No, no, no! What are you doing here!? Get yourselves over to Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. Quickly, before it’s too late. It’s the future of television, or “webovision?” Hmm, webovison . . . sounds like a spidey sense.
Starring Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day, it’s this hilarious, goofy Joss Whedon musical internet event type thingy that everyone is talking IM-ing about. It’s brill!
So what are you waiting for? Don’t just sit there! Click something. Preferrably THIS. You have 24 hours. After which you will have to pay and nobody wants that, now do they? This blog post will become irrelevant in T-minus 20 hours. Now, go Jack, go!
I hate the title. I’m wary of the director. And I’m unsure about the sequel potential. But this trailer for T4 has just got me excited.
I love the brief glimpses of a Mad Maxian world. I’m still unconvinced, but now I’m more curious than ever. That being said, the T3 Model 1 Hunter-Killer Terminators are just a shitty design and I hope we’re not burdened with them for much of the movie.
Over the years I’ve seen a good number of my ideas pop up in movies. I am sure it happens to a lot of writers out there. I remember going to see the shit-heap that was Die Another Day and seeing my invisible car, with the exact same pseudo-science behind it up on the screen, the only difference was I had an invisible air-ship instead of a car. I’ve heard dialogue exchanges spoken to huge laughs, which were practically identical to my own words and I’ve watched entire sequences I’ve written or planned to write pop up in movies like Die Hard 4.0 and Casino Royale and even TV shows like Friends and Eastenders. I had a funeral scene in my second script that was pretty much identical to THIS SCENE in Eastenders, which I never knew about until I saw a clip show.
When it happens, there is the usual ‘Aw shit!’ moment but quickly it becomes fascinating and quite cool to see my ideas realised. I choose to see it as a positive. The universe encouraging me, rather than mocking.
So, today while scrolling through the internets, I came across a review for Meet Dave. I think the trailer is funny. It reminds me of Galaxy Quest and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids mixed with a bit of Men in Black and whatnot. A big, fun adventure comedy. I am sure the film won’t live up to the promise of its premise, but nevertheless. (The very fact they abandoned the superior title of Starship Dave leads me to believe the script was probably compromised from the get-go. Never a good sign.)
Anyway, in my last script, the one I wrote with my writing partner, we had a joke for one of our characters. A robot who was in disguise as a white teenage girl, a cousin to our hero character. When asked by a stranger what his name was, he chose the most popular name for a female on Earth. Ling Quan. This entire plot strand was written out as draft two and three progressed but it was still amusing this morning to read in a USA today review for Meet Dave:
Upon meeting his first human, Gina (Elizabeth Banks), [Dave] blurts out a name offered to him by a researcher crewmember (Gabrielle Union). She chooses what she gleaned was one of the world’s most common names: Ming Chang. Murphy assumes the identity of Dave Ming Chang. It’s incongruous and worth a chuckle, but the joke gets stretched to the breaking point.
I’m telling you sometimes it gets a little freaky. Does this happen to you?
I found the tap and turned it. Yes, I solved what was blocking me with the script. And just for record, I must remember that when it seems I can’t find the answer I’m looking for, it’s because I’m asking the wrong question. I rethought the problem and found a better solution by changing my in. So, I’m no longer trying to climb in the window, as I said in my last post, I’m going in through the front door. Of course, this seems like common sense, but as anyone who wants to be a screenwriter knows — we lack common sense.
You know that feeling when your head feels like it’s building with pressure and you can’t remember where the tap is that you used before to release it all?
I am really stuck trying to set up the story in this new script I’m writing and it’s been a week of fruitless wracking of my brain to figure it out. I’ve diverted myself by writing other scenes I know will pop up and hashing out some characters bios, but I still can’t find a way in to this script. Some would call this hitting the wall, but for me it’s a window. I can see the damn story on the other side but I can’t find the latch to climb in and play. I’ve tried punching, kicking and shooting out the glass but it won’t open without a key. Where is the fucking key? I think the key is the tap? God, I am on a metaphor roll. Like a stone that gathers no moss. Kate Moss. What a junkie. God I’d love a Crunchie. Argh, help me!! My brain’s imploding . . . or exploding? I forget.
This is the worst part of writing for me. When I want to write, but can’t. I have written enough to know it’s not writer’s block, as it happens on every script with me and I eventually muscle through, but it’s still a pain in the brain when it happens. I haven’t worked out a way around it, either. All I know that works, eventually, is to engage in a staring contest with your brain. Just sit it out and wait. The galling thing is I know from having gone through this “process” too many times that I’ll eventually find the answer, or the key, or the tap or whatever and marvel at how simple the solution was and wonder why I couldn’t have figured it out sooner.
Sometimes our brains like to fuck with us. Like when you’re walking out the door and they go, “Hang on a minute. You’re forgetting something.” And you stop and ask, “What?” and they go, “I’m not telling.” And you go, “Fine. You’re not telling because there’s nothing to tell. You’re just being anxious for no reason, but it’s not going to work.” And even though you try to ignore your brain, you can tell it’s just sitting there all smug and then when it knows you’ve gone too far to turn back it whispers, “You forgot your keys.”
I liked T3 more than I disliked it. The blinding ending was a huge factor in me liking it more. In fact, one of my favourite scenes in the whole Terminator franchise was filmed for T3 but didn’t make the cut. Why? Well, see for yourself . . .
Absolutely ridiculous, I think you’ll agree. I’m so glad they cut it.
