Just A Little Behind

I often see myself as that novelty act performer I watched on the Ed Sullivan show when I was a little kid, who use to keep plates spinning on the tips of pool cues. He was always running around the stage trying to keep all of the plates moving so that they wouldn’t fall on the floor and break. I have a zillion things to do - and every once in a while a bunch of plates break.

This blog is a responsibility. Most people with blogs ditch them after a year. There are some dead blogs over there in that right hand column that I probably should remove, but if you read the old entries they may be new to you. I have decided to do the opposite of what most people do - and actually have *more* blog entries in 2009 than I did in the first year. But I’m always stretched thin (you’d think I’d lose weight being stretched thin... but no) and sometimes throw together a blog entry the night before. Like this one.

I also like to do series - and tomorrow there should be a new Hitchcock entry here... finally. Originally there were going to be 53 Hitchcock entries - one a week for just over a year. Then I was going to do an old TV show the next year - as an episode guide for a series that was not available on DVD but every once in a while sold to some cable or syndication channel. I taped them on VHS, thought it would be fun to have an episode guide for them - and there were around 48 episodes - enough for a year of Fridays more or less. Um, maybe I’ll still do that after I finish with the Hitchcock movies, but they are planning to release that old TV series on DVD and I’ll bet someone else is doing the episode guide already.

Well, over the holidays back in 2007, probably when I first began thinking of the Hitchcock series, I came up with a nice revamp for my Script Secrets website: I would have a section for each one of my produced scripts, with the backstory on writing it, any funny behind the scenes stories, maybe a screenwriting lesson from the film, a link to the screenplay so that you could read it, and anything else that might be of interest about the film - including the trailer. I collected links to all of the trailers, and thought - why not run that on the blog first, then “retire” it to the Script Secrets website. Kill two birds with one stone. Well, all of the trailers got a work page on the blog with the format for the rest... and then those pages were mostly forgotten. They exist unpublished way back in the blog history - and I never see them. The blog has moved forward.

Over the holidays in 2008, I realized I was often searching for some stupid YouTube clip to post as a filler when I didn’t have anything for the blog, and came up with a cool idea: why not go on YouTube and find clips and trailers for some of my favorite movies, and some movies that are just wacky but I love them anyway, and create work pages on the blog for them, then write screenwriting lessons from the film or an appreciation or a review or maybe a personal story of the first time I saw the film and what it means to me. Those would be great “fillers” for times when I was too busy writing something else to come up with a new blog entry. I did outlines for what I might write about a couple of the clips... and now those work pages are over a year back there on my blog pages - I never see them anymore.

Over the holidays a couple of months ago, I watched every single episode of the old TV show... but didn’t write notes.

I was looking for some old blog entry today, stumbled on the workpages with the film clips, and realized I had all of these potential blog entries that I forget about because they are buried back there where I can’t see them anymore... and moved them up. Oh, yeah, along with all of the clips for another series on Screenwriters On Screen. Now that I have to look at them every time I play around with the blog, maybe I’ll get some of them written up and ready to go... and maybe I’ll watch those TV episodes again and take some notes this time.

By the way - someone in comments said I ought to take Brad Pitt Guy entries and write a book... well, this blog was originally going to be called All The Losers In Hollywood - and some of the past entries have been about those losers, and a few more loser entries are on the horizon... and maybe all of those will be collected into a book someday. Until then, thanks for reading this thing, and I’m not going to quit writing it.

Only took me a year and a half to get halfway through the Hitchcock series.

- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Dilemmas - and kissing Jennifer Garner.
Dinner: Subway - the spicy Italian.
Bicycle: Short one. And after my long bike ride a couple of days ago, right after my bike wreck, my leg hurt and I didn't know if it was from over-working the muscle or that huge purple bruise taking up 35% of my skin.

2012 - Screwball Disaster Comedy!

Movies: 2012 - On DVD today - but I wrote all of the notes after seeing it months ago...




Roland Emmerich is the Irwin Allen of the new millennium... even though there may be only a couple years left in it if his new film is correct. If you don’t know who Irwin Allen was, he produced all of those cheesy 1970s all-star disaster movies from POSEIDON ADVENTURE to the killer bee movie THE SWARM... but he started making science fiction movies like VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA which spun off into a cool TV show (if you are a little kid and your parents let you stay up late enough to watch it). Emmerich has followed the same path, from STARGATE to THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, with one very major difference...

He is a great comic director.

He knows his films are silly cheese, and isn’t afraid to make fun of them and include enough funny stuff to make the cheese not just tolerable but enjoyable. It’s hard to hate a movie that knows it’s silly.

In THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW he has a whole subplot about Americans sneaking across the border into Mexico to find work and warmth when the US climate becomes frigid. There were a couple of critics who made fun of that - proving that they are idiots. If you thought that subplot was serious, you probably shouldn’t be a film critic. His films all have a silly-fun factor and usually deal with crazy ideas with enough science to make them “What if that were true?” material. Hey, what if that Eric Von Dannekken guy was right and Ancient Astronauts helped build the Pyramids of Egypt? Hey, what if aliens actually invaded Earth and the survivors had to fight back? In 2012 we get JFK (the aircraft carrier) returning to the White House - had me laughing out loud! He doesn't take any of this seriously, which makes his films easy to watch. You know he's just kidding around. His films are screwball comedy disaster movies - and make about as much sense as a dog running off with a rare dinosaur bone as a plot. (I *know* I’ll get hate mail from that comparison.)

2012 seems to have begun with Emmerich and the screenwriter sitting around joking about how the heroes in Michael Bay movies always manage to outrun explosions and fireballs... and wondering how they can top that. Alcohol may have been involved. They already had Jake Gyllenhall outrunning a cold snap in THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW...

“What if the guy had to out run an earthquake fissure?”
“Hey, what if they had to out drive California breaking off and falling into the Pacific?”
“Good one! What if they were in a plane and had to out-fly all of the buildings in Los Angeles falling over like dominoes?”
“Cool - how about out-running lava blasting out of a volcano in an RV?”

I can just see these two guys trying to top each other with the strangest, maybe even funniest things the characters can out run. No puny Michael Bay fireballs in this film! These people are going to outrun the end of the world!

First - his films are crazy. 2012 is like every joke every comic ever made about characters out-running fireballs taken to the extreme. They outrun *earthquakes*! They outrun buildings crashing down! They outrun a volcano! It's funny stuff! And you know, all of those scenes are fun and often even funny - and I mean funny *on purpose*. An early scene has a husband and wife shopping at a grocery store when an earthquake hits, fault seemingly directly between them, and a fissure opens up that breaks the grocery store in half with each of a different side! How could anyone think that scene was supposed to be serious? The serious version might have had them on the same side having to save each other... but the 2012 version is like the BRINGING UP BABY version of the scene. It’s just wacky! Not serious and not trying to be serious.

Adding to the fun, Emmerich’s movies have big dramatic scenes that allow actors to ham it up and make some great speeches. Just as the situations are over the top, the acting manages to be larger than life and yet matches the rest of the movie. It’s never *too big*. We want our President to make one of those great speeches like in INDEPENDENCE DAY - if there was ever a place for big hammy speeches, it’s when the aliens have invaded and kicked our butts and now we need to rally the troops and kick some alien butt. In 2012 we get a great speech by Chiwetel Ejiofor about how poor people are people, too. And we get some great scenes with John Cusack and Danny Glover (as the President) and Thomas McCarthy (as the new husband) and even some crazy-ass stuff from Woody Harrelson as a pot smoking version of Art Bell. There are some nice big dramatic scenes about the importance of family - but it’s really just more cheese. There is a real skill in keeping the drama at the same level as the over-blown situations - in having there be just enough ham to compliment the cheese without overpowering it.

And he’s intelligent enough to realize we need someone to identify with in these larger than life situations. His films have human characters dealing with human problems... along with those great speeches for actors. In the center of all of his films is a story about people - the drunk father who becomes a hero to his children in INDEPENDENCE DAY, the absent father who risks his life to save his son in DAY AFTER, and look at all of the character relationships in 2012. President Danny Glover has some nice scenes with his estranged daughter Thandie Newton, and even some nice scenes with a bunch of extras in a MASH-style tent hospital set up on the White House lawn. Actors get a chance to act in these movies. Sure, this is schlocky stuff and no one is getting an Oscar for any of this stuff... but it's there and it works. These are real people dealing with real problems while outrunning the end of the world. GI GOE had crap. TRANSFORMERS had crap.

One of the film’s secret weapons is John Cusack. I like the guy. I think most people like the guy. He’s like Tom Hanks with an edge - which makes him seem more human to me and more interesting. I’ve seen a bunch of films that Cusack has saved from being complete crap... and it’s hard to imagine 2012 without him. He makes the most absurd scene seem possible, and he’s one of those actors who knows how to play a character who is in on the joke. You believe him, but there’s that look in his eyes that says, “Are you effing kidding me?” This helps when *we* are thinking, Are you effing kidding me? The guy is a national treasure, and is one of the major factors in making 2012 a fun movie.

Theme? Not here, folks - this is all-junk junk food. We get some talk about self sacrifice from Cusack early on, and characters do sacrifice themselves along the way... but that’s what characters *do* in Disaster Movies, and none of the self sacrifice seems like anything other than a plot device. Some of the character deaths are downright silly - one major character dies badly. No drama, no feeling that the character did sacrifice themselves for the greater good, more of a “Wow, what a stupid way to die!” And a supporting character who pops up to save the day in one scene and sacrifices themselves for the greater good - well, it’s stupid and happens off screen. There are about four undignified deaths that almost sink the film...

If it were a serious movie. But this is a comedy - at least one of the undignified deaths is played for laughs!

No one does FX as good as Emmerich does. If you remember, the reason why he landed the GODZILLA gig was that he had a plan on how to make it for half the budget as DeBont. We look back on INDEPENDENCE DAY and think it was some sort of slam-dunk summer tentpole movie, but that film cost much much less that all of the other summer tentpole movies. It was a cheapo film! Emmerich and Dean Devlin knew how to do quality special effects on a budget. They storyboarded everything and found the angles that would give them the most bang for their buck. While ARMAGEDDON was breaking the bank, ID4 was reasonably priced. And no one in the audience knew any different.

The special effects in 2012 were amazing. Compare it to some of this year’s big summer films where people and FX looked like cartoons sometimes (GI JOE). 2012 was one amazing scene after another, a piece of CGI that is topped in the very next shot and just keeps getting more and more amazing as the film goes on. By the time we get to the end - which I will not reveal - it tops everything we have seen so far. The concept is cool and the effects are so amazing and realistic that we just believe these things exist... even though they are silly cheese. There are scenes with characters caught in machinery, and at no time do you ever think: That’s not real. Hey, probably at least half of what we saw on screen in every shot in that end sequence was CGI. The peril the characters were in was CGI. But you were so caught in the scene you never noticed the CGI, and the CGI was so good it didn’t show. It never pulled you out of the scene, never called attention to itself. Um, TRANSFORMERS can not claim this.

Obviously, he also knows what people want to see. Not just the destruction, but the type of story. A conquered America fighting back, a father/son survival story, the end of society and its rebirth. He can figure out what the audience wants to see - two years before he makes the film.

But he also know what kind of destruction we want to see - all of those drunken “What if they had to outrun an erupting volcano and a river of lava?” ideas are imaginative and silly fun. That’s a skill - figuring out what kind of destruction is fun and what kind is tragic, so we want to avoid it. We’ve just had two real earthquakes in a row, and the images of that destruction are not fun. But Emmerich seems to know *exactly* where the line is and never crosses it. At no time do you think any of this is serious or that any of the other people in the world are really dead. The film manages to keep it light and stay in fantasy land. Now, many screenwriters would see that as a flaw - the film is completely unrealistic! - but he was never going for any sort of realism. If he had been going for realism, that earthquake fissure wouldn’t have split up the couple as if they were in a Warner Bros cartoon.

Hey, I’m not saying that 2012 is a great film... but it’s an *enjoyable* film. Check your brain at the door, maybe have a few cocktails, but bring along your sense of humor. Though you aren’t going to cry at 2012, you’ll probably get caught up in the story enough to actually care whether John Cusack and his family live or die. Other than that, hey, it’s a fun schlockfest. Grab a big tub of popcorn and have a good time. Don’t forget to laugh at the funny parts.

Real Film Critics Discuss Foreign Films.

- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly - and why 2012 is Best Picture of 2009!
Dinner: Burger King.
Bicycle: Accidental massive bike ride! I ended up riding all over the valley - not planned.
Pages: After working so hard while feeling like crap yesterday, I did half a page on the spec... but did rewrite the tip and wrote this review. Main problem was that I got sidetracked trying to get details of this interview I seem to be doing Tuesday morning with the writers of A-TEAM... which seemed to be finalized at the very last minute.

New Issue Of Script!

MARCH - APRIL ISSUE TABLE OF CONTENTS:



Man of the Moment: Noah Baumbach
Over the years, Noah Baumbach's films have, consciously or not, chronicled the ups and downs of Generation X. His newest movie, Greenberg, tackles a difficult character who is faced with recovering from a breakdown and making himself a better person ... in spite of himself.

Alice in Wonderland
Scribe Linda Woolverton leads us down the rabbit hole as she discusses her personal take on Alice's return to Wonderland, working with director Tim Burton, and how a dark time in her own life helped her write a film audiences won't soon forget.

Writers on Writing: A Nightmare on Elm Street
A general meeting surprisingly landed writer Eric Heisserer the job of bringing back one of the most frightening villains of the 80s. He takes us into the franchise reboot of A Nightmare on Elm Street and the many challenges he faced—including the origins of Freddy Krueger and the role of sleep patterns—in ratcheting up the fear factor.

A Kick-Ass Interview
Kick-Ass is not your typical comic book. The super-violent series follows an ordinary kid who puts on a costume and fights crime as a real-life superhero. Filmmaker Matthew Vaughn read the comic and decided to adapt it—before the series was even completed. Script talks to Vaughn, scribe Jane Goldman, creator Mark Millar, and illustrator John Romita Jr. about how the project came to life.

The Rebels of Writing
It's not often that two independently successful screenwriters work on the same film without one rewriting the other. And, with the current economy, selling a pitch for $2 million doesn't happen very often either. But, somehow, Simon Kinberg and Aline Brosh McKenna have recently managed to accomplish both.

The 10 Biggest Unproduced Specs of the 90s
In the 90s, studios were buying specs for big money, and bidding wars were in the trades almost every week. Some of those scripts went on to become movies that de- fined the decade. But what about those other high-dollar specs that went unproduced? Script decided to find out.

How to Sell a Pitch in Only 10 Years!
While working the front desk at Miramax, Dave Pullano created the fictional exec Jay Flannick to field unwanted and overly persistent pitches. Ironically enough, through a series of ad- ventures, Pullano found himself in Hong Kong, sitting on an old mattress ... and pitching his own script to Jackie Chan.

Navigating 2010's Staffing Season
Television is a cold business, and no time is colder than the beginning of summer for TV writers hoping to land a staff job. To avoid the freeze, learn how staffing works, how it's changed in the recent years, and how to prepare yourself for the new season.

Two "Unbrandable" Hollywood Scribes Reflect on the Writer's Life
Eric Johnson and Paul Tamasy are living the life that aspiring scribes daydream about. Sure, they sometimes hit the beach while working and visit The Polo Lounge for an occasional martini, but what is the writer's life really like for one of Hollywood's busiest writing teams?

The Paradox of Success
With spending habits changing in Hollywood, the question to writers becomes: Do you want to sell a script, or do you want to make a movie?

What You Really Want to Do is Direct
You're ready to become a hyphenate and get behind a camera. But before you start bud- geting that feature spec, consider walking before you run and make a few shorts first.

Perception Management
A Hollywood executive for 15 years, Carole Kirschner has had more than 5,000 meetings and helped to hire more than 400 writers ... and some decisions ultimately came down to how the writers presented themselves. Read the advice she gives scribes on how to manage their images and influence the way decision-makers perceive them.

Script Secrets: Read My Script!
After listening to around 75 pitches at the Raindance Film Festival, professional screenwriter Bill Martell tells you where some went wrong and others went right.

- Bill

IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Running Gags - and BENJAMIN BUTTOB.
Dinner: Sandwich at Starbucks.
Bicycle: Yes - and got into a single bike accident at a vacant lot in NoHo and am all scraped up and ugly today. There was blood. I'm fine - just bruised and scraped. Pisser. If it isn't one thing, it's another.

Lancelot Link Thursday

Lancelot Link Thursday! For those of you who buy Playboy for the articles, here are some articles about screenwriting and the biz that may be of interest to you. Brought to you by that suave and sophisticated secret agent...



1) US Supreme Court Justice Teaches Screenwriting?

2) More Movie Cliches We Love

3) WOLFMAN remake is ripoff of TWILIGHT?

4) Your Brilliant Dialogue... Subtitled!

That last one shows you why actions are more important than dialogue in screenwriting. You need to tell your story through the actions of the characters, because who knows what your dialogue will translate to when they get done with it! That clever dialogue you slaved over? Um, didn't make it through the translation process. The only thing you can be sure will make it is the picture part - so remember that what is on the screen is what is important in screenwriting.

- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Deadlines (on screen) - a *half new* tip using TAKING OF PELHAM 123 and OUT OF TIME - both starring Denzel - as examples.
Dinner: A salad.
Bicycle: No - was supposed to have a meeting at Fox, but they postponed at the last minute and I wasted much of the day... and I get to try it all over again tomorrow! Let's hope they don't postpone it again - Century City is an annoying drive with no place to park once you get there. (okay - I parked in the mall.)

When The Unusual Becomes The Cliche

One of the difficult aspects of being a screenwriter is writing something we haven't seen before. Something that is not "used" and definitely not used so much that it has become a cliche.

Recently (Feb 14th) Joe Rogan jumped up on stage in the middle of Carlos Mencia's act and accused him of stealing jokes. In the old days of stand up, before TV, a comic might steal another comic's jokes without anyone noticing because comics were on the road, all of the country, playing in little clubs with small audiences. If a comic in San Francisco told a joke to an audience of 50 people and another comic told the same joke in Boston to 50 people, there was no problem. Even if that SF comic ended up in Boston later on and told that same joke, enough time would have passed (and the people in the audience would have changed) that it would not matter.

But TV changed all of that. Mass media not only made stealing jokes obvious, it made being a stand up comic more difficult because you *always* needed fresh material. In those pre-TV days you could travel across the country with the same rountine and never have to change it, because you might play Boston once a year, and the audience in Boston would forget the jokes you tell... and it would be a differnt audience every year. After TV, you tell a joke on the Tonight Show and the whole nation has heard it. Next time you're on the tonight show you need all new jokes! Mass media eats jokes alive, so a comic always needs to be coming up with brand new jokes... things we haven't heard.

And that is the same with screenwriters. When a movie comes out, everyone in the world sees it... and that concept and story and characters and dialogue and everything else is "used". We need to come up with something different. Something that has not been used - and it's difficult. What's more, when only a couple of movies do the same thing, it becomes an instant cliche! Something that's not just used, but used to the point of being a joke. In film, a cliche might be born within a couple of months when the same thing is used in different films that the entire world has seen. We have to stay on top of that stuff and come up with unique stories and characters and scenes... or we will be in cliche territory and that scene we thought was serious may end up funny.

In the continuing saga of Hitler having problems with stuff and losing his temper, this time he has some issues with all of those other Hitler having problems with stuff YouTube videos and that ruins his day.



- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: The haunting theme to PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN - and theme.
Dinner: cheese & crackers at the laptop.
Bicycle: Rode a little, not much.
Pages: 5 pages and I'm still working. Dust bunny attacks are fun!

Brad Pitt Part 2 On **Tuesday**!

Because Monday in America is the day set aside to honor Richard Nixon and other American Presidents, and everyone is away from their work computers - which means reading my blog would be on *their* unpaid time - I'm pushing part 2 of The Brad Pitt Guy to Tuesday.

Have a great President's Day or Day After Valentine's Day or Day 2 Of The Chinese New Year!

- Bill

Zinc Oxide And You!

Can you imagine a motion-capture version of FALLING DOWN?
Would the Academy nominate the star who did the pre-animation acting for Best Actor? Or would they be shut out like the cast of AVATAR?

Things are still happening with my bronze medal winning screenplay VOLATILE. An actual agent is reading it now, from an agency you've all heard of. Cool!

Still think it's strange that *at least* one producer at every studio in town is reading it, but agents and managers don't seem interested. But, screw it - If there's anything I know, it's that you don't need an agent or manager to sell a script.

Hmm, do motion capture writers make crappy animation writer wages? I may have to say no to that company.

Okay, while I'm e-mailing scripts to producers from around the world, I thought I'd share this skit from KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE:


- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Visual Contrast - showing emotions visually using images and situations... and a Hitchcock film.
Dinner: Ate really late - burgers from Carls jr.
Pages: Still too busy sending scripts to producers all around the world... so for the next 2 days I'm writing articles for Script.

Who Really Makes Money In Hollywood?

You may be wondering who makes all of the money, and how much they make... and if they are single.

Vanity Fair has an article about the top 40 earners in the biz, check out how much your favorite screenwriter made...

Hollywood's Top earners!

- Bill

I'm #3!

My script VOLATILE came in 3rd in the Script Shadow contest - over 1,000 entries and 25 finalists.

WTF?

I was sure I'd come in #24.

Hey, maybe this may get some agents or managers or dentists to the stars interested...

Congratulations to the winner and #2 script... and all of the others in the contest! There were some amazing loglines.

Thanks to Carson and everyone else involved...

And now I have to get back to work on a script.

- Bill

Sorry For This Religious Advert

I am in the middle of writing a spec with a religious background (along with armies of rats and dust bunnies that come alive) and, well, have you read a good book recently? I mean, a book that will change your life. A book that will give you the answers you seek? A book that doesn't require you to wear special magic underpants? Have I got a book for you...



- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: High Concept - and finding a unique idea.
Dinner: Subway again - blackforest ham today.
Pages: Like one and a half on the spec... pisser. After doing almost 8 pages the day before, I thought I'd do another 8 maybe and get ahead... though some of those planned 8 pages were going to be for the bad-cops script.

But I didn't sleep well last night, but felt okay today and thought I'd still get some pages done and maybe even get those 8 planned pages... but the brain just wasn't working. Should have forced it, but didn't. Instead mostly played online. Yeah, well - I'll make it up tomorrow. I hope.

Lancelot Link Thursday

Lancelot Link Thursday! For those of you who buy Playboy for the articles, here are some articles about screenwriting and the biz that may be of interest to you. Brought to you by that suave and sophisticated secret agent...



1) Yes, they are doing a Broadway Musical version of AMERICAN PSYCHO!

2) Fun Facts About This Year's Oscars!

3) GLADIAVATAR? It's like GLADIATOR meets AVATAR.

4 POCAHAVATAR? It's POCHAHONTAS meets AVATAR.

5 FERN GULLAVATAR? You know AVATAR really is the same movie as FERN GULLY.

And...
HELP SPREAD THE WORD!

The Script Secrets website is funded out of my pocket - I pay for the web hosting, I pay to keep the pop-up ads off the messageboards, I paid for an ad in Movie Maker Magazine... I pay for everything! And I do everything - from writing the code to writing the script tips to writing the script tips themselves. Since this site costs me money to run, my "payment" is in the number of people who read the tips everyday. I want to get as many people to come to the website as possible, and you can help!

1) Tell your writer friends about Script Secrets - www.ScriptSecrets.Net !
2) Mention it on writing message boards!
3) Talk about the site at writer's group meetings.
4) Link it in your writer's group's newsletter!
5) Get a tattoo on your butt with the website address and moon everyone you see!

Help me get the word out about my website! Thanks!

- Bill

IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: 110 Pages - No Waiting - and why there's always an available parking space in the movies.
Dinneer: Subway sandwich - spicy Italian, if you must have all of the facts.
Movies: EDGE OF DARKNESS - review to come.

Pages: Okay, this is the "reading period" on one of my assignments, so I'm using it as a writing period on an unfinished spec from last year - 2nd Son. I wrote over 7 pages today, and 3 the day before and 5 the day before that. Took a while to get back into the story, but that is where I am now. This block of story I'm working on now is exposition and character stuff - my people have been running for a while and stop to catch their breath. One of the things I seem to do often in scripts is to have this midpoint where everyone questions what they are doing and it turns into a debate about what is the best plan of action and who should lead and is the guy who is the protagonist on the right track or a complete idiot who is going to get them all killed. That's the scene I just finsihed up. I'm feeling great because I'm writing a script that is *mine* and I don't have to worry about weird notes and ideas from some guy in marketing that suck. And the script is fun - I keep forgetting how *fun* it is to write.

Ten Worst List - Empire Magazine

Here is Empire Magazine's list of the 10 most disastrous movies ever made: (http://www.empireonline.com):

1. "Batman and Robin" starring George Clooney, Alicia Silverstone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Uma Thurman

2. "Battlefield Earth" (2000) starring John Travolta, Forest Whitaker

3. "The Love Guru" (2008) with Mike Myers

4. "Raise the Titanic" (1980) with Jason Robards, David Selby

5. "Epic Movie" (2007)

6. "Heaven's Gate" (1980)

7. "Sex Lives of the Potato Men" (2004)

8. "The Happening" (2008) with Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel

9. "Highlander 2: The Quickening" (1991)

10. "The Room" (2003)

Somehow, I missed making the list... and missed seeing SEX LIVES OF THE POTATO MEN. I own two of these movies on video.

- Bill

IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Show The Goal - and SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE.

TWEET DEALS!



ALL SIX CLASSIC SCREENWRITING CLASSES!
Why break up a set? Get all of the Classic Classes on CD for one low price - and save on postage, too! SIX CDs packed with information! From IDEAS & CREATIVITY to WRITING INDIES to WRITING HORROR to the 2 part WRITING THRILLERS to GUERRILLA MARKETING. These classes used to sell for $15 - for a total of $120 with postage & handling. Buy the whole set on this TWEET DEAL and get 'em for only $50 plus postage and handling (USA). Ends Today.

The OSCAR Nominess Are...

And the 82nd Annual OSCAR Nominees are....

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

“District 9” Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
“An Education” Screenplay by Nick Hornby
“In the Loop” Screenplay by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher
“Up in the Air” Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner

Writing (Original Screenplay)
“The Hurt Locker” Written by Mark Boal
“Inglourious Basterds” Written by Quentin Tarantino
“The Messenger” Written by Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman
“A Serious Man” Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
“Up” Screenplay by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Story by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy

Best Picture

“Avatar” James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers
“The Blind Side” Nominees to be determined
“District 9” Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, Producers
“An Education” Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers
“The Hurt Locker” Nominees to be determined
“Inglourious Basterds” Lawrence Bender, Producer
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, Producers
“A Serious Man” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Producers
“Up” Jonas Rivera, Producer
“Up in the Air” Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, Producers

Actor in a Leading Role

Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart”
George Clooney in “Up in the Air”
Colin Firth in “A Single Man”
Morgan Freeman in “Invictus”
Jeremy Renner in “The Hurt Locker”

Actor in a Supporting Role

Matt Damon in “Invictus”
Woody Harrelson in “The Messenger”
Christopher Plummer in “The Last Station”
Stanley Tucci in “The Lovely Bones”
Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds”

Actress in a Leading Role

Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side”
Helen Mirren in “The Last Station”
Carey Mulligan in “An Education”
Gabourey Sidibe in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
Meryl Streep in “Julie & Julia”

Actress in a Supporting Role

Penélope Cruz in “Nine”
Vera Farmiga in “Up in the Air”
Maggie Gyllenhaal in “Crazy Heart”
Anna Kendrick in “Up in the Air”
Mo’Nique in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”

Animated Feature Film

“Coraline” Henry Selick
“Fantastic Mr. Fox” Wes Anderson
“The Princess and the Frog” John Musker and Ron Clements
“The Secret of Kells” Tomm Moore
“Up” Pete Docter

Art Direction

“Avatar” Art Direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Kim Sinclair
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” Art Direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro; Set Decoration: Caroline Smith
“Nine” Art Direction: John Myhre; Set Decoration: Gordon Sim
“Sherlock Holmes” Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
“The Young Victoria” Art Direction: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Maggie Gray

Cinematography

“Avatar” Mauro Fiore
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” Bruno Delbonnel
“The Hurt Locker” Barry Ackroyd
“Inglourious Basterds” Robert Richardson
“The White Ribbon” Christian Berger

Costume Design

“Bright Star” Janet Patterson
“Coco before Chanel” Catherine Leterrier
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” Monique Prudhomme
“Nine” Colleen Atwood
“The Young Victoria” Sandy Powell

Directing

“Avatar” James Cameron
“The Hurt Locker” Kathryn Bigelow
“Inglourious Basterds” Quentin Tarantino
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels
“Up in the Air” Jason Reitman

Documentary (Feature)

“Burma VJ” Anders Østergaard and Lise Lense-Møller
“The Cove” Nominees to be determined
“Food, Inc.” Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein
“The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers” Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
“Which Way Home” Rebecca Cammisa

Documentary (Short Subject)

“China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province” Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill
“The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner” Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher
“The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant” Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
“Music by Prudence” Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett
“Rabbit à la Berlin” Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra

Film Editing

“Avatar” Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron
“District 9” Julian Clarke
“The Hurt Locker” Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
“Inglourious Basterds” Sally Menke
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Joe Klotz

Foreign Language Film

“Ajami” Israel
“El Secreto de Sus Ojos” Argentina
“The Milk of Sorrow” Peru
“Un Prophète” France
“The White Ribbon” Germany

Makeup

“Il Divo” Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano
“Star Trek” Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow
“The Young Victoria” Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore

Music (Original Score)

“Avatar” James Horner
“Fantastic Mr. Fox” Alexandre Desplat
“The Hurt Locker” Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
“Sherlock Holmes” Hans Zimmer
“Up” Michael Giacchino

Music (Original Song)

“Almost There” from “The Princess and the Frog” Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
“Down in New Orleans” from “The Princess and the Frog” Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
“Loin de Paname” from “Paris 36” Music by Reinhardt Wagner Lyric by Frank Thomas
“Take It All” from “Nine” Music and Lyric by Maury Yeston
“The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from “Crazy Heart” Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Short Film (Animated)

“French Roast” Fabrice O. Joubert
“Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty” Nicky Phelan and Darragh O’Connell
“The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)” Javier Recio Gracia
“Logorama” Nicolas Schmerkin
“A Matter of Loaf and Death” Nick Park

Short Film (Live Action)

“The Door” Juanita Wilson and James Flynn
“Instead of Abracadabra” Patrik Eklund and Mathias Fjellström
“Kavi” Gregg Helvey
“Miracle Fish” Luke Doolan and Drew Bailey
“The New Tenants” Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson

Sound Editing

“Avatar” Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle
“The Hurt Locker” Paul N.J. Ottosson
“Inglourious Basterds” Wylie Stateman
“Star Trek” Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin
“Up” Michael Silvers and Tom Myers

Sound Mixing

“Avatar” Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson
“The Hurt Locker” Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett
“Inglourious Basterds” Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano
“Star Trek” Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J. Devlin
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson

Visual Effects

“Avatar” Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones
“District 9” Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken
“Star Trek” Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton

The official destination for the 82nd Academy Awards:
The Oscars

Okay - who do you think should win? Why?

- Bill

IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Making Hollywood Connections - part 2.

TWEET DEALS!



ALL SIX CLASSIC SCREENWRITING CLASSES!
Why break up a set? Get all of the Classic Classes on CD for one low price - and save on postage, too! SIX CDs packed with information! From IDEAS & CREATIVITY to WRITING INDIES to WRITING HORROR to the 2 part WRITING THRILLERS to GUERRILLA MARKETING. These classes used to sell for $15 - for a total of $120 with postage & handling. Buy the whole set on this TWEET DEAL and get 'em for only $50 plus postage and handling (USA). Ends Wednesday.

And The Nominees Are....

The nominations for the 30th Annual Razzie Awards, honoring the very worst films made by Hollywood, have been announced! Here is your complete list!

Worst Picture of 2009

All About Steve - 20th Century-Fox

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra - Paramount / Hasbro

Land of The Lost - Universal

Old Dogs - Disney

Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen - Dreamworks/Paramount

Worst Actor of 2009

All Three Jonas Brothers - JONAS BROTHERS: THE 3-D CONCERT EXPERIENCE

Will Ferrell - LAND OF THE LOST

Steve Martin - PINK PANTHER 2

Eddie Murphy - IMAGINE THAT

John Travolta - OLD DOGS

Worst Actress of 2009

Beyonce - OBSESSED

Sandra Bullock - ALL ABOUT STEVE

Mylie Cyrus - HANNAH MONTANA: THE MOVIE

Megan Fox - JENNIFER’s BODY and TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN

Sarah Jessica Parker - DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE MORGANS?

Worst Supporting Actor of 2009

Billy Ray Cyrus - HANNAH MONTANA: THE MOVIE

Hugh Hefner (as Himself) - MISS MARCH

Robert Pattinson - TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON

Jorma Taccone (as Cha-Ka) - LAND OF THE LOST

Marlon Wayans - G.I. JOE

Worst Supporting Actress of 2009

Candice Bergen - BRIDE WARS

Ali Larter - OBSESSED

Sienna Miller - G.I. JOE

Kelly Preston - OLD DOGS

Julie White (as Mom) - TRANNIES, TOO (TRANSFORMERS 2)

Worst Screen Couple of 2009

Any Two (or More) Jonas Brothers - THE JONAS BROTHERS 3-D CONCERT EXPERIENCE

Sandra Bullock & Bradley Cooper - ALL ABOUT STEVE

Will Ferrell & Any Co-Star, Creature or “Comic Riff” - LAND OF THE LOST

Shia LaBeouf & EITHER Megan Fox OR Any Transformer - TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN

Kristen Stewart & EITHER Robert Pattinson OR Taylor Whatz-His-Fang - TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON

Worst Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel
(Combined Category for 2009)

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Land of The Lost

Pink Panther 2 (A Rip-Off of a Sequel to a Remake)

Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen

Twilight Saga: New Moon

Worst Director of 2009

Michael Bay - TRANNIES, TOO

Walt Becker - OLD DOGS

Brad Silberling - LAND OF THE LOST

Stephen Sommers - G.I. JOE

Phil Traill - ALL ABOUT STEVE

Worst Screenplay of 2009
(Bill's note: Lots of adaptations this year, just like the Oscars!)

All About Steve - Screenplay by Kim Barker

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra - Screenplay by Stuart Beattie and David Elliot & Paul Lovett, Based on Hasbro’s G.I. JOE® Characters.

Land of The Lost - Written by Chris Henchy & Dennis McNicholas, Based on Sid & Marty Krofft’s TV Series

Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen - Written by Ehren Kruger & Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman, Based on Hasbro’s Transformers Action Figures

Twilight Saga: New Moon - Screenplay by Melissa Rosenberg, Based on the Novel by Stephenie Meyer

Worst Picture of the Decade
(Special Category!)

Battlefield Earth (2000) - Nominated for 10 RAZZIES® / “Winner” of 8 (Including Worst Drama of Our First 25 Yrs)

Freddy Got Fingered (2001) - Nominated for 9 RAZZIES® / “Winner” of 5

Gigli (2003) - Nominated for 10 RAZZIES® / “Winner” of 7 (Including Worst Comedy of Our First 25 Yrs)

I Know Who Killed Me (2007) - Nominated for 9 RAZZIES® / “Winner” of 8

Swept Away (2002) - Nominated for 9 RAZZIES® / “Winner” of 5

Worst Actor of the Decade

Ben Affleck
Nominated for 9 “Achievements,” “Winner” of 2 RAZZIES® DAREDEVIL, GIGLI, JERSEY GIRL, PAYCHECK, PEARL HARBOR, SURVIVING CHRISTMAS

Eddie Murphy
Nominated for 12 “Achievements,” “Winner” of 3 RAZZIES® ADVENTURES of PLUTO NASH, I SPY, IMAGINE THAT, MEET DAVE, NORBIT, SHOWTIME

Mike Myers
Nominated for 4 “Achievements,” “Winner” of 2 RAZZIES® CAT IN THE HAT, THE LOVE GURU

Rob Schneider
Nominated for 6 “Achievements,” “Winner” of 1 RAZZIE® THE ANIMAL, BENCHWARMERS, DEUCE BIGALO: EUROPEAN GIGOLO, GRANDMA’s BOY, THE HOT CHICK, I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK & LARRY, LITTLE MAN, LITTLE NICKY

John Travolta
Nominated for 6 “Achievements,” “Winner” of 3 RAZZIES® BATTLEFIELD EARTH, DOMESTIC DISTURBANCE, LUCKY NUMBERS, OLD DOGS, SWORDFISH

Worst Actress of the Decade

Mariah Carey
The Single Biggest Individual Vote Getter of the Decade: 70+% of ALL Votes for Worst Actress of 2001 GLITTER

Paris Hilton
Nominated for 5 “Achievements,” “Winner” of 4 RAZZIES® THE HOTTIE & THE NOTTIE, HOUSE of WHACKS, REPO: THE GENETIC OPERA

Lindsay Lohan
Nominated for 5 “Achievements,” “Winner” of 3 RAZZIES® HERBIE FULLY LOADED, I KNOW WHO KILLED ME, JUST MY LUCK

Jennifer Lopez
Nominated for 9 “Achievements,” “Winner” of 2 RAZZIES® ANGEL EYES, ENOUGH, GIGLI, JERSEY GIRL, MAID IN MANHATTAN, MONSTER-IN-LAW, THE WEDDING PLANNER

Madonna
Nominated for 6 “Achievements,”“Winner” of 4 RAZZIES® DIE ANOTHER DAY, THE NEXT BEST THING, SWEPT AWAY

For more information, and to get an official ballot and *vote*, THE RAZZIE AWARDS.

- Bill

IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: The Balance - and those TERMINATOR movies... all 4 of them.

TWEET DEALS!



ALL SIX CLASSIC SCREENWRITING CLASSES!
Why break up a set? Get all of the Classic Classes on CD for one low price - and save on postage, too! SIX CDs packed with information! From IDEAS & CREATIVITY to WRITING INDIES to WRITING HORROR to the 2 part WRITING THRILLERS to GUERRILLA MARKETING. These classes used to sell for $15 - for a total of $120 with postage & handling. Buy the whole set on this TWEET DEAL and get 'em for only $50 plus postage and handling (USA). Ends Wednesday.

This Is Not Conflict, Nor Drama

Monty Python's I'M HERE FOR AN ARGUMENT...


You know how many screenplays I've read that have scenes like that? How many movies I've seen that have scenes like that? Not comedy scenes - I'm talking about scenes that were supposed to be dramatic. You don't want junk conflict, you want conflict that is part of your story and moving your story forward.

- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: The Balance - and those TERMINATOR movies... all 4 of them.
Yesterday's Dinner: Burgers at Burger King.
Pages: Saturday - 5 rockin' pages on an old spec I want to get finished and Sunday - 3 pages, but I'm still going!

This Time, Hitler Has Problems With The iPad

In the continuing saga of Hitler having problems with stuff and losing his temper, this time he has some issues with the new Apple iPad that ruins his day.



- Bill

This Is The End!

Ever wonder what Bill Murray whispered at the end of LOST IN TRANSLATION? Well, NASA scientists using high tech sonic enchancing software have the answer!

- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Man With A Plan - Your protagonist *always* needs a plan that the audience understands.
Yesterday's Dinner: Heart attack inducing Pastrami Sandwich at Togos - lotsa Pastrami!
Bicycle: No - but it was sunny and beautiful, so maybe tomorrow.

Now That's Inspirational!

Having a bad day at the keyboard? Just got rejected... before you even pitched them the script? Did the one person you gave your script to completely hate it... at it was your mom? What you need is *inspiration*. Here is the most inspirational speech I have ever heard:


Wow... I'm inspired!

- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Forging Characters - You have to put your character through hell.
Yesterday's Dinner: *Great* BBQ Chicken at this formica table Japanese place on Alameda in Burbank (near a Little Caesar's Pizza). Not only delicious, the presentation was way too beautiful for a neighborhood place.
Bicycle: No - Rained again.
Movies: BOOK OF ELI.



ALL SIX CLASSIC CLASSES!
Why break up a set? Get all of the Classic Classes on CD for one low price - and save on postage, too! SIX CDs packed with information! From IDEAS & CREATIVITY to WRITING INDIES to WRITING HORROR to the 2 part WRITING THRILLERS to GUERRILLA MARKETING. These classes used to sell for $15 - for a total of $120 with postage & handling. Buy the whole set and get 'em for only $70 including postage and handling (USA).

Conan's Expensive Jokes

Wednesday night... the return of the Masturbating Bear! Plus Conan spends as much of NBC's money as possible in his final week on the air...



And last night...



- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Likeable Leads? - Are they required? And the mess of a movie that was SWING VOTE.
Yesterday's Dinner: Soylent Green.
Bicycle: Are you kidding? It's raining buckets!



ALL SIX CLASSIC CLASSES!
Why break up a set? Get all of the Classic Classes on CD for one low price - and save on postage, too! SIX CDs packed with information! From IDEAS & CREATIVITY to WRITING INDIES to WRITING HORROR to the 2 part WRITING THRILLERS to GUERRILLA MARKETING. These classes used to sell for $15 - for a total of $120 with postage & handling. Buy the whole set and get 'em for only $70 including postage and handling (USA).

Team Conan

I was a big fan of Conan's 12:30 show - his skits were hysterical. Sure, everyone wets themselves when Triumph crashes some party somewhere and starts asking all of the questions that no one should ask... but the Masturbating Bear and Pimpbot and The Year 2000 and that evil puppy and Abe Vigoda and Mr T and all of those other crazy skits were gold. When he took over the Tonight Show, the powers at NBC made him give up the skits they thought were too crass for 11:30... and I think the show has suffered because of it.

Now it seems Conan is getting the boot so that Jay can have the Tonight Show back... and here's what Jay had to say about that in 2004... when he announced his retirement:

Jay's 2004 Announcement - watch more funny videos

The real tragedy of this whole thing - NBC has decided that the Masturbating Bear is their property (they did the same thing with Letterman when he left) and none of the skits created by Conan's writers for Conan's show can ever be used again by Conan. See, all of that stuff was "work for hire". Now, the pisser is that NBC has no plans to ever use any of that stuff - there is no 10pm Masturbating Bear Show in the works to replace Leno - so we will never see those skits again. They go into that RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK storage facility... warehoused forever.

Those skits were written by TV writers... just as some script for a movie you might write as "work for hire" that you put your heart and soul into... but may get shelved forever. That's a pisser. Especially a pisser if you have worked hard on a script that's a work for hire, and the producer scraps your version of the story for some other version by some other writer that sucks. The sucks version gets made and your good version will never be seen by anyone. Studios sometimes have several different writers working on different versions of the same script, and then they pick the one they like and shelve the others. Frustrating. Too bad we can't at least keep our work and try to find another producer or studio... but a work for hire is a work for hire (even if it began with your pitch).

We will never see the Masturbating Bear again.

I'm going to miss him.

- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Edgy Scripts - and four guys in two canoes.
Yesterday's Dinner: Panda Express.

Martin Scorsese - Golden Globes

Here's the clip montage and Scorsese's speech from last night's Golden Globes... brilliant (except for the commercial for SHUTTER ISLAND they stuck in there). Great iconic images, and his speech is all about giving the audience an experience.



- Bill

Upcoming Nic Cage Movies...

Can't get enough of that KNOWING star? Well, he's got plenty of movies in the pipeline, and there is a whole blog devoted to his new projects...

Nic Cage Projects!

- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Playing With Time Periods - and that little film film from last year that won all of the awards - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE.
Yesterday's Dinner: Fast food between raindrops - Carls Jr Big Carl burger. It was okay.

Golden Globe Winners!

FILM AWARDS

Best Picture, Drama
Avatar WINNER
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
Up in the Air

Best Picture, Musical/Comedy
The Hangover WINNER
500 Days of Summer
It’s Complicated
Julie & Julia
Nine
Best Director
James Cameron, Avatar WINNER
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Clint Eastwood, Invictus
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

Best Actor, Musical/Comedy
Robert Downey, Jr., Sherlock Holmes WINNER
Matt Damon, The Informant!
Daniel Day-Lewis, Nine
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 500 Days of Summer
Michael Stuhlbarg, A Serious Man

Best Actress, Musical/Comedy
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia WINNER
Sandra Bullock, The Proposal
Marion Cotillard, Nine
Julia Roberts, Duplicity
Meryl Streep, It’s Complicated

Best Actress, Drama
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side WINNER
Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious

Best Actor, Drama
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart WINNER
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Tobey Maguire, Brothers

Film, Best Supporting Actress
Mo’Nique, Precious WINNER
Penelope Cruz, Nine
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Julianne Moore, A Single Man

Best Supporting Actor
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds WINNER
Matt Damon, Invictus
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones

Best Screenplay
Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air WINNER
Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell, District 9
Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker
Nancy Meyers, It’s Complicated
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

Best Animated Film
Up WINNER
Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess & The Frog

Best Song
“The Weary Kind,” Crazy Heart WINNER
“Cinema Italiano,” Nine
“I Want to Come Home,” Everybody’s Fine
“I Will See You,” Avatar
“Winter,” Brothers
Best Score
Up WINNER
The Informant!
Avatar
A Single Man
Where the Wild Things Are

Best Foreign Language Film
The White Ribbon WINNER
Baria
Broken Embraces
The Maid
A Prophet

Cecil B. DeMille Award
Martin Scorsese

MLK Post From 2008

In honor of Martin Luther King jr Day, here is a post I wrote two years ago...

Martin Luther King Day.

- Bill

Did James Cameron write AVATAR?

Here's a swell article from the LA Times about screenwriting credits...

Who Really Wrote AVATAR?

- Bill

WGA Awards - Nominee List...

Full List of 2010 WGA Awards Nominees in Movie:

Original Screenplay:

•"500 Days of Summer" - Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber
•"Avatar" - James Cameron
•"The Hangover" - Jon Lucas & Scott Moore
•"The Hurt Locker" - Mark Boal
•"A Serious Man" - Joel Coen & Ethan Coen

Adapted Screenplay:

•"Crazy Heart" - screenplay by Scott Cooper
•"Julie & Julia" - screenplay by Nora Ephron
•"Precious: Based on the Novel PUSH by Sapphire" - screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher
•"Star Trek" - screenplay by Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman
•"Up in the Air" - screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner

Documentary Screenplay:

•"Against the Tide" - Richard Trank
•"Capitalism: A Love Story" - Michael Moore
•"The Cove" - Mark Monroe
•"Earth Days" - Robert Stone
•"Good Hair" - Chris Rock & Jeff Stilson and Lance Crouther and Chuck Sklar
•"Soundtrack for a Revolution" - Bill Guttentag & Dan Sturman

- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Pick Up The Pace! - all about your screenplay's pacing - what makes a script fast paced?
Yesterday's Dinner: Fish & Chips & Guiness at The Belltower in San Francisco with old film friends. Food was great!
Movies: Then we went to see BITCH SLAP - and more on that later!



ALL SIX CLASSIC CLASSES!
Why break up a set? Get all of the Classic Classes on CD for one low price - and save on postage, too! SIX CDs packed with information! From IDEAS & CREATIVITY to WRITING INDIES to WRITING HORROR to the 2 part WRITING THRILLERS to GUERRILLA MARKETING. These classes used to sell for $15 - for a total of $120 with postage & handling. Buy the whole set and get 'em for only $70 including postage and handling (USA).
It's the big deal - You SAVE $50!!!!

Do Pretty Girls Fart?

Mythbusters did an unaired episode on whether pretty girls fart or not, and you will be disappointed to learn that they do.



Pretty girls are not perfect... and neither is anyone else. We all make mistakes. We are all learning. Even the smartest person in the world does dumb things sometimes, and doesn't know everything.

What does this have to do with screenwriting? (aside from - when you are on set stay away from Beyonce's butt)?

Hey, maybe your first draft sucks? Maybe your dialogue stinks? Maybe your characters are thin? Maybe you can’t seem to finish this script or this scene... and you feel like a failure. Maybe you give the script you think is perfect to some friends to read... and they all hate it.

Hey, no reason to beat yourself up. We all make mistakes! You don't look stupid when you write something that isn't perfect, you look just like the rest of us - you were learning. It was a first draft (or a tenth draft - some of us are slow learners). You know, there is no shame in *learning*, and you have to make mistakes in order to learn.

So, don't worry so much about looking like you may not have known something - nobody knows everything. We are all still learning. The first step in learning is to realize everyone makes mistakes, and no script is perfect. Be open to that criticism. Don’t be defensive about it, don’t be depressed by it. Everyone screws up! Everyone farts. If not, they explode - and that's even worse! You think farting in an elevator is bad, exploding is worse.

It’s a new year - time to make some new mistakes and learn from them.

And, stay away from Beyonce’s butt.

- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Conflict Driven - how every story needs a conflict, and that conflict needs to make sense... even if your name is George Lucas.
Yesterday's Dinner: Final home cooked meal from mom before I return to LA - cornbread, scalloped potatoes, corn, chicken. Perfect!



SCRIPT SECRETS STORE
Top 10 Films About Underpants T Shirt: SALE $9.99

Bitch Slap!

Rick Jacobson directed 2 of my scripts, and he's one of... I guess it's *two*... directors I enjoyed working with. A couple of months ago I posted a car chase clip from BLACK THUNDER, and that was his work. He is a nice guy (kind of amazing on its own) who can take a low budget film and make the action scenes rock. Most of the other directors I've worked with just wanted to get the action scenes over with. They disliked them, didn't understand them, and the results are some really crappy and bland action scenes. Rick *cared* about the action scenes, and tried to make them the biggest scenes possible with the money they gave him. There is a massive action scene at the end of BLACK THUNDER that is filled with explosions and stunts shot for the movie (ie: not stock footage). He put the money on the screen, not in his pockets.

Well, Rick has a new film opening in cinemas on Friday - select cities, limited release - called BITCH SLAP! It seems to be a Russ Meyers homage of some sort. You may have seen one (or more) of the female leads interviewed on some of the off the beaten path cable talk shows - I saw them on some video game talk show a couple of weeks ago. I'll be seeing the film this weekend in San Francisco before heading back to Los Angeles. Here is the trailer...



That looks cool!

- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Gag Reel - how to use "gags" and details to add depth and texture to your scenes, using THE 39 STEPS as example.
Yesterday's Dinner: Salad at La Scala in Walnut Creek, CA.



SCRIPT SECRETS STORE
Top 10 Films About Underpants T Shirt: SALE $9.99

Portable Grindhouse

The strangest part of my so called career are the ripples. Over a decade ago, Roger Ebert talked to Gene Siskel about me on that little TV show they had. I'm quoted in a bunch of books. I now have four novelists who either thank me in their books or mention me on their blogs. And that danged Movies For Men Network in the UK keeps showing my movies every damned week! I've stopped posting them here because I'd have to list them every week, and after a while I stopped caring (I'm sure you stopped caring the first time I posted the airdates and times... but it's *my* blog, baby!)

But the latest thing is even more of a ripple...

More of an echo from events long ago...

A book about the rise and fall of movies on VHS, focusing on the cool box art, has an example of VHS box art on the back cover...

And it is from a movie I wrote!


Someone on a messageboard mentioned a B Movie blog that I'd never heard of, so I thought I'd check it out, and yesterday's blog entry was all about buying this new book on Amazon, and they had a scan of the cover, and one of my movies was on it! This is almost as good as when I was channel flipping and passed NIGHT HUNTER in Spenish on one of the L.A. Mexican channels! That was kind of surreal.

So, I have ordered my copy from Amazon (the picture is a link) and can't wait to see if any of the box art from my other films made the cut.

- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Are Those Real? - levels of reality in your screenplay, and how to create the illusion of reality in your screenplay, and ADVENTURELAND.
Yesterday's Dinner: El Faro Burrito - it's a burrito bigger than my head! On Monument Blvd in Concord, CA.



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Script Magazine - January Issue Is Out!

The new issue of Script Magazine is out now! It's the Awards Issue - all about the Oscar hopefuls and other best pictures!





Writers on Writing: A Single Man
Thankfully, each awards season brings a fresh voice, full of surprises for a familial industry. In 2009, that fresh voice belonged to someone already well-known to the family, though no one could have suspected his fashion savvy would translate so readily to screenwriting. Here Tom Ford talks about what drew him to the singular A Single Man.

Win, Place & Showbiz: Handicapping the Writing Awards for 2009
An Oscar®-season tradition, Bob Verini talks to the scribes in the running for the Academy’s coveted statue. But, with a dramatic change in the Best Picture category -- the noms have been increased from five to 10 -- the race for the golden guy is truly up in the air. As usual, Verini lays the odds on 2009’s writerly offerings.

Taking on Tyson
For the past decade, filmmaker James Toback has held the idea of a special project, a story so personal to him that it had to be done just right, his way, when ready. The long-awaited result? The critically acclaimed Tyson -- a revealing documentary of the polarizing and enigmatic figure that is Mike Tyson.

Script to Screen: The Road
Stage veteran Joe Penhall toned down some of the gore in Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic novel The Road -- but only to keep it from getting boring. As director John Hillcoat and Penhall explain, their vision for the film was often debated but never questioned ... and both are eager to hear reaction from the audience and avid McCarthy fans.

Block Blocking
It happens to us all -- from the Oscar-winning writer to the aspirant. Writer's block is a cruel reality, but one that can be managed, according to the likes of Eric Roth, Simon Kinberg, and Stephen Susco. See if some of their tips, or the tips from some Script readers, will work for you.

Brothers: Where Art Thou?
Screenwriter David Benioff made two vows: He'd never do a remake and, after The Kite Runner, wouldn't revisit the subject of Afghanistan. He talks to Script about his new film Brothers, a remake of a Danish film about the war in Afghanistan.

The Agony of the Unproduced
Plenty of people make a living as screenwriters, but an important variable -- the screen variable -- can leave even those with a steady stream of writing gigs feeling less-than-accomplished. Read how a few writers have overcome the unproduced feeling.

Small Screen: Leverage
Showrunner John Rogers began his career on Cosby, a warm family sitcom that revolves around aging spouses. His current show centers on a family of a different sort -- a family of thieves. Find out how Rogers and his staff involve fans in the stories for Leverage's merry band.

New Media: Web Innovators
For most Web innovators, new-media projects have been high on experimentation and low on measurable results. But for BarretSwatek and Taryn Southern, the Internet has been a very stable place where both have found homes for their existing talents, and discovered talents they never knew they had.

Independents: Awards Driven
What can we learn from the winners of film festivals? Perhaps what drives each lauded story from Fade In to The End; or how each film’s engine differs from the others in competition? Bill Martell attends the 17th Annual Raindance Film Festival in London to find out.

10 Things a Rep Will Never Tell You
Do you really want to know? Are you sure? Because Jim Cirile, and a host of reps, are ready to tell you why neediness isn’t endearing, there’s no market for your masterpiece, if a script hasn’t sold yet it likely never will, and seven other daunting truths.

So, what subjects would you like me to cover in the new year? I'm about to start my article for the May issue, and have no idea what it will be about.

- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: What's The Plan, Man? - and planning your 2010 writing to get things done!
Yesterday's Dinner: Pizza. Frozen. Cardboard.



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New Script Tips & Facebook Hack

Yes, I promised new Script Tips, and they are rolling out... but there may be some delays because of one of those crazy things that happen in our new electronic world...

Someone hacked my Facebook account yesterday. For a whole day some lunatic was posting a bunch of crazy stuff and even interacting with my friends. That’s kind of the creepy part. I’d say I have no idea how it happened, but I suspect I clicked on one of those links - Hamsters Flood or more likely some famous hottie who loses her top. Those things are always scams or some kind of hack. I usually make it a policy never to click on anything from a friend that doesn’t have a message that seems like it would have come from them, but I now have so many “friends” on FB that I don’t know - so it’s hard to tell what some dude I have never met might say.

It used to be different. When I first got on FB it was going to be ONLY my actual friends. I was going to use MySpace for anyone who wanted to be my cyberfriend and get the daily tip link and blog links and a certain number of jokes and smart ass remarks, and FB would be people I really know. Then MySpace became a ghost town and I just stopped posting there... and opened the doors at FB to *anyone* who wanted to be my friend. And that may have resulted in someone else getting hacked and then me getting hacked yesterday.

The strange part about having your FB account hacked are the messages. Who sits around typing this nonsense:

“When lottery hits $640m, play 2, 4, 23, 38, 46, mega 23.”

Yeah, right - like the lottery is ever gonna get that high! The highest lotto payout *ever* was $390m in March of 2007. And the hacker thinks it’s gonna be double that someday? And what the hell does this mean:

“11-11-29 BofA stock - buy.”

I’m supposed to buy Bank Of America stock? Is this one of those Make Millions Buying Penny Stock scams - just with Bank Of America? I don’t even bank there, why would I buy their stock? The hacker posted a bunch of weird stuff like this. Just an endless stream of crazy things that don’t make sense to me - and probably made my FB friends (both the ones I know and the ones I have never met) think I’ve gone crazy. You post a “sorry, I was hacked” message, but how many people see it in the stream and how many people miss it and think you lost your mind yesterday... but seem to have found it today (between the sofa cushions, along with some loose change).

The worst part of all of this were the direct communications with people I actually know. There are some of these where I don’t really know what I should do - apologize? For things some hacker said? And the hacker said *weird* stuff - he/she/transgendered person posted a note on one friend’s wall telling them how much I appreciate the things they have done for me in the past, even if I never said it. Now, I actually *could* have posted that - what’s weird about this is that’s really how I feel - but, I feel that way about many other people the hacker didn’t post crap to. The message gets creepy at the end, though, when it says that when they are on vacation they should not fly from Dubai to India on Air India Express Flight 812. What the hell does that mean? Is this hacker some travel agent that gets a better commission if they take some other airline? The problem is - I want to explain that some hacker wrote that nonsense... but it’s in the same message as kind of a heartfelt thing about how much I (well, really the hacker) need to say how much I care about this person. Can’t take back the crazy stuff without taking back the good stuff (even if I didn’t post it - I really do feel this way about this person). Oh, and the weird thing is - they have been talking about going to the Middle East and India and want to compare the wealth of Dubai with the poverty of India... so this crazy thing about what airline to fly seems like part of a conversation we had a few months ago.

Yikes! What if I was sleep FBing or something! And why couldn’t I be sleep New Tip Writing instead?

But if I *don’t* tell these people all of these weird heartfelt messages were from the hacker, what do I say to them when I see them next? What it someone *asks* about the weird thing about “Don’t drive 1-35 @ 10-14-2 - just stay home that day” - what the hell does that even mean? They should *only* drive over 35mph? How do they start the car? The problem is this hacker has created a bunch of weird little ticking timebomb problems for me, and I don’t know what I should say if one of my friends asks me what that crazy stuff means. But if I tell them it was just me being hacked - it kind of means the nice things the hacker said were lies. This hacker was *devious*!

Some of you already know how I handled this - and I’m sorry if it upset you. I decided to send e-mails (not FB) saying that I was hacked and the heartfelt messages with the weird endings like “you can’t climb down a chimney to enter a house - the flue gets in the way” were fakes. Of course they were fakes - why would I send a message about chimneys to a *doctor*? And that the heartfelt parts were true - even though some crazy hacker wrote them. Problem is, I think some people are mad at me... and feel like I said something nice, took it back, then tried to say it again. Freakin’ hacker has hurt some of my real relationships, and that’s worse than any of the weird posts like “10-11-2 - bag of money BofA MDR Admirality - dye pack!”. (Hacker has a thing for BofA!) So, if you are one of those who are angry with me now, I’m sorry. It wasn’t my fault, it was just part of this crazy high-tech world where someone pretends they are you and ruins your life... then vanishes. I have no idea how you recover from stuff like this - it reminds me of the Harlan Ellison story SHATTERDAY about the guy who has an exact double... who is *nicer* than he is. That’s the biggest problem with this devious hacker - he/she/tyransgendered person said *nice* things along with the crazy things, so if you take back one you have to take back the other.

So, that’s why the new Script Tips may take a while to post this month. I’m still dealing with having my FB account hacked for *one day* (imagine if this hacker had decided to post crap for a week or a month!). Everything seems to be normal now... so I’d better get back to work on the tips.

- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: That's Episodic! - and one of 2009's worst films: YEAR ONE.
Yesterday's Dinner: Three Brothers Chinese in Pleasant Hill - Shanghai Porkchops.
Bicycle: No - I'm home for the holidays without a cycle, but I walked a few miles to burn off some of this holiday weight.



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Movies: AVATAR - I saw AVATAR with a couple of old friends over the holidays... and everybody wants to know what I thought of it. We saw it in 3D but not in IMAX - I’m not really a fan of IMAX showings of movies not shot in that format - and the first thing I would say to anyone who hasn’t seen AVATAR yet but is planning on it, is to see it in 3D. I’ll get to the reason why in a minute. My friends - one is an award winning documentary film maker who actually won an award for a film he made last year, and the other is a theatre (stage) director in the San Francisco Bay Area (oh, and a produced playwright, too) - and both of them liked AVATAR more than I did. That doesn’t mean I disliked it, just that these two guys wanted to race out and buy a ticket for the next showing... and I thought I might see it again... sometime.

Wait... but what did I think of it? Well, someone at the New Years Eve party I went to asked me that, and here’s how I answered...

Story-wise, AVATAR isn’t anything new - it’s basically the same story as DANCES WITH WOLVES and THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS (which also co-starred Michelle Rodriguez). We have our young soldier going undercover to bring down an enemy. In F&F he hooks up with the enemy chief’s sister, in AVATAR he hooks up with the enemy chief’s daughter. In F&F there’s another member of the gang who does not accept him... until he proves himself, and in AVATAR it’s the chief’s daughter’s fiance who doesn’t accept him until he proves himself. In both films our undercover guy reaches a point where he isn’t sure what side he’s on - he’s left the reservation and gone native. In F&F the undercover guy has a foot in both camps until he realizes that he has to take down the enemy... but tries to find a way to do it without hurting his new friends too much. In AVATAR the undercover guy has a foot in both camps until he comes to realize his side is wrong... and he joins the enemy side to take down his own people. That’s more like DANCES WITH WOLVES. But the story follows the path created by other movies without ever veering too far into the jungle.

And the dialogue in AVATAR is just there to get it from one point to the next, nothing as cool and memorable as “You have to look with better eyes than that.” from THE ABYSS, but also nothing as awful as “Jack, this is where we first met!” from TITANIC... though the name of the planet and the mineral they are mining come damned close. Mostly the dialogue is just there. Sometimes it’s the most obvious thing to say, but it’s never just awful. I wish someone had been brought in to make it more clever, more memorable, more interesting... but we just get bland and average dialogue.

While they were rewriting the dialogue they could have taken care of some of those nagging little things like the military not firing a nice big missile in one of the end battles, but flying some sort of barge filled with pallets of C4 and just dumping them on the Navi stronghold. Sure, there was that line of dialogue about how missile guidance systems didn’t work in that region, but we fired missiles long distances and hit targets long before we had guidance systems... and the helicopter missiles seemed to work okay in that region. This stuff needed some work!

Same can be said for the characters - we kind of get the same major characters as in ALIENS, just taken from the other side. We have the Corporate Creep who will do anything to make sure the company makes a big old bag of money - Giovanni Ribisi playing the Paul Riser role. We have our gung-ho military guy who has all kinds of nice weapons for use in close encounters - Stephen Lang playing the Michael Biehn role. We have a scientist who starts out a company flunky and ends up saving the day - Dileep Rao playing the Lance Henrickson role (Dileep’s second scene stealing role after working for Sam Raimi in DRAG ME TO HELL). And we have the bad-ass babe soldier - Michelle Rodriguez from FAST AND THE FURIOUS playing the Jenette Goldstein role. Plus the guy who panics and the protective mother alien and, of course, Sigourney Weaver. Everybody does okay with what they are given, and even though we are often missing some character shading, each character serves their purpose and even has that little scene where they shine. Basically, “okay” but not “great”... so what the hell is good about AVATAR?

The world.

I have a Script Tip in rotation called “Take Us Someplace Cool” about the importance of taking the audience into an interesting world, whether it’s the world on con men or the world of wizards or that world in LORD OF THE RINGS... and this is where AVATAR gets bonus points. For two and a half hours you are not on Earth... you are in a very real alien world filled with all kinds of interesting details. It’s like watching a National Geographic special that takes you somewhere that humans have never seen before... maybe the bottom of the ocean. In fact, so many of the elements of this world look like things you would see on a voyage to the bottom of the sea... and Cameron has been down there... that I suspect that world was the main inspiration for “Pandora”.

The trailer, in 2D, made it look like a bunch of blue cartoons running around. Watching the movie in 3D I believed that these were living creatures. And there were a million different types of creatures and plants and birds and... well, it was like a travelogue - which is another mark in the plus column. We got to experience a world completely unlike our own - to be somewhere else for 2.5 hours. Complete escape.

That’s one of the things some writers may underestimate - creating that world that is a complete escape from reality. Many writers think that screenwriting is about the facts, about reality... but that’s what *journalism* is. Screenwriting, from Melies' magical silent films to Lang’s Mabuse spy films and METROPOLIS to STAR WARS and James Bond, movies are traditionally not reality. They give us larger than life stories and exciting fantasies. It’s “Let’s Pretend” on a mass scale. Kids play cops & robbers and cowboys & indians and all kinds of fantasy role-playing games... and movies offer the same thing without the wooden horses. Creating that world that provides an escape into an exciting fantasy world is *job one* for a screenwriter - and AVATAR’s fantasy world is rich in details... plus, just about everybody is nekkid except for a loin cloth and way too much neck jewelry on the women.

AVATAR is an *experience*.

That’s why you have to see it in 3D... it’s not so much a story as a chance to live in another world for 2.5 hours... and 3D makes that world seem as if it is all around you. You could reach out and touch it. None of the 3D is DR TONGUE”S HOUSE OF 3D BEEF with gotchas and paddle-balls zooming out of the screen, the 3D in AVATAR is just used to create depth. Took me a while to get used to it, but after a while the 3D was a natural part of being immersed in this world. Cinders from a fire float down on you. Seed pods float on aircurrents past your head.

I’m saving some of the AVATAR stuff for a new Script Tip, but here’s one of the things that was a stroke of genius: A big problem I have with story notes is that you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t - there is no “yes” in the word “notes”. If you don’t motivate a character to do something unusual, you will get a note about it. But if you *do* go to the trouble of creating a motivation for a character to do something that is “movie stupid” like going into that haunted house where the legend has it a dozen people were brutally killed, you’ll get the note “We don’t really need that, it’s a movie convention that high school kids go into the haunted house - no explanation required!” So you end up with more stupid unmotivated high school kids walking into a house where no one has ever walked out alive. I would rather have them motivated - and always make sure anything that a normal person would not do has some reason behind it. The audience may not go into that death house themselves, but when a character with some sort of *reason* goes inside, instead of thinking “They’re complete idiots” they think “That’s a mistake”. Hey, people make mistakes. You can still care about someone who makes a mistake... but someone who does something downright stupid? They deserve whatever happens to them.

So, a major element that allows us to understand why Jake Sully would want to keep going back to the Navi world and even turn against his own people... is that wheel chair. That’s one of the things that pulled me into that fantasy world and made the blue cartoons into *people*. When Sully can walk again as a Navi... and then starts *running* with his new Navi legs... it’s something I can completely understand. That was a great moment - a big emotional human moment (even though the dude was a blue alien at that point). When Sully keeps going back - even though the Navi world becomes less attractive - I completely believed it because he *had legs* as a Navi. He could walk, run, climb! And if you had to choose between a world where you could walk and a world where you were a physical person who could no longer be physical - which would you pick? Even though you may not personally turn against the humans invading the planet, you can *understand* why Sully might. The military guy promises if Sully helps bring down the Navis they will give him the best doctors available to try to get his legs working again... but as a Navi he already has legs right now. Making Jake Sully an injured soldier in a wheel chair is one of those little things that pays off big time.

There were *many* other great visual things in the film - places where a picture really was worth a thousand words. Easy for some writers to miss those things and focus on the bland dialogue. But the main thing that AVATAR has going for it - the reason why it seems some people may be seeing it again (it is the third fastest movie to make $300m domestic... and is just broke $1 *billion* worldwide) is the world it takes us into. That escape into an interesting place we have never seen before, filled with wonder and details and all of those things we watch National Geographic to experience. It’s a 2.5 hour vacation... and I suspect if I were to see it again I would notice all kinds of things about that planet that I missed the first time. It is a film rich in detail... and somebody *created* that world and those details.

Somebody *wrote* that.

- Bill