The Weekend Ahead

So far, Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen has raked in $419 million worldwide in its first week. An awesome second to last year's mega hit The Dark Knight. More evidence, as far as I'm concerned, that the public wants big escapist films with larger-than-life villains and heroes.

This is good to know if you're thinking about writing a script and selling it to Hollywood. The coming weekend is right on target with Michael Mann's crime drama Public Enemies opening wide in the U.S. against the Fox animated flick Ice Age 3. Here's a sneak peak at both of those films (both a little different than the official trailers).

PUBLIC ENEMIES



ICE AGE 3



Hard to imagine two more opposite films. If you time it right you can take the kids to see Ice Age and watch Public Enemies with your spouse or significant other.

Meanwhile, nothing earth shaking to report in terms of my taking Hollywood by storm yet...I'll keep you posted.

Yesterday...

While the world mourns for Michael Jackson and the media circus swirls around his sudden death, it seems almost sacrilege to add to fray. May he rest in peace. The last years of his life were no picnic and yesterday's feeding frenzy made sure to remind us of that fact.

News that the king of pop has passed, however, hasn't hurt Transformers 2 at the box office. That's entertainment. On its second day of release, the DreamWorks sci-fi actioner about morphing alien robots earned $60 million and is set to pull in upwards of $160 million for the 5 day weekend. The world is hungry for heart-stopping adventure and director Michael Bay does it again.

Of course it's virtually alone as a new tent pole film. The only other major motion picture opening this weekend is Warner Bros. family drama My Sister's Keeper - bowing at 2,606 theatres, roughly half Transformers' massive 4,234 theatre release.

This movie is based on the best-selling book and is about one family's approach to a child with cancer. Ironically enough, it comes just days after actress Farrah Fawcett (whose passing was all but lost yesterday in the news) lost her years long battle with the disease.



The July 4 weekend is going to be another one for the record books. The much anticipated crime drama Public Enemies starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Marion Cotillard comes out on July 1, followed by another sequel from the Fox animated Ice Age franchise on the national holiday.

Transformers 2: Sizzling Hot Sequel

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen opened today to an astonishing 16 million in midnight previews and is expected to dominate the charts this weekend in spite of less-than-kind reviews.

And why not? It's fun to watch, fast paced and totally escapist - something we can all enjoy. Who cares if it "doesn't carry the zeitgeist" of last year's blockbuster The Dark Knight. Sometimes I think studio executives just like to hear themselves talk.

Pixar unveils animatronic Luxo

Just saw this on the Pixar blog, a "silent" clip of Luxo Jr.'s animatronic debut at Disney's theme park in Florida yesterday.



I love animation - more than any other art form in the business. Isn't it interesting that we develop feelings for a hopping lamp? There's no dialogue so it's not about clever word choice or a story line per se.

Luxo "comes to life" (the essence of animation) by assuming the physical characteristics of a sentient being. The more he hesitates, looks around and generally fidgets, the more we identify with him.

Here's the first official Pixar short from John Lasseter himself. You can see how true he and his colleagues were then (and still are) to animation's roots in pantomime.



Before Steve Jobs bought the computer animation technology John Lasseter, et al, developed at LucasFilm and formed the Pixar we know and love today they made this short in 1984.

Letterman, Degeneres and the entry level job

Geez. I'm in town three days and no work yet. Yes, I'm being a little sarcastic but even after all this time maneuvering in and out of jobs in the industry, it's scary on the outside. The only thing for it is action, even towards things unlikely to pan out.

So I forced myself on Craigslist today and lo and behold, there's a job as a P.A. for a National Daily TV Show. Turns out it's for a group of comedy writers on the level of David Letterman and Ellen Degeneres. How do you like that?

At face value it's way below my level but it will probably be a lot of fun for whoever gets it AND a much bigger opportunity than it appears to be. Heck, I'd love to have it. I sent in 3 emails knowing full well they'll probably choose a 22 year old kid.

If you're a writer or love researching and developing ideas like I do, one of the best places you can be is working with a team of writers - even if you start out making the coffee and photo-shopping heads. Really! You learn a lot about writing too.

Clooney Update

This is old news but it was news to me. Being a lover of research, backstory and story in general I wanted to share this with my readers - who, as it happens, span the globe. In January of last year George Clooney was designated a United Nations Messenger of Peace.* That's as impressive to me as all his accomplishments in film.

It kind of makes a point too. Why does the media glom onto swine psychics and waitress girlfriends when there's a meaty story like that out there? I guess pets and romance sell more copy. In fact I know they do. When I was studying broadcast communications at Pepperdine University the top selling magazine wasn't Time or Newsweek or even a gossip rag, it was TV Guide.

TV Guide is no longer the top seller. Here's the Magazine Publishers of America best seller list as of 2006 and although it's old, it's pretty insightful. AARP is number one and counting - probably because in a very short period of time senior citizens will be the largest age demographic in the country. Which leads me back to an old saw. Why don't the studios make movies for that growing group?

FYI Here's the website devoted to the nine messengers of peace. A few short months after being designated a messenger of peace, George and some of his friends (Don Cheadle, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, David Pressman, Jerry Weintraub) founded a nonprofit called Not On Our Watch which takes its title from the book written by John Prendergast and Don Cheadle.

Check it out. On June 2 alone the Not On Our Watch advocacy and aid organization donated $438,000 (four hundred thirty eight thousand) to assist the 1,500 at-risk Zimbabwean refugee children living in the border town of Musina, South Africa.

*It's virtually impossible for an NGO (non-government official or head of state) to address U.N. delegates but since 1992 there has been a window of opportunity through something called The Arria Formula.

In September of 2006, George got an audience with members of the Security Council as a guest of another messenger of Peace/Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel in an Arria Formula meeting. He briefed them on the genocide still taking place in Darfur.

Working for George Clooney

I've had this wish for a while now. If I could write my dream post today it would be that I'm going to work for George Clooney next week. In fact, I spent a while writing about why that would be so cool for me and how it could happen but then I had to delete it because some things you just can't talk about. They sound ridiculous.

The reason I write about this is...I did leave Austin behind and got back in Los Angeles yesterday. Yippee! I am even happy to be riding on the freeways. Who knows? Maybe George WILL drop me an email and invite me over for a chat. It COULD happen. I love that about Hollywood and about life in general. Anything is possible...

Meanwhile, L.A. is currently going through it's annual "June Gloom" phase. That means it tends to be cloudy and cool in the mornings, especially on the west-side by the beaches. By the early afternoon the marine layer usually burns off and that beautiful California sunshine breaks through. Today it hovered around 67 when the clouds cleared.

I've spent most of the past two days either in my hotel room brainstorming or out in the temperate clime oohing and ahhing over the majesty of the Santa Monica mountains, the palm trees and the profusion of fragrant flowers everywhere. It's good to be home.

The latest Clooney gossip is funny and endearing at the same time. I pulled this out of my previous post to share. George has allegedly hired a psychic to contact his late pig MAX. In some ways it must be awful to be a celebrity (or a celebrity's publicist). It never stops.

Maybe it's the result of being so isolated but I've been getting some guidance from my late mother recently. It began with the idea for a story about a gossip columnist who counsels clients with the help of her dead mother's spirit (the working title is "Ask Mom") I do feel I got in touch with her wishes for me. And I know she'd enjoy giving advice from beyond the grave if I'd give her half a chance.

"GO BACK TO CALIFORNIA" came through like a foghorn in the mist a few days ago. For a moment there I almost thought I could see her lips moving in a drawing I have of her. Mom definitely wants me to get out and mingle - or is that my inner parent talking? I'm listening and I like that I've got more control over what filters through.

P.S. I don't think hiring a swine psychic is strange either.

The Comedy of Craig Ferguson

My thanks go out to Craig Ferguson this morning. As I've been clearing things out of the house, I had an offer to move up to the Dallas-Ft.Worth area and care for a relative's elderly father. I would have a fairly posh place on the lake, a salary, a car, etc.

I have to be honest. I seriously considered it for a day or so because I need a gig and have a passion for the plight of the elderly. But then I had to get real. While waiting to discuss the details of the somewhat dreaded deal (which was to have been temporary at my request anyway) I happened to watch some clips from The Late Late Show.

Here's the one that gave me the message I so needed to hear.



So thanks Craig for the reminder. I wonder how many other people he has been able to help by being honestly funny and compassionate at the same time? What a gift to have him on the air. Meanwhile, here's another CF monologue for the road.

Coming Home

After spending 6 weeks in deep contemplation following my mother's death (I've hardly left the house), I feel that it's time for me to go home. The only reason for coming to Austin in the first place was to care for my mom in her last days and now that she's gone, it just makes sense to leave this place. Home for me is Los Angeles.

So as of today, and almost as a surprise to me, I'm packing up, selling most of the stuff I've managed to collect (amazing how it accumulates) and will soon be back where I belong. It's been an incredible journey. In some ways I feel like I've descended into hell and come back to tell the tale but I have no regrets.

Now, if I can just find work...

Animated Shorts for a Sunday Afternoon

You'll notice that my choices from AniBoom are musical, whimsical and on the innocent side. That's my sensibility and taste. There are plenty more to see on the Fox virtual animation site that showcase other qualities.

The animators would do well to remember that Disney/Pixar and DreamWorks animation (which is at Paramount now but still with Jeffrey Katzenberg at the helm) are apt to go for the rounded sweetness of the former style.

Except for the Ice Age franchise Fox (the sponsor of Aniboom) has pretty much gotten out of the feature animation business to cash in on prime-time toons while Warner Bros continues to hone it's harder, darker edge via DC comic adaptations.

It's not a matter of one style necessarily being better than the other but rather one of knowing your buyer's taste. Since these all came from the Fox online animation studio, it's not surprising there are so few Disneyesque pieces there. I had to really search for these.

Like attracts like. Even so, generally speaking, the ones that succeed the most are the ones that emphasize theme and character over plot and structure. Feeling over intellect. Animation is, in my opinion (and will always be), best when it recognizes its roots in pantomime.


WE SING THE FOREST ELECTRIC




DO THEY EAT DOGS IN FRANCE?




THE PIANO




THE FOUNTAIN

Ning Ning Ning!

If you haven't heard about it already, Ning is a relatively new web platform that allows people to design their own social networks. It looks like it could be fun. I'm setting up a site there and will invite readers of this blog as soon as I finish brainstorming/designing it.

Here's a clip that explains a bit about Ning (in case you haven't found it yet). Somebody already has a scriptblog site up (NOT MINE), so I've dubbed mine The Hollywood Script. It's nothing yet and is currently set as members only - so unless I bungled the initial set-up - you can't post or upload until further notice.




If you have any thoughts on this new venture send me a comment. Comments are moderated so your comment may or may not appear on the blog. Just because you don't see any doesn't mean that function isn't working. This is also the best way to contact me.

FYI, Ning's co-founder and CEO has put this together with a partner whose name is Marc Andressen, the brainiac who helped create a little internet start-up called Netscape.

Air France Flight 447

No, it's not a spin-off of the hit show Lost even if the French Airbus that went missing last Sunday en route from Rio to Paris is showing all the ear-markings of it. Kind of weird. It's almost as if all that attention to the subject somehow created it.

Anxious investigators jumped the gun earlier this week saying there's no hope for survivors. Although logic dictates there probably isn't any way they could still be alive, we've also been watching Survivor mock-ups for years now. Do you see where I'm going with this?

On Tuesday claims were made that debris had been recovered from the crash. That's been proven false now. And yesterday after a mass held in Rio for the 228 missing passengers and crew, the governor of the city stated that the whole thing is a mystery. How can a jumbo jet go missing with today's technology? Today there's a new theory.



This is the perfect set-up for a miracle. What if...the entire plane was raptured? Yes, comic fantasy has its roots in tragedy. Of course, we could go with sci-fi or disaster too. Imagine all races and creeds plucked out of the sky and placed in a parallel dimension they call heaven, paradise or Shambala? The thematic impetus appeared first (a united global spiritual consciousness), then came ideas for story.

As far as the story itself goes, I'd need to adapt the plot but the circumstances, genre and theme suggest a reincarnation of Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors. If we were to use a married couple and their two sets of identical twins (like Shakespeare did) or a similar convention, the work is almost done using public domain material and a single newsworthy event.

The idea is timely. The beauty of this concept is that the veil, as it were, will be lifted for the audience but not the players by virtue of the plot. We know they're dead but they're still confused and when they show up on earth impersonating the living, things get a whole lot crazier before they right themselves and everybody lives (and dies) happily ever after. Think it would work? I do. Why not?

I haven't brainstormed the rules of this world yet but the potential is enormous and also partially inspired by Dalton Trumbo's romantic drama called A Guy Named Joe (which Steven Spielberg remade as Always in 1989).

The inspiration for the 1943 film (at least in part) it is tucked away in a line of dialogue delivered by a child, who gets Spencer Tracy to admit to his sense of wonder and the connectedness of all mankind. It's very subtle and with Spencer Tracy in the man's man lead, you almost never suspect this is what makes the movie tick.

In that little nugget we learn that all pilots were called Joe and legend has it that all pilots are protected by the fliers who've gone before them. This, ultimately, is what Spencer must face. He must release his ego after death and embrace unconditional love - even of the cocky pilot who comes along after him and steals his girl.

As it happens, there were four people who didn't get on that fated Air France jet. In a sense, the stage has already been set. The story has already been written. I'm willing to bet that somebody besides me is already working out some sort of story line. And even if they aren't, this is exactly how those ideas bubble up and land on the screen.

The Producers Guild Conference

This is one you won't want to miss if it's at all possible to get to L.A. this coming weekend. June 5-7 The Producers Guild is offering the public an outstanding opportunity to hear 100+ A-list producers, directors and writers talk about their craft.

There will be some opportunity (although limited) to interface in mentoring groups of 10 (no pitches though). It looks like a great opening for networking and learning about the real world of film making. They say they don't want you to bring your script but producers are always looking for good material so think of it as a way to get an okay to submit something with advance permission.

Aptly enough, it's called The Produced By Conference and it will be held at Sony Studios. But don't listen to me. Click on the links to learn more and/or watch this clip for a glimpse into what's cooking.



FYI..The Producers Guild website is an excellent resource. You have to be a member to participate in many of their events but it is possible to access some very enlightening video clips with members on a variety of producer-related topics. If you find yourself bored or just looking for more insight and inspiration you might want to visit their site.