Posts Tagged ‘B Movies’

Didn’t get over here to Guided By Wire,  last night. As the world is aware, it was the LOST finale. Which clocked in at a whopping, and captivating 4 and a half hours. Right after, I sat down for what I thought would be a quick turn on the boards with the climatic scene for my play, KEPT. Alas, it was not a quick turn at all. Which meant another late, late night as I hammered and chiseled my way through the eleven page scene.

I will make this observation regarding writing for the screen versus writing for the stage, or at least how I write for them. When it’s for the screen, the drafting is primarily about execution. You are constructing something. It has a plan, intrinsic principles, mitigated by the intended medium, that must for all intents and purposes be adhered to, in some degree. You can subvert them, but you can’t completely ignore them. So, the oft used analogy of building a house becomes quite appropriate. You are constructing and at every turn is the question as to how you execute the plan and how you alter it to better construct, always working towards the intended final piece.

In playwriting, at least for me – playwrights if you’re out there, pipe up and join the discussion, or if you have a thought, one and all, please speak your mind – I find the its much more of a discovery. So, when writing for the stage, I find I am on a excavation. An archaeology dig of character, plot, theme and its understanding. I know what I hope will be there, or, let me amend that, what should be there; then I dig – slowly, methodically, always parsing the same patch. Eventually, I reveal and remove, then clean up, polish and present to the world what I’ve been fortunate through my diligence to recover. Where am I excavating? In my experience, not necessarily always my life, but rather my experience of the world and what I come into contact with. Does that make sense? I can extend beyond my immediate place, if I’m willing to do the brain work and legwork (even) to travel there. I don’t mean just to go there, but, rather, to inhabit it – to know it as if it were my own immediate place right now. This can be done for either stage or screen. It’s what “write what you know” means to me. You can know anything, if your willing and driven and daring enough to learn.

So, I was excavating last night. Moving back and forth of the lines. Teasing out points of view and reactions, truths and lies, in the space of a dinner. There’s a different magnetic pull to that kind of work. It’s much more sneaky and circular to me, than drafting on a screenplay or TV pilot, which always feels like forward momentum. Building it up, harnessing it, then driving on the power of it to FADE OUT.

Wow. This isn’t so much a brief update is it?! Ha! (Welcome to what I spend far too many of my days contemplating!)

What I had intended was to let you know, with thanks to quotes that Jason pulled  and posted on his blog, that the junior producer that we did the desert feature screenplay with/for read the first draft and responded in a series of texts:

“Holy f@ck the first 35 pages rock! Gallo is very very cool and shady.”

“You guys did a phenomenal job.”

“You boys write fantastically.  The language is loaded with image and expression yet its lean and my eyes blow down the page with ease. You guys did a beautiful job so far and I really believe this could play.”

“F%cking brilliant. Mother f%cking brilliant. Bravo. I loved it.”

Not bad, huh? Means, in the first of three steps, we’re doing pretty good. Always a huge relief to connect that first time up to the plate, makes the rest of the game seem so much smoother. We’ll meet with this producer Wednesday night. Those comments are over several reads that he did, not just one. So, that’s good as well. We’ll get his notes. Hopefully they won’t be involved. Then, we’ll go to his boss, the director of development who worked on the developing the story with us. If he’s on board, then we go up the ladder to the head of the company to see if it’s a go or no go. It’d be great if we sell the script at that juncture, but most likely it won’t quite go that way. At some point though, I’d say we have a decent shot at getting this one across, at least in terms of a sale. Well, actually, I always think that at this stage. We’ll see where it heads from here, after Wednesday.

Have A Beautiful Day….

Sad news today in Hollywood. I’m sure some of you may have seen the headlines. Dennis Hopper, one of the American Film Industries enduring, wildest icons – as well as one of my most favorite actors, is near death after battling cancer for the past year. This has surfaced because Hopper is due to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame tomorrow in front of the aging movie palace, The Egyptian Theater. His longtime lawyer released a statement to the press that it may very well be Hopper’s last appearance in public.

Dennis Hopper’s career encompasses an incredible amount of American film history. He was at ground zero, or collaborated with, many groundbreaking artists. His career began in 1955, at the age of nineteen. Along with the dearly departed Paul Newman, Hopper represents a link to the exalted past of the studio system – the contract player. He began on television in that first golden age of the medium and segued into supporting roles, most notably, Rebel Without A Cause and Giant with his good friend and running buddy, James Dean. He was deeply affected by Dean’s sudden death and soon began his long plunge off the deep end. This would be his first career implosion, which would lead to a prominent second career as a photographer and painter, among other things (He was a celebrated art collector for most of his life.) He spent most of the early sixties, studying with Lee Strasburg (Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Sally Field, Sidney Poitier, Marlon Brando, and many, many others all studied under him)  - the famed acting teacher – in New York because he was persona non grata in Hollywood.

Eventually, of course, Hopper returned – just as the old studio system was crumbling and the young method actors, trained in New York on the stage and in live television, were starting to take over Hollywood with Bonnie and Clyde, as well as The Graduate. This would all reach an explosive head with the Dennis Hopper/Peter Fonda zeitgeist Easy Rider in 1969, which ushered in the second Golden Age of American Cinema – the 70′s and the film school brats. With the explosive success of Easy Rider, Coppola, Altman, Scorcese, Friedkin, and a host of other geniuses found a studio system desperate for their youth and vitality. Of course, Hopper’s sudden immense success, as well as the blossoming counter-culture would lead to his second, and last, career implosion. This one, though, would take almost a decade and a half to unravel and would cement the maniac, insane mythos around the man for the rest of his life. If you ever want to see Dennis Hopper playing the drug addled, insane Dennis Hopper of this period in his life, look no further than his unsettling performance in Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. In fact, take it one step further and see the brilliant making of documentary Hearts of Darkness – A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse. You will see that cameras rolling or not, that wasn’t a performance by Hopper, but rather him, as is, running around the set in the midst of the movie being made.

This flame out ended in spectacular fashion in 1983, six full years after Apocalypse Now, when Hopper disappeared on an epic binge in the Mexican desert and was believed to be dead. He instead finally hit bottom and entered rehab, where he would begin a nearly two year struggle to get and stay sober. He was essentially uninsurable on a film set at that time – the kiss of death for an Actor. He was too big of a risk – whether he would die or not – that an insurance company would not provide insurance if he was cast in a film. Basically, the only other actor I know of to reach that level is Robert Downey, Jr. Dennis Hopper did get sober though and returned to acting in 1986 with the stunning troika of pictures – Hoosiers, Blue Velvet, and The River’s Edge. All in one incredible year! To me, it might very well represent the most epic, unbelievable come back in the history of Film. Here’s what he had to say in a Hollywood Reporter interview about that magical year:

“My first year of sobriety. I did them all back to back. I shot “Blue Velvet” in Wilmington, went straight to Indianapolis and started “Hoosiers.” When I got to L.A., I did “River’s Edge.” Now, of those three films, I like the one that didn’t get any play — “River’s Edge.” It wasn’t because I had a better part, because I didn’t; I just thought it was a really interesting movie.”

From there he would go on to star in Speed, Red Rock West, Waterworld, Jesus’ Son, Super Mario Bros., and to direct Colors, among countless others. He was most recently seen in the TV adaptation of Crash and the film Elegy. He was truly a raconteur, an original, who’s talent couldn’t be kept down and manifested itself in many different way – not just acting. Check out his evolution in the photos below.

doc

In Giant, James Dean's last film

With Peter Fonda (Cpt. America Helmet) and a young Jack Nicholson (gold helmet) in the seminal Easy Rider

Insanity in the jungle in Coppola's Apocalypse Now

As the twisted villain, Frank Booth in David Lynch's Blue Velvet

The aging icon two years ago at the Cannes Film Festival

Okay, so some very introspective posts lately. Which is all well and good. But, it’s Valentine’s Day and I’m taking the WHOLE day off. I think. Every time I say I’m going to take a day off, as soon as the words leave my mouth or the thought my brain, another voice pops up and starts laughing and says “yeah, right.”  Hmmmmm. Might have to work on that.

Onward and Upward!

For Jason and his sister Jessica, both true shark connoisseurs, plus any and all of you out there who appreciate a true b movie, I give you:

SHARKTOPUS  THE MOVIE!!!!!

I’ve got three words for you:  A. MAH. ZING. Sometimes you just have to cut loose and go there.

Yes, people get paid to think this stuff up.