…the much-anticipated Project Status Update!
So simple, anyone can do it in just two easy steps!
Here’s how it works:
1. What you’re currently working on
2. How it’s going
I’ll start the ball rolling.
1. A rewrite of my mystery spec.
2. I’m up to page 82, which places it in the latter half of Act 2. This includes the realization that my “page 75” plot point has changed, but still works.
See? No sweat. Give it a try.
And continuing with the theme of something not seen in a while…
-Movie of the Moment. THE LONE RANGER (2013). Yep. Finally.
It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t good either. My biggest complaint was that there was just way too much going on. I’m all for an epic western, but this felt like they were trying to jam in as many cliches as possible. They could have totally removed at least two supporting characters and the inane “1933 Tonto telling a story” scenes.
It really seemed like it couldn’t decide what kind of story it wanted to be. Slapstick comedy? Buddy picture? Drama with touches of gore? All these and more on display.
One of the first rules in screenwriting is to make the audience want to root for your main character, which unfortunately doesn’t happen here. I actually thought Armie Hammer was a good choice to play the part, but the material was all wrong. Yes, he’s adapting to the ways of the frontier, but for crying out loud, this is the LONE RANGER. You do not make him a naive doofus.
Regarding Johnny Depp as Tonto, Graham Elwood of the Comedy Film Nerds podcast summed it up perfectly: The name of the movie is THE LONE RANGER, not JACK SPARROW GOES WEST.
One can only hope that the failure of this film will not once again stop the resurgence of the western.
Maximum Z 
Here’s mine:
1. Working on a rewrite of my silly comedy about a husband and his pregnant wife switching bodies – yes, I did one of those 🙂 And writing my first comedy with writing partner Chad P., a much more realistic comedy about losing track of priorities in life.
2. Wondeful! Man do I love this writing game. But sure wish I was better at it… I’m learning.
Reblogged this on justinmsloan.
Thanks for the reblog!
Good luck with both scripts. Tthe switching bodies one sounds like a fun premise.
Keep at it. The only way we get better is to keep trying.
1. Working on the next draft of my sister rescue script.
2. A little rough. The draft you looked at was 70-something pages, the one I’m working on is 120. Don’t know how I added that many to the story. I’m just starting in earnest, but I’m going to try this: http://johnaugust.com/2005/how-to-rewrite, which sounds super hard but probably worth it.
That’s great. Good luck! Yes, rewriting is hard, but like August’s post suggests, as long as you know how things are supposed to go, you should be fine.