Meaningless Update #59704836N

Geez, no takers on the meme deal? Fine. Just 'cause there be a strike don't mean we can't have a lil' fun.

I'm hearing this strike may end by the holidays. Let's hope it does, and us writer folk get a fair shake, and the crews can actually get back to work and continue to feed their babies.

I'm working on a few things. Need to get my Laid re-write done ASAP. As soon as the strike-smoke clears, we're going to get this puppy in circulation. My manager has got some nice plans for it.

I'm looking at some older scripts to punch up after Laid is done. I've got about 3-4 that I'd like to take swipes at. Plus about 10 that I'd love to begin. Just not enough time in the frakkin day.

On TV - Reaper & 30 Rock rule. Chuck has moments. Nip/Tuck is eh. Weeds is getting old. Bionic Woman is better than expected.

In da Theater - I need to see Juno & No Country.

Song of the day: The Killers - Shadowplay.

Create A Logline Meme

Thanks to a Rhys meme tag, here is my meme post. The meme goes a lil' something like this, to quote the lovely Rhys:

1. Post 3 consecutive pages of any script you choose that you've written. It can be a completed project, something you're still working on, a movie, spec pilot, spec episode, whatever...as long as it's 3 consecutive pages. You must tell the title if it's an existing TV show. If it's a movie or spec pilot, revealing the title is up to you.

2. Tag 5 peeps to do the same.

3. Follow the meme around (it can be the people you tagged, the person who tagged you, someone's you stumbled upon) and after reading the pages, come up with a logline/episode summary you think fits and post it beneath the entry. Try to do this for at least 5 people.

4. After your own meme has gotten enough guesses, post the REAL summary/logline and see who got the closest.

Ok. Some of you may know this script from past postings, and if you do, well, I don't know what to tell you. It's called HEADSHOT.

INT. CASTING COMPANY - LOBBY
DAGNUS TODD, a paranoid-type in his late 20s, sits across from JENNY JAMES, a hottie in her early 20s. A pile of her own headshots sits on her lap.
Near her are three other ACTORS. One reads a Variety with a headline that reads:“Indie Film Cast & Crew Found Slaughtered”
Pacing near Jenny is NICK, a perfectly-built dude in his 20s.

DAGNUS
Nice headshot.

Jenny sighs.

DAGNUS
I said, nice headshot.

Jenny looks at him.

JENNY
I didn’t realize you were talking to me.

DAGNUS
It’s cool.

Jenny smiles politely and fidgets.

DAGNUS
So anyways, nice headshot.

JENNY
Oh, right. Thanks.

DAGNUS
No problem. I’m nervous. You?

JENNY
No. I just wanna get it over with.

DAGNUS
It’s my favorite part of the process. The audition.

JENNY
Oh. Well, my favorite part of the process is actually getting the part.

Dagnus laughs annoyingly.

DAGNUS
That’s a good one. Can I use that?

JENNY
It’s all yours.

DAGNUS
You had any big roles?

JENNY
Few things here and there. Was a stand-in on a soap. A few supporting parts in some college films. A lot of theater.

DAGNUS
You’re too pretty for the theater. You should be up on a great big movie screen, in the lead role. Way too pretty.

JENNY
Oh. Um, thanks.

Nick stops pacing.

NICK
Hey, dude. You’re like harassing her. Leave her alone.

DAGNUS
I’m not harassing anybody.

NICK
Whatever, creep.

Nick sits next to Jenny, staring at Dagnus.

DAGNUS
You here for the audition?

NICK
I already got a part. My buddy is the director. I’m just chillin’ like a villain.

DAGNUS
Oh, cool. I’m chilling, too.

NICK
It ain’t “chilling.” It’s chillin.’ And you're not.

DAGNUS
Hey, you say tomAto, I say tomAHto.

NICK
And you’d be wrong.

I hearby tag Tom, Aaron, Robert, Lew and Scriptweaver.

Cranberry Sauced frickin' rooles!

Poster is from a little indie called Teeth. Not sure how the movie will turn out but I like the poster.

Turkey day is over. Thank Christ. Such a pain. But I do look forward to chowing down on the sides (turkey is ok, but I'm not thrilled about eating it). I'm a Stove Top stuffing guy, and I also need to have my cranberry sauce (from a can obviosuly, I won't eat it unless it has the can shape on it. An assortment of pies is nice, I prefer Pumpkin, Lemon, and Apple.

Haven't worked on much this week. Been crashing a lot, maybe I need to switch vitamins. Trying to get my Laid re-write done, and I'm eager to push ahead on some new scripts I've been kicking around.

Songs of the week: Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head and 2 from Radiohead - All I Need & Videotape.

Be safe.

Flashbacking

Every once in a while, I get slapped in the face with a image from my past, usually just a flash for no reason at all. This ever happened to y'alls? Perhaps I'm just loony. Probably that.

Anyhoo, I've got a two part question for those give a rat's. List some cheesy/cool/whatev stuff from your past that you think of every now and then that takes you back to a moment/event in your childhood. 2nd, name some flicks that you saw when you were young that you thought were like totally rad but now, not so much.

Here's My Part 1 List:
*Parachute Pants - I looked PHAT in those, boooooyyy!!!
*Good bad bands I loved: Night Ranger, Asia & Journey, all the way. Asia once said, "The Smile Has Left Your Eyes." Has it?
*Mousse - I used a LOT of mousse when I was in my teens. I mean, my hair would not move. At all. Why should it?
*"Girls" by the Beastie Boys
*NKOTB
*Jailbreak
*Playing Chinese Checkers with my Mom.
*My X-Wing (best spaceship EVER).
*Thundercats - Um, ho.
*Legos - Before they came with directions & moving parts.
*My Diamond Back bike.
*Mix Tapes (I made dozens)
*Braces - I got them during my freshman year and had them removed the week after I graduated. Go, high school!
*Hitting Disney with my Grandparents.
*Drakkar Noir

And don't forget videogames:
Atari 7600, Colecovision, Intellivision.
Dig Dug, Q-Bert, Galaga.
And the Gateway/MAC of its time: The C64. I ruled Bard's Tale, by the way.

And now, my movies (forgive me, I was young and stoopit):

Red Dawn: "WOLVERINES!" Loved that!
Friday The 13th Part 4 - I was cheering with the rest of the guttertrash in the audience when Jason was getting hacked up by Corey Feldman.
Rocky 4 - Two words: Ivan Drago.
Commando - Not that commando. I prefer boxers or boxer-briefs. I'm talkin' Arnie kicking ass & takes names. Sweet.
Invasion USA - Chuck Norris. Also kicking ass & taking additional names.
Lucas - I don't blame you, Luc. That chick is HOT.
Oxford Blues - Rob Lowe's finest hour.
St. Elmo's Fire - Rob Lowe on sax (Not the finest hour)
They Live - Roddy!!!
Gotcha! - Totally awesome teen spy triller!

Teen Movies that fucking ruled:
The Breakfast Club (Actually, one of my all-time faves).
Weird Science
Better Off Dead
16 Candles

Note: I was never a fan of Pretty In Pink (Gasp!)

Your turn............

My Best & Worst

Here is a list - just for the hell of it - that describes my best and worst screenplays, as well as the in-betweens.


Da Worst:


Lost & Found - first script I ever wrote (1997), painful to read now. Painfull. I'd rather crawl across a field of glass (yes, naked, obviously) than have someone read it. It was about friends searching for themselves, blah, blah, blah. Get over it.


Stain - 2nd script ever. A story about homeless youths. Made a movie out of it too, which was even worst 'cause of its crappy budget. The main problem was that I held back, and I should have pushed the envelope more. Plus it was bad.


Love Interest - Has some decent scenes, but overall a mess. About a guy who is in love with a girl, then meets another cool girl, and then some other stuff happens, and ends up alone anyways. Why? I dunno.


True Colors - My worst title, by far. About a long distance college relationship that doesn't work out. Lame, pointless. I never actually printed it out from my old word processor (Then does it really exist?)


Alleys & Intersections - Another dopey title. Crappy crime drama where the main character dies at the end 'cause I thought it be cool if the main character died at the end. Main character didn't really need to die at the end.


My Best:


Union - My latest and greatest, at least in my own eyeballs. Trying to come up with a decent logline, and I'm not sure I want to post it for the world to see quite yet - I'm afraid the idea will get stolen and then I'd go postal.


Good People - A fun story, and my first option. It's gone through a ton of drafts, and I might revisit it soon. Wrote it back in '98.


Cricket Hill - A pretty edgy take on family dysfunction. Includes but not limited to incest (the game the whole family can play - by Milton Bradley!) between one of the brothers & the sister, adoption, weed, an affair, etc. It's better than I'm making it sound.


The Flight Of Barnaby - This will win me the Oscar, if I don't leap from the Walt Whitman Bridge first. It's a period love story set in the early 1900s about an inventor trying to invent the first airplane. Kind fo a hard sell, but worth it damn it! Written in 1999.


The Money Shot - Apparently, producers shun porn-related movies, but if they didn't they'd love this puppy. It's about a college kid whose financial aid gets screwed up so he decides to make a porn & sell it to cover his tuition. Was optioned for 6 months in 2002 but then the producer dropped off the face of the Earth.

Shuttlecock - Comedy about Badminton. I love this script, it's fun, and I got a kick out of putting the word cock in a title.

The Rave At Danny Carter's House - well, it's about that. I wanted the story to build up to the rave at the end, but some people said it needs to happen sooner. F them.

A Couple Of Joes - This was optioned a few years ago. It's a fun, family movie about a kid named Joe (and his buddies) helping Joe's Grandpa (also named Joe) run for governor.

Doing It Sideways: The Joshua T. Bolt Story - Another porn script. Always loved this one. An out-of-work actor gets in a bind and turns to making porn with his friends. Their pornos take off just as Joshua's childhood love returns. Like a grown up versi9n of The Money Shot.

Tom Noodle - Tom (little kid around 9) goes searching for his Mom in the late 1920s, and his guide is a prostitute. Yeah, hard sell, but I thought it was solid.

Toss Ups:


Headshot - I set out to make a funky horror comedy about a weirdo extra who loses his shit on a film set and tries to kill everyone. Everyone who read it recommended to keep the killer's identity a secret, but the fun of it for me was to see this nutball losing it and offing everyone, I really didn't plan on making it some twist later, I wanted people to know that this is the killer, and let's see who can survive. Maybe I'm just an idiot.


White Gold - Yeah, that white gold. This was meant to be a simple little script and is, it would need only 1 location (a house). It's about a film crew trying to shoot a sex scene. I think it's fun and would be good for a low budget quick shoot, but plot wise there isn't a whole lot going on.


Smoking America - Pothead from NJ wins the Powerball and runs for President. Has promise, needs work though.


Brightsword - Kinda like The Princess Bride meets Lord of Da Rings. This would be a 180 million production. One of my fave scenes is where the main characters are swallowed by a whale and after stumbling around its belly, they are shat out. But I noticed the main character has a limited arc and I need to work on him.


Tourniquet - Small town goes searching for a missing penis that was flushed down a toilet. Too many characters and a little confusing, plus it takes too long to get to the slicing it off part, but I love huge portions of it. Obviously, a tough sell though.


Jablasco - Driver's Ed teacher hires students to kidnap wife so he can save her and look like a hero. Students turn on him and try to rob him and kidnap her for real. Not really like To Die For but it's been compared to it. I think it's a fun/dark script, but needs some work.


Zucker - I like it but it hasn't gotten great reviews from the peeps who have read it. Older man (Zucker) falls for a rich younger chick, then panics and takes off for Mexico, leaving her in debt. Rich dickheaded father of the chick sends a hitman after him. Zucker realizes he loves her and tries to break back into the US, with hitman in pursuit. I like it a ton, but it needs work, I need to get to the meat of the story quicker, Act 1 wanders a bit.


The Go Getters - Exactly like Freaks and Geeks, written before Freaks & Geeks. My longest to date, 140 pages.


The Bomb - I'd like to re-visit this. It's about a bomb that accidentally falls on a small town (doesn't go off) in the mid 50s. The government wants it back and the townsfolk try to hide it. Fun but needs another pass or 2.


Monster - My first horror flick. I wrote it back in 2000. I ramped up the action in it though, so there were bridges blowing up and scenes with the Army, etc. It's got some good stuff here and there.


Superhero Blues - Written before Mystery Men bombed. Basically about the everyday lives of Superheroes, what they deal with (Bills, divorce, etc).


Deacon Street - Dark dark drama. I mean, DARK! Guy watches Dad shoot himself, then loses his mind, ends up in a mental hospital (that's all BEFORE it begins). If I had the $$, I'd shoot it and win Sundance with it.
95% of the movie takes place in the mind of the main character.


20 Seconds In Dullville - Something Ed Burns has probably already made. I still like it, though I'd love to punch it up. A drama about coming back to the place where you grew up, and you've failed at life in every possible way.


Being Gordie Flynn - Depressed guy kidnaps then pretends to be Gordie Flynn (a cool rich guy) at Gordie's high school reunion. I'd work on it but I lost my disc, and didn't back it up. Note to self: Don't do that anymore.

West River Drive - I shot a version of this a few years ago. It's about a kid dealing with his mentally unstable mother. The script was pretty much taken from my childhood, although it had years of situations crammed into 100 minutes. I'm going to make it a book instead.

That's it. I've got probably 15 scripts I didn't mention, not too sure what categories they'd be in, but this is enough. I'm tired, and after seeing all the shit I've written (and not truly sold) I've gone and depressed myself.

My Meme

Okay, I just got slapped across the face by a meme. (love ya, MO). So here it is.

Post a song/video/link/lyrics to a tune that has inspired your writing, given you a script idea, has something to do with whatever you're currently writing, or just gets you in the mood (for writing, scumbags). Then carry on the grand meme tradition and tag some of your peeps.

Now, I'm internet-impaired so the best I can do is post links. But click on them because they rock.

So many choices. Geez. But there's one song that always blows me away, and it's best experienced with its video. Click here, then simply choose the 2nd video (glósóli music video), sit back and get inspired. This Sigur Ros composition astounds me, such a simple, beautiful piece of music and the video is breathtaking. Watch it and try NOT to be a better person afterwards.

But I've got a follow up, and it's a song I used in my movie from 2001 (Better Days), called Just Like Fred Astaire, by James. They've got about 6000 amazing songs that inspire me but this one is among my faves. The script for Better Days had a lot to do with finding love and all that jazz, and this song was a perfect fit. Check these lyrics:

I believe in happiness
I believe in love
I believe she fell to Earth from somewhere high above
I believe in Hollywood
Don't believe that love must bring despair
Cause when I hold her in my arms, I feel like Fred Astaire

Who said love is just a disease
A plague for the naive
These days no one believes

Meteors may strike the earth
Nations live and die
I'm the boy who got the girl
And now were gonna fly
We can cross the race divide
Bridge a gap that wasnt really there
Cause when I hold her in my arms, I feel like Fred Astaire

And here's the video.

I shall now tag Aaron, Crymes, Todd, Da Weaver, and Sweet Lew.