If You Live In Los Angeles.....

.....You'll probably see this dickbag, dragging his coked-up whore, Paris, behind him. Just caught a video of him (his name is Brandon Davis) thoroughly trashing Lindsay Lohan while the idiot-slut (that'd be Paris) giggles in the background with her ultra-cool cell phone stuck to her dopey face.

Pieces of shit, both of them. Look, you may have issues with Lohan, but hell if she ain't out there working her ass off (she's making like, 10 movies a month, 80% smaller, independent stuff), so who the hell is this bottomfeeder to go and trash her? He is nobody, a useless coke-snorting waste of oxygen.

Check out TMZ.com for the train wreck video clip.

Now, I'm not a violent guy, and I'm certainly not promoting violence, but I will say this - If you see him and Princess Asshole (that'd still be Paris) walking down the street, could you kindly fling as much dog shit at them as humanly possible? Thanks a bunch.

Supes

I like this poster, I think it works. I also dig the trailer, but I'm not sure about Spacey as Lex. I mean, I'm sure he'll be adequate and all, for all the backlash he gets he's a good actor. I've just grown used to Michael Rosenbaum's portayal on Smallville, and I like them being around the same age, as on the show, you can seen them go from friends and to eventually, enemies.

At least it also has Kate Bosworth, who is hot as freakin' hell with her multi-colored eyeballs & perfect bod.

Also, I saw the full World Trade Center trailer. I gotta say, it actually looks good.

Good ep of Lost - "Michael has been compromised." Nice.

Bad Day Film Set Memories

Yeah, I've had a lot of these. A previous post had talked about my actor playing Grandpa in my film, West River Drive (2002), deciding to bounce on a pogo stick in between scene set-ups. It wasn't pretty, but at least he was done shooting that day so the scratches on his forehead from hitting the curb & tree had time to heal.

Not sure if I mentioned in a past post about getting 2 of my main actors together (they played a girl & boy in West River Drive who liked each other and were supposed to share a kiss), problem was she GREW in the month we had seen her last and TOWERED over our boy. It looked utterly ridiculous.

Or the first time I loaded a 16mm film camera (1997), not at school, alone, in a dark closet at my house. Didn't go well. The film had come off its spool and at that moment, the anger/rage/embarrassment/etc was at a peak level. I thought I would literally explode. I eventually got it together and went out to shoot my meaningless student film (it was called The Passenger, and was about a guy who's car broke down, so he started walking.....and walking........and walking.....and walking....)

Or in 1998 when we were shooting a trailer on Super 16mm (for a script I wrote and was to direct called Driftwood) and my brother-in-law, who was carrying the sandwiches on a platter (we had a crew of 25 - yeah, way too many) dropped the platter onto the gravel parking lot. Gravel, ham & cheese, anyone?

This is a good one: In 2001. We were shooting the climax for my movie, Better Days. I was directing & operating the camera. We were filming at a retirement home - no it wasn't about old folks, but the place had an awesome chapel & reception hall and was perfect for our wedding scenes. But on that day, we were behind. A lot. Things were moving too slowly. But we had to be out of the recpetion area by lunch - the old folks had to eat. But we wouldn't be finished in time, not at all, and we simply couldn't afford another day at this place (it wasn't free).

So as I'm trying to film my lead actor run across some tables and land on the dance floor (I was in my wheelchair dolly, trying to smoothly follow him) I had my PAs trying to hold off the incoming old folks (they had wheelchairs, too) so I could get my last few shots in. And then 2nd & 3rd takes. Luckily we were shooitng MOS (no sound) but if we did have sound you'd be able to hear them grumbling around us. They were pissed, yeah, but we made our day.

Rule #1 - Be prepared, including CAST better (or more equally sized)
Rule #2 - Don't let me load your film
Rule #3 - Don't let my bro-in-law carry your food
Rule #4 - Don't piss off the old folks.
Rule #5 - Bring First Aid kit for Pogo-bouncing Grandpas.

"Let's waste time, chasing cars, around our heads"

That's from Snow Patrol's latest album, go get it. The song's called Chasing Cars.

Manager is checking out the new draft of my script Food Fight. He loved the idea & execution and had some minor notes which I worked on last week, now he's got it back. Damn I love that script. He plans to take it out as a spec and try to sell that puppy.

Now I'm polishing Smoking America, a script I first wrote back in 1999. The polish is based on notes from the one & only Scott The Reader. It's about a Nj pothead who wins the lottery & runs for President. He'll have that in a day or two.

Attached-director is reading my Cricket Hill TV pilot. The next conference call we have will discuss whether to make it a half hour or hour. I've got Season 1 almost totally mapped out. Once he OKs the pilot script they take it out to the studios.

Fave tunes

It's hard to pick your favorite music of all time. But I'll try. Scott Ze Reader inspired me to think about the music from my past, the stuff I grew up listening to, the music that was with me during good times & crappy times.

U2 - The Joshua Tree: Best. Album. Ever. - Not a bad song in the bunch, from "Where Streets Have No Name...." to "Exit" to "Mothers Of the Disappeared" to every other tune on this, amazing. "Running To Stand Still." Chills. The first album that made me realize the true power of music.

Radiohead - It's hard to pick my favoreite album, it's either The Bends or OK Computer. I lean toward The Bends because of Blackstar, Fake Plastic Trees & Street Spirit, then again OK Computer has their most amazing song ever (Let Down). Both albums are near perfect.

James - Damn us Americans for failing them every time. They were huge in the UK for their anthems like "Sit Down" but every album that came out here bombed. I'm torn between Seven & Laid as their best, leaning toward Seven because of the song, well, "Seven." Awesome stuff.

New Order - They've had so many great songs over the years. Bizarre Love Triangle is my fave from them, but Your Silent Face, Love Vigilantes, 1963, Temptation, and a slew of others are simply amazing.

Moby - Play: On one of my first trips to California, I bought this album and loved every second of it, had the disc playing as I drove around town, it was like my Los Angeles soundtrack.

Depeche Mode (also known as Depressed Mood in NJ): Music For the Masses. Wow. "Nothing" "Behind The Wheel" and my fave from them, "Never Let Me Down." Runner-up is Violator. One word - "Halo." Need more proof that this album amazes - "Clean." Need another? Go buy it.

**Fun Fact! Violator was playing back in 1991 when I got in a pretty nasty car accident. Ok, I hit a tree. But it was rainy, dark, and I was going way too fast down the mountainous road of Mount Joy, PA. "Enjoy The Silence" was playing when I made contact with the tree (then the steering wheel). Ouch!

INXS - Kick. Great album, every song, from "Guns In The Sky" to "Kick." they never matched this album, now with their new goofy lead singer, they never will. That "Vegas" song is a travesty. It ain't pretty.

Coldplay - Parachutes is a great album, but when I loaded A Rush Of Blood To The Head and the earth-shattering "Politik" began, I was blown away.

10,000 Maniacs - Our Time In Eden - "My How You've Grown" will make you weep, and "Our time In Eden" is simply a beautiful, beautiful song. The whole album is terrific.

REM - Fave album? It's tough. Green came at an important time of my life (high school). "World Leader Pretend," "Hairshirt" and "The Wrong Child" are classics. But Life's Rich Pageant is my fave album from these guys. Check out "Superman" & "Cuyahoga" & "Fall On Me." Automatic For The People is a close 2nd.

The Innocence Mission - From Lancaster, PA. Umbrella is the album to get, has one of my favorite songs EVER on it, "Now In This Hush." Their follow-up, Glow, was another great album. Check them out.

I wonder how my list would change in 10 years. Would bands I'm listening to lately (Youth Group, Arcade Fire, Snow Patrol, Secret Machines, Interpol) make the cut?

How about you guys? What albums/songs have stuck with you?

TV Pilot - Done

Okay, it's done. It feels good, I think it flows well for a first draft, and I feel good about it. It was fun to revisit those characters and expand/deepen their stories. I e-mailed it over to the Producers, now I start to eat my nails as I stress out if they'll like it or not.

They loved the 1st 15 I sent, but now it's another 45 pages since I last sent it over to them (they said to finish it before I sent more, so in the last week that's what I did - 45 pages, now it's done).

It'll likely come in at 56 pages, now it's at 60 but I purposely went over, I know I'll be tightening it down based on their notes. Their notes on the 1st 15 were easy, minor things, so I'm praying it's more of the same.

Now I'm in the process of mapping out Season 1. I already have the Season 1 cliffhanger ready to go. It's funny because as I was writing the pilot, things were coming to me, ideas, etc, and I had to sorta put them aside, thinking, "nah, that'd be better for the 2nd season."

New Managers went through my pile of scripts (I think I sent them 15, with 3 more about to be sent) and they pulled aside my comedy called Food Fight as one of the best (I agree). They had some minor notes (polishes, tightening, etc) and I'll have that done tonight and send that over to them. The plan with Food Fight is to attach an agent, possibly an actor or 2 (Food Fight needs a combo like Jack Black/Will Ferrell or Vince Vaughn/Owen Wilson or Ben Stiller/Luke Wilson (all interchangeable 'cause they'd all be perfect in either of the 2 main roles)). Anyway, the plan is basically to get it out there and sell it. I'd be okay with that.

If either of these projects gets off the ground and I do make it out to LaLa land, I'll be buying you all drinks. Hope you all are well.

Tom Cruisin'

MI:3 - It kicked ass, in my book. JJ Abrahms really jump started the series with this movie, and I loved every minute. His direction was smooth (and confident), the action was well choreographed, the script made sense (for a Mission Impossible movie, anyway), and all the actors rocked.

Yeah, even Cruise.

Much better than I & II, that much is certain.

Back to Cruise - the guy is a good actor, and it's obvious he gives 1000%. (Just watch him bolt through Shanghia as proof). I just wish he'd step back from the public eyeballs, and not toss every moment he shares with his Katie out there for us to see. And some opinions should be kept to himself.

You think ritalin, etc is over-used? You're right. Tons of parents/doctors use drugs like that much too quickly, and if he left it at that, he wouldn't have looked like a goof. But a blanket statement like he made to Matt Lauer last year that these drugs in every situation should be avoided, well, that made him look silly.

You want an ultrasound machine to watch your growing baby? Go for it, I just don't care and don't need to know.

Hopefully his new publicist can keep a lid on things, although I think he's gotten too comfortable sharing his every thought and life-changing event with the world.

It may have shown with the box office this weekend - MI:3 is a great action movie, and I just think if he hasn't mad some public bungles over the last year, he'd be seeing a lot more people turn out this weekend. The movie made 17+ million on Friday and is poised to make into the 50s (millions) this weekend (on par with The Bourne Supremacy's opening weekend gross), which is a decent opening, but I think would have been better if the dude just chilled out.

Back to the flick, great stuff in there. The Shanghai stuff, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge set piece, the Vatican, etc, all well done.

And the actors were great. Nice to see Ving Rhames again, Fishburne was good (and had some GREAT lines), Rhys-Meyers & Maggie Q were awesome, and I could watch Phiilip Seymour Hoffman like this any day - he was a creepy, sinister bastard. Loved him.

And Michelle Monoghan - Yum. What a beauty, she's like Liv tyler crossed with Ellen Pompeo (Grey's Anatomy chick). Only better than those 2. She's got a great look, and held her own quite well.

Saw previews for X3 (great trailer, hope it rocks), Superman (that's gonan be huge), Over The Hedge (looks fun), Waist Deep (meh), Nacho Libre (priceless) and the Break-Up (I think it'll be funny).

Also, finally saw the Wes Anderson/Amex commercial. Great spot, and it reminded me of his wonderul humor and ridiculous talent. More Maggie Q for ya.

Star Wars - September 12!!

Finally, Luca$ has gotten it together and will release the original (as in the original cuts) of his beloved Star Wars-Han-shoots-first trilogy. Sweet! I despise 88% of all the newer movies he's done, but the old ones, just like we saw 'em way back? That I can get into.

On A Roll

Quick, useless update. Cricket Hill is rolling along, been getting quite a few pages done of the Pilot over the last week, plan to be done the 1st draft by Thursday.

It's pretty neat to get into something I wrote as a feature, then expand it like this. I got right back into this family's story, getting back the character's voices, adding to their backstories, etc.

Once it's done I'll send it to my gang at the Prod Company. My main contact there and the Director who's attached to direct the Pilot will then check it out and we'll see what they think. I'm sure they'll have plenty of notes, etc. They loved the first set of pages I sent last week, so I hope the rest pleases them as well.

***Note - If this thing takes off, I'm California-bound, so you guys & gals already out there will have to help me move in to your fine state.

UNITED

Thank you, Paul Greengrass.

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.