Yuma + Darjeeling + My Meme

First, this poster is absolutely BAD-ASS. 3:10 To Yuma stars Bale & Crowe, directed by James Mangold. Good stuff. Also, please check out The Darjeeling Limited Trailer. Looks awesome.

Okay, now, onto my meme: 8 Things you don't know about me. Hopefully it'll be more things you didn't know since we all did the last 5 things you don't know about me/us from 2 months ago.

1. I don't sing in the shower, but I sing like a mofo in my car, usually singing along to something like U2, Coldplay, Radiohead, Travis, Killers or Arcade Fire, and some old school rock like Journey.

2. When driving in my car or work van, I'm not only singing my heart out, I'm usually inspired there, too. The best place I come up with script ideas, dialogue, titles and/or scenes is while driving.

3. In 2003, I had my first big pitch meeting. It was at CAA. After ALMOST (this FRIGGIN close) winning for best comedy script at Austin I set up a meeting with a cool woman I met during the festival (a story editor). Anyhoo, I went in there and she introduces me to a hip agent dude and he tells me to pitch him some of my stuff.

AND I BLEW IT. BIG TIME.

I went in there not prepared to pitch, which was my fault. I thought I was basically following up with a friendly meeting and it became a meeting to snag an agent. So, I didn't snag a thing. Neat experience but come on, I should have been prepared. Note to all reading: BE PREPARED. It was freaking CAA!!!!

4. One day after 9/11, I deleted a script I was working on that revolved around hostages. Completely deleted it. Just couldn't work on it.

5. I hate......HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE loading a roll of film into a camera. I did it during college for my film projects, and one time while trying to load a 16mm roll in a dark closet, the inside spool popped out, and a gallon of film spilled all over the dark floor. I felt like pulling off my own head and punting it down the street.

6. When I was little, I played with Star Wars figures, GI Joe, Hot Wheels and.......Smurfs.

7. I hate to write, manually, with my hand. LOVE typing though, just don't ask me to write something out. My hand hurts just thinking about it.

8. I've never seen an episode of Survivor, American Idol or the Apprentice. But Beauty & The Geek? Oh yes.

I hearby tag The Crymedawg, Mr. Missouri, AustinMan, The Teacher, and Tazzy.

Back

We've returned from our 2nd Outer Banks vacation. Great place (We stayed in Kitty Hawk 2 years ago, this time we were in Nags Head). Good stuff, they've got great beaches there, plenty of mini-golf, and some kick-ass restaurants. So, it was a good week. Now we're flat broke, but that's what vacations are for, right? Sweet!

Here are a few cool posters for some of the more interesting flicks coming soon:

At 98 We All Rotate

Name the song from the above-referenced quote and I'll buy you a shot.

Mid-year report.....

Screenwriting - A lot in the oven, but none of it has finished cooking. Usually at this point of the year I'd have 2 completed feature-length screenplays, but for the better part of this year I've been burned out and exhausted/disheartened/depressed from the daytime job. Luckily, I'm getting out of the slump and have made great progress on my raunchy teen comedy called LAID. It'll be finished by early August and hopefully after I've worked on it with my agent it'll be set to go out by Fall.

Flicks: Haven't seen all that many movies. What I have seen:

The Invisible - I liked this. Pretty neat idea (not totally original, but what the hell is). Anyway I thought it was done well, had crisp direction and a great soundtrack.

In The Land Of Women - I think EW gave it an F. That's harsh. I'd say B minus. It wasn't awful, not great either, but wasn't a total loss.

Shrek The Third - Had its moments, a few funny gags & lines here and there, but for the most part, really not necessary.

Hostel 2 - Worst movie of the year. I dig horror movies, and I don't mind gore and all, but this movie was a steaming pile of feces. It was ruthless, brutal, and bad. A shame because I think Eli Roth isn't a bad filmmaker.

Pirates 3 - I liked it. It was fun. Way long, and there was simply too much story going on but overall it was fun, not as good as the 2nd but a decent bookend.

Knocked Up - Best of the year so far. See it.

300 - Meh. It looked neat and all, but I kinda got sick of it.

Box Office
In April, I made some guesstimates. Here's how they are holding up:

I said:
Pirates - 390 million. It's at 301 million and grinding to a halt.

Spidey 3 - 360 million. Well, it's at 334. Close, but no cigarette.

Shrek 3 - 320 million. It's at 316 and is almost finished. Close!

Transformers - 240 million. I didn't take into consideration that it might be good, or at least get decent reviews. It made 155 mil so far in its 1st week, so it'll likely cruise past 240, depending how it holds up.

Potter - I said 235 million, and it made 44.5 in ONE DAY. but it'll probably fall off, so we'll see where it lands.

Surf's Up - I said 180. not even close. It's at 56 million and just about dead.

Fantastic 4 - I said 170. It's at 123 and running out of steam so it won't be making that.

Oceans 13 - I said 150. It's at 109 and will probably get to 118-120.

Knocked Up - I said 160. It's at 132 but has good legs.

Ratatoullie - I said 140 and it's at 109 so it should clear that. Surprising it didn't tank.

Die Hard 4 - I said 130 mil. It's at 84 currently and should be passing 100 soon, so this might be a close one.

License to Wed - I said 150. Hahaha. Good one. I'm sorry, I thought it might actually be good. Oops.

Mr. Brooks - I thought around 110. Oops again.

28 Weeks Later - I said 30 and that's about what it made.

Evan Almighty - I said 90 million. It's at 78 and croaking, so I might be right, but it could sneak by 100 and make like 107 million.

1408 - I said 60 and it's at 58 but still going, might finished with 75-80 million.

That's all team. I'm off to The Outer Banks from the 14th to the 21st. Be good!

Poor Liberty

Wow - This teaser is attached to TRANSFORMERS. It's a hush-hush movie from JJ Abrams, creator of Alias, MI3, etc, and is operating under the title Cloverfield or its release date 1/18/08. Check it out here.

It's like some odd/awesome combo of Blair Witch (shot on "home" video) and Godzilla (or that Korean flick The Host). Sweet.

C'mon Jason

Okay, I like Jason Lee. I do. I think he's always been a great talent. But holy crap - this looks BAD. Not only because it's Alvin & The Chipmunks - the movie, but just look at the chipmunks. They've been hip-hopped.

Dreadful. From the director of Garfield 2!!!!! Bombing this X-Mas!!