• Three of the five nominees for this year's Directors Guild of America award are directors of SFFH films -- Frank Darabont, for The Green Mile, M. Night Shyamalan, for The Sixth Sense, and Spike Jonze, for Being John Malkovich. The other two nominees are Michael Mann for The Insider and Sam Mendes for American Beauty. (Technically, the nominations recognize each director's entire team, including production managers, assistant directors, etc.) Winners of the DGA award have frequently (all but four times in 50 years) gone on to win the Oscar. — Variety 25 Jan

• Meanwhile, American Beauty won the Best Picture award on Monday from the Broadcast Film Critics Association, which had announced winners in other categories, and nominations for best picture, last month. Among the winners: supporting actor Michael Clarke Duncan in The Green Mile; Frank Darabont's screenplay adaptation for the same film; Spike Jonze as breakthrough performer for both Being John Malkovich and Three Kings; Toy Story 2 as best animated feature; and Haley Joel Osment, from The Sixth Sense, as best child performer. Among the 9 other best picture nominees: Being John Malkovich, The Green Mile, Magnolia, and The Sixth Sense.

• Golden Globe Awards: Winners of the awards presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a group of 84 journalists who cover entertainment for non-US press, included Toy Story 2 as Best Comedy or Musical Picture (as distinct from Best Drama Picture, which was awarded to American Beauty). A song from the film Tarzan, ''You'll Be In My Heart'' by Phil Collins, won as Best Original Song. — NY Times 24 Jan

• What film will Steven Spielberg direct next? Harry Potter, maybe? — LA Times 24 Jan

• Roger Ebert gives four stars to American Movie, a documentary about an amateur attempt to produce a horror movie. — Chicago Sun-Times 21 Jan

• Film critic John Powers and screenwriter Sandi Tan give away all the endings in ''Oh, You Haven't Seen It? Sorry About That''. How many do you recognize? [Since this appears to be a temporary link, the answers are temporarily reprinted here.] — NY Times 23 Jan

• Salman Rushdie has written the lyrics for a song for a U2 song ''The Ground Beneath Her Feet'' from his novel of the same name, which will be the opening track on the soundtrack album of Wim Wenders' forthcoming film The Million Dollar Hotel. [LAT]

• David Ansen on new digital video technology that makes it easy for anyone to produce their own films — Newsweek Jan. 24, 2000

• Dana Kennedy discusses computer programs for writing screenplays — NY Times 9 Jan

 

— Inprint (but not Online) —

• The New Yorker, Jan. 24, 2000
Tad Friend's ''Letter from Hollywood'' profiles energetic screenwriter Ron Bass. ''Most A-list screenwriters are delighted if they can complete two screenplays a year; Bass typically writes seven.''

• Entertainment Weekly, January 21 - 28, 2000
Lisa Schwarzbaum rates how various popular novels fared in their big-screen movie adaptations (page 98).

(Tue 25 Jan 2000)