In case you were wondering what I've been up to...

Silent night. www.instagram.com/reel/C1Futdn...

"This promise of an AI future, is really just a collective anxiety that wealthy people have about how well they're gonna be able to control us in the future." - @tressiemcphd.bsky.social with an absolute mic drop moment about AI bullshit. Incredible words. Listen to all of it!

There was a moment near the end of #TrainDreams where I thought, "I don't know how much more of this beauty I can hold." A delicate film, full to fathomless with laughter and with tears. Suffused with the grace of the world.

friend shared this, immediately updated my settings

Super grateful to @ashlazer.bsky.social and the Stunt List team for throwing a pitch for my Sandler script over to an exec with a deal at Netflix this morning... and BOOM! Gettin' the read request this afternoon. Let's gooooooo!

First page of the script for my new movie "YOUR MOM." Playing on all screens, everywhere, this coming Christmas. #FirstPageFriday #ScriptSky #screenwriting

Psst! Screenwriters! Whatever you do, don't you ever let them know that you have a condition where you HAVE to keep writing or your head will explode. It may be true, but it's a teeeerrible negotiation tactic.

It's the perfect day to point out that a big problem with today's corporate-driven filmmaking is that most everybody involved in it has never done a day of actual blue-collar labor in their lives, putting them completely outta touch with a huge part of the audience.

If you're lookin' to see some Nazis get what's coming to them in one of the most gloriously carnage-y revenge flicks EVER, Jalmari Helander's SISU is currently on Disney+ and Hulu. Don't miss! #movies #SISU

Hollywood Translator for Screenwriters: Statement: "I'll ping you tomorrow!" Translation: "Goodbye forever!" S: "I'll call you next week!" T: "I acknowledge that we both own phones!" S: "Let's circle back next month!" T: "Please die in a fire!" #Hollywood #screenwriting

I'm getting like two LinkedIn notifications per day now for jobs training Ai to write better.

In screenwriting notes, as in life, the most confident voices are often the most blatantly wrong. Which is why, when I give feedback, I incorporate the classic insult sandwich: A. I am an idiot. B. Here's what I think MIGHT need improvement. A. But what do I know - I'm an idiot.

Good start, Netflix! Let's talk about next steps...

As someone raised in fundamentalist Christianity, I am ZERO percent surprised that apostles of this or that screenwriting "system" are able to cram every single movie into their pre-existing structure/formula. #scriptsky #screenwriting

I just found out that my first produced feature, PINK, is on Tubi, where you can watch it for free. Once upon a time I tried to seduce a revered novelist into agreeing to meet with me by sending him my films, and he watched 'em all and said this was his favorite. tubitv.com/movies/69252...

If you're dating, one way to tell if you have a future with someone is to invite them for a fancy dinner with your best china and bring out a silver cloche with only a bowl of cereal under it and the answer, of course, is that you don't have a future with them. Better luck next time!

"Answer through your work, the things you don't like in a piece of media. If you dislike the movies that are being made. Make your own. Show the world what you think this medium should be." - Guillermo del Toro

Lights. Camera. RADNESS— Splash Page is an indie comic showcase featuring cinema-ready IP by Emmy-winners, creators from DC Comics, Marvel, The Watchmen, and the raddest emeging voices. Full comics, world premieres & screenplay adaptations available! Special Marquee below 👇🏻 #scriptsky #comicsky

Randomly posted an old short story of mine to reddit about a grizzly bear eating a bunch of people in downtown Vancouver, and... crickets. Not super surprised: r/stories share.google/IxtS6H1k7A6f...

Any idea what the film industry standard is for how long you have to know someone before you're allowed to stop overusing exclamation marks in your emails? #screenwriting #WritingLife #scriptsky

Dear big shot Hollywood producer about to board a flight: if you go down today, do you want your last moments to have been spent watching some dumb in-flight movie with the hoi-polloi... or having an elite, super exclusive Josh Barkey Script Experience? Just think about it.

I'm starting to suspect that Ai may in fact be the hill that I may in fact literally die on.

Eight years ago I wrote a screenplay about the US and China in an arms race to build a general ai to quickly kill all the other country's infrastructure and also it had armed, autonomous drone swarms. Not a great script, but I still think I deserve some sort of prize.

I am so incredibly thrilled to report that the book I had chatgpt write on the dangers of chatgpt (four hours from conception to published book) has received its first review... and it's ONE STAR!!! www.amazon.com/dp/B0C47RR9TS

A decade ago I met with a bloviating, successful-ish producer. The other day, a director buddy randomly informed me that said producer'd just sent him a terrible script he'd "written" that then failed every Ai detector my buddy ran it through. #ThatTracks #AiSucks

If some rando makes you sign an NDA to read their screenplay, I can almost guarantee you it'll be a pile of hot garbage.

applying for jobs again

If you're not planning at least one screenplay that could get you blacklisted or even deported in the not too impossible dystopian near future... are you even really an artist?

One fun thing about having evangelical parents who don't care about "secular" music is your dad doesn't tell you till he's 80 years old that Neil Young was in his Sunday School class in middle school and they carved their names into the back of a church pew together.

Found my sign at the protest today. Introverts, unite!

Whenever I think, "Is this really who we are? Is that possible?" I just go to the comments section on basically anything and it's like... yup.

"You gotta be really curious and really interested in the outcome to deal with all this minutiae with enthusiasm." - Kirk Baxter (Davind Fincher's Editor)

"Curiosity drives you to explore that dark cave despite your fears of going down there. Curiosity is leaping ahead of the comfortable place you’ve settled and dragging you into the unknown." - David Brooks

Everything is fine!!! Haha just kidding it's not. April FOOLS, suckas!

Strongly considering directing my latest script and holy shirtballs, did you guys know about this YouTube website thingy?!? Absolutely STUFFED with tutorials on every single aspect of directing. Total amazeballs, as I'm confident all the kids are still (coolly) saying.

Very rarely do i create something that i can immediately identify as a towering work of staggering genius... but here we are. youtu.be/smBCeWValaU?...

I guess the real screenplay was the characters we brutally murdered along the way. #scriotsky

"Sending someone your screenplay is like asking them to never talk to you again." -Fran Kranz

Screenwriting is ninety percent waiting, but at least the other ten percent is rejection.

I just wrote this extremely virtuous poem for you. You are welcome...

If you're ever in a public bathroom and you hear someone in a stall really struggling to get things moving, I bet if you started singing "Let it Go," they'd really appreciate it.

Your periodic reminder that once someone gives you some of their time to read your screenplay, that's something they can never get back. So do your best to honor that astonishing gift with A. Gratitude, and B. Your utmost effort to make that script as good as possible. #scriptsky

I wrote about how Mister Rogers is out to get me... www.joshbarkey.com/2025/03/mist...

Spending some time today crying through this movie. If you need some beautiful love in your life, check it out...

One of my scripts just went to one of the three-letter agencies for consideration by one of the most delightful actresses and if you pray or do magic incantations with chicken bones, now would be a great time for prayer or magic incantations with chicken bones pleaseandthankyou. #scriptsky

My 6 year old just now, discovering the film mode on my DSLR: "Now I can make videos! Nothing can stop me now!" #FilmLife #filmsky

You're not supposed to kill dogs in scripts but I killed lots and lots and lots of dogs in one of mine and the last person who read it brought up the rule but said they actually didn't mind all the canicide. So go ahead, folks. Break the rules. Kill the puppies. #scriptsky