Writing Movies for Fun and Profit: How We Made a Billion Dollars at the Box Office and You Can, Too! - Softcover

Lennon, Thomas; Garant, Robert Ben

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1439186766 ISBN 13: 9781439186763

Publisher: Touchstone, 2012

Synopsis

This is the only screenwriting guide by two guys who have actually done it (instead of some schmuck who just gives lectures about screenwriting at the airport Marriott); “These guys are proof that with no training and little education, ANYONE can make it as a screenwriter” (Paul Rudd).

Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon’s movies have made over a billion dollars at the box office—and now they show you how to do it yourself! This book is full of secret insider information about how to conquer the Hollywood studio system: how to write, pitch, structure, and get drunk with the best of them. Well...maybe not the best of them, but certainly the most successful. (If you’re aiming to win an Oscar, this is not the book for you!) But if you can type a little, and can read and speak English—then you too can start turning your words into stacks of money!

This is the only screenwriting book you will ever need (because all other ones pretty much suck). In these pages, Garant and Lennon provide the kind of priceless tips you won’t find anywhere else, including:

-The art of pitching
-Getting your foot in the door
-Taking notes from movie stars
-How to get fired and rehired
-How to get credit and royalties!

And most important: what to buy with the huge piles of money you’re going to make!

Writing Movies for Fun and Profit will take you through the highs and lows of life as a professional screenwriter. From the highs of hugging Gisele Bündchen and getting kung fu punched by Jackie Chan to the soul-crushing lows of Herbie: Fully Loaded.

Read this book and you’ll have everything you need to make your first billion the old-fashioned way—by “selling out” in show business!

A portion of the authors’ proceeds from this book are being contributed to the USO of Metropolitan Washington, a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to serving active duty military members and their families in the greater Washington, DC, region.

About this title

About the Author

Thomas Lennon attended the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, where he co-founded the influential sketch comedy group The State. He and Ben Garant have written nine feature films together, including: Night at the Museum, Taxi, Reno 911!: Miami, Balls of Fury, and The Pacifier. Tom has also appeared as an actor in numerous films. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, the actress Jenny Robertson and his son, Oliver.
Robert Ben Garant spent the early nineties in New York, with the comedy group The State on MTV. He and Tom Lennon then created two more hit shows on Comedy Central: Viva Variety and Reno 911! Since relocating to Los Angeles, he’s written films for Disney, Spyglass, Imagine, Warner Brothers, Columbia, Paramount, New Line, Dimension, and Universal Pictures. Please visit WritingMoviesForFunandProfit.com.

Review

"These guys are proof that with no training and little education, ANYONE can make it as a screenwriter."

--Paul Rudd

"These guys probably ripped off everything in this book just like they do in all their screenplays. That would explain why it's actually kind of good."

--Ed Helms

"These two guys are the reason Night at the Museum won so many Oscars"

--Ben Stiller

"Tom and Ben's valuable insight into writing for a Volkswagen bug and creating the 'Lawrence of Arabia of Ping Pong films' make this book far more informative to the young dramatist than the vastly over-rated 'Aristotle's Poetics.'"

--Jonathan Glickman, Film Producer, President of MGM, Motion Picture Group

"Some screenwriters have a knack for capturing the heart and soul of characters, the nuance of themes, the richness of the human experience. And some are like Tom and Ben."

--Shawn Levy, Film Director & Producer

"Tom and Ben are two of the writers currently working in Hollywood. I can add they make a 'profit' on each of their writing jobs, as I believe they have very little overhead. Therefore, they are clearly qualified to write this book. Having not read it, I can tell you that it is uproariously funny, perhaps the best book on writing ever."

--Zak Penn, Film Screenwriter & Director

"Ben and Tom are a great fit for me. I love working with talented writers and then telling people everything was my idea. This is a great book, that I pitched to them a while back... I'm thrilled that they finally got around to writing it."

--Danny DeVito

About this edition

• Publisher: Touchstone
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1439186766
• ISBN 13: 9781439186763
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336