Lauri Donahue

I’m spending the last few weeks of the year updating my neglected website and blog.

I’ve added a bunch of new articles and interviews.

I’ve also added a list of what I think are the best screenwriting contests, labs, and fellowships.

One of the best things to happen to me since my last update was the week I spent at the Black List Feature Lab in LA.

Here’s a blog I wrote about it, and here’s an except:

Screenwriters don’t often get pampered. They don’t often get spoiled. They usually don’t even get valued.

But during one week in October, 2016, seven of us were pampered, spoiled rotten, and valued.

Home base was a West Hollywood Airbnb straight out of Architectural Digest. There were mirrors on things I didn’t know you could put mirrors on. There was a dedicated appliance just for making margaritas.

An article I wrote for the Times of Israel about the talented Paz Brothers. I’m excited to be doing a rewrite for their next film!

Update:  here’s a sample of the rewrote for Mars Camp.

An Israeli documentary about disabled children was rejected by a Norwegian film festival because it “failed” to deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. At the same time, Israeli horror movies, such as the hot new English-language “JeruZalem” by Yoav and Doron Paz, are winning awards and drawing sell-out crowds at film festivals all over the world.

Go figure.

 

My latest article in Creative Screenwriting:

Going to an all-boys, military Catholic high school turns out to have been excellent preparation for a career in filmmaking. Or at least, that’s the background of the brothers John and Drew Dowdle, and their latest film No Escape, starring Owen Wilson, Lake Bell, and Pierce Brosnan, has so far earned over $54 million worldwideon an estimated budget of $10 million.

The film was co-written by John and Drew, directed by John, and produced by Drew. Creative Screenwriting chatted with them about their film, its inspiration, and the challenges they faced in getting it made.

 

My new article in Creative Screenwriting:

http://creativescreenwriting.com/how-your-indie-style-script-could-get-y…

“The writer might have a fresh voice or the kind of tone or humor that we’re looking for. The main things we’re looking for in writers are always humor and heart. You can’t make a Disney Animation movie and not have those two elements. So we tend to read a lot of character-driven indie-type stuff.”

 

My interview with Eli Attie, one of my screenwriting heroes, has come out in Creative Screenwriting.

Eli Attie’s name was one of the first I noticed when I started paying attention to the writing credits on TV shows.  When his name appeared in the opening moments of The West Wing, I knew the episode would be a good one.

Attie joined The West Wing in its third season and earned script credits on 21 episodes, with “written by” credits on 14 of them.

He went on to write for House, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, and other shows — gaining seven Emmy nominations (as a writer and producer) and three Writers Guild award nominations along the way.