If they could bring back Hawaii Five-O, Beverly Hills 90210, even The Bionic Woman, it’s high time they brought back another classic for the new decade. Yes, it’s time for 24: Version 2. I know, it was only cancelled a year ago, but I’m missing it already. Who wouldn’t miss a thriller in which an [...]
If not the greatest-ever Christmas song, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” was certainly one of the most worthy. It raised millions for starving children, of course, but what most amazes me about this song is that, even though it was back in 1984, and even though they were pop stars, every one of the 40-odd [...]
If you’ve had nothing else to do recently, you might have seen Anonymous, director Roland Emmerich’s latest film, which resurrects the theory that Shakespeare’s plays were not written by Shakespeare, but by Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford. Naturally, Shakespeare scholars are up in arms about that. Hollywood had already done enough damage to Shakespeare’s [...]
When I was attending New York’s Tribeca Film Festival in April, I saw a sad-looking septuagenarian walk out of a cinema and downstairs into a subway station. He looked older than I’d seen on TV (in fact, he looked his age, which he’s not known for doing), but I recognised him: Woody Allen. I paused [...]
Why do movie romances insist on being so utterly unbelievable? You know what I mean: those movies where there isn’t a hope in hell for the star-crossed lovers to be together at the end, but they somehow triumph against frankly impossible odds to get together just before the closing credits. Like Titanic, in which Rose [...]
February is coming, and we all know what that means. Yes, it’s Oscars prediction month, when numerous movie “pundits” predict who will win, based on things that have happened in the past. The nominations were only announced a few days ago, but someone had already said that Natalie Portman will win because the Academy likes [...]
From The Weekend Australian, 29 January 2011 AS a young cinephile, ploughing through the limited selection of vintage movies on VHS or the latest program of classic films at Sydney’s late, lamented Encore Cinema, I had one surefire way to know which movies had achieved true greatness: four stars in Halliwell’s Film Guide. Read the [...]
Whether or not they have the beauty of Shakespeare, or the power of John Steinbeck, these 10 astounding literary works certainly leave you thinking “How did they manage to write that?”
My name is Mark and I’m a screenwriter… sort of. I do other kinds of writing for a living (articles, books, editing), and my screenwriting gigs have been limited to a few comedy sketches for now-defunct TV shows. And while sketch comedy might open doors if your name is Eric Bana, it doesn’t tend to inspire people to read your screenplays. Would it help if I said one of my unfilmed feature screenplays won the prestigious Pierre Daninos Prize for comedy and satirical scripts? No, I didn’t think so. Happily, the prize was awarded in euros, so it’s still the most I’ve ever been paid for a script.
What’s wrong with the Australian film industry? Filmmaker Andrew Scarano has a few answers, as well he should.
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