Year: 2010

A surefire hit!

Maximum Z 3 Stooges, comedy, espionage, slapstick, thrillers, WWII

With the success of recent alternate reality stories such as PRIDE, PREJUDICE & ZOMBIES and ABRAHAM LINCOLN, VAMPIRE HUNTER, the next logical step can only be:

THE 3 STOOGES: UNDERCOVER G-MEN!

1944. Hollywood. A Nazi spy ring has infiltrated Tinseltown’s Jewish community.

Moe, Larry and Curly are on hiatus from filming their latest batch of shorts.
Although they initially reject the offer to join the Axis, the OSS recruits them to play along and destroy the ring from within.

Slapstick combined with war-time thrills and intrigue! Tell me the world would not go absolutely gaga over this.

At least the male half would.

Wikipedia is my sister! My daughter! My sister! My daughter!

Maximum Z Civil War, loglines, research, screenwriting, script doctor eric, story, train, Uncategorized, Wikipedia

My apologies for a lack of posts the last few days. A combo of extra hours at work, family stuff and just being busy kept me away.

Progress on the second act of LUCY has been slower than I’d like, but that’s okay. Better to take my time than constantly be fixing it later.

I got some very nice feedback from a fellow writer about Act One. He’s read some of my other stuff and was quite enthusiastic about what I’ve got so far. Although he’s not crazy about the main character being a woman, I think it makes for a slightly different approach, as well as being somewhat original.

Because I’m trying to keep this story as historically accurate as I can, I’ve been using various websites as reference guides. The Civil War, trains, and so on.

And of course, Wikipedia. I’ve gotten a lot of very helpful info from it so far. It is truly invaluable.

Throughout the events of the story, I’ve been establishing that several of the characters will end up in California. This includes the love interest and the villain, who has also stolen Lucy’s train. I pictured a big finale taking place IN California. Sounds awesome, right?

The story starts in the East just as the Civil War is ending, then gradually heads west. That means the trains would need to make their way across the country, which would be 1865.

I wanted to make sure this was plausible, but Wikipedia informed me the driving of the Golden Spike in Utah was the birth of the Transcontinental Railroad. In 1869. Which is 4 years AFTER this story takes place.  Which means I need to CHANGE SOMETHING!

Either I move the time of the story ahead, which destroys that whole “end of the Civil War” aspect, or I change the locale of where the story ends.  As much as I hate to do it, it’s easier to go with the latter.  One of the many rules of writing is “kill your darlings,” so it looks like I’ll being committing murder-by-author in the next few days.  Like I said, it would be great to have the showdown in California, but it just won’t work.  Time to dive back into Wikipedia and find out where gold was plentiful before the railroad.  Denver might work.  A showdown on railroad tracks through the Rockies has potential.

I was originally hoping to be done with the outline by the end of the year, but that ain’t gonna happen.  I’ll be happy if I get to the midpoint by then.

-I sent the scene rewrite back to the director a few days ago, and have heard nothing back.  I don’t know how he feels about it, and he said he wanted to shoot the remaining scenes tomorrow (Sunday).   As always, I wish him the best of luck.

-Even though I thought I was done with it, I sent the logline to NORTH POLE NOIR to the logline contest yesterday. I don’t know what kind of a chance I have; I’ve entered it before, but with no results.  This time he seems to want more Christmas-themed ones, so maybe this time.  Fingers crossed.

And that was the easy part!

Maximum Z Harry Potter, movies, outlines, plot, Richard Curtis, screenwriting, story, train, westerns

I must have gotten more done on the first act of LUCY last week than I thought, because I didn’t have to spend much time on it today, and for the most part, it’s done.

Hooray for me.

While I’m extremely happy with the way everything’s working out so far, I’ve also been mulling over what happens in Act Two, aka the vast wasteland.

It is somewhat daunting to be starting on the bulk of the story, which is why I’m really glad to be fine-tuning everything now.  I can figure out what works and what doesn’t.  I’m also really glad I set up those plot point milestones, which will help me get where I want to go.  That western and train checklist has also come in handy.

I’ve started plotting out what happens as Act Two gets underway, but still need a plausible way to get to my page 45 twist.  Somewhere in there I’d like to introduce my bounty hunter character (and I already have his name ready).  What would be even cooler is to somehow tie him in to what we’ve already seen, but I think I can do that too.

Movie of the Moment:  I took V to see HARRY POTTER 7 yesterday.  A little long, but seems like a nice start to wrapping the whole thing up.  I remember when the book came out, a reviewer commented on “HP and the never-ending camping trip.”  Which was on full display.  Despite the occasional question (“What did he say?,  What does that mean?, etc”), V seemed really enjoy it.  I’m sure we’ll see part 2 next summer.

There was also the requisite GREEN LANTERN trailer, which V was very excited about.  I am also guilty about that, despite Ryan Reynolds still being better for the part of Barry Allen rather than Hal Jordan.  But that’s what they get for not asking me.

I did watch PIRATE RADIO earlier today.  It was a blast.  I didn’t realize Richard Curtis wrote and directed it; he wrote FOUR WEDDINGS & A FUNERAL, NOTTING HILL and wrote and directed LOVE, ACTUALLY.  After I learned that, I could see similarities between some of the films.  Multi-character storylines with one main character tying the whole thing together.  And he collaborated with Rowan Atkinson on some of the later Blackadders, so you know his comedy skills are top-notch.

But getting back to PIRATE RADIO.  Lots of funny stuff, most of it possibly true, and just a fun story.  It also had the requisite happy ending, but I won’t say how.  Suffice to say, what led up to it was unexpected, but it all fit together very nicely.

That’s MY job?

Maximum Z Uncategorized , , ,

While the re-organizing of the first act of LUCY continues (including a title change to one that is sheer awesomeness), I got a call yesterday from the director of the short I wrote back in the summer.

I really thought he was going to tell me it was all wrapped up and when the party was.

Nope.

He’s shot three scenes so far, but keeps running into scheduling problems with his actors. One of them can’t be there for shooting the final scene, so he wanted to know if I had any ideas about how to fix it.

I thought it over for a few seconds. The final scene is set in a small hotel lobby and the character makes a 2-second appearance (but has a bigger part earlier in the story).

Put the guy’s headshot in a picture frame and make him Employee of the Month.

Then the director asks whether he should show it in a close-up or start on it and pan over to the hotel desk. Just have it as part of the shot; don’t draw attention to it, I say. He’s not sure.

Okay, then slap the headshot on some posterboard and make it a lobby card for the headliner in the hotel’s lounge. He asks what if I make it greenscreen and fill it in later? That’s making it way more complicated than it has to be, I say. Posterboard, a black Sharpie, maybe some gold stars and a headshot. Five bucks, tops. He’ll think about that one, too.

But we’re not done yet.

A pivotal scene is supposed to take place in a pool hall, but the hall he wants to film in is undergoing renovations. How could he get around this?

I’d like to add that the pool aspect was his idea because he had a clever way of showing trick shots through cgi. So much for that, apparently.

Again, a matter of seconds.

Make it a poker game. Cards, chips, a table, minimal lighting. Easy peasy. Again, he’ll think about it.

Even more amazing is that he wanted to be done before the end of the year so he could submit it to festivals. I hope he makes it.

The last time I saw him in person (mid-August, I think), he told me he was planning to move to LA in January to break into the industry.

I worry he may not be completely prepared. Nevertheless, I still wish him the best of luck.