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We're back in the Writers' Room for the Executive Hour Webcast with Steve Desmond! Steve Desmond is one of the screenwriters of the upcoming feature film, "A Knock at the Cabin," which comes to theaters this February from Universal Studios and director M. Night Shyamalan. He has a second feature film currently in production at Paramount, which will be released in theaters in 2024. His screenplays have been voted onto the prestigious industry Black List four times, including "The Saturday Night Ghost Club," which he is attached to direct with Brad Fuller ("A Quiet Place") producing. He sold his sci-fi adventure screenplay, "Harry’s All-Night Hamburgers," to Warner Bros in a bidding war, with Oscar-nominated producer Andrew Lazar attached. His short film, "Monsters," which he wrote and directed, has amassed over two million views online and screened in over 100 film festivals worldwide, winning 45 awards. Steve is represented by APA, Entertainment 360, and Ziffren-Brittenham LLP. Full Bio »
We're back in the Writers' Room for the Executive Hour Webcast with Steve Desmond!
Steve Desmond is one of the screenwriters of the upcoming feature film, "A Knock at the Cabin," which comes to theaters this February from Universal Studios and director M. Night Shyamalan. He has a second feature film currently in production at Paramount, which will be released in theaters in 2024. His screenplays have been voted onto the prestigious industry Black List four times, including "The Saturday Night Ghost Club," which he is attached to direct with Brad Fuller ("A Quiet Place") producing.
He sold his sci-fi adventure screenplay, "Harry’s All-Night Hamburgers," to Warner Bros in a bidding war, with Oscar-nominated producer Andrew Lazar attached. His short film, "Monsters," which he wrote and directed, has amassed over two million views online and screened in over 100 film festivals worldwide, winning 45 awards. Steve is represented by APA, Entertainment 360, and Ziffren-Brittenham LLP.
The Executive Hour
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"Thanks so much, Steve! This was great. Really informative!" -Cecile
"Thank you, Steve. Your real life comments are very much appreciated." -Laurie W.
"Thanks Steve! Can’t wait to see the film!" -Laurie A.
We're back in the Writers' Room for The Executive Hour Webcast with Head of Literary Department at The Dragonfly Agency, Ben Pitts. Ben Pitts is currently the head of the literary department at The Dragonfly Agency. He has worked in film and tv for over 15 years both in New York and Los Angeles. Since moving to LA in 2020, Ben has been representing both theatrical and literary clients. His client, Carson Higgins, just had an amazing supporting role as Lloyd the sound engineer in BABYLON. On the literary side, Zack Ford wrote and produced the 2022 Sundance hit, WATCHER, which is currently playing theatrically worldwide. Previously, in New York, he worked with high level talent such as Marisa Tomei, Tracy Morgan and Robert De Niro as a coordinator and in development.
This month we welcome Lindsay Schwartz the Director of Development at FullyFormed Entertainment, the venture from producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form, who co-founded Platinum Dunes with Michael Bay in 2001. Fuller and Form are the producers behind the hit film A QUIET PLACE and sequel, as well as THE PURGE franchise, OUIJA, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, and THE AMITYVILLE HORROR. FullyFormed Entertainment's latest project, THE FOLLOWER is set up at Paramount Pictures. They are eagerly anticipating the release of A QUIET PLACE 2, and are developing numerous features and series with studios such as Paramount, Sony, MGM, Universal, and Amazon, amongst others. Before FullyFormed and Platinum Dunes, Lindsay worked at Paramount Pictures and Happy Madison Productions with Adam Sandler. As you can imagine this Executive Hour webcast is packed with a wealth of stories, insights, and advice from Lindsay! She discussed the inside story of how A QUIET PLACE came together and sold to Paramount, how she approaches development with writers, how Horror and Thriller are very similar to Comedy, and what writers can be doing to break out in a crowded market!
What an awesome Executive Hour to kick off 2020 with Development & Production Executive Sarah J. Cornelius of Whitewater Films. Despite fighting a cold, Sarah powered through and gave us some awesome insights about the business, the inside story of how their film, Standing Up, Falling Down came together with Billy Crystal, what she looks for in a screenwriter, and the best (and worst) advice she ever received in show business!
We're back in the Writers' Room for the Executive Hour Webcast with special Guest Oscar-Nominated Writer Alec Sokolow. Alec Sokolow is an Oscar-Nominated screenwriter who co-wrote the films Toy Story, Cheaper by the Dozen, Money Talks, and Garfield: The Movie. He has also written the meta video game storyline and user interface for Activision's billion dollar franchise: "Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure," "Skylanders: Giants" Character bio creation and naming includes Buzz Lightyear and Woody. He has also produced documentaries, Directed animation shorts, Written children's books. His storytelling has created global receipts of over 2 Billion Dollars.
This week we welcome playwright and TV writer who is the author of over forty plays! His television credits include Executive Story Editor on Season 2 of the Starz drama "MAGIC CITY", and serving as Executive Story Editor on two seasons of the HBO television show "HUNG". He wrote and directed the film EXILES IN New York, which played at the A.F.I Film Festival, South by South West, The Santa Barbara Film Festival and The Latin American International Film Festival in Havana, Cuba. He has also has sold his original television projects to Starz, Amazon and AMC, among others. During this incredible Executive Hour, Eduardo talks about working with Oscar-winner Al Pacino on the film SCARFACE in his early 20's, how to write compelling characters for stage and screen, what it is like being in a writers room for HBO, and offers a exercise in breaking character and story that brought one of our members to tears!
We're back in the Writers' Room for the Executive Hour Webcast with Toph Eggers, a screenwriter, and author with 15 years of experience as a working writer. He is the co-author of the "Haggis-on-Whey" faux-informational children's book series optioned by the Montecito Picture Company and adapted for Paramount Pictures. He is also the screenwriter of the Fox Searchlight project, "THE THREE NIGHT STAND", the Cartoon Network commissioned pilot "EARTHIA", as well as the Sundance lab script, "CLUSTERF*CK".