Not quite a void if you ask me.....

Hey gang,

Hope all is well out there. Had a conference call on Thursday regarding the first 14 pages of the Cricket Hill pilot.

Before my vacation, I had a similar conf. call with the Production Company heads, discussing the direction of the pilot. I went away (The Disney trip), mapped out the beginning of the pilot, and banged out the pages when I returned. I wrote 2 pages one night, followed by 12 the next.
I e-mailed it over, they read it. And they loved it. Thank Christ I'm on the right track. I feared them being like: "It's okay but we were thinking more like....." But they loved it, and that rocks.

Also, please go on over to The Celluloid Void and follow the progress of a short film by Aaron Coffman, he's got a short clip on a short film he's making (it's only 30 seconds, just do it). Why am I suggesting this? Cause it looks like a real damn movie, not some thrown together DV piece of shit that cost $.82 cents that too many of "filmmakers" are making (I'm guilty of it too, and there's nothing wrong with it, if that's the only way to make your movie, go for it). Point is though, after only a few seconds of seeing it, I can tell that this guy knows what he's doing. It actuallt looks like he went into it prepared. Best of luck to him.

Also, this kicks ass:

Entertainment Update

Been out of the loop, caught up a bit on my tv & movie-watching:

TV:
What About Brian? - I like this show. Even though my movie Better Days that I self-produced in 2001 had the EXACT same premise, mine needed a re-write or 20 before I shot it. And better acting. And, oh nevermind. Anyway, I like the cast and the writing is good. The chicks on it are hot, which helps. Hell, I'd even bang Barry Watson like a screen door in a hurricane. Why not!?

Big Love - Best thing on TV right now. Love it. Been a Bill Paxton fan for years, hope he gets some Emmy-love. I picture Jeanne Tripplehorn scoring an Emmy nod, also maybe Ginnifer Goodwin for supporting. And Bill/Jeanne's daughter on the show is priceless (and hot). Great writing, solid direction, love it.

Everwood - Always dug this show. Still do.

Modern Men - Soon to be canceled I'm sure, but it has some funny dialogue in it.

Lost - Still love it. Too many freakin' repeats though.

Invasion - Good stuff here, and the plot keeps going forward.

MUSIC:
All-American Rejects new CD isn't bad. I love that damn Train song, "Cab." A band called Editors (from UK I thinks?) are excellent. Still listening to The Killers, Arcade Fire, Interpol & Youth Group's last CDs.

MOVIES:
A History Of Violence - I loved it, until he left for Philly. Then it kinda lost me and it ended up just being very good when it could have been excellent.

Shopgirl - I liked it. Whimsical. Took a bit for me to get into it, but I ended up digging it. Schwartzman was a hoot.

Brokeback Mountain - Finally I saw it! And my review is......Eh. It was good. NOT great. Glad Crash won. Wish Jarhead won, but anyways.... Like I said, it was good. Interesting. Beautifully shot. Performances were excellent all around, wish Heath won Best Actor, he ruled. But overall, left me unsatisfied.

The Ice Harvest - I liked this a ton. Fave scenes were with Oliver Platt & John Cusack, love to see a sequel with them. Nothing ground-breaking here but well done.

Walk the Line - Good movie. Not that I'd ever have the need to watch it again. It was good though.

Later!

Monorail'd

Got back from the World Of Disney. 100% Sunshine down in Florida. Got within 100 miles of NJ - Rain, rain, rain.

Disney still brings back memories from when I was a kid. Especially the monorail. I just love that damn thing. It's so retro-future cool.

But c'mon, 80% of their rides need a real update/renovation. Like their Carousel Of "Progress." Cool idea, they love them damn puppet-bots down there, most of their attractions have them, but their "modern" version on the Carousel Of Progress ain't all that progressed. The highlight is a voice-activated oven. I'm sure Walt would like that updated. they should unthaw him and let him know things need some work.

But I still love the place. Yeah, they took me for a great deal of $$, we stayed at the Animal Kingdom lodge and basically had giraffes, zebra and such off of our balcony view, but the kiddies loved it, so can I complain about the cost? Well, they DID have more fun on the days we took them to Cocoa Beach, so maybe.

Although the "Disney" atmosphere of perfection is a bit creepy. While we were there, a trucker broke down in front of our resort, which blocked their bus traffic. I pictured the Disney brass quite livid, and I bet good money they had him killed and his truck sliced up for spare robot parts.

We also checked out the Kennedy Space Center. Cool place. Again, $$$.

Came back with a cold though, snots & sneezing, sitting through HOURS of bullshit Washington DC traffic sucked, yeah, yeah, we shoulda flew. Tell that to the wife.

Getting the Cricket Hill Pilot together. I love this idea. At first I felt odd about making my movie a TV series, but now I see the possibilities and they are really endless.

Also, as a result of this Cricket Hill deal I've gained a new management team and made a realization - Fuck the contests! Look, screenwriting contests & competitions are important in getting work out there, but these guys totally kick ass and can do for me a million times more than a contest can do. But a win or high placement in a good contest can land you decent representation, so if I hadn't just signed with these guys I'd still be mapping out my contest route for the rest of the year.

Name the quote:
"Peace! Love! Dope! Now get the hell out of here!"

Not A Movie, but......even better!

First, I won't post until next week. Hitting Disney with the family.

Anyway, I had my conference call tonight. It went well, got to chat with some of the other behind-the-scenes people over at The Company Who Optioned Cricket Hill.

We've been kicking around this idea for almost a week now, and tonight it's official:

Cricket Hill will not be a movie. Nope. Instead, it will be a television series.

Sounds good to me. Really fucking good actually.

The plan is, using the Cricket Hill feature script as a blueprint, I will write the pilot episode, as well as mapping out 12 episodes that would all become the 1st season. The cliffhanger on Season 1 would be the main twist of Cricket Hill.

Once it's ready, they'll attach the director I spoke of previously (I spoke to him tonight; awesome guy, knows his shit, has directed a few features as well as some very high profile prime-time shows - he loves Cricket Hill and wants to do the pilot once it's ready). It was his idea to make it a TV show instead of a movie in the first place.

After that, they'll attach a showrunner, have an TV agent on-board, and start shopping it around. Due to its subject matter & salty language, they'll hit the pay channels first (Showtime, HBO, etc).

I couldn't be more excited.

Just like a feature script situation, it might never materialize. There's always the chance of never getting off the ground, nobody picking it up, etc. I've learned never to get TOO excited. But I've never been closer to the possibility. These guys are amazing and if something's gonna happen, it'll be through this company.

And who knows, maybe one day Shawna will have me on her list of upcoming shows (just hopefully not on the likely-to-be canceled list)!!

I'll keep you all posted as things progress.

Oh. My. Holy. Christ.

"Little Man" Coming This Summer!

Random updates

Name the movie - "You're young, you got your health. What you want with a job??"

Cricket Hill's development is proceeding quite nicely. The Company Who Optioned has really taken the lead and is moving ahead on it. We've had a recent development (a good one) that I won't go into at this stage, it's way too early to say, but if it goes through I will detail it here. Fingers are crossed.

I threw another of my recent scripts, The Rave At Danny Carter's House, up on Inktip.com to see if it gets any hits. Inktip is a decent place to list your scripts, as is winningscripts.com as I've mentioned before. Both sites have gotten me read by numerous producers over the past year. Give it a shot.

Getting close to wrapping up ZUCKER, my latest script. Act 2, as many of you might agree, can be a drag, but not this time. I've actually breezed right through it, loving every damn minute of it.

And Radiohead is coming in August to Philly, which will kick ass. Have a sweet-ass weekend!

10 Verbs!

Ok, this is from the script I'm currently working on (and LOVE working on it, this thing is kicking ass) called ZUCKER. I present to you, my verbs:

Plays
Kiss
Slurping
Sits
Smiles
Swings
Dangles
Puckers
Belches
Blows
Giggles

Oh, that's 11. Interesting. I will now tag Tom Crymes, Dr. Scriptweaver, and Master Robert.

A New Blog In Town

Hey gang, just had a good talk with The Company Who Has Optioned. Good stuff, looking over the contracts tonight.

An old bud of mine has (finally) created a blogsite. His name is Tom Crymes, and his blog is called The Bag Means Your Mind. We went to high school together, got D's in Mrs. Dilworth's class (Ok, I got the D) and truly bonded when we made Eazy Reader, a short film I starred in and Tom directed, co-starring and co-produced by friends we don't talk to anymore. the flick was about Summer reading, and I played a slacker who chose to go to a party instead of doing his summer reading. then, of course, Jason from Friday The 13th (A friend of ours nicknamed "The Boob") chased me with a machete. And when he caught me, instead of killing me he shoved my summer reading book in my face. Classic stuff.
We got an A!

Then we got greedy and made a sequel, Eazy Reader 2. Not so good. Overblown, way too long, but with a higher budget, it went the way of many unnecessary sequels and tanked (within the confines of our High School anyway). there never was an ER3.

Anyhoo, check out his site and welcome him into blogland.

What's the dilly?

So, yes, Cricket Hill is being optioned. In a nutshell, Cricket Hill would be like The Royal Tennenbaums meets American Beauty, or as the Development dude from the company that optioned it puts it: American Beauty on acid.

And it has Voice Over....Ah, run! That was for you, Voice-Over haters.

The paperwork is on its way, so the option will begin shortly. What is an option, Olaf has asked. Basically, for a set amount, this company is buying the rights to Cricket hill for 1 year and in that time they are going to try to put a package together (attach a director, some kick-ass actors, etc) and gain financing. The plan is to get it made independently and get it to Sundance, which they have already done in the past to great success.

It's a good place, this company, I feel very comfortable working with them. They've got a couple features already under their belt (yes, stuff you've actually heard of), and they are going into production on another feature in 2 weeks (starring several well-known actors you've heard of), and it is some of those actors that they'll be approaching for my script.

They asked me if I wanted to direct. And I don't. Not on this one. I've directed 3 features and 5 shorts in my time, all low-low budget and with local actors. With the caliber of talent they're going to get involved on this baby, I become an instant liability. What the hell have I directed, the financers will ask. Nothing of note. And with the type of directors they said that they'll approach with it, they'll bring a lot more to the table. The directors they have relationships with have all had theatrically-released features.

Re-writes? They'll be minor. Touch-ups, basically. Not a Page 1 re-write in the least. A few tweaks here and there, and I've got no problem with that. I'm not going to be re-written, and will be on-set when the time comes.

By the way, thanks for the onslaught of support and congrats. You guys totally rock and I'll be looking forward to some of your upcoming successes!

Optioned!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Cricket Hill has been optioned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Doing paperwork next week to make it official.

I'll go into more details soon.

The Company who optioned it totally rocks. Yes, I'm biased of course, but honestly, looking at the movies they've done and at their upcoming slate, I couldn't have found a better home for Cricket Hill.