By Jay A. Fernandez

The rare female screenwriter working in non-romantic comedy genres, Læta Kalogridis has had her hands on a diverse array of scripts in the past 15 years — “Scream 3,” “Tomb Raider,” “Wonder Woman,” “Something Wicked This Way Comes,” “Night Watch,” and “Alexander,” to name a few. Friday, Paramount releases the Martin Scorsese-directed “Shutter Island,” her adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s paranoia-soaked Cold War thriller. And this summer Fox will let loose its action tentpole “Knight and Day,” which Kalogridis co-wrote. She also served as an uncredited helper on James Cameron’s record-busting “Avatar.” Here, Kalogridis talks about the bloody inspiration in Greek myth, female superheroes and the appeal of the “unbelievably, incredibly, outrageously violent.”

How exactly do you pronounce your name?
It’s Læta, with the diphthong—it’s Latin, actually. If it were Greek it would be Lay-eta. But it’s Latin, so it’s like Caesar.

So your ethnic background is Greek?
On my father’s side.

By Jay A. Fernandez

The “Cop Out” red-band trailer broke out today, and now it’s looking more like a Kevin Smith movie.

That ridiculous PG version Warner Bros. ejected first just about torpedoed everyone’s interest in sitting through the film. When it comes to Kevin Smith, no one wants to be invited to a whorehouse with a promise of seeing good card tricks, you know? Give us the money shots or we’ll just go rent “Clerks” again.

Anyway, here are Tracy Morgan, Bruce Willis and Seann William Scott acting like regular ol’ profane action-movie grown-ups. Some of it’s even funny.

One observation: The profanity zeitgeist seems to have shifted from the cringy thrill of watching old ladies like Betty White throw out f-bombs to young kids spewing curse words like little machine guns on a sugar high. “Role Models” got the movement going, and this year’s “Kick-Ass” has teed up a few choice raunch-zingers viewable in the latest international red-band trailer (also below – wait around for the last line).

Well, here we have… Eh, just watch it.

By Jay A. Fernandez

I was going to tell you about this amazing annual Writers Guild Foundation event, Beyond Words, taking place in two weeks. But it sold out today in an hour.

That’s probably because the panel, comprised of 2010 Oscar- and WGA Award-nominated screenwriters, is scheduled to include Scott Cooper (”Crazy Heart”), James Cameron (”Avatar”), Mark Boal (”The Hurt Locker”), Alex Kurtzman (”Star Trek”), Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner (”Up in the Air”), Geoffrey Fletcher (”Precious”), Scott Neustadter (”(500) Days of Summer”) and Jon Lucas & Scott Moore (”The Hangover”). Additionally, the WGA got little-known screenwriter Judd Apatow (”Funny People”) to moderate again this year.

The event is at the Writers Guild Theater on Doheny February 18, but good luck getting in. The WGA says it may do a wait list at the door on the night of the event, but not to hold your breath. The guild does typically put the event on a DVD, so you can look for that instead.

The next WGF event features writer-director-producer Barry Levinson, Feb. 22 at the Writers Guild Theater. Looks like you can still get into that one. Levinson, whose writing credits include “Silent Movie,” “High Anxiety,” “…And Justice for All,” “Diner,” “Avalon,” “Sleepers” and “Liberty Heights,” is receiving the WGA’s Screen Laurel Award this year. He also won an Oscar for directing “Rain Man.”

By Jay A. Fernandez

This is decidedly random, but I’ve seen two movies recently that featured typically strong appearances by the mostly unsung Elias Koteas. I don’t know what it is, but I find this guy exhilarating to watch and wholeheartedly believe that he needs to be on screen as much as humanly possible.

So I hereby call for casting directors to bring him in on everything — comic book villains, romantic leads, action roles, miserable dramas, pornos, whatever. Get him in the movie. Do it now.

By Gregg Goldstein

Memories of Sundance may be fading away, but deals for many of its titles are only beginning to gear up. As overnight film-fest bidding wars become an endangered species, the indie film market is allowing buyers to take their sweet time choosing a higher quality level of film, with more coastal execs screening pics to be sure they’re the right fit.

It’s worth noting that last year’s biggest deal (and biggest hit) “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire,” wrapped its Lionsgate distribution pact a week after Sundance ended. The 2010 iteration’s Sunday close had no effect on continuing dealmaking.

By Jay A. Fernandez

For anyone still looking for a cool Thursday night activity, Humanitas is presenting a killer writers panel to benefit the Writers Guild Foundation tonight.

Called “Writing in a Time of War,” the event features recently Oscar-nominated screenwriters Mark Boal (”The Hurt Locker”) and Alessandro Camon (”The Messenger”), as well as Kimberly Peirce (”Stop Loss”) and Evan Wright (”Generation Kill”). My buddy John Horn from the L.A. Times is moderating.

It starts at 6:45 pm at the WGA headquarters at 7000 West Third Street. And yes, there will be wine and cheese and dessert.

If that’s too hardcore for you, the WGF is sponsoring another event next Thursday, Feb. 11, on writing movie musicals. Leslie Dixon (”Hairspray”), Winnie Holzman (”Wicked”), Stephen Schwartz (”Wicked”) and Irene Mecchi (”The Lion King”) and Bill Kelly (”Enchanted”) are all scheduled to appear.

By Jay A. Fernandez

The SXSW Film Conference and Festival unleashed its complete feature lineup late Wednesday night, and it’s got some must-see world premieres (”Kick-Ass,” “MacGruber,” “Elektra Luxx“) and thus-far-unseen gems. Running in ecstatic overlap with SXSW’s voluminous music and interactive fests — from March 12-20 — the film festival has developed its own distinct Texas flavor (separate from the great Austin Film Festival’s screenwriter-centric identity).

Fest producer Janet Pierson with Seth Rogen in 2009.

Industry vet Janet Pierson took over the job of festival producer in 2008 and here discusses her year-two approach to organizing the event.

What’s your background? You were a producer for a long time?

I came up through distribution and exhibition in the late ’70s. I was the assistant director of the Film Forum ‘81 to ‘86. John Pierson and I hooked up in ‘82, married in ‘83. After “She’s Gotta Have It” opened, I quit the Film Forum and just worked with John for a couple decades as a producer’s rep, co-creator and executive producer of “Split Screen,” which was our filmmaker-friendly magazine format television show. It’s funny, because the filmmakers who passed through that show, so many of them are still working and have features all over the place. We moved here in 2004 and I was asked to take over the festival in April ‘08 for the ‘09 festival.

By Borys Kit

Jason Bateman, who left UTA in early January, has landed at CAA.

A Golden Globe winner for the much-loved TV show “Arrested Development,” the actor has been spending his time on the movie side of the business.

He was most recently seen in the Oscar-nominated “Up in the Air” as well as Universal’s hit comedy “Couples Retreat.” Last year also saw him in “The Invention of Lying,” “Extract” and “State of Play.”

By Borys Kit

How did the major agencies do in today’s Oscar-nomination frenzy? Let’s take a gander. (They just love it when we do this.)

But first, some asterisks:

By Jay A. Fernandez

It’s an unpleasant business, but calling attention to those talents overlooked for deserving Oscar recognition is a standard part of the awards circus. And this year has its share of snubbed also-also-rans. Well, according to me.

First in my mind are Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber for their “(500) Days of Summer“ original screenplay (and not just because I was wrong in predicting its inclusion). Their peers in the writers guild honored it with a nomination, and it represented a truly original take on a worn-out genre that delighted a lot of viewers and inspired a rookie director, Marc Webb, to show off his talents. On the other hand, original screenplay was an unexpectedly tight field for a change, and only five could fit, so Neustadter and Weber will have to make another run at it down the road.