Starring, Texas!

Becoming a filmmaker for Amazon isn't as easy as it first seems; read that fineprint

Amazon Studios is taking a new approach to movie making.
The producer of Bottle Rocket is one of the judges.

Amazon.com wants to make movies. Maybe even your movie. The giant online retailer of everything from books to electronics to groceries has launched a filmmaking machine called Amazon Studios and they’re looking for the next blockbuster.

Could it come from Texas talent? There’s certainly plenty here.

Screenwriters and filmmakers worldwide can submit their work through Amazon Studios’ website and compete for a chance to “make money, get discovered and get their movie made.” A total of $2.7 million in awards will be divvied up over the first year.

There’s more.

Amazon Studios has a “first-look deal” with Warner Bros. Pictures, which will consider Amazon’s top award winners for major motion pictures. Should Warner Bros. pass on a project (maybe they’ve already got three rescued-Chilean-coal-miner films in development) all is not lost. Amazon is free to shop the project to other Hollywood studios.

Here’s where it gets interesting.

Unlike other film and script competitions, Amazon Studios is using “crowd sourcing” to develop their projects. In fact, they define their company as a “crowd-sourced motion picture development service.”

A screenwriter myself, I know this is part of the process with all scripts that are bought or optioned (notes come from suits at every level, even the bottom) — but not in a public forum like Amazon’s.

If you’re a reader of comments posted on articles and blogs, then you know there are some real wackos out there. Some of them will be reviewing and commenting on the projects. Anyone who embarks on this adventure might need a thick skin.

That said, this is a fresh take on creating movies, using a collaborative, brainstorming, team approach — an exercise that could be a lot of fun and definitely a learning experience.

It’s also likely to get very popular, very fast. Only four days into the launch, there were 796 projects posted.

The script awards competition goes like this: First, a screenwriter submits a script. They may also pitch their idea in a short video to get people pumped about reviewing it. Then the rest of the world can download it, make comments and suggestions, or rewrite it entirely.

The original writer can take the suggestions, or not, and submit rewrites, or not. Amazon believes this unique process “gives artists and film fans around the world the chance to create and evaluate potential movies.”

Filmmakers, on the other hand, submit a full length “test movie” — a video that gets the story across and engages the audience. No matter how “primitive” the test movie is (it’s an appetizer after all, to whet the appetite of judges for the whole enchilada) Amazon still expects good actors, good sound and good music to help it sell.

Test movies, Amazon believes, will be a means to introduce the public to the earliest, formative stages of the movie development process. It’s intended to guide a film’s development with their feedback and assess its potential. There are five test movie samples provided to help filmmakers get started.

Winning scripts and films will be chosen based on commercial viability (will they set the box office on fire?). They will be judged by a panel of industry people, including Jack Epps Jr., producer of such films as Top Gun and Dick Tracy; Mark Gill, former head of Miramax; Mike Werb, screenwriter of The Mask and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider; and Michael Taylor, producer of Bottle Rocket (shot in Texas and co-written by Houstonians Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson) and The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper.

This explanation of Amazon Studios’ process is oversimplified, but after reading their 20-page Development Agreement (a binding contract) and also the six-page Account Agreement (another binding contract) plus six pages of General Contest Rules and finally nine pages of Frequently Asked Questions hopefully you, dear reader, now know whether or not to proceed.

If this new style competition is your cup of tea, then grab one (or a stiff drink) and settle in for a few hours of serious reading. There are a whole lot of rules and legal stuff to consider before you get to be a movie mogul.

unspecified

Movie Review

Reminders of Him taps into grief, grace, and the power of moving on

Photo by Michelle Faye / Universal Pictures

Maika Monroe and Tyriq Withers in Reminders of HIm.

Texas author Colleen Hoover has gone from being a popular writer to a full-on celebrity in the 2020s. The new film Reminders of Him marks the third adaptation of her books in just 19 months (a fourth, Verity, is scheduled for release in October 2026). All of her books that have been adapted so far — most notably It Ends With Us — are female-led stories that feature elements of romance and trauma, catnip for studios looking to appeal to the underserved demographic of women.

Leading the way in this film is Kenna Rowan (Maika Monroe), who returns to her hometown of Laramie, Wyoming after spending years in prison for killing her boyfriend, Scotty (Rudy Pankow), in a car accident. That relationship resulted in a daughter, Diem (Zoe Kosovic), whom Kenna gave birth to while imprisoned and is now being raised by her grandparents, Patrick (Bradley Whitford) and Grace (Lauren Graham).

Yearning to be a part of Diem’s life, Kenna tries to reconnect with Patrick and Grace, only to be rebuffed by Scotty’s best friend, Ledger (Tyriq Withers), a former NFL player who now owns a local bar. In running interference, Ledger starts to become closer to Kenna, discovering that her tragic mistake shouldn’t be the only thing that defines her.

Directed by Vanessa Caswill and written by Lauren Levine, the film features mostly surface level examinations of its themes and average performances, yet it winds up being effective thanks to a willingness not to rush through its storytelling beats. The filmmakers take the slow and steady approach toward the coupling of Kenna and Ledger, setting up their bond through a series of heart-to-heart conversations that makes any romance feel earned.

The majority of the focus is on Kenna reclaiming her place in the world, and on Ledger coming to terms with the fact that the person who killed his best friend is not inherently a bad person. The film definitely could have gone deeper in its explorations of grief and anger, but the sheer amount of time it takes in addressing the characters’ doubts and fears turns out to be sufficient for a film that’s not aiming to be considered a dramatic masterpiece.

It also helps that Caswill and Levine do a solid job of establishing the variety of characters that inhabit the film. Kenna and Ledger don’t always feel like fully-formed people, but they become so through their interactions with each other and the other townspeople. Lady Diana (Monika Myers), a girl with Down syndrome who lives in Kenna’s apartment complex, and Roman (Nicholas Duvernay), Ledger’s co-worker at his bar, help to broaden the appeal of the two leads.

Monroe has, to this point, been best known for starring roles in horror films like It Follows and Longlegs. While she does somewhat well in this role, her delivery is often more flat than you’d expect for a character going through what she does. Withers thankfully doesn’t remind viewers of his recent bomb Him, demonstrating a crossover appeal that should serve him well in the future. Whitford and Graham don’t get to do much, but their combined experience gives their roles exactly what is needed.

It may sound like damning with faint praise, but Reminders of Him is a competently made film that knows how to serve its core audience without insulting anyone who may not automatically be all-in for such a story. The filmmakers don’t try to force any of the key moments down the audience’s throat, and that stands out in a genre that’s not always known for its subtlety.

---

Reminders of Him opens in theaters on March 13.

movies film