Here is an interview that just came out. It is me being interviewed by writer Andrea Galli for the Italian paper Av Venire. I don’t have an exact translation, but these are the answers to her questions that I sent by email. Q: A straightforward question (that was the title of one of your recent lectures): Why do “heathens” seem to make the best Christian films? Why are there still so few good Christian movies? BN: This is really a... Read more

Happy New Year, Hollywood Catholics! SAVE THE DATES! So, our chaplain, Fr. Don and I talked about it this morning and here is a heads up for the Lens schedule for the first half of 2014. Saturday, January 25, 9:30-noon – Planning and Training for LENS Regional Small Groups Saturday-Sunday – March 8-9 – Lenten Retreat Saturday, June 7 – Penetecost Vigil Mass, Blessing for Industry Professionals and Meeting (We will be electing officers for Lens at this event.) Fr.... Read more

[Spoiler Alert for the season opener.] We enjoyed watching the two hour Season Four opener, but I’m not sure if a big part of the enjoyment was just being reunited again with all the familiar characters after nine months of waiting. The storytelling dragged a bit here and there, but overall, it felt very good to be back on the estate. The episode was very choppy primarily due to the fact that they are servicing too many characters. Seems like... Read more

Again! This is like the fifth year in a row, that teams containing Act One alumni have made it to the finals of the Doritos “Crash the Superbowl” contest. It’s always exciting for the community to rally around our friends. How else could you realistically win $1,000,000 making a very very short film? Check out this year’s finalist “Cowboy Kid.” Vote often and do share with your friends! Good luck guys! Read more

Friend and director, Michael O. Sajbel, has written a lovely personal remembrance of working with the recently departed Peter O’Toole. It’s so nice whener we find someone in this crazy business, who has every right to be full of themselves, but isn’t. I loved this part: The day finally arrived when he was driven to our film set, a huge battlefield scene staged in a giant quarry in Rajasthan. He was slender and tall and elegant. It was I who... Read more

I will be speaking at Park Community Church on Monday night in an event that is open to all. My topic will be “A Gospel Spirituality for Artists.” Do come on out if you are free. I’d be grateful if you could let your artist/writer friends know. Click here for all the info. Read more

About Time – Written and Directed by Richard Curtis; Starring Rachel McAdams, Bill Nighy, Domhnall Gleeson, Lindsay Duncan; Rated R for some profanity. Not quite sure what this film was, but it has some charm in a messy, illogical, meandering kind of way. It isn’t funny enough to be a comedy, and lacks the real life and death stakes of a good drama. But it has that British longing for true love thing and moments of their trademark quirky ensemble... Read more

[Excerpted from the upcoming 2014 book, Little Gems: Better Notes on Story and Screenwriting] Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do, And what is right to do. Potter Stewart From an ethical standpoint, being an artist or storyteller is not like working at Walmart. Chances are, the woman stocking a shelf with deodorant is not wrangling inwardly with whether her task is moral and worthy or whether she will have to answer for it... Read more

[Excerpted from the upcoming release Little Gems: Better Notes on Story and Screenwriting, by Barbara Nicolosi and Vicki Peterson] Rejection slips, or form letters, however tactfully phrased, are lacerations of the soul, if not quite inventions of the devil – but there is no way around them. – Isaac Asimov Being a professional writer means that after you have finally come out of your cave and put your work in front of other people, some of those people will not... Read more

(Excerpted from the upcoming book, Little Gems: Better Notes on Story and Screenwriting” by Barbara R Nicolosi and Vicki Peterson) Collaboration There is probably no hell for authors in the next world – they suffer so much from critics and publishers in this one. C. N. Bovee It’s ironic that, after isolation, one of the hardest things about being a professional writer is having to work with people. If you will experience any success at all, there is a point... Read more