I had to wait a while to post my first update of 2012 because so many things have been simmering but not announceable. At least one project has gone public: This summer, I will be teaching an online screenwriting course on lynda.com! For those who don't know, lynda.com is a popular website that offers thousands of high-end training videos. Usually they teach stuff like Photoshop, After Effects and so on, but now they're adding more "soft skills" courses like this one. As far as I know, I'll be the first online screenwriting teacher in the world. It took a few months to plan for this (including a screen test shot last December, as seen in the graphic above) to work out, but we finally signed the contract and I am busy writing this extensive - and, I think, enjoyable - course, which we will hopefully be taping in May. I will tell you when it's online. Screenplay structure has long been a passion of mine, and I love telling people what to do, so this is the perfect project for me to get involved in. I'm really excited.
After 2012 got off to a very busy start, with a large writing project for the home release of a major Hollywood picture, over the next two months I hope to split my time writing my course and finally editing my new short film A Trophy, which I can barely even call "new" anymore since it's been so long since I shot it. But it's slowly moving forward, and once I gain some momentum on it, post production should go smoothly. As for that cool interactive children's book that I was hoping to oversee... well, never say never, but I think it's dead in the water. One of those situations where the producer just couldn't land the financing. Something I've been experiencing since 1997.