Tag Archives: movies

In which the Author writes his 36th book, guests on Stage 32, and aims for movies & graphic novels…

The site was down for a while recently, but now the internet elves have been fed and all is well. Apologies for the

communication breakdown.

In the interim, there have been a few developments here at Holder Towers.

Firstly I had a guest blog on the splendid film & TV website Stage 32, discussing writing scripts for corporate videos. My thanks to RB, Shannon and Andre at Stage 32 for facilitating this, and to all those who responded to the blog

and their kind comments.

Then I delivered the manuscript for my 36th non-fiction book, another on weird history. Further news on the

publication of this series later in the year.

I’m also delighted to announce that I’m collaborating with a talented illustrator on a vampire-themed bande dessinée (graphic novel). Once the 5-page sample is honed to perfection we’ll be pitching it to French BD publishers.

While all this is happening I’m continuing with the ProSeries screenwriting course at ScreenwritingU, which is superb. I’m slightly in awe of some of my fellow students and their abilities. Me, I’m working on a supernatural western

feature script for the course. I’m also taking a class on writing horror films with a Hollywood producer, which is the

bees’ knees. And I’m writing an entry for the Industry Insider Screenwriting Contest.

So, movies, graphic novels, weird history – exciting times ahead, girls and boys.

In which the Author’s first film goes into production…

Running Scared, a tense pursuit thriller, goes into production next week, with filming at various spectacular

outdoor locations in Tennessee. Yowsa.

The story: In rough country, three teenage boys are running for their lives from a mysterious group equipped with

helicopters and automatic weapons. Who are the pursuers? Why are they hunting down and killing youngsters?

The answer comes when the sole survivor finally reaches his destination – and it’s nasty. 

Writing the script for the ten-minute short was a hoot. It’s now up to the crew and cast assembled by Pinpoint

Productions out of Florida to do the really hard work over three days’ location filming. It’s great, isn’t it? I write a

screenplay in France, and then before you know it people are running round the south-eastern United States with cameras and squibs of make-up blood.

I’ll keep you posted on the progress of the film. In the meantime, here are some of the likely locations for Running Scared:

image image-4 image-3 image-2 image-1

In which the Author enjoys proofreading a fellow scriptwriter’s work…

I’ve just copy-edited and proofread the synopsis for a movie written by a fellow screenwriter. He’s French, and

writes excellent English, but not being a native speaker there are all clearly all kinds of possible traps for the

unwary (for example, written French is typically both longer and more elaborate than written English, and so

sentences in translation can have multiple clauses and last as long as a paragraph, thereby trying the patience of contemporary Anglophone readers).

After a thorough overhaul and extensive proofreading the logline and synopsis are now both suitable for waving in

front of English-speakers in the film industry. Good luck, fellah.

This was the first time I’ve proofed and edited someone else’s work destined for the movie screen (as distinct from books, scripts for corporate videos, business documents etc.) and a fascinating process it was too.

It occurs to me that there may be other screenwriters and filmmakers writing in English but for whom the language is not their mother tongue. If you are in this position and would like an experienced copy-editor / proofreader /

writer to check that everything reads well in English, please get in touch. My rates are, as they say, reasonable.

The story is on Stage 32 and The Dispatch. Stage 32