Black List

Double, double, toil and trouble!

Maximum Z adventure, Black List, screenwriting

I didn’t get to do any work on LUCY because I was busy reading another Black List script: THE LAST WITCH HUNTER by Cory Goodman.

I admit that part of the reason I wanted to read this was because it sounds kinda-sorta like a future script of mine, the difference that mine is about a monster hunter.  And mine is more comedy-adventure, whereas this is fantasy-adventure.  With a vengeance.

The story starts 400-some years ago in Europe.  Witches are a horrific plague on mankind.  Brave warrior Kaulder seeks venegance for the death of his wife and child by leading a fearless band into a witch’s nest to kill as many witches as they can.  A thrilling battles ensues, ending with Kaulder being cursed with immortality.

Jump ahead to the present day.  Witches still exist, but are secretly part of everyday life.  They hide in plain sight.  But one witch in particular, Belial, thinks it’s once again time for witches to reign supreme over humanity.  But Kaulder, now working in conjunction with the Church, has basically become a living weapon and relentlessly seeks to stop him.

If my prose seems a little overly purple,  that should give you an idea of what Goodman’s writing is like.  He takes a sentence and wrings as much out of it as humanly possible.  Somebody doesn’t run down the stairs; they THUNDER as they CHARGE into the fray!  I bet his CAPS LOCK key really got a workout while this was being written.

Goodman also seems to subscribe to the Shane Black School of Screenwriting in that the wide margins are almost a character unto themselves, full of comments directed at the reader.  This continues throughout the whole thing.  Sometimes it works, and sometimes it gives off a “too cool for the room” kind of vibe, and becomes a little distracting.

In an effort to really create the world of this script, Goodman includes objects and artifacts relevant to the story, like Kaulder’s witch-killing gun, a certain type of knife, or a ghost warrior (comparable to Harry Potter’s Dementors).  All of these have inventive names WHICH ARE NEVER IDENTIFIED BY THE CHARACTERS.  So if you were watching this, you’d never know Kaulder’s gun is called the Purifier, because while it’s constantly mentioned in the wide margins, HE NEVER CALLS IT THAT.  You’d probably just call it his big-ass gun.

While I enjoyed reading it, it was hard to ignore the unfilmables peppered throughout, including the description of what something smelled like (!), or how ‘the camera slingshots’ around during a fight scene.  Fortunately, there weren’t a lot of moments like that, but it would still work without them.

The whole time I was reading this, I couldn’t shake the feeling that it seemed really familiar, including plot points and characters.  Then it hit me.  This is HELLBOY without the makeup.  Sure, there are a few differences here and there, but for the most part – same story.  Don’t be surprised if they to get Ron Perlman.

The script was picked up just under a year ago by Summit Entertainment with the apparent intent to start a franchise.  Timur Bekmambetov (again?) slated to produce and direct.  IMDB lists it as having a tentative 2012 release date, but that seems a little optimistic.

Not a flux capacitor in sight

Maximum Z Black List, Looper, Oscars, screenwriting, scriptshadow, time travel

No LUCY update today because my computer decided to show me how often it could show off the phrase “Not responding.”  That and updating some of my software took mind-numbingly too long.

I’m also working an extended shift for the next few days, which allows me a little downtime to read some of my Black List scripts before I settle in at the producer’s desk.

Today’s selection: LOOPER, by Rian Johnson.  Johnson did the very-good BRICK and the never-saw-it THE BROTHERS BLOOM.

It’s not easy to write a decent time travel script. BACK TO THE FUTURE is still the standard.  STAR TREK IV made it a key plot point. I saw PRIMER, but didn’t care for it much. And all those years watching the original DOCTOR WHO taught me a thing or two.

LOOPER’s concept is pretty original, but the logline “In the present day, a group of hitmen are sent their victims from the future,” really falls flat.  This is about ONE hitman and his ‘victim’.  And the story focuses more on the aftermath of time travel, rather than the act itself.

After time travel is invented (about 30 years from now), it is outlawed, so only criminal organizations have access to the technology.  They get rid of their victims by sending them back in time, where an assassin, or “looper”, kills them and disposes of the body.

But if the bad guys in the future are caught, they get rid of all evidence connecting them to the past, and if the looper is still alive in the future, his older self is sent back and killed by his younger self.  Thus, the “loop” is closed.

The story focuses on Joe, a looper.  There’s a ton of voiceover exposition in the beginning, but I suppose it’s really necessary to explain how everything works.

We get a glimpse of his life for about the first ten pages, then things really get rolling.  That’s all I can really say, because although a lot of the writing is jaw-droppingly amazing, there were times I wasn’t sure exactly what was going on.  Every once in a while there’s a lot of jumping around in terms of events unfolding, or something that happens in the present having an immediate impact on the future (including a well-done but disturbing scene of a man’s future self slowly losing body parts.  Draw your own conclusions).

I may have to go back and read it again, just to see if there’s something I missed.

There was a plot payoff I should have seen coming, but was too focused on trying to keep track of everything that was going on.  And one of the subplots didn’t seem to serve much purpose.

I suspect what appears on the screen may not match what’s on the page.  The writing is that good; almost poetic in some places.

According to Scriptshadow: “I have not read this but I know many who have. They basically tell me that the first half is the greatest script ever written. And then a weird twist happens and the second half just can’t live up to the setup.”

I don’t know if I agree with that “greatest script ever written” claim, nor would I say the twist is necessarily weird.  This is a time travel movie; there are only so many potential twists to come up with.  I also enjoyed the second half, partially due to the dual storylines that eventually converge.

I will say that the ending really caught me by surprise.  It was unexpected, and also worked that time travel aspect very nicely.

If anybody else has read this, I’m curious to know what you thought.

This started production in January with a tentative 2012 release date, but nothing more specific than that.

-Post-Oscar commentary. I liked Anne, was disappointed with Franco.  Somebody tweeted that he looked like he lost a bet.  I’d agree with that.

I thought there was a time limit on acceptance speeches.  Some of them went WAY TOO LONG. I’m looking at you, Amidala.

Sandra Bullock and Kevin Spacey would make great co-hosts.  That Billy Crystal/Bob Hope thing was pointless.  Sad to see what’s happened to Kirk Douglas, but glad he’s able to take part despite being 95 years old.

Of all the Best Picture nominees, I’ve only seen INCEPTION and TOY STORY 3, but will work on seeing the rest soon. Definitely TRUE GRIT and SOCIAL NETWORK, leaning towards THE KING’S SPEECH and WINTER’S BONE, maybe for THE FIGHTER and 127 HOURS.  Still not sure about BLACK SWAN and THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT.

I’d also really like to see THE ILLUSIONIST and the rest of the Animated Short nominees (since DAY & NIGHT played with TS3).  I’ll also check out Live Action Short winner GOD OF LOVE, since the wild-haired director said it was on iTunes (also liked his speech a lot).

And did anybody notice Jack Nicholson wasn’t there?  Did anybody care?

If BUFFY had been on the History Channel…

Maximum Z Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, adventure, Black List, history, screenwriting

I’ll have a LUCY progress update tomorrow.  I didn’t get to work on it over the weekend because there was a ton of hockey stuff for V, as well as the latest in my culinary repertoire of making a roasted eggplant soup with goat cheese dumplings, which ate up (no pun intended) most of my Presidents’ Day afternoon.  Suffice to say, I was wiped by day’s end.  It also didn’t help that the soup had to cool off before you could eat it, which is why we had Thai food.

But I did manage to finish the book, then the script of ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER, both by Seth Grahame-Smith, who also wrote the hit genre mash-up PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES.

I’ll start with the book. I’m a huge fan of US history, so I was looking forward to it.  K liked P&P&Z, but thought I would really enjoy this.  It starts out with an introduction told in first-person narrative, then shifts into a historical ‘record’.

It takes the concept of Lincoln having kept a journal of his vampire-hunting exploits, including how his mother was killed by one to pay a debt to a land-owner.  This is the trigger that sets up Abe’s lifetime goal: eliminate all vampires.  Clever.

It seems like Grahame-Smith started with Lincoln’s history and applied vampire elements where they would fit best, including his first love being killed by one, and the brilliant notion that vampires were the biggest supporters of slavery (and therefore the Confederacy as well).

It was a quick, easy read, and definitely would make for an entertaining movie.  I just had a few problems:

1. The cheesy-looking ‘photographs’.  Grahame-Smith even acknowledges a friend for her ‘Photoshop genius’.  I realize photography was in its infancy, but they just look silly.

2. The idea that John Wilkes Booth was a vampire himself.  Not bad, but doesn’t work for me.  I think it’s taking the vampire idea a little too far.

3.  A major character throughout the story is Henry Sturges, a vampire who helps Abe learn how to fight and defeat them (a self-imposed penance).  Henry is always offering Abe the chance to have someone he deeply loves be turned into a vampire; Abe always refuses. SPOILER ALERT!  The book ends in 1963, at Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech (in front of the Lincoln Memorial, of course), and Henry and Abe are there.  I didn’t like it.  It seems like a cop-out.

Personally, I think it would have been better to have Henry assisting other prominent figures as vampire hunters through history (Teddy Roosevelt, Charlie Chaplin and Elvis come to mind.  Admit it.  Elvis as a vampire hunter would absolutely kick ass.)

Now for the script, which was on last year’s Black List.  It takes almost the same approach.  It’s all told as history, but with a ton of Lincoln narrating in voiceover.  Maybe a little more than necessary.

It also does a bit of jumping around, chronologically, just to establish the Lincoln-vampire backstory/connection.  This is followed by some big sequences, including when Lincoln met Henry, Lincoln with Mary, and pretty much the latter half revolving around the Civil War.

What I found very interesting was that for the most part, the script started out very similarly to the book ( at least from a historical record point of view), then seemed to take a wild turn into flat-out action-adventure. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it came across as very in-your-face about it. “Hey, this is the exciting part, so pay attention!”

And since every story needs a bad guy, the idea of a ruling vampire is introduced.  I realize he’s the brains behind the vampire movement, but he doesn’t appear in that many scenes, so his role in the story isn’t as big as you would expect.

After the big showdown, it really speeds through to the end.  There’s only one scene regarding the assassination at Ford’s Theatre, and even that’s barely half a page, then it jumps ahead to 1965, with Henry and Lincoln side-by-side in Washington DC.  Again, I didn’t care for it.

It will be interesting to see what changes, if any, are made before this hits the big screen, which it appears it’s going to.

Tentatively scheduled for a June 2012 release, directed by NIGHTWATCH, DAYWATCH and WANTED’s Timur Bekmambetov, with Benjamin Walker as Abe.  I suspect this will be more popular on Netflix than in theatres.

I once again suggest that if this can be made into a feature film, then why not my idea of THE 3 STOOGES: UNDERCOVER G-MEN?

Movie of the Moment:  V’s afterschool is doing several dance numbers (none of which she’s involved in), including a Wizard of Oz storyline, which includes ‘Ease on Down the Road,” so we watched THE WIZ.

It was okay, but probably would have better to see the full-on Broadway version.

And you don’t know what difficult is until you try explaining 70’s black culture to a 21st-century child.

I’d pay to see it

Maximum Z Black List, Chronicle, comic books, screenwriting

The rain has been hitting the Bay Area hard the last couple of days, which means I stay at work until noon.  And with all those idiots on the roads who forget you can’t drive 80 mph on the freeway in the rain, the traffic problems come in fast and furious.  And it’s exhausting.

So when I got home today, I just didn’t have the strength to work on LUCY.  Instead, I opted to read the Black List script CHRONICLE by Max Landis, son of director John Landis.

The basic premise is that three teens in suburban Portland, Oregon gain superpowers.  The only way this could be considered a comic book movie is if it were written by Warren Ellis, Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore.  If you know comics, and those writers in particular, then you know this can’t end well.

I’ll get to the story in a second, but think it’s really important to comment on HOW the story is presented.  The whole thing, all 92 pages, is seen via video footage.  A docu-drama, like PARANORMAL ACTIVITY or CLOVERFIELD.  Everything is from the camera’s point of view.  The events have been CHRONICLED.  Hence the title.  Clever, no?

At first, I wasn’t sure if it was just a gimmick, or if it would eventually go to a ‘regular’ look, but Landis keeps it going throughout the whole thing.  And after a while, I could see why.

Using the video footage and breaks between filming, as well as smart dialogue and well-written wide margins, helps the reader understand what’s transpiring onscreen.  Sometimes you read something that may seem unfilmable, but after giving it a second read-through, it still works.  Quite nicely, actually.

Regarding the story, the main character is Andrew, a loser with a video camera.  He films everything.  We get a glimpse into his harsh home life, as well as his own personal hell that is high school.  We also meet his cousin Matt and school golden boy Steve.

Somehow they find themselves in an underground cave, where they acquire telekinetic powers.  This was the only confusing part of the story for me.  The cave is never explained.  It’s just there.  I’ll have to read through it again.  Maybe I missed it.

Anyway.  Their powers start out small, but get stronger, including the ability to fly.  But like the late Ben Parker said, “With great power, comes great responsibility.”  Especially for main character Andrew.  While the ability to move things with his mind is at first thrilling and exciting, the more he uses them and the stronger his powers get, the darker he and his world become, culminating in the surprise death of a main character and what a full, all-out super-battle in a major metropolis would really look like.

And while I’m not a big fan of onscreen gore, there were two scenes that, if done properly, would look absolutely brutal.

What I really liked about the script was how you could read more into what was going on, just by how a phrase or sentence is worded.  Really effective stuff.  I didn’t know what to expect when I started reading it, but it was definitely unique and didn’t turn out the way I thought it would.  Which is always a nice surprise.

According to the Internets, Fox picked it up last August and it’s in pre-production now with a tentative release date of sometime next year.  Thrilling stuff.

Movie of the Moment: GI JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA.  Cinematic Velveeta.  Campy.  Silly.  Fun, especially if you’re 12 or under.  I’m really glad I did this on Netflix, rather than paid to see it.  I mean, really.  Acceleration suits? Puh-leeze.

Is this why Christopher Eccleston left DOCTOR WHO?  Jeez, I hope not.

That’s more like it

Maximum Z analysis, Black List, Lucy Steele, Murder of a Cat, outlines, screenwriting

It was quite a challenge, but I finally found a goal for my antagonist I’m happy with.  And even better, I didn’t have to change that much in the outline.  Sure, the opening scene is gone and now focuses on Lucy herself, but I think that’s for the best.

I had completely forgotten how both protagonist and antagonist should stand in the way of the other achieving their goal.  That really helped me figure things out.

Now it’s back into the quagmire that is the latter half of Act Two.  Good news on that front as well: I read over last week’s progress, and a lot of it still works.  So far, so good.

Once I get to the end of Act Two, and then figure out my way through Act Three, fine-tuning it may not be as difficult as I think (he typed with fingers crossed).

-As promised, a little more detail about MURDER OF A CAT, my most recent Black List script.  Like I said, I wasn’t that impressed.

It’s the story of a guy whose cat is murdered, and he works on figuring out the who and the why behind it.  I like the concept, but didn’t like the main character.  Can somebody please announce a moratorium on the now-cliched idea of an arrested development guy still living in his parents’ basement?  It’s no longer original, and I find them really annoying.

Honestly, he really reminded me of Ignatius J Reilly from A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES.  Which I didn’t like either.  So sue me.

And if I don’t like the main character, why do I care if he succeeds or doesn’t?

But that’s the problem.  Although I didn’t like him, I was interested in the mystery angle of the story.  He just happens to be the guy right in the middle of everything.  And adding to all of that, the main female character turns into a love interest.  I found her becoming attracted to him a little hard to believe.  Having them stay at odds throughout would have been much better.

I’m having a little trouble figuring out how this made it to the Black List.  The writing is…okay.  There doesn’t seem to be anything unique, original or (in my opinion) funny about it.  It wouldn’t surprise me if somebody read this and thought “Will Ferrell would be perfect!”

Who am I kidding?  Half of LA probably did.

Next up: I was going to read CHRONICLE, but I’m almost done with the book version of ABRAHAM LINCOLN, VAMPIRE HUNTER, so I’ll probably tackle the script soon afterwards.  That should be very interesting.