The Next Three Days (2010, directed by Paul Haggis)

So college teacher Russell Crowe has his life turned upside down when his wife (Elizabeth Banks) is arrested for the murder of a co-worker.  Refusing to believe her guilt, over three years Crowe slowly loses his grip on reality and begins to summon up the will to engineer a desperate plan to break her out of jail and get them and their son across the border to live a new life.  Beware some spoilers from this point if you've not seen the movie yet. 


The Next Three Days is an odd film, at once convincing and Hollywood baloney.  In the moment it works pretty well; Crowe is on good form as a variant of the crumpled veteran he's played in films like American Gangster and Body Of Lies.  There's good use of Pitsburgh as a shooting location, and some stunning support playing, especially from a one-scene Liam Neeson and a particular masterstroke in using Brian Dennehy as Crowe's uncommunicative Dad.  There's an object lesson here in just using someone's screen history as screen shorthand; in the movie it works really well.  Some of the details are convincing; plenty of abortive moments as Crowe messes up elements of his planning and preparation, and a couple of neat little tricks in terms of lockpicking that I hadn't seen used in movies before.   


There is though, a bit of nonsense along for the ride.  Much is made of the Crowe character needing money for his plans; he jots down figures on his walls, he selling his house and cashes in the furniture.  But he keeps the same good car (a Prius, no less) his wife drove rather than trading down largely for plot-related reasons which become clear late on in the movie.  Haggis's screenplay would fall apart if Crowe'd taken a hit on his hybrid wheels.  Crowe gets into a half-botched heist on a meth lab and gets the cash he needs, though from that point he no longer has use for the money in the movie.  


Like  his earlier Crash and In The Valley of Elah, there's some heavy-handedness to Haggis's work; at least it's comparatively restrained in comparison to those other films there's the whiff of statement about the work.  One early scene has Crowe lecturing on Don Quixote; we're meant to see parallels in their obsessive quests.  Thankfully Haggis resisted lobbing in a Moby-Dick seminar too.  Usually peripheral characters (two sets of cops) for this kind of movie are at least rounded out and get more screen time than one might expect, though partly this is done for a reversal that ends up validating Crowe's quest.  The movie works well in underplaying the question of Banks's guilt (her character uses it against her husband at one point) though in one of those supposedly ironic twists Haggis likes we find out she's innocent, even if the cops never do.  


The Next Three Days is not a bad film.  Much of it is entertaining in a serious way, and it's at least a film about adults in adult situations.  It's well shot and directed and some of the suspense sequences work well.  Danny Elfman's score throws back nicely to the kind of 70s thriller soundtracks we might have got from David Shire or Lalo Schifrin, though there a couple of intrusive montages overlaid with songs.  It falls apart a bit after watching in all fairness and there's some stupid movie-movie stuff thrown in (Crowe constructs one of those wall-sized mind maps only seen in films when plotting his scheme, only to fail to dispose of the evidence on the day of the plan, causing another ripple in the water), but there's enough here to make it worth a watch, and there's more than enough here to make me seek out the French original (Pour Elle/Anything For Her) that this movie's based on.        

BBC: Funny in 15 seconds

Maybe as much a performing thing as a writing task, this one, but BBC Three is on the lookout for people who can get a very quick laugh.  Full details here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/pages/funnyin15

2011 Postcard Competition to win an Arvon writing course week

To enter, please send in a piece of flash fiction or poetry that describes your favourite writing place. The winning entry will be chosen by Sunday Times journalist Cathy Galvin.

Send your story on a postcard with your contact details to:

Postcard Competition
The Arvon Foundation
Free Word Centre
60 Farringdon Road
London, EC1R 3GA

Closing date is 21 May 2011.

Instead of an entry fee to take part in this competition, the Arvon Foundation would be grateful for a suggested donation of £5.00 to support its charitable work. Cheques should be made payable to The Arvon Foundation.  Details: http://www.arvonfoundation.org/p279.html

£1,500 bursary for emerging writer

£1,500 bursary for emerging writer
As part of Platform 11+, an international theatre for young people project, Emergency Exit Arts (EEA) is offering to support an emerging writer aged 16-30 with a bursary of £1,500 to develop a new 30-minute piece of outdoor performance to be premiered in 2012 as part of the Olympics Cultural Festival. For more information and an application form, email Jules Hodgson at info@eea.org.uk.  Details online here: http://www.eea.org.uk/whatson/news/new_writers_award_2011/

Fresh writing competitions and writing opportunities

BBC Drama Writers Academy 2011 Applications for the 2011 BBC Drama Writers Academy are now open. Visit the BBC Jobs website for further information and access to the online application process. Applicants must have had at least one professional commission in either television, theatre, radio or film. Writers will need to apply online individually and to submit an original full length sample of their writing. The deadline for applications is Thursday 5th May 2011. The course is specifically designed to train writers to write for Casualty, Holby City, EastEnders and Doctors. The Short Story Competition Deadline: Thu 15 Sep 2011 We would really appreciate it if you could share this information with your creative writing groups and interested parties. This new competition is looking to publish the best short stories from around the world. We welcome either new or established writers. Winners will be announced in December 2011 and the stories will be published on our website. Deadline for submission is 15th September 2011. Word limit: 1,000 - 5,000. First prize: £300. For further details please go to our website: www.theshortstory.net Red Telephone Books Young Adult Fiction Competition Deadline: Sat 31 Dec 2011: Manchester’s Red Telephone Books want to offer a talented author of young adult fiction the chance to join them in 2011. Guidance for entrants and more information about The Red Telephone can be found at http://theredtelephone.co.uk/2011YANovelCompetition.aspx.  UK-based publishers of Young Adult Fiction in search for exciting new author. The company, which has recently published Alex Smith’s debut novel Calling For Angels, aims to nurture and develop new writers in the YA genre. We now require an exceptionally talented author to add to our roster.  1st Place – Publication of your novel by Red Telephone Books, including full support through the editing process, plus pre- and post-launch marketing. 2nd Place – A full critique of your novel from the editor. 3rd Place – A light critique of your novel from the editor. ENTRY FEE - £10

More writing competitions!

Harry Bowling Prize
http://www.harrybowlingprize.co.uk
The Harry Bowling Prize is intended to encourage new, unpublished fiction, and is open to anyone who has not had an adult novel published in any genre, including under a pseudonym. The entrant may however have published the following: short stories, scripts for TV and radio, non-fiction and children's fiction and non-fiction. 
Each entry may now have ANY urban setting, not just London, as previously, and be any genre and set in any period.

1. Entrants should submit the synopsis of their novel (of not more than 500 words) and the first chapter(s) of the novel (not more than 5,000 words).  The closing date for entries is 30 September 2011.  Full details here.

The Daily Satire short story competition

http://thedailysatire.com/groups/satirical-short-story-competition/

The 10 best stories submitted by 1st September 2011, as chosen by the editor but taking votes into consideration, each win £15 and get their work published in our new e-book. Winners will be contacted by private message and email (the one you submitted when creating your account), as well as being announced here. There are no rules except that your story can’t have been commercially published before. As long as it is satire and it is a short story it qualifies.  Full details here. 

CheerReader short story competition
http://cheerreader.co.uk/Competitions.aspx
Once every quarter, we have a short story competition. The maximum story length is 1500 words, and you can write about any subject genre you like, but remember it has to be amusing, witty, funny, or whatever other word you may care to choose.  Next deadline 31 May 2011.  Full details here. 

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The Rite (2011, directed by Mikael Hafstrom)

So cool dark Michael Kovak (Colin O'Donoghue) is so fed up being his remote dad Rutger Hauer's embalmer/mortician assistant that he enrols in seminary, reckoning that the priesthood will, at worst, give him a university education.  Four years later and he's ready to flunk out at the last possible moment despite the support of mentor Toby Jones, when a freak accident gives Jones' character a lever to offer Michael an alternative - a trip to Rome to train as an exorcist.  Yes it's a leap, but it's passed off quite well in the movie.  Michael trains under the tutelage of imperious lecturer Ciaran Hinds who, smelling a dropout with talent, refers him on to Anthony Hopkins, who's practice to Hinds' theory.


And then the fireworks start.  In fairness, all the good stuff is frontloaded: Hafstrom (who directed both the Stephen King adaptation 1408 and Derailed, plus the still-unreleased in the West Chow-Yun Fat/John Cusack Shanghai) plays the material seriously enough, has a decent eye for widescreen composition and can effect a few creepy early sequences.  The performances are generally good: the trick of substituting actorly for real-world authority is deployed well, and the starry supporting players lend authenticity to what's going on.  There's a little of travelogue to Michael's arrival in Rome to take his course but that's neatly undercut.  One moment, which might well have been simple product placement but still works from a character perspective has the newly-arrived Michael given a choice between street cafes and a McDonald's; he chooses the latter of course, though gets to be proved wrong as the story unfolds. 


Counterpointing Hopkins' Welsh priest is Alice Braga's journalist, who's investigating the Church's newfound interest in exorcism.  This gives us both a romantic interest in the tale and externalises Michael's conflict.  There is a mechanical element to the screenplay (three act structure devotees will have a field day here with the way things pan out) and the way matters proceed into Act Three shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.


Perhaps inevitably it's a compromised and inherently conservative film (the Catholic Church is right, satanism exists and is a real threat, doubt is natural but real faith will endure etc) and so wisely goes for character drama rather than holy-water-and-vomiting thrills though there are some nicely horrible ideas along the way.  Hopkins is good value as the mad/not mad elderly exorcist, plus he gets a couple of very good scenes and he excels in the slightly hammy tic of his where he acts like he's just remembering his lines.  


The film at least has the courage of its convictions in its ending and though it won't tell you anything new whatsoever, it does so in a relatively classy way.  Too much is made of flashbacks, and there's a hint of a wider conspiracy that's not really followed up with.  More for the journey than the arrival then; a professional job well done all round, with no nightmares to follow.    

Writing competitions - more of.

A SCOT IN LONDON POETRY CONTEST
http://www.scotscare.com/
The competition is open to everyone. All styles of poems considered as long as they are based on the theme of a Scot in London and what that means to you. The winning entry, chosen by a select judging panel including A.L. Kennedy, will receive a £1000 prize plus 2 tickets to our St Andrew's Dinner. The top 5 poems will also be put on public display in our new offices as well as being printed in ScotsCare Shout. The closing date is the 31st of August.


THE FINE LINE SHORT STORY COMPETITION
http://shop.editorial-consultancy.co.uk/shortstorycompetition/
Now open for entries.  Whatever your taste, style or inspiration, submit your tale and you could win £200 ($320/€230) and publication in The Fine Line Short Story Collection.  A percentage of all entry fees goes to charity so you'll be doing good while getting your work out there. The competition is open to anyone. Deadline May 31, 2011.

TENBY WRITING COMPETITION
http://www.tenbyartsfest.co.uk/
Open to anyone anywhere. Deadline July 15, 2011. Categories short story up to 1,500 words and poetry up to 40 lines. Any subject accepted. The values of the prizes are the same for each of the two categories: Winner £150, Runner-up £70, Third Place £30.

Season Of The Witch (2011, directed by Dominic Sena)

So Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman are crusader knights whacking and slashing their ways across the Middle East in a series of fairly obviously green-screened opening battle scenes: Sir Nic takes his religion seriously, but Sir Ron is there strictly for the thrills and spills.  They toss quips about buying drinks and so on and so forth to each other as they hack their way to the Holy Land until one day Sir Nic accidentally kills a young women in taking a city.  He renounces the crusades on the spot and Sir Ron, never one to let a mate down, deserts with him.  

They head back across Europe, finding signs of the plague everywhere.  Eventually they find a town where Sir Nic's offered a chance to redeem himself: escort a suspect to a distant monastery for a witchcraft trial.  It's reckoned by the local cardinal (Christopher Lee) that the accused witch is responsible for the plague outbreak.  Break the spell, save the people from disease.  And Sir Nic sees a chance to save his soul by atoning for the killing of the young woman, by guaranteeing the prisoner a fair trial.  So he and Sir Ron take the job.  


So Sir Nic and Sir Ron take the prisoner across country with a small gang of one-note supporting players (the idealistic young one, the cheeky swindler, the grim veteran, the fanatic priest).  Is she really a witch?  Will they survive the journey across the rickety bridge and through the haunted wood to the monks who've got the last copy of a fabled ritual?  Will we get an exorcism sequence?

In all fairness, Season Of The Witch is a mess.  Too light on budget to make much of its opening action scenes, and too reliant on variable CG work for its creatures, the film is never sure what it wants to be.  So it tries to be several movies in succession: a mix of 300 and Kingdom of Heaven, a Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid-esque buddy movie, a Name Of The Rose knock-off, a medieval remake of Cohen and Tate, a straight-edged horror film and an family-friendly action fantasy.  In having a go at each of these, it ends up being nothing in particular; it's a movie of parts.  Some of those parts do work well (Perlman's obviously having fun, there are some nice ideas like a literal plague dog and some zombie ninja monks at the end, and there's the lovely hint that the guy in charge of the Crusades is Satan himself) and much of the practical work is fine (good costumes, sets etc), but the variable tone and the speed at which the story is told gives the feeling of a larger piece that was cut back for budgetary reasons twice; once to save on filming, and then again in post-production to save on effects work.  Oh, and it has an odd attitude toward European history and geography.


That's not to say that the indulgent viewer won't have some amusement here and the whole enterprise does have something of the ramshackle charm of one of Roger Corman's AIP horrors or a minor Hammer pic.  Season Of The Witch isn't a good movie, but at times it's an amusing one, if not one that's always intentionally funny.

Good Friday / Earth Day handful of writing competitions

Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting
http://www.writeaplay.co.uk/
Bruntwood is looking for scripts that are original and unperformed, by writers of any experience. Deadline June 6, 2011. Must be at least 16, a resident in the UK or Ireland. Submit only one play. Plays must be original, unpublished, and over one hour. First Prize £16,000 - with the offer of a year-long attachment with the Royal Exchange Theatre. Three Judges' Awards of £8,000 each.


Blood Ink Writing Competition
http://www.chapteronepromotions.com/competitions/blood-ink-crime-writing-competition-2.htm
Maximum words: 5,000. Prizes: £999, £307, £121 plus publication.  Deadline: June 1, 2011.  Blood Ink is on the look out for crime stories that delve into the motives of those who have been wronged, who seek revenge in the most unlikely of settings.


Kings Cross Award
http://www.thecourtyard.org.uk/news/38/the-kings-cross-award-for-new-writing-2011
Deadline September 1, 2011. Open to writers of all levels of experience resident in the UK or Republic of Ireland.
Seeks imaginative, original work which explores the unique possibilities of writing for the stage. The winning playwright will be awarded with a £4,000 cash prize. The winning play will be presented as a stage rehearsal reading.


Hastings International Poetry Competition 2011
http://www.1066hosting.co.uk/josephineaustin/competition.html
Cash Prizes of £150, £75, £50 and £25.  Competitors may enter as many poems as they wish.  No poem must exceed 50 lines in length.  Previously published poems are ineligible. Poems will be neither acknowledged nor returned unless a stamped addressed envelope is enclosed.  Poems must not bear the name of the author which should appear on the entry form.  Each poem must be accompanied by an entry fee of £2 .00. Cheques / Postal Orders should be made payable to J. Austin.  The closing date for entries is 15th October 2011.

Sight and Sound "Women on Film" journalism competition

As their website says, film magazine Sight & Sound is inviting women who are not already professional film journalists to write a brief thumbnail description (circa 300 words) of a person in the world of film who is or has been an inspiration to them. The subject can be related to cinema in any way: an actor, screenwriter, costumier, lab technician or even subject of a movie.  They’re interested in your heroes, models and muses, but also in your critical acumen: your writing should be passionate and imaginative but also insightful and analytical.

Full details are here: http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/competitions/2011-women-on-film.php

The best entry will win a year-long mentoring programme with a female journalist, plus a commission to write a longer feature for Sight & Sound's website. Two runners up will win an annual subscription to Sight & Sound.

Entries should be emailed to womenonfilm@bfi.org.uk by 10am, 3 May.  Yes, that's not long; so get to it!

Yippee Ki-Yay Moviegoer, by Vern

This is Vern's second book on movies, following the astonishing Seagalogy: A Study of the Ass-Kicking Films of Steven Seagal.  This time out he's compiled a selection of badass cinema reviews from his website, together with some fresh insights, footnotes, badass all time top one hundred lists and suchlike.   And it rocks.  Well, more accurately it wobbles.  In exactly the same way that Jesse Ventura's muscles wobble when he's firing Ol' Painless in Predator.  This is a good thing.


The reviews are funny and wise throughout: Vern's a guy who likes his action and he likes his movies to be good.  Too much action product out there is formulaic, by-the-numbers, PG-13 wimpy nonsense that's been assembled  by CG specialists in post-production.  Too much is directed by people with surnames like Wiseman, Bay or Scott.   These films and others, come under the corrective scrutiny of Vern as he strives through the book for excellence in action moviemaking from The Virgin Spring through to Garfield via Rolling Thunder.    


Some will have come to Vern through either his own site or through the reviews he used to contribute to Ain't It Cool News (and there's plenty of references to his AICN days here); others will come to him through the sheer oddness of Project Seagal.  But this new compendium shows that Vern's one of the most idiosyncratic voices on film out there, with a noble and cohesive worldview, plus a sense that films could be, you know, better.  The book's also surprisingly sensitive and understanding of machismo and its discontents.  And it's as funny as hell.  Read this book in a public place so that people can edge away from you when you start giggling to yourself and shaking your head.  And when you've finished it, please pick up on one of Vern's points from his beloved first Die Hard film, and don't be Ellis.

Sacred Treason, by James Forrester

I was really looking forwards to reading this: Forrester is the pen name of “free historian” Ian Mortimer, author of several bestselling pop-history books (including “The Time Traveller’s Guide to The Fourteenth Century”) as well as being an active academic.  Mortimer/Forrester is interested in what he terms “free history”, an experiential, loose approach to the historical where non-specialists, re-enactors, populists, fiction authors are encouraged to participate in the ongoing project of the understanding of the past, particularly where and when these disciplines complement the study of documents, archaeology and suchlike.  That’s a necessary simplification, but Mortimer opens up a critical space for novelists, though up until this point he’s dome that from the perspective of a historian.  “Sacred Treason” is his first novel. 

Though a medievalist by specialism, the novel’s set in the reign of Elizabeth I.  Hawley, a herald, is approached by a loose acquaintance to hide a manuscript which, though detailing Hawley’s life for the past few years, is purported to hold the key to a secret that threatens two queens; a secret that’s guarded by a cabal styling themselves after Arthurian knights of the round table.  Reluctantly Hawley agrees, not expecting that crown intelligencer Francis Walsingham knows of the manuscript’s existence and believes it to be key to understanding and foiling a plot with the intent of removing Elizabeth from the throne.

Superficially at least “Sacred Treason” is similar to several other books published in the past year or so, particularly Rory Clements’ “Martyr” and even more so Phil Rickman’s “The Bones of Avalon” in terms of setting, protagonist and removal of Elizabeth/conspiracy underpinned by aspect of English mythology themes.  That makes the book perhaps less effective than it might otherwise have been, but it still delivers on the level of commercial thriller.   Forrester’s prose is functional rather than spectacular and the final revelation of the book’s secret is perhaps a bit of a let down (as so often, it’s not the manuscript itself that’s the key, and somewhat too much turns on a remembered mistranslation of a Latin passage that we’ve just got to take the protagonist’s word for).   These aside, there’s plenty for the genre aficionado to enjoy, and Walsingham is a memorable antagonist.

What’s of particular interest to me over and above the novel itself is the lengthy afterword which shows clearly how and why Mortimer/Forrester makes the choices he does in taking a genuine mysterious document and making it central to his story and in the aspects which are based on recorded history and the elements that are fictions.  The afterword’s something that I’ll need to come back to later for further reflection: these (a genre requirement for historical fiction nowadays) are becoming more important to me the further I get into my own work (and the further I get into working out just what that really is). 

Scre4m (2011, directed by Wes Craven)

A decade and a half ago the first Scream was a bit like a splash of fresh blood, both invigorating the commercial horror genre and, in a rather more audience-friendly manner than director Wes Craven's previous movie New Nightmare, having some fun deconstructing it.  Naturally a couple of sequels followed as well as copycats (the Urban Legends / I Know What You Dids etc) the hangers-on (everything from the Final Destination movies to Soul Survivor) and the inevitable, though redundant spoofs (Scary Movie, which led itself to the hideousness of Epic Movie, Superhero Movie and the other still-glistening new-laid spoor from writer-directors Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer).

As cycles do, the first Scream one faded out, being replaced by a wave of straight reprises of horror movies from the 70s and 80s; everything from I Spit On Your Grave to Piranha has been remade; and now director Craven and writer Kevin Williamson are back.  But have they got anything to say?  Well yes.  And no.

It's ten years since the Woodsboro killings that formed the basis of the first movie (itself saddled with an awkward back story involving heroine Sydney Prescott's mother being killed a year earlier) and Sydney (Neve Campbell) is back in town, pushed along by her publicist to market new new book, a misery-lit triumph-over-adversity biography in which she seeks, for once and for all, to put the slayings behind her.  And we almost get some interesting commentary here on this literary sub-genre.  Except, wouldn't you know it, someone's donned the Father Death/Ghostface costume once more and is hacking up more teens, and subtext goes out the window.

We start with a couple of fake opens that turn out to be scenes from Stab 6 and 7, the last two fictional retellings based on Sydney's experiences.  Then the proper killing begins.  And in a surprisingly gory fashion too; there's no 12A/PG-13 stinting on blood and guts here.  Sydney teams up with Dewey (David Arquette) who's now sheriff and his wife Gail (Courtney Cox, though she looks like she's channelling Demi Moore throughout) who wants to restart the journalistic career that's faded without any murders to write about.

There's a cast of teens to get sliced and diced; rather too many of them.  Part is the dulling effect of the fake opening sequences, part is the interchangeable set of youths that get offed; you're guaranteed a killing every ten minutes or so until it's time for the final showdown.  A few characters are set up as red herrings and there's one neat bit of casting that has the same effect.  The villain/s has/have a plausible enough reason to be doing what's being done (that should make the sentence almost unreadable but also spoiler-proof), but by the time you find out what's going on, you'll be hard pressed to care.

Craven and Williamson throw a few satiric elements in as well as some shouts to favourite movies (ranging from the comparative subtlety of calling a character "Marnie" to the laziness of just showing a couple of minutes of "Shaun Of The Dead"; this being doubly counter-productive as the scene shown is scarier, gorier and funnier than anything in Craven's movie).   The humour falls flat throughout and the jump-scares don't really work.   There's just one black character, a deputy cop played by Anthony Anderson; otherwise this is white middle-class America getting carved up.  That might itself be intended as satiric.  It might not.

Too much feels like an old man's last gasp; some references to this newfangled interweb thing the kids are all going on about and a few movie posters does not contemporary relevance make, no matter how many young TV stars fill out the cast list.  Maybe this will make some money and allow Craven to get back to making scary movies with a point like he used to.  Maybe this will make some money and in two years' time 5cream will be upon us.  Part 4 isn't a bad film; I got more out of it than I was expecting, but it's not a good film either, and Wes used to make them: Last House On The Left, The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare On Elm Street, New Nightmare, The People Under The Stairs, The Serpent And The Rainbow.  Even Red Eye worked as a thrill-ride.  Yes, he's made his share of stinkers (Vampire in Brooklyn, Deadly Friend, Cursed).  This isn't as bad as any of those, but it won't give you nightmares either.

Source Code (2011, directed by Duncan Jones)

So Jake Gyllenhall's on the morning commute and he's dozed off, waking up with a start and not knowing who he is.  The cute woman he's not plucked up the courage to ask out to buy a coffee yet (Michelle Monaghan) expects him to be a mild-mannered teacher-type.  Except Jake thinks he's a US military helicopter pilot.  Cue eight minutes of confusion and odd little details (spilled drinks, a dropped wallet) and then boom - the train they're on blows up.

And then Jake wakes up again.  Except this time he's in a metal pod remotely connected to the lab of military boffin Vera Farmiga and grouchy genius Jeffrey Wright.  A wisp of exposition and Jake's kicked back to the train, this time with mission details: find the bomb, the bomber and thereby thwart a bigger catastrophe.  Except Jake's got a time window of just eight minutes; an eight minutes he'll relive over and over until either a) he completes the mission or b) it's too late and the bigger bomb goes off.

So it's Groundhog Day meets Deja Vu, kinda.  And as in both of those films, there's far less attention paid to the mechanics of the time travel/time loop/whatever it is than to the human dramas that start unfolding, especially the burgeoning romance between Gyllenhall and Monaghan (at least from his side - he remembers the previous visits, she doesn't).  And it's pretty good.  We're suckered along with the terrorist conspiracy/science fiction window-dressing (which all gets sorted out efficiently enough) to not notice that we're in a pretty affecting love story; and like at the end of The Princess Bride, it's OK to see the kissing part at the end.

Some of it doesn't work; the lack of a cohesive explanation as to the how of the source code of the title will irk some, some of the effects aren't very convincing (though there is an in-plot cover for that if you buy the premise) and the ending is a little too pat and doesn't make any real sense (it seemed on a single viewing to mess with the timeline set up throughout the film as well as leave a window for Source Code 2: Sourcier).  Oh, and the product placement for Dunkin Donuts is annoying in the extreme.

On the upside, if you go with it, the story works as a love story, there are a few neat points made along the way, the support playing from Farmiga and Wright is spot-on and director Jones shoots Chicago like it's a shiny new near-future city rather than the grimy hellhole it's so often portrayed as.  It's nowhere near as good as his first movie, Moon, but then again, what is?        

20 best pieces of advice from the London Comedy Writers' Festival

Lots of good stuff over at Rosie Claverton's writing blog, not least a list of the toppermost tips she picked up from the recent LCWF: http://rosieclaverton.wordpress.com/2011/04/11/20-things-from-lcwf/ 


If I was going to add one to the list (not that I'm in any way qualified to do so, but as this is the internet, I don't see why that should hold me back) it would be: "Don't be afraid to be bleak".  Now this might just be me, but the best sitcom material is the stuff which has got a hint of darkness and desperation to it.


Obvious examples: Hancock, Steptoe and Son, One Foot In The Grave, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Dad's Army.


Very nearly there: Porridge, Father Ted, Rising Damp (ITV's only good sitcom ever).


Of the current crop: The IT Crowd, Ideal, bits of Peep Show (I'm not a fan, but I get the idea).


If I were to chuck in a second, it would be to physically constrict the lead characters as much as possible: isolate them, pin them down, lock them in tight spots and let the conflict build.  How many sitcoms make a virtue of this, from the basement offices in The IT Crowd to the flat in 15 Storeys High?    

New Stephen King short story

This month's The Atlantic features a fascinating interview with Stephen King and a new short story.  Both of them are well worth checking out.  The interview's particularly good!   

Fresh batch of creative writing opportunities and competitions

Meridian Writing Summer Short Story Competition

Deadline: 30/06/2011 - UK
Meridian Writing have launched their summer short story writing competition which is accepting submissions from 1st April - 30th June.

http://www.meridian-writing.co.uk/

 Word Gumbo Submissions

Deadline: 30/04/2011 - UK
Word Gumbo is the bi-monthly e-zine from the newly formed Gumbo Press. The first issue will be out at the end of May 2011 and submissions are sought on the theme of 'Beginnings'.

http://gumbopress.blogspot.com/

Poetry24 Submissions

Deadline: 30/06/2011 - International
Poetry24 is a blog for news-related poetry. Do you have something to say about current events in the world? Can you say it evocatively, with passion, rage, compassion and/or humour?

http://poetry-24.blogspot.com/p/submission-guidelines.html?spref=bl

Chaotic Combinations

Deadline: 01/05/2011 - North West England
Organised Chaos are looking for enthusiastic writers & actors who are willing to be challenged by collaborating, preparing a five minute monologue for them to perform in front of a judging audience.

http://www.panda-arts.org.uk/opportunities/creative-opportunities/chaotic-combinations--call-for-writers--actors/

WACtheatre Playwriting Competition 2011

Deadline: 30/06/2011 - Scotland
The WACtheatre playwriting competition this year is part of WACtheatre’s contribution to the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival. Following the success of Burning Rings of Fire and No Phones on Planet Pluto, we are looking for full length plays on the subject of mental health, or inspired by the Festival themes for this year: memory and dreams.

http://www.wactheatre.co.uk/home.htm

WACtheatre Monologue Submissions

Deadline: 30/06/2011 - Scotland
WACtheatre want 10 new five-minute monologues about what it means to live with, or be affected by mental illness - from whatever point of view you like.

http://www.wactheatre.co.uk/home.htm

Cwrtnewydd Scribblers' Short Story Competition

Deadline: 30/06/2011 - UK
Entries are invited to our Summer Sun, Summer Fun short story competition for a story of up to 1,500 words.

http://www.literaturewales.org/lit-comps/i/138716/

Cinnamon Press Writing Awards 2011

Deadline: 30/06/2011 - UK
Cinnamon Press competitions offer writers in different genres excellent publication opportunities. We run each of the competitions twice a year.

http://www.cinnamonpress.com/competitions/

Prolitzer Prize

Deadline: 01/10/2011 - UK
Prole are launching their Prolitzer Prize. A prose competition where we are looking for writing that exemplifies the editorial ambition of Prole: to make writing accessible to all while not sacrificing quality - writing that engages, entertains and challenges.

http://www.nawe.co.uk/DB/jobs-and-opportunities/prolitzer-prize.html

Tenby Arts Festival Writing Competition

Deadline: 15/07/2011 - International
This creative writing competition – open to anyone living anywhere - was launched very successfully last year. The 2011 competition is now open.

http://www.tenbyartsfest.co.uk/

King’s Cross Award for New Writing 2011

Deadline: 01/09/2011 - UK
The Courtyard Theatre is pleased to announce details of the King’s Cross Award for New Writing 2011. We seek imaginative, original work that explores the unique possibilities of writing for the stage.

http://www.thecourtyard.org.uk/content/25/writers-group

2011 Unbound Press Short Fiction Award

Deadline: 01/05/2011 - UK
3000 words max - no minimum. No theme.
http://unboundpress.com/competitions/2011-unbound-press-competitions/2011-unbound-press-short-fiction-award/


Film London: Microwave
Deadline: 03 May 2011
Micro-budget feature film-making scheme aimed at the next generation of film-making talent.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunity/film_london_microwave_2011.shtml


BBC Drama Writers Academy 2011
Deadline: 05 May 2011
Apply now for the 2011 BBC Drama Writers Academy scheme.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunity/writers_academy_2011.shtml


The Royal Court Young Writers Festival 2012
Deadline: 31 May 2011
Opportunity for playwrights under 26 to have their plays produced by the Royal Court Theatre.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunity/royal_court_2012.shtml


Writers Avenue
Deadline: 01 June 2011
Platform for playwrights to develop their skills through new writing events.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunity/writers_avenue_2011.shtml


Off Cut Festival
Deadline: 01 June 2011
Submit a short play for performance at the Off Cut festival in autumn.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunity/off_cut_2011.shtml


Sheffield Theatres: New Writing Event
Deadline: 03 June 2011
Sheffield Theatres are looking for submissions of original new plays.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunity/sheffield_theatres_2011.shtml


The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting 2011
Deadline: 06 June 2011
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunity/bruntwood_prize_2011.shtml

Lincoln Book Festival 11th - 15th May 2011

The upcoming Lincoln Book Festival's got plenty for wannabe/emerging writers this year.  Here's my personal highlights from the events listings:

Wednesday 11 May 2011

New Writers’ Night – Six talks from six new writers

6.30 pm, Lincoln Drill Hall

Tickets: £

Alt.Fiction presents The World of Comics

7.00 pm, The Library, University of Lincoln

Tickets: £4

Thursday 12 May 2011

Crime Day – How to Get Published and Authors Stephen Booth and Sophie Hannah

10.30 am, University of Lincoln

Tickets: £6 am session or pm session/ £10 all day

Val McDermid

6.30 pm, EMMTEC University of Lincoln

Tickets: £10

Trudi Canavan

7.00 pm, Courtroom, Lincoln College

Tickets: £7/£5

Friday 13 May 

A day of history themed events: 

Book for all History Day events for £20/£10 for a combined History Day ticket

Saturday 14 May 2011

John Jarrold – Writers’ Workshop

9.00 am, Lincoln Drill Hall (Green Room)

Tickets: £3

Full details are here: http://lincolnbookfestival.org/lincolnbookfestival.html and there's a downloadable version of the full brochure here: http://lincolnbookfestival.org/Lincoln%20Book%20Festival%202011.pdf

A couple more writing opportunities

The Guardian/Wellcome Trust Science Writing Competition:  800 words of science writing wanted! http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2011/apr/07/wellcome-trust-science-writing-prize


Aesthetica Magazine Creative Works Competition: up to 2 short stories each no more than 2000 words http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/submission_guide.htm