Nick Bilton

Executive Producer @60minutes

[Nick Bilton @nickbilton]

It's the honor of my career to become the executive producer of 60 Minutes. I just shared the note below with the incredible staff and can't wait to get started.

[The Hollywood Reporter @THR]

Dwayne Johnson, Author: Crown Publishing Nabs True-Life, Hawaii-Set Crime Book Co-Written with Nick Bilton (Exclusive) https://t.co/mh8yJcOl0u

[Dwayne Johnson @TheRock]

Our Hawaiian crime saga now has a home at 20th Century & Disney.

I was a little boy growing up in Honolulu when this real life story was taking place and these real men - ruthlessly did what they had to do for respect, money, power but more importantly - for the reclamation of our Polynesian culture.

Working closely with Marty as his vision for our story begins to take focus, has been a gift to witness and absorb. I’m honored to work with this inspiring creative team, and even more blessed to call them my friends.

More to come.
Aloha

[The Hollywood Reporter @THR]

20th Century Lands Martin Scorsese Hawaii-Set Crime Thriller Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt https://t.co/RPQJcAV6ip

[Nick Bilton @nickbilton]

@SamSifton Thanks Sam! And damn do I miss him!

[Nick Bilton @nickbilton]

Some totally wild personal news... I'm writing a movie for Martin Scorsese (!) starring the brilliant Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt and Leo DiCarprio.

[Deadline @DEADLINE]

To be written by Nick Bilton, the film focuses on a turbulent time on the island paradise when an aspiring mob boss battled rival crime factions to wrest control of the underworld of the Hawaiian islands https://t.co/obsFjyhZgN

[Nick Bilton @nickbilton]

@andrewrsorkin Thanks! And congrats on your new book! Very excited to read it.

[Nick Bilton @nickbilton]

@thesamparr @matthew_sigel I've been on Twitter for almost 18 years and I can honestly say this may be one of the dumbest tweets I've ever seen on here. And that's saying something.

[Nick Bilton @nickbilton]

Karen Bass cut fire department funding by $17+ million. She was in Ghana when the fires started, even though she knew about them (as we all did), days before. This should have been treated like a CAT 5 Hurricane before it started, but instead it was treated by our current mayor as not important enough to even be here.

[Nick Bilton @nickbilton]

Get ready for BIGGEST HEIST EVER, a crazy, insane, bats**t story about Bitcoin Bonnie & Clyde, the couple behind the biggest financial seizure in U.S. history. It'll be on @netflix on December 6th.

[Nick Bilton @nickbilton]

I’m no RFK fan, but Red Dye 40, Yellow 5, and Blue 1 trigger hyperactivity, allergic reactions, and immune issues. BHT disrupts hormones and is linked to cancer in animal studies… but yes, NYT, these ingredients are the same as blueberries and carrots.

[Dylan O'Sullivan @DylanoA4]

I just want to tweet out this C. S. Lewis quote every weekend

[Matthew Dominick @dominickmatthew]

Timelapse flying by Hurricane Milton about 2 hours ago.

1/6400 sec exposure, 14mm, ISO 500, 0.5 sec interval, 30fps

[David Perell @david_perell]

Want to write thrilling stories? Nick Bilton has the playbook.

He's written for Netflix and The New York Times, and this episode is a tell-all class on how to create tension with hooks, cliffhangers, drama, and conflict.

Highlights below:

1. Evil characters only work if readers care about them.

2. The best way to make readers care about an evil character is to humanize them. You can do that by focusing on simple details like how they lose their keys. Or, you can write about their mother because every murderer has a mother who loves them.

3. You can't look down on your characters. You have to look out with them.

4. Rule for writing screenplays: Get into the scene as late as you can, and get out of it as early as you can.

5. Fiction stories have the opposite shape as non-fiction ones.

6. In fiction, the kicker comes at the beginning and the summary comes at the end. In non-fiction, the summary comes at the beginning and the kicker comes at the end.

7. How’d Nick learn to tell better stories? By reading murder mysteries.

8. If the story's good enough, the book will fly off the shelves. Look at the Twilight series. The books sold like crazy even though the writing stinks.

9. How do you write good cliffhangers? Show people a little bit of the future, but don't reveal everything.

10. Ask the question at the end of one chapter and answer it shortly after. The answer doesn't need to come right away, but you have to answer it soon.

11. There are two kinds of stories that work: Big ones about something small, and small ones about something big. Stories in the middle are usually terrible.

12. Nick once asked the legendary journalist David Carr for advice. The response: “Keep typing until it turns into writing.”

13. You can tell a good story without knowing everything that happened, but you do need to know enough to make the reader feel like they're there.

14. Writers often over-describe their scenes. You only need three details. For example, if you're at a campground, you might only need the sight of the pine needles on the ground, the smell of a nearby campfire, and the sound of crickets in the distance.

15. We admire characters more for trying than their successes (this is rule #1 in Pixar's 22 Rules of Storytelling).

That's just a little taste of what's in this episode with @nickbilton. You can watch the full thing below. If you'd rather watch on YouTube or listen on Spotify or Apple, and I've shared those links in the reply tweets.

[Nick Bilton @nickbilton]

5.6. Not bad. It was a double-shake.

[Nick Bilton @nickbilton]

Earthquake in LA!

[Nick Bilton @nickbilton]

This will be the first election that hasn't had a Bush, Clinton or Biden on the ballot since 1976 (they all started running in 1980).

[Nick Bilton @nickbilton]

I still can’t get over how a single inch difference of that bullet would have changed the course of history forever. It’s truly astounding.

An inch and we’d live in a very different world.

[Nick Bilton @nickbilton]

@TristanSnell Is there a reason that you chose to keep images of, Rep. Hillary Scholten, Rep. Brittany Pettersen, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, Rep. Angie Craig, Abigail Disney, Sara Haines, Ashley Judd — all women! — out of your tweet?