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The 2023 writers strike has focused attention on recent developments like artificial intelligence and the transition to streaming.

But for film writers, the key issue in the strike has been a constant battle for more than a generation: How do you get paid for a script once it’s finished?

Screenwriters have long been asked to do free revisions before turning in a “first draft” to the studio, which triggers payment. Typically they agree, even though the Writers Guild of America contract sets out minimum rates for revisions and polishes.

“I have boxes of scripts in my garage that are just draft after draft after draft,” said Emily Fox, a WGA strike captain who was walking the picket lines last week. “And it was all ‘first draft.’ But it was like First Draft A, First Draft B. But if they’re like, ‘You’re not ready to hand it in,’ then...

Netflix giveth and Netflix taketh away.

While everyone's favorite subscription streaming service is adding a ton of awesome movies and TV shows in December, it's also yanking a huge list of popular titles from its library. Below is said list. I'm especially sad to see "Dirty Dancing" and "The Talented Mr. Ripley" go. Those movies are the sh...

Watch them while you can!

Movies Being Dropped by Netflix on December 1st

"1941" (1979)

"The Apostle" (1997)

"Audrey Rose" (1977)

"The Believers" (1987)

"Better than Chocolate" (1999)

"Blood & Chocolate" (2007)

"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" (2008)

"Chaplin" (1992)

"The Choirboys" (1977)

"The Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County" (1970)

"Coffee and Cigarettes" (2003)

"The Cold Light of Day" (1996)

"The Constant Gardener" (2005)

"Count Yorga, Vampire" (1970)

"Cry-Baby" (1990)

"Dirty Dancing" (1987)

"Double Indemnity" (1944)

"En la Cama" (2005)

"Event Horizon" (1997)

"Eye for an Eye" (1996)

"Fairy Tale: A True Story" (1997)

"First Knight" (1995)

"Five Easy Pieces" (1970)

"Foreign Student" (1994)

"Free Men" (2011)

"Funny Lady" (1975)

"The Ghost and Mrs Muir" (1947)

"The Girl from Petrovka...

Thursday, November 1st and Friday Nov 2nd during the 2012 American Film Market for its third year in a row, DreamAgo, in partnership with Hamilton International, the renowned Swiss watch company, will host "Hamilton Helps DreamAgo Connect". Known for its annual Plume & Pellicule screenwriting workshop held annually in Sierre, Switzerland and for the development, support and promotion of films that make a difference, the program has 3 key phases.

First phase is a speed dating-style pitch session designed to introduce selected screenwriters, who benefitted from DreamAgo's screenwriting lab in Switzerland, to well-known producers and distributors.  Screenwriters in attendance will have 10 minutes with a producer to present their project before moving on to the next producer and starting again.  Among the producers participating are Linda Obst (Hope Floats, Sleepless In Seattle, How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days), Golan Ramras (One Missed Call, The Incredible Hulk), Kelley Feldsott Reynolds (The Flyboys, The Unsaid, Five Fingers), Sukee Chew (Jesus Henry Christ, Fireflies In The Garden), Christina Piovesan (Red Lights, The Whistleblower, Amreeka), Paula Mazanedo-Schmit (VP Film Finances Inc.), David Miller (Amal Sidarth, My Foolish Heart) and Vanessa Adkins (Unthinkable, A Late Quartet). 

Second, the program offers the opportunity for any WGA writer to propose a feature project and try to win a six weeks Residency in Sierre (Switzerland), all costs covered. Among the more than 250 pitches submitted, DreamAgo & the Residence Ruffieux will select 15 projects and each of the writers will be given the opportunity to pitch it in person for 10 minutes. The lucky winner will be revealed during a brunch at the Swiss Consulate.

Third, DreamAgo will present a panel, in partnership with The Writers Guild of America,  the topic this year:  How to Preserve Your Vision When Those Around You Won't Leave It Alone? (Hint: An International Production Might Be Your Solution), on Friday, November 2nd. Panelists confirmed for this event include Barry Navidi (Producer, The Merchant Of Venice, Wild Salome), Sydney Levine (Creator of Sydney's Buzz a Network Blog on Indiewire, Founder of Film Finders), Vince Fischer (International Agent, Creator of the International Eci Agency), and Neil Landau (Writer, Tad The Lost Explorer).

Writer Howard Rodman (Joe Gould'S Secret, Savage Grace) will serve as moderator.

Additionally, DreamAgo will also have a part in the celebrated Hamilton Behind the Camera Awards that pay tribute to the off-screen talents. The 6th edition will take place in Hollywood on October 28, just prior to the start of Afm.  DreamAgo, in collaboration with Hamilton, has selected Zoe Kazan to receive the Best Screenwriter Award for Ruby Sparks. The award will be presented by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, the filmmaking duo behind Little Miss Sunshine.

About Dreamago:

DreamAgo is a nonprofit organization that brings together film professionals of all nationalities: screenwriters, directors, producers and distributors.  Its purpose is to nurture and promote the creation of cinematic works on all continents, offering support at each stage of their development. In short: from script to screen. DreamAgo was founded in February 2005 by Pascale Rey and Soula Saad.

About Hamilton:

Hamilton was founded in 1892 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA. Hamilton watches combine the American spirit with the unrivalled precision of the latest Swiss movements and technologies.  Known for its innovative design, Hamilton has a strong foothold in Hollywood, with products appearing in over 300 films. The brand also boasts a strong aeronautical heritage.  Hamilton is a member of the Swatch group, the largest watch manufacturer and distributor in the world with 160 production sites in Switzerland.

The fact that the cast of "The Hunger Games" has on-screen talent is a no-brainer. Just look at their Oscar cred!

That bunch knows how to sizzle before the camera. But did you know Jennifer Lawrence (Katniss Everdeen) can also air-puppetteer her own face? Or that Josh Hutcherson (Peeta Mellark) can make an insane cricket chirping noise on cue? Or that Liam Hemsworth (Gale Hawthorne) can perform magic tricks for a crowd?

Just watch this throwback interview with Yahoo! UK.

The vid got us thinking about what other talents the "Hunger Games" gang have up their sleeves, so we did a little digging and found out that some members of the cast have a knack for sports, music, fine cuisine and more.

Jennifer Lawrence

She might've made her big splash in Hollywood by portraying a sober down-but-not-out Appalachian in "Winter's Bone," but Jennifer Lawrence is known to be quite the free-flowing chatterbox.

The picture business regards Patricia Clarkson as not content to mouth the stupid lines beautiful women are expected to believe in

For more than 20 years, a piquant added pleasure in film-going has been waiting for Patricia Clarkson to turn up for a few scenes, or even more. It's a rare thing for her to coast or do anything other than suggest an untidy life in wild bloom behind her few lines. And not many actresses of any age can shift from amiable to crazed, or from kind to intimidating, so fast. So, in Lone Scherfig's One Day, we sigh with gratification when we realise that the hero's mother, dying of cancer and having to be carried to bed, is Clarkson. We are not let down; even in her crisis, this mother has the lemon gaze and the fond but astringent voice that can survey her son (Jim Sturgess) and...

A friend suggested to me Tina Fey might be a young Woody Allen in the making. I get the feeling this funny woman is avoiding centre stage

Everyone loves Tina Fey, and that can be hard. "Everyone" is no exaggeration. At 40, Fey has won seven Emmys, four Screen Actors Guild awards and four Writers Guild prizes. Three times People magazine has listed her in the 100 Most Beautiful People (she's pretty, I know – but does People really search?). She has her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2010, she got the Mark Twain prize for American Humor.

"Everyone"? Well, maybe not Sarah Palin, the object of Fey's sharp impersonations. And yet, perhaps, Palin grins at every cut. Do you sometimes have the horrid feeling that the Fey wit (take that as you like) is only helping to broadcast Palin and play into the sensitivities of those who might vote for her?...

Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci share more in common than critical accolades and impressive resumes. Both actors enjoyed professional breakthroughs somewhat later in life, after struggling through their 20s and early 30s. Each credits the Steven Bochco series "Murder One" as a major turning point in their careers. And both share similar perspectives on their craft and the business -- not to mention a wicked sense of humor.Clarkson and Tucci have teamed up before in projects Tucci has co-written and directed, beginning with the 2000 film "Joe Gould's Secret." In 2007, the pair played a married couple estranged by tragedy who repeatedly pretend to meet for the first time in "Blind Date," inspired by a film from the late Dutch director Theo van Gogh. This month, the duo will reteam as a far more lighthearted couple in "Easy A," a smart new comedy from director Will Gluck and writer Bert V. Royal.

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. You remember it well, I'm sure. She was dragged from her bed to watch an intimately staged performance of the new play Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up. As the play ended and the music soared, she walked right onto the Neverland set filled with fairies and crocodiles and pirates which had miraculously sprung up in her own living room. And she kept on walking right into her own spotlit afterlife. Well that was how it happened to Kate Winslet as Sylvia in Finding Neverland at least. They took some liberties with the timeline for the movie.

Davies was survived by her five sons, who had of course served as inspiration for Peter Pan. The author Jm Barrie, a close family friend, all but adopted the boys after her death, as they'd lost their father...

James Bond might be temporarily Mia for the foreseeable future, but Casino Royale and Quantum Of Solace screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade seem to be truckin' along just fine. According to THR's Risky Business blog, the duo have been hired to write an original action-thriller based on a concept by producers Michael Lieber (Flash Of Genius, Joe Gould's Secret) and Walter Parkes (Men In Black III, Dinner For Schmucks). Here's Risky Business with the deets: The story takes place...

Meryl Streep and Tina Fey will play mother and daughter in 'Mommy & Me,' a comedy to be directed by perennial Streep co-star Stanley Tucci. The movie's plot is under wraps, but it promises to spotlight the thorny and funny sides of mother-daughter relationships. Streep and Tucci co-starred in 'Julie & Julia' and 'The Devil Wears Prada,' and Tucci's directing credits include the critically acclaimed 'Joe Gould's Secret' and 'Big Night.'

[Read full story on The Insider]...

You know an actor has had a particularly good year when he successfully transforms into two completely disparate characters. Earlier this year, two-time Golden Globe and Emmy winner Stanley Tucci made audiences sigh and wonder where they could find a doting, supportive husband like Julia Child's mate Paul in Nora Ephron's "Julie & Julia." And starting this month, Tucci will achieve the opposite: creeping audiences out as the nondescript child rapist and killer George Harvey in Peter Jackson's "The Lovely Bones." It's a long scary leap, one that Tucci almost didn't attempt."As a parent, it's the last thing—I mean, I don't watch movies about serial killers," says Tucci. "I have no interest in any of that. I feel there's just too much of it. But this movie is not a movie about a serial killer and then in the end they get the serial killer. It's...

Stanley Tucci is having a very good year. This summer we saw him reunited with Meryl Streep, the star of his last big hit The Devil Wears Prada, for another crowdpleaser, the foodie dream Julie and Julia. Next month he's a career tribute honoree at the annual Gotham Film Awards. He'll close out 2009 with a killer role (literally) in Peter Jackson's adaptation of the best seller The Lovely Bones. This weekend he got the interview treatment on stage as part of the annual New Yorker Festival. Did he owe this honor to this career peak year or due to the fact that he's one of the only filmmakers to ever make a movie about the New Yorker itself? (His second directorial effort, Joe Gould's Secret, was about staff writer Joe Mitchell and a New Yorker profile about the eccentric Gould.) It didn't take long for that movie to come up.

If you're out in Los Angeles, show some Filmmaker Magazine pride by going this wonderful panel. Our very own James Ponsoldt will be taking part in a Screenwriting Seminar at the Dave Eggers-run non-profit writing & tutorial center, 826La. The panel also includes Capote writer Dan Futterman, E.T. writer Melissa Mathison, Glasgow Philips ("South Park," Nickelodeon's "Kung Fu Panda") and Howard Rodman, who wrote Savage Grace and Joe Gould's Secret. The moderator is James Urbaniak, who needs no introduction to any self-respecting indie film fan.

• Part of the perks of being an actor who moonlights as a director is being able to call favors upon friends like Pierce Brosnan, Patricia Clarkson and Julianne Moore. Though Stanley Tucci's last project (Blind Date) barely made a blip on the festival circuit and will, almost two years later, finally be receiving a theatrical release in September, The Hunter should fair a better because Clarkson + Moore + her Laws of Attraction co-star Brosnan will ensure this dramedy receives a little bit more stardust. Brosnan has also worked with Clarkson in Ira Sachs' Married Life.  To be produced by Tucci, Steve Buscemi and Wren Arthur's Olive Prods., Irish DreamTime's Brosnan and Beau St. Clair and River Bend Pictures' Stan Erdreich.  Scripted by Stanley Tucci directing from his screenplay, this is set amid the aristocracy of New York's Upper Westchester County, is a coming-of-age story of a middle-aged man,

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Yesterday came the yearly announcement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as it extended 134 invitations to several artists and executives "who have distinguished themselves by their contributions to theatrical motion pictures" read the press release. Of course all of them can decline, but I wouldn't necessarily expect that to happen as all who accept the invitation will be the only additions in 2009 to the Academy's roster of voting members. "These filmmakers have, over the course of their careers, captured the imagination of audiences around the world," said Academy President Sid Ganis. "It's this kind of talent and creativity that make up the Academy, and I welcome each of them to our ranks." The list follows below and reading around the best analysis I saw of it came from Nathaniel Rogers at The Film Experience who, among other things, pointed out the addition of longtime Darren Aronofsky's...

• #54. Savage Grace Director: Tom KalinWriters: Howard A. Rodman (Joe Gould's Secret) Producers: Pamela Koffler, Iker Monfort, Katie Roumel, Christine Vachon Distributor: IFC First Take The Gist: Based on the winning Mystery Writers of America in award for Best Fact Crimebook written by Natalie Robins and Steven M. L. Aronson, this tells the incredible true story of Barbara Daly, who married above her class to Brooks Baekeland (Moore), the dashing heir to the Bakelite plastics fortune. Beautiful, red-headed, charismatic, Barbara is still not a match for her well-born husband. The birth of the couple’s only child, Tony, rocks the uneasy balance in this marriage of extremes... Fact: Kalin had not directed a feature length film since 1992's Swoon. See It: Delicious euro-flavored drama will get under the skin of many thanks to disturbing themes and chilling acting performances. Read my review here. Release Date/Status?: After preeming at

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At the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, the gala Premieres, which used to take place in the chilly nighttime, will begin as early as 3 p.m. And there will be more Premieres than ever.

As the Sundance Institute announced the lineup of films screening out of competition at its 2008 edition, organizers said that the Premieres section has significantly expanded. This year, 24 films will play as galas, occupying the 3, 6 and 9:30 p.m. slots at the Eccles Theater in Park City, the festival's largest venue. By contrast, there were 17 Premieres at this year's Sundance.

Although he admitted he was tempted, festival director Geoffrey Gilmore said the size of Sundance has not expanded. The festival will again screen 121 feature films, which includes 81 world premieres. What organizers have done, director of programming John Cooper said, is to reposition films in the Spectrum category, which previously played in the 3 p.m. slot, into the Premiere section.

"These are films that deserve that (Premiere) position inside the Eccles," Cooper said.

The announcement rounds out the rest of the 2008 program, which includes Premieres, Spectrum, New Frontier and Park City at Midnight sections. The 2008 Sundance Film Festival runs Jan. 17-27 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.

The Premieres section showcases highly anticipated films from the American indie world and from international filmmakers. Perhaps the two most highly anticipated films are music related.

Catherine Owens and Mark Pellington's 3-D film of U2's Vertigo world tour -- snippets of which were shown in May at the Festival de Cannes -- will be presented in its entirety. The only question is: What 3-D glasses will be used?

Gilmore said the festival must decide between two different kinds of glasses or goggles. "Either way, there will be a single projector putting a split film image on the screen that are read by the (3-D) goggles," he said.

This year's closing-night film will be the world premiere of Bernard Shakey's CSNY Deja Vu, which looks at the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young reunion tour and the musicians' connection to its audience in political and musical terms. Young is credited as a co-writer on the project.

Pellington performs a twofer this year as his Henry Poole Is Here also is in the Premieres section. After discovering he has a mere six weeks to live, Henry Poole (Luke Wilson) retreats from his everyday life for the comfort of booze, junk food and solitude until a "miracle" and his oddball neighbors intervene.

Another person who will be doing Q&As more than once will be actress-director Amy Redford, daughter of Sundance Institute founder Robert Redford. As an actress, she stars in Sunshine Cleaning, an irreverent comedy that will play in Dramatic Competition. As a first-time director, she will present The Guitar, which like Henry Poole, centers on a person diagnosed with a terminal illness. Amos Poe's Guitar screenplay is about a woman (Saffron Burrows) without long to live who blows her savings to pursue her dreams.

Michel Gondry came to Sundance two years ago with his mind-blowing The Science of Sleep. He now returns with his Be Kind Rewind, in which Jack Black plays a man whose brain has become magnetized, leading to the unintentional destruction of all the movies in a friend's video store. In order to keep the store's one loyal customer, the pair re-create a long line of films including The Lion King, Rush Hour and Ghostbusters.

" 'Be Kind Rewind' will tax people's patience but has a wonderful payoff," Gilmore said.

As previously announced, the festival opens Jan. 17 in Park City with the world premiere of In Bruges, written and directed by first-time filmmaker and award-winning playwright Martin McDonagh. The film, which stars Ralph Fiennes, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, revolves around two hitmen ordered to take a forced holiday in Bruges, Belgium.

Two films about filmmaking should amuse the in-crowd. In Barry Levinson's What Just Happened? Robert De Niro plays a desperate producer struggling with a desperate film shoot. In Steven Schachter's The Deal, William H. Macy co-writes and stars in a tale about another similarly desperate producer who cons a studio into financing a film that actually has no script.

The tongue-in-cheek latter film "brings back Meg Ryan to the kind of romantic roles she plays so well," Gilmore said.

Premieres also is the section containing several films seen at earlier festivals such as writer-director Tom McCarthy's The Visitor and Alan Ball's Nothing Is Private -- movies that deal with immigrants in America -- which debuted at Toronto, and Tom Kalin's Savage Grace, which rocked Cannes with its themes of dynastic decline, incest, madness and death.

Sundance 2008 will throw an even brighter spotlight on documentaries by creating a sidebar within the Spectrum category for seven docus.

"The professional career of documentarians has changed dramatically," Gilmore said. "Documentaries were once a small world. Now it's a much broader spectrum of professionals and of people who move back and forth between features and documentaries, making films on subjects they are passionate about."

The Spectrum section also is where returning Sundance alums are to be found. To wit, Made in America by Stacy Peralta, who enjoyed a hit at the 2001 festival with Dogtown and Z-Boys; Blind Date from Stanley Tucci, who has come to Sundance with such interesting films as Big Night (1996) and Joe Gould's Secret (2000); August from Austin Chick, who made 2002's "XX/XY"; Baghead by writer-directors Mark and Jay Duplass, who brought Scrapple in 2004; and Bottle Shock, a retelling of the famous 1976 blind wine tasting in Paris that rocketed California wines to fame and glory, from Randall Miller, whose Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing & Charm School played in 2005.

Park City at Midnight usually is the repository of the strange and the bloody. This year, though, Gilmore insisted, "the genre films are very fresh with a strong quality of execution."

Quentin Tarantino, absent from Park City for a few years, returns to "present" Larry Bishop's modern-day take on 1960s biker flicks, Hell Ride. A German-Canadian Midnight entry, Otto (Up With Dead People), is described by Gilmore as "an incredibly odd but interesting mix of gay zombies and a European setting."

The British Donkey Punch, named after a risky sexual practice, is a thriller that takes place aboard a luxury yacht. And Michael Haneke will bring Funny Games, an almost shot-by-shot remake of his 1997 Austrian chiller, only this time in English and in a Long Island setting.

Actor SIR Ian Holm finds it easy to play lunatics - because he grew up with madness surrounding him. Madness of King George, The (1995) star says he faces his own potential for madness on a daily basis. He explains, "I was born in a lunatic asylum, my father was a psychiatrist and I have had a breakdown myself. I'm not attracted to it, I'm actually scared about madness or how close to the edge most of us are at any given time. " And his latest journey into lunacy is playing a homeless eccentric on the brink of madness in the forth-coming film, Joe Gould's Secret (1999). But the Henry V (1989) star says he had doubts about playing the role. "I find it difficult to revert to the homeless thing, " he says. "I find it difficult to walk pass disturbed people in the streets or seriously drunk people. I tend to walk by them on the other side. It upsets me."...