From Idea to Script to Sale
Diane Lake
The author of The Screenwriter's Path has been a working screenwriter since 1993 when she sold her first story idea. Since then she has been commissioned to write films for Columbia, Disney, Miramax, Paramount, NBC and numerous independent producers. Diane‘s film, Frida, opened the Venice Film Festival in 2002, was named one of the 10 Best Films of 2002 by numerous top 10 lists, including the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute. Frida was also nominated for 6 Academy Awards in 2003.Her script Hemingway in Paris recently sold to French producer Phillippe Chausse. Current projects under option include Ada, a biopic of Lord Byron‘s only legitimate daughter, and Hard-Boiled a film noir featuring Raymond Chandler. Her script Monet is currently being packaged. Her short fiction has appeared in the Grey Sparrow Review and her most recent writing assignment was to adapt Thomas H. Cook‘s novel Instruments of Night for producer Tony Greenburg. Diane's new script, Reservations, set in the world of the Anasazi Indians in 1068, is soon going out to producers/studios.
Click above to hear Diane talk of her work as an Emerson professor.
To learn more about Diane's journey to screenwriting check out www.DianeLake.com.
Diane's past cruise talks as a special interest speaker on film, screenwriting and art history have taken her half way around the world on Crystal Cruise ships, Sea Dream yachts and Windstar ships. Her upcoming speaking engagements include:
IN 2024
Oct. 14-28--Spain/France/Malta/Italy on Crystal Cruise line
Nov. 3-17--Barcelona/Malaga/Bermuda/Miami on Regent Seven Seas Cruise line
Dec. 14-21--Southampton/NYC on Cunard's Queen Mary 2
IN 2025
Jan. 7-23--Miami/Panama Canal/Caribbean/Colombia/Peru on Azamara Cruise line
Feb. 3-19--New Zealand/Australia on Azamara Cruise line
Feb. 19-Mar. 4--Australia/Bali/Singapore on Azamara Cruise line
Mar. 9-23--Singapore/Vietnam/Hong Kong/Japan on Azamara Cruise line
Dec. 30, 2025-Jan. 7, 2026--Costa Rica/Mexico/Los Angeles on Crystal Cruise line
Her previous speaking engagements have included:
33rd Annual American Studies Conference, Istanbul, Turkey[by invitation of the American Embassy] Opening Keynote Speaker: Adapting America, America Adapted
Aloha Writer's Conference, Maui, Hawaii
Keynote Speaker on Screenwriting
American Library in Paris, Evenings with an Author series, Paris, France
The Art of Screenwriting
AWP Conference, Boston, MA
The Place of Screenwriting in the Literary World
BFI [British Film Institute] Literature on Screen Conference, London, UK
Adapting the Unadaptable: The Screenwriter's Process
Boston Aetheaneum Civic Discourse Series, Boston, MA
The Candidate and Political Consulting in Today's World
California Arts Festival, Fresno, CA
Featured Presenter on Screenwriting
Cape Cod Writers Conference, Nantucket Sound
Writer-in-Residence - Screenwriting
Emerson Public Talk, Los Angeles Campus
Writing a Killer First 10 Pages
European Jamesian Society Conference, Paris, France
Speech on American Naïvité versus European Sophistication in Daisy Miller
General Motors/Women in Film, Boston, MA
Endowed Speaker on Screenwriting Today
Griffon International Film Festival, St. Joseph, MO
Keynote Speaker on Screenwriting
Hawaii Writers' Conference, Honolulu, Hawaii
Featured Speaker on Adapting Unfilmable Books/Unfilmable Lives
Hawaii Writers' Retreat, Honolulu, Hawaii
Featured Speaker, Five Things You Should Know About Hollywood
Maui Writers' Conference, Honolulu, Hawaii
Featured Speaker on True Stories: Adapting a Life to the Screen
Featured Speaker on Getting to the Heart of Your Characters
National Museum of American History and the Smithsonian Latino Center, Boston, MA
FRIDA and the Mexican Revolution
PCA/ACA Conference, Boston, MA
The Icon in Film Adaptation
PCA/ACA Conference, San Francisco, CA
Adaptation Theory in Practice - a roundtable devoted to Diane's work
PCA/ACA Conference, Washington, D.C.
Violet Strange: Bringing Anna Katharine Green's Heroine to a UK Radio Audience
SAMLA Conference, Raleigh, NC
American Naïvité vs. European Sophistication in Daisy Miller: From Novella to Play to Film
Stonecoast Writer's Residency, University of Maine
Featured Presenter - Screenwriting
Tmol-Shilshom, Jerusalem, Israel
Screenwriting in the Modern World
We Care Charity Event, Chatham, MA
Panel Chair, Speaker on Adapting Women's Stories to the Screen
Writers on Writing, Bay Path College, Sturbridge, MA
Screenwriting for Today
University of California, , Fullerton, CA
Guest Speaker on Creating Idiosyncratic Dialogue
University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
Frida - From Canvas to Screen
University of Glamorgan, Cardiff, Wales UK
Keynote Speaker, Screenwriting in America: Major Themes in US Drama and Culture
University of North Carolina, Charlotte, NC
Guest Speaker on The Business of Screenwriting