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In Part One and Part Two I dissected the first two thirds of The Hobbit, and how a screenwriter might break them down into separate movies, with the purpose of trying to see if there is enough source material in a 320-page book to fill 411 minutes of screen time. With the first movie, I think the Blake Snyder "Save the Cat" beatsheet shows that a compelling first movie can be made. The second film, comprising mostly just the company's adventures in Mirkwood seemed a little light on content, and ... read more

In Part One, I broke down The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey using Blake Snyder's Save the Cat screenwriting formula beatsheet. This time, we're going to look at how the second movie will (can? should? might?) unfold. My goal is to see how Peter Jackson could possibly fit 320 pages of novel into 411 minutes of screen footage without massively padding the film. Is there enough to The Hobbit to justify three movies? The first movie ended with Bilbo, Gandalf, Thorin and Company atop the eyrie of... read more

With the news that Peter Jackson had lobbied for and received permission to split The Hobbit into not two films, but three, the first thing I wondered was "How?" The Lord of the Rings books were 1178 pages. These fit very nicely into 3 too-long movies, with the blatant omission of only three major plot points, and the insertion of several others. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is 784 pages, and it fit exceptionally well into two relatively long movies, with only minor omissions.  In... read more

I got my first review of A Feast of Tears last month, and it made me wonder why I haven't gotten more. Obviously, because not enough people have read it. How to rectify this conundrum? Then it hit me. I'll give the book away, in the hopes that the people who read it will give it their honest assessment on Amazon. A Feast of Tears is a book of poetry. While some of the poetry is older (I believe at least one of the poems in that book is over 25 years old!), the heart of it was written when my... read more

My friend David Steinberg (screenwriter on -- among other things -- the American Pie movies and Puss In Boots) just published his first novel! Last Stop This Town is the story of 4 best friends from a sleepy suburb in Connecticut spending a wild weekend in New York City in a classic story of growth and friendship -- with all the craziness you'd expect from something like this, and more. Albanian gangs, hookers, street performers, and degenerate socialites. Just reading the description makes... read more