The state of British film

As the BAFTAs approach, BBC News invites producer Michael Kuhn and Film Council Chief Exec John Woodward to hold forth on the state of the British film industry.

Kuhn:

Unlike their European counterparts, broadcasters in Britain have never really seen it as part of their duty to support film and that is one area where I would like to see change.

It is not a matter of their duty, it is a matter of the opportunity they are missing. Channel 4 came in and set up Film Four with £10m back in the early 80s - and that transformed the British Film Industry. A little money made a tremendous difference.

Woodward:

Britain loves the movies and the world loves the British film industry.

It's true the film production sector has gone through a very bumpy patch over the last 18 months, but we are now poised to reap the rewards - with nothing to fear except the British disease of talking ourselves down!

Duncan Tucker - Transamerica

With his Oscar-nominated film "Transamerica," screenwriter-director Duncan Tucker is the latest exemplar of a little-known show business truism: If you want to rise out of obscurity really fast, write a screenplay with a great part for an actress.

More from Anne Thompson in The Hollywood Reporter.

Literary translation

Recommended on The Guardian's Culture Vulture blog, a site from the British Council all about literary translation.

To discuss the art of literary translation is to a large extent to mystify it if we disregard the unruly manner in which it has been practiced throughout history. For although writing between two different languages has always been integral part of national literatures and the exchanges between them, the most striking, the truly captivating thing about it is its variations rather than any single characteristic or aspect.

Lots of feature articles, online workshops and information about funding and prizes.

Self-publishing put to the test

In The Guardian, Victor Keegan tries out a couple of different self-publishing services.

Are books about to go the same way as music and videos, with everyone able to publish from their back rooms, cutting out all the agents in the middle? Demand is certainly there from the legions of frustrated writers unable to interest an agent, let alone a publisher, in their musings. The technology to self-publish, using print-on-demand facilities, has been around for years but is now getting cheaper and easier with the publisher doing everything from the ISBN number to placing your tome on Amazon. Judging by the number of self-publishing websites, it may not be long before we reach the tipping point of mass adoption.

The big revelation for me is that if you use Lulu.com books have to be posted from America, adding a significant amount to the cost.

Update on Lulu.com: see comments.

Welsh Drama Awards

Congratulations to Guild Member Gareth Miles (who serves on the Guild's EC and is Chair of the Welsh Committee). Wales Theatre Company's production of his translation of Hamlet, directed by Michael Bogdanov, has won the Welsh Drama Award for best Welsh-language production of 2005.

The future of the Arts Council

What are the government's plans for the Arts Council, wonders Rupert Christiansen in The Daily Telegraph.

After a quiet start as Culture Minister, David Lammy has fired his first shot across the bows. At the Association of British Orchestras' conference last month, his speech made rumbling noises about that old bugbear, the Arts Council, an agency funded by his own Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

"We must reform the Arts Council," Lammy said. It's got "to slim down", "get smarter" and prove that it is "more than a passive cash machine". Most significantly, he thinks that there is a strong case for "loosening the reins" between the council and many companies that have "reached a sufficient level of organisational maturity to merit autonomy".

In praise of Google Book Search

Google's new Book Search promises to save writers' and publishers' asses by putting their books into the index of works that are visible to searchers who get all their information from the Internet. In response, publishers and writers are suing Google, claiming that this ass-saving is in fact a copyright violation. When you look a little closer, though, you see that the writer/publisher objections to Google amount to nothing more than rent-seeking: an attempt to use legal threats to milk Google for some of the money it will make by providing this vital service to us ink-stained scribblers.

More from Cory Doctorow on Boing Boing.

For previous articles about the same subject see posts on this blog in January 2006 and September 2005

The last taboo

In The Guardian, Mark Lawson looks at the growing number of films and plays tackling the subject of child abuse.

This coincidence of projects on the topic suggests a lessening of the contentiousness around the subject matter. In fact, though, these pieces demonstrate - like Harrower's Blackbird - that, while no longer unofficially banned from mainstream dramatisation, pederasty remains a storyline that raises unusual difficulties for writers, performers and audiences.

Laura Wade

Award-winning playwright Laura Wade is the next big thing, says Ian Johns in The Times.

Laura Wade wasn’t sure which would be more nerve-racking: being interviewed or having her picture taken. But the 28-year-old playwright will have to get used to both. She has just won the Critics’ Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright, and earned an Olivier nomination for “Outstanding Achievement”. “I can’t get my head round it. I’m overwhelmed,” she admits.

MPs criticise BBC for buildings spending

The BBC has been criticised by a group of MPs who say a major building project went over budget by £60m to £270m.

The Commons public accounts committee said the White City 2 offices, in west London, showed the need for the BBC to be more accountable to Parliament.

The report said the extra money went on the technical fit-out and furniture.

The BBC said the development had been completed on budget and within time and that its governors had fully approved the budget in two stages.

More from BBC News.

Text offender

On The Stage Newsblog, Mark Shenton reveals the strange reluctance of The Gate Theatre, Dublin to promote their new show (I guess Ralph Fiennes in Brian Friel's The Faith Healer doesn't need much publicity) and remembers a surprising mobile phone incident.

...this is a theatre whose personnel clearly play by their own rules: at the first night of Uncle Vanya, Sam Mendes’ final production as artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse in September 2002 – in a version coincidentally also by Brian Friel – proceedings were constantly interrupted for spectators seated in the circle by the constant pips of arriving text message alerts. The offender was then seen to reply; which of course only meant another pip arriving a minute or so later when a further reply came to him. Confronted afterwards by an angry colleague of mine, he answered: “Chekhov is robust enough to withstand the intrusion”. The offender was subsequently identified as Michael Colgan, artistic director of, yes, you’ve guessed it, the Gate Theatre, Dublin.

Stephen Gaghan interview

In The Times, Brian Appleyard meets screenwriter Stephen Gaghan (Traffic, Syriana).

I’ve met some wired people in my time, but I’ve never met anybody quite like Stephen Gaghan after his third triple espresso. In his room at the Soho Hotel in London, he has made — and talked at some length about making — a perfect little pile of the sweets that came with the coffee; he has checked and rechecked his BlackBerry; he has bounced off the walls; run shrieking round the room with his hands in the air to demonstrate a typical crane shot of the Martin Scorsese school of film-making; crouched in a corner to demonstrate the way he prefers to make films; and talked rapidly, brilliantly, but not entirely connectedly, about drugs, politics and, when he was 14, getting trapped in the snow in Colorado with a girl he really fancied, but couldn’t quite bring himself to kiss.

NTL and BitTorrent team up

NTL and BitTorrent have announced details of a new "technical trial" with a view to launching a legal video download service in the UK.

The trial, beginning next month and involving around 100 NTL homes, will feature a "large variety" of licensed content including movies, TV shows and music videos.

The BitTorrent software uses peer-to-peer (P2P) technology, where every downloader of a file also serves as an uploader. The trial will have the added element of technology from Cambridge-based firm Cachelogic, who will accelerate downloads and reduce costs by storing frequently-downloaded files locally on the NTL network.

More from Neil Wilkes for Digital Spy.

More WGGB interest at the Oscars

(Belated) congratulations to Bob Baker, co-writer of The Wallace and Gromit film, Curse Of The Were-Rabbit which has been nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Feature.

BAFTA Craft Awards

Congratulations to all the Guild members who have been nominated for a BAFTA TV Craft Award for writing:

• Richard Curtis for The Girl In A Café
  
• Andrew Davies for Bleak House
  
• Kevin Elyot for 20,000 Streets Under the Sky
  
• Gwyneth Hughes for Cherished
  
• Robert Jones for Ahead of the Class
  
• Tom Needham for Cold Blood
  
• Peter Ransley for Fingersmith
  
• David Renwick for Love Soup
  
• John Sullivan for Green Green Grass

A writer at the Grammys

Not many screenwriters get nominated for Grammy Awards. John August did (for a song in Charlie And The Chocolate Factory).

Having been to quite a few premieres and fancy shindigs, I can say that the Grammys were the most consistently entertaining. The musical performances were good, the groan factor was low, and every celebrity had to walk by my seat at least once.

Our seats were on the floor, next to the aisle. Whenever a performer and/or presenter needed to go from their seat to backstage, they were walked by us. Even better, running across the aisle next to our seats were thick cables covered with a floor mat. Although marked with white tape, this hazzard was very easy to trip over. Many celebrities did.

Can games make you cry?

In The Guardian, Aleks Krotoski calls on video games makers to engage our emotions.

Videogames are played by people, not machines. There is room for emotions in entertainment. Films do it, why can't games? It's not impossible, but developers may need more experienced storytellers to harness their emotional impact. The challenge is to capture the truth in the turmoil surrounding death that goes beyond the need for revenge.

Library users turn to crime

Britain has traditionally been a nation with romantic reading habits, but new figures show that readers are turning to crime.

The gritty forensic novels of American writers such as Patricia Cornwell and James Patterson have gained popularity in British libraries, compared with previous years when romantic fiction dominated the charts. More than half of the most popular titles borrowed in the year to June 2005 were crime tales or thrillers, according to the latest Public Lending Right statistics.

More from Louise Jury in The Independent.

Linehan has faith in IT Crowd

Despite disappointing ratings for the start of his new sitcom, The IT Crowd, Graham Linehan remains upbeat. BBC News reports.

As yet a follow-up series has yet to be commissioned, although according to Linehan "the initial signs are good".

"I think we've created something pretty special, but I'm too close to it to know if I've succeeded.

"And anyway, you only really know how well a show is doing when it's repeated."

Graham Duff

Graham Duff, writer of BBC3 sitcom, Ideal, talks to BBC Writersroom.

I've never seen a cure for writers block as an option. Write anyway. If I get stuck on a project, I'll write something else. For me, I think the main thing is to write. Not everything travels in a straight line - so just write.

Comedy North online

BBC3 is joining forces with the CorporationÂ’s Talent and New Media departments to find the next generation of comedy writers.

The campaign is to begin in March and is being overseen by Comedy North, headed by Kenton Allen. Upcoming comedians will be invited to submit their sketches or showcase material via the BBC3 website, where it can be viewed and rated by producers, commissioners and other comedians.

The writers/performers of the best sketches will be invited to attend comedy workshops in Manchester given by leading comedy talent. If the campaign is successful in uncovering a diverse range of new talent then it is envisaged that a half-hour comedy pilot could be produced for transmission on BBC3.

More from Liz Thomas in The Stage.

Comment: I don't know if this is entirely correct - surely people will be pointed to the new Soup website rather than the BBC3 site.

Update: it appears they are going to use the BBC3 site. Although the initiative is "supported" by Soup. Hmm.

Filmfour coming to Freeview

The good news, as reported by Digital Spy.

Channel 4 has confirmed that premium movie service FilmFour will become a free-to-air service from July.

The move will coincide with the channel's launch on Freeview and will takes its reach from 300,000 homes - subscribers currently pay £7 a month for the service - to a potential 18 million.

Now the bad news. There will, of course, be advert breaks.

Ordinary jobs in plays

Why do so few playwrights depict ordinary people doing ordinary jobs, wonders Philip Hensher in The Guardian.

In recent years, occasional dramatists have made an attempt to get away from the general tendency of English drama. Rather than setting a play in a domestic setting among the leisured, educated classes with not much else to do but swap epigrams and fall in and out of love, dramatists have sometimes tried to evoke a professional world. Influenced, perhaps, by more hard-nosed American dramatists like David Mamet, playwrights started to put major economic institutions on stage.

The Romans In Britain

With the first revival of The Romans In Britain opening at The Crucible in Sheffield this week, Aleks Sierz in The Daily Telegraph, talks to the play's author, Howard Brenton.

Brenton adds: "I came out of the experimental theatre of the 1960s when it was almost shocking to go to shows when people kept their clothes on." So when he wrote for the National Theatre in the 1970s, "there was a kind of culture shock".

Judd Apatow and Steve Carell interviewed

Judd Apatow and Steve Carell, creators of the hit film The 40-Year-Old Virgin, talk to Lisa Rosen for the Writers Guild of America, west.

When it came time to figure out the ending of the movie...the writers were stumped. They knew it would involve Andy finally having sex and that the audience would know it too, but how to best convey the scene emotionally? Garry Shandling, whom Carell had worked with on The Larry Sanders Show, came to a table read and articulated the matter perfectly: Somehow they had to show the audience that the virgin’s sex was better than everyone else’s sex because he was in love.

“It was a simple idea,” says Apatow, “but it was really hard to crack because how do you show that? I didn’t think we could figure it out. One day, Steve said, ‘Maybe I should just sing a song.’ Carell was certain they wouldn’t end this movie with a big song and dance, “but I threw it out there because in my opinion there was no other way to end the movie. It was the complete and ultimate expression of his experience.”

Deverell appointed Controller of BBC Children's department

Alan Yentob, BBC Creative Director, has announced the appointment of Richard Deverell as the new Controller of BBC Children's. In a simultaneous appointment, Anne Gilchrist takes on the new role of Creative Director, CBBC.

Alan Yentob said: "These two key appointments are designed to put creative renewal and a visionary strategy at the heart of our offer to children, across all services and media."

More from the BBC Press Office.

Tessa Ross interview

In Media Guardian (free registration required) Owen Gibson meets Channel 4's head of film and drama, Tessa Ross.

Ross refuses to be tied down to a specific direction. "If people come and ask what we want, I have to tell them I don't know. I mostly think I'm wrong. I spend most of my life worrying that I'm wrong. I can only think in terms of colour and music, which sounds really pretentious. What you want to do is paint a big, broad, colourful picture of lots of different shades," she says.

The 'lost' CHEERS

Inspired by an uninspiring Super Bowl, Ken Levine digs out a special scene of Cheers he wrote with David Isaacs back in 1982. It seen by 80 (eighty!) million people.

Cheltenham Screenwriters' Festival

The first Cheltenham Screenwriters' Festival will take place from 27 June - 1 July.

The International Screenwriters' Festival is dedicated to the art, craft and business of writing for the screen. Bringing together professional industry delegates, high profile guests and new talent from around the world, the Festival provides a unique forum to debate and discuss writing dramatic scripts for film, television and new media.

There's decent people behind it (mostly development execs) but there's not a lot of other information available yet. We'll keep you updated.

A theory of screenwriters

In the LA Times David Kipen challenges the idea of film directors as auteurs.

To enter a parallel universe, just dial (323) 782-4591. A blithe female voice speaks the titles of half a dozen or so current movies, the dates and times they will screen at a certain private auditorium in Beverly Hills and, finally, the names of the filmmakers responsible. The titles are largely familiar. The names, to any but the most uncommon cinephile, are not. Lately, the recording has alerted callers to showtimes for such pictures as Tony Kushner and Eric Roth's "Munich," and Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan's "The Producers."

Hasn't there been some mistake? Didn't Spielberg direct "Munich"? Didn't Susan Stroman direct "The Producers"?

Yes, as a matter of fact, they did. They just didn't write them. And to the Writers Guild of America and its Film Society, whose number you've just dialed — if to practically nobody else in the filmgoing world — directing isn't everything. As for whether there's been some mistake, in fact there has, and too many people have been making it for far too long. It's called the auteur theory.

Reviving Paramount

In The New York Times,Laura M. Holson looks at how Brad Gray is hopping to revive Paramount Pictures.

Mr. Grey believes he has a plan for reviving Paramount, which in 2004 ranked seventh in domestic box-office receipts. ...he will buy good scripts, bet heavily on talented executives and filmmakers and, he hopes, watch the money follow.

Sounds simple, doesn't it?

Highbrow erotica

Barbara Cartland, the grand old dame of English romance, made a career out of leaving her readers outside the bedroom door. A new breed of women writers, however, is inviting them in to swing from the lampshade and anything else that grabs their fancy - wherever and with whoever they fancy - provided it is all in the best possible taste.

More from Jonathan Brown in The Independent.

And...what is the difference between erotica and pornography? One memorable description has it that in erotica you use a feather while in pornography the whole damn chicken gets roped in.

Jeffrey Caine - Oscar nominee

(Belated) congratulations to Guild member Jeffrey Caine who received an Oscar nomination last week for his adaptation of John le Carré's novel, The Constant Gardener.

Fingers crossed for him on 5 March...

Google video

Google Video now offers a variety of paid-for downloads (at the moment, only available in America) - for example, episodes of the Brady Bunch or Star Trek Voyager at $1.99 each.

How movie is it?

Billy Mernit looks at different screenplay writing styles.

Screenplays come in all shapes, sizes and sensibilities. Some read like lean, mean machines, fueled with just enough tight, right detail to make for a vivid ride. Others are almost like novels in movie drag, cramming the pages with observation, philosophy and atmosphere. Most fall somewhere in between, and there are innumerable ways to personalize the form. Sometimes a seemingly overloaded narrative actually gets across a compelling voice; sometimes a "less is more" style ends up conveying merely less.

Writing Curious George

Prepare yourself for a monkey called Curious George, the next big animated superstar. But, explains Robert W. Welkos in the LA Times, his progress from book to screen was not exactly straightforward.

...once you try to take him off the page, a couple of potential problems come into bold relief: George doesn't speak, so other characters have to do it for him by reacting to his antics. And his stories, in the parlance, have no arc.

Legions of imaginations over the years struggled to make a movie that could blossom within those constraints. According to the Writers Guild of America, West, the list includes Brad Bird ("The Incredibles"), William Goldman ("The Princess Bride"), Pat Proft ("Police Academy"), Babaloo Mandel and Lowell Ganz ("A League of Their Own"), Joe Stillman (the two "Shrek" features), and Daniel Gerson and Rob Baird ("Monsters, Inc."). The number who tried was enormous, even by contemporary Hollywood standards.

(IMDB lists 11 writing credits, and that doesn't include all of the above.)

Adamson at the National

Samuel Adamson's first original play for nine years, Southwark Fair, will premiere at the National Theatre this month, reports Jasper Rees in The Daily Telegraph.

Since Nicholas Hytner took over at the National Theatre nearly three years ago, he has directed the new works of three playwrights: Alan Bennett's The History Boys, Stuff Happens by David Hare and Nicholas Wright's adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. The latest addition to that list is Samuel Adamson and his play Southwark Fair. It is a sizeable accolade. Unlike Hytner's other selections, Adamson is neither well over 50 nor deeply embedded in the theatrical establishment.

Mackie to join ITV?

The BBC head of drama series and serials, Laura Mackie, is in talks to join ITV as number two to the drama controller, Nick Elliott.

Mr Elliott is recruiting a replacement for head of network drama Jenny Reeks, who is leaving ITV due to ill health.

More from Ben Dowell on Media Guardian (free registration required).

Update: it's a done deal (see Stephen Gallagher's comment, below).

Arts world hails hate law defeat

Leading British writers and comedians have welcomed the defeat of a proposed religious hatred law, which they say would have stifled freedom of speech.

More from BBC News.

Flogging it

Instead of sending his manuscript to agents or publishers, aspiring novelist Mark Vender took it to the Hay Festival. In Colombia.

Vikram Seth is also at the festival. He talks about the arduous process of finding a publisher for his novel in verse, The Golden Gate, which was rejected 20 times before it found a home. But when I speak to him later, he's inspiringly circumspect. Talking about the plight of unpublished writers, he says, "the world is not against you. It's indifferent."

More in The Guardian.

BBC Northern Exposure event in Leeds

Northern Exposure is hosting a free public Q&A on writing popular drama for television in Leeds on 16 February 2006.

The event will take place at Leeds College of Music , featuring top television writers Debbie Horsfield (Cutting It, Born to Run) and Ashley Pharaoh (Life on Mars, Down to Earth). Kate Rowland, Creative Director of New Writing for the BBC will chair the discussion, followed by a drinks reception.

More information from BBC Writersroom.

The Last Laugh - on the frontline

In The Stage, Anthony Cooke talks about what it's like being a semi-finalist in the BBC's Last Laugh sitcom writing competition.

Like most of the 36 shortlisted writers this is our first stab at sitcom, many have never sold a snippet of script anywhere, and for some this is their first ever sniff at comedy. I sheepishly admit to having “had some comedy stuff on Radio 4, y’know sketches”, and the comment seems to send fellow finalists Reg, Geoff and Trudy into a bit of a spin.

TV drama takes centre stage

Celebrity Big Brother may be the programme everyone's been talking about, but drama has been identified by the three main commercial broadcasters as the key genre of 2006.

ITV, Channel 4 and Channel Five today pledged to pump millions of extra pounds into new drama as part of their statements of programming policy for the coming year.

More from John Plunkett on Media Guardian (free registration required).

Mamet on writing for TV

At 58, the hardy Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright [David Mamet] continues to turn out scripts for stage and film at a relentless pace, while still finding the time to train occasionally with an expert in knife combat, just to keep in shape. But until now, he had never seen a television series of his creation reach a network's schedule. To make that happen, he had to undergo an education of his own.

More from Dave Itzkoff in The New York Times.

Graham Linehan - The IT Crowd

Graham Linehan's new sitcom, The IT Crowd (update: you can watch the show online now), starts on Channel 4 this week. He's interviewed by Jasper Ress in The Daily Telegraph.

It's hard to regard a man who was a stripling of 25 when he co-wrote a surreal sitcom about the Irish priesthood as a traditionalist. But that is the role in which Linehan is defiantly, almost seditiously casting himself. "I feel like I'm going to be carrying around Mary Whitehouse's handbags here. I really want to try and buck against current trends. Things that 10 or 15 years ago would probably have been in video nasty trials are now the stuff of eight o'clock viewing. Imagine if Last of the Summer Wine had loads of references to periods. That's what comedy seems to be like at the moment."

Linehan also turns up on tomorrow night's BBC documentary about the state of the sitcom, part of Alan Yentob's Imagine series (Tuesday 31 Jan, BBC ONE, 22.45pm).

Horror film script competition

Golconda Films and the Script Factory are looking for horror film scripts from new screenwriters who have not already sold or had a feature film screenplay optioned.

Your script should be roughly 100 pages long and submitted in an acceptable screenwriting format. You can submit digitally or in hard copy but must fill in an application form correctly to be accepted. Closing date: March 17.

There's more background in The Times.

Directors' copyright

Mark Shenton on The Stage Newsblog reflects on a New York Times article about the possibility of directors claiming copyright stagings of plays. In America, apparently, some directors are starting to resent seeing their productions ripped off by others.

But there are two sides to every story, and as the directorÂ’s art is interpretative rather than a primary creative one, playwrights are anxious not to have a director assert too much control over their contribution: as playwright John Weidman, president of the Dramatists Guild of America, commented, '“if a directors'’ copyright is ever established, it will drastically limit a playwright'’s ability to control the work which he creates.'”

US comedy pilots

Ken Levine reveals the torture of American sitcom development.

This conference call features eleven people – one more David and three Katies. These are the network notes but the lower tier (development department) notes. Once these are done to all eleven peoples’ satisfaction it goes up the ladder, usually to the middle tier VP’s. Writing a pilot is like playing Super Mario Brothers.

BBC Soup to launch in March

The new BBC comedy site, Soup, will launch in March according to a BBC press release.

Based on the same principles as the hugely successful Film Network, Soup (bbc.co.uk/soup [url not yet working]) provides a virtual stage for both comedy amateurs and aficionados.

It offers them a virtual stage on which to learn their art and perform their material, including tips from Soup's expert guides and BBC video, audio and images to help them create and perfect their work.

Users create a profile on the site, to which they can they link material, effectively creating an online portfolio for talent-spotters.

There's more background in a post on this blog last November.

BBC closes Fiction Lab

The BBC's drama department has abolished its Fiction Lab unit but has kept the unit's head, Richard Fell, who will now work for drama as an executive producer.

Fiction Lab was set up in 1999 in a bid to invigorate drama on the corporation's then fledgling digital channels but the BBC has now decided it does not need a specially named department.

"The unit was important when we were launching new channels but we don't need that any more," a drama source said. "Also the title does sound a bit naff, a bit 'Dramarama'."

More from Ben Dowell at Media Guardian (free registration required).

Royal Court 50 readings

If you live within striking distance of London, check out the Royal Court's series of 50 readings of classic plays, part of the celebrations for the theatre's 50th anniversary.

It started on 16 January and runs through until 24 March.

They're selling out fast, but you can still get tickets for £7.50 (or 4 readings for £20) for rehearsed readings of plays such as My Night With Reg, by Guild member Kevin Elyot.

British and Irish indie films on BBC THREE

BBC THREE celebrates some of the best of independent British and Irish cinema with a season of television premieres starting on 10 February 2006.

A raft of recent cinematic gems will be shown every Friday night for six weeks.

Steve Jenkins, Head of Films, BBC Programme Acquisition, says: "In the blockbuster world of UK successes like Harry Potter and James Bond, it's hard for many small but striking British movies to make the mark they should.

"This is why BBC THREE is showcasing six recent examples of films from the UK and Ireland which, with the talent on display in front of and behind the camera, definitely deserve wider exposure.

More from the BBC Press Office.

British Short Screenplay Competition (BSSC)

There are just 78 days to go until the early deadline (14 April) for the 2006 British Short Screenplay Competition (BSSC), run by Kaos Films and the National Film and Television School. There is an entry fee of £35.

Ops stops

American screenwriter John August reveals how his proposed new TV series, Ops, went from conception to rejection via three pilot scripts and an awful lot of meetings.

When a pilot is announced, it shows up in Variety. Everyone knows about it.

When a pilot dies, it dies quietly in the corner.

Cooke to replace Rickson at Royal Court

Dominic Cooke has been appointed artistic director of the Royal Court Theatre, replacing Ian Rickson at the end of the venue’s 50th anniversary season.

Currently associate director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Cooke will take up the post in January 2007.

More from The Stage.

Mensah to head up BBC drama in Scotland

The BBC has promoted executive producer Anne Mensah to oversee a drive to increase drama production in Scotland. Mensah is currently at BBC Drama North. Her credits include Bodies and Sweeney Todd. In her new position she will head up drama production from Scotland, both for network and local audiences. Her appointment comes two months after director of television Jana Bennett pledged to increase network production in the nations by 50% over the next seven years. She also said the corporation plans to spend half its drama budget outside London by 2012.

More from Research Centre.

Westway protests

Frank Dobson, Joan Ruddock, Peter Bottomley and Gregory Campbell are among 22 MPs voicing their concern over the cancellation of BBC World Service medical drama Westway.

The twice-weekly soap, which boasted more than 150 million listeners worldwide, was dropped after eight years to make way for more news and current affairs programming. Labour MP Ann Keen tabled an early day motion in objection to the move and has garnered support from across the political parties.

More from The Stage.

Kushner defends Munich

In The LA Times Tony Kushner defends the new film Munich, directed by Steven Spielberg, for which he wrote the screenplay with Eric Roth.

I think it's the refusal of the film to reduce the Mideast controversy, and the problematics of terrorism and counterterrorism, to sound bites and spin that has brought forth charges of "moral equivalence" from people whose politics are best served by simple morality tales. We live in the Shock and Awe Era, in which instant strike-back and blow-for-blow aggression often trump the laborious process of analysis, investigation and diplomacy. "Munich's" questioning spirit is an affront to armchair warrior columnists who understand power only as firepower. We're at war, and the job of artists in wartime, they seem to feel, is to provide the kind of characters and situations that are staples of propaganda: cleanly representative of Good or Evil, and obedient to the Message.

New CBBC drama commissions

Jon East, CBBC's new Head of Drama, has commissioned a raft of stunning new series which are set to mark a new, more ambitious era of children's drama on BBC Television.

More from the BBC press office.

Pamuk case dropped

A Turkish court has dropped a case against the country's internationally renowned writer Orhan Pamuk, who faced charges of "insulting Turkishness".

The move came after the justice ministry refused to issue a ruling as to whether the charges should stand.

More from BBC News.

US Guilds announce documentary screenplay contract

The Board of the Writers Guild of America, west (WGAw) and the Council of Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) announced today [18/01/06] the first low-budget contract for writers of theatrical documentaries budgeted under $1.2 million.

"Unlike reality television where programs are produced by multi-billion dollar media conglomerates, most documentary films are made on a shoestring budget by passionate filmmakers who often max out credit cards and take on second mortgages to complete their work,” said WGAw President Patric M. Verrone. “This contract gives these important writers and creators the opportunity to receive the same guild protections and benefits long enjoyed by writers working on productions with deeper pockets.”

More from the Writers Guild of America, East.

Six TV writers

Unlike acting or directing, writing is a private activity - 'As writers, we almost never get to meet each other,' says veteran scriptwriter Paula Milne - so how would six powerful egos cope gathered in one room?

In The Observer Liz Hoggard speaks to six leading British TV writers.

Guild members nominated for BAFTAS

Congratulations to the Guild members who have been nominated for BAFTA Awards.

Martin Sherman wrote the screenplay for Mrs Henderson Presents - nominated for Best Original Screenplay

Jeffrey Caine adapted the John Le Carre novel, The Constant Gardener. It's been nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film and The Alexander Korda Award for the Outstanding British Film of the Year

Deborah Moggach adapted Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It's been nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and The Alexander Korda Award

Mark Burton and Bob Baker - Wallace & Gromit - The Curse of the Were-Rabbit - nominated for Alexander Korda Award

The Orange British Academy Film Awards will be held on Sunday 19 February 2006 at the Odeon Leicester Square in London.

BBC Last Laugh (continued)

Almost nine months after the deadline closed, the next stage of BBC's Last Laugh Competition will start again tomorrow night. There's not much information on the website, but the first of eight programmes following the selection of the winning writers, will be screened at the not-exactly-prime-time of 11.10pm on BBC Three.

Last Laugh was an open competition where entrants were invited to finish a pilot episode started by an established sitcom writer. The winning show will be broadcast on BBC Three.

From the BBC Press Office (pdf)

The Last Laugh is the UK’s largest-ever sitcom-writing competition and celebrates the comedy classics that have made us laugh, cry and challenge our perceptions.

Launched last year, The Last Laugh dared the public to complete sitcoms started by some of the best names in the business. People who penned the first 20 minutes of brand-new sitcoms included the creators of The Peep Show, Bain and Armstrong, Marks and Gran – of The New Statesman and Birds of A Feather fame – Carla Lane and Paul Mayhew-Archer, co-writer of The Vicar of Dibley.An amazing 5,000 people rose to the challenge and may be in line to have their scripts turned into a comedy pilot for BBC Three.

Comedian Dara O’Briain reveals the winners in an eight-part series that also celebrates comedy as a vital cog of British life.

Tonight’s first episode focuses on the work of Marks and Gran, and in particular their razor-sharp political comedy, The New Statesman. While Rik Mayall and others pay tribute on how to take comic pot shots at politicians, the episode conversely looks at politically incorrect comedy, from Little Britain to Bottom.

In the company of Dara, the judges also give their opinions on the top four entries, who completed Marks and Gran’s sitcom Last Quango In Harris.

Emma Thompson's diary

Guild member Emma Thompson wrote the screenplay for Nanny McPhee (and also took the title role). She kept a diary of how the project developed - published in The LA Times.

I can safely say that with the possible exception of doing stand-up comedy on Nelson's column to 60,000 hot, tired, angry people for a nuclear disarmament rally in 1984, this has been my most difficult assignment. You try writing something that pleases, delights and intrigues children without boring their parents. Go on, try it.

The future of British bookselling

The unromantic truth is that British chain bookselling - with Waterstone's as its battered figurehead - now looks suspiciously like a murder victim who has decided to speed up his demise by committing suicide. The pincer movement executed by the likes of Asda and Amazon has made the cut-throat discounting of a few sure-fire bestsellers the norm - with all of its risks to future diversity. Far from resisting this assault, the retail chains - and the corporate publishers whom they now bully - have opted to act as their own Sweeney Todds. At Christmas, stores worked frantically to teach shoppers that the true value of a much-publicised new book with a cover price of £18 or £20 is, let's say, £6.99. It amounts to voluntary death by a thousand cuts.

More from Boyd Tonkin in The Independent.

Random House addresses future with agents

[Publisher]Random House is holding a series of meetings with agents to discuss a wide range of issues pertaining to the current and future state of the industry. CEO Gail Rebuck has instigated the initiative, which Gill Coleridge of Rogers, Coleridge & White describes as “admirable – sharing information like this is very helpful”.

Although confidential, it is likely that the polarisation of the industry between the big-name, front list authors, and mid-list or second-rung writers, will be among issues discussed, as well as the implications for all players of an increasing reliance on sales data, something that was ever thus but which is now more important, given the current obsession with market share.

More from Publishing News.

WGAw launches showrunner scheme

With support from major television networks and studios, the Writers Guild of America, west (WGAw) kicked-off the first session of its inaugural Showrunner Training Program on Saturday, January 14, 2006, at the WGAw headquarters in Los Angeles, launching its six-week program for senior-level writers and writers with pilot scripts to develop the skills necessary to become successful showrunners.

More from the WGAw.

Disney to widen online TV shows

Paid-for online delivery of TV drama is set to grow...

Walt Disney has said it has sold more than 1.5 million episodes of shows such as Lost and Desperate Housewives via online music and video store iTunes.

The company has now said it will look to offer its TV content to more online stores and be "platform agnostic".

The programmes are currently available to US households only and cost $1.99 (£1.13) per episode.

More from BBC News.

Cumper and Nichols take over at Talawa

Talawa, the UK’s flagship black theatre company, has appointed Pat Cumper as its new artistic director and Joy Nichols as its new chair.

Cumper, who was one of Jamaica’s leading playwrights before she moved to Britain, has established herself in the UK as a writer for theatre, television and radio. In 2002, her play The Key Game was produced by Talawa and her Radio 4 drama series One Bright Child won the RIMA radio drama award.

More from Alistair Smith in The Stage.

2006 Olivier Awards nominations

The nominations for the 2006 Olivier Awards have been announced.
Nominees for Best New Play are:

• Corum Boy, adapted by Helen Edmundson from a novel by Jamila Gavin
• On the Shore of the Wide World by Simon Stephens
• Paul by Howard Brenton
  
• Harvest by Richard Bean.

Writer Laura Wade has been nominated for Outstanding Achievement In An Affiliate Theatre for her plays Breathing Corpses and Colder Than Here.

Film-maker caught in legal web

Nick Cassavetes is loath to label his new movie - "Alpha Dog," about a group of suburban, teenage gangster wannabes who corner themselves into committing cold-blooded murder - a mere cautionary tale about wayward youth and missing-in-action parents.

At the very least, though, it's a cautionary tale for writer-directors thinking of tackling a breaking news story as their next subject.

More from David M. Halbfinger inThe New York Times.

A few good words

Billy Mernit lists some of the most memorable movie quotes of three words or less. For example:

Greetings:

Hello, gorgeous. (Funny Girl)

Yo, Adrian! (Rocky)

Bond. James Bond. (Goldfinger, et al)

Superman Returns

Geoff Boucher in The LA Times talks to Superman Returns director Bryan Singer (who also shares the scenplay credit) about refreshing a famous franchise.

Today's cynicism and expectations of darker hero tales are reflected in the plot of "Superman Returns." A huge crystalline spaceship (again a nod to the original franchise) crashes near a Kansas farm — but this time, instead of an infant, the passenger is a grown man. Superman has been gone from Earth for five years on a failed quest to learn more about his origins. And in his absence, his adopted world grew sour toward its hero. That's exemplified by Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth), now a single mom engaged to a new man (played by James Marsden, a veteran of both "X-Men" movies) and riding high in her journalism career after an award-winning Daily Planet series critical of the missing Superman.

"In a sense, the movie is about what happens when an old romance returns unexpectedly and also the anger we all have toward people that let us down or leave us behind," Singer said. "This is about the obstacles that befall an idealistic man. It's about an old-fashioned hero in a modern world that isn't sure it wants him."

Superman Returns will be released this summer. The full list of writing credits are on IMDB.

Guild adds voice to Arts Council of Wales protests

The Writers'’ Guild of Great Britain has called on Welsh Culture Minister Alan Pugh to reconsider his decision not to reappoint Geraint Talfan Davies as Chairman of the Arts Council of Wales.

In a letter to the Minister the Guild warned that independence and arm's-length principles are vital to a healthy arts culture and to safeguarding artistic freedom of expression. The Guild praised Mr Davies for making the ACW "“a far more open and democratically accountable body".

BBC News has more background on the story, and The Stage reports on Mr Pugh's response.

Carol Ann Duffy wins TS Eliot prize

Poet Carol Ann Duffy has won the TS Eliot Prize for Rapture, her latest collection of verse.

The Glasgow writer beat poets including Polly Clark, David Harsent and Sinead Morrissey to the £10,000 prize.

More from BBC News.

Home-grown films take 34% of UK box office

Film production spending in the UK totalled more than £559 million in 2005 while home-grown films accounted for 34% of UK box office revenue, the highest in 10 years.

More from the UK Film Council.

Abigail Morris leaves Soho Theatre

After 13 years with Soho Theatre, Abigail Morris has left her post as Artistic Director.

In a statement (Word document), the Chair of Soho’s Board, Nicholas Allott, said: “We are enormously grateful to Abigail for her contribution to the Company over a long period of time and I would particularly like to pay tribute to her vision and tenacity at a crucial stage in the theatre’s development.”

Mark Godfrey remains Executive Director and Jonathan Lloyd is currently acting Artistic Director. The Company has begun the process of recruitment for a new Artistic Director and the post will be advertised next month.

Can content owners fight back?

Can publishers and other content owners fight back against the power of the search engines, asks Jon Fine of Business Week.

What if 2006 is the year big media players take aim at Google's kneecaps? No, not with more lawsuits... Rather, picture this: Walt Disney, News Corp, NBC Universal, and The New York Times, in an odd tableau of unity, join together and say: "We are the founding members of the Content Consortium. Next month we launch our free, searchable Web site, which no outside search engines can access." (A simple bit of code is all it takes to bar all or some major search engines from accessing a site.) "From now on we'll make our stuff available and sell ads around it and the searches for it, but only on our terms. Who else wants to join us? Membership's free."

Head of drama Reeks to leave ITV

ITV’s head of drama Jenny Reeks is leaving the broadcaster due to ill health.

Her departure ends a ten-year partnership with the network’s controller of drama Nick Elliott and comes at a time when the broadcaster’s commissioning team is undergoing a radical overhaul.

Reeks and Elliott have worked together since 1995 and since then have commissioned hit drama productions such as Bad Girls, Doc Martin and Cold Feet.

Elliott, who has been promoted to the new title of director of drama, will shortly begin the search for Reeks’ replacement.

More from The Stage.

Politicians in fiction

In The Guardian, Mark Lawson reflects on why certain politicians turn up so frequently in fiction.

The reason that Blair, Thatcher and Clinton sparked so much drama is that each represented a significant departure (in either gender, youth or ideology) from the typical leadership of their times. Their impact on the political landscape was so great that, to adapt a phrase from Richard Littlejohn, one of the dominant newspaper columnists of the political era they span: you couldn't make them up.

The art of ghostwriting

Everybody loves a literary ghost story - not the kind with floating shrouds and rattling chains, but tales of late-night liaisons over a hot tape-recorder, unfairly divided advances, and the sad plight of the hidden helpers who flit behind a famous name. In publishing, ghosting recalls 1950s sex: often practised, seldom discussed.

More from Boyd Tonkin in The Independent.

Sioned William leaves ITV

Sioned William has left her role as Controller of Comedy at ITV, reports Ben Dowell for Media Guardian (free registration required). As recently as September 2005 she was talking about her ambitions for comedy on ITV, but she is now one of several executives to resign following the restructure of the network's management by the new director of television, Simon Shaps.

Ms Wiliam's job will be subsumed into the new entertainment and comedy department, which will almost certainly be run by the Granada USA boss, Paul Jackson... It is widely believed that these latest departures will not be the last of the changes at the top of ITV as Mr Shaps continues to reshape his commissioning team.

Dangerous ideas

From David Honigmann in The Financial Times:

Every year, the literary agent John Brockman invites 100 or so scientists and other thinkers to answer the "edge question". This year it was: "What is your dangerous idea?" In particular, respondents were asked for an idea that would be dangerous if it were true.

The results (collected at www.edge.org) give an insight into how philosophically minded scientists are thinking: the result is somewhere between a multi-disciplinary seminar and elevated high table talk.

Fifty years of the Royal Court

In The Telegraph, Aleks Sierz charts 50 years of the Royal Court and Dominic Cavendish asks what has happened to rage in today's theatre writing.

...couldn't [Kenneth] Tynan's scathing description, back in 1956, of the drama of his day - "theatre that seldom ventures more than a toe into the water" - be applied to the fare that fills our stages far more easily than many would care to admit? Quietness and restraint, compassion and subtlety, have become the dominant features of the new writing landscape. British theatre is alive, but it's not exactly kicking. A new exhibition at the Theatre Museum, commemorating the '50s and Look Back in Anger, is entitled Unleashing Britain; society has undoubtedly changed, but why, decades on, does British theatre feel so tightly tethered?

Ken's reasons why not to watch

American comedy writer Ken Levine assesses two new comedies.

I see that EMILY’S REASONS WHY NOT (worst title since MANIMAL) and JAKE IN PROGRESS bombed in the ratings Monday. Gee. Wonder why? Could it be that no one gives a shit about the dating woes of incredibly good looking people? Poor Heather Graham can’t find the right man. Poor John Stamos has commitment problems. He has to juggle three beautiful women. Oh the humanity!!

You don’t feel sympathy for these people. You don’t root for these people. You want to KILL them.

Sky delivers movies through broadband

Sky have announced that their digital TV subscribers can now download films (and sports coverage) via broadband.

Sky by broadband is a new service exclusive to Sky digital customers. It allows you to enjoy hundreds of films on your PC, including a mix of Hollywood blockbusters and classic movie titles available on Sky Movies.

Robin Swicord interviewed

In The Guardian, Jeremy Kay speaks to Robin Swicord whose adaptation of Arthur Golden's Memoirs Of A Geisha is released in the UK this month.

Golden's book is characterised by streams of inner thought and was never going to be a straightforward adaptation. Fortunately the author was on hand to help. "Adapting is always an interpretive work," Swicord says. "Some parts are original, but you're always in service and collaboration with the author. This book was written in the first person, has a long, interior, ruminative monologue and moves around a lot in time. So I had to create a chronology. There's so much complex detail about the life of the geisha and the village that would have slowed down the story on the screen. This is by necessity a distillation. Arthur was very generous and brought us his own research notes and materials, including his unedited manuscript, which was invaluable. He was supportive when we departed from the text and didn't have that reflexive, protective instinct. When it was all done and we were at the press junket he came up to us and thanked us.

Online books next for Google?

After its recent announcement of plans for an online video store, Google is considering selling book downloads online, reports Alfred Hermida for BBC News.

Sony is also trying to invigorate demand for e-books. At CES, it launched a new portable device to read e-books and announced deals with major publishers to sell them online.

Asked if Google would consider doing something similar, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said: "Subject to permission from the copyright holder, yes. I want to be clear on that."

Literature world tour

On The Guardian's Culture Vulture blog they've started a series of discussions on the best literature from different countries. Finland is the first.

CES Las Vegas

Bobbie Johnson reports for The Guardian's Technology Blog from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

What was interesting, I think, is that every single big player agreed on their vision for the future: delivering "content" (a word I dislike more with each passing day) to the public through the internet, and feeding it across devices.

Update: More information about one of the main announcements, Google Video Store.

Forgotten plays

In The Guardian, Philip Hensher asks why theatres have such a restricted repertoire.

At present, most theatres seem to exist on a diet that alternates between the established classic and taking a punt on the occasional "novelty" that, once seen, will disappear. Whenever a new production of something rarely staged surfaces, like the Sheffield Romans in Britain, it's worth applauding it. But there ought to be some means, particularly in the subsidised theatre, to back up the undoubtedly adventurous spirit that so many artistic directors feel unable to indulge.

At the moment, wherever you go, all the theatres largely seem to be putting on the same plays.

Paula Milne on The Virgin Queen

In The Daily Telegraph, screenwriter Paula Milne describes how she researched and wrote the upcoming BBC ONE series, The Virgin Queen.

The BBC offered to put me in touch with various TV historians to help my research process, but I instinctively declined the offer. If the job of a historian is to interpret history, my ignorance made me vulnerable to any theories they might want to promulgate.

Instead I talked to history teachers in secondary schools, knowing that they were probably rooted in empirical historical fact rather than imposing their own interpretations.

Sony Reader

Sony have launched Sony Reader, a new handheld device for digital books.

Reading from the Sony® Reader is unlike reading from any other digital device you’ve ever seen. Its breakthrough electronic paper technology provides clarity and resolution that rival paper itself. The 6-inch screen is as easy to read in full daylight as indoors, and can be viewed from nearly any angle. Forgot your reading glasses? Enlarge text up to 200%. It’s the way on-screen reading was always meant to be – book-like.

The Reader will go on sale in America in the Spring, price $349.

Hallam Tennyson 1920-2005

The author, scriptwriter and radio producer Hallam Tennyson has died at the age of 85. The Guardian has an obituary by Angela Pleasance.

Hallam joined the BBC World Service in 1956, later moving into BBC radio drama, where he achieved a very distinguished career as assistant head of drama to Martin Esslin during those golden years of radio. Throughout his time with the BBC, he adapted many classics; scripted programmes on Verdi, Mozart, Gerard Manley Hopkins and so on; and produced works by Shakespeare, Stoppard, Beckett and Pinter.

Thomas Meehan interviewed

Long-time Mel Brooks collaborator, Thomas Meehan, interviewed by Dylan Callaghan for the Writers Guild of America, west.

What's it like to be sending The Producers back to its original home - the big screen?

I feel that this is Mel's screenplay. He wrote the original and won the Academy Award for it, so I'm just an assistant here (laughs). I did an awful lot of work with him on the Broadway show, had a lot of input and wrote a lot of it with Mel.

When we went back to the screenplay the summer before last out in the Hamptons, we went back to a lot of the stuff from the original movie, in terms of taking it outside and having stuff happen in Central Park and Fifth Avenue. It was more reshaping the original movie to fit in 16 songs, so you had to do a lot of cutting and reshaping.

It's a unique screenwriting experience because it's not writing a screenplay from the ground up; there was the original screenplay and then there was the book of the musical Mel and I wrote together. We had to mold it all into a new screenplay. It was tricky.

Seeking new sponsors

Could the TV and film industries be persuaded to sponsor book prizes, wonders Boyd Tonkin in The Independent. After all, they rely on literature for much of their inspiration.

More than ever before, the big and small screens both depend on books for much of their most popular - and prestigious - raw material. For millions of contented viewers, the autumn and Christmas seasons will have passed in a long, luxurious banquet of quality adaptations, as cinema and television feasted on the creative flesh of Charles Dickens, J K Rowling, Jane Austen, John le Carré, C S Lewis, Ian Rankin and so, indefinitely, on. If you fancy a promising new movie this month, then Brokeback Mountain (from Annie Proulx) opens today; Memoirs of a Geisha and Jarhead (respectively, Arthur Golden and Anthony Swofford) next week; even, remarkably, A Cock and Bull Story (from Sterne's Tristram Shandy) in a fortnight's time.

The Stage 100

The Stage has published its list of the 100 most influential people in British theatre. It's not online, but The Independent has the top 20. The highest ranked writer is Harold Pinter. At number 18.

The diversity pass

Do writers have a responsibility to create ethnically diverse and racially non-stereotypical characters?

Yes, says Alex Epstein.

No, insists Craig Mazin.

Writers have an enormous responsibility, and that is to tell a good story. Let that be our guide. If our movie isn'’t about social justice, put the story first and all utopian visions of what the world ought to be like second.

Anything less is bad writing.

Update: John August has also joined the fray...

Unless it’s important for understanding a story point, I rarely specify a race for a character. But that’s not to say I won’t give some strong hints. I will often make the lieutenant GONZALEZ rather than GOODMAN. The internist is more likely to end up DR. CHO than DR. CHASE. The schoolteacher will be PATEL rather than PETERS.

Is it liberal guilt? No. It’s readability.

Harrogate woman nets £1.3m advance for debut

After a marathon, 10-day auction, Diane Setterfield, a French teacher from Harrogate, has been paid £800,000 by UK publishers and a further $1m from a US publishing house for her debut novel The Thirteenth Tale.

More from Ian Herbert in The Independent, including a run-down of other big debut deals.