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Bad Robot Developing Edison Film

The success of some recent historical dramas has pushed some of Hollywood’s biggest names into producing their own. The latest announcement comes out of Bat Robot’s camp, the production company headed by J.J. Abrams.

The company plans to create a film about the life of Thomas Edison, one of history’s most prolific inventors. Edison has over 1,000 patents filed in the United States, and over 2,000 worldwide.

According to The Wrap, he will be portrayed as a rugged, eccentric genius.

The film may end up having to compete with another Edison biopic that is currently in the works. However, there has been no news about their project in quite some time.

Although this leaves a good chunk of the internet wondering when his rival, Nikola Tesla, is going to get some love from the film studios, it’s difficult to deny the impact that Edison has had on the course of history. He is even credit as being one of the fathers of cinema thanks to his invention of the motion picture camera.

Needless to say that filmmaking would not be where it is today, or anywhere at all, if it wasn’t for the inventor. As Edison can be a controversial figure, it will be interesting to see the film’s take on the man, especially if we do end up getting two competing films in the end.

Oscar Nominated ‘Foxcatcher’ Screenwriters E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman Inspire NYFA Students

This past Tuesday, February 17th New York Film Academy Los Angeles students were admitted into a special screening of Foxcatcher — nominated for 5 Oscars, (starring Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, and Mark Ruffalo) and participated in a Q&A with screenwriters E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman who received a nomination in the upcoming Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay. E. Max Frye won an Edgar Award from WGA for his first screenplay, Something Wild, directed by Jonathan Demme. As a writer on HBO’s Band of Brothers, he received a Christopher Award, a Peabody Award and was nominated for an Emmy.

Dan Futterman was nominated for a 2005 Academy Award, a BAFTA Film Award, as well as a Writers Guild of America Award for his screenplay for the film Capote. He also won an Independent Spirit Award and shared the USC Scripter Award with Capote biographer Gerald Clarke. Dan and his wife and frequent writing partner, Anya Epstein, were show runners for the third season of the HBO series In Treatment and are currently writing and producing a new series for Fox TV, Gracepoint. As an actor, Dan has appeared on Broadway’s Angels in America and Off-Broadway, at Lincoln Center and Manhattan Theatre Club. His film acting credits include A Mighty Heart, The Birdcage, Urbania, and the upcoming Kill the Messenger. The Q&A was moderated by producer Tova Laiter.

E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman gave invaluable advice to aspiring screenwriters and storytellers in general. Shedding light on his writing process E. Max Frye explained that he scribbles down his original drafts as quickly as possible on a legal pad. This allows him to get the story in his mind on paper in the most uncensored way possible. He doesn’t do a traditional plot outline, but rather starts from the concept of character and expands from there. He emphasized the importance of rewriting and never showing anyone of consequence the script until it is in it’s absolute final form. The reason for this is that there is no one in the industry that will read a script twice, so you have one shot only to impress.

In contrast to E. Max Frye, Dan Futterman talked how he likes to structure like crazy. The process of writing Foxcatcher took six years and the breadth of his notes over the course of that time was “insane.” It was a particularly meticulous process working with a director such as Bennett Miller for whom this screenplay was written. Bennett is not a writer himself, so Dan would have to glean what Mr. Miller wanted from the trial and error process of providing ideas and talking about what does and doesn’t work.

The information E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman provided to NYFA students, many of which were in the screenwriting program, was incredibly beneficial. We sincerely thank Max and Dan and wish them the best of luck at the upcoming Oscars!

Bruckheimer Brings Fox Another Comic Book TV Show

The devil came down to Fox, or at least it will, now that the network has ordered a pilot for Lucifer, an hour-long drama based on a comic book. Lucifer was created by industry kingpin Neil Gaiman, with Sam Kieth and Mike Dringenberg. The story concerns the devil himself retiring from running Hell and moving to sunny LA where he assists the police in punishing criminals.

With an epic backstory and police procedural structure, it’s a no-brainer that mega producer Jerry Bruckheimer is adapting Lucifer for TV with his company Jerry Bruckheimer Television. Bruckheimer is behind other TV juggernauts like CSI, Without a Trace and Cold Case. He’s also currently producing HBO’s upcoming Cocaine Cowboys with Michael Bay.

TV is becoming as populated by comic book characters as Hollywood movies. Lucifer is published by Vertigo, itself a DC publication. The series will join other DC properties on television like Arrow, Flash and Fox’s own Gotham, as well as CBS’s upcoming Supergirl series, also said to be part-procedural. Marvel has two series on ABC and will be adding several more to Netflix in the near future, starting with Daredevil.

Dream of producing your own comic book TV series one day? Check out New York Film Academy’s producing school programs here.

Patricia Arquette Demands Equality for Women

In addition to the prestige and recognition that the Academy Awards provides for actors, filmmakers and artists, it’s also served as a platform for political and social outcry. Last night’s 87th Annual Academy Awards were no different than its predecessors, with Best Supporting Actress Patricia Arquette calling attention to the lack of equal pay amongst females not only in Hollywood, but throughout the job market.

Her call for wage equality for women was received with a large ovation at the awards ceremony, particularly by 19-time Academy Award nominated actress, Meryl Streep.

“To every woman who gave birth to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights,” said Arquette. “It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all, and equal rights for women in the United States of America.”

Arquette’s profound words come at a time when actors’ wages have become more transparent, especially after the unfortunate Sony Pictures hack revealed Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams earned substantially less than their male co-stars for the film American Hustle.

In 2013, the New York Film Academy tackled this issue with an in-depth infographic, highlighting gender inequality in film. One of the many issues that has stood out, was the fact that Angelina Jolie was the highest paid female actor with $33 million — almost the same amount earned by the two lowest ranked men in 2013.

Our hope at the time was to shed light on this issue in the hopes of pushing the conversation further. With a speech at the Oscars, we think we’re on the right track.

2015 Oscars Winners Recap

The Academy Awards, the annual ceremony that celebrates all things film, were held yesterday. The winners have taken home their golden Oscar statues, and we have a recap of the nightly events for you.

Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel led the pack with four Oscars each. However, Birdman came away with the wins in the bigger categories, including best picture, best director, original screenplay, and achievement in cinematography. The Grand Budapest Hotel took home wins in best original score, best production design, achievement in makeup and hairstyling, and achievement in costume design.

On the acting front, the big winners included best actress Julianne Moore for her roll in Still Alice, best actor Eddie Redmayne for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, best supporting actress Patricia Arquette for Boyhood (who made waves during her victory speech), and best supporting actor JK Simmons for Whiplash.

The complete list of winners and nominees is below:

Best supporting actor:

WINNER: JK Simmons for Whiplash

Robert Duvall for The Judge

Ethan Hawke for Boyhood

Edward Norton for Birdman

Mark Ruffalo for Foxcatcher

Achievement in costume design:

WINNER: The Grand Budapest Hotel – Milena Canonero

Inherent Vice – Mark Bridges

Into the Woods – Colleen Atwood

Maleficent – Anna B Sheppard

Mr Turner – Jacqueline Durran

Achievement in makeup and hairstyling:

WINNER: The Grand Budapest Hotel – Frances Hannon, Mark Coulier

Foxcatcher – Bill Corso, Dennis Liddiard

Guardians of the Galaxy – Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou, David White

Best foreign-language film:

WINNER: Ida – Paweł Pawlikowski

Tangerines – Zaza Urushadze

Leviathan – Andrey Zvyagintsev

Wild Tales – Damián Szifrón

Timbuktu – Abderrahmane Sissako

Best live-action short film:

WINNER: The Phone Call – Mat Kirkby, James Lucas

Aya – Oded Binnun, Mihal Brezis

Boogaloo and Graham – Michael Lennox, Ronan Blaney

Butter Lamp – Wei Hu, Julien Féret

Parvaneh – Talkhon Hamzavi, Stefan Eichenberger

Best documentary short subject:

WINNER: Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1 – Ellen Goosenberg Kent, Dana Perry

Joanna – Aneta Kopacz

Our Curse – Tomasz Sliwinski, Maciej Slesicki

The Reaper – Gabriel Serra

White Earth – Christian Jensen

Achievement in sound mixing:

WINNER: Whiplash – Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins, Thomas Curley

American Sniper – John T Reitz, Gregg Rudloff, Walt Martin

Birdman – Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño, Thomas Varga

Interstellar – Gary Rizzo, Gregg Landaker, Mark Weingarten

Unbroken – Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño, David Lee

Achievement in sound editing:

WINNER: American Sniper – Alan Robert Murray, Bub Asman

Birdman – Aaron Glascock, Martín Hernández

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Brent Burge, Jason Canovas

Interstellar – Richard King

Unbroken – Becky Sullivan, Andrew DeCristofaro

Best supporting actress:

WINNER: Patricia Arquette for Boyhood

Laura Dern for Wild

Keira Knightley for The Imitation Game

Emma Stone for Birdman

Meryl Streep for Into the Woods

Achievement in visual effects:

WINNER: Interstellar – Paul J Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Ian Hunter, Scott R Fisher

Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Dan Deleeuw, Russell Earl, Bryan Grill, Daniel Sudick

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Daniel Barrett, Erik Winquist

Guardians of the Galaxy – Stephane Ceretti, Nicolas Aithadi, Jonathan Fawkner, Paul Corbould

X-Men: Days of Future Past – Richard Stammers, Lou Pecora, Tim Crosbie, Cameron Waldbauer

Best animated short film:

WINNER: Feast – Patrick Osborne, Kristina Reed

The Bigger Picture – Daisy Jacobs, Chris Hees

The Dam Keeper – Robert Kondo, Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi

Me and My Moulton – Torill Kove

A Single Life – Joris Oprins

Best animated feature film:

WINNER: Big Hero 6

The Boxtrolls

How to Train Your Dragon 2

Song of the Sea

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

Best production design:

WINNER: The Grand Budapest Hotel – Adam Stockhausen, Anna Pinnock

The Imitation Game – Maria Djurkovic, Tatiana Macdonald

Interstellar – Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis

Into the Woods – Dennis Gassner, Anna Pinnock

Mr Turner – Suzie Davies, Charlotte Watts

Achievement in cinematography:

WINNER: Birdman – Emmanuel Lubezki

The Grand Budapest Hotel – Robert D Yeoman

Ida – Lukasz Zal, Ryszard Lenczewski

Mr Turner – Dick Pope

Unbroken – Roger Deakins

Achievement in film editing:

WINNER: Whiplash – Tom Cross

Boyhood – Sandra Adair

The Imitation Game – William Goldenberg

The Grand Budapest Hotel – Barney Pilling

American Sniper – Joel Cox, Gary Roach

Best documentary feature:

WINNER: Citizenfour – Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy, Dirk Wilutzky

Finding Vivian Maier – John Maloof, Charlie Siskel

Last Days in Vietnam – Rory Kennedy, Keven McAlester

The Salt of the Earth – Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, David Rosier

Virunga – Orlando von Einsiedel, Joanna Natasegara

Best original song:

WINNER: Selma – Lonnie Lynn (Common), John Stephens (John Legend) (“Glory”)

The Lego Movie – Shawn Patterson (“Everything Is Awesome”)

Beyond the Lights – Diane Warren (“Grateful”)

Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me – Glen Campbell, Julian Raymond (“I’m Not Gonna Miss You”)

Begin Again – Gregg Alexander, Danielle Brisebois (“Lost Stars”)

Best original score:

WINNER: Alexandre Desplat – The Grand Budapest Hotel

Alexandre Desplat – The Imitation Game

Hans Zimmer – Interstellar

Jóhann Jóhannsson– The Theory of Everything

Gary Yershon – Mr Turner

Original screenplay:

WINNER: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Armando Bo – Birdman

Richard Linklater – Boyhood

E Max Frye, Dan Futterman – Foxcatcher

Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness – The Grand Budapest Hotel

Dan Gilroy – Nightcrawler

Adapted screenplay:

WINNER: Graham Moore – The Imitation Game

Jason Hall – American Sniper

Paul Thomas Anderson – Inherent Vice

Anthony McCarten – The Theory of Everything

Damien Chazelle – Whiplash

Best director:

WINNER: Alejandro González Iñárritu for Birdman

Richard Linklater – Boyhood

Bennett Miller – Foxcatcher

Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel

Morten Tyldum – The Imitation Game

Best actor:

WINNER: Eddie Redmayne for The Theory of Everything

Steve Carell – Foxcatcher

Benedict Cumberbatch – The Imitation Game

Bradley Cooper – American Sniper

Michael Keaton – Birdman

Best actress:

WINNER: Julianne Moore for Still Alice

Marion Cotillard – Two Days, One Night

Felicity Jones – The Theory of Everything

Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl

Reese Witherspoon – Wild

Best picture:

WINNER: Birdman

American Sniper

Boyhood

The Imitation Game

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Selma

The Theory of Everything

Whiplash

Independent Spirit Awards Liked ‘Birdman’ Too

The big story about this year’s Oscars winners may very well be what else they’ve won—namely, the Independent Spirit Awards. The ceremony, as usual, was held the day before the Academy Awards, and rewarded films with smaller budgets and not supported by Hollywood’s largest studios. The show typically has a looser, more fun vibe where its celebrities mingle and goof off, similar to the Golden Globes. This year’s show was hosted by Fred Armisen and Kristen Bell.

Like the Academy Awards, Birdman walked away with Best Feature. However, in one of the biggest differences from the Oscars, Richard Linklater was awarded Best Director for Boyhood. Julianne Moore, Patricia Arquette, and J.K. Simmons all foreshadowed their Oscar wins with acting awards, though Michael Keaton scored the win he couldn’t get Sunday for his starring role in Birdman. Citizenfour presaged its Best Documentary Oscar with a Spirit Award win in the same category. Even the Best Cinematography and Best Editing awards mirrored the Oscars, going to Birdman and Whiplash, respectively. Best Foreign Film winner Ida also got its Spirit Award equivalent for Best International Film.

With nearly every major winner of the Spirit Awards going on to win their categories at the Academy Awards this weekend, the Oscars overwhelmingly went to films not directly produced or financed by the major studios. Is this a sign of the times, a decentralization of film’s powerhouse auteurs, or just a fluke? Evidence seems to point to the former—after all, five years ago Spirit winner The Hurt Locker beat out Avatar for the Best Picture, but only time will tell. Basically, let’s start the 2016 Oscar predictions!

Here’s a full list of the winners:

BEST FEATURE

Birdman  Producers: Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, Arnon Milchan, James W. Skotchdopole

BEST MALE LEAD

Michael Keaton, Birdman

BEST FEMALE LEAD

Julianne Moore, Still Alice

BEST DIRECTOR

Richard Linklater, Boyhood

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE

Patricia Arquette, Boyhood

BEST SUPPORTING MALE

J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

BEST SCREENPLAY

Dan Gilroy, Nightcrawler

BEST DOCUMENTARY

Citizenfour  Director/Producer: Laura Poitras

Producers: Mathilde Bonnefoy, Dirk Wilutzky

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM

Ida (Poland), Director: Pawel Pawlikowski

BEST FIRST FEATURE

Nightcrawler  Director: Dan Gilroy; Producers: Jennifer Fox, Tony Gilroy, Jake Gyllenhaal, David Lancaster, Michel Litvak

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY

Justin Simien, Dear White People

BEST EDITING

Tom Cross, Whiplash

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Emmanuel Lubezki, Birdman

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD

Land Ho!

Writers/Directors: Aaron Katz & Martha Stephens; Producers: Christina Jennings, Mynette Louie, Sara Murphy

LENSCRAFTERS TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD  The Kill Team, Director: Dan Krauss

PIAGET PRODUCERS AWARD  Chris Chison

KIEHL’S SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD  H., Directors: Rania Attieh & Daniel Garcia

NYFA Documentary Adviser Editor on Oscar Winning ‘Crisis Hotline: Veteran’s Press 1’

Crisis Hotline: Veteran’s Press 1, which won the Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject, was edited by Geof Bartz, New York Film Academy’s Documentary Curriculum Adviser, Master Class Professor and Supervising Editor in HBO’s Documentary Department. This is Bartz’ third Oscar win from a total of 5 nominations over the years.

Crisis Hotline is a touching 40-minute documentary, condensed from 100 hours of footage of VA’s suicide hotline call center, located in Canandaigua, New York. The documentary delves into the deep compassion, emotions and stresses call center operators endure when working daily to help and save suicidal veterans. Many of these operators are in fact veterans themselves, military family members and former service members.

Nearly every hour, a veteran takes his or her own life. The film brings much needed attention to this issue and other challenges veterans (and their families) face when returning to civilian life.

“We are hopeful this documentary will help raise awareness of this important issue with the American public,” VA Secretary Robert McDonald said.

Producers Dana Perry and Ellen Goosenberg Kent went on-stage to accept their aware, with Perry dedicating the film to her son Evan who died at age 15 in 2005.

John Oliver in for Two More Seasons of ‘Last Week Tonight’

With the recent announcement of long-time news satirist Jon Stewart stepping down from his Comedy Central show, The Daily Show, much speculation has surrounded the notion that former Daily Show correspondent John Oliver would fill Stewart’s shoes.

However, with Oliver hosting a successful weekly show of his own, Last Week Tonight, on HBO, one could argue why Oliver would leave a good thing. After all, don’t fix what isn’t broke. Well, rumors came to a close with Deadline’s report that HBO has in fact renewed Last Week Tonight for two more seasons.

Season three will air on HBO in 2016, followed by season four in 2017. “We are incredibly proud to have John as part of the HBO family,” HBO programming president Michael Lombardo says. “His unique ability to deliver socially significant commentary week after week, along with his innate comedic brilliance, puts John in a class by himself.”

Oliver’s show has become quite popular with Stewart’s demographic as well as the writing community in general. The Writer’s Guild recently awarded the show with Best Comedy/Variety Series award.

District 9 Director Tweets His Way to New Alien Film

It was announced this week that Neill Blomkamp, writer and director of District 9 and the Matt Damon dystopian sci-fi Elysium, will be helming a new Alien film. While another sci-fi sequel isn’t exactly surprising, what is surprising is how Blomkamp got the job.

In January, the South African filmmaker tweeted some concept art for an Alien film he had conceived. The art, which included freaky renderings of Alien star Sigourney Weaver in a xenomorph-type suit, was supposedly done on spec by Blomkamp—basically, he did it for fun, and to show people what he could do with the series. Fox had not approached him and they were not pre-production artwork.

The drawings quickly made the rounds around the Internet, gaining praise from series fans. Even Sigourney Weaver chimed in last week, telling MTV that she would be game to participate if such a film came to pass. That seemed to be the straw that broke the studio’s back as 20^th Century Fox announced soon after that Blomkamp will make the movie. It’s expected Weaver’s involvement will be announced sometime soon.

This film will be a separate entity and not affect the in-the-works sequel to Prometheus, Ridley Scott’s spinoff-prequel-reboot to the franchise he personally got off the ground back in 1979.

Sigourney Weaver can next be seen in Blomkamp’s upcoming robot film, Chappie. Want to direct an Alien film in the future? Check out New York Film Academy’s filmmaking school programs here.