All articles by Danny Plunkett
-
News
UK film-makers should spread co-production wings, conference told
Co-productions may open up opportunities to UK film-makers that are restricted by thelimitationsinlocal film finance, the third International Screenwriters Festival in Cheltehnam was told.Producer Mike Downey of Film and Music Entertainmentsaid international deals were an opportunity for UK film-makers to sidestep the usual cornerstone funders of British film: Channel 4, ...
-
News
Screenwriters still undervalued, says Oscar winner Ronald Harwood
The film industry's undervaluing ofthe work of screenwriters - and the need for writers to be more assertive and proactive in response- were the recurring themes on the first day of this year's International Screenwriters Festival.During an entertaining interviewat the Cheltenham event about the psychology of screenwriters The Pianist and ...
-
News
Video-on-demand in Europe sees surge in growth
The number of video-on-demand (VoD) services in Europe almost doubled in the 12 months to December 2007. A report published by the European Audiovisual Observatory (EAO) - Video On Demand In Europe - has found 258 VoD services in operation in the 24 European countries surveyed, compared with 142 at ...
-
Features
United Kingdom - Making his beds
In 2005, "a bit exhausted" by the script development on his new feature, Unmade Beds, writer-director Alexis Dos Santos travelled to his native Argentina to shoot an experimental project.A 17-page storyline and improvised performances from teenage actors turned into the $314,000 (EUR200,000) feature Glue, a Spanish-language naturalistic tale of small-town ...
-
News
Profile:Adulthooddirector Noel Clarke
It is mid-November and almost four weeks into the five-week shoot of his debut feature, actor-writer-director Noel Clarke is a man in his element. He is shooting on the west London streets where he grew up and today's council flat location is 250m from the gym where he was working ...
-
Features
United Kingdom - Life After Death
Death At A Funeral was written as a spec script by London-based writer Dean Craig to direct himself for around $200,000 (£100,000). But a friend, US writer-director-producer Laurence Malkin had bigger ambitions."He said, 'No, we'll do it for $20m,'" Craig remembers. "I said, 'Are you nuts' It's a little film ...
-
Features
United States - Freedom of the pen
When series regular Steve Kloves ducked out of writing the fifth Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix, producer David Heyman turned to Michael Goldenberg. Goldenberg is no stranger to challenging adaptations, with Contact and Peter Pan among his credits. He immediately felt he had a ...
-
News
Screenwriting: cracking the code
Complaints from writers about their status in the film industry are perennial. So what can drive change, given the priority is to make films that find an audience - not keep writers happy' Danny Plunkett reports on a possible breakthrough at the International Screenwriters' Festival. This month's International Screenwriters' Festival ...
-
News
Experts at Screenwriters Festival call for new Code Of Practice
The status of screenwriters in the film industry and issues raised by the Screenwriters Manifesto have been a frequent subject of debate at the International Screenwriters Festival in Cheltenham, UK (July 3-6). After two days catering to emerging talents, Oscar-winning writer William Nicholson (Gladiator, forthcoming The Golden Age) opened the ...
-
Features
United Kingdom - Going to extremes
Write what you know, is the classic advice given to feature film writers. So where does that leave a documentary-maker, still stunned by the horrors of civil war in Kosovo, who wants to make his first feature in the UK'Filming the award-winning documentary The Valley in Kosovo at the end ...
-
Features
United Kingdom - Going to extremes
Write what you know, is the classic advice given to feature film writers. So where does that leave a documentary-maker, still stunned by the horrors of civil war in Kosovo, who wants to make his first feature in the UK'Filming the award-winning documentary The Valley in Kosovo at the end ...