Let's Get It Started...

Great, you’re saying, just what the world needs now; another blog about film by some guy who thinks he knows it all, right?

Wrong. I don’t think I know it all, I feel like I barely know anything and I like it like that. If I knew it all, where would the fun be? For me, part of the magic of the movies is the ability to always see things from a new perspective and, if not that, always hoping that the next film I see will become a favorite.

So, it’s a new year, this is a new blog and it is my intention for one to inform the other. I have been a movie guy since I was a kid and, over the years, there have been some memorable years, 1988, for example, when I first set foot on a feature film set as a crew member. More, much more, on that crucially important year as blog goes on.

2009 should, at last, be another pretty big year for film and for me.

On Saturday, January 3rd, 2009, the first film that I was hired to write will premiere at a film festival in Southern California. Yes, I am being vague. I am not saying which film festival it is or what the name of the film is. If you know me at all, you probably have that information. I will say that I was hired to write the screenplay in 2006, wrote three drafts of it, thought it was pretty good and when I heard that it was finally going into production in early 2007, I found out that the director had dramatically re-written my screenplay. I have read his version of the screenplay. I have not yet seen the final product.

By pure coincidence, within the next day or two, I will sign and send in the option agreement for the presumed sale and production of my original screenplay “Aftermath.”
The odyssey of “Aftermath” has been nearly as epic as the famous odyssey of Greek mythology. I wrote the screenplay in 2006, tried to produce it myself on several occasions, eventually relinquished control of it, let the project get adopted by a hot Philly production company, wound up amicably splitting with them over creative issues and finally gave into the L.A. producer who had been asking me to sell it all along --- much more on this situation in a future entries.

So this blog will focus on movies in general, screenwriting in particular and my experiences with both as a fan, a teacher, a reviewer (find my stuff at IndieTalk.com) and, for lack of a better term, a filmmaking professional. Besides weather, I feel like film is something everyone can talk about and my hope for this blog ---other than being a venue for my rants and musings – is that I might say something that strikes readers as interesting, amusing, perceptive or informative.

2009 looks like it could be a pretty wild year for me, beginning with a film screening at a fest and ending up (in September) with the production of another screenplay.

Earlier today - January 1rst! - I heard back from an actress with long list of credits ("Party Of Five" etc) and her boyfriend, who starred in one of the biggest hits of the '80's, who would like to read my screenplay "Payday", a steamy "Body Heat" meets "Wild Things" neo-noir that I was hired to adapt.

Who knows what else might happen along the way?