Fresh Blood On The Indie Circuit: Diablo Cody

Title: Diablo Cody

Stats: Born June 14th 1978. Graduated from the University of Iowa.

Why NYIndieSeen cares: Cuz she's a former stripper turned screenwriter!

With absolutely no other screenwriting credits prior to birthing the Golden Globe nominated film Juno, Diablo Cody born as Brook Busey-Hunt, worked formerly as a stripper in Minneapolis. She wrote a day to day account of her life of her experiences in the seedy world of exotic dancing in the 2006 memoir, Candy Girl: A Year in The Life of an Unlikely Stripper.

While still stripping, Cody began writing for City Pages, an alternative Twin Cities weekly newspaper. Cody drew literary fans and received accolades for puff-free accounts and columns, with special emphasis on critiques of society and popular culture. In one instance, she humorously referred to her time at the Village Voice-owned newspaper as "yellow journalism". She left City Pages just before it changed editorial hands. Cody has since written for the now-defunct Jane magazine.

After completion of the book, Cody was encouraged by Mason Novick, the manager who helped her secure a publisher for the book, to write a screenplay. Within months she wrote Juno, a surprisingly tender coming-of-age story about a Minnesota teenager's unplanned pregnancy. The Jason Reitman-directed comedy stars Ellen Page and Michael Cera.

Check her out here on a David Letterman interview....funny gal

Fresh Blood In Hollywood: Zach Helm

So I found myself renting Stranger Than Fiction at Blockbuster Video this weekend, and was quite impressed with the film. However, what impressed me most was the writing. The way the story unfolds and how it all ties together in the end was ingenious writing. So now I’m fascinated with his guy Zach Helm who wrote the screenplay to Stranger Than Fiction. Although the film is not indie, its being archived under New To The IndieSeen because this guy really is fresh blood right now in Hollywood.

However, what I find even MORE fascinating is the fact that this creed that Helm lives by which is his “Manifesto” I surfed onto this blog.

And noticed an incomplete list of “Zach Helm’s Manifesto”. This was quoted by him from Vanity Fair Magazine back in February of 2006. Unfortunately, the link to his article is outdated and no longer exists. So if you know someone who is subscriber for Vanity Fair, or you’re able to pick up a bootleg copy from the $1 magazine guy at your nearby Subway station, then you should definitely look for Helm’s article.

Here is an incomplete list of his writing creed of life:

Rule No. 1, Section One: "I will no longer allow financial need or career ambition to determine the direction of my work. I will not put myself in any position in which my work is owed to another party."

No. 2: "I won't take re-write jobs, I won't script-doctor. There's a lot of money to be had, lots of money for spending two weeks of work on a script, but I can't do it. I have a slight ethical …It would be very hypocritical of me to try to reserve all this creative power and try to hold on to my scripts as much as I can and then go take some first-time writer's script and bang it up."




No. 3: "I will not sell my work simply to the highest bidder, but instead to those parties that I feel will best represent and develop my work."


No. 5: "Any deal struck in regards to my work will forgo any immediate financial gain if it may mean the surrender of creative control or participation in the work's development."


No. 6: "I will not write for writing's sake. I will write only when inspired to write"

Well maybe it’s something worth looking into…I mean the guy after all got an NBR Award for Best Screenplay for Stranger Than Fiction. Oh yea, and he used to date Lucy Liu. That's cool too.

Fresh Blood On The Indie Circuit: Julia Loktev

Title: Julia Loktev

Stats: Born in 1969, St. Petersburg, Russia. Attended NYU and did her thesis on Moment Of Impact. Works and currently lives in New York City. Currently nominated for an Indpendent Spirit Award for Best First Feature.

“The subway, a public space with no specific place. Buried beneath the urban grid, the subway is neither here nor there. It is the city in motion, the city becoming, the city on the run -- a constantly shifting no man's land, in a perpetual state of carrying the periphery towards the center and the center out towards the periphery. For 15-30 minutes at a time, passengers of completely different races, cultural backgrounds, economic classes and sexual orientations stand and sit next to each other, physically touching people they will never meet. In the city, public space becomes a transition rather than a destination. You don't go to a public space, you go through a public space..."

An excerpt from the mind of Julia Loktev, as well as the minds of all New Yorkers about the subway experience. Lotkev directed, written and produced Day Night Day Night. The film is nominated for Best First Feature from this rookie filmmaker and is the talk of everyone in the NY indie film community.

The film is about a 19 year old girl who prepares to become a suicide bomber in Times Square. She speaks with no accent, so that it is impossible to mark her ethnic background. It is never understood why she chooses to become a suicide bomber, she has already made before the story begins. It is not understood who she represents or what God she believes in. The film is inspired in part by a story in a Russian newspaper and playing off a history of Joan of Arc films.

Lotkev's film won at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and in 1998 she directed a documentary called Moment Of Impact that gave her the Directing Award at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. Moment of Impact was documentary dealing with Lotkev's own family tragedy resulting in a car accident on April Fool's Day.

Fresh Blood On The Indie Circuit: Jeffrey Blitz

Title: Jeffrey Blitz

Stats: Won the Directing Award: Dramatic for Rocket Science at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. Graduated from USC. Maxed out 15 credit cards to make his first documentary.

There is not much information out there about this guy, which makes him someone to look out for. In 1999 he followed a group of eight teens on their quest to win the regional spelling bee and prepare themselves for the national contest in Washington D.C. Even though he maxed out 15 credit cards to make the film, it was bittersweet because the documentary was nominated for an Oscar in 2003 and won several awards at countless film festivals.

Blitz made a comeback again with his film Rocket Science. He wrote and directed the film. It's about a boy with a stuttering problem and finds himself falling in love with the star of the debate team. He becomes a part of her world of ultra competitive high-school debating with its players, politics, and own set of rules.

Blitz has also directed an episode of the hit TV show The Office.

Fresh Blood On The Indie Circuit: Ryan Fleck

Title: Ryan Fleck

Stats: Attended NYU. Also attended Columbia Film School. Best Director Nominee for Half Nelson.

Listed in Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces of Indie Film Ryan Fleck has had quite a successful, yet underrated career as a filmmaker. He's one of those guys that has been all around the festival circuit, but you really didn't know who was until now. That is because his film Half Nelson has an Academy Award nomination thanks to the film's star Ryan Gosling with his ground-breaking perfromance.

Ryan Fleck wrote along with his girlfriend, Anna Boden the screenplay to Half Nelson. The film is about a drug addicted teacher in Brooklyn who teaches inner city pre-teens. Although he manages to keep his addiction concealed in the classroom, one day a student catches him getting high after school. From this unexpected turn of events, the teacher and student begin an unanticipated friendship.

Half Nelson was selected for Sundance's 2004 Writer's Lab. The script is based on a short film he directed called Gowanus, Brooklyn. About an African-American girl who falls for her White teacher who is also addicted to drugs. The film Gowanus, took home the Grand Jury Prize for short filmmaking at Sundance in 2004.

Fresh Blood On The Indie Circuit: Michael Arndt

Title: Michael Arndt

Stats: Wrote the Screenplay Little Miss Sunshine. Nominated for an Academy Award. Lives in New York City.

Like every struggling writer out there Micheal Arndt was doing all he can to create the best script out there. He had no agent to guide him nor did he have any Hollywood connections to give him a helping hand. Instead, he decided to take a year off to write the script of a lifetime. Low and behold, it became the script of his career. He got his agent and a deal 14 months later. In 2006 Little Miss Sunshine was one of the most successful independent films of that year. It also was the only film that truly resonated with audiences. So much so, that the film is now a Best Picture Nominee for an Academy Award.

Little Miss Sunshine is the story of Olive, a little girl who wants to win the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant. Her highly dysfunctional, yet loveable family support her and all decide to drive to California to pursue her dream. Throughout the ride, they run into several obstacles and adventures that takes you on a journey that you truly do not want to end. It's one of the funniest, original, and thought-provoking comedies of the year and merits amazing performances by each ensemble cast member.

This is Micheal Arndt's first screenplay. We look forward to SEEIN more of his work on the big screen. He's certainly someone to look out for!