SHORTIES

WRITERS ON THE STORM VI returns May 15, 2012. Six years of this! Crazy. When will we ever learn? One would have to draw the conclusion that we like being inundated with scripts. (sigh) Still too early to have anything to report from last year's winners yet. In fact, we haven't even taken the list out yet. Charles Mitri, John Winn Miller and our winners Brooks Elms and Glenn Sanders have all finished new drafts based on our notes, and if all goes well we should be going out in early March. We'll have more to report when we have more to report!

SICK AND "TWISTED." We are pleased to announce preproduction on our first feature film "TWISTED." As of January 2012, Coverage Ink Films is a real, live production company. Our goal is to make one feature a year. Twisted is a time warp horror/thriller written by CI analyst Tanya Klein and Jim Cirile and will be directed by Liberator director Aaron Pope. If all goes well, Twisted will begin principal photography at the end of summer in Los Angeles.

LIBERATION BEGINS NOW. Coverage Ink's new 20-minute short film/presentation pilot LIBERATOR isn't even done yet but is already getting an insane amount of buzz. USA Today picked up the world premiere of the 2-minute trailer and dozens of media outlets and fan sites have also run with it. It helps that LIBERATOR star Lou Ferrigno is having one hell of a comeback, mirroring his character in the film. Ferrigno is on NBC's Celebrity Apprentice this season (Sunday Nights at 9PM) and is reprising his role as The Hulk -- at least, in voice -- in the upcoming Marvel summer blockbuster The Avengers. The publicity firestorm has Lou doing interviews around the clock, all of which is just huge for us and Liberator. Click HERE to visit the Liberator website and see the trailer, behind the scenes video and more! And don't forget to watch Lou -- as well as the star of a previous Coverage Ink production, George "Mr. Sulu" Takei -- on Celebrity Apprentice.

AGENT'S HOT SHEET: THE BOOK. As most of you know by now, sadly, both Creative Screenwriting and Script magazines are no more. This is just ridiculous. We went from having two great magzaines to none in the space of a few seconds. Surely someone out there will perceive an opening and start up a new print screenwriting magazine. There's definitely a market for it! At any rate, I wrote the Agent's Hot Sheet column for ten amazing years before CS foundered. That's an awful lot of important and still-relevant advice from the top reps in the biz that shouldn't disappear. So I am now editing and updating those columns and will be offering them as an e-book : Agent's Hot Sheet-- Ten Years of Screenwriting Wisdom from Hollywood's Top Reps sometime in March. You will also be able to order it as a PDF from Coverage Ink, just like our legendary CI Spec Format + Style Guide (which, BTW, is NOT available as an e-book due to formatting issues--only as a PDF download from CI.) We'll have news on where to get your copy in next month's newsletter.

Bessounian, Langham and C3PO

THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE NICHOLL. Huge, huge congratulations to our pals writer/directors Chris Bessounian and Tianna Langham, who along with five other writers were named Nicholl Fellows in November. Their script “Guns and Saris” grabbed the top honors, and the news hit Bessounian so hard it actually put him in the hospital, believing he was having a heart attack! We hope their careers are heating up in a big way. Bessounian and Langham are also the founders of Squirrel, a crazy-useful site that allows the filmmaking community to feedback on festivals so that we don't waste money on the many that are just not worth the dough. If you've been to any recently, sign up and leave your e-pinions (free of course.) Way to go, you two!

YET MORE CATS TO SAVE. Blake Snyder may be gone, but the Save the Cat! team soldiers on, their mission: to continue sharing the STC! method with the world. I recently had breakfast with BJ and Rich from Save The Cat! and came away super impressed. These are two smart, very cool guys and their hearts are in the right places. I think Blake would be very proud that they are continuing on with his teachings. And if you don't have a clue what I'm talking about and haven't yet discovered the wonder that is the Save the Cat! books and software, then stop right now and click this link. The next Save the Cat! beat sheet weekend is March 24/25 in Los Angeles, and you should check it out. Those two days could be the single best thing you ever do for your writing career. Read Ebony Jones' review of an STC! Beat Sheet weekend right here. Then sign up at http://www.blakensyder.com. By the way, Ebony will have a review of the new Save the Cat! 3.0 software right here next month.

MOVIE OUTLINE 3.1.2. If you missed our review of the terrific all-in-one screenwriting software Movie Outline 3.1.2, click here to see what Ebony Jones has to say about it.

GET "DEAD" FOR FREE. Magrie Kaptanoglu, writer of the must-see short film DEAD IN THE ROOM, tells us that you can now watch it for free on YouTube! The film has completed its festival run, so they have released it for the world to enjoy. Read our article about the film right here and then pop open a cold one and relax for five minutes and get "Dead": http://www.youtube.com/deadintheroom

SALE! Spring is rolling in fast, and that means... contest season. Are your scripts ready? I mean, really ready? Well, folks, we will help you make sure those scripts are in fighting shape. Just submit your screenplay for analysis to Coverage Ink and use this code: CISPRING20 on your order form, and you will receive $20 off any CI coverage service (feature screenplays only.) May not be combined with any other discounts; offer expires March 6th, 2012. So shine 'em up and send 'em in!

Noooooo!

GOD HELP US, MICHAEL BAY TO DIRECT "TRANSFORMERS" -- AGAIN. Seriously, what more do we need to say here? It's a sequel but they're calling it a reboot, but seriously, who cares? Be afraid. Be very afraid!

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