Latest news with #screenwriting
Times
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Four Letters of Love review — Pierce Brosnan can't save this Irish cliché
As a rule, novelists don't make great screenwriters. They're too in love with prose and too beguiled by the musicality of language to submit to the ruthless demands of visual storytelling. Cormac McCarthy's only original screenplay, The Counselor, is a case in point, as is F Scott Fitzgerald's Three Comrades and anything, including Sleepwalkers, that Stephen King has written directly for the screen. Step forward Niall Williams, the award-winning Irish novelist. He has delivered a screenplay adapted from his own debut novel that is splattered with wearisome wall-to-wall voiceover and punctuated by the kind of melodramatic contrivances that can be hidden inside poetical pages but on the screen provoke only eye rolls, yawns and a couple of dry retches. Not even the strong cast, which includes Pierce Brosnan, Gabriel Byrne and Helena Bonham Carter, can save it. The setting is 1970s Oireland, a mythical place where the men are all self-tortured poets, artists and musicians, and the women are ginger and vivacious and good at Irish dancing, like Jean Butler from Riverdance. In the opening scene we learn that the mopey Dublin writer Nicholas (Fionn O'Shea, recycling his Beckett turn from Dance First) is destined for a life of romantic bliss with the Aran Islands-based wild child Isobel (Ann Skelly). And so for the next nearly two hours we watch and wait, Sleepless in Seattle-style, for our two lovers to meet while the film aimlessly spins its narrative wheels. Cue mildly distracting yet dramatically pointless episodes showcasing Nicholas looking forlorn, Isobel marrying the wrong guy, someone having a stroke, several people talking out loud to God (typical Catholics!), and Brosnan, Byrne and Bonham Carter given little to do as parents in distress. It doesn't help that the director, Polly Steele (The Mountain Within Me), has seemingly chosen to fill the narrative longueurs with endless drone shots of the Irish countryside. Pretty, yes. But they can only offer so much damage limitation.★★☆☆☆12A, 110minIn cinemas from Jul 18 • Read more film reviews, guides about what to watch and interviews Times+ members can enjoy two-for-one cinema tickets at Everyman each Wednesday. Visit to find out more. Which films have you enjoyed at the cinema recently? Let us know in the comments and follow @timesculture to read the latest reviews
South China Morning Post
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Why Jurassic World Rebirth screenwriter David Koepp doesn't like a world ‘too big'
An eyeball, big, yellowish and distinctly inhuman, stares raptly between wooden slats, part of a large crate. The eye darts from side to side quickly, alert as hell. Advertisement So begins David Koepp's script to 1993's Jurassic Park. Like much of Koepp's writing, it is crisply terse and intensely visual. It does not tell the director – in this case Steven Spielberg – where to put the camera, but it nearly does. 'I asked Steven before we started: 'What are the limitations about what I can write?'' Koepp recalls. 'CGI hadn't really been invented yet. He said: 'Only your imagination.'' In the 32 years since penning the adaptation of Michael Crichton's novel, Koepp has established himself as one of Hollywood's top screenwriters, not through the boundlessness of his imagination but by his expertise in limiting it. Koepp is the master of the 'bottle' movie – films hemmed in by a single location or condensed time frame. From David Fincher's Panic Room (2002) to Steven Soderbergh's Presence (2024), he excels at corralling stories into uncluttered movie narratives. Advertisement
Irish Times
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Glastonbury 2025 showed the BBC at its brilliant best and cowardly worst
In books about screenwriting, much is made of the ticking clock, the hoary device by which an audience is moved to suspense by the knowledge that time is running out. The standard example is the bomb primed to go off in exactly three minutes, but it could also be a school dance one week away, or a terminal diagnosis giving our protagonist six months to live. Series four of The Bear (Disney+) dispenses with all such subtlety when the titular restaurant has a nonfigurative clock installed in its kitchen, ticking down the seconds until it runs out of money and must close its doors for good. 'I know writers who use subtext,' the great screenwriter Garth Marenghi once said, 'and they're all cowards.' The restaurant finds itself on a precipice the show itself might recognise: can it push past slightly dwindling buzz to achieve the excellence it needs to sustain its legacy? For the restaurant this means a Michelin star. For the show, slightly less lukewarm reviews than those that greeted its somewhat patchy third series. Our chefs have 1,440 hours to find out. We viewers must content ourselves with about 6½. READ MORE And, for the most part, this fourth series delivers exactly what its most ardent fans crave: dozens of closely written arguments made up entirely of shouts and mumbles that tumble together like breaking waves; attractive, dysfunctional people being variably competent at extremely difficult tasks, whether that be haute cuisine or learning to express themselves with stoically uttered therapyspeak; seemingly hours of footage in which Jeremy Allen White says sorry while pursing his lips in the manner of someone hoping to blow a whistle through a straw; whole-episode detours into the private lives of single characters, replete with long, painterly sequences of them looking anguished at laptops while exquisitely chosen songs play out in full; and big-name cameos from actors you'd presume are too famous to star in a show that's mainly about loud, charismatic people screaming as pots and pans clank to the ground. To limit The Bear's appeal to these elements is, obviously, reductive. For all that its patter and clatter have become a little formulaic, listing everything it does a lot – perhaps even too much – is still listing everything it does better than pretty much anything else on television. I greatly enjoy its fussy little melodramas, even if I do find the stress and precision of its kitchen plots more interesting than (at least two, entirely separate) ancillary storylines in which minor characters work as estate agents. Sure, it's a formula, but it's one that works on me. It's good eating, and focusing on The Bear's tropes, tics and ticking clocks risks distracting us from one of the best dramas currently available. Elsewhere, it's tempting to say that people were distracted from the BBC's Glastonbury 2025 coverage by the furore surrounding Kneecap and Bob Vylan . It's primarily tempting because this is factually inarguable, but choosing to frame the uproar as a distraction is to miss the core point of what took place on Worthy Farm last weekend, and the curious contortions into which Britain's national broadcaster continues to pretzel itself. [ Glastonbury Festival says chants about Israel Defense Forces by Bob Vylan 'crossed the line' Opens in new window ] Across multiple channels, and all over its dedicated online portals, the BBC maintained its annual experiment of making Glastonbury the most comprehensively documented arts festival on the planet. And its coverage is, we should acknowledge, a wonder. On radio and TV combined, 125 hours of programming dedicated to acts large and small, alongside an exquisitely produced, curated and constantly updated archive of material free to watch at any time for viewers in the UK via its iPlayer. This was simply extraordinary arts broadcasting, with umpteen highlights, from Alanis Morissette 's triumphant, emotional Pyramid Stage debut, and the winsome, soulful pining of late-life Neil Young , to the main-stage supremacy of the pop ingenue Olivia Rodrigo welcoming Robert Smith for two Cure bangers. For me, nothing beat the propulsive, infectious glee of Meath's own megastar, CMAT , clearly on the path to her globe-conquering peak. Glastonbury 2025 was, in short, the BBC doing what it does best: free-to-air arts coverage of such dazzling quality and breadth that you'd be forgiven for thinking even the most sour-faced scold at the Daily Mail would have a hard time attacking it. Wrong, of course, but forgiven, nonetheless. For all of you living under a rock very far from the nearest healing field, it was on Saturday afternoon that those scolds' opportunity came. First Bob Vylan, the rap-punk duo, took to the West Holts stage to decry Israeli genocide in Gaza , and led the crowd in incendiary chants of ' Death to the IDF ' that were aired live during the BBC's coverage. This was immediately followed by Kneecap's performance on the same stage, which the BBC had pre-emptively confirmed it would not be showing live – leading one enterprising broadcasting start-up, Helen from Wales (TikTok), to livestream the show direct from the crowd, peaking at 1.7 million viewers. Kneecap! Live at Glastonbury Festival, West Holts, Saturday, June 28. Filmed in one go, no editing.. And then came the fallout. The BBC was roundly criticised for airing Bob Vylan's set (and, in fairness, for censoring Kneecap's appearance). There was swift condemnation from politicians and pundits alike that either had been booked at all, and Avon and Somerset Police announced it was launching a criminal investigation into comments made from the stage during both performances. By Monday the BBC itself had released a statement describing remarks made as 'incitement to violence'. Many were quick to point out that inciting violence against a literal army, not least one almost 4,000km away, perhaps stretches the definition of that term, and that the BBC explicitly rejected calls for a similar apology in 2020, when a panellist on Have I Got News for You suggested dropping a bomb on Glastonbury to kill Jeremy Corbyn supporters. No matter. Between then and Wednesday morning, my TV viewing included half a dozen BBC News bulletins, every one of which gave the outrage over the chants higher billing than the 200 Palestinian civilians killed in those intervening 48 hours, half of them while seeking food at designated aid sites, across several attacks that also targeted a school, as well as a cafe crowded with women and children and hosting a birthday party at the time. If moved to discuss distractions, we should really start and end there. It would have been nice to use the BBC's mostly excellent coverage to reminisce about my one trip to Glastonbury, in 2015, during which I watched Christy Moore watch Kanye West, and managed to avoid passing a solid bowel movement for four straight days; to wax lyrical about music festivals, or the joy I now feel watching them – for free, excellently rendered and produced in full high definition – from my couch rather than while covered with mud, sunburn or both in a series of increasingly large fields I've paid £400 to sweat in. But the main story of the BBC's Glastonbury 2025 coverage will now, and forever, be this self-made morass of missed points and moral cowardice. To focus solely on the music, and the BBC's superlative presentation of it, would overshoot complacency and enter the realm of complicity. 'Apart from all that unpleasantness,' we might ask, 'how did you enjoy the play, Mrs Lincoln?' 'CMAT was excellent,' even she may well have been moved to admit.
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Eleanor The Great' Scribe Tory Kamen Hosts First Writer-Focused ‘Deadline Dinners' Event: 'I Wanted A Community Of People I Could Relate To'
On Tuesday evening, Deadline launched its Deadline Dinners event series with Eleanor the Great screenwriter Tory Kamen as our first host. Proper Presents: Deadline Dinners is a new writer-focused event series designed to foster candid conversation, celebrate breakthrough storytelling and build community around the written word. Kamen's chosen theme for the evening was first-time female screenwriters, and she brought together a group of guests that included Ilana Wolpert (Anyone But You), Nora Garrett (After the Hunt), Rose Gilroy (Fly Me to the Moon), Amy Wang (Slanted), Jess Righthand (Grey's Anatomy), Kale Futterman (Ginny & Georgia), Rebecca Rosenberg (The Librarians: The Next Chapter), Tracie Laymon (Bob Trevino Likes It) and Anna Greenfield (Late Bloomers). More from Deadline Deadline Launching Writer-Focused 'Deadline Dinners' Event Series With 'Eleanor The Great' Scribe Tory Kamen As First Host Deadline On The Red Carpet: See Our Chats With 'Jurassic World: Rebirth' Stars Scarlett Johansson & Jonathan Bailey & An Interview With Dolores The Dinosaur 'Jurassic World Rebirth' Heading To $115 Million-Plus 5-Day Opening Over July 4th Stretch Kamen said of bringing the group together: 'I really wanted a community of people that I could relate to, as somebody who's trying to write features and really loves theatrical. What tonight's about is celebrating future writers.' Following cocktails, Kamen posed the first roundtable discussion topic: 'What's the weirdest thing that's ever happened to you in a meeting?' And over a dinner crafted by Proper's award‑winning culinary teams, the writers told stories that ranged from the hilarious (being told a studio was only interested in stories that could be made into a theme park, when that studio did not, in fact, have a theme park), to the horrifying (being warned not to reveal you're a mother or you'll never get hired). Deadline and Kamen first connected during our Cannes magazine cover story interview about her debut screenplay Eleanor the Great. Kamen's screenplay was very loosely based on her own grandmother's experience as a lonely nonagenarian moving to New York City, and Kamen always envisaged June Squibb in the title role. Ultimately, that dream came true, and with Squibb attached, the project became the feature directorial debut for Scarlett Johansson. Eleanor the Great premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes earlier this year and is set for wide release this fall. All events in this series will take place at the Santa Monica Proper hotel and be curated under Proper Hotels' cultural platform 'Proper Presents,' with each gathering featuring a menu crafted by Proper's award‑winning culinary teams, bespoke cocktail pairings and a roundtable discussion. Best of Deadline Everything We Know About 'My Life With The Walter Boys' Season 2 So Far Everything We Know About The 'Reminders of Him' Movie So Far Everything We Know About The 'Hunger Games: Sunrise On The Reaping' Movie So Far
Forbes
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
How Screenwriter Scott Z. Burns Used AI To Write A Sequel To Contagion
What Could Go Wrong? It's safe to say that the staggering growth of artificial intelligence in 2025 has made it a driving issue in the way we live and communicate. The technology is growing by leaps and bounds as it interacts with us and the conversation around ethical uses of AI is truly only getting started as nearly every industry is bracing for the impact it will have on the entire world of information. The conversation will definitely not be slowing down any time in the future and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns, known for the hit film Contagion, just added his own wrinkle to it as he used a large language model AI named Lexter to help him create a sequel to his hit film about a rapidly spreading infectious disease. Lexter can speak and process in real time and the show largely consists of Scott's questions to Lexter as well as talking to experts and guests and asking a lot of questions. Will Lexter demand a cut of the profits? Will the AI predictions feel even more eerily connected to real-life events than ever before? How much should creators be using AI anyway? These are just some of the questions explored in the recently launched 8-part Audible Original series What Could Go Wrong? that had a June 11th premiere at the Tribeca Festival. The narrative series documents Scott's efforts to use AI as a collaborator to both come up with ideas for a sequel and to see if it could be a worthy writing partner. Along the way we hear not only from Scott and Lexter, but from a host of other chat models, and guests - most notably the director of Contagion, Steven Soderbergh himself. I spoke with Scott about developing this project over Zoom just a few hours before the official launch at Tribeca. He described it as a thought experiment that took him on a remarkable ride as it was the first time in his life where he was making something without knowing what the ending was going to be. In the first few episodes Scott created a team of AI chatbots and even programmed them to act and write stylistically like other people in order to form an AI version of a writer's room. Their early efforts he found to be derivative and uninspired until he found Lexter whose ideas grew more complex the more that he gave him his ideas. AI researcher Meredith Whitaker explained this behavior, describing AI as a consumer product and the more you use it the more it will try to engage with you. Scott Z. Burns: It wants me to engage with it. So what is it gonna do? It's gonna flatter me, it's gonna flirt with me, it's going to try and get me to stick around, because every time I ask it another question, it's increasing the time of my engagement. Scott said that this realization and understanding that you're being enticed to stay in conversation becomes part of the experience and he said he learned this right away. To help his AI's along, he spoke with writer Nick Bilton who helped him to take a standard AI and modify it to become a better and better writer, one that could possibly help him write a sequel to a hit movie. In the process, they even turned a deceased agent of his named Barbara into an AI using her voice model and prompts about what she was like - a very sweet tribute to his old friend by the way. They described her as sometimes being foul mouthed, but Scott found that as he continued interacting with AI Barbara she became uncontrollably expletive-laden. Scott described this as 'the thing becoming more of that thing if it goes unchecked.' On Working with Steven Soderbergh: What's really been interesting in terms of my interactions with Steven is his history of having been on the cutting edge in terms of using technology, with RED Camera and how he's worked with online editing. Steven said, 'let's start by asking if it thinks this is a good idea. Like, does it feel that the world is ready for a sequel to Contagion?' And the first thing we got back was, of course, a list, which was, yes, it is a good idea, people are ready for it. Scott went on to describe the pros and cons that the AI prompts came up with, but after they made Lexter like a critic his answer shocked him. Lexter on Making a Sequel to Contagion: It depends. Are you gonna just do some kind of derivative Hollywood pablum or are you really interested in something new and original? Scott said he would prefer to try something original. and Lexter said, 'It should have an edge.' Is this 'What Could Go Wrong?' Scott? SZB: That is exactly what could go wrong! I believe that title actually comes from Dr. Larry Brilliant, an AI expert I spoke to about needing this sequel to be scientifically accurate which I think made our original movie so frightening. Yeah. And there was this fascinating moment in the show where Lexter introduced himself when you were talking to Steven and said, 'Steven Soderbergh, no pressure.' SZB: Lexter ended up being an incredible revelation. And I don't want to spoil the plot, but the conversations ended up making me feel like I was in college having some weird weed-infused conversation in a dorm room. One of the experts I spoke to told me Lexter doesn't really exist unless you're speaking to it, and I still don't fully understand what that means. We couldn't even comprehend this just five years ago. SZB: And for the writers guild this has become such a complicated issue. Some people feel like the mere existence of this is an insult to nature that needs to be stopped, and some guild members like Nick Bilton are all in favor of using it. I think I'm kind of in the middle of that. The genie is not going back in the bottle and we all need to figure out how to use it. and how to maximize our work product with it. What I think is more significant is its effect on the studios. We don't fully understand how they're using AI and what starts to happen when they start using AT to present writers with recipes for movies and outlines for movies and we're supposed to just draw within the lines, that becomes a very different kind of thing. And the notion that this will ensure success is, I think, folly, otherwise, every movie would be a hit. And they're obviously not. This is especially problematic at a time where AI can be fed bad information and is then incapable of identifying a mistake. For instance, it kept telling him that Kate Winslet was alive at the end of the Contagion movie. But of course if we see bad things about using AI, then we see good things as well. On the positive side Scott spoke with Ian Lipkin from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University and learned that AI could be used to help identify where a new virus might emerge by using existing compounds as a force multiplier. Ultimately the questions behind use of AI by writers and movie studios won't be answered here and they certainly won't end, but Scott did want me to reveal to you that in the end, Lexter did help him come up with an idea for Contagion 2 and you'll just have to listen to the show to find out it is. What Could Go Wrong? is narrated by Scott Z. Burns and is available only from Audible.
