how well their script is working with the opening pages, this is perfect for you.  I’ll help you not lose the reader on page one. 

 

Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r

 

and check out my Script Consultation Services: http://ow.ly/HPxKE

 

Warning: SPOILERS

Kids. Can’t live with them. Can’t kill them…or can you? Well, in two new movies with young boys as central characters, infanticide might not be such a bad idea because if you don’t, they might get you first.

Cop Car is a nice, tight little thriller about two pre-teens who are wandering across some wide open spaces common in their part of the country. They seem to have run away for some reason which is never explained (there’s a lot that is never explained in the movie, which is fine, since such explanations are often irrelevant as it is and would only get in the way).

They come upon an abandoned cop car, the sheriff nowhere in sight, find keys in it and, hey, boys being boys, they go joy riding…unaware that there is a body in the trunk.

Okay, I’m sorry, but this is a pretty neat set up for a couple of hours in the theater and the movie does an excellent job of fulfilling all expectations. It’s one of those films that doesn’t really do anything, but in the end, whatever it doesn’t do, it certainly does it rather well.

HEY! WE ALL HAD TO START SOMEWHERE: an interview with Hernando Bansuelo and Josh Watson, writers of A Reunion

This is the next post in a series of interviews with writers who have had their first films, web series, television assignment, etc. make it to the big or small or computer screen. It is an effort to find out what their journey was to their initial success.

First, a word from our sponsors. I am now offering a new service: take the Howard Casner 20 pages for $20.00 screenplay challenge. So much emphasis has been given lately to the importance of the opening of your screenplay, I now offer coverage for the first twenty pages at the cost of $20.00.  For those who don’t want to have full coverage on their screenplay at this time, but want to know how well their script is working with the opening pages, this is perfect for you.  I’ll help you not lose the reader on page one.

Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r

and check out my Script Consultation Services: http://ow.ly/HPxKE

 

Next up: an interview with Hernando Bansuelo and Josh Watson, writers of A Reunion

Hernando Bansuelo

Hernando Bansuelo holds an MFA in Film and TV Production from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts and holds a BA in Stage Directing from UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television. His debut feature, A REUNION, produced under his production banner, Tricoastal Entertainment, during his final year in film school, will be released theatrically and digitally in September 2015. It is Executive Produced by the Ebersole Hughes Company (ROOM 237, HIT SO HARD).

His work has screened in Cannes, South Africa, Iceland, the UK, the Bahamas, and across the US. Hernando also has been a three time Sundance Screenwriters Lab 2nd Round Finalist and is currently developing a sci-fi epic (MONARCH, winner of the Silver Prize in Science Fiction at the 2014 Beverly Hills Screenplay Contest), GET CLOSE (about stage and screen legend Glenn Close) and several other projects.

With extensive industry experience, he has worked in production offices (Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center, Mike Nichols’ Charlie Wilson’s War, Noah Baumbach’s Margot at the Wedding), on-set with large-scale filmmakers (James Foley’s Perfect Stranger, NBC’s Lipstick Jungle) and completed A-list internships (Playtone Productions – Hanks and Goetzman, Double Feature Films – Sher and Shamberg). The award-winning filmmaker has also participated in the Ingmar Bergman immersion program at Sweden’s Lund University, the Reykjavik International Film Festival’s Talent Lab, and Film Independent’s Project:Involve. He recently completed THE DADDY (ANG TATAY), a hybrid documentary short set in the Philippines.

 

Josh Watson

Under his production banner, TriCoastal Entertainment, co-founded with life and professional partner, Hernando Bansuelo, Josh Watson has produced about a dozen short films and the feature, A REUNION. The film is to be released in fall, 2015 after having been acquired by distribution company, Ariztical Entertainment.

Watson attended Loyola University Chicago (graduating Magna Cum Laude and gaining entrance to Phi Beta Kappa), where his wide ranging liberal studies included film, theater, political science and social justice. After graduation, Josh served two years with the AmeriCorps program, completing community service projects with neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, California. While in LA, he also began building a professional acting resume that included playing a lion in the LA Opera’s version of THE MAGIC FLUTE (Dorothy Chandler Pavilion), as well as a suspected killer in Timothy Folsome’s hip-hop horror flick, CUTTHROAT ALLEY. Josh, a member of SAG-AFTRA, continued studying acting at UCLA under the tutelage of Kim Darby, Paul Napier, and Robert Thompson.

Josh is thrilled that his next feature, AMERICAN JOHN, sheds light on the racial and class inequities that pervade this country and provides an inspirational story of perseverance and breakthrough.

 

1. What is the name of your first screenplay that was produced, or your first project that was produced, or your first writing assignment?

A REUNION is our first screenplay that has been produced. And for it to receive theatrical and digital distribution and be out in the world is nothing short of a miracle.

Our limited theatrical run begins on Friday, September 18^th through 24^th at the Laemmle’s Music Hall in Beverly Hills, you can purchase tickets here:

http://www.laemmle.com/films/39631

That will be followed by a digital and DVD release later this fall.

Check out our Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCHdQwVh5PY

My recommendations for movie watching this week in L.A. 8/21-8/29/2015

First, a word from our sponsors: I am now offering a new service: so much emphasis has been given lately to the importance of the opening of your screenplay, I now offer coverage for the first twenty pages at the cost of $20.00.  For those who don’t want to have full coverage on their screenplay at this time, but want to know how well their script is working with the opening pages, this is perfect for you.  I’ll help you not lose the reader on page one. 

 

Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r,

 

And check out my script consultation services http://ow.ly/HPxKE

My recommendations for movie watching this week in L.A. 8/21-29/2015

ON NETFLIX: In The Grifters, screenplay by Donald E. Westlake (from a book by Jim Thompson) and directed by Stephen Frears (both of whom received Oscar nominations), a son, his girlfriend and his mother all support themselves by conning until they start conning each other. One of Frears’ best films and wonderfully acted by Angelica Huston, Annette Benning (both of whom received Oscar nominations) and John Cusack. For those who like their neo-noir nasty.

ON HULU: For those horror fans out there, Georges Franju’s Eyes Without a Face could be one of the more unnerving films in this genre. A surgeon kidnaps young women and removes their faces so he can try and graft them onto his daughter. Very graphic at times. A classic French film.

FIRST RUN and OPENING: American Ultra; Grandma; Straight Outta Compton; Mistress America; Shaun the Sheep Movie; Diary of a Teenage Girl; Ricki and the Flash; The Gift; We Come as Friends; Cop Car; Best of Enemies; Listen to Me Marlon; Phoenix; The End of the Tour; Tangerine; Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation

BULLY, BULLY and WOOLY, WOOLY: The Gift and Shaun the Sheep Movie

First, a word from our sponsors: I am now offering a new service: so much emphasis has been given lately to the importance of the opening of your screenplay, I now offer coverage for the first twenty pages at the cost of $20.00.  For those who don’t want to have full coverage on their screenplay at this time, but want to know how well their script is working with the opening pages, this is perfect for you.  I’ll help you not lose the reader on page one. 

 

Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r

 

and check out my Script Consultation Services: http://ow.ly/HPxKE

 

Warning: SPOILERS

There’s a very telling scene and line in The Gift, the new thriller written, directed and starring Australian jack of all trades Joel Edgerton (you know, just because you’re from another country doesn’t mean you can’t leave a few jobs for the locals, mate).

Husband and wife Simon and Robyn have recently moved to California for Simon’s new job. The town is Santa Clarita (if my memory serves) where Simon grew up and went to school. While out shopping the couple run into Gordo, an old classmate of Simon’s, someone Simon claims he can barely remember, though Gordo seems to have no trouble remembering Simon.

Gordo suddenly starts showing up at the couple’s house with gifts, though it’s hard to tell whether he’s creepy or just socially awkward. But one night he leaves after having been invited to dinner (well, has sort of forced them to invite him to dinner) and Simon says there is something odd about him.

The reason this is telling is because it is also somewhat ironic since, by this time, it’s rather clear that there is something odd about Simon.

HEY! WE ALL HAD TO START SOMEWHERE: an interview with Jim Vines, writer of The Perfect Tenant

This is the next post in a series of interviews with writers who have had their first films, web series, television assignment, etc. make it to the big or small or computer screen. It is an effort to find out what their journey was to their initial success.

First, a word from our sponsors. I am now offering a new service: so much emphasis has been given lately to the importance of the opening of your screenplay, I now offer coverage for the first twenty pages at the cost of $20.00.  For those who don’t want to have full coverage on their screenplay at this time, but want to know how well their script is working with the opening pages, this is perfect for you.  I’ll help you not lose the reader on page one.

Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r

and check out my Script Consultation Services: http://ow.ly/HPxKE

 

 

Next up: an interview with Jim Vines writer of The Perfect Tenant

Jim Vines—whose parents were both in the film and TV industries—was born in New York City and grew up in Beverly Hills. Jim fell in love with filmmaking at the age of eleven and hasn’t looked back since. After working various jobs in the film industry (grip, stuntman, still photographer), Jim settled into the life of screenwriting in the early 1990s. In 2006 he published Q & A: The Working Screenwriter, which is comprised of interviews with 16 screenwriters. In April 2015 he published his first novel, Luigi’s Chinese Delicatessen.  Most recently he has co-wrote House at the End of the Drive.

 

 

1. What is the name of your first screenplay that was produced, or your first project that was produced, or your first writing assignment?

 

The first script I had produced was The Perfect Tenant. It was a thriller that made its debut on HBO and Cinemax back in 2000. It’s been playing on cable all over the world ever since.

 

 

2. Can you tell us a bit about the journey as to how it came about?

 

In 1995 I sent a producer one of my scripts. He liked the script but wasn’t able to do anything with it. He remembered me a year later when he needed a writer to do a rewrite on a thriller script. I did the rewrite for him (basically a page one rewrite) and he submitted the script to a production company he was dealing with. They bought the script soon thereafter. It all happened fairly quickly.

My recommendations for movie watching this week in L.A. 8/14-8/21/2015

First, a word from our sponsors: I am now offering a new service: so much emphasis has been given lately to the importance of the opening of your screenplay, I now offer coverage for the first twenty pages at the cost of $20.00.  For those who don’t want to have full coverage on their screenplay at this time, but want to know how well their script is working with the opening pages, this is perfect for you.  I’ll help you not lose the reader on page one. 

 

Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r,

 

And check out my script consultation services http://ow.ly/HPxKE

My recommendations for movie watching this week in L.A. 8/14-21/2015

ON NETFLIX: Directed by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker and written by the three along with Martyn Burke, Top Secret!, a satire of cold war/teen idol movies, follows Airplane by a few years. It’s not quite as uproariously funny, but it has a lot going for it. It makes fun of clichés one didn’t realize were clichés. Val Kilmer is the lead; he looks the part, but is a bit of a stick in the mud acting wise. But still, a fun movie.

 

ON HULU: Writer/director Ingmar Bergman made very few comedies. A Lesson in Love is one of his first and is probably his funniest. It’s about a gynecologist and his wife who are considering divorcing, but as in The Awful Truth, they may realize that they love each other too much, and for better and worse. It seems heavily inspired by Preston Sturgess, especially a scene with a noose. An absolute delight.

 

FIRST RUN and OPENING: Straight Outta Compton; Mistress America; People Places Things; Cop Car; Shaun the Sheep Movie; Diary of a Teenage Girl; Ricki and the Flash; The Gift; Best of Enemies; Listen to Me Marlon; Phoenix; The End of the Tour; Tangerine; Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation.

BORN AGAIN or PHOENIX IS AS PHOENIX DOES: Phoenix and Irrational Man

First, a word from our sponsors: I am now offering a new service: so much emphasis has been given lately to the importance of the opening of your screenplay, I now offer coverage for the first twenty pages at the cost of $20.00.  For those who don’t want to have full coverage on their screenplay at this time, but want to know how well their script is working with the opening pages, this is perfect for you.  I’ll help you not lose the reader on page one. 

 

Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r

 

and check out my Script Consultation Services: http://ow.ly/HPxKE

 

Warning: SPOILERS

In the U.S., much has been made of the lack of women’s roles in film, especially as they reach, in movie terms, the unmagical age of 40. There are many reasons for this, but the main one, I suggest, is that American filmmakers (directors, writers, producers) seem to have absolutely no interest in creating movies with women as central characters.

Though I’m not saying this isn’t a problem everywhere, it does seem to be far worse in the U.S. In other countries, especially of the European variety, for whatever reason (perhaps a topic for another time), actresses of all ages, but especially older ones, don’t seem to have that serious of a problem in this area.

In fact, it is not unusual for directors overseas to constantly use the same actress over and over again, often creating roles and movies as vehicles for them. Claude Chabrol loved, while Michael Haneke loves, using Isabel Huppert. André Téchiné seems to worship the ground that Catherine Deneuve walks on. Francois Ozon has a thing for Charlotte Rampling. And who can forget Lars Von Trier’s constant use of Charlotte Gainsborough.

And from Germany we have writer/director Christian Petzold who has little trouble finding interesting and effective roles for his latest muse: Nina Hoss (quickly becoming one of the world’s more impressive actors). Together they have made several films, from the existential Yella; the unofficial remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice, Jerichow; the cold war thriller, Barbara; and now the Holocaust drama, Phoenix.