My God Mother was born on April Fools day and I’ve always thought that was the coolest thing ever. I miss her…she use to love taking me to the movies and for that I am ever grateful.
Today I am a screenwriter living the dream in LA. As much as I love SCI-FI (and will still write it and hopefully sell it) I am known for comedy. For that reason, in my God Mother’s honor, I selected today to be the first day of starting this Blog on Screenwriting, Film and Life.
Later today I will be taking my family to see TMNT. I look forward to reviewing this film. I was always a fan of the original Turtles. I will be curious how my little girl feels about this film. My older boy can’t wait.
My wife and I recently saw a screening of DEATH AT A FUNERAL. Putting it simply, this film is hysterical. It takes such chances, albeit sometimes over the top, but they all play well. Only a couple of times did I feel the writing by Daniel Craig was on the nose, but for the most part all the arcs and comedic set ups and payoffs were masterfully crafted (and hell as some of us know, it may not have been all his writing that got into the final cut). I look forward to reading then seeing his next project DOWN AND DIRTY PICTURES. It is great to see Frank Oz once again doing films the caliber of DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS and WHAT ABOUT BOB. Alan Tudyk and Andy Nyman’s performances were big stand outs. There is a scene Andy is in that will certainly go down in comedic film history. Believe me, you’ll know it when you see it. I can’t remember a film that made my wife and I laugh out loud more times then we could remember. I give it 4 out of 4 ACES.
I was thrilled today to finally have a breakthrough in a scene I’ve been trying to crack for a couple of months now. It’s one of those scenes that introduce the female lead. Every version I’ve written hasn’t captured really who she is and set up the beginning of her arc successfully. All funny (well maybe one wasn’t) but none quite there, as my manager will be the first to tell me. Luckily he’s extremely good at what he does, and he has been right each time. Well today I feel like I finally cracked it and look forward to hearing back from Tony (I give him that name to protect his identity and to make him sound more like a connected man). I’ll let you know how that goes. Also, it’s great having a professional actress for a wife. Her insights on to what makes a written character inticing for an actor to play is woundrously helpful. I highly reccomend marrying one, renting one, borrowing one…220, 221…whatever it takes.
Today a 45 year old female flight attendant accidentally brought a hand gun on to a flight she was dead heading on. If you can get around the fact that a woman was flying the friendly skies with a weapon…good for you. I think I can. If I was a woman traveling all over the country alone I would want to have weapons on me like the kind used in HALO to ward off the night of the living creeps that exist…but I can’t seem to get over the fact that she got it past security. Granted…she forgot it was there, but how did our ever dutiful crack TSA gate security workers let that one slip by? I wont make a generalization here…but most of those gate keepers don’t look like they could be trusted to work a number 2 pencil let alone a high end X-Ray device. Thank God they were able to stop me recently sneaking on (I’m sorry, forgetting that I had) shampoo…I know just how much that can sting the eyes. TSA commented they will undergo an investigation to find out how this could have happened. They currently feel this could not have been their mistake because nothing like this could ever get past them.
Uh huh…okay.
jsg
