It's All In the Nuances

2007-01-31T06:13:00.000-08:00

Inside Move: 'Departed' to arise?
Monahan makes case for sequel
By PAMELA MCCLINTOCK

It's hard to imagine making a sequel to "The Departed," considering almost every character is killed off.
But that's not stopping "Departed" scribe William Monahan from trying. He's even tossed about the idea with Martin Scorsese, albeit informally.

Monahan, who is reportedly working on a treatment, isn't without precedent in making his argument for another go.

There were actually two follow-ups to Hong Kong box office hit "Infernal Affairs," upon which Scorsese's "Departed" was based.

"Infernal Affairs 2" was a prequel, while "Infernal Affairs 3" focused on the character played by Matt Damon. Here's the hitch -- Damon's character is killed off in "Departed," but not in the Hong Kong original.

There's no indication that Scorsese would direct a sequel, although he could always board as a producer. Likewise, Warner Bros. hasn't given any sign as to whether it would pursue another installment.

Still, no one wants to walk away from a good thing -- especially a Hollywood studio.

2007-01-23T13:41:00.001-08:00

A history of screenwriters

"People write the movies they want to see, and they write the books they want to read," says Oscar-winning screenwriter Marc Norman ("Shakespeare in Love"), referring to his 700-page manuscript, "What Happens Next: The History of American Screenwriting." "This was a book I had always wanted to read, and nobody had ever written it. So I decided to do it myself."

Norman spent much of the last three years writing his expansive social history of the screenwriting profession on spec. Harmony Books, a division of Random House, picked it up in July and plans to publish it next fall.

Along with brief scene and dialogue excerpts, juicy "X-rated" anecdotes and 16 pages of vintage photographs, the book is structured as a chronological tour through Hollywood history from the writers' perspective. It ranges from late 19th century American theater through the title-writing of the silents, the birth of modern screenwriting with the advent of sound, the war-era golden age, the devastating blacklist and coded writing of the '50s and '60s, the emergence of the auteurs in the '70s and the big-budget blockbuster mentality of the '80s and '90s.

Norman did most of his research in UCLA's copious film archives, focusing more on personal memoirs and histories than the screenplays themselves, and he lays out a compelling narrative that pays special attention to some of his personal screenwriting heroes: Anita Loos, Herman Mankiewicz, Ben Hecht, Dalton Trumbo, Howard Koch, Paddy Chayefsky, Paul Schrader, Quentin Tarantino and Charlie Kaufman.

"The book is really designed to be useful in the sense that there are yards of how-to books, but nobody's ever written about what historically the life of a screenwriter in Hollywood has been like," Norman says.

Norman published three novels in the '70s, but the hope of a less financially dubious line of work drew him to Hollywood for the next three decades. There's none of his own professional history in the book, and Norman claims he doesn't have enough material for a memoir, but a little prodding provoked a few gems:

On his first movie, "Oklahoma Crude," which he adapted from his own novel in 1973, Norman met his first real movie star, Faye Dunaway, who played the film's heroine. The actress earnestly hugged his arm and said, "Thank you for giving me the words.... " "Which I thought was fresh and original until I realized that every actress has said that to the writer since about 1910," Norman says. "It's the pro forma thing you say to the writer when he shows up on the set and everybody wishes he'd do his business and leave."

Norman worked on the screenplay for the 1975 film "The Killer Elite" every day with Sam Peckinpah in the maverick filmmaker's office on Santa Monica Boulevard. "It was like going through Camp Pendleton if everybody's drunk," Norman says of working with the cantankerous director. "And it was probably one of the best experiences of my life."

Not so great were the six weeks Norman spent on location during the filming of the legendary disaster "Cutthroat Island," which would occasionally entail being woken at 1 a.m. to drive to the set, find a stone in the dark to sit on, and scribble a completely new scene onto a legal pad for filming that morning. "I was the guy in Malta stuck with trying to make that work," he says. "I did get paid well. But it was really hell."

Although he brushes aside the pathetic fantasy that things were ever any better for screenwriters and believes the original screenplay is ailing, he says, "Things change like the weather in the movie business. Who knows: tomorrow could start a Golden Age."

He pauses.

"Not likely, but not impossible."

Scriptland is a weekly feature on the work and professional lives of screenwriters. For tips and comments, e-mail fernandez_jay@hotmail.com.

2007-01-23T11:13:00.000-08:00

A film my friend Reed Morano DP'd on just got reviewed in Variety...

Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa

(Documentary) A Still Point Pictures presentation. Produced by Eric Juhola, Jeremy Stulberg, Randy Stulberg. Directed by Jeremy Stulberg, Randy Stulberg.

With: Dreadie Jeff, Mama Phyllis, Dean Maher.

By JOHN ANDERSONGulf War vets, teenage runaways, the mentally ill and the socially disenchanted make up the population of the Mesa, a 16-square-mile patch of New Mexico that provided brother-sister helmers Randy and Jeremy Stulberg fertile ground for their insightful study of an alternative American lifestyle, "Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa." Docu should do very well on the festival circuit and has enough cultish appeal to find a niche in the hearts of anarchists everywhere, especially those with access to public television.
The inhabitants of the Mesa, an undeveloped, virtually unreachable expanse of sand and scrub brush, have a system and a code that prevent their small civilization from collapsing into total chaos. "Don't steal from your neighbor," one Mesa-ite says. "Don't shoot your neighbor." Which doesn't seem so remote a possibility, given the number of guns on display and the propensity the residents have for firing them.

But when a group of vegan Marxist teenagers, known as the Nowhere Kids, begin robbing homes on the Mesa, the small society has to deal with enforcing basic laws, and its options don't include calling the police.

The Stulbergs, whose film's stunning look is a combination of good cinematography and a majestic New Mexican landscape, achieved marvelous access to what has to be a very closed and insular community, given where and how the inhabitants choose to live. The various characters come to vivid life as crises large, small and unresolved are explored: Maine, a Gulf War vet, has cancer and refuses chemotherapy; Virginia, a 17-year-old runaway of questionable mental capacity, gets pregnant and decides to raise her child on the Mesa.

The Stulbergs tend toward visual sentimentality, with their gauzy super-impositions and sappy fades, but they never pretend that what they're portraying is utopia. "Off the Grid" is about is a community that is more than a little in need of help, but has no inclination to ever ask for any.

Camera (DV, HD, 16mm), Reed Morano, Isabel Vega, Liz Rubin, Ari Issler; editor, Jeremy Stulberg; music, Christopher Libertino; sound, Matthew Polis. Reviewed on DVD, Los Angeles, Jan. 16, 2007. (In Slamdance Film Festival.) Running time: 63 MIN.

Read the full article at:
http://www.variety.com/story.asp?l=story&r=VE1117932494&c=31

2007-01-23T06:08:00.000-08:00

'Waitress' to Searchlight for $4 milBy Nicole Sperling and Gregg Goldstein

Jan 23, 2007

PARK CITY -- Fox Searchlight continued its Sundance acquisition binge Monday by purchasing worldwide rights to the Adrienne Shelly film "Waitress" for just under $4 million.

Fox Searchlight has confirmed the deal, which closed soon after the film screened at Sundance for its second time Monday at the Library Theatre at 11:30am. It's the third and final feature from the slain writer/director, who was murdered in her New York apartment in early November

The film stars Keri Russell in the title role of a poor Southern woman trapped in a bad marriage who finds true love when a new gynecologist comes to town. Jeremy Sisto, Cheryl Hines, Nathan Fillion and Andy Griffith also star.

"Waitress" was produced by Michael Roiff and executive produced by Todd King, Jeff Rose, Danielle Renfrew and Robert Bauer. It is scheduled to be released in 2007.

The deal was brokered on Fox Searchlight's side by senior vp acquisitions Tony Safford and executive vp business affairs Stephen Plum with the Film Sales Co. president Andrew Herwitz and Irwin Rappaport on behalf of the filmmakers.
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It was also announced Monday that the nonprofit Adrienne Shelly Foundation has been established by her husband, Andy Ostroy, who will serve as its executive director. It will focus on women filmmakers, helping to finance student and independent films and produce screenplay readings.

2007-01-22T09:12:00.000-08:00

For Minghella's 'Breaking,' no city but London
By Martin A. Grove

Jan 19, 2007

Minghella movie: Most movies these days could just as easily take place in a city other than the one they're set in, but that's definitely not the case with Anthony Minghella's "Breaking and Entering."

"Breaking," a co-production of The Weinstein Company and Miramax Films, opens via TWC in New York on Jan. 26 and in Los Angeles and other top 10 markets Feb. 7. The R-rated drama starring Jude Law, Juliette Binoche and Robin Wright Penn is set in London's King's Cross district, which is a key element in its story. The film's plot revolves around conflicts stemming from the gentrification of King's Cross.

Historically one of the city's poorest neighborhoods, the northern London area called King's Cross has in the last few years seen the arrival of immigrants from a wide range of troubled countries in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. With the district's recent redevelopment and upgrading these "have-nots" are now finding well-to-do young British professionals or "haves" encroaching on their terrain. Not surprisingly, property crime in King's Cross is one of the results. It's a storyline that's very specific to London and wouldn't work if the film's setting had shifted instead to cities like New York or L.A. or Chicago.

"Breaking," which was shot in London and at Elstree Studios during the summer of 2005, was produced by Minghella, Sydney Pollack and Timothy Bricknell for Mirage Enterprises, Minghella and Pollack's production company. It's the first original screenplay by Minghella, a best directing Oscar winner for "The English Patient," to be produced since his 1991 feature debut "Truly Madly Deeply." Minghella's also a two-time Oscar nominee for best adapted screenplay for "Patient" and "The Talented Mr. Ripley."

In the film Law plays a landscape architect partnered in a studio called Green Effect that's located in King's Cross. After the firm's offices are broken into repeatedly and valuable computer equipment has been stolen a number of times, Law becomes obsessed with catching the burglars. This in turn leads him to meet Binoche's character, a Bosnian woman who's fled to London with her son, who's one of those responsible for the break-ins. That, in turn, impacts on Law's already difficult relationship with Wright Penn's character, a beautiful Swedish American woman with a very troubled 13- year-old daughter.

After enjoying a look at "Breaking," I was happy to be able to catch up with Minghella on Wednesday to talk about the making of the film. "Part of the yearning for me to make this movie was connected with a very strange thing that happened to me," he pointed out. "Making movies in the last decade has been about going on a journey, literally like going on a military campaign where you say, 'Okay, I'll see you in a year. I'm going to be in North Africa. Or, I'm going to be in Italy.' With 'Cold Mountain' I was in Romania for a year. And I wanted very much to go home and make a movie about London and about the London that I live in and I love. So it couldn't have been set in any city because it's so specifically a kind of observation of the part of London that I know fairly well. Though, having said that, ironically one of the things that kept frightening me when I was trying to make this movie set now in a place that I live in was how little I know about places like this and how complex the truth has become.

"Sometimes I look at London in movies and it looks so romanticized and other times I look at London in movies and it's so somber and depressing and dispiriting to look at. And, of course, in reality a city like London is all things at all times, whatever you want to happen is happening somewhere in London. Whatever you want to look at you can look at somewhere in London. It's very much a London that creates itself uniquely for each person, I think, sometimes for the good and sometimes for the bad."

When I observed that you wouldn't see this kind of gentrification of neighborhoods and the resulting mingling of haves and have-nots in L.A. or in Manhattan, he replied, "Well, London is a very, very specific city in the sense that in London you pass through so many types of life, types of culture, types of belief systems and languages. It isn't so striated in other cities where there's a quarter where this kind of life being lived and a quarter where that kind of life (is being lived). It's all jumbled up together so that on a single street you can get a $5 million house next door to a project. It's a kind of chaotic reflection of where we've got to in civilization because, of course, cities are the clearest illustrations of what a society has achieved and what it's problems are. And London is a sort of triumph and a failure
simultaneously."

Minghella, himself, had experienced at his own offices in London a few years ago a similar type of break-in to the one he shows us in "Breaking." "What happened is that I tried to write many years ago a story called 'Breaking and Entering,' which was an idea about how a marriage would be affected by a burglary," he told me. "I had two or three periods of writing and I could never quite get the story to make sense to me. I had an idea but I couldn't quite articulate it. And then when we were in Romania (shooting 'Cold Mountain') we were also renovating our offices in London. During that renovation period when there were contractors on the site and it was a bit more vulnerable we had a number of break-ins. It wasn't so much the fact of the break-in as the repercussions of the break-in because I had to meet with the police, I had to meet with Official Services, I had to meet with a lot of the facilities in North London, the people who deal with crime and who deal with crime prevention and social exclusion."

In doing so, he noted, "I met such an interesting bunch of people that it reminded me of the original idea and I got very intrigued by the notion of conciliation, which is a kind of buzz word in London crime prevention right now, (involving) how to bring victims of crime and criminals into the same room and discuss (matters). It sounds preposterous, but actually the more I thought about it and the more I met the people the more intrigued I was and the more theatrical it seemed to me. I got fixated on how to tell a story in which maybe all of the characters would be forced to finally confront each other in a room, but that some great good would come from it -- a second chance, some conciliation would come from it.

"Conciliation's going to become a big word for us in the years to come because we're living in a time where people are not conciliatory and it's causing (major problems worldwide). I think that if this film has a message it is that there is some value in conciliating each other and trying to make peace with each other and to recognize that we've all got stories that (are the reason for) the way that we are and that we need to listen to those stories and try to find a way to be together and to reconcile."

Asked when he started to write this version of "Breaking," he said, "I suppose that I was thinking about it during the time of 'Cold Mountain' very much. I was in New York during 9/11. I was downtown and I began to think a lot about -- or experience a lot -- the idea of what cities are like when they start to go wrong. In some ways they get fractured where you become suddenly conscious of others in a way. You feel like the cocktail of cultures and countries that co-exist in a single city do so harmoniously. When there's some sort of rupture then you become conscious of how slender the thread of peace and harmony is. So that got me thinking. But, also, because I come from a migrant family I've got a real interest in how cities like London and New York require migration to function. Without a strong underclass or secret class of migrant workers these cities simply wouldn't work. And yet, by the same token, we find it very hard to tolerate migration. We get very nervous of it in times of stress. But it's such an interesting and urgent story to tackle and it seemed to me like a very necessary one."

When Minghella is writing, is his writer self in touch with his director self? "That's a very, very good question," he replied. "I would say that we're all separate. But there's a very big difference between the adaptor of a novel and the writer of an original film. I think the writer is not in service to the director, as it were. The writer is a much more romantic character than the director. Directors can be dreamers, but they have to be very practical as dreamers because they're going to end up having to collect information on film. So there's a kind of organizational, logistical mind that has to go to work as well as the creative (mind). The writer has heavy responsibility for making something from nothing, but also tends to be much more romantic and much more irresponsible in some ways. I certainly don't try and behave myself when I'm writing and, of course, I'm forced to try and behave myself when I'm directing."

Of course, writers can write whatever comes into their heads -- the classic example is, 'The cavalry rides over the hill' -- and directors are then left with having to figure out how to bring that short line to life and make it fit the budget they have to work with. "I think when you say do they pay attention to each other, of course you can't help but know that you're going to direct (the film you're writing)," Minghella replied. "You're the director on the first day (and) you're the writer on the last day. We're kidding each other (talking about the writer-director as being separate people). It's a game we're playing. You know, I wrote in 'Cold Mountain' '4,000 soldiers run into a hole' and I knew that was a big ask (by) the writer.

"I think the one thing that was very odd for me about writing 'Breaking and Entering' was that I had an idea about King's Cross and an office in King's Cross and I thought I knew where it was and then when I came to make the film I realized that the development in King's Cross was moving so quickly that that whole neighborhood had already gone. Films take time to write and develop and by the time I'd written and got ready to shoot a lot of the neighborhood had already gone because it was moving and changing so quickly. We couldn't make that film today because already it's changed another year. It's been gentrified by another year and the work that we see Jude Law and his character working on (involving) these big construction sites, they're mostly finished by now. So, again, it's a movie that just captures one moment in time. It's not a story you could tell again in that particular way and that particular place."

While he was writing did Minghella have Law or any of the other cast members in mind to play these characters? "I'd like to say yes, but actually, of course, when I'm writing I find myself in a much more abstract state," he said. "I don't think, 'Okay, I'll write this part for Jude and this part for Juliette and (another one) for somebody else.' To me it's much more like dreaming. You can't elect who enters your dreams. I wrote people and then I tried to find the best actors like Jude to inhabit them. Of course, once you know who's playing the part the writing process continues and it's certainly the case that once I had Robin and Juliette and Jude I did a lot of constant updating to try to make the movie fit them personally."

One of the changes Minghella made in his own screenplay when it came time to cast the role played by Wright Penn was to make her Swedish American rather than Swedish, as originally written. "It would have been more of a stretch than was necessary for the movie (to keep the character purely Swedish)," he explained. "Whereas, I had to keep Juliette from Bosnia because the whole point of the story was that she was somebody by Sarajevo and a political refugee. So I couldn't have generalized that in any way, but Robin's nationality was not was significant except that I wanted a sense of that strange Scandinavian melancholy. I think it's very extraordinary and vivid. And Robin, herself, is so closed and secret. That's the connection for me.

"Somehow the warmer the climate, the more open the psychological gestures are, the colder (the climate) the more closed they are. So I wanted this sense of a woman who'd been brought up in the cold and the dark and was very pale and then another woman who was very open and generous and in touch with herself and that caused its own problems. You know, you go on these expeditions and you find the right people to help you realize them."

Law, who does so many different kinds of films and plays such a wide range of roles in them, comes across quite well in "Breaking." "This is the third time in a row that I've worked with Jude," Minghella noted, referring to "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and "Cold Mountain." "He's never let me down. I feel like this is the most adult of the performances he's done and the most mature. He and I are very close friends. We live in the same neighborhood, which is where the movie is set. There's a lot of his own world and characteristics (in his performance) and I thought he certainly did very, very well and I am delighted with him."

Law's landscape architect character is an advocate for Green Effect, a movement that doesn't believe in using grass or greenery or flowers as decoration, but sees the use of things like buildings, paving, walls and roads as better ways to design open public spaces. As believable and interesting a concept as that appears to be, I discovered in talking to Minghella that there actually is no Green Effect school of landscape design.

"It's completely made up," he pointed out. "I made it up, but then what's happened is oddly enough it's beginning to have its own moment now. Somebody's asked if I'd give a talk about Green Effect. I know a lot of architects in London. I'm interested in architecture. I met a lot of architects while I was doing this film and I wrote the manifesto (about Green Effect for the film's press notes). And then it attracted the attention of some writers about architecture. It's sort of having its own funny little life, the Green Effect."

Filmmaker flashbacks: From Dec. 15, 1988's column: "When I asked MCA Motion Picture Group chairman Tom Pollock how he was Monday he replied, understandably, 'I'm on top of the world!' And why not? Not only had Universal's 'Twins' just opened to a giant $11.2 million, but it's the fifth consecutive film the studio has opened in first place at the boxoffice, following 'Moon Over Parador,' 'Gorillas in the Mist,' 'They Live' and 'The Land Before Time ...'

"'Twins,' which Ivan Reitman produced and directed and which stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito, accounted for about one-third of the industry's boxoffice gross last weekend. ...What accounts for 'Twins'' success? 'It is a combination of many things,' he replied. 'It always was a great concept. It made you laugh just thinking about it -- Arnold and Danny as twins -- because they are having fun with their images of themselves. And since they're having such a good time about it, it promises that the audience will have a good time.

"'Secondly, I think we came up with a really top-notch campaign. David Sameth, our head of creative advertising, came up with the idea of switching names (under the stars' photos and the copyline) 'Only their mother can tell them apart,' as if to imply that our marketing department can't tell them apart. It created the right attitude about the film -- that it was fun and that we were having fun with it and, therefore, the audience would have fun with it. It sold the concept well.'

"A third factor in 'Twins' success, Pollock emphasizes, was that both Schwarzenegger and DeVito worked very had to promote the picture. 'They went out and did 200 interviews -- television shows, magazine articles, Carson, 'West 57th Street,' '20/20,' practically everything you can think of -- to help promote this film. They worked their tails off and I cannot tell you how important that is. It paid off. They were everywhere.

"'They've traditionally supported their movies, but we had an unusual arrangement on this film where they took no money and a very big piece of the back end. So they have a major incentive to work really hard and they know it ...' Insiders put 'Twins' production cost at about $14 million. Pollock notes only that its cost 'was very moderate, well below the so-called industry average (of about $18 million), but because the film will be successful they'll all earn a great deal more money than they would have earned.'"

Update: "Twins" went on to gross $111.9 million domestically, making it 1988's fifth-biggest film at the boxoffice. It also did about $105 million more in international theaters, giving it a worldwide cume of nearly $217 million.

2007-01-11T13:42:00.000-08:00

2007-01-08T10:53:00.001-08:00

'Indiana Jones 4' finally has a script
Paramount to begin filming pic in June
By PAMELA MCCLINTOCK
After years of languishing in development, the fourth installment of the Indiana Jones franchise is finally moving ahead, as Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Harrison Ford look to reconnect with their blockbuster roots.
For Spielberg in particular, the project marks a return to the kind of pure entertainment fare on which he built his career before his interests turned to more social-minded fare like "Schindler's List," "Saving Private Ryan" and "Munich."
The trio confirmed Monday that Paramount is set to begin lensing the new Indiana Jones pic in June from a script by David Koepp ("Spider-Man").
Par and Lucasfilm, which is producing, are eyeing a May 2008 worldwide release -- some 19 years after the last film in the action-adventure franchise, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," came out.
Fans have long clamored for another installment in the series, but some questioned whether Ford would be able to keep up with the vigorous physical requirements of the role after the long delay. "I'm delighted to be back in business with my old friends. I don't know if the pants still fit, but I know the hat will," said Ford, who is 64.
Thesp, who will again topline, had always said he would reprise his role as the adventuring archeologist if he liked the script. Several scribes tried their hand at the project before Koepp was brought aboard in 2005.
"We feel that the script was well worth the wait. We hope it delivers everything you'd expect from our history with Indiana Jones," Spielberg said. "George, Harrison and I are all very excited."
Producer is Frank Marshall, while Kathleen Kennedy and Lucas are exec producing.
For Paramount, the greenlight seems to be another benefit of its pricey acquisition of DreamWorks.
The film doesn't yet have an official title. Producers wouldn't disclose the storyline other than to say there would be plenty of action. Pic will be shot in undisclosed points around the globe, as well as in the U.S.
All told, the first three "Indiana Jones" films grossed more than $1.18 billion at the box office.
The upcoming installment is looking to be Spielberg's next directing project. The helmer continues to alternate wider-appeal projects with more serious dramas: He's also slated to helm "Lincoln," with Liam Neeson attached to star, for DreamWorks. He was last in theaters with "Munich."
Project reunites Spielberg and Koepp, who penned helmer's "War of the Worlds" and "Jurassic Park," among other pics.
Lucas was grand marshal of the 118th annual Rose Parade on Monday, celebrating the 30th anniversary of "Star Wars."

2007-01-08T07:26:00.000-08:00

The Lord Hath Given Me Hope. I spotted Hope Davis on Court Street on Saturday. And, she was beautful. We exchanged a smiles. Clearly she was in love.

2006-12-26T13:49:00.000-08:00

Great film. Fast paced, entertaining and had enough of a message to mean something.

My Top 3 of 2006

1. The Departed (Scorsese/Monohan)

2. Thank You For Smoking (Jason Reitman)

3. Blood Diamond (Zwick/ Leavitt)

2006-12-24T14:01:00.000-08:00

MY DREAMGIRLS...

debrazanecasting.com

2006-12-21T13:35:00.000-08:00

'The Devil Wears Prada,' Aline Brosh McKenna
Adapted screenplay contender By CAROLE HORST
DISTRIB/RELEASE DATE: Fox/June 30
CATEGORY: Adapted from the novel "The Devil Wears Prada" by Lauren Weisberger

STORYLINE: Recent journalism school grad and fashion-world neophyte Andy (Anne Hathaway) lands plum job as assistant to "boss from hell" Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), the editor of fashion bible Runway magazine.

ABOUT THE SCRIPT: "I loved the title," says McKenna. "A lot of times when you read books about the workplace, you don't believe them; the details in this book had the ring of authenticity."

BIGGEST CHALLENGE: "The storyline. The novel didn't have a lot of narrative." McKenna constructed a storyline for the Stanley Tucci character and also "gave Christian (Simon Baker) a story function. We knew we wanted Andy to quit at the end, but when she quits, what is she rejecting? ... It became a choice about what kind of future she wants."
BREAKTHROUGH IDEA: "There was always the problem of why Miranda Priestly would hire Andy, because she was always unsuitable. So I pitched everyone the line: 'Go ahead, hire the smart fat girl.' I thought that would never make it into the movie, but it became a lynchpin."

CHOICE LINE: At the end, seeing Andy across the street, Miranda simply says "Go" to her driver. "That whole scene is a wonderment to me because I feel like she says everything you need to know about Miranda in a nonverbal way: 'I'm nicer than you might know.' There's loss, rejection, warmth -- that's Meryl."

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'The Departed,' William Monahan
Adapted screenplay contender By PETER DEBRUGE
DISTRIB/RELEASE DATE: Warner Bros./ Oct. 6
ADAPTED FROM: Screenplay "Infernal Affairs" by Alan Mak and Felix Chong

STORYLINE: A rookie cop (Leonardo DiCaprio) infiltrates the organization of a Boston crime boss (Jack Nicholson), but the mobster has a mole of his own (Matt Damon) in the department who could blow his cover.

ABOUT THE SCRIPT: Although based on the Hong Kong thriller "Infernal Affairs," "In absolute fact, it isn't an 'American' adaptation at all. It's a Bostonian adaptation," says Monahan. "We're pretty much a different country." Though Scorsese added his trademark layer of insider references, Monahan says: "I'm not interested in anything which isn't working on many levels. There's no reason an action film shouldn't also make a literature professor wet himself."
BIGGEST CHALLENGE: "A lot of the stuff that people think you must have chewed pencils over in your garret, you simply don't notice until later," Monahan says. "It's a matter of ear and gut. If it feels right, it's in, and if it doesn't, it isn't." That said, Nicholson brought his own ideas to the part, transforming Costello from a post-sexual old Irishman into a great "new way to play Lear."

BREAKTHROUGH IDEA: "I was thinking about the past, and Boston, and people I'd lost, with real intensity, and had the job not come along I probably would have directed that energy into a novel," Monahan says..

CHOICE LINES: Nicholson asks a local, "How's your mother?" The guy sighs, "She's on her way out," to which Nicholson quips: "We all are. Act accordingly."
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'Thank You for Smoking,' Jason ReitmanAdapted screenplay contender By DAVID S. COHEN
DISTRIB/RELEASE DATE: Fox Searchlight/March 17
ADAPTED FROM: Novel "Thank You for Smoking" by Christopher Buckley

STORYLINE: Nick Naylor, lead spokesman for Big Tobacco, fends off a Senate investigation, lawsuits and every manner of bad publicity, all in the name of the public's right to choose -- while trying to set a good example for his young son.

ABOUT THE SCRIPT: This plea for individual responsibility was Reitman's dream project. Story languished in development until he wrote part on spec. That got him attached as writer and director.

BIGGEST CHALLENGE: "The main character is the head lobbyist for Big Tobacco. Traditionally he'd either be a villain or you'd expect the guy to have some sort of cosmic change of heart and go work for the Lung Assn. This isn't that film. You had to understand why Nick Naylor does what he does and actually love him for it."

BREAKTHROUGH IDEA: "The creation of Nick's son Joey. The son was in the book, but you never really met him. Joey became the tool by which we understand what Nick does and why. Early on, I realized that if parenting was the answer to spin, then we needed to see Nick being a good father himself."

CHOICE LINES: When a fifth-grader says her mom claims, "Cigarettes kill," Nick asks, "Is your mother a doctor or some sort of scientific researcher?" When she demurs, Nick adds: "Well she doesn't exactly sound like a credible expert, now does she?"

Date in print: Mon., Dec. 18, 2006,, Los Angeles

2006-12-21T13:34:00.000-08:00

'Breaking and Entering,' Anthony Minghella
Original screenplay contender By JON WEISMAN
DISTRIB/RELEASE DATE: The Weinstein Co.-MGM/Dec. 8 (N.Y./L.A.), Jan. 19 (wider)

STORYLINE: A man in a troubled marriage and a high-stakes architectural project sees his world overturned by a series of burglaries.

ABOUT THE SCRIPT: "The issue of crime or damage is a very interesting one to propel a story for me, and I wanted to write a piece that was essentially connected to repairing or healing," Minghella says. "And in order to have healing, something has to be damaged."

BIGGEST CHALLENGE: "After three quite big research-based adaptations, period films, costume dramas, which required me to really delve into the world of those stories," Minghella says, "I was looking forward to doing a film where essentially I just told a story with a camera pointed out my back door. " Then he realized that the task would not be so simple.
BREAKTHROUGH IDEA: About 15 years ago, Minghella had the idea of a couple who came home to find it had been ransacked, "and when they did an inventory, they found that things had been added, and that the things that had been added had been kind of a commentary on their marriage. But I could never get past the concept of it." After burglars repeatedly robbed Minghella's own North London office while he was away filming "Cold Mountain," he thought to adapt his original idea to tell a story about "the way that a burglary or small crime can organically take characters on a journey."

CHOICE LINES: "When you've been hurt this much, you can't be hurt twice."

2006-12-21T07:39:00.000-08:00

John August How to Rewrite
Over the weekend, my friend Rawson came to visit the bambina, and we talked about the script he’s writing. He said he was about to start his next draft, which was mostly character tweaks. He was unsure how to go about it.
I said, “Decide out what you want to accomplish, then figure out which scenes would need to change.”
He seemed to think that was pretty good advice. And the more I thought about it, the more I agreed.
The biggest problem with most rewrites is that you start at page one, which is already probably the best-written page in the script. You tweak as you go, page after page, moving commas and enjoying your cleverness — all the while forgetting why you’re rewriting the script.
Instead, you need to stop thinking of words and pages, and focus on goals. Are you trying to increase the rivalry between Helen and Chip? Then look through the script — actual printed script, not the one on screen — and find the scenes with Helen and Chip. Figure out what could be changed in those scenes to meet your objectives. Then look for other scenes that help support the idea. Scribble on the paper. Scratch out lines. Write new ones.
Then move on to your next goal. And your next one.
At first, this “checklist” approach to rewriting probably won’t feel organic. It doesn’t have the same flow as writing the first draft. But fixing your script isn’t that different than fixing your car. If the stereo was busted, you wouldn’t start at the tailpipe and work your way forward until you got to the dashboard. You’d rip out the stereo, figure out what was wrong, and replace it if you couldn’t get it working. Then you’d do the same for the headlights, the shocks, and the windshield wipers. A car is a car, and a script is a script. But they’re both made of lots of little pieces, and you can only fix one piece at a time.
And scripts are much better than cars. If you don’t know what you’re doing when you try to fix your car, you might be stuck taking the bus. With a screenplay, you always have the old version saved on disk. So roll up your sleeves and get to it. Don’t let the fear of screwing up keep you from starting.

2006-12-18T10:06:00.000-08:00

Scriptland This is a Great L.A. times
feature.

Few moments are more exhilarating for a screenwriter — you know, other than that whole artistic breakthrough thing — than becoming a millionaire off a mere pitch.And few moments are more miserable than being told that, well … the studio has, uh, changed its mind.When Geoff Rodkey ("Daddy Day Care," "RV") shopped around his idea for a "Scary Movie"-like parody of the family film genre back in mid-April, he was in a particularly strong position. It was two weeks before Sony's "RV" would open, and Rodkey was flush in Disney's good graces since his late rewrite of "The Shaggy Dog" was helping to push it toward $60 million at the domestic box office that week. When they heard his pitch, Sony, Disney and Dimension all expressed interest in the lush seven-figure range, until Disney executive Karen Glass and production president Nina Jacobson pocketed Rodkey's idea for a monstrous $1.25 million.Yes, and a pleasure doing business with you too.
RELATED — More ScriptlandBut three months later, as the executives were still developing the story outline with Rodkey, everything changed: One-fifth of the live-action studio department's staff, Jacobson and Glass among them, were suddenly asked to pack up their desks. In July, when Oren Aviv walked in to begin his stint as Disney's new production head, he faced a huge stack of projects in development and a Dick Cook-mandated change in direction that included reducing Disney's annual live-action slate to around a dozen features.Whether or not the perception that this was a frivolous purchase was one of the reasons Jacobson got fired, Aviv clearly viewed this particular idea as unworthy of its humongous cash outlay.In September, Rodkey was notified of the bad news: Disney was no longer interested in producing his idea and wanted him to accept a lesser payout.This situation is not uncommon. Fresh ideas, scripts and relationships go stale in mid-development all the time, and screenwriters are often shuffled out of frame clutching 20 bucks for cab fare.But Rodkey had turned down enormous offers at competing studios to sell it to Disney — bids unlikely to be re-proffered even if he bought his idea back. As a result, he was in a stronger position than most to ask the studio to honor its commitment. Rodkey obviously wanted the boffo bank he was promised, but rather than potentially alienate the studio that is the likeliest home for the broad, big-budget family comedies he likes to write, he offered to work on some other Disney project instead.A few weeks ago, Disney finally took the bait. It moved Rodkey onto a different untitled family comedy being shepherded by producer Sean Bailey ("Matchstick Men," "The Core") that had long ago stalled but which Rodkey liked. Meanwhile, Rodkey's original movie idea remains the property of Disney while its chances of becoming an enchanting theme park ride taper to never.On the plus side, he did pretty well on his negotiated settlement: He's getting the entire $1,250,000.Hungry for a break on 'Eat'I don't know how talented a screenwriter Josh "The Scribbler" Heald is, but the man can eat 11 hot dogs — with buns — in 12 minutes. And surely that's something we can all celebrate.For the last few years, Heald has been making a living as a screenwriter by spinning raunchy comedy out of the baser male desires: food, sex, booze and breasts.Exhibit A is his first screenplay, "All You Can Eat," a very physical comedy about the world of competitive eating that Heald likens to "Hoosiers" or "Rudy" — an "inspirational sports movie, except it happens to be about a sport that's completely disgusting," as he puts it.In early 2002, Heald was slouched in front of the TV with friends Hayden Schlossberg and former roommate Jon Hurwitz, the writers of "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle." They were transfixed by a Fox special called "The Glutton Bowl," a two-hour eating competition that featured the sport's newest phenom: Takeru "The Tsunami" Kobayashi, who has since become the world record holder in the hot dog category, with 53 3/4 consumed in 12 minutes. (Five weeks ago, the peerless Kobayashi set a new Krystal hamburger record by devouring 97 in eight minutes.)Inspired, Heald wrote a feature-length script (with Hurwitz and Schlossberg as producers), and though he couldn't immediately sell "All You Can Eat," he eventually sold a pitch for an '80s-style comedy called "Open Bar" to New Line in April 2004. When "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story" came out two months later and laughed its way past the $100-million mark, New Line saw the potential for "All You Can Eat's" similar exploration of an odd sporting subculture (this one real), and picked up Heald's script too.And then the writer's unquenchable pursuit of truth kicked in.Last January, Heald attended an IFOCE (International Federation of Competitive Eating) World Chili Cheese Fries Eating Championship on the Queen Mary in Long Beach and ended up crashing an Italian sausage eating contest the organizers held as an opening event. Despite having never competed before, Heald blew away the rest of the field using the Kobayashi method he had learned during his script research — he downed three sausages in less than 90 seconds. (For the uninformed, the Kobayashi method requires separating bun from dog and dipping the bun in water before consuming.)This stunt provoked IFOCE Chairman George Shea to invite Heald to an official qualifying event at the New York New York casino in Las Vegas on May 18. This time, he arrived with a dozen members of his entourage — his agent and managers, Hurwitz, Schlossberg, producer Luke Ryan, Terra Firma Films Co-President Josh Shader, director Phil Dornfeld — all dressed in mustard-yellow "Team Heald" T-shirts. With his personal posse and a crowd of onlookers making a scene behind him, Heald went up against the No. 2 ranked eater in the world, Joey "Jaws" Chestnut. Heald was managing a respectable fifth place until the competitor next to him passed out and was removed by stretcher, pushing Heald into a fourth-place finish with his 11. (Chestnut set a U.S. record that day by swallowing a nice round 50.)Such feverish public deglutition permeates Heald's script, which has Farrelly brothers protégé J.B. Rogers ("American Pie 2," "Say It Isn't So") attached to direct. In the story, Heald portrays competitive eating as bigger than pro wrestling. In the years since he wrote it, the mania around the sport has, much like its "athletes," grown ever larger. Star competitors are winning endorsement deals, and at events, adult fans show up in face paint while their kids seek autographs from heavyweights such as Rich "The Locust" LeFevre, "Jalapeno" Jed Donahue and the league's lone female powerhouse, 105-pound Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas.Unsurprisingly, the major challenge in moving "All You Can Eat" into production has been casting — it would take some very game comic actors who are willing to be seen stuffing food in their faces for two hours while potentially risking a disqualifying "reversal of fortune," in the lingo of the sport.Perhaps Heald will have better luck with the bawdy, post-Hurricane Katrina Mardi Gras comedy script he just turned in. "It's an underdog story about guys trying to see naked breasts and live the college American dream," he says, with attendant irony. "It's something that is going to appeal to a lot of base interests."If not, there's always the new spec he's finishing up, a heartwarming John Hughes-style love story about a bunch of high school nerds looking for revenge on the school bully via the sexual conquest of his girlfriend.Its title?Unprintable, of course.

2006-12-11T07:05:00.000-08:00

Balls of Fury Dan Fogler I knew the dude had talent when we were buds in 6th grade. Shine on you crazy diamond. Kudos. I'll see you in Hollywood soon.

2006-12-11T06:30:00.000-08:00

Check out Fox's On the Lot.
I'm all over this. Ever since I discover Steven on the set of War of the Worlds, I knew he'd be big. It's good to see my support is paying off.

2006-11-29T07:02:00.000-08:00

Movie Night with David Lynch @ IFC Center
Monday, December 4 at 7:30pm!
The legendary director in personto screen one of his short filmsand present a personal favorite:Alfred Hitchcock's VERTIGO

In the latest edition of the IFC Center's "Movie Night" program, the visionary director of Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks presents one of his short films and a special 35mm screening of Alfred Hitchcock's masterwork VERTIGO, this Monday evening at 7:30pm. VERTIGO's themes of dopplegangers, obsession, and women in distress are mirrored in Lynch's latest, INLAND EMPIRE, which opens for its world premiere theatrical engagement exclusively at the IFC Center Wednesday, December 6.

INLAND EMPIRE stars Laura Dern in a tour-de-force performance as, perhaps, an actress who lands a dream role that quickly devolves into nightmare. Intrigued by the texture and freedom of consumer-grade DV, Lynch started out shooting tests with Dern; over the next two years, he grafted on scenes encompassing Hollywood machinations, conjugal intrigue, Polish curses, and even a rabbit-headed sitcom parody. The result is as dark, unpredictable, and utterly compelling as anything he's ever done, both a masterful recap of a career -- including appearances by Lynch veterans Justin Theroux, Laura Harring, Grace Zabriskie, Diane Ladd, and the inimitable Harry Dean Stanton -- and his most radical and experimental movie since Eraserhead.

In the "Movie Night" program, the IFC Center turns over a theater to special guests and lets them call the shots. Audiences can discover what some of their favorite authors, musicians, artists, and filmmakers would pick if it were Movie Night at their house. Participants appear in person to share why they made their selections: to acknowledge the brilliance of a timeless classic, spotlight an unsung gem, or defend a guilty pleasure. Past guests include the filmmaker David Gordon Green, Slovenian theorist and philosopher Slavoj Zizek, singer-songwriter-actor Will Oldham, director and Monty Python alum Terry Gilliam, French auteur Gaspar Noe, and author Jonathan Lethem.

Tickets to this special event are $15, $12 for seniors.

2006-11-29T06:26:00.001-08:00

NEXT GENERATION OF FILM – BEN AFFLECK & HOLLYWOODLAND – Wed Dec 6 – 7pm“In his generous spirit toward a forgotten Hollywood icon, Affleck turns the death-obsessed HOLLYWOODLAND into, of all things, a film about resurrection.” - Peter Travers, ROLLING STONEFollowing a screening of Allen Coulter’s HOLLYWOODLAND, Ben Affleck will join our own Kent Jones in a lively conversation from the stage of The Walter Reade. He’ll discuss a wide range of topics then take questions from the audience. Next Generation is presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and The New York Times and is sponsored by MyRichUncle Student Loans.

2006-11-21T18:34:00.001-08:00

TRIBUTE TO ROBERT ALTMAN - A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION – Mon Nov 27 - 8:30pm On the night of November 20th, the cinema lost one of its finest, a fiercely independent spirit who made movies that lived, breathed and inspired a unique devotion in movie lovers all around the world. Robert Altman’s camera eye was a remarkably delicate and sensitive instrument, seeking out and illuminating the most fleeting beauties and mysteries of being human. Altman gave us images and sounds and sensations we’d never experienced before – think of the sustained euphoria of CALIFORNIA SPLIT, the glorious interchanges between Sissy Spacek and Shelley Duvall in 3 WOMEN, or the heartbreaking snowbound ending of MCCABE AND MRS. MILLER. Altman’s greatest films are uplifting in the best possible way: they open our eyes and ears to the wonders of everyday life. A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION, Altman’s final film, is a poignant and joyous triumph, a lovely celebration of show business, the passage of time, and the glories of the human face. We’ll be showing it on our screen Monday Nov 27 at 8:30pm. It’s the nicest way we can think of to say goodbye.http://www.filmlinc.com/wrt/onsale/prairiehome.html

2006-11-02T12:37:00.000-08:00

http://www.sonyclassics.com/volver/

2006-11-02T12:02:00.000-08:00

Cruise, Wagner take over United Artists
In a surprising move announced Thursday morning, United Artists will be reborn under the leadership of Paula Wagner, Tom Cruise and MGM.

Cruise and Wagner, who recently ended their longtime production deal at Paramount Pictures, have taken a financial stake in the studio originally founded by movie greats Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and D.W. Griffith 85 years ago. The two will set the company's production slate with Wagner serving as CEO and Cruise starring and producing films for UA as well as film projects for other studios.

The studio plans to have a production slate of approximately four films each year, with MGM handling worldwide marketing and distribution. The films will be fully financed by MGM and its partners, including private equity firms which include Providence Equity Partners and Texas Pacific Group along with industry partners Comcast Corp. and Sony Corp. of America.

"Partnering with Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner, we have the ideal creative foundation from which to reintroduce the United Artists brand," said MGM chairman and CEO Harry Sloan in making the announcement. "Tom and Paula are the modern versions of the iconic founders of United Artists - Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin and D. W. Griffith - and our partnership with them reaffirms our commitment to providing creative talent with a comfortable home at United Artists and a dedicated distribution partner in MGM. United Artists is once again the haven for independent filmmakers and a vital resource in developing quality filmed entertainment consistent with MGM's modern studio model.

"The agreement between Cruise/Wagner Prods. and MGM/UA, which takes effect immediately, was brokered by Cruise/Wagner's reps at CAA and attorney Bert Fields.

2006-10-31T12:38:00.000-08:00

Our Take on “Borat”
The upcoming movie “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan”, and the Borat character, of course, have nothing to do with the real Kazakhstan. The only actual fact about Kazakhstan in the movie is the country’s geographic location.

2006-10-25T07:13:00.000-07:00

Redstone Defends Cruise Ouster
Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone indicated Monday that he has no regrets about his decision to cut his company's ties to Tom Cruise. Interviewed by former Disney chief Michael Eisner on Eisner's CNBC talk show Monday, Redstone, whose company owns Paramount Pictures, suggested that movie stars in general may be overvalued by the film industry. "I hoped I was saying goodbye to a type of business," Redstone told Eisner, referring to Paramount's break with Cruise's production company. "We were paying too much to the stars, and stars don't make a picture, the script does. We were paying too much and getting too little." Cruise's most recent project with Paramount was Mission: Impossible III, which grossed $133.4 million domestically.

2006-10-21T08:08:00.000-07:00

Off subject (again). But, I am diggin' this show Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. If you're a writer, a producer, an actor or just a fan of Saturday Night Live, this show's for you. Mondays 10/9c.

2006-10-19T18:15:00.000-07:00

The Departed deserves a 2nd look and The Last King of Scotland has the most memorable performance of recent time (Forest Whitaker). But, Christian Bale can do no wrong. My eyes are on The Prestige this weekend. Yours should be too.

2006-10-19T11:11:00.000-07:00

SCRENWRITER/DIRECTOR PAUL SCHRADER IN PERSON The Walter Reade Theater Sunday Oct 22 at 4:30pm. In this third edition of our Next Generation series, Paul Schrader, the expressive and provocative screenwriter of TAXI DRIVER, RAGING BULL, THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST, THE WALKER and director of AFFLICTION, AUTO FOCUS, THE WALKER among many others, will share the stage with Kent Jones in what promises to be a lively discussion illustrated with film clips.

2006-10-16T18:15:00.000-07:00

And, the Oscar for best Actor in a leading role goes to...Forest Whitaker. Period.

2006-10-13T07:03:00.000-07:00

I am going to a screenwriting seminar tomorrow with professional screenwriter Jeremy Leven. Haven't been to anything instructional in a while and this seems worthwhile, so I am looking forward to it. I will share any valuable tidbits which I hone from the seminar. Cheers.

2006-10-12T11:38:00.000-07:00

“Words are the last things that people do. They have the thought, they have the fear, they have another thought, they want to run, and finally, they speak.” – Marshall Herskovitz The Dialogue.

2006-10-12T09:16:00.000-07:00

I am going to a screening of The Last King of Scotland on Monday afternoon. You just know from the trailer that Forest is going to win Best Actor. I will report back after the film. Looks POWERFUL.

2006-10-11T13:27:00.000-07:00

This is unrelated to movies, but is one of the most inspiring sports stories I have ever read and I had to have it on my blog: Woman sues Packers' Davenport

2006-10-11T11:43:00.000-07:00

The Departed. Let's discuss. I have so many questions.

2006-10-11T06:48:00.000-07:00

I am creating this blog for screenwriters, producers and movie fans that just enjoy films with integrity.

2006-10-10T18:56:00.000-07:00

"This is the highlight of my day. It's all downhill from here."

- If you don't know where it's from, get off my fucking blog.