'Screenwriting in a Digital Era' examines the practices of writing for the screen from early Hollywood to the new realism. Looking back to prehistories of the form, Kathryn Millard links screenwriting to visual and oral storytelling around the globe, and explores new methods of collaboration and authorship in the digital environment.

Doctor Who - new dawn explores the latest cultural moment in this long-running BBC TV series: the casting of a female lead. Analysing showrunner Chris Chibnall and Jodie Whittaker's era means considering contemporary Doctor Who as an inclusive, regendered brand. Featuring original interview material with cast members, this edited collection also includes an in-depth discussion with Segun Akinola, composer of the iconic theme tune's current version. The book critically address the series' representations of diversity, as well as fan responses to the thirteenth Doctor via the likes of memes, cosplay and even translation into Spanish as a grammatically gendered language. In addition, concluding essays look at how this moment of Who has been merchandised, especially via the 'experience economy', and how official/unofficial reactions to UK lockdown helped the show to further re-emphasise its public-service potential. -- .

Winner of the 1990 Evening Standard Film Award for Best Film Post-war East End London. Ronnie and Reggie Kray are school ground bullies brought up by a domineering mother and two devoted aunts. National Service and spells in prison expose the brutality that helps establish the twin brothers as the kings of 1960s gangland London. Philip Ridley's original, uncut screenplay, almost as notorious as its subject matter is a stylised meditation on maternal love, childhood, violence and homoeroticism and takes its place as one of the masterpieces of contemporary cinema."Ridley...reveals himself most welcomely as a genuinely innovative film maker, untrammelled by conventions and with an individualistic imagination firing on all cylinders." (The Evening Standard)

Not everyone enjoys a globe-hopping lifestyle a la Indiana Jones and 007, or endures the emotional peaks and valleys of a Scarlett O'Hara or Blanche Dubois. But most of us do come of age sooner or later, which makes it easy to relate to the pivotal events involved in growing up. First crush. Dawn of sex drive. Loss of virginity. Breakup with sweetheart. Senior prom. Graduation day. Going off to college.

In like vein, we're all familiar with the issues confronting adolescents. Forging an identity. Fitting in. Handling peer pressure. Bonds/bounds of friendship. Erosion of childhood illusions. Bridging the generation gap. Leaving the nest.

"Threshold: Scripting a Coming-of-Age" offers film buffs and prospective screenwriters insights into the essential elements. Chapter 1 develops the four cornerstones of all scripts irrespective of genre. Chapter 2 covers the genre's distinctive features. Chapter 3 analyzes one classic coming-of-age in depth: "River's Edge." Inspired by actual events, the 1987 film confronts its seventeen-year-old protagonist with a daunting threshold rarely encountered by mature adults.

The book debuts three feature-film screenplays: "Homies"; "What Up Dawg"; "What Are Brothers For?" The respective protagonists--13, 19, 21--face age-appropriate challenges involving peer pressure, authority figures, and post-graduation blues.

Action, action, yet more action. No action film worthy of genre would be caught dead without its fair share of red-hot lead and no-holds-barred fisticuffs, high-octane pursuits and gravity-defying gymnastics. Then again, non-stop action soon wears thin absent a rooting interest in Last Man Standing. She was the first woman to cross finish line. Rooting interest inheres not in overt action, no matter how artfully choreographed or breathtakingly executed. Rather, rooting interest comes from empathy for the protagonist and, more precisely, from the dramatic action embodied by the protagonist's struggle to accomplish a worthy goal opposed by a formidable foe. Action is a double-edged blade, overt action being a necessary but insufficient condition to sustain viewer interest, which soars and ebbs to extent that dramatic action intersects with-injects meaningfulness into-gunplay and fistfest, acrobatics and pyrotechnics. Lights Camera Action spotlights the essential elements of action comedy, action romance, and action adventure. which a screenwriter must weave together in order for an action script to hum and shimmer, pulsate and zing.

In the Spring of 1975 the film director Richard Pearce approached Cormac McCarthy with the idea of writing a screenplay. Though already a widely acclaimed novelist, the author of such modern classics as The Orchard Keeper and Child of God, McCarthy had never before written a screenplay. Using nothing more than a few photographs in the footnotes to a 1928 biography of a famous pre-Civil War industrialist as inspiration, the author and Pearce together roamed the mill towns of the South researching their subject. One year later McCarthy finished The Gardener's Son, a taut, riveting drama of impotence, rage, and ultimately violence spanning two generations of mill owners and workers, fathers and sons, during the rise and fall of one of America's most bizarre utopian industrial experiments. Produced as a two-hour film and broadcast on PBS in 1976, The Gardener's Son recieved two Emmy Award nominations and was shown at the Berlin and Edinburgh Film Festivals. This is the first appearance of the film script in book form.

Set in Graniteville, South Carolina, The Gardener's Son is the tale of two families: the Greggs, a wealthy family that owns and operates the local cotton mill, and the McEvoys, a family of mill workers beset by misfortune. The action opens as Robert McEvoy, a young mill worker, is having his leg amputated -- the limb mangled in an accident rumored to have been caused by James Gregg, son of the mill's founder. McEvoy, crippled and isolated, grows into a man with a "troubled heart"; consumed by bitterness and anger, he deserts both his job and his family.

Returning two years later at the news of his mother's terminal illness, Robert McEvoy arrives only to confront the grave diggers preparing her final resting place. His father, the mill's gardener, is now working on the factory line, the gardens forgotten. These proceedings stoke the slow burning rage McEvoy carries within him, a fury that ultimately consumes both the McEvoys and the Greggs.

An exciting new strand in The Television Series, the 'Moments in Television' collections celebrate the power and artistry of television, whilst interrogating key critical concepts in television scholarship. Each 'Moments' book is organised around a provocative binary theme. Complexity / simplicity addresses the idea of complex TV, examining its potential, limitations and impact upon creative and interpretative practices. It also reassesses simplicity as an alternative criterion for evaluation. Complexity and simplicity persuasively illuminate the book's chosen programmes in new ways. The book explores an eclectic range of TV fictions, dramatic and comedic. Contributors from diverse perspectives come together to expand and enrich the kind of close analysis most commonly found in television aesthetics. Sustained, detailed programme analyses are sensitively framed within historical, technological, institutional, cultural, creative and art-historical contexts. -- .

An exciting new strand in The Television Series, the 'Moments in Television' collections celebrate the power and artistry of television, whilst interrogating key critical concepts in television scholarship. Each 'Moments' book is organised around a provocative binary theme. Sound / image reassesses the synergy between televisual images, and sounds and music, as a key creative interaction warranting closer attention. Through close scrutiny of visual and sonic elements, the book's chosen programmes are persuasively illuminated in new ways. The book explores an eclectic range of TV fictions, dramatic and comedic. Contributors from diverse perspectives come together to expand and enrich the kind of close analysis most commonly found in television aesthetics. Sustained, detailed programme analyses are sensitively framed within historical, technological, institutional, cultural, creative and art-historical contexts. -- .

An exciting new strand in The Television Series, the 'Moments in Television' collections celebrate the power and artistry of television, whilst interrogating key critical concepts in television scholarship. Each 'Moments' book is organised around a provocative binary theme. Substance / styleoffers fresh perspectives on television's essential qualities and aesthetic significance. It reassesses the synergy between substance and style, highlighting the potential for meaning to arise through their integration. The book's chosen programmes are persuasively illuminated in new ways. The book explores an eclectic range of TV fictions, dramatic and comedic. Contributors from diverse perspectives come together to expand and enrich the kind of close analysis most commonly found in television aesthetics. Sustained, detailed programme analyses are sensitively framed within historical, technological, institutional, cultural, creative and art-historical contexts. -- .

* Approaches the practice of screenwriting from an intersectional and inclusive perspective. * Offers practical ways in which screenwriters can approach their craft to tell stories of under-represented individuals in an authentic way. * Includes examples from Killing Eve, Pose, Sense8, Vida, and I May Destroy You to illustrate inclusive screenwriting.

Filming Forster focuses upon the challenges of producing film adaptations of five of E. M. Forster's novels. Rather than follow the older comparative approach, which typically damned the film for not being "faithful" to the novel, this project explores the interactive relationship between film and novel. That relationship is implicit in the title "Filming" Forster, rather than "Forster Filmed," which would suggest a completed process. A film adaptation forever changes the novel from which it was adapted, just as a return to the novel changes the viewer's perceptions of the film. Adapting Forster's novels for the screen was postponed until well after the author's death in 1970 because the trustees of the author's estate fulfilled his wish that his work not be filmed. Following the appearance of David Lean's film A Passage to India in 1984, four other film adaptations were released within seven years. Perhaps the most important was the Merchant Ivory production of Maurice, based upon Forster's "gay" novel, published a year after his death. That film was among the first to approach same-sex relationships between men in a serious, respectful, and generally optimistic manner.

Writers seeking to create novels and screenplays with genuine layers and depth will find essential insight in Mitchell German's Your Storytelling Potential! After studying filmmaking and screenwriting at NYU-one of the premier film studies programs in the United States (if not the world)-Mitchell German graduated with a complete doctrine on storytelling theory in his arsenal; yet his screenplays still lacked the potency he desired. He spent ten years studying every available book and "expert" on storytelling, but it wasn't until 2002, after endlessly studying the movie Liar Liar, that Mitchell found the key and developed the Your Storytelling Potential Method. The truth about great storytelling is hidden in plain view for anyone to see, but nearly every expert ignores the most basic story construct. In Your Storytelling Potential, writers who seek to tell great stories will find: A complete understanding of the Identifiable Traits great novels and screenplays (namely movies) have that distinguish them from the other 99.99% of books and screenplays written every year How to use Two Stories within a screenplay and novel, which exponentially increases the chances of those stories gaining buzz and attention A proper understanding of the critical and essential role of Subplots to create genuine character depth and relationships How to properly integrate a Theme for stories to convey deep, relevant, and amazing ideas An outline for utilizing A/B Parallel Story Structure and the Simple Story Timeline to build multi-dimensional stories with the required converging events of the A-Story/B-Story relationship How the premise of every great story is created by the convergence of the A & B Storylines, and how this Key Information can unlock Your Storytelling Potential

***Available for pre-order now*** The gorgeous, pocket-sized edition of the two brand-new Talking Heads ***As seen on BBC1 and iPlayer*** 'Given the opportunity to revisit the characters from Talking Heads I've added a couple more, both of them ordinary women whom life takes by surprise. They just about end up on top and go on, but without quite knowing how. Still, they're in good company, and at least they've made it into print.' Alan Bennett's twelve Talking Heads are acknowledged masterworks by one of our most highly acclaimed writers. Some thirty years after the original six, Bennett has written Two Besides, a pair of monologues. Each, in its way, is a devastating portrait of grief. In An Ordinary Woman, a mother suffers the inevitable consequences when she makes life intolerable for herself and her family by falling for her own flesh and blood; while The Shrine tells the story behind a makeshift roadside shrine, introducing us to Lorna, bearing witness in her high-vis jacket, the bereft partner of a dedicated biker with a surprising private life. The two new Talking Heads were recorded for the BBC during the exceptional circumstances of coronavirus lockdown in the spring of 2020, directed by Nicholas Hytner and performed by Sarah Lancashire and Monica Dolan. The book contains a substantial preface by Nicholas Hytner and an introduction to each, by Alan Bennett.

Hail, Caesar! is the story of Eddie Mannix, tireless pursuer of the interests of fictional Capitol Pictures, circa 1951. He is the ultimate studio fixer and---since the studio is his world---the ultimate earthly one. There is no star scandal he cannot cover up, no studio misstep he cannot repair, no sin he cannot make right. His powers are tested, though, when production on the studio's most expensive picture ever---biblical epic Hail, Caesar!---is halted by the kidnapping of its star. The kidnappers are a mysterious gaggle seeking not just ransom but the destruction of everything Eddie Mannix lives for, and everything he lives by. . .

A Doll's House made Henrik Ibsen world famous; the play is still Ibsen's most popular and one of his most acclaimed. Frequently called the first feminist play, A Doll's House is a fierce critique of Victorian society's conduct toward women. The play revolves around the lives of Nora and Torvald Helmer. Nora is treated as a juvenile, foolish woman by her husband. In reality Nora has been secretly working odd jobs to pay back the money she borrowed when Torvald was ill. This selfless act saved Torvald's life. Nora borrowed the money from her father's bank by a forged signature and has been plagued with the fear of Torvald discovering her secret. When Torvald discovers the existence of the loan he berates Nora, calling her a deceitful and corrupt woman and telling her she is unfit to raise their children. He says that he will stay married only to maintain appearances. Nora realizing that Torvald's love has always been conditional on her maintaining a traditional role as wife and mother decides that she must leave to find out who she is and what to make of her life.

This latest addition to Philip J Riley's Alternate History of Classic Filmonsters series is a collaborative effort with fellow film historian David Conover that delves into one of the most famous unproduced motion pictures of all time, Merian C. Cooper's legendary WAR EAGLES Planned as a full Technicolor production at MGM in the late 1930s, WAR EAGLES would have eclipsed Cooper and long-time SFX partner Willis O'Brien's KING KONG as the greatest fantasy epic of the period had it not fallen victim to pre-war studio politics and the rise of Hitler's Third Reich on the eve of World War II. Long considered a lost film effort, Conover's research has actually uncovered a richly detailed pre-production history, complete with never-before -published artwork, storyboards, test footage frames and more, direct from studio archives and the estates of technicians and artists who actually worked on the film. Also included is the full, never-published final draft of WAR EAGLES by Cyril Hume (screenwriter of MGM's Tarzan series and the sci-fi masterpiece FORBIDDEN PLANET) along with Merian C. Cooper's original treatment and production designer Howard Campbell's notes and budgets for the ill-fated production. For decades, stop-motion fans and film researchers considered an early, coverless draft attributed to Willis O'Brien-- but actually written by Harold Lamb and James Ashmore Creelman-- to be the only existing script for WAR EAGLES, but Conover's discovery of the original typescripts at the USC film library in 2003 turned up 7 more drafts and multiple revisions that eventually led to the final Hume draft. Pre-production artist Duncan Gleason began detailed storyboarding and illustration based on this draft and it is very likely that it would have become the actual shooting script. Detailed models and sets were built and Technicolor test footage featuring stop-motion animation by Willis O'Brien and his crew (including Kong/Mighty Joe Young creators Marcel Delgado and George Lofgren) was shot, and the exciting tale of a lost race of Viking warriors astride giant prehistoric eagles doing battle with Nazis over the skies of modern day Manhattan almost reached the screen until the reality of impending war halted production in 1940... David Conover is a film writer and historian who began his quest to uncover the history of WAR EAGLES as a 13-year-old reader of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine. He was a columnist and reviewer for the Louisville Eccentric Observer for 9 years and his work was syndicated widely during that period as well. He is also the Vice President and Programming Director for WonderFest, an international modeling, toy, film and FX expo that takes place annually in Louisville, Ky, where he lives with his wife, daughter, and a tiny piece of the stegosaurus model from the original KING KONG. If you ask him, he'll show it to you, along with the final page of Cyril Hume's WAR EAGLES script. He's not crazy, just enthusiastic..

The Modernist Screenplay explores the film screenplay as a genre of modernist literature. It connects the history of screenwriting for silent film to the history of literary modernism in France, Germany, and Russia. At the same time, the book considers how the screenplay responded to the modernist crisis of reason, confronted mimetic representation, and sought to overcome the modernist mistrust of language with the help of rhythm. From the silent film projects of Bertolt Brecht, to the screenwriting of Sergei Eisenstein and the poetic scripts of the surrealists, The Modernist Screenplay offers a new angle on the relationship between film and literature. Based on the example of modernist screenwriting, the book proposes a pluralistic approach to screenplays, an approach that sees film scripts both as texts embedded in film production and as literary works in their own right. As a result, the sheer variety of different and experimental ways to tell stories in screenplays comes to light. The Modernist Screenplay explores how the earliest kind of experimental screenplays-the modernist screenplays-challenged normative ideas about the nature of filmmaking, the nature of literary writing, and the borders between the two.