Colby Day

deadline.comTim Heidecker & Tatiana Maslany Set For Late-Night-Themed Dark Comedy ‘The Comedy Hour’Tim Heidecker and Tatiana Maslany have joined 'The Comedy Hour,' a dystopian satire marking the feature directorial debut of Colby Day.

20 Oct 2025

I started out as an intern in late night television so it only makes sense that my DIRECTORIAL DEBUT would be set in that crazy dumb world. Can’t wait to make this with THESE ABSOLUTE STARS. deadline.com/2025/10/tim-...

Getting vaporized in nuclear war because the president is mad talk show hosts tell jokes about him

AMC just announced it's getting into distribution. The trade coverage is treating this like good news for filmmakers. It isn't. It's one more link in the supply chain removed.

The movie business isn't struggling because people don't like movies. The movie business is struggling because decades of consolidation have flattened the business so completely that we are on the verge of returning to that pre-1948 Studio System.

open.substack.comAMC getting into distribution is bad for business actuallyvertical integration is killing Hollywood

I wrote all about why I'm skeptical about AMC's move, and their motives, at this week's Hollyweird. open.substack.com/pub/colbyday...

AMC just announced it's getting into distribution. The trade coverage is treating this like good news for filmmakers. It isn't. It's one more link in the supply chain removed.

That law is gone now. Netflix owns theaters. Sony owns Alamo Drafthouse. AMC just started distributing movies. Each of these companies used to be one thing. Now they're all three.

Here's what that actually costs you as a filmmaker. Every layer that used to require a separate deal was a chance to walk away and go elsewhere. Collapse the layers, collapse the "elsewhere."

AMC just announced it's getting into distribution. The trade coverage is treating this like good news for filmmakers. It isn't. It's one more link in the supply chain removed.

Quick history: until 2020, studios were legally barred from owning theaters. A 1948 Supreme Court decision forced that separation on purpose — because a vertically integrated industry has one buyer, and one buyer sets the price.

hollyweird.colbyday.comYou can always sharpenThe one rule three "sad fake dad" movies taught me about act one.

31 July

My ending wasn't landing. Spent a week thinking it was the ending's fault. It wasn't. My hero wasn't beat down enough at the start to earn it. Went back to my comps, figured out what they were doing and fixed not the ending but the beginning. New post: hollyweird.colbyday.com/p/your-hero-...

Colby Day reposted

Katie

@meliiike.com

19 July

Love this from screenwriter @colbyday.com. This is what I do, but not becuz of sage advice but from a lack of self-discipline. 😄 Follow or subscribe to his substack: substack.com/@colbyday #writersky #authorsky

Colby Day reposted

James

@james.tarnation.lol

20 June 2025

PRODUCER: our new show is about a ragtag group of mutant ninja turtles STUDIO EXEC: HOW OLD ARE THEY

Colby Day reposted

Russell Hainline

@russellhfilm.bsky.social

16 July

Replying to @colbyday.com

“I’m Colby Knoxville, and this is Eating Lettuce.”

16 July

I don’t have a lot going on right now. Should I try this explosive diarrhea trend

hollyweird.colbyday.comSubscribe to Hollyweird with Colby DayWeekly insights on screenwriting, craft, career and navigating the mysterious state of mind that is “Hollywood.”. Click to read Hollyweird with Colby Day, a Substack publication with thousands of subs...

15 July

I run a monthly zoom hang for writers via my newsletter. I've always charged just $8/mo to do it. We dig into craft questions, career questions, manager and agent questions, you name it. If this sounds like something you could use, price is going up tomorrow. hollyweird.colbyday.com/subscribe

8 July

Substack just ranked Hollyweird #6 in Rising Film & TV. Which means now is probably a good time to explain what it actually is. I’m a working studio screenwriter — and I write a free weekly newsletter about what this career really looks like. Once a week. Free. Link in profile.

hollyweird.colbyday.comYour job is not to transcribeHow to tell if it's a notes problem or your reps just aren't into you anymore

3 July

Wrote about the difference between a craft problem and a relationship problem this week —and the test I use to tell which one I'm actually looking at.

30 June

In a good year I’d pitch on maybe a dozen projects. Get hired once. That’s what a good year looks like. Nobody talks about the ratio of success to failure in Hollywood because the ratio is embarrassing. But the ratio is also just the job. Once you accept that, the nos stop feeling like verdicts.

docs.google.comHollyweird Hang Q&A RSVPDrop your email, name, and question (if you have it) for Wednesday July 1st's Hollyweird Hang. I'll send the zoom link to everyone who signs up.

29 June

Every question I get asked in these is one I’ve had myself at some point. That’s kind of the point. Live Zoom Q&A this Wednesday July 1 12pm PT. Free. Bring whatever’s been stuck in your head — craft, career, what to write next… Last day to grab a spot here. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

18 June

The first ten pages of your screenplay aren’t the beginning of your story. They’re the audition. A tired reader isn’t asking “what happens next?” on page one. They’re asking: “Is this writer worth my time?” You answer that with voice. Confidence. The sense you know exactly where this is going.

16 June

You can stare at a structural problem for days and get nowhere. But take a walk, sleep on it, work on something else… and you’ll suddenly know exactly what to do. The best thing you can do with a script you’re stuck on: Put it down.

9 June

“Go where you’re wanted.” Stop trying to convince people who are already looking for the exit. Making a movie is a multi-year marriage. Don’t start it with someone who was lukewarm at the altar.

hollyweird.colbyday.comI’m backOn taking it one day, or page, at a time

5 June

Most writing paralysis is just your brain in the future instead of the scene in front of you. Who’s here. What do they want. What’s in their way. That’s it. That’s today’s job. New Hollyweird on exactly this ->

4 June

Hot take: If you're on your third or fourth revision thinking “this is the final draft…” you’re probably wrong. Until the movie’s screening in front of an audience, there is no final draft. You’re going to be tweaking that thing all the way through. Trust me.

3 June

Most of a screenwriting career isn’t writing. It’s convincing people to let you write. Development meetings. Pitch calls. Emails that go unanswered. “We’re a big fan but…” If you’re worried you’re doing it wrong… you aren’t. This is how it goes.

2 June

I fear Hollywood is going to take all the wrong lessons from the breakout success of backrooms and double down on trying to find YouTube based IP when in fact what people love and cannot get enough of is the feeling of freaky liminal space

2 June

Most “no”s have nothing to do with your work. Slate full. Bad timing. Someone in the room had a weird personal association. We treat every pass like a verdict on our talent. It’s almost never that.

1 June

Writer’s block is mostly just your brain fast-forwarding to “what if this fails” instead of staying in the scene you’re actually writing. The fix: who’s here, what do they want, what’s in their way. Write that. Repeat.

1 June

Just came back from parental leave. First thing I noticed: Hollywood didn’t miss me. Choosing to find that reassuring. Everything I was working on is still here.

hollyweird.colbyday.comhollyweird.colbyday.com

3 Apr

Listen to this ep for my hot take on Michel Gondry that he’s “Too French.”

Phillip Iscove@pmiscove.bsky.social

This week on @podcastlikeits The 2000s @emilystjams.bsky.social and I start a brand new miniseries on Spike Jonze & Charlie Kaufman’s 2000s by talking Human Nature with In The Blink of an Eye screenwriter @colbyday.com! We discuss Michel Gondry, Charlie Kaufman’s transgender metaphors and Bjork!

Colby Day reposted

Phillip Iscove

@pmiscove.bsky.social

“It never really gets easier to hear No.” I’ve been working in Hollywood for years. I’ve sold shows, written pilots, even made movies. And I still feel it every single time. Here’s what I’ve learned about what “No” actually means — and what it doesn’t. 🧵

The second most important skill to make it in Hollywood? Learning how to handle rejection. Over and over and over again. (The first is putting yourself out there in the first place — but that’s another thread.) Full piece in my newsletter 👇 hollyweird.colbyday.com/p/it-never-r...

Writers, creatives, anyone who’s ever heard No: What actually helps you when a project dies? Not what people tell you should help — what actually works for you? Drop it below. I’m genuinely collecting data on this.

Here’s the thing: Most rejections are not in category 3. Most of them are not about you at all. The slate was full. The executive got fired. The budget evaporated. The market shifted. You are not the variable in most of these equations.

I’d never say “toughen up.” Or “get over it.” Instead: be pissed. Be hurt. Be annoyed. Set a timer on it. Then start the next thing. And get back out there. There are plenty more No’s waiting — I have a million in a Google doc somewhere, you can have some of mine.

The “It’s Not For Me” No — taste mismatch. Completely valid on both sides. You sent the right thing to the wrong person. The goal is to find your people. Your people are not everyone. That’s not a flaw. That’s just math.

The “Work Isn’t Ready” No — the hardest to receive, the most valuable if you can actually hear it. When someone takes the time to tell you specifically why they passed? That’s a gift. Notes from someone with no stake in flattering you are sometimes the most honest feedback you’ll ever get.

So what actually helps? Remembering that not all No’s are the same. Most people jump straight to: “they hate it, they hate me, I should become an Alaskan crab fisherman.” That’s probably not true. And it’s probably not a great career pivot.

There are 3 kinds of No: The Timing No — slate’s full, budget shifted, a similar show just sold. Has nothing to do with your work. Also the most common. You will almost never know this is the reason.

That kind of rejection — the long, slow, attenuated No — is somehow worse than a clean one. You can’t even point to what went wrong. Because nothing went wrong. It just… evaporated. And here’s the honest truth I had to sit with after: It never really gets easier to hear. And maybe it shouldn’t.

David Leslie Johnson-McGHOULdrick

The brutal tension of this career: To make good art, you have to care deeply. You put in hundreds of hours. But to survive the business, you need non-attachment. “I hear Yes, I take more chances. I hear No, I take more chances.” These two things are in direct conflict. Every day.

Early in my career, I co-developed a show with a Very Important Writer We sold it right away. A dream! Then the roadblocks began. I revised, re-revised, re-re-revised outlines. Until: “We’re going in a different direction.” A direction we never even started going in. I never wrote the pilot!

Colby Day reposted

@bravecarrot.bsky.social

18 Mar

This is my #1 piece of advice to screenwriters. Don't work with one giant document, put the date in the name of the file and then "Save As" today's date every day. Not only do you now have a Wayback Machine to your whole script, you now have the freedom to completely fuck up and only lose a day.

Colby Day@colbyday.com

First: remember, you are not going to "break" it. The old draft isn't going anywhere. Save a new file every single day you work and you can always go backwards. The draft you have right now is the floor, not the ceiling. So stop nibbling around the edges. Pull the engine out of the car.