thrillers

That’s more like it

Maximum Z horror, rewrite, screenwriting, The Thing, Thor, thrillers

My child is out of the house for the next two weeks, so I have a lot of free time during the day.

Today I went to a 10:20AM show of THOR.  One of the benefits of working morning drive – your day is done by the time everybody else’s is starting.

It was fun; not IRON MAN fun, but still sorta/kinda enjoyable. I’m not too familiar with the comic book. Just a very casual fan. I knew who the characters were, and that’s about it.  I did get the Don Blake joke; that was clever.

My main gripe was the storyline about how Thor could get his power back. I get that he had to learn humility, but how did dying accomplish that?  Or was it a lesson about the fragility of life?  I don’t know.

Unfortunately, this didn’t give me that “I can’t wait to see that again!” feeling.  Up next – probably X-MEN: FIRST CLASS.

After I got home, I jumped feet-first back into the rewrite.  And it felt great, despite not remembering where I had left off.  Turns out it was the 2nd quarter of Act Two. I consulted my notes and got to the midpoint.

While I like the immediacy of working with the laptop, most of this work has been handwritten.  I typed in what I had so far.

And I gotta say I really like how it’s coming along. Looks like my next challenge is firming up the 3rd quarter of Act Two.  But I did it before. I can do it again.

-Movie of the Moment: Last night we watched the first half of INDY IV. I was really disappointed when I saw it in the theatre.  It doesn’t seem as bad now, but is still somewhat of a letdown.

Tonight we’re watching part of John Carpenter’s THE THING. I haven’t seen this in years.  Despite the fake blood and overly-gooey special effects, it’s great at setting the feeling of helplessness, and in an isolated location to boot.

Too bad they don’t make scary movies like these anymore, with more emphasis on gradually scaring you rather than seeing what kind of crazy torture porn they can come up with.

My work is cut out for me

Maximum Z analysis, Black List, characters, espionage, Miyazaki, outlines, plot, radio, screenwriting, story, The 13th Man, thrillers, WWII

Due to heavy rainfall on Christmas Day, this poor little Jewish traffic reporter was swamped with work (no pun intended) on Saturday, so I got absolutely nothing done on the outline.

Sunday was sunny and much quieter, so I was able to do a little bit.

My plan was to keep moving forward today while doing afternoon drive (check it out! I’m on NPR! Well, the local affiliate anyway).  But I also felt bad about having downloaded those script from the Black List and not read any, so I checked out THE 13th MAN, a WW2-era thriller about an Army comic book nerd who helps crack a case regarding Nazi agents on American soil.  All music to my ears.

Wow.  This thing is just amazing.  Incredibly well-written.  A genuine page-turner.  Phenomenal story-telling.  My only two gripes: keeping track of some of the G-men characters, and a clever plot twist at the end.  While I did like the twist, and realize it does help hold the rest of the story together, would it all work if that whole subplot didn’t exist?  Maybe.  But I’m not the writer, so I can’t really say.

I’d give it a definite 9 out of 10.  Maybe 9.5.  I only hope the other 10 scripts I’ve got lined up are as entertaining.

One of the things screenwriters always hear is to not just write your own script, but read others.  It’s one thing to read the script for a film that’s been made, or an old favorite.  But reading an unproduced script that is actually circulating around Hollywood, or maybe won some competition(s) really helps open your eyes and shows you what works, while also showing how you could improve your own.

A common occurrence in THE 13TH MAN is that the hero not only repeatedly finds himself in a conflict, that conflict keeps building, and then builds some more, and then even more.  It keeps getting worse, and he has to keep changing how he tackles the problem.  He doesn’t always come out on top, because that would be boring.  But each conflict he survives helps lead into the next one, or maybe has the big payoff thirty, fifty or seventy-five pages later.

I’d love to know how long it took Enio Rigolin from start to finish.  It only got 9 mentions on The Black List, which is a shame.  Then again, I really like this sort of thing, so I’m biased.

Hopefully I’ll be able to support this argument after reading a few more of the Black List scripts, but if Hollywood made more smart, well-written films out of these scripts, the industry would be so much better off.  Treat your audience like intelligent adults!  You’d be surprised how rewarding it can be.  Once they get a taste of it, they’ll want more.  At least I would.

One last thing.  If I were in charge of casting for THE 13TH MAN, the first name crossed off my list for the lead would be Shia LaBeouf.  He may look like the ideal nerdy soldier, but I still have issues with him as the son of Indiana Jones.

Besides, they should have used Frank Darabont’s script for that one in the first place, but that’s another post.

Movie of the Moment: KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE. My first exposure to Miyazaki from way back, and now it’s part of our family library. Utterly charming and just plain fun to watch for grown-ups and kids; the American cast does a good job, but sometimes the original Japanese with subtitles is equally enjoyable.  Most important: V loves it, which is quite reassuring.

My suggestion: If the European element appeals to you, I highly suggest STEAMBOY, Otomo’s underrated follow-up to AKIRA.

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.

Goosebumps, I tell ya!

Maximum Z adventure, comic books, Netflix, outlines, plot, screenwriting, story, thrillers, westerns, WWII

I didn’t get to do much story development today due to time constraints, but what I did accomplish was the ongoing fleshing-out of the LUCY outline.

Last night before I went to sleep, I thought I hit on the right first act turning point and midpoint, but didn’t write them down!  Argh.  So the latter half of this afternoon involved trying to reach back into my subconscious and get them back.

I think I sort-of managed to do that.

I worked on filling in the blanks of my little ‘plot milestone’ sheet, and there were some spaces that remained empty longer than the others.

What I think my next step really needs to be is where I write down all the things I can think of that would be connected with the major plot elements of the story, and see if anything develops out of them.

I’m sure this will pay off; it usually has before.

The more I work on this, the more excited I get to do it.  I really think that when all the elements are in place, this thing will take practically no time to write up.

But I have to make sure it works from both the story and thrills perspectives. I want to keep the reader/audience enthralled.  That’s right.  Enthralled.  This is supposed to be a western-adventure that I would want to see; even pay to see, so it HAS to be good AND exciting.

I think I can do that.

-This past weekend was the Alternative Press Expo, or APE as it’s commonly called.  My friend Neil and I have gone for about the past four years, except last year (timing).

It’s a great mix of independent comic artists and writers.  Some are people who xerox stuff at Kinko’s, fold and staple the ‘books’ themselves, then sell them.  Others are people who actually have a publisher.

It’s a nice alternative (hence the name) to the biggies, like WonderCon and Comic-Con, which is kind of nice.

This year we had to take V, since K was unavailable.  While I’m sure a lot of the stuff was over her head, she took great joy in spotting things she knew, like sketches of Spidey, the guy who sold fuse-bead interpretations of Pokemon characters (which we bought one of), or the guy who does some awesome Clone Wars sketches ($20 for a head sketch, $50 for the whole body, neither of which were purchased by us).

I always feel  bad for the people who are hawking stuff that doesn’t appear to be interesting.  It’s so awkward to smile as you pass by, thinking “There is no way in hell I’m buying anything from YOU!”  But maybe they sell a few things, possibly even breaking even, and enjoying themselves.  What do I know?

Going back to the artists’ angle, there are always a ton of incredibly talented artists there with all this phenomenal art for sale, mostly prints, but sometimes the original.  Like I told Neil, if I bought every piece of art I liked at APE, I would have no space left on the walls, and no money left over; not to mention probably a less-than-thrilled wife.

So now the countdown to WonderCon begins.  Only 164 days left and counting!!

-My sister-in-law is visiting, so no Movie of the Moment tonight.  However, I did watch RIO BRAVO, which was okay, but a little long.  Two hours would have worked fine.

The next night was NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH, a pre-WWII British spy thriller with a very skinny Rex Harrison.  It dragged a little in the beginning, but got better as it went along.  It also had Paul Henreid as the bad guy, but I know him best as Victor Laslo in CASABLANCA, so it was an interesting contrast.

What was nice was it actually raised the question of “WOULD HE DIE?”  I won’t give anything away, but it keep you hanging on until the very end.

Nice.