The screenwriter/novelist William (Gladiator) Nicholson visited us a few days ago and gave us a two hour masterclass – including insightful story advice on several of our works-in-progress. To hear the full, nearly two hour, podcast click here  

The Screen Arts Institute held its Film Market at the BFI last month and pitched to the best in the industry (including the Hollywood studios). See the video, Tim Bevan (Working Title) and Hossein Amini (Drive, Jude, Two Faces of January) talk HERE     Attending companies and individuals included: Tim Bevan    Working Title    Co-Chairman…

Stephen May, the Director of The Screen Arts Institute, will be running the “Good Acting is Good Writing… and Vice Versa”  Workshop at the BFI’s Future Film Festival on Saturday 21st February, 3pm. Click the link for more info and to book tickets: https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/default.asp?BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::permalink=futurefilmfestivalfictionday#3pm ______________ “A workshop with Stephen May, the Director of The Screen…

  I had a great trip to Film London last week to chat to Tessa Inkelaar (Development Producer).  She gave excellent advice on how to get your first feature made and distributed. And the first big pointer was to get a “professional” short film made with some public money ie to get yourself on the…

  Dan Kokotajlo (director), Charlotte Wise (writer) and producer, Marcie MacLellan, have won one of the 8 spots on this years shortlist for iFeatures.  They get a full development grant for their feature “Apostasy” and go forward for the production cut in 2015. All three are grads from Steve May’s screenwriting & producing programmes. Well…

    The Screen Arts Institute is running a final one-day workshop in association with Working Title Films & the director, Oliver Parker. Thursday 18th December, at Ideastap, 54 Bermondsey Street, in central London 10.30am-5.30pm   The workshop is designed to help you: –  Find the emotional heart of your story –  Find the best…

  So this is a shameless mutual fan club love-in.  Probably my most consistent and longtime collaborator has been the actor-director-writer-producer (not necessarily in that order) Oliver Parker (Othello with Laurence  Fishburne & Kenneth Branagh, An Ideal Husband with Cate Blanchett, Julianne Moore, Rupert Everett).  We’ve done plays, movies even musicals. He is a phenomenal…

  Had a lovely meeting with Paul Callaghan, the Partnerships Manager at Ideastap today. If you’re a film-maker between the ages of 16 and 30 and don’t know about ideastap, check them out. They have a whole host of workshops and creative initiatives. Many of them pushing the envelope of cross media collaboration. Great stuff…

  Julio Bonet, a Steve May alumni from 6 years back, left Elton’s John’s Rocket Pictures last week and has just landed the stunning job of Development Producer at the newly launched Locksmith Animation.   Locksmith is the first dedicated high-end feature animation studio ever created in the U.K., and will focus on creating a long-term…

  Great chat with my friend Polly Cochrane, SVP and Group Marketing Director at Warner Bros Ent. in London.  Polly has a staff of 40 selling WB movies to Europe.  Forget the $200m movie – strong hints from Polly that WB might be eyeing the 1st $1 billion movie. Zach Snyder has just started principal…