Fighting the flu? Join the club. There’s no better time to be reading than when you laid up, and if you’re writing, you better be reading! Novelists should read novels (I have 6 I’m currently cycling through on my Kindle). Poets should read poetry. Short story writers should be reading short stories. Of course.
Screenwriters? One huge upside of the intertubes has been the accessibility to teleplays and screenplays. Here’s a great list (with links) of the contending scripts for this year’s Academy Award Nominees. Enjoy!
“Anonymous” by John Orloff (Sony)
“The Artist” by Michel Hazanavicius (The Weinstein Company)
“Beginners” by Mike Mills (Focus Features)
“Bridesmaids” by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig (Universal)
“Cars 2” by Ben Queen; Story by John Lasseter, Brad Lewis and Dan Fogelman (Disney)
“Coriolanus” by John Logan, from the play by William Shakespeare (The Weinstein Company)
“The Debt” by Matthew Vaughn & Jane Goldman and Peter Straughan (Focus Features)
“The Descendants” by Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash, based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings (Fox Searchlight)
“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” by Steven Zaillian, based on the novel by Stieg Larsson (Sony)
“Hanna” by Seth Lochhead and David Farr; Story by Seth Lochhead (Focus Features)
“The Help” by Tate Taylor, based on the novel by Kathryn Stockett (Dreamworks)
“The Ides of March” by George Clooney & Grant Heslov and Beau Williman (Sony)
“The Iron Lady” by Abi Morgan (The Weinstein Company)
“Jane Eyre” by Moira Buffini, based on the novel by Charlotte Bronte (Focus Features)
“Machine Gun Preacher” by Jason Keller (Relativity Media)
“Margaret” by Kenneth Lonergan (Fox Searchlight)
“Margin Call” by J.C. Chandor (Rope of silicon website)
“Martha Marcy May Marlene” by Sean Durkin (Fox Searchlight)
“Moneyball” by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin; Story by Stan Chervin, based on the book by Michael Lewis (Sony)
“My Week With Marilyn” by Adrian Hodges, from the book by Colin Clark (The Weinstein Company)
“Pariah” by Dee Rees (Focus Features)
“Shame” by Steve McQueen and Abi Morgan (Fox Searchlight)
“Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” by Bridget O’Cconnor & Peter Straughan, based on the novel by John le Carre (Focus Features)
“War Horse” by Lee Hall and Richard Curtis, based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo (Dreamworks)
“Warrior” by Gavin O’Connor and Anthony Tambakis & Cliff Dorfman (Lionsgate)
“Win Win” by Tom McCarthy; Story by Tom McCarthy & Joe Tiboni (Fox Searchlight)