The adventures of a professional screenwriter and sometimes film festival jurist, slogging through the trenches of Hollywood, writing movies that you have never heard of, and getting no respect. Voted #10 - Best Blogs For Screenwriters - Bachelor's Degree
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Deja Vu All Over Again!
- Bill
PS: M4M2 Jan 18 19:10 Steel Sharks When a United States submarine is seized by terrorists, a rescue attempt by Elite Navy Seals goes awry. The submarine crew wages a silent war beneath the waves in this tense undersea thriller.
Enjoyed Steel Sharks Bill - though Billy Dee Williams seemed a little absent at some points. Not sure about the log line M4M used though, I didn't see any submarine seizing going on. Maybe they got "submarine" and "scientist" mixed up... don't they seize a sub in "Crash Dive" though?
The director of STEEL SHARKS was... interesting... to work with. The first thing he did was remove all of the differences between the characters in the SEAL team, and other wonderful things in the script stage. His theory was that these guys were SEALS, not people.
So, I go out on set and Billy Dee Williams is acting like he's drugged. You know, he's not a young man anymore, so I'm thinking that he's had some health problems I am not aware of. Then they say "Cut!" and Billy Dee is Mr. suave personality again - he's full of energy and just magnetic. What?
Well, it seems the director wanted Billy Dee to tone it way way way down and be dead serious (and monotone, I guess) because he's an Admiral.
I'm thinking, you pay for Billy Dee, you want Billy Dee on film. You don't want him acting like a robot.
Yeah I wondered what was going on. A suave ladies-man admiral would actually be pretty cool. Kinda like Jack Nicholson in a Few Good Men meets Jack Nicholson in pretty much everything else. Busey phoned it in a bit too. But I thought the guy playing the XO (who has since played a bazillion smarmy guys) was pretty good.
Do you think the final film suffered from having the star power kind of at the periphery of the action, pulling away from Billy Warlock's story who was presumably the main protagonist originally?
3 comments:
Enjoyed Steel Sharks Bill - though Billy Dee Williams seemed a little absent at some points. Not sure about the log line M4M used though, I didn't see any submarine seizing going on. Maybe they got "submarine" and "scientist" mixed up... don't they seize a sub in "Crash Dive" though?
The seized a sub in CRASH DIVE....
The director of STEEL SHARKS was... interesting... to work with. The first thing he did was remove all of the differences between the characters in the SEAL team, and other wonderful things in the script stage. His theory was that these guys were SEALS, not people.
So, I go out on set and Billy Dee Williams is acting like he's drugged. You know, he's not a young man anymore, so I'm thinking that he's had some health problems I am not aware of. Then they say "Cut!" and Billy Dee is Mr. suave personality again - he's full of energy and just magnetic. What?
Well, it seems the director wanted Billy Dee to tone it way way way down and be dead serious (and monotone, I guess) because he's an Admiral.
I'm thinking, you pay for Billy Dee, you want Billy Dee on film. You don't want him acting like a robot.
But, then, I'm not a director.
- Bill
Yeah I wondered what was going on. A suave ladies-man admiral would actually be pretty cool. Kinda like Jack Nicholson in a Few Good Men meets Jack Nicholson in pretty much everything else. Busey phoned it in a bit too. But I thought the guy playing the XO (who has since played a bazillion smarmy guys) was pretty good.
Do you think the final film suffered from having the star power kind of at the periphery of the action, pulling away from Billy Warlock's story who was presumably the main protagonist originally?
I'll have to seek out Crash Dive now...
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