Paranormal2 - Tweet Your Scream

Paramount just released the trailer for Paranormal Activity 2 and yes, it's still scary only now it has a big studio budget. The first Paranormal Activity was allegedly produced for $15,000 and accumulated a worldwide box office gross of $193,298,009. So naturally, that's a pattern worth repeating. Besides, most people think it was one of the scariest movies they've ever seen. It's good old-fashioned Hitchcockian suspense that imitates a home movie.

The original writer/director, Israeli immigrant Oren Peli is producing the sequel with a script written by Emmy Award winning TV scribe Michael R. Perry and directed by Kip Williams. Paranormal2 hits theatres October 22, 2010 - in time for Halloween.

In keeping with the visceral reaction of audiences who enjoyed the first Paranormal movie, you're now invited to tweet your scream! Here's the trailer. Turn the sound down to minimize the scare factor.



In case you missed the phenomenon of the first film, here's a link back to my analysis of how and why the first film worked. I also couldn't resist re-posting the sound byte taken from someone's phone in a movie theatre in Seattle last year. It really had this affect on people.

Koyaanisqatsi - Revisited/Update

UPDATE: June 30, 2010. Strange timing on this one. Koyaanisqatsi, the complete and uninterrupted film, is no longer available from MGM on YouTube. Sorry about that but you can find installments of it there from other portals and I'm pretty sure Amazon has the DVD. Here is the trailer, which at least gives you a flavor of the film.



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When I was on staff in the story department at Disney Animated Features, our fearless leader Peter Schneider (who has just produced a film about the comeback story of Disney Animation called Waking Sleeping Beauty)arranged a special screening of Koyaanisqatsi for the animators and story people. I stumbled across it again today while researching pictographs from The Great Gallery in Utah. As it happens, Koyaanisqatsi opens with the very pictograph that captured my imagination. Maybe some part of me remembered it.

Koyaanisqatsi is a Hopi word that roughly translates to "Life Out of Balance". Many people interpret it as being one of the first environmentally aware films as it juxtaposes nature with the technological world. However, the filmmaker describes it simply as "the beauty of the beast" and leaves the meaning of the film to the individual viewer.

There is no dialogue and the music was composed by Philip Glass. THis was Philip Glass's first film score. It has since become a cult classic of sorts in a trilogy of "Qatsi" films. It was shot between 1975 and 1982 using time lapse photography.

Koyaanisqatsi is a favorite film. It strikes people different ways but when it was first released in 1982, it was astoundingly original and won an award from Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope Studios . Coppola now claims executive producer credit for the film. It was produced by The Institute of Regional Education & Fund for Change, and released by Polygram, which went out of business and sold its library to MGM who re-released it in 2008 as the first of its films available on YouTube.

Below, is a "making of" documentary featuring the film's director, Godfrey Reggio. It's well worth watching. He discusses the removal of standard structures in storytelling as a way of communicating the central message - that we are not affected by techonology as much as we are enveloped by it. Reggio credits his collaborators Philip Glass and cinemaphotographer Ron Fricke with the success of this film.

Created between 1975 and 1982, the film is an apocalyptic vision of the collision of two different worlds -- urban life and technology versus the environment... KOYAANISQATSI is not so much about something, nor does it have a specific meaning or value. KOYAANISQATSI is, after all, an animated object, an object in moving time, the meaning of which is up to the viewer.

The film is as moving and mysterious as it was the first time I saw it. A true classic that speaks louder and more eloquently than any words could've ever done.

The Cartoonist - Movie Pitch

Today is the deadline to submit your story to The Tribeca Film Festival. I recorded one last night. Very tricky to tell a complete story in under 60 seconds. If I'd had more time I would've elaborated on the part where the cartoonist gets what he thinks he wants and made it more of a Sorcerer's Apprentice scenario where things go wildly awry before an intervention stops the madness and things finally work out. Oh well. It's done and now one of the official entries. Wish me luck!

Spyglass toppers in talks with MGM

Many sources, including Wall Street Journal and Variety, reported yesterday that the executive team atop Spyglass Entertainment are the front runners in a bid against Summit Entertainment to step in as top management for the ailing MGM. If a deal goes through the Spyglass co-CEOS Roger Birnbaum and Gary Barber won’t take over until MGM has restructured the debt. That may take several more months. In the interim, MGM has put production on hold for the next James Bond Film and The Hobbit due to money woes.

The Spyglass duo are currently prepping THE VOW for production – a biopic romance based on Kim and Krickett Carpenter, newlyweds whose lives were turned upside down IN 1993 when the bride was in a car crash and went into a coma. She woke up with no memory so her husband started wooing her all over again. Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum star in a script by Abby Kohn & Marc Silverstein and Michael Sucsy, who is also directing.

Birnbaum is a classic case, worked his way up from being a page at NBC, with stints as a cab-driver and assistant at a record company. He was president of Guber/Peters briefly in the late 80s, then took a job as head of worldwide production for United Artists . That didn't last long. He then moved to an executive spot at Fox, where he worked with Joe Roth.

When Joe moved over to Disney and founded Caravan Pictures , Roger followed him over there as a producer and became its head when Roth replaced Jeffrey Katzenberg as CEO of the studio in 1994. Birnbaum and Barber co-founded Spyglass in 1998, which absorbed the now defunct Caravan Pictures. They have a track record of action pictures & comedies/dramas with heart.

Spyglass is currently owned by Cerberus Captial Management one of the largest private equity investment firms in the U.S.

Pinkberry & BP spoofs

Deadline Hollywood Daily started circulating this video over the weekend. Thought you might enjoy it. Pinkberry: The Movie is a spoof made by agents at The William Morris Agency for their quarterly meeting. According to Deadline, this wasn't supposed to circulate - but you never know. Wouldn't be the first time an agency pulled a stunt. Pinkberry features over-the-top silliness, bad acting and horrible sound quality but the manic energy, isn't far off.



Actually, Pinkberry: The Movie gets better the more you watch it. Weird.

I saw this next clip on a Huffington Post blog about a week ago. Since then the darn thing has gone viral - 6 and a half million hits in 7 days. Maybe somebody should make the movie. It COULD happen. There's nothing like levity in the face of gross incompetence and global environmental disaster. Cheers!

Toy Story 3 Breaks-out at Box Office

Toy Story 3 opened in the US yesterday (Father's Day weekend) and business is buzzing at the box office. Not that this is any surprise. Pixar's box office track record shows that it ALWAYS opens as the number 1 film. But the 3D sequel is headed to bust some old records. After just one day in US domestic release the G-rated film has captured more than $40 million and is on track to take another $80 million before the weekend is out. Part of the enormous number is due to the +46% increase in 3D ticket prices, which average around $20.

Heat Vision interviewed animation writer/director John Lasseter yesterday and got the scoop on how they came up with the idea for the story, which is really a prison break movie with toys. Below are some quotes from that interview.

In bringing inanimate objects to life, I've always really thought that objects that are man-made are manufactured for a reason. If that object was alive, it would want to do what it was manufactured for more than anything in the world.
A toy is put on this earth to be played with by a child. That is what it wants to do more anything else. So we’ve always said anything that prevents it being played with by a child is a thing that worries it. It causes anxiety in its life. Being broken, being lost, being stolen, which is the stuff we've dealt with in the past.
But being broken, you can be fixed. Being lost, you can be found. Being stolen, you can be recovered. But the thing they worry about the most is being outgrown because there's nothing they can do about it…
And one of the things we like doing with the “Toy Story” movies is saying let’s take a look at something our audience is familiar with but then look at it from a toy's point of view. And so to us a daycare is this familiar place, but to a toy it can be a prison. That’s where the idea came from, and then it became a prison movie with an escape.

Here's the trailer to whet your whistle.



Just for grins, here's a trailer to a movie that lives on the other end of the spectrum. It's called Middle Men, an independent dramedy based on the true story of Jack Harris, the straight-laced married businessman who helped create the Internet's first porn site. Middle Men screened at Cannes and Paramount's specialty films division Vantage picked it up for distribution. The film is rated R and opens August 6 - two months ahead of the Facebook biopic, The Social Network - due out in October. Have to admit that it looks pretty funny but it won't come close to the box office of Toy Story 3. Then again, it didn't have the massive budget of Toy Story 3 either.

Tribeca Film Fest's Movie Pitch Contest

American Express has partnered with The Tribeca Film Festival for a movie pitch contest. The grand prize winner gets their idea made into a short independent movie with one of Tribeca's directors and will also screen it at the 2011Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. Five runners-up get a directors pack which includes a high-end laptop, video camera and editing software.

Get the details here. The deadline for a 60 second video entry is June 24. You can view a gallery of pitches at the link above. Meanwhile, the latest Tribeca Films are now available on-demand at Vudu and AmazonVideo.

If you've got the time, really do check out some of the pitches. Here's one I think stands out and here's another.

News Corp Cashing In on E-Reading

The explosion of e-books and e-book sales are the tip of iceberg, or so it would seem. News Corp announced this morning that it is has bought Skiff (Hearst's new e-reading platform - and YES the screen does flex) and made a significant investment in Journalism Online (which delivers quality online content while enabling publishers to collect revenue for it). Read the press release here and an abbreviated sound byte below.

Today’s developments underscore News Corporation’s ongoing commitment to create strong business models that support journalism at a time of great change in our industry. ...Skiff and Journalism Online serve as key building blocks in our strategy to transform the publishing industry and ensure consumers will have continued access to the highest quality journalism.

(Jon Miller, Chief Digital Officer, News Corp)

The Skiff platform offers high-resolution graphics, the world's first flexible metal-foil display and a sturdy magnesium casing. Journalism Online is a collective concern that offers its publisher clients a variety of business and pricing models, which include metering (a systerm which allows the casual reader free access but bills those who want to delve into more detailed news coverage).

I know I've already begun to see a form of metering online. The e-edition of Variety (the popular Hollywood trade) now only allows readers two free articles per month and another three if you sign up. It's inevitable. Premium content costs $$$ to produce.

The Artist's Way

It is interesting that, having rescued my book from the darkness of the box I had stored it in, I feel a mix of emotions. A sense of elation and relief but also a sense of guilt for having abandoned it and a vague sense of dread. Like a mother who got so caught up that she inadvertently forgot her child. What we create is vulnerable - especially when we share an idea and someone kidnaps it, which is what happened to me.

Fortunately, the first publisher I pitched on the concept of a writer's guide through the hills and valleys of Hollywood, didn't have a copy of my manuscript. So what he published based on my idea is not the same - even though he went on to make hundreds of thousands of dollars on it. Just so you're clear on this point. You cannot copyright an idea - which is what the publisher proudly told me AFTER he read my proposal. So beware of sharing your idea and with whom.

As writers and artists we do have to learn to forgive ourselves for lapses in time and judgement. This chapter of my life represents a whole world of lessons learned and I am stronger for them. Much of the inspiration/reconnection I am currently going through comes from emerging from mourning my mother's death and re-reading Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way. One of the quotes I read in Julia's book this morning feels especially appropriate. Here it is:

I wish that life should not be cheap, but sacred. I wish the days to be as centuries, loaded, fragrant.

(Ralph Waldo Emerson)

If you're a writer and are looking for a way to channel your creative energy and make progress on that idea or story that's waiting to be born in you, I highly recommend reading The Complete Artist's Way: Creativity as Spiritual Practise(which is what I now own) and practising the exercise of "morning pages". Here's Julia talking about the benefits of doing the morning pages.

Script: A Writers Guide (the e-book?)

Just a note to follow-up on the marketing question I posed to Joe Vitale (via email) in my E-Book Revolution post a few days ago. How can I position myself in the market to successfully sell my book as an e-book? His assistant sent me a very cordial reply stating the Mr. Vitale remembered me but was busy and that I might want to visit 7DayEbook. Guess what? It's another of Joe Vitale's co-authored online products.

Okay, nothing wrong with that. Great, in fact, it's probably helpful. Every book I've read of Joe's (The Attractor Factor, Hypnotic Writing, etc) has been great. But I checked it out and what really bothers me is the book is aimed at amateurs. You don't even need to know how to spell. In fact, it says I don't need to know how to type either because it's a fill-in-the-blanks deal. Um, okay.

7Day may be great for some people but my book (Script: A Writer' Guide To The Hollywood Jungle) is based on 20 years developing scripts for feature film and inside information from some of the top writers, producers and executives in Hollywood. It's a labor of love and it's done. Unfortunately (and I mean that sincerely) 7Dayebook is also a couple years old so it can't answer my question about positioning in today's market.

Well, this is how we learn. By doing. I'm going back to producing the ebook myself. BTW, Wiley (a publisher known for trade books and educational materials) offers this free 34-page online marketing guide. Not earth shattering stuff but useful nonetheless.

J.J. Abrams on Mystery & Suspense

Always fascinated by magic and mystery, writer/director/producer J.J. Abrams (Lost, Fringe, Star Trek and many others) talks about how the concept of "what's inside the box" has motivated and inspired him in his work for television and film.

The E-Book Revolution

News is already emerging from Apple's World Wide Developers Conference going on in San Francisco this week. Steve Jobs claims that in the 65 days since the iPad's release, more than 5 million ibooks have been sold. Apple now claims a 22% share of the e-book market. The ibooks app will soon be available on the new iPhone 4. Jobs' key competitor in the burgeoning e-book market is Amazon.

Today, AmazonEncore (Amazon's first publishing imprint) announced its publishing list for Fall 2010. These are printed titles that can also be downloaded as e-books for Kindle. To my mind, the new Amazon imprint represents the best existing alternative to the traditional publishing houses in New York because it offers authors a package (royalties, print books, e-books and marketing muscle).

This news comes right on the heels of Barnes and Noble declaring their imminent entry into the independent publishing business with their new product pubit, which will be unveiled this summer. Pubit is a digital only service. So far, no news on their royalties structure.

You can also download your own e-book compiler software and self-publish right off your own website. There are several kinds of software available. Here's a link that has already done a lot of the research and reviews the different types of software out there.

Now here's the really BIG news. Based on March sales statistics of e-books from the Association of American Publishers (AAP), 2010 marks the year of the e-book with a 185% increase in sales in just the last 6 months. It's a business that is poised to go absolutely bonkers. Have a look at this chart for 1rst quarter 2010. The green column farthest to the right. It's literally off the charts.*

*Important Notes About Collection & The Above Graph

The data above represents United States revenues only and only trade eBook sales via wholesale channels. Retail numbers may be as much as double due to industry wholesale discounts. The data above also only represents sales figures submitted from approx. 12 to 15 trade publishers. It does not include library, educational or professional electronic sales. The definition used for reporting electronic book sales is "All books delivered electronically over the Internet OR to hand-held reading devices". The IDPF and AAP began collecting data together starting in Q1 2006. Access the full report here.

All this leaves me wondering. If I can produce an e-book for practically no dollars, get a major book chain to sell it in their stores AND hold on to the copyright, that means that sooner or later everybody will be hawking their book online. So how do I position myself in the marketplace? I've posed this question to marketing guru Joe Vitale and will let you know his response.

FYI - iBooks, Kindle and Barnes and Noble all use ePub format, the recommended format of the International Digital Publishing Forum. So whoever you go with, your device/computer can read it.

The Follow-Up Report

If you're a writer and read my last development report, don't despair. Although some sobering facts about what's getting made may have become obvious, it's a market study to get a grasp of the shifting creative landscape. The high, well guarded wall that appears to block spec scripts and new writers from entry into the kingdom only seems impenetrable. Strong, original material always gets noticed. There are ways to get in the game, even in the current environment.

What follows are some observations and thoughts about what I think the trends mean and where they may be heading. I've tried to point out where I see some chinks in the armor and opportunities where it may look like there are none.

CHILDREN'S BOOKS

These little gems are worth their weight in gold. Although this has been true for a long time, the market value of kids books has never been so widely and completely embraced by the studios before. Pre-pub manuscripts often sell the film rights to studio buyers before the book even hits the shelves. If you've struck out getting a publishing deal with a major house (children's book or not), there are viable publishing alternatives with AmazonEncore and Barnes & Noble.

Animated G & PG rated films (many of which are based on children's books) have the added bonus of being renewable assets. How does that work? Disney pioneered the concept by scheduling the re-release of it's animated films every 7 years from the Disney vault. These were limited release windows, which encouraged families to get them before they weren't available again. It proved to be an enormously successful campaign. The seven year window corresponded roughly to the arrival of a fresh crop of kids to enjoy them. Disney still limits the availability of its animated titles but has a adopted a more complex, tiered release schedule.

FAMILY ORIENTED SCARY MOVIES

Disney's new 'Double Dare You' label could be filling the gap left by its disassociation with R-rated Dimension Films (in 2005) and its pending sale of Miramax. Interestingly, a 15-year study by The Dove Foundation also came out in 2005 and showed that family films (G-rated in particular) are 11 times more profitable than their R-rated counterparts. In the 5 years since that study was released, there has been a marked increase in PG and PG-13 films. ;}

As wonderful as he is Guillermo del Toro can't possibly be the only one writing stories for the new label. In fact, he will be producing them. So, this may be an "in" for mateiral that fits. Spooky movies for the whole family, by definition, means G and PG and a quick review of del Toro's style suggests suspense (ghosts, goblins and ghouls) and things that go bump in the night. Think cross-marketing potential. Fast-food tie-ins, theme-park rides and swag. Del Toro describes the product as "an immersive E-ticket experience".

HORROR/COMEDIES

Comic horror has always been a favorite genre. I was wild about An American Werewolf in London when it came out. Now the same writer/director (John Landis) is in post-production on another horror comedy based on a true story, Burke and Hare based on a script by Piers Ashworth & Nick Moorcroft.

There's plenty of room for growth here - especially if the box office numbers on Burke and Hare are anything like Guy Ritchie's 2009 Sherlock Holmes (which grossed 519 million worldwide). Sherlock 2 comes out in December 2011. It's the same period in Edinburgh and London and John Landis' pedigree that cause me to believe in Burke & Hare (serial killers who supply a medical school with cadavers).

Chris Columbus's foray into the genre with three (relatively mild) children's books probably has as much to do with his success directing the Harry Potter and Percy Jackson & The Olympians movies as his signature style. He's on record as saying he likes to portray stories of modern American families coping with change.

GRAPHIC NOVELS/COMIC BOOKS

This trend has been going for a while and there's no evidence yet of it slowing down. Since the unveiling of The Dark Knight (which director Chris Nolan himself describes as film noir) the interpretation of these stories has moved from broad, live-action cartoon to edgy urban crime drama. They are more stylized and over-the-top than ever and revel in exploring the seamier side of life, moral ambiguity and a hero's darker side.

I think graphic novels and comic book adaptations will continue to evolve in the direction of the underworld but more in the style of a rock opera. This is an art form whose re-imaging is long overdue. The giant set pieces, extreme make-up and wild stagy costumes certainly lend themselves to the proscenium stage. Music anyone?

GREEK MYTHOLOGY

Myths are public domain so nobody has to buy the rights. And you've also got a lot of leeway with the storyline because most myths have hundreds of variations. The ideal retelling of myth provides escapist fantasy on one level while dramatizing deep inner conflicts on another. This is how they differ from the standard action/adventure. On some level we all know that Medusa is more than just a snake-headed monster.

Chances are, the audience that pays to see Perseus (aka Clash of the Titans) doesn't care about the symbols and archetypal energies these stories represent. But they do crave the experience of the myth - and The Hero's Journey is the ideal form for adaptation to the screen. Christopher Vogler's wonderful book The Writer's Journey is based on this model, which Joseph Campbell describes as the mono myth. Up until recently, it has been applied mostly to modern storytelling and screenwriting in particular.

A myth is a challenging form to effectively translate and adapt. It ranks right up there with discovering the meaning and interpretation of fairy tales. If you can plumb the depths of the story behind the myth and make it speak to contemporary audiences, you can write your own ticket. Buy your own airplane as well.

VIDEO GAMES

The RPGs (role-playing games) coming to life on the big screen are making this cross-over with the hope the fan base will follow them into the theatres. Good for the studio as a guarantee and good for the game publisher to share in the multiple revenue streams available to film. But there's also a wave of inter-active programming on the horizon that may significantly alter our experience of film and television.

As the TV/Internet interface becomes a working reality, software developers like Will Wright are finding ways to make content increasingly inter-active. RPGs are a natural vehicle because as action adventure stories, they're made of plot templates and layers. It's probably not far off that a viewing audience will have the ability to create their own "movies" by selecting from a matrix of choices, which impact the outcome of the narrative and characters.

Noteworthy Development Deals (Updated)

Most people agree that in the current economic climate the studios, producers and banks want intellectual properties that have some sort of guarantee - a built-in audience of measurable size. That's why we're seeing so many remakes, sequels, prequels, redos of public domain material, best-selling book adaptations, comics and RPGs (role-playing-games) in theatres and on development slates.

It's not that the creatives are in a rut so much as they're responding to a fiscal environment that dictates what's possible to make right now. This report varies somewhat from the ones I've posted in the past because I've included some projects and development deals that took place late last year or earlier this year. The reason they're here is because they point to some new trends worth noticing.

Whenever I work on staff in story for a studio, the story department issues me some form of development report on their projects. And of course, we have story meetings to stay up with the sensibilities of the current executive team. We keep tabs on what everyone else is doing too.

I find it extremely useful to collect data myself because I'm currently NOT on staff anywhere and just working through the exercise is tremendously informative. Below are some recent development deals that caught my eye as particularly significant.

WAR HORSE

DreamWorks has put the WWI drama War Horse (a hit play by Nick Stafford adapted from the children's book by British author Michael Morpurgo into development with Steven Spielberg directing. It's the story of a farm boy who runs away from home and joins the army to find his beloved horse after he's sold to the cavalry.

The War Horse is being compared to the classic Victorian era tale Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. Story is told from the horse's POV (the hero character and a live-sized puppet in the play). Here's a clip from The (Royal) National Theatre production.



MEET THE HAUNTEDS

A family comedy/fantasy based on the graphic novel by Chris Wichtendahl. It's a story about a white family that moves into a house (in Harlem) haunted by black ghosts who've been living there since the 1970s and are out of touch with the world today. Steve Carr and Platinum Studios (probably the largest independent comic book developer/rights holder in the U.S.) are producing.

According to MarketWatch, there's a whole slew of non-traditional comic book/graphic novel material being optioned with the Platinum Studios label attached to it including big titles like Cowboys & Aliens (set-up at Universal with a rewrite by writing/producing duo Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman) and a live-action version of Atlantis Rising (DreamWorks).

1492 PICTURES' DEAL WITH CJ ENTERTAINMENT

Writer/director Christopher Columbus announced in May that his production company 1492 Pictures has inked a deal with South Korean film producer/financier/distributor CJ Entertainment to make a series of family-oriented horror/comedies based on best-selling children's books.

We're likely to see an increasing number of development alliances with foreign companies as the Hollywood studios curb their enthusiasm for sinking money into development with producers. Development is expensive and, more often than not, it fails to pay off. More reason to withhold your script until it's the best it can be. Here are the first three:

Killer Pizza - Adam Green is writing the script based on the Greg Taylor novel about a 14 year old boy's summer job at a pizza parlor that turns out to be a front for a monster-hunting organization. FYI, Greg Taylor started his writing career in television and adapting books to the screen. This is his first original book.

Carpe Demon - Christopher Columbus is adapting the Julie Kenner Y.A. novel about a blended family and stay-at-home soccer mom with a past her new family doesn't know about. But when a demon smashes through her kitchen window with foreboding news, this Super mom starts living up to her name as the local demon killer.

The Graveyard Book - a screen adaptation of Neil Gaiman's most recent children's book about an orphan who is raised by ghosts and other otherworldly graveyard characters. Last year's animated version of Gaiman's Coraline was nominated for an Academy Award.

GUILLERMO DEL TORO'S "DOUBLE DARE YOU" LABEL

Although this came together last September, it's significant in more ways than one Guillermo del Toro has pulled the plug on directing the New Line/MGM film The Hobbit to pursue "other projects". According to the L.A. Times, Guillermo will be developing a series of spooky animated family films under a brand new Disney label. Guillermo's first announced project for the "Double Dare You" label is:

The Troll Hunters - based on a story by Guillermo Del Toro. Don't have any more detail than that but this new label is sure to be getting a lot of press in the months and years to come.

RPG's (role-playing games) HEADED FOR THE BIG SCREEN

I've spent the last two weekends at a video gaming arcade playing the best ones out there. The RPGS do seem to have the most natural cross-over potential because they have a well-defined plot/structure and a set of lead characters. In the course of my research I came across The Big List of RPG plots. Love this. It's a gamer's guide to action/adventure plots designed for Game Masters but it has a lot of value for screenwriters as well.

WORLD OF WARCRAFT (WoW)

World of Warcraft, the most popular MMORPG in the world is (still) being developed as a film franchise for Warner Brothers. Robert Rodat was reportedly writing the first draft script. Nobody seems to know what the storyline is yet but it will likely be set in the fantasy world of Azeroth where humans ally with other races (like elves, gnomes and dwarfs) to defeat the evil, invading Orcish hordes. Sounds a bit like The Lord of the Rings franchise, which could be what's taking so long. WoW is slated for a 2013 release.

MASS EFFECT

Mass Effect is another popular RPG (soon to go multi-player) that recently went in development at Warner Brothers. Mark Protosevich is writing the script based on the game that takes place in 2183 - a Star Wars like space adventure. In the first Mass Effect edition, story stars an elite "Federation" soldier who travels by starship to investigate trouble on the human colonized planet of Eden Prime and finds himself literally implanted with insight about an invasion of alien creatures that implicates a trusted federation member.

SPORE

Fox picked up Spore, a very inventive "creation game" aimed at casual players, and put director Chris Wedge (the director of Ice Age and in-work on an adaptation of Hugo Cabret) at the helm. Spore will be a 3-D animated feature written by Greg Erb and Jason Oremland, who wrote Disney's Princess and the Frog. It's a natural for animation and will no doubt be a character-based ensemble comedy.

Spore is made up of 5 "mini-games" that start with a one-cell organism evolving to creature, then tribe, then civilization and the final frontier - space. There's no word on the storyline but in Spore Hero (the Wii game), there's a place called Creature Beach where critters go on a Perseus style quest to heal the environment.
On the other hand, in the space stage of the game, carnivores evolve into military powers; omnivores master the economic universe and herbivores blossom into religious nuts - which suggests another type of "balancing" energies scenario.

FYI - Some months ago, Spore's creator, Will Wright left Electronic Arts and partnered with Albie Hecht, fomer president of Spike TV and Nickelodeon, to create an interactive TV series called The Creation Project. Meanwhile, EA has moved to trademark "Darkspore", a possible spinoff game based on Wright's original concept. So lots of action behind the scenes. Stay tuned.

RISE OF THE APES

A prequel to the Planet of the Apes franchise. Husband and wife team Amanda Silver & Rick Jaffa are writing (or have written) the script. James Franco is set to play the lead, a young scientist living in contemporary San Francisco where a genetic engineering experiment spikes intelligence in apes and they rise up against humans. Rupert Wyatt is directing with former Fox Chairman & CEO Peter Chernin and Dylan Clark producing for Chernin's recently formed production company, Chernin Entertainment.

20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA

Fox is remaking this Jules Verne undersea adventure (Walt Disney's first sci-fi picture originally made in 1954 and one of the inaugural Disneyland rides) about an eccentric atomic scientist Captain Nemo and his loyal crew aboard the submarine Nautilus. They have many Odyssey-like adventures, including a battle with a giant squid. Travis Beacham is writing the script. Red hot Russian director/writer/producer Timur Bekmambetov is attached.

THE GREAT AND POWERFUL OZ

Speaking of Timur Bekmambetov, Disney is reportedly trying to get the director to helm a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, starring Robert Downey Jr. This news comes on the heels of Alice in Wonderland passing the billion dollar mark at the box office last week. Then again, Disney has always been consummate feature film adapter of stories in public domain.

THE BROTHERS GRIMM: SNOW WHITE

According to a Deadline Hollywood exclusive that broke yesterday, Relativity Media is following the public domain trail (sparked by Alice's killer numbers) and just bought an edgy 3-D version of Snow White by German scribe Melisa Wallack with Brett Ratner producing. In that report, Disney is also moving to write a reimaging of Cinderella.

There are many more but that's it for now. I'll keep working on the list and update you when I've got more that light up the trends.

EFT - The Miracle Cure?

While doing research for my next development analysis (coming tomorrow), I ran across this video on EFT (emotional freedom technique). Although it has nothing direct to do with writing or the entertainment business in general, anything that can relieve stress, cure disease and help create abundance gets my attention. Thought I'd pass it along - just in case you, or someone you know, needs a boost. I'm trying this out today!

UPDATE 6/6/2010 - I just received word that the EFT manual that's mentioned in the video above is no longer free. Sorry about that. I was disappointed too but you can purchase it at the new website address: http://EFTuniverse.com along with an assortment of other books and videos. Alternatively, there are a lot of other folks working with EFT and its predecessor TFT. There's a lot of free stuff on YouTube to get you started.

Can't help noticing that this seems related to, but looks a whole lot easier than, the NLP (neuro linguistic programming) technique used by coaches like Tony Robbins to interrupt negative blocks that disrupt performance. In fact, Virgin Atlantic's "Flying without Fear" program utilizes these very techniques.

Here are two line drawings of the main tapping points which (according to my black belt brother Michael) correspond to some of the vital "strike" areas in karate. In fact, these points are derived from the ancient Chinese art of acupressure.

 

 

Since running across EFT this morning, I've learned that the tapping sequence can be used simply with affirmations (make up your own) to reprogram our subconscious minds with positive, empowering beliefs to replace negative ones like fear, shame and loss.

To cure an addiction, a weight issue, chronic pain, etc., the technique involves focusing on the problem briefly and then tapping while making statements to yourself about it. For example: you can say (while tapping 5 times in each of the 9 spots in sequence) something like...

Even though I'm craving chocolate (or wine or whatever you wish to avoid), I love and accept myself completely.
Or
Even though I'm still experiencing this back pain, I love and accept myself completely.

That's it. I know. Sounds to good to be true doesn't it? But the proof is in the pudding, as they say, and it's free to try - so why not? There are quite a few wellness experts that co-sign EFT as well, including one of my favorites Depak Chopra. Last year, in fact, advocates held the world's first online Tapping Summit. No kidding!