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Saw Star Trek over the weekend. Great movie. Not great as in "this is an epochal movie that will be remembered for generations. When people look back in the history of cinema, they're going to say "Wow. I was there when that movie came out. This is important. This *means* something." It's just a movie that hits every note, runs on all cylinders, and keeps you firmly in seat, wondering what's going to come next. There is character-building, action set-pieces, chases, space battles, hand-to-hand-combat, sexy innuendo, strange aliens, exotic locations, cliffhangers, and everything you could and should expect from a summer blockbuster. 

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After his brush with acting this summer (as seen on Portlandia last month) we started looking around for things that might interest Stephen in drama and other creative outlets of the like. Then I found Claymation Studio 3.0 Deluxe. A nifty little software package with a webcam and the ability to create stop-motion animations. It's got some slick visual design tools: onion skins and rotoscoping, as well as blue-screen technology for compositing images. 

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  Ever since the announced sale of the Star Wars universe to Disney, there has been rampant speculation as to where the new owners of the Galactic Empire will direct it. Old-school fanboys desperately want to see the continuation of the original characters from Episodes IV-VI, possibly including stories told and expanded on in comic books and novels. Modern fans who are enjoying the Clone Wars cartoons clamor for feature-length movies in this era. Others would like to see reboots of the... read more

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