I really dig Jim Jarmusch. Ghost Dog and Dead Man especially are two of my favorite films of all time. I like Jim Jarmusch a lot more than most... people have made fun of me for liking Jarmusch's films as much as I do. (coughJandeBontcough).
I missed Coffee and Cigarettes when it was in the theater. I finally caught up with it on Netflix.
It's really, really, really boring.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Screamfest LA
I know, I know... I'm, oh-so-busy, but I'm posting a ton of shit on my blog. Fuck it, I'm eating lunch, fuckin' Subway Club on wheat, G. I'm "taking five," as they say in the working world.
Speaking of "fives," Screamfest LA chose five horror screenplay finalists, and HOUSE OF DOORS was not one of them.
Between this, and my quarterfinalist placings for PAR FOR COURSE in Slamdance and the Nicholl, let me sum up my reaction with... "What the fuck?"
I've got scripts with honest-to-goodness stars (the dude who's gonna play Bones!) and directors (the dude who directed Die Hard!) attached, in the pre-production pipeline (sometime in March), and yet I still can't get past the second round in screenwriting contests.
What's the disconnect?
Maybe I need to write something artier. Unfortunately, somebody already got to gay cowboys eating pudding.
I dunno... I like writing scripts with martial arts and car chases and beheadings and making with the big wacky laff-comedy. It's hard to wrap my mind around a story about some weirdo being sad. Whenever I see movies like that (i.e. Requiem for a Dream), I always imagine the Hansen Brothers pummeling the characters with hockey sticks.
Is it wrong? Am I a bad person? Am I too shallow to deal with the high art of the films of cinema? Am I indicative of everything that's wrong with Hollywood, and I'm only placing at all due to some inherent level of craft?
Man, I hope so. Fuck that art shit. This country needs more car chase movies.
Speaking of "fives," Screamfest LA chose five horror screenplay finalists, and HOUSE OF DOORS was not one of them.
Between this, and my quarterfinalist placings for PAR FOR COURSE in Slamdance and the Nicholl, let me sum up my reaction with... "What the fuck?"
I've got scripts with honest-to-goodness stars (the dude who's gonna play Bones!) and directors (the dude who directed Die Hard!) attached, in the pre-production pipeline (sometime in March), and yet I still can't get past the second round in screenwriting contests.
What's the disconnect?
Maybe I need to write something artier. Unfortunately, somebody already got to gay cowboys eating pudding.
I dunno... I like writing scripts with martial arts and car chases and beheadings and making with the big wacky laff-comedy. It's hard to wrap my mind around a story about some weirdo being sad. Whenever I see movies like that (i.e. Requiem for a Dream), I always imagine the Hansen Brothers pummeling the characters with hockey sticks.
Is it wrong? Am I a bad person? Am I too shallow to deal with the high art of the films of cinema? Am I indicative of everything that's wrong with Hollywood, and I'm only placing at all due to some inherent level of craft?
Man, I hope so. Fuck that art shit. This country needs more car chase movies.
Who's Running this Monkey Farm?!
The best part of this article, in my own humble, is...
"This is not the first case of monkey attack on the city's denizens."
When a man can't even enjoy a morning hookah on his balcony without getting attacked by monkeys, the world is truly flying apart at the seams.
"This is not the first case of monkey attack on the city's denizens."
When a man can't even enjoy a morning hookah on his balcony without getting attacked by monkeys, the world is truly flying apart at the seams.
Flaming Squirrel Ignites Car
Check this out.
I think it was a suicide. I think the squirrel was despondent and decided to go out in a blaze of glory.
I think it was a suicide. I think the squirrel was despondent and decided to go out in a blaze of glory.
CRAZED!!!
I have never been so busy at my day job. I'm still pulling together this cast, and we're going into production next fuckin' week. I'm not just learning casting... I'm learning while I'm doing it, working a two-man job, making offers and negotiating and pulling together meetings and auditions and reads.
Trial by fire, man.
Oh yeah, and I'm doing the rest of the shit I usually do all day on top of that.
This is all while the whole town is in chaos because the WGA is on the brink of going on strike on Halloween. And the worst forest fire in years is tearing across the north county. People had to leave the office to go home, pack their shit into cars and sit in their driveways, waiting for the word to evacuate. And the guy who's on board to direct RUN is going to prison.
It's chaos, straight from the universal tap.
In a weird way, I'm uniquely acclimated to this shit. My life has been on a storm-tossed sea for so long that I've accepted the insanity as normal. I don't look for or create chaos, I'm not one of those lunatics. But I can deal with it and thrive.
Not saying I'm this bulletproof motherfucker. But I'm not crawling under my bed to hide. All you can do is take it and move on. Like Hagakure tells us: "Seven times down, eight times up."
Back to the rock 'n' roll...
Trial by fire, man.
Oh yeah, and I'm doing the rest of the shit I usually do all day on top of that.
This is all while the whole town is in chaos because the WGA is on the brink of going on strike on Halloween. And the worst forest fire in years is tearing across the north county. People had to leave the office to go home, pack their shit into cars and sit in their driveways, waiting for the word to evacuate. And the guy who's on board to direct RUN is going to prison.
It's chaos, straight from the universal tap.
In a weird way, I'm uniquely acclimated to this shit. My life has been on a storm-tossed sea for so long that I've accepted the insanity as normal. I don't look for or create chaos, I'm not one of those lunatics. But I can deal with it and thrive.
Not saying I'm this bulletproof motherfucker. But I'm not crawling under my bed to hide. All you can do is take it and move on. Like Hagakure tells us: "Seven times down, eight times up."
Back to the rock 'n' roll...
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Karl Urban's Gonna Play Bones in Star Trek
Which, even though it's slated to go into production in June, apparently isn't going to affect RUN. (According to the man himself).
WHEW.
Every day's another screech around the corner...
WHEW.
Every day's another screech around the corner...
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Let's Remake Hellraiser!
Why the fuck not?
I think we all have to swallow the bitter truth that the clock's ticking on an EXORCIST remake.
It fits the paradigm of all the other horror classics: brilliant first movie, vast cultural awareness, shitty sequels... boom, remake.
(Though I should mention I really like EXORCIST III).
From today's Variety:
French duo to remake 'Hellraiser'
Clive Barker to produce for Dimension
By MICHAEL FLEMING
French filmmakers Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo have scared up the job of writing and directing a remake of Clive Barker's 1987 horror film "Hellraiser" for Dimension Films. Barker will produce.
Dimension, which scored a hit with a redo of "Halloween," has the same hopes for "Hellraiser," the film that hatched a franchise around the pasty-faced Pinhead.
The original film revolved around a couple who move into an old house inhabited by the man's eviscerated half-brother, who escaped hellish torture from the Cenobites but returned shorn of his skin. The Cenobites, who are triggered by a Rubik's Cube-like puzzle device that unlocks the gates of hell, would like another meeting with the man.
Maury and Bustillo most recently directed the French fright film "Inside," released last summer in France.
"Julien and Alex showed their incredible creative talent on 'Inside,' and I'm excited to have them at the helm, working with Clive Barker, to create a fresh, suspenseful and scary reimagining of the classic tale," said Weinstein Co. co-chairman Bob Weinstein.
TWC picked up distribution rights to "Inside," a thriller about a pregnant woman who loses her boyfriend in a car crash and is subsequently haunted violently by a mysterious woman.
I think we all have to swallow the bitter truth that the clock's ticking on an EXORCIST remake.
It fits the paradigm of all the other horror classics: brilliant first movie, vast cultural awareness, shitty sequels... boom, remake.
(Though I should mention I really like EXORCIST III).
From today's Variety:
French duo to remake 'Hellraiser'
Clive Barker to produce for Dimension
By MICHAEL FLEMING
French filmmakers Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo have scared up the job of writing and directing a remake of Clive Barker's 1987 horror film "Hellraiser" for Dimension Films. Barker will produce.
Dimension, which scored a hit with a redo of "Halloween," has the same hopes for "Hellraiser," the film that hatched a franchise around the pasty-faced Pinhead.
The original film revolved around a couple who move into an old house inhabited by the man's eviscerated half-brother, who escaped hellish torture from the Cenobites but returned shorn of his skin. The Cenobites, who are triggered by a Rubik's Cube-like puzzle device that unlocks the gates of hell, would like another meeting with the man.
Maury and Bustillo most recently directed the French fright film "Inside," released last summer in France.
"Julien and Alex showed their incredible creative talent on 'Inside,' and I'm excited to have them at the helm, working with Clive Barker, to create a fresh, suspenseful and scary reimagining of the classic tale," said Weinstein Co. co-chairman Bob Weinstein.
TWC picked up distribution rights to "Inside," a thriller about a pregnant woman who loses her boyfriend in a car crash and is subsequently haunted violently by a mysterious woman.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Romero
Gotta keep this short. I'm busy as fuck, but I have to get this out there...
I went to go see DIARY OF THE DEAD on Friday. It has a great concept and the reviews have been positive.
With the deepest regret, I have to say this movie is 75% awful.
Romero's lost all sense of subtlety. Like all of his movies, he wants to get a theme across. In DIARY, he's not just banging a drum... he's banging a drum in front of bullhorn that's pointed at a microphone that's linked to System of a Down's amp set-up.
Worse yet, it didn't seem like he even knew what the fuck he was trying to relay. Okay, mainstream media is dishonest and bad, got it. But when the mainstream media goes off-line and it's just the "bloggers and hackers," he condemns that, too.
There's a terrible voice-over throughout that never shuts the fuck up, constantly banging your head against Romero's "theme."
The characters are the lowest cliches. The dialogue is excruciating. I was never scared. The only saving grace for me was the cool Amish guy who throws dynamite at zombies.
I could maybe blame my expectations. It's a brilliant idea for a horror movie. The reviews were solid. It's fucking ROMERO. But I don't think so... it's just a bad movie.
Even LAND, I watched and thought, "Eh, it's okay." When I rewatched it, I liked it a lot more. This one, I have no intention of wasting two hours on again.
I really, really, really, really wanted to love this movie. I didn't. It was painful to watch. And afterwards, the more I thought about the movie, the worse it seemed.
Dammit!
I went to go see DIARY OF THE DEAD on Friday. It has a great concept and the reviews have been positive.
With the deepest regret, I have to say this movie is 75% awful.
Romero's lost all sense of subtlety. Like all of his movies, he wants to get a theme across. In DIARY, he's not just banging a drum... he's banging a drum in front of bullhorn that's pointed at a microphone that's linked to System of a Down's amp set-up.
Worse yet, it didn't seem like he even knew what the fuck he was trying to relay. Okay, mainstream media is dishonest and bad, got it. But when the mainstream media goes off-line and it's just the "bloggers and hackers," he condemns that, too.
There's a terrible voice-over throughout that never shuts the fuck up, constantly banging your head against Romero's "theme."
The characters are the lowest cliches. The dialogue is excruciating. I was never scared. The only saving grace for me was the cool Amish guy who throws dynamite at zombies.
I could maybe blame my expectations. It's a brilliant idea for a horror movie. The reviews were solid. It's fucking ROMERO. But I don't think so... it's just a bad movie.
Even LAND, I watched and thought, "Eh, it's okay." When I rewatched it, I liked it a lot more. This one, I have no intention of wasting two hours on again.
I really, really, really, really wanted to love this movie. I didn't. It was painful to watch. And afterwards, the more I thought about the movie, the worse it seemed.
Dammit!
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Screamfest
I'm going to Screamfest tomorrow night. Two reasons:
1) DIARY OF THE DEAD is playing. I have tickets pre-ordered. Punk rock.
2) My script HOUSE OF DOORS is a semi-finalist. Out of 25 scripts, they'll pick five as finalists.
I'm feeling good about HOD. I recently did a couple of rewrites for a financer. The gig didn't pan out, but I think the script's a lot tighter from the development work.
After the lack of love I got for PAR FOR COURSE (only a quarterfinalist in the Nicholl and Slamdance), it'd be sweet to get another contender in there swingin'.
Meanwhile, it's just a lot of handwringing over all of this strike bullshit...
1) DIARY OF THE DEAD is playing. I have tickets pre-ordered. Punk rock.
2) My script HOUSE OF DOORS is a semi-finalist. Out of 25 scripts, they'll pick five as finalists.
I'm feeling good about HOD. I recently did a couple of rewrites for a financer. The gig didn't pan out, but I think the script's a lot tighter from the development work.
After the lack of love I got for PAR FOR COURSE (only a quarterfinalist in the Nicholl and Slamdance), it'd be sweet to get another contender in there swingin'.
Meanwhile, it's just a lot of handwringing over all of this strike bullshit...
Where the Great Old Ones Are
Need I say more...?On a side note, I heard from a financer today that they're working with Stuart Gordon on not one, but TWO, new HPL adaptations.
How sweet it is.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Yet Another Awesome Nightmare
I'm a TA at a dorm that looks surprisingly like Bailey Hall, where I lived when I was going to SIU. But instead of college students, it's kids maybe 10-years-old.
Two of the kids keep coming over and telling me there's a dead boy in their room. I'm like: "Yeah, right." They say he's bothering them. He sits in the corner and cries and says stuff that scares them.
Finally, I'm like... fine. I head down the hall. The kids are afraid to go in their room. I say, "If there's a dead kid in your room, tell him to come on out." One of the boys stick his head in the room and says, "He wants to you come out."
And -- swear to God -- at that EXACT moment my cell phone rang and I woke up.
Pretty sweet, huh?
Two of the kids keep coming over and telling me there's a dead boy in their room. I'm like: "Yeah, right." They say he's bothering them. He sits in the corner and cries and says stuff that scares them.
Finally, I'm like... fine. I head down the hall. The kids are afraid to go in their room. I say, "If there's a dead kid in your room, tell him to come on out." One of the boys stick his head in the room and says, "He wants to you come out."
And -- swear to God -- at that EXACT moment my cell phone rang and I woke up.
Pretty sweet, huh?
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
At the Mountains of Madness
Latino Review says Guillermo del Toro is, at long last, moving toward his adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness.
YES-YES-YES-YES-YES-YES!!!
YES-YES-YES-YES-YES-YES!!!
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Solomon Kane
Here's an article on aintitcool about the forthcoming adaptation of SOLOMON KANE.
As well you know, I'm a hardcore Howard geek. Conan's stil the first and best, but even his secondary characters are a big fuckin' slice of awesome.
He's the kinda guy who carries a sword, two flinklock pistols and a fetish stick he got from an African sorceror. He wears a cool hat. In one story, he fights pirates. In another, he fights vampires.
(Hey B-Boy, remember Captain Gerard?)
Conan doesn't really care about good and evil. He tends to ruin the shit of bad guys, only because they have a greater habit of getting in his way.
Not so Solomon Kane. If there is an evil ass that needs kicking, he's God's big, buckled boot. Here's hoping this flick's gonna be all kinds of righteous.
As well you know, I'm a hardcore Howard geek. Conan's stil the first and best, but even his secondary characters are a big fuckin' slice of awesome.
He's the kinda guy who carries a sword, two flinklock pistols and a fetish stick he got from an African sorceror. He wears a cool hat. In one story, he fights pirates. In another, he fights vampires.
(Hey B-Boy, remember Captain Gerard?)
Conan doesn't really care about good and evil. He tends to ruin the shit of bad guys, only because they have a greater habit of getting in his way.
Not so Solomon Kane. If there is an evil ass that needs kicking, he's God's big, buckled boot. Here's hoping this flick's gonna be all kinds of righteous.
Monday, October 1, 2007
It's Like Grizzly Man in Reverse
Have you ever seen a bear attempt suicide?
Neither have I.
By the way, if you haven't seen Grizzly Man yet, your life is just a little bit unhappier.
Neither have I.
By the way, if you haven't seen Grizzly Man yet, your life is just a little bit unhappier.
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