They’re supposedly going back to negotiations next week. I guess everyone’s busy this weekend.

Clive,

LOL. You are exactly WRITE. I mean RIGHT. There’s not nearly as much REAL competition as everyone thinks. We already know WHY.

Scottie,

Agreed.

Thanks for all the comments everyone. Much appreciated. We even had several producers email me and ask how come they’ve never heard of this site before.

See what happens?

Unk

Okay, so from what I can see, the problem with movies this year and the last couple as well is that rehashes and sequels and adaptations have taken over. There are only a handful of good, original, HIGH CONCEPT movies that have come out that are worth watching. Where are all of these original high concept movies that draw the audiences to the seat?

I think we don’t see them as much anymore because… 1) The writer has a great idea but it isn’t pulled off well.
2) The writer writes a great story but the idea isn’t interesting enough to draw in a crowd.

I think the big problem is that the industry is flooded with such shit, and in ridiculous volume, that the golden scripts that pull it all together can’t seem to get through. Readers and producers, at least most of them, are so jaded by the shit they get thrown everyday that it makes it harder to get that great script up there to the right desks. When I think of high concept films that were pulled off in both idea and execution are like CELLULAR and RED EYE, both scripts were original ideas, not adaptations, and could be summed up and seen in your mind’s eye after hearing the single sentence logline.

I miss those days. Although… JUNO is a nice high concept idea in itself that was executed fairly well. And if you don’t agree it’s high concept simply because it’s an independant art house, think about the logline: A teenager finds herself with an unwanted pregnancy and decides to audition infertile couples to find the perfect adoptive parents. That’s a great idea, and it could have gone so many ways, drama, tragedy, romance, comedy. But the writer chose the right direction, followed the right lines and someone took a chance and GOLD! Maybe even Oscar gold. It makes me think I should put my writing on pause for a couple months and go be a stripper, although I would probably be even more poor than I am now the way I look… remember Chris Farley’s Chippendale’s skit… well not that bad but I digress.

All I’m saying is that all SPEC screenplays need to be written to blow the socks off of everyone who reads them. If we want to change the industry and stop the crap coming out and see some original, damn well written and executed scripts that have an idea to pull us to the theatre, then we better damn well start writing them!

I’m trying to.

Just my two cents,

Scottie screenwriter

Interesting post.

I think it’s interesting that Hollywood is becoming ever more derivative, at the same time cheap digital production is becoming a credible force… and, that studios are backing away from production in favor of distributing externally funded product.

We are living in interesting times.

I hate derivative, formula movies… and the older I get, the less entertaining they are… and yet, at the same time I believe conventional structure is the backbone of any movie and even classic characters can be reworked, made fresh and interesting.

More and more I’m coming to the conclusion that it’s ALL about character.

Where much modern screenwriting seems to fail, is in even a basic understanding of what makes people tick, on an emotional level.

“Rear Window” is a perfect example of a film that retains it’s power, simply because the central character is credible. We can take the emotional journey with him, because he’s got a degree of vulnerability you rarely see in modern protagonists. It seems to me, that it’s this lack of vulnerability which forces films into a ever more plastic, downward spiral into CGI and yet another pointless gun-fight.

So, in 2007 I barely paid attention to Hollywood’s output… I wasn’t that impressed. All the interesting films were going straight to the Arthouse cinema.

Julie Delphy’s “Three Days In Paris” struck me as one of the best… and a Romanian film “12.08 East of Bucharest” gave me the most entertainment last year.

Now, I like art house films… but I also used to love the blockbusters as well.

What I can’t figure out, is why there hasn’t been a film as good as “French Connection” or “To Kill a Mockingbird” or “Cape Fear,” in the last five years.

But, on the other hand… the fact there hasn’t been is all good news to me… less competition.

Unk, totally agree. Nothing wrong. I was just defending the choices the creators made b/c the choices didn’t fit usual mold.

This is one of the reasons I’m drawn to bad movies – love them in fact – because my mind immediately goes into rewrite mode. Anyhow, totally agree.

I AM LEGEND

I could rant on CGI for hours. The minute I saw the cougar or whatever that thing was in the trailer, I knew that it was a tortilla chip movie. Tortilla chips, to be eaten at home, crunchy and distracting. Yet, yummy.

To survive today’s movies you HAVE to clean out a special place in your brain in which to stuff movies that fall into the IT IS WHAT IT IS category. Otherwise you won’t be able to enjoy. It’s like going to a restaurant where you pay twelve dollars for a so-so cheese burger. You’re paying for the privilege to eat there – nothing more.

I mean, come on, Blockbusters are a genre in and of themselves.

When an audience go see one of these things – they don’t care that all of the sutures are showing and the thing walks with a limp, has a gapping hole in its mid-section, and smells like last weeks super. They will applaud Frankenstein so long as there is a fireworks finale, a trick pony, clown, magic act, prat fall, midget, whatever.

Nothing wrong with that. It’s entertainment. If that’s how some screenwriters roll, that’s how they roll. Besides, they have to pay those stupid high property taxes, pay for relatives to go to college, and cure cancer.

ON DERIVATIVE

Everything is derivative, no? Ecclesiastic whateverness. Nothing new under the sun. Same story, new day. Deja Woo.

DGA

How long before they came to an agreement? Please, for the love of Aristotle, why can’t we just sacrifice the reality and animation cow? Slit its throat. Give them blood so we can continue on fucking up our culture as the good Lord intended.

I’m for the residuals and the internet crumbs but if the AMPTP and the WGA continue to go against nature I fear an earthquake or worse – more reality tv and talk show host programing. Why won’t they just die?

Die I Love New York!
Die Bret Michaels!
Die Snoop and the Orange Country house hussies!
You plague my home!
Die Tyra and Regis and Kelly!
Die wife swap, trading spouses, and Super Nanny!
Die Super Model wannabes, photog wannabes, stylist wannabes, and high fashion wannabes – save Project Runway

(so I like that one, sue me)

I don’t even watch tv shows but if they get replaced by reality tv programs and talk shows and lord knows what other god forsaken formats, I’m going to start reading books.

Just think about that WGA/AMPTP. A country driven to read books. AMERICANS reading books. Think about it and get back to the table before the country goes to pot.

She — gulp — heard Neville broadcasting on the radio. LOL.

I would have enjoyed it more with popcorn.

Unk

I could have dealt with the zombies if they were a government experiment gone awry, ala Resident Evil, but the movie tried to be “realistic” in the reason why the zombies are zombies, but was horribly inconsistent and illogical. Furthermore, when Will Smith finds the apparent cure and injects it into the female captive zombie, I don’t see why it would reverse the disfiguring effects of the virus. If you get smallpox and the pustules develop and then are administered a cure, you still are going to have the horrific scarring. In the movie the virus re-writes the genetic structure of man to an extreme point. That damage and restructuring of the body and nervous system would be irreversible.

Does anyone remember how the woman and her son got on Manhattan Island? I can’t remember.

Truth be told, the infected were simply vampires, more than zombies.

Another Zombie movie I hated was 28 weeks later. I liked the first movie and the implementation of the “RAGE” virus, although I thought that rage was WAY to fast to infect it’s hosts. In 28 weeks later the incubation time is like instantaneous; almost like possession.

———-I AM LEGEND SPOILERS———-

If I remember the pole-climbing scene correctly, it was nothing that any normal human could have done. Of course we were led to believe that these creatures do in fact have super-strength so I let that scene go even though it was just a little over the top for me personally.

And you’re right about the trap scene. What distinguished it for me was the mannequin. We are led to believe that Neville has all these mannequins strategically staked out to help ease his isolation. So far (as per my recollection), we were not led to believe that he was losing his mind.

Hence, I took that scene as a trap set by the mutants… Or maybe he did set the trap and the mutants strategically placed the mannequin there to get him to inspect.

Either way, it took me out of the story at that point. But like any good audience member, I went ahead and tapped into my seed of blind faith and jumped right back into the story if for no other reason than to give the rest of the film a chance.

And my blind faith was ever so slightly rewarded when, at the end of the film, he gives his blood to the girl and decides to stay back.

He’s lucid enough to give her the blood yet at the same time, I don’t think HE really thought there was a survivor colony. That act alone revealed the possibility of him “possibly” being affected by all the isolation and realizes he can’t move forward. There is no future for HIM.

Unk

Ouch, I forgot all about that scene where he climbs the pole, but hey I use to climb tree’s when I was younger maybe the guy just never grew out of climbing things.

As for the other scene…it was one of those scenes where it kind of confused alot of people, I so happen to be one of those people. It could so happen that those albino super mutants have enough memory in their head that they could think of that clever snare trap to capture Willy (which was only the one that was the observer when Willy did it) or It could have been a Mistake on Will Smith’s part where he was marking off the destination’s and forgot about his own trap…or maybe I’m just thinking to hard about it. But if anything, I think it is them trapping Willy, but I know after that moment, people were just oozing to yell, PLOT HOLE!!! PLOT HOLE!!!. Hell I even do it from time to time.

And What about that Dog…If there is any Dog that should deserve a supporting actor award…I think we found that dog.

I Definitely agree about putting some of the story of “Omega Man” into “I am Legend”…and really, it wouldn’t be that hard to do so…LoL, maybe someone is doing it right now for all we know.

Bashing? Maybe. But hey, this isn’t a fan site unless we’re bashing the screenwriting… Which we have not done.

I think spending your $7 plus might give you the license to bash.

Or not.

I can’t remember a lot about the zombies because I’m trying NOT to remember… LOL.

Although, one of the scenes that took me right out of the movie (again), was one of the zombies climbing up some pole like a friggin’ chimpanzee… No strike that.

A SUPER CHIMPANZEE.

Another thing that took me out was the scene where the zombies set a trap for Neville but just about everywhere else in the movie (at least to my recollection), the zombies could only work en masse.

And MAYBE the thousands of them DID in fact have a hand in setting that trap for Neville. We’ll never know, right? LOL.

But it sure FELT like only one or two might have put their heads together to formulate that plan.

The trap-setting scene TO ME, took me out of Neville’s ordinary world.

No big deal… Smith pulled it off. They will recoup their $200 Mil budget in DVD if nothing else.

It’s okay to like it. Hell, I like Will Smith and that’s ONE of the reasons I went to see the film and I do think it’s worth seeing.

But wow… Can you imagine taking THE OMEGA MAN story and tweaking in this movie and combine it with some of the GOOD stuff that was in it?

Could’a been a contender…

Unk