Spotlight #24: Awards Season on the Horizon

Hello everyone!

It is great to see you, and yes, I know, I know. It has been some time since you have heard from us the last time (actually, it has been almost a year now). It was (still is, to be honest) quite a difficult period of time for me; Donika & Pavel had so much on their plates, and I didn’t feel like doing this alone nor putting more on their plate.

There is still so much I have to get clarity on, make some decisions and, most importantly, recharge, but I was really looking forward to getting back to writing.

So here we are, and I want to thank you, personally, for your patience and for reading this issue of the Spotlight Newsletter after such a long time. It means a lot, and I hope you will be satisfied with the new direction we are taking.

PS: Don't be alarmed, I switched platforms and tools, so it looks slightly different. Also, the name – we're past Behind the Slate, and from now on, we're under the brand Producer's Playbook, which is more accurate based on our new direction. But otherwise, nothing changes for you.

– Jiří

This Week's Bullets

• Looking for new screenplays to study? Look no more – Go Into the Story just gave you a list of screenplays production companies are making available during the award season. Download quickly.
• Go Into the Story doesn’t end their contribution there – their 60 Second Screenwriter series published two more pieces last week. The first is “What’s a logline?”, the second one is “What is high concept?”.
• With current news from US and Canada, I think it's safe to assume Europe can expect an increase in the pricing of Netflix.
• Let’s end our bullets with 20 tips from acclaimed director Steven Spielberg – you can either read the article or watch the whole video.

This Week's Curated Articles

How Tom Holland's Failed Pitch for a James Bond Origin Story Turned into 'Uncharted'

Some things don’t turn out the way you expect them at first, but that doesn't mean something different can't become of them. Just ask Tom Holland! In a recent interview for Total Film, he mentions how he pitched a story of a young James Bond.

It was the origin story of James Bond. It didn’t really make sense. It didn’t work. It was the dream of a young kid, and I don’t think the Bond estate were particularly interested.

The project was rejected, but it sparked an idea. Rather than making films about Nathan Drake and using them as an addition to the Uncharted video game, let's use Tom Holland to tell an origin story. And here we are – Uncharted premieres in a month in US and UK theatres.

So don't be scared of rejection and feedback. Instead, embrace it, welcome it and use that to fuel your next idea, next project. As you can see, it can lead to something you'd never thought of.

THR's Writers Roundtable: "All of Us Have Cruelty, Perversity, Strangeness and Darkness"

THR is back with their excellent Roundtables. In this issue of Spotlight, I chose to go with the latest one, which was published just yesterday – Writers – featuring Maggie Gyllenhaal, David Chase, Jeymes Samuel, Sian Heder and Zach Baylin.

They start with the essential question, “How did you arrive at realising you're a writer?” and it just goes on from there. They talk a lot about characters, heroes, antiheroes, the likability of the main protagonists.

They continue with some softer questions like where do ideas come to them, where do they like to write (”Wherever my kids are not.”), do they prefer music or silence? And they finish strong with the hard one – How do you know the script's finished?

Awards and Festivals Window

Golden Globes 2022: "The Power Of The Dog", "West Side Story", "Succession" Lead Way

In a private ceremony on Sunday, Jan 9, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association rendered the winners of Golden Globes. The most important ones – The Best Motion Picture Drama/Musical or Comedy – were taken home by The Power of the Dog and West Side Story. The best actors awards were won by Nicole Kidman (Being the Ricardos) and Will Smith (King Richard). And HBO took the Best Drama Series with their Succession.

This year's Golden Globes were quite different – in some ways. They were not televised nor live-streamed as HFPA is still struggling to reorganise and reform their organisation after Los Angeles Times published a bombshell article covering how "diverse" the HFPA really is about a year ago.

SAG Awards 2022: Nominations Revealed

While Golden Globes were quite a disappointment this year and are on their way to becoming insignificant (unless they find a way to reorganise the whole thing, especially including their membership), most of us are anticipating the SAG Awards, which are the real influencers.

Let's kick it off with nominations, coming in the form of a video (3 min) from THR, or, if you please, you can take a look at the official nomination list.

Coming from the nominations, we also got the list of snubs and surprises put together by Variety (and if you're not much into reading, there's a video below from THR). A real quick personal opinion on the biggest ones:

• Surprise: Yellowstone (created by Taylor Sheridan) finally entering the big leagues
• Snubs: Kristen Stewart for her performance in "Spencer", Jessica Chastain for "Scenes from a Marriage"

This Week's Recommendation

Foundation | Apple TV+

I am a big fan of sci-fi, and I have been looking forward to this one for some time. Based on Asimov's books and short stories (dating back to 1942), Foundation is an epic saga spanning decades in time and light-years in the distance.

I haven't read those books and stories, but I am eager to do so and analyse the differences afterwards. As you can read on your own, there are quite a few. Asimov dealt with concepts, and he wrote the books some time ago. Because of that, both the story and characters were altered to work on the screen and in current times. That is alright, in my opinion, because it's a book adaptation for a different medium, and for that to work it needs changes.

PS: On Thursday, Oct 7, Apple TV+ sent out a press release stating Season 2 is coming. What they did not mention though is that it will be partly filmed in the Czech Republic! What I can tell you about that is that they are looking at almost three months of filming here, so maybe some of you might get on the set.

The Future of Spotlight Reloaded

I will give out some information for those curious about where we are going with that new direction I mentioned in the beginning.

First of all, we are working on a newsletter that will be a deep-dive into one topic because we want you to get more than just surface knowledge of certain issues. The topics we're exploring are those such as NFT, blockchain in filmmaking, AI, self-distribution, virtual production, micro-budget filmmaking, diversity, artist representation and so on.

Second, we're about to start publishing and documenting most of our work. We hope that us opening the cards makes it easier for you to get your footing. To learn from our own mistakes, make smarter decisions, and see how it works in the beginning – all the failures, troubles on the road, but also how much does what cost, how our documents look like and more.

Third, we want to talk to the people from the industry and bring you their expertise, experience and point of view on different topics.

Well, I really hope you will like all of that and that you will continue to support us on this crazy journey we decided to get on.

Last thing: if you like Spotlight and our way of doing things, let your friends know, send them a link, share a word. It would be appreciated. See you soon!