For original screenplays, it's ever an easy road to the screen

 
David Seidler spent decades readying "The King's Speech" for the screen. Sure, he had to wait for the queen mother to pass away before he could write with earnest but he knew a story of a king who stuttered wasn't going to have Hollywood knocking down his door even without that obstacle.

Same can be said for Christopher Nolan, who in between filming two Batman movies and "The Prestige," quietly worked on an ambitious, expensive action-thriller for 10 years before bringing the finished product to Warner Bros. And Stuart Blumberg and Lisa Cholodenko went through countless drafts of "The Kids Are All Right" during the five years it took for the financing to finally come together. Despite the interest of Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg, the journey of "The Fighter" was equally arduous, finally getting produced only when the budget came way down and an independent financier stepped up to make the movie.

The road to production is never an easy one, but it seems to be a lot more difficult if the project isn't based on a popular book, video game or toy. "An adaptation often has an easier road," says Seidler, who has been writing scripts for 30 years. "[The studio] has a security blanket with a book. 'We've optioned the book. It was a successful book. Now if the script doesn't turn out brilliantly, that's not my fault, that's the writer's fault.' "

But despite the hardships, the additional time spent on original screenplays often yields more satisfying results -- as evidenced, perhaps, by the Oscar nominations attached to the films mentioned above. And many writers today take more of the initiative themselves, often only approaching studios with their projects when they have an actor or a director already in place.

Check out our full report on the struggles of screenwriters here.

-- Nicole Sperling

Photo: "The King's Speech" writer David Seidler. Credit: Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times

Envelope Directors Roundtable: When a scene doesn't work

What does a director do when a performance just isn't working? Recasting the part could be "calamitous," one filmmaker says.

How honest should you be when a scene -- or an entire performance -- just isn't working? Do you go with honesty is the best policy or soft-pedal the hard truth a little?

For one director, it all comes down to this: "Don't cast a brain surgeon to play a brain surgeon."

At the Envelope Directors Roundtable, Ben Affleck ("The Town"), David Fincher ("The Social Network"), Lisa Cholodenko ("The Kids Are All Right"), Ethan Coen ("True Grit"), Darren Aronofsky ("Black Swan") and Tom Hooper ("The King's Speech") addressed those questions, with some often entertaining answers.

RELATED:

The Envelope Directors Roundtable: Actor-director relationships

The Envelope Directors Roundtable: Ben Affleck on being an actor-director

The Envelope Directors Roundtable: Shaping the story [Video]

Envelope Directors Roundtable: The managed compromise

Envelope Directors Roundtable: Fighting for your film

-- John Horn

 

Envelope Directors Roundtable: Actor-director relationships

Being a director, it seems, means being half filmmaker and half therapist to a cast of actors. Some of them you can let go and watch them fly, and some take a lot of hand-holding. Either way, you do whatever they need to be free, even the ones that make you want to pull out your hair. 

At the Envelope Directors Roundtable, Ben Affleck ("The Town"), David Fincher ("The Social Network"), Lisa Cholodenko ("The Kids Are All Right"), Ethan Coen ("True Grit"), Darren Aronofsky ("Black Swan") and Tom Hooper ("The King's Speech") addressed those issues -- in the video clips above and below.

The trick, they say, is to have your anxieties privately until you see what it is the actor is doing, but even then, you may have to recast the role.

 RELATED:

The Envelope Directors Roundtable: Ben Affleck on being an actor-director

The Envelope Directors Roundtable: Shaping the story [Video]

Envelope Directors Roundtable: The managed compromise

Envelope Directors Roundtable: Fighting for your film

-- John Horn

My 100% perfect Oscar nomination predictions

Oscar nominations will be unveiled next Tuesday. Below: my predictions in the top six Academy Awards races.

BEST PICTURE
1. "The Social Network"
2. "The King's Speech"
3. "The Fighter"
4. "True Grit"
5. "Black Swan"
6. "Toy Story 3"
7. "Inception"
8. "The Town"
9. "127 Hours"
10. "The Kids Are All Right"

The top seven films on this list are locks for nominations. Mystery looms over what will nab those bottom three rungs where four films jockey for inclusion. "Winter's Bone" is the one not shown here, but could break in.


BEST DIRECTOR
1. David Fincher, “The Social Network”
2. Christopher Nolan, “Inception”
3. Darren Aronofsky, “Black Swan”
4. Tom Hooper, “The King’s Speech”
5. David O. Russell, “The Fighter”

Fincher will win, of course. The only suspense surrounds who'll be nominated. The above five are the DGA nominees. One of them (but not Fincher) might be bumped for Joel and Ethan Coen ("True Grit") or Danny Boyle ("127 Hours"). There's a remote chance Lisa Cholodenko ("The Kids Are All Right") could squeak in now that a woman finally won here for the first time last year.


BEST ACTOR
1. Colin Firth, "The King's Speech"
2. James Franco, "127 Hours"
3. Jesse Eisenberg, "The Social Network"
4. Robert Duvall, "Get Low"
5. Jeff Bridges, "True Grit"

Colin Firth will win, James Franco and Jesse Eisenberg are guaranteed nominations. Duvall and Bridges are vulnerable and could be bumped by Javier Bardem ("Biutiful"), Mark Wahlberg ("The Fighter") or Ryan Gosling ("Blue Valentine").
 

BEST ACTRESS
1. Natalie Portman, "Black Swan"
2. Annette Bening, "The Kids Are All Right"
3. Nicole Kidman, "Rabbit Hole"
4. Jennifer Lawrence, "Winter's Bone"
5. Hilary Swank, "Conviction"

Some pundits doubt that Swank will make the list, but she scored a SAG nomination and that's always a great omen. Otherwise, expect Julianne Moore ("The Kids Are All Right") or Michelle Williams ("Blue Valentine") to sneak in. Outside shot: Lesley Manville ("Another Year"), who won National Board of Review. Some pundits believe Hailee Steinfeld ("True Grit") will be nommed in lead even though she campaigned in supporting. That happened just two years ago with Kate Winslet ("The Reader"), but I don't see that scenario repeating now.
 

Envelope Directors Roundtable: Fighting for your film [Video]

It's a leap of faith. It's a bet against the odds. It's how you get movies made.

There are any number of forces that conspire against a film coming together: You might be weeks from starting production and find out that the money has vanished.

How do directors handle such setbacks? How do they march onward against so many obstacles?

At the Envelope Directors Roundtable, Ben Affleck ("The Town"), David Fincher ("The Social Network"), Lisa Cholodenko ("The Kids Are All Right"), Ethan Coen ("True Grit"), Darren Aronofsky ("Black Swan") and Tom Hooper ("The King's Speech") addressed those questions, with some often surprising answers.

 -- John Horn

RELATED:

The Envelope Directors Roundtable: Ben Affleck on being an actor-director

The Envelope Directors Roundtable: Shaping the story [Video]

Envelope Directors Roundtable: The managed compromise

 

 

 

 

Envelope Directors Roundtable: Ben Affleck on being an actor-director

It's no surprise that as a director, veteran actor Ben Affleck has some ideas about how to get a good performance from his cast; he's been in enough movies to see how other directors do it.

But how much freedom should you give actors and how do you earn their trust?

There are no easy answers, according to the panelists at the  Envelope Directors Roundtable, which included Affleck ("The Town"), David Fincher ("The Social Network"), Lisa Cholodenko ("The Kids Are All Right"), Ethan Coen ("True Grit"), Darren Aronofsky ("Black Swan") and Tom Hooper ("The King's Speech").

— John Horn

Recent and related:

Envelope Directors Roundtable: Shaping the story

Envelope Directors Roundtable: The managed compromise

 

Envelope Directors Roundtable: The managed compromise of filmmaking

Judging by the reaction they received from reviewers and ticket buyers, you might think that the makers of six of 2010's best films would consider their films pretty close to perfection. But directing a movie, the filmmakers say, involves making a series of compromises, all in the hope that the smart decisions don't outweigh the bad ones.

At the Envelope Directors Roundtable, Ben Affleck ("The Town"), David Fincher ("The Social Network"), Lisa Cholodenko ("The Kids Are All Right"), Ethan Coen ("True Grit"), Darren Aronofsky ("Black Swan") and Tom Hooper ("The King's Speech") discussed how they live with what they get on film.

Related: The Envelope Director's Roundtable: Shaping the Story

— John Horn

Envelope Directors Roundtable: The managed compromise of filmmaking

Judging by the reaction they received from reviewers and ticket buyers, you might think that the makers of six of 2010's best films would consider their films pretty close to perfection. But directing a movie, the filmmakers say, involves making a series of compromises, all in the hope that the smart decisions don't outweigh the bad ones.

At the Envelope Directors Roundtable, Ben Affleck ("The Town"), David Fincher ("The Social Network"), Lisa Cholodenko ("The Kids Are All Right"), Ethan Coen ("True Grit"), Darren Aronofsky ("Black Swan") and Tom Hooper ("The King's Speech") discussed how they live with what they get on film.

Recent and related:

The Envelope Directors Roundtable: Shaping the story

The Envelope Directors Roundtable: Ben Affleck on being an actor-director

— John Horn

The Envelope Directors Roundtable: Shaping the story [Video]

Where does the artist stop and the art begin?

The six directors who came together for The Envelope Directors Roundtable to talk to us about their current Oscar-contending films and what it takes to work in (or outside of) Hollywood today are all strong creative filmmakers whose work inevitably reflects their personality, life experiences and storytelling ambitions.

In the first excerpt from our conversation with Ben Affleck ("The Town"), Darren Aronofsky ("Black Swan"), Lisa Cholodenko ("The Kids Are All Right"), Ethan Coen ("True Grit"), David Fincher ("The Social Network") and Tom Hooper ("The King's Speech"),  these acclaimed filmmakers discuss how what happens in their films is, by some measure, a reflection of who they are as people.

Click on the video below to see what they had to say, and check back every day this week for a fresh clip from the hourlong Envelope Roundtable discussion.

— John Horn

Photo:  From left, Lisa Cholodenko, Ben Affleck, Darren Aronofsky, David Fincher, Tom Hooper and Ethan Coen. Credit: Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times.