Whistle (2005) Spartan (2004) Hannibal (2001) Heist (2001) Lakeboat (2001) State and Main (2000) Lansky (1999) The Winslow Boy (1999) Ronin (1998) The Spanish Prisoner (1998) Wag the Dog (1998) The Edge (1997) The Untouchables (1987) The Verdict (1982)
DIRECTOR Heist (2001) State and Main (2000) The Winslow Boy (1999) The Spanish Prisoner (1998) Oleanna (1994) Homicide (1991) Things Change (1988) House of Games (1987)
"There's no such thing as talent; you just have to work hard enough." -- David Mamet
Director, screenwriter, essayist, novelist and poet David Mamet studied at Vermont's Goddard College and the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theatre in New York. Noted for his gritty stories often reflecting the hardened attitudes of his native Chicago, and often revolves around domineering male characters and edgy storylines.
He is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and two-time Oscar nominee, and has been a force in American theater since 1976, when his first staged plays immediately won Obie and New York Drama Critics Circle Awards.
His critically acclaimed debut feature, "House of Games", was selected to close the New York Film Festival in 1987. He followed this with his gentle Mafia fable "Things Change", co-written with Shel Silverstein, for which Joe Montegna and Don Ameche shared Best Actor honors at the 1988 Venice Film Festival; Homicide, which opened the 1991 Cannes Film Festival; "Oleanna" in 1994, the sole film he has adapted and directed from one of his plays; "The Spanish Prisoner", his acclaimed Hitchcockian thriller, which became one of the most popular independent films of 1998; "The Winslow Boy", an adaptation of the famed Terrence Rattigan play starring Nigel Hawthorne, Jeremy Northam and Rebecca Pidgeon; and most recently, State and Main, starring William H. Macy, Alec Baldwin, Sarah Jessica Parker, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Rebecca Pidgeon.
Mamet has also won acclaim for numerous screenplays, including "The Verdict" for Sidney Lumet and "Wag the Dog" for Barry Levinson, which were both nominated for Academy Awards for Best Screenplay.
His other screenplays include The Postman Always Rings Twice for Bob Rafelson; "The Untouchables" for Brian DePalma; "Were No Angels", with Robert DeNiro and Sean Penn for Neil Jordan; "Hoffa", directed by Danny DeVito and starring Jack Nicholson in the title role; and "The Edge", with Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin.
The writer first won recognition with his plays, Sexual Perversity in Chicago and American Buffalo (later filmed with Dustin Hoffman and Dennis Franz). When both plays opened in New York in 1976, Mamet won the Obie Award for distinguished play writing and American Buffalo was voted Best Play by the New York Drama Critics Circle. In 1978, he received the Outer Critics Circle Award for his contribution to American theater.
All of us creative types have things we're naturally good at, and things we've learned to do, and things we aren't that good at (yet). This creates a creative trap: when approaching a project, we often work on the part we understand best — the part that scares us least. So if you're good at plot, you write the plot first, and then fill in the characters later. If you're good at characters, you write up the characters and then feel your way towards a plot.
Everyone pursuing a screenwriting career will eventually realize this journey is not for the thin of skin or for those who cannot handle the emotional ups and downs this business brings. If you haven’t yet experienced the soul crushing disappointment of finally having written a script that goes into development, but it doesn’t make it to production and sits on a shelf, I don’t envy you. It’s happened to me a handful of times out of my nearly two dozen paid screenwriting assignments. Learn this early — there are no guarantees in the screenwriting game. You take your lumps, heal, and move on to the next screenplay and the next one.
I love Readers! Yes they are the gatekeepers to the Promised Land and like it or not they do have power. But just how much? Well, I’m here to show you. I got my hands on a classified document folks, the holy grail… An actual copy of a real STUDIO MEMO covering GUIDELINES for their READERS.
Scenes must have a reason to exist in your screenplay. Each scene must advance the plot forward through dialogue and/or visual storytelling. Characters’ journeys drive the script’s narrative, and each scene must steer their journey forward. Although some scenes might not even contain any characters, these scenes must still provide information about your plot, as well as your characters’ lives and actions. There is no set rule as to how many lines, paragraphs, or pages constitute a scene.
The following has nothing to do with wet t-shirts. This entry is actually about screenwriting contests - a subject with little marquee value. One of the most popular category of questions that I find in my e-mail box is about screenwriting contests. As I say over and over, I believe that most are a waste of energy and entry fee. Some - like the Nicholl and Disney Fellowships - are very reputable and have launched a few Hollywood careers. Regardless of how reputable any contest might be, the screening process for most seems tenuous. Low fees for contest readers and a bulk of scripts guarantees a sloppy vetting system.
"Lowtide" writer, director and producer Kevin McMullin has sold his short story "Bomb" and is tabbed to write the script for "low seven figures" and "Gladiator" director Ridley Scott is attached to Direct. According to reports, 20th Century beat out studios Apple, Netflix, Sony, and Warner Bros.
Books are the fastest and easiest way you can learn from an expert. In screenwriting, it’s no different. Some of the best screenwriters and those who have mastered the craft, have created countless books trying to encapsulate all they’ve learned in their work. If you’re a new screenwriter and looking to improve or simply to learn how to create better scripts, these three books will help you out.
Everybody has a perspective. Everybody in your scene has a reason. They have their own voice, their own identity, their own history… But if you don’t know who everybody is and why they’re there, why they’re feeling what they’re feeling and why they’re doing what they’re doing, then you’re in trouble.
What is a successful second act? One that keeps the reader engaged, moves the story forward, and successfully delivers it into the falling action; that being the third act climax and the denouement. A bad screenplay has a second act that simply doesn't keep the narrative trajectory in place and thus the spine of the story sags; meaning rising tension and conflict is not taking place.