Press Clippings

From VARIETY: 10 Screenwriters to Watch

There's nothing conventional about Helen Crawley, the Brit scribe whose debut screenplay "Hearts and Minds" was snapped up late last year by IEG for Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way shingle.

She divides her time between jetting to Hollywood for meetings and farming rare-breed pigs in Norfolk, a rural county in eastern England, where she lives with her girlfriend and their new baby.

Almost completely unknown within Brit film circles, Crawley pursues her writing career exclusively in the U.S., where she's establishing herself as a scribe of complex, character-driven stories with an epic geopolitical bent.

If that makes her sound like a female version of Stephen Gaghan, that might not be a coincidence. He was one of her mentors at the Chesterfield Writer's Film Project, based at Paramount, which awarded her a stipend to pen two scripts after she won the graduate screenwriting prize from NYU in 2001.

Although she worked as a script editor at the BBC in London during the late '90s, she only turned her hand to writing when her partner was transferred to New York and Crawley signed up for NYU's dramatic writing program.

That led to a writing fellowship at Gotham's Ensemble Studio Theater, and then the Chesterfield selection.

She says she can't imagine being a screenwriter in Blighty. "I feel more at home in that American sensibility, that bigger-scale, epic approach. The Americans have a completely different approach to writing. It's a very stimulating world, and I had access to amazing teachers. Gaghan in two sentences could talk about writing in a way I had never experienced," she enthuses.

Her second Chesterfield script was "Hearts and Minds," a contempo drama about an embedded war photographer who has to abandon journalistic neutrality to lead a platoon of young soldiers to safety after their helicopter crashes in Afghanistan.

From VARIETY:

The Chesterfield Writers' Film Project, sponsored by Paramount Pictures, has announced a June 21 submission deadline for the yearlong fellowship program. The WFP, which originated at Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment to create a bridge between the industry screenwriters, selects up to five writers to receive a $20,000 stipend to cover living expenses during the program. Paramount Motion Picture Group vice chairman John Goldwyn and senior VP Dede Gardner oversee the program.

The scribes will meet with Par execs, film professionals, screenwriting mentors and guest speakers, including Stephen Gaghan, Daniel Pyne, Scott Alexander and Larry Karazewski, Bruce Joel Rubin, David Arata and Robin Swicord. WFP alums include David Auburn ("Proof"), Karen Janszen ("A Walk to Remember") and Matthew Carnahan ("Fastlane").

WFP's Industry Board includes writers Robin Green, Mitchell Burgess and Ed Solomon; producers Donald DeLine and Gary Lucchesi; and directors Michael Lehmann and Jerry Zucker. Program is run by writer-producer Ed Rugoff.

From scr(i)pt magazine:

A handful of competitions are influential enough to have a significant impact on an aspiring screenwriter’s career...they are powerhouses, known widely by their one-word nicknames, and attracting thousands of entries.
...Many [Chesterfield] WFP alumni have proceeded from the program directly into the industry and have penned or rewritten a combined total of 15 produced films in the past decade.

From VARIETY:

The Chesterfield Writer’s Film Project, the screenwriting fellowship program sponsored by Paramount Pictures and overseen at the studio by Par Motion Picture Group vice chairman John Goldwyn and senior VP Dede Gardner, has announced a May 15 submissions deadline for this year’s event.
...Chosen writers will met with Paramount execs and industry professionals to help them develop two feature-length screenplays. Writers also

From MovieMaker magazine:

One way new screen scribes are getting their feet in Hollywood’s doorjamb is by submitting their work to any of the prodigous number of screenplay competitions now thriving all over the U.S.
...You don’t necessarily have to win a contest to advance your career. In many cases, those who finish as finalists or even in the top 25 percent in a major scriptwriting competition generate further interest in their work.

From The New York Times:

...(former Chesterfield Fellow) David Auburn, a Brooklynite who, at 31, has only one other produced play to his credit, edged out two more experienced writers — Kenneth Lonergan and Edward Albee — (to win the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Drama) with a deftly constructed drama that began at an Off Broadway nonprofit theater and became a surprise Broadway hit.

From VARIETY:

“Paramount Signs on to Help New Writers” - Paramount Pictures has signed a multi-year agreement to sponsor the Chesterfield Film Co.'s Writer's Film Project (WFP), a fellowship program that encourages new screenwriters... Chosen writers will meet with Paramount execs and industry professionals who will help them to develop two feature-length screenplays each...[T]he WFP is supported by an industry board that includes Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess (exec producers of HBO's "The Sopranos"), producer Steve Starkey ("Cast Away") and Michelle Satter (director of the Sundance Film Labs). Paramount Pictures Motion Picture Group president John Goldwyn was responsible for bringing the Chesterfield Fellowship to the studio.

From VARIETY:

           “10 Scribes To Watch” - Karen Janszen has loved writing since childhood. After studying anthropology through graduate school at Harvard, she worked as a science journalist, helping develop television shows for Boston pubcaster WGBH.
          Eventually, though, Janszen decided she wanted to write fiction - specifically screenplays. She attended the American Film Institute, then won the Chesterfield fellowship, a prestigious screenwriting award.
          Janszen is working with producer Denise di Novi on an adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel “A Walk to Remember.”

From the “Women In Film” Website:

          “The Screenwriting Competitions of Summer"- There are many screenwriting competitions but it's the Grand Slam trio that writers drool over: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences' Nicholl Fellowship, The Chesterfield Film Writers Project and The Walt Disney Studios' Fellowship. Although submission requirements differ a bit for each, they all run neck and neck when it comes to stature - and deadlines.
          All struggling screenwriters who have dipped their toes in the shark-infested submission waters will tell you how hard it is to get past the "gatekeepers." This includes filmmakers in bunkers as well as snarling agents and overworked assistants. As a result, many fatigued writers mail their scripts to competitions with a prayer that they be awarded a golden key. And the Grand Slammers hold an impressive key ring.
          The Chesterfield Writer´s Film Project... Originally started through a joint effort by Stephen Speilberg's Amblin and Universal Studios, it is now sponsored by the Kennedy Marshall Company (The Sixth Sense). They receive about 3,000 entries yearly, award up to five fellowships of $20,000 and require two screenplays. In the last several years over a dozen fellowship winners have seen their work on the screen in films such as The Matchmaker (with Janeane Garofalo), Hope (Goldie Hawn's directorial debut), Breakdown (with Kurt Russell) and Digging To China (with Kevin Bacon).

From the “TNT Rough Cut” website:

“Filmaking 101: What To Do With a Finished Script” -You've finished your screenplay, registered it with the Writer's Guild, had it copyrighted, and all your friends say it's blockbuster material. But you live in DeMoines and Spielberg isn't exactly knocking on your door. What can you do? Well, you've got several options.
Contests-For those of you outside of Los Angeles, this is a great way to get exposure without having to leave the comfort of your own home...The top three contests in terms of prize money and exposure are The Chesterfield Film Company Writer's Film Project, The Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, and The Disney Screenwriting Fellowship. Each of these offers a year long stipend and, perhaps more importantly, provides you with access to producers and executives.

From scr(i)pt magazine:

Dreamworks has purchased Carrier, a pitch by (Chesterfield alumnus) Charles Evered for a low- to mid-six figure sum. The story revolves around three generations of Navy veterans facing a terrorist attack while on a commemorative cruise. Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks will produce.

From VARIETY:

        Only months ago John North was an agentless screenwriter, producing industrial videos for companies from his home in suburban Phoenix.
        Now, after winning one major screenplay contest and placing in five others, North has inked a representation deal with manager Doug Draizen of the Draizen Co., is rewriting his winning script, “An Average Joe”, and will shop it to studios.
        “Entering the contests has definitely been worth it,” North says. “It´s definitely allowed my work to be seen by people who would have normally never read my script.”
        Screenwriting contests have long been an avenue for aspiring scribes trying to write their way into Hollywood, but now with an overwhelming 85 contests promising fame, fortune and representation, some writers, unlike North, are discovering that winning the contests doesn´t necessarily lead to instant success
        “It all depends on which contests they´re coming from,” says Alan Gasmer, a senior agent at William Morris. “If you´re entering them for representation, there are certain ones we pay attention to....”
        More established contests such as ATAS´ Don and Gee Nicholl Fellowships, the Walt Disney Studios Fellowships, UCLA´s Samuel Goldwyn Writing Awards and the Chesterfield Writer´s Film Project still attract the attention of industry insiders.

From CREATIVE SCREENWRITING MAGAZINE:

   For Richard Cray, writing great screenplays was no problem. The problem was getting anyone to read them. In fact, Cray had a hard time even getting people to return his calls. Then, overnight, all that changed. Suddenly, instead of making calls, Cray was getting them, at the rate of 30 to 40 a day. Agents from CAA and ICM were competing with their own colleagues for the chance to represent him and, in the six months that followed, Cray sold one script and wrote two more for Disney Animation.
        Each year, up to five writers will join the ranks of the Nicholl Fellows, while an additional five to ten will be snatched from anonymity by the Chesterfield Film Company. Chuck Evered was just out of the Yale Drama School when he learned of his acceptance into Chesterfield Writer's Film Project -- a program that would pay him to learn the craft of screenwriting. By the time his fellowship year was over Evered had sold a pitch to Arthur Hiller, signed with the William Morris Agency and received a commission from Steven Spielberg.
        Although the Chesterfield and Disney competitions have only been in existence since 1990, their alumni have already established themselves at nearly every major studio and independent production company. Together, they make up the "Triple Crown" of screenwriting competitions. They are the career launchers whose names now carry such weight that even runner-up status can open doors.
        Although Chesterfield's program is the most structured of the three, its selection process is the most flexible ... applicants submit one or more writing samples in a variety of forms including short stories, plays, novels or screenplays.
        Along with the Directors (of the Chesterfield, Nichols, Disney) Cray, Evered, and Blythewood (Disney winner) all echoed the same advice -- “Forget commerciality and write from your heart ... you may not write the perfect script, but at least it will be honest -- and different.”
        Perhaps (Disney winner) Marie Jacquemetton best advice is, "Don't give up". Jacquemetton won the Disney Fellowship on her second try. For many Chesterfield winners, success has come on the third or fourth entry. And Cray's Nicholl Fellowship was awarded for his fifth submission.

Please contact Chesterfield with questions or comments.