A Little Of This, A Little Of That. Hopefully Some Of It Is Worth Reading.
StarlightGuard's Blog
(Tue 05/27/2008 05:41pm)
A long time ago, I bitched and moaned about how bad X project was, and how I had been asked to help X person write the script.
I went under the premise it was me doing scripting duties For Hire (because that's what was needed there in my honest opinion.)
And although I still laugh at the idea of werewolves running unchained in Fort Smith, Arkansas, I'm going to let YOU be the judge.
Follow this link, and Abandon All Good Creative Expression Ye Who Enter Here:
I stand by my original pronouncement of how bad it is, and what bits are good and why.
But when I mentioned to a friend of mine, who also read the book, that this particular author PAID X amount to publish his book, she declared it the literary equivalent of tying a pork chop around your neck so the dog would play with you.
His hopes of making a mainstream movie are still dashed I'm certain, and I'm not saying that as revenge or similar, I'm just claiming if a book shouldn't have been published, it really doesn't deserve the big screen treatment either.
(Tue 05/27/2008 03:10pm)
Well last Tuesday I think it was an agent wrote me up, proclaiming how much she LOVED the idea of "The Life and Times of Igor" (uh oh) and how she was already telling her associates about it (double uh oh.)
I've been down this road before, with the Igor script.
That also raises the pressure on me -- it has to be DAMNED GOOD, and that's not something I feel I can do. So, as usual, I'm just doing what I can.
I hope to finish it this week.
I plan on ending Chapter One with the night Frankenstein tries to reanimate the corpse, as (unnamed villains) come take him away to jail. Yes the police are involved.
Okay, so it's the tree huggers that come after Frankenstein. I think I revealed that in earlier posts anyways.
Part of my brain that deals in a very dark sense of humor considers the scenarios where Frankenstein gets his body parts -- missing adventurer Steve Fossett, for example.
Yes, I know, groan all you want. It's still funny in a very dark sense. It's like when I was a child, and Challenger went up, then came back down. The popular joke back then was "how'd they know the lady had dandruff? They found her head and shoulders in the ocean."
I came up with one concept about, how in Evil Medical School, young Victor genetically enhances some vegetables, and making them sing and dance. And, as their manager, Victor would rule the world through, essentially, a pop band singing vegetable craze. The twist would be the vegetables do want to rule the world, but they have another means of doing it: twisting the minds of malleable children with biblical tales and forcing them to obey them.
Yes, Victor invents Veggietales essentially -- except he puts them in the nearest veggie processor and CHOP CHOP CHOP they're gone. (I should note this, and another sequence, were "protested" by a friend of mine, whom I run all first drafts by to see if I'm still on track, or if I've gone insanely off course. I'll likely keep this one, but the other will most likely go.)
Did I mention my humor is very Take-No-Prisoners? Ever see Monty Python's Flying Circus? Ever read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? How about Good Omens? If not, then it's no wonder you don't understand. I love British comedic sensibilities. I love the fact that, in "Father Ted," you can have an 80 year old priest who does nothing, except chase women, get drunk, and shout swear words at nuns.
Let's hope I maintain that philosophy as Igor progresses, but more so that the agency isn't disappointed in this madness.
Let's also hope, should they like Chapter 1, I can actually gather the mental strength to tackle the rest of the story. I haven't had a vacation....since my high school senior trip. That was '96.
I need a get away. Hawaii will do. I want to see Hawaii. I want to buy authentic Hawaiian shirts. I want tropical jungles, white sandy beaches, and young women with dark tans and inspired uses for empty coconuts as clothing.
(Fri 05/23/2008 07:18pm)
The movie fan in me says "go ahead, write your review of Indiana Jones 4."
The other movie fan in me says "don't do it, keep the secrets, preserve the integrity of the first viewing."
I'll listen to the latter.
So, here's the (albeit) brief view on "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."
A -, and that's only because of George Lucas' "out there" plot devices considering the nature of WHERE the crystal skulls come from, and WHAT they originally are. (Who the hell do you think you are, Lucas?* Chris Carter?")
When you go, be sure to enjoy the latest gag making use of Indy's fear of snakes.
I'd also have liked a bit more swashbuckling with the whip, okay a lot more. It was used, just not nearly enough for my taste.
Go see it. You'll love it. (Except for the bits where Lucas went WAY off balance, but this is pretty tame considering what he originally wanted.)
(*It's a shame when those who conceive of the original story, as Lucas did with Indy and Star Wars, can't even properly tell those stories they themselves create. Get the project out of Georgie's hands, and you've actually got a better movie than he could come up. Sad, really.)
(Mon 05/19/2008 06:17pm)
As I still, very slowly, attempt to assemble "The Life and Times of Igor" into the comic book format, I feel I should share The Secret with you.
No, not that hokey bit of over glorified self esteem book.
The format is here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scriptsmart/comicbookfullscreenplay.pdf
It's only 4 pages long, and in the .pdf format (as you can plainly see by the web address), and it doesn't specify # of pages\panels like I'd hoped, but it doesn't seem to really be that important.
At least I hope not.
As a side note to those who've left comments and I never replied, let me apologize -- I never really looked at the past entries and, apparently, message notifications either are not working, or are simply non existent on mania. Not sure which.
As for me, it's back to the tv and my nightly dose of "Futurama."
(Tue 05/13/2008 05:54pm)
Well, as I am a newcomer to the comic format, I'd hoped somebody might've given me some general thoughts on the number of pages or panels per page in the average issue. The intent of that request was to, shall we say, "learn from the best." I'm the amateur in this field, so I should ask around.
I'll still leave that request open, should anyone wish to relate some helpful information.
Meanwhile, as I (slowly) rework "The Life and Times of Igor," I've been silently considering that, if this were to be my future, be it short term or long term, I might as well find my niche and settle in.
I've talked here about promoting "Sweet Dreams: A Sandman's Story" here, and there is a plot device I could use to keep me in the first act of the story, back in the 1950's. It's there I introduce the Starlight Guard, the group of individuals who assist the Sandmen on the nights when the town of Twilight Place is overrun by the mares. (Nightmare demons, not horses.)
If I ever wanted to revisit "Sweet Dreams," the best way to do it (without doing a sequel or a prequel) would be to go into the missing areas and have the main characters attempt to learn how the Starlight Guard was formed. We know WHY, but not HOW.
Then I put that thought away, and this morning was devoted to trying to find an agent that handled both comic books AND screenplays. Some did, but didn't accept submissions with a fantasy or science fiction element. As the Meat Loaf song goes, two out of three isn't bad. But it's still not good in my opinion.
I don't know how long it will take to rework Igor, I have "Sweet Dreams," and so I thought about just skipping these picky agents and going straight to the source: Marvel.
So today I read their submission guidelines, printed up a letter, and I sent it off today. It'll be about a week until it gets there, and hopefully they'll want to read a sample of the work.
And they may not want to. It's not exactly a sure thing here, so I'm keeping that in mind.
As a side note, in case anyone's still wondering about Stephen King, I still haven't gotten the rights from him for one of his short stories. I haven't even heard back yet, but given there were at least three different addresses for an S. King up in Bangor, Maine then it shouldn't surprise me he'd be hard to reach.
There are other ways around this. His wife is still on the board of the local public library -- that's an avenue I hope to explore as well.
In case you're wondering, I was aiming for the rights to "Everything's Eventual." It's the only story of his I've identified with in any way. And that's why I chose it.
And life goes on...
PS - If anyone ever wants to make a comment, please feel free to call me self deluded or a madman. It's a free forum, so say what's on your mind.
