@frtimmyd I hope you’ve read the Silmarillion, it’s the bible of LOTR series.
Currently reading for fun a book series I read 20 years ago, Dragon Riders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey.
Good reads if you’re looking are Dune by Frank Herbert, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein, 1984 by George Orwell and LOTR obviously.
Being a screenwriter I spend a good bit of each day reading, usually 1-3, 90-130 page scripts. They are from every genre, range from good to bad (mostly) and change through different drafts. In the last week I read about 20 of the movies up for Oscars. It’s a big part of the job, reading others scripts to learn, help someone else with their script, writing critiques and reviews. The most fun is seeing a movie from a script you read about 2 years before is, and seeing all the changes made on the set and the editing room. When you’re reading you always picture who would be playing a part, then get blown away when you see who plays the part.
Good examples:
Flight - never in a million years saw Denzel Washington playing the part. I can’t believe he even took the role, in the end it hurt a good movie. Why? Because it wasn’t “Training Day” or “Safe House” and that’s what people expect for him now.
Django - QT can and does anything he wants. He breaks all the rules of writing and filming. Scripts should be 100-120 pages but Django is 170 pages and its loaded pages, packed with description and dialogue. Then he makes huge changes as he films and edits it, in the end its signature Tarantino. Nobody writes like him, or makes a film like him.
Prometheus – Originally written as Alien Engineers. Great read, and totally bombed at the box office. They made massive changes and destroyed the movie. The proverbial “The book is better than the movie”.
Currently reading for fun a book series I read 20 years ago, Dragon Riders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey.
Good reads if you’re looking are Dune by Frank Herbert, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein, 1984 by George Orwell and LOTR obviously.
Being a screenwriter I spend a good bit of each day reading, usually 1-3, 90-130 page scripts. They are from every genre, range from good to bad (mostly) and change through different drafts. In the last week I read about 20 of the movies up for Oscars. It’s a big part of the job, reading others scripts to learn, help someone else with their script, writing critiques and reviews. The most fun is seeing a movie from a script you read about 2 years before is, and seeing all the changes made on the set and the editing room. When you’re reading you always picture who would be playing a part, then get blown away when you see who plays the part.
Good examples:
Flight - never in a million years saw Denzel Washington playing the part. I can’t believe he even took the role, in the end it hurt a good movie. Why? Because it wasn’t “Training Day” or “Safe House” and that’s what people expect for him now.
Django - QT can and does anything he wants. He breaks all the rules of writing and filming. Scripts should be 100-120 pages but Django is 170 pages and its loaded pages, packed with description and dialogue. Then he makes huge changes as he films and edits it, in the end its signature Tarantino. Nobody writes like him, or makes a film like him.
Prometheus – Originally written as Alien Engineers. Great read, and totally bombed at the box office. They made massive changes and destroyed the movie. The proverbial “The book is better than the movie”.
