FILMMAKERS

"William C. Martell is the Robert Towne of made for cable movies," (Washington Post reviewer) David Nuttycombe.

In 2007 William C. Martell had two films released on the same day, February 20th, one from Sony and one from Lion's Gate. Both films landed on the Top Ten DVD Charts.

He has written nineteen produced films, including three HBO World Premiere movies: the Tom Clancy style techno-thriller STEEL SHARKS (filmed with full U.S. Navy cooperation) with Gary Busey, Billy Dee Williams, and Billy Warlock, the submarine thriller CRASH DIVE! starring Frederic Forrest, Catherine Bell, Chris Titus, and Michael Dudikoff (also with Navy cooperation), and the sci-fi actioner GRID RUNNERS starring Don "The Dragon" Wilson, Michael Dorn and Athena Massey (all three produced by Ashok Amritraj, producer of the Bruce Willis Comedy BANDITS and the Steve Martin - Queen Latifah comedy BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE.)

His two Showtime Films include BLACK THUNDER, about a stolen stealth fighter plane, starring Michael Dudikoff and Richard Norton and a sci-fi film (both produced by Andrew Stevens, producer of Jack Nicholson's THE PLEDGE and the Bruce Willis-Matthew Perry film THE WHOLE 9 YARDS and its sequel). He has written a couple of CineMax Premieres like action-thriller TREACHEROUS which stars Tia Carrere, C. Thomas Howell, and Adam Baldwin (from 20th Century Fox), the martial arts vampire flick NIGHT HUNTER and military action flick THE BASE (starring Mark Dacascos), plus a USA Network thriller.

His noir thriller HARD EVIDENCE (starring Gregory Harrison and Joan Severance - from Warner Bros.) was "video pick of the week" in over two dozen newspapers, was a Blockbuster featured new release, and beat the Julia Roberts film "Something To Talk About" in video rentals when both debuted the same week.

He is co-producer of the 2007 Lions Gate release CROOKED, has produced and directed over a dozen hours of films including PSICKO and NIGHT OF THE LIVING LIFE INSURANCE SALESMEN, plus has produced and co-produced shorts which have won the Kodak Award and the Sony Visions Of America Award (for fiction). He wrote, produced, and directed the feature STRYCHNINE GRIN starring Debbie Blee (Crown International's BEACH GIRLS and MALIBU BIKINI SHOP). He has been involved in the production of most of his 19 produced screenplays... as well as the Lions Gate release SLAUGHTERHOUSE MASSACRE and the alien invasion film BLOOD PREDATOR (2007).

He is the West Coast Editor of Scr(i)pt Magazine (the largest circulation screenwriting magazine in the world) where he has written the "Independents" screenwriting column for over a decade, a contributor to Writer's Digest Magazine and a past columnist for The Hollywood Scriptwriter Magazine. He was Entertainment News Editor for Dean (INDEPENDENCE DAY) Devlin's Eon Magazine, wrote the Screenwriting 101 column for the Independent Film Channel Magazine, and was the only non-nominated screenwriter mentioned on "Siskel & Ebert's If We Picked The Winners" Oscar show in 1997. He is a frequent contributor to Ebert's Movie Answer Man syndicated column and Ebert's annual Year In Film books. He was on the jury of the Raindance Film Festival (London) in 2001 (with director Mike Figgis and actress Saffron Burrows) and again in 2004 with director Edgar Wright (SHAUN OF THE DEAD, HOT FUZZ) and actor Lennie James. He returned to the Raindance Film Festival in 2006.

See a video interview with Mr. Martell from London's The Writer's Room (from the BBC).

Mr. Martell has been interviewed in Variety (February 24, 1997), featured in The Hollywood Reporter's first Writers Special Issue (February 1994), was the cover interview in The Hollywood Scriptwriter (October 1996), and was interviewed in the first issue of ScreenTalk Magazine (Denmark). Entertainment Today (March 23, 2001) named his website Scriptsecrets.net the Best On The Web for screenwriters.

Mr. Martell's book, THE SECRETS OF ACTION SCREENWRITING has been called "The best book on the practical nuts-and-bolts mechanics of writing a screenplay I've ever read." - Ted Elliott, co-writer "The Mask Of Zorro", "Shrek", "Pirates Of The Caribbean".

"William C. Martell knows the action genre inside out. Learn from an expert!" - Mark Verheiden, screenwriter, "Time Cop", "The Mask" and TV's "Smallville".

"This book is dangerous. I feel threatened by it." -Roger Avary, Oscar winning screenwriter, "Pulp Fiction".

"My only complaint with SECRETS OF ACTION SCREENWRITING is that it wasn't around when I was starting out. The damned thing would have saved me years of trial and error!" -Ken Wheat, screenwriter, "Pitch Black" and "The Fly 2".

"Finally a screenwriting book written by a working professional screenwriter. Bill Martell really knows his stuff, showing you how to write a tight, fast screenplay." - John Hill, screenwriter, "Quigley Down Under".

MOTION PICTURE PRODUCTION

From Script To Screen And Everything In Between

copyright 2007 by William C. Martell