Blueprints: "I, Tonya"

Jorge continuing to look at the screenplays of this year's Oscar crop... 

All through this year’s awards campaign, the team behind I, Tonya has repeatedly stated that the movie came to be because of screenwriter Steven Roger’s interviews with Tonya Harding and Jeff Gillooly, in which he realized that they both had widely different recollections of their relationship.

The movie that came out of those interviews decided to play with perspective, memory, and point of view to give an unreliable retelling of this story, and playing with biopic tropes. Let’s take a look at how Rogers used various formal devices in the script to convey that we all remember things differently...

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Blueprints: "The Disaster Artist"

Jorge Molina continues with the 2017 Oscar nominated screenplays...

One of the most overused film tropes out there is the big pep talk that a leader gives his or her team before they get into some sort of defining battle. It’s meant to inspire, motivate, eliminate any form of self-doubt, and give them the necessary strength to embark on their journey. 

But what if the task at hand is the production of what would become one of the canonically worst films of all time? And what if its leader is a proto-European actor with a lot of heart and devotion, but almost no social skills? Let’s take a look at how the writers for The Disaster Artist managed to inject these doomed elements with sincerity...

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Blueprints: "Ingrid Goes West"

In the latest installment of our screenplay column, Jorge takes a look at the tricky task of making a phone screen visually engaging.

As technology becomes more efficient and finds new ways to make our lives easier, it’s making the job of screenwriting more difficult. It’s now nearly impossible to not be able to reach a person in some way (once a common source of screen conflict) and, worse for the visual montony, most of our day-to-day activities include staring at some kind of screen.

Ingrid Goes West didn't just incorporate how we relate to technology today, but made it its central theme. Let’s look at the underrated gem to see how the use of technology is captured in its pages, and how the writers made it as emotionally thrilling as any action movie car chase...

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Your 8 favorite lines from "Mean Girls" ?

W magazine convinced Lindsay Lohan to recite her* 8 favorite lines from Mean Girls. Picking 8 definitive favorites is impossible so herewith a list of the lines that probably get quoted most often amongst my friends in no particular order. Would love to hear yours in the comments.

• "It's just gonna be a few cool people and you better be one of them biotch."
• "Oh my god, that was one time!"
• "I'm not, like, a regular mom, I'm a cool mom"
• "But you love Ladysmith Black Mambazo!"
• "She doesn't even go here."
• "I'm sorry that people are so jealous of me. But I can't help it that I'm popular"
• "Trang Pak is a grotsky, little byotch."
• "I can't go out, I'm sick *fakecough*"

* Or did they just give her 8 lines... considering she wants to change one of them.

Blueprints: The Nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay

Jorge continues to dive into the Oscar writing nominees.

Last week we dove into the nominees for Original Screenplay, which was an incredibly crowded category from the start, and there’s not a real frontrunner at the moment; more than one candidate has strong chances. The race was always very different with Adapted Screenplays. From the very start, only Call Me by Your Name truly felt like lock, and the four other slots were anyone's guess for months. Let’s take a look at each of the scripts, and see what was it that got them here...

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