Harold Ramis and Ben Stiller will participate on a comedy panel and Ramis will receive the annual Screenwriters Tribute at the 14th Annual Nantucket Film Festival, set to run from June 18-21.

Peter Farrelly and John Hamburg will also feature on the panel and discuss the evolution of comedy.

Ramis’ upcoming comedy Year One starring Jack Black and Michael Cera will close the festival and there will be a 25th anniversary screening of Ghostbusters, which Ramis starred in and co-wrote.

Festival artistic director Mystelle Brabbee said that without Ramis “the landscape of comedy in movies would look entirely different” and called him “the father of modern comedy.”

In keeping with the festival’s mission of spotlighting writers, organisers will announce the winner of Showtime’s annual Tony Cox Award for screenwriting at the annual awards brunch. Jury members include Fisher Stevens, Jessie Nelson, and Lili Taylor.

The film line-up includes Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, Cheryl Hines’ Serious Moonlight, Cherien Dabis’ Amreeka, Sophie Barthes’ Cold Souls, Louie Psihoyos’ documentary The Cove, Lynn Shelton’s Humpday and Sebastian Silva’s The Maid.

(Source: http://www.screendaily.com/festivals/harold-ramis-to-receive-nantucket-screenwriting-tribute/5000879.article)

Helped bring “Bonanza,” “The Twilight Zone” to life.

According to the Associated Press, John Furia, Jr., the scribe who helped bring Bonanza and The Twilight Zone into America’s living room during the 1950s and 1960s, died Monday. His passing was confirmed by the Writer’s Guild of America West. Cause of death is not known.

Born in 1929, Furia first got his feet wet as a singer performing in dance bands in New York City. But a chance move to Hollywood stoked his interest in the written word, launching his screenwriting career as the brain behind some of the most popular movies and TV shows of the post-war era.

“John had an old-world dignity about him that seems in such short supply in our world today,” Jack Epps, Jr., chair of the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts Writing for Screen and Television Division, said in a statement.

Though Furia’s main portfolio was as a writer, he was a fearless advocate of his fellow scribes, serving as president of the WGAW from 1973 to 1975. In his free time, he helped found USC’s Writing for Screen and Television Division, becoming the division’s first full professor.

In a statement, the current president of the WGAW, Patric M. Verrone, expressed his sorrow following Furia’s death.

“John’s character and dignity touched and influenced generations of writers from the founders of the Guild itself to the newest of student-associates,” he said. “For those of us who relied on his knowledge and his counsel, John was more than an eminence grise; he was pure eminence.”

Furia leaves behind a spouse, Mary, and 7 children.

2006 PAGE Award winner Davah Avena is now on the writing staff of the hit TV series “Medium.” Davah’s episode “How to Make a Killing in Big Business: Part 3” aired on NBC on Monday night.

Over the past five years, the PAGE International Screenwriting Awards contest has developed a reputation for discovering and promoting some of the most talented new screenwriters from across the country and around the world. Since receiving their prizes, many PAGE Award winners have gone on to land writing assignments, secure representation, and sign option agreements on their winning scripts, and several now have movies and television shows in various stages of production and release.

More news from past PAGE Award Winners:

The 2008 PAGE Silver Prize-winning short film A LOST AND FOUND BOX OF HUMAN SENSATION, by Martin Wallner, is being produced by Dancing Squirrel GbR and Lailaps Pictures at the Trixter production facilities in Munich, Germany. Joseph Fiennes is voicing the animated short.

The 2008 Gold Prize-winning sitcom pilot “Control Alt Delete,” by U.K. scribe Simeon Goulden, has been optioned by Company Pictures. Simeon is now represented by the Curtis Brown Agency in London.

2008 Silver Prize winners Michael and Jessica Brody have been signed by manager Margery Walshaw. Jessica’s debut novel “The Fidelity Files” was released last year by St. Martin’s Press and the book was recently optioned to Marina Grasic (executive producer of CRASH, ALPHA DOG, SMART PEOPLE).

2007 Silver Prize winner David Bishop recently completed his 40th issue of The Phantom comic book and celebrated the publication of his 19th novel. David’s “Doctor Who” audio drama “Enemy of the Daleks” is scheduled to be released later this month. He also recently wrote a successful trial script for the BBC medical drama series “Doctors,” and as a result was invited on to a BBC shadow scheme for emerging writers.

2006 Bronze Prize winner Zack Van Eyck has optioned his new screenplay ALLEY CATS to producer/director Patrick T. Brown of Bad Turtle Productions. Zack already has one completed movie under his belt, five features in development and pre-production, and six short scripts sold.

2008 Gold Prize winner Steve Warren has been hired by producer/director Mariusz Kotowski of Bright Shining City Productions to pen a new multi-episode TV series.

2007 Bronze Prize winner Ehud Lavski has been signed by Mike Goldberg and Josh Adler at Abstract Entertainment in L.A.

2005 Bronze Prize winner Dylan Costello has been signed by Gary Wild of Jill Foster, Ltd. in London.

read more…

The Final Entry Deadline for the 2009 PAGE International Screenwriting Awards competition is Friday, May 15th. This year the PAGE judges will once again be presenting a total of 31 awards in ten different genre categories. The winning screenwriters will receive a total of over $50,000 in Cash and Prizes – including a huge new $25,000 Grand Prize – as well as extensive publicity and industry exposure for their winning scripts.

Most importantly, the PAGE Awards competition is judged entirely by working professionals in the film and television industry, so all contestants have the opportunity to get their work into the hands of Hollywood insiders currently in search of new talent.

For more information about this year’s PAGE Awards contest, please visit: www.pageawards.com

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is accepting entries, which are due by May 1, for the 2009 Don and Gee Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting competition. As many as five $30,000 fellowships will be awarded through the program later this year.

The competition is open to any individual who has not earned more than $5,000 from the sale or option of a screenplay or teleplay or received a fellowship or prize of more than $5,000 that includes a “first look” clause, an option or any other quid pro quo involving the writer’s work. To enter, writers must submit a completed application form, one copy of their original screenplay in English and a $30 entry fee.

Last year’s competition drew more than 5,000 entries.

Enter Your Screenplay!

UK, April 3, 2009 - Sam Raimi told SCI FI Wire that the script for Spider-Man 4 should be completed by summer.

He said: “Right now, [screenwriter] David Lindsay-Abaire is working on a draft of the new picture, and he’s hard at work, and hopefully we’ll see something in about three months.” This places the film on track for its May 6, 2011 release.

Third Acts are your race to the finish line. Everything has been setup and the final payoff(s) are coming in. Remember, your Third Act is buried in your First Act. You’ve raised a question about your Protagonist, placed an obstacle (the first of many) in his or her way, you’ve setup something that has to be resolved and usually has to be in such a way it is the final act by the Protagonist to signify their transformation.

Typically Third Acts are not more than 15 minutes long. (There are always exceptions to the rule). The event that sends the Second Act hurdling into the Third Act should be the emergence of the Protagonist overcoming his lowest point. The Final Action is taken by the Protagonist. Now it’s a race to the finish. The suspense, tension and drama are at the highest point here.

You often will expose the theme o f the story with this final act or redemption, resolution. How and why the Protagonist has acted tells us something about the character.
Your Third Act must do the following:

1) Resolve the central action line;
2) reveal the final image of the Protagonist: has he changed, into what? What is this new identity;
3) all that which is setup must be paid off.

Finally, the pace and tempo must be at its highest point here. The 3-Act structure is a building process of emotion and tension. Even with dramas and comedies, there is something going on. The Protagonist is heading towards this Third Act deliverance where the final decision is made and the action is resolved thereby allowing the theme of the story to be revealed.

Good luck and keep writing

Chris Wehner
www.4screenwriters.com