Kenneth Atchity's Blog, page 51
January 13, 2022
Hallmark “Honoring Betty White”
America’s sweetheart Betty White was just several weeks away from celebrating her 100th birthday when she died on New Year’s Eve.
As the world continues to remember the “Golden Girl,” the Hallmark Channel has revealed it will pay tribute to White with a marathon of her work airing on January 17, which would have been her centennial birthday.
In an announcement exclusively reported by Southern Living, Hallmark will host “Honoring Betty White.”
Beginning at midnight on the 17th, the Hallmark Channel will air a 40-episode marathon of “The Golden Girls." Fans will be able to watch curated episodes of the classic show until the 2011 Hallmark movie “The Lost Valentine,” starring White and Jennifer Love Hewitt, airs at 8pm ET/PT. The "GG" marathon will resume following the movie and conclude on January 18 at 5:00 am ET/PT.
Developed for Hallmark, The Lost Valentine originally aired in 2011. Based on a novel by James Michael Pratt, the film is directed by Darnell Martin and stars Betty White alongside Jennifer Love Hewitt and Sean Faris. The film earned White a nomination for the Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor.
The official synopsis for The Lost Valentine reads: "During World War II, Navy Lt. Neil Thomas bids Caroline, his pregnant young wife, farewell at Union Station. Before their son is born, Neil's plane goes down in the Pacific and he's declared missing in action. Caroline is devastated. But love never dies, and for the next 65 years Caroline (Betty White) returns to Union Station on the anniversary of her loss, to salute the memory of her handsome and brave husband."
The marathon includes specially selected episodes of The Golden Girls that highlight Rose’s surprising competitive streak; visits by her St. Olaf relatives; funny career moments from the grief center and assisting consumer reporter Enrique Mas; along with plenty of romance, including boyfriends Dr. Jonathan Newman, Mister Terrific and of course, Miles Webber,” the network said in a statement, per the outlet.
In addition, the Hallmark Channel will also participate in the viral Betty White Challenge by donating to the North Shore Animal League America.
White was an advocate for animal rights and worked closely with many organizations to help get animals adopted and promote more humane treatment of animals.
The Betty White Challenge is a movement on social media where fans encourage others to donate to a local or national animal shelter, organization, or agency in White’s name to celebrate her birthday and the cause closest to her heart.
A report this week confirmed that White died from a stroke. The death certificate listed the cause of death as “a cerebrovascular accident,” which is a loss of blood flow to part of the brain that results in brain tissue damage. It reveals that she suffered the stroke six days before her death.
via Movie web and Audacy
January 12, 2022
January 10, 2022
My Obit: Daddy Holding Me Garners Honorable Mention in the 2021 New England Book Festival
HONOERABLE MENTION BIOGRAPHY/AUTOBIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
On Amazon
Anyone who enjoyed Mircea Eliade’s autobiographical multi-volume Exile’s Odyssey, Oliver Sacks’ The Man Who Mistook My Wife for a Hat and Awakenings, or Richard Feynman’s Surely You Must Be Joking, Mr. Feynman, will find My Obit: Daddy Holding Me a page-turner filled with poignant family experiences, explosive sibling rivalry, literary adventures, ethnic cooking, wide-ranging storytelling, the workings of the brain itself--and what can be learned about life from playing tennis for decades. The jokes and recipes alone are worth the entrance price.
January 7, 2022
Authors’ unpublished books kept getting stolen. Now, a suspect has been arrested
They were perplexing thefts, lacking a clear motive or payoff, and they happened in the genteel, not particularly lucrative world of publishing: Someone was stealing unpublished book manuscripts.
The thefts and attempted thefts occurred primarily over email, by a fraudster impersonating publishing professionals and targeting authors, editors, agents and literary scouts who might have drafts of novels and other books.
The mystery may now be solved. On Wednesday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Filippo Bernardini, a 29-year-old rights coordinator for Simon & Schuster UK, saying that he “impersonated, defrauded, and attempted to defraud, hundreds of individuals” over five or more years, obtaining hundreds of unpublished manuscripts in the process.
Mr. Bernardini, who was arrested after landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport, was charged with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Read more:
January 6, 2022
Story Merchant Books is pleased to announce our first Zoom Book Launch Party for 2022
Story Merchant Books is pleased to announce our first Zoom Book Launch Party for 2022 with our title, Romeo’s Beatby Vincent Atchity, on Wednesday, January 12th 2022!
We want to extend a warm invite to all Story Merchant authors and friends to celebrate with us via Zoom on Wednesday 1/12 at 4pm PST / 7pm EST!
Please see the invite and agenda below and feel free to forward this email to anyone who might want to join!
On the day of the event, click the link below and enter the password to join everyone virtually!
You can order by clicking on this link: Romeo’s Beat
Join Zoom Meeting on January 12th: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5977327777?pwd=MFY5TXBJQUxwb1J2ZWhPeTR4WDdsUT09
Time: Jan 12, 2022 04:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Meeting ID: 597 732 7777
Passcode: romeo
January 4, 2022
In memory of Betty White
At her eightieth birthday celebration, in 2001, at KC’s Leawood-South Country Club, the entire family gathered to celebrate my mother’s endless good spirits and hospitality. Dancing and telling jokes and winking, she reigned over the event like the dowager empress she’d become, wearing her signature red dress. and looking for all the world like Betty White on a good day.
My mother was a force larger than life.
Oddly enough, I met Betty White because of Mom.
An aspiring novelist and former Mormon bishop named James Michael Pratt sent me a copy of his self-published book, The Last Valentine. I read the description on the back cover and thought it was maybe too romantic even for “Mr. Romance,” as I’d been dubbed during my years in Montreal producing Shades of Love.
But the concept nagged at me, so I sent the book to Mom and asked her to read it.
She called me two days later.
“You must get involved in this book,” she said. “It’s wonderful.”
I asked her for details. Her response was sketchy—she was already becoming forgetful, especially of things she’d read, which is why I’d learned to return her call the minute she reached out to me after a read. But it was clear emotionally: Mom didn’t use must loosely. This was beyond should!
Long story short, I did get involved. My Writers Lifeline company helped Jim perfect the story and my management company sold it, at auction, for a bunch of money to St. Martin’s Press. It became a New York Times bestseller, and led to four or five further bestselling books for Jim.
At one point in his book tour, we converged in KC where Jim was being hosted by Barnes and Noble—and he insisted on meeting Mom. “She’s the one who got this book published,” he said. I certainly wasn’t going to argue with that.
You’d think a New York Times bestseller would have an easy route to the screen. But I knew one lesson by heart: nothing is easy in Hollywood. It took over ten years before Valentine was picked up by Hallmark Hall of Fame. Their president, meeting me over breakfast at the Alameda Plaza overlooking KC’s Country Club Plaza, brought up a ticklish subject. “You know this company will never call a movie ‘The Last Valentine,’” he told me—then tipped his orange juice in a toast.
I laughed, at what I thought was a joke. But it wasn’t. The movie was retitled, “The Lost Valentine,” and starred Jennifer Love Hewitt and Betty.
It was one thing to meet the voluptuous Jennifer Love Hewitt—“Don’t avoid these,” she scolded our Director of Photography, having checked the replay of a wedding moment where the camera discreetly hovered above her cleavage line, “I built my career on these beauties.” Unleashing the camera, they did a more revealing take.
But it was meeting Betty White on the set in Atlanta that truly thrilled me, for two reasons. In her red dress, white hair, and feisty countenance, she looked exactly like Mom. And I was given the chance to tell Betty the story of how my mother had gotten this book published and this movie made.
Alas, Mom was no longer around to glory in the moment, or in the Screen Actor's Guild's "Outstanding Performance by an Actor" Award Betty received for our film.
Excerpt from My Obit: Vol 2: My Multi-Storied Mother,forthcoming 2022.
December 31, 2021
Revisiting Betty White and The Lost Valentine to NY Times Arts Beat - R.I.P
August 6, 2010, 8:58 am
It’s Friday, So Why Not Talk to Betty White?
By DAVE ITZKOFF
Betty White doesn’t need your approval. She’s such a rock star now that in addition to her regular role on the TV Land comedy “Hot in Cleveland” (which was recently picked up for a second season), she can also accept a recurring guest spot on the NBC series “Community” and call its cast delightful to their faces and no one can stop her. And she will turn down your offer to appear in a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie until you ask again nicely, and then tell you it’s a lovely script, just to let you know who’s boss. And if you tease her sarcastically at a public event, be prepared to face the full force of her endearing rejoinders.
ArtsBeat was recently offered the opportunity to speak with Ms. White about her work on “Community,” her perpetually busy schedule, and the risks of overexposure, and we were too afraid to say no. These are excerpts from that conversation.
Q.
You’re able to juggle this at the same time as your work on “Hot in Cleveland”?
A.
Right, but we’re on hiatus now — we don’t go back until the 1st of November. That’s something lovely to look forward to, because the girls are so great, and the chemistry between them is so wonderful. But in the meantime, I’ve got a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie to do in Atlanta.
Q.
What’s it about?
A.
It’s a lovely script that was sent — it’s two weeks in Atlanta, and I always try very hard not to go out of town. I try to stay here [California] as much as I can. Once in a while, like a “Saturday Night Live” thing, I had to go back for. But I keep it down to a minimum. So I turned it down, because of the being out of town. But they made it as easy for me as they can, and I get to come home on the weekend, between the two weeks. I’ll come in on Saturday and go back to Atlanta on Sunday to go to work Monday morning. So I was able to say O.K. The name of it is “Lost Valentine,” and it’s a love story. I do a lot of supposed comedy work — I mean, I hope it’s comedy work. This one is a love story so it’s a nice change of pace for me.
Q.
Do you get a love interest in the film?
A.
No, in this case, it’s a love that I’ve lost. The reason it appealed to me so much, it’s a deep, deep love story, like the one I had with my beloved Allen Ludden.
December 29, 2021
How To Be Productive: Understanding Time, Work and Creativity
BUY THE BOOK - SELL YOUR STORY TO HOLLYWOOD: Writer’s Pocket Guide To The Business Of Show Business - https://amzn.to/2JlWBaC BUY THE BOOK - WRITING TREATMENTS THAT SELL: How To Create And Market Your Story Ideas To The Motion Picture and TV Industry - https://amzn.to/2Hakwcl MORE VIDEOS WITH DR. KEN ATCHITY https://goo.gl/dRBg3F
December 22, 2021
The Story of My Life! Ken Atchity's My Obit: Daddy Holding Me
On Amazon
Anyone who enjoyed Mircea Eliade’s autobiographical multi-volume Exile’s Odyssey, Oliver Sacks’ The Man Who Mistook My Wife for a Hat and Awakenings, or Richard Feynman’s Surely You Must Be Joking, Mr. Feynman, will find My Obit: Daddy Holding Me a page-turner filled with poignant family experiences, explosive sibling rivalry, literary adventures, ethnic cooking, wide-ranging storytelling, the workings of the brain itself--and what can be learned about life from playing tennis for decades. The jokes and recipes alone are worth the entrance price.
December 20, 2021
Hollywood High Concept
Studios today are producing, for the most part, two kinds of films. One type is pre-established franchises (comic books, TV series, famous novels, toys, such as Star Wars, Captain America, and The Hunger Games. The other type is high-concept scripts that are either conceived of in-house by executives, producers, managers, and agents who know what the market responds to — or by “spec” screenwriters determined to break the bank.
Writing even the greatest screenplay that isn’t high concept is choosing either the indie path or willful self-indulgence.
Dealing with “high concept” is one of the most challenging and frustrating tasks of the Hollywood writer, agent, or producer; reducing the story to a compelling logline is what high concept is all about. As a former academic not prepared for a world focused on marketing, it took me years to realize that the term “high concept” means almost its opposite. It means “simple concept,” as in Fatal Attraction: An innocent smile at a party turns a married man’s life upside down and put his family in mortal jeopardy.
Sometimes a title is its own high concept, as with Margaret Mitchell’s best-selling novel Gone with the Wind, the extended logline of which would be: “Against the backdrop of the great Civil War, a narcissistic Southern beauty obsessed with idyllic love struggles to reconstruct her life and finds that her true love is closer than she thinks.”
High concept is a story that will compel the broadest audiences to watch the movie after hearing a pitch of only a few, or sometimes even one, word(s):
Psycho Sleepless in Seattle ArmageddonUnwanted Attentions Vertigo JawsHow to Lose a Guy in Ten Days American SniperUnfaithful Four Weddings and a Funeral San AndreasBlack Hawk Down Panic Room SelmaRunaway Bride Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead Home Alone Cabin FeverDie Hard Ex Machina
These examples of high concept are pitched by their very titles. It’s enough to hear the title—and know that Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson star—to compel audiences to the box office for Anger Management.
“Die Hard on a boat,” was allegedly the logline line that led to the sale of Steven Seagall’s Under Siege.
Titles like The Fisher King, Seven Days in May, Snow Falling on Cedars, The Shipping News may be evocative, but do not express a high concept that will instantly lure audiences. Though such titles may get lucky and become successful movies, in today’s blockbuster market they’d be swimming upstream.
Nothing is more important to marketing your story than a “high concept logline” that makes it immediately stand out from all those stories that are subtle, nuanced, and difficult to pitch, and that depend entirely upon “execution.” Here are some more examples that have led my companies or others to sales:
• “Jurassic Shark!” (the two-word description given AEI client Steve Alten’s Meg by ICM-agent Jeff Robinov, who spearheaded a “preempt” from Disney for $1.1 million; the story was then re-sold to Newline, and then to Warner Brothers)
• When the most obnoxious guy in the world realizes he’s become an asshole on a false premise, he makes a list of all the people he’s wronged and sets out to repay them one by one. (John Scott Shepherd’s Henry’s List of Wrongs, sold to New Line Pictures for $1.6 million).
• Life or Something Like It: An ambitious and self-involved reporter is sparked into action to change the pattern of her life when she interviews a street-psychic who tells her that her life is meaningless—and that she’s going to die—soon.
• The Madam’s Family: The true “Canal Street Brothel” story of three generations of madams and their battle against persecution by the FBI.
• The Lost Valentine: A man and woman find the love of their lifetimes when they’re brought together to memorialize the bittersweet story of a doomed World War II pilot and the wife who promised to wait forever for his return.
Consider these further examples, grouped by “genre”:
A woman or a family in jeopardy
The Shallows: While riding the waves at a remote beach, a young surfer finds herself injured and stranded just twenty miles from shore on a buoy—as a great white shark begins stalking her.
Room: After being abducted, abused, and imprisoned for seven years in a small windowless room a mother devises a bold escape plan.
An ordinary woman in extraordinary circumstances
The Danish Girl: What happens if the husband you adore needs to be a woman?
Woman in Gold: Six decades after World War II, a Jewish octogenarian begins a quest to reclaim the artwork confiscated from her family by the Nazis and now proudly celebrated by the Austrian government—including a famed Gustav Klimt masterpiece.
Men on a mission
Saving Private Ryan: US soldiers try to save their comrade who’s stationed behind enemy lines.
Bridge of Spies: At the height of the Cold War in 1960, the downing of an American spy plane and the pilot’s subsequent capture by the Soviets draws Brooklyn attorney James Donovan into the middle of an intense effort to secure the aviator’s release.
Man against nature
The Martian: He was left behind—on Mars.
The Revenant: A frontiersman fights for survival after being mauled by a grizzly and left for dead by his own hunting team.
Man or woman against the system
Spotlight: A Boston news team sets out to expose numerous cases of child molestation and cover up on the part of the local Catholic Archdiocese.
Concussion: A pathologist uncovers the truth about brain damage in football players who suffer repeated concussions and comes up against the corporate power of the NFL.
People Vs. Larry Flynt: A pornography publisher becomes the unlikely defender of free speech.
Class Action: A female attorney finds that her nemesis is her own father, and must choose between her corporate client and justice.
A woman escaping from something or someone she loves.
The Perfect Guy: After breaking up with her boyfriend, a professional woman gets involved with a man who seems almost too good to be true.
Enough: On the run from an abusive husband, a young mother begins to train herself to fight back.
Sleeping with the Enemy: A young woman fakes her own death in an attempt to escape her nightmarish marriage, but discovers it’s impossible to elude her controlling husband.
Filmmakers long to spot in our onslaught of daily email queries a high concept logline that makes a story out of universal—
• human emotions: fear, love, hate, envy, etc.
• deadly sins: anger, greed, lust, etc.
• plot motivators: betrayal, vengeance, discovery, rebirth, survival, etc.
• virtues: loyalty, faith, responsibility, etc.
—and embodies those elements in characters we can care about, relate to, and root for to shape an “original story” that feels both fresh and relevant to today’s global market.
If you can do that, and your writing effectively expresses your vision, you’re only steps away from recognition in the toughest story marketplace of all.
Excerpt from my forthcoming Sell Your Story to Hollywood, at http://www.realfasthollywooddeal.com
Follow Ken Atchity on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kennja
