Hollywood

When Charlotte Bonner saw Barbie last summer, she was blown away by how much the film spoke to her. "It was very motivational," says Bonner, a marketing assistant and book blogger in Gloucestershire, England. "The themes were very poignant for the time that was going on."  Read more

Hollywood's writers are on strike.

After six weeks of negotiation with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the Writers Guild of AmericaAssociation of writers in motion picture, broadcast, cable and new media.  http://www.wga.org - which represents approximately 11,500 people who write the Hollywood shows and movies we watch in theaters and at home - announced that its membership would walk off the job starting at 12:01am PT on May 2.  Read more

Books and magazine articles have long provided the IP Hollywood depends on, but until recently, authors played little role in the process. Now, lit agencies and publishers are changing the rules and shortening the page-to-screen pipeline.

Filmmakers love to use novels as source material for films, and writers love to have their work adapted for the big screen. Why not? For filmmakers, literary adaptations come with a built-in fan base, along with (usually) a well-crafted story populated by ready-made, compelling characters.  Read more

After watching Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, self-published author Mark Dawson was inspired to create his own answer to the film's heroine Beatrix "Black Mamba" Kiddo. And now Dawson - and his character government-employed assassin Beatrix Rose - are set to take on Hollywood, with his series on the verge of a major television deal, complete with a "triple A" producer.