Movies I Wish I Had Time to Write

It took 3.8 years from writing the first page of Cole and to its took to premier in Toronto. I supposed that timeframe is pretty normal (unless you are Carl Bessai, who is a creative-talent-driven-filmmaking-maniac, which is the biggest compliment I can think of at the moment), and usually it takes even longer from idea conception to big screen showcase. Take Deathbed: The Bed Who Eats for example. It was shot in Detroit in 1973 and didn't have its official release until 2003...

Anyway, that being said, here is a brief list of movies I would love to write, but probably will never have the time to finish:

1. Something about astronauts.

NASA astronauts mainly just sit around the office, attend meeting after endless meeting, and give talks to local elementary schools. There's got to be a movie in there somewhere, maybe a Jarhead meets Bad Santa pic?

My favorite movie astronauts: Sam Rockwell in Moon, Dave in 2001, and the entire cast from Danny Boyle's Sunshine (which is an amazing film definitely worth Netflixing).

2. A movie about making movies.

I would love to try this, but don't know if I know enough about the process yet. I think a movie about a film school student or fresh out of film school director trying to make a (short) film about zombies would be great. Or... what about a movie the guy who does trailer voiceovers?

My favorites movies about making movies: Adaptation, State and Main, 8 1/2
My favorite trailers: A Serious Man (seriously, that thing is a masterpiece... the movie is pretty boss too), Where the Wild Things Are, Deathbed: The Bed Who Eats

3. A movie about a supervillain

So we've all seen Spiderman, Batman, and Superman, but what about a feature film dedicated to the rise and fall of Electro or Bizarro Superman? How interesting would their stories be, and how fun would it be to try and make the audience fall in love with an eventual supervillain?

My favorite supervillains: Can't beat Heath and/or Jack's Jokers.

Starting a New Script

So I actually made the bold move of plotting out notecards on a corkboard today to outline a new script idea. Starting a new project is like embarking on a survival mission, a mssion that require a lot of puzzle pieces to fit into place. From my limited experience, here is what you need when you begin work on creating a screenplay:

• A good idea.
• A great story.
• Better characters.

When you have those in order, you can go from the meta to the concrete:

1. A corkboard.
2. A stack of notecards.
3. Thumbtacks.
   
4. Pens of three different colors.
5. A pot of Silver Cup Coffee.
6. A six pack of a microbrew in the fridge.
7. An ipod with a playlist of about 300 background songs which will bring out some kind of empathy/emotion while you work (for me, a huge mix includes, but is not limited to, Chad Van Gaalen, Leonard Cohen, La Roux, Explosions in the Sky, and Al Green).
8. A copy of Blake Snyder's Save the Cat on hand.
9. An inspirational photo/poster on the wall (for me, Bo Jackson circa 1988 hitting a home run).
10. A quick link to the Hero's Journey wikipedia page.
    
11. Good luck.
    

Can Anyone Translate This?

Worst Movie Idea Ever

I always have a hard time falling asleep at night—a direct correlation to the fact that I keep working in my head on whatever writing project I have lined up while trying fall asleep. After another five hour night, I decided to try another tactic. If I have to work out my thoughts before I fall asleep, why not work on something less stressful? This is how I came about trying to come up with the Worst Movie Idea Ever. What is less stressful than trying to come up with a pitch for what you know (or hope to be) the worst movie ever? Writers are always trying in vain to reach perfection (all the while painfully self-aware that perfection can never be attained), so why not ease the burden?

I do have several criteria for coming up with this hypothetical Worst Movie Idea Ever:

1. It cannot be a recycled bad movie set in another place or with interchangeable characters. For (a bad) example: two tribes of warring Teddy Bears from a far off galaxy choose earth as their final battleground. So no transforming teddy bears allowed.
2. It has to be high concept, easily explainable in a paragraph.
3. It has to suck, but in such a sucky way that you could pause and think, “Hey, why hasn’t that been made into a movie yet?”

Okay, so with that prelude, here is my first attempt at the Worst Movie Idea Ever:

Cirque du Death

Circus performers all over America are turning up murdered. A clown in Topeka is found mutilated in the cotton candy mixer; a trapeze artist in Des Moines is found half-eaten in the lion’s cage; a bearded lady in El Paso is blown up in a clown car... The FBI knows that a circus serial killer is on the loose, but have no clue how to capture the culprit until a young agent convinces the FBI to stage their own circus, with crack performers from all over the world. The serial killer would have no choice but to take the bait… but the killer is more cunning than they could ever imagine. As circus performer after circus performer meets their doom, the young FBI agent—undercover as a lion tamer—must solve the crimes before the Big Top Killer preys on him.

Problem is, I think this is a little too good to be the Worst Movie Idea Ever (JLZ—formally JLG—even went as far as to say she couldn’t wait to see it in 3-D, and another friend said he would put money on it as the next big summer comedy…)… maybe I have to come up with something better (worse). Ideas (good and bad) are always appreciated.

Montreal Gives Cole Encouraging Review

Arts and Opinion, a fine Montreal magazine, recently gave Cole a grand review. A glimpse at Robert J. Lewis' article:

Memorably caught in the cross hairs of Bessai’s relentlessly roving eye are the film’s many subplots that are neatly warped and woofed into a cohesive narrative. In a writing class, Cole meets Serafina (Kandyse McClure), who is Black and beautiful and wears gold. But contrary to expectation, their budding relationship will be forced to run not the race but the class gauntlet. Cole’s small-minded friends, who fear the written word, resent him for writing about what he knows best, but they don’t want to let him go. With a way out, Cole has to decide what kind of relationship he’s to have with Lytton and Serafina, and his sister who refuses to get tough on spousal abuse.

Cole is a film whose many parts are more than equal to the sum of life in the boondocks, whose agenda keeps on rolling long after the films credits have rolled by. One can only hope that the film’s marketers will do as good a job as the film’s makers and actors. Kudos to Carl Bessai and his talented team with a big time nod to the note-perfect, home-grown soundtrack.

Read the rest of the review here.

Makes me want to move to Montreal. Also, Lewis mentions the fine soundtrack, which I highly encourage you to check out here, and support these great indie artists through the website, itunes, and simply word of mouth.

What else? Rewriting!

I haven't had a chance to mention this yet, but Cole is playing tomorrow as part of Canada Screens Vancouver. Check out the information for screening and dinner at the First Weekend Club website here. Richard and Carl will be there to answer questions and give high fives.

So besides spending my past month getting married (woot!), I've been busy re-writing Northbridge and acclimating myself to the rain in Seattle. More good news on the way soon... (I hope).

Bessai Talks Cole avec Nouveau Cinema Montreal

Here's a nice little video of Carl Bessai talking about Cole on Skype to preview our film for the nouveau cinema fest in Montreal. The "young man from Michigan" he mentions is me (I hope).

Carl Bessai - Cole
Uploaded by nouveaucinema. - Full seasons and entire episodes online.