Here’s Sloan picture-perfect description of the industry:

“I think of Hollywood as a giant, freezing-cold, bacteria-ridden whirlpool. On the outside of the whirlpool, closest to the shore (and financial security), are the executives, the studio heads, the big-name actors, writers and directors. As you move towards the center, you come upon the lower-level employees. And moving further inwards still, you come to the PA’s. There’s thousands of them, all clamoring and clawing, trying desperately not to get sucked into the deep, dark hole of anonymity and sadness.”

Check out the full blog here.

Last Sunday, I was invited to attend Diana Lee Inosanto‘s DVD release party of her directorial debut, The Sensei.

For most martial artists, you’ll recognize the name. She is the daughter of martial arts legend Dan Inosanto and the “honorary niece” of one of the world’s biggest icons, Bruce Lee. But what you might not realize is that she’s also an actress, stuntwoman, and producer.

Now, she can add writer/director to her long list of accomplishments.

The Sensei is about a female martial arts instructor who secretly takes on a gay student in 1980s Colorado during the height of the AIDS scare. Though not flawless, the movie is a courageous and powerful piece — particularly considering it’s a low-budget independent and is Diana’s first ever directing gig.

More details about the project later. For now, I highly recommend you check it out on DVD when it’s released on March 9.

No, this isn’t an entry about a screenwriter starring in his own horror comedy.

John August, writer of the most recent Charlie and the Chocolate Factory adaptation, posted an interesting blog today about being interviewed for a new book called Tales from the Script: 50 Hollywood Screenwriters Share Their Stories.

It seems like a cool book, and John is one of my favorite writers (though I’ve erased from my mind the fact that he penned both Charlie’s Angels movies). So, it’s something I’m probably going to pick up. But, I’m more interested in seeing how John reacted to being in the book and what he thought of the finished product.

Ponder this: What’s it like for a writer to read something written about him or her? For me, I’m always way too critical a writer to really appreciate the writing. But that’s just me.

It’s kinda hard to judge a screenplay by watching the resultant film without reading the actual screenplay. But I’ll do my best here to strip away the director’s gorgeous choices, the actors’ brilliant human touches, and the rest of the crew’s awesome work, so I can focus on the movie’s spine: the script. (Keep in mind I have not yet seen the usual late-in-the-year Oscar bait, such as Precious, Up in the Air, or Nine, or highly praised smaller movies, like The Hurt Locker.)

Below is my list of 2009′s Best Produced Screenplays:

1. Up
Written by Bob Peterson & Pete Docter
The first three on my list are all running neck and neck and neck for the top spot, but ultimately, I had to give it to Up, this funny, emotional, unpredictable, and technically brilliant animated film from (where else?) Pixar Studios. It has everything a near-perfect screenplay should have: real (and really flawed) characters, realistic (yet witty) dialogue, strong (and strongly motivated) villains, and a believable character arc (there’s two actually, one for each of the main characters). Who knew a cartoon about a senior citizen and a chubby kid in a balloon-powered floating house would be so riveting?

2. District 9
Written by Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell
“Wow.” That was my first impression after seeing this movie. Smart on so many levels and wholly different from anything Hollywood could ever hope to produce, District 9 is a ticking time-bomb of a story: it starts off like a real-life documentary about alien refugees, sprints off like an action movie on fire, and ends with one cataclysmic sci-fi bang that leaves you blown away.

3. Avatar
Written by James Cameron
James Cameron’s screenplay for this year’s most anticipated film and history’s most expensive movie ever is by no means subtle. But it does exactly what a good script should do: act as the solid blueprint for an amazingly sound yet beautiful cinematic monolith to be built upon. From paying off small first-act setups to putting a 22nd-Century twist on cliched elements, the Avatar story is breathtaking, intense, and otherworldly — it reminds us of the very reasons we go to the cinema in the first place.

4. Star Trek
Written by Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman
Director J.J. Abrams is a pop-culture God. Just look at his recent credits. And his re-imagining of the original Star Trek series was a pretty damn good balance between appeasing the Trekkers and Trekkies (depending on your level of geekdom) and telling a suspenseful, witty, and action-packed sci-fi opera for the newbies. But it’s really the screenwriting duo of Orci & Kurtzman who should share in the glory. Though their screenplay has a few flaws ([spoiler until the end of the parenthesis] why the Hell does Kirk go from ensign to captain of the Enterprise in less than a day???), its solid structure is what allowed Abrams to pull off the sacrilegious move of remaking a classic.

5. Inglourious Basterds
Written by Quentin Tarantino
This historical fantasy made a big splash because it was Quentin Tarantino’s return to form, his entree back into pop-culture consciousness after the dismal performance of his half of Grindhouse, Death Proof. Unique anti-heroes (a band of covert U.S. Army Jews infiltrating Nazi-occupied France), long-winded monologues, and the most delicious villain we’ve seen in a long time. Sure some of his scenes needed to be trimmed (the pub scene was way too long!) and the alternate-history ending didn’t sit well with me, but overall, Inglourious Basterds was one of the most unique screenplays of the year and one of the most enjoyable movies.

6. Taken
Written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen
A stellar example of how a script with a simple premise -– Liam Neeson plays an ex-CIA agent who must find his daughter’s kidnappers in France -— can result in a tight, suspenseful thriller so long as the execution is done right.

7. The Hangover
Written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore
There was no single funnier movie in 2009 than The Hangover. Lucas and Moore take the tired “bachelor party in Vegas” subgenre, put a subtle Memento-like slant on it, and deliver one of the most jaw-droppingly, surprisingly hilarious films of the year.

8. The Blind Side
Written by John Lee Hancock
I usually don’t fall for the based-on-a-true-story, tear-jerking, feel-good dramas, but this Sandra Bullock-starring football movie took me by surprise. Why? Because the screenplay had well-rounded characters and a simple but effective plotline — all causing you to empathize with the main character. An effective family-friendly drama if ever there were one this year.

Honorable Mentions:

• Paranormal Activity
• I Love You, Man
• Watchmen
• The International

He uses a true story to help explain why professional screenwriters should not be asked to do anyone the favor of reading their screenplay and why most people can’t write.

You should definitely check out the full story here, but below is a brilliant excerpt from it:

And the truth is, saying something positive about this thing would be the nastiest, meanest and most dishonest thing I could do. Because here’s the thing: not only is it cruel to encourage the hopeless, but you cannot discourage a writer. If someone can talk you out of being a writer, you’re not a writer. If I can talk you out of being a writer, I’ve done you a favor, because now you’ll be free to pursue your real talent, whatever that may be. And, for the record, everybody has one. The lucky ones figure out what that is. The unlucky ones keep on writing shitty screenplays and asking me to read them.

Just plain true and superbly written at the same time.

He’s a brilliant comic book writer/artist and one of the most celebrated creators living today. Sin City, 300, The Dark Knight Returns, Ronin, and various character-defining runs on titles such as Daredevil – all birthed from this man’s wildly imagination.

So when I heard he was helming the movie adaptation of The Spirit, I was pumped. I was really optimistic that he could bring some intelligence and style to this iconic series by the legendary Will Eisner, and with good reasons. Miller co-directed the Sin City movie with Robert Rodriquez, and Miller had complained bitterly in the past that his scripts for Robocop 2 and 3 were butchered by the studio. I was certain Miller’s cinematic version of The Spirit would be full of his trademark machismo and sophistication, after he had gone through those three movie-related experiences.

Instead, The Spirit is an absolutely soulless, steaming pile of [insert disgusting noun here], due largely in part to his mindless script and horrible directing choices. I’m sad to say it could be one of the worst movies to come out in 2008.

I just watched the DVD and it was so bad in fact that I didn’t even sit to watch it through. (And I never walk out on movies.) By the end of the first act, I got so sick of it that I actually fast-forwarded to the climatic battle between the Spirit and his archenemy, the Octopus. And not only had I predicted the outcome 30 minutes previously, but I felt like I hadn’t missed anything by not watching the middle 70-minutes worth that I had skipped over!

One of Miller’s biggest screenwriting mistakes was giving the Spirit healing powers. In the comics, the Spirit was a cop who was murdered and resurrected. Aside from his Lazarus-like reappearance, he had no superpowers — think Batman without the million-dollar gadgets. Yet, for some strange reason, Miller felt compelled to give the Spirit some Wolverine-like regeneration skills. This instantly weakens the character from a storyteller’s perspective.

Why?

If the main hero can heal despite getting a toilet dropped on his head (this actually happens in the movie, ridiculously and metaphorically enough), the audience will never feel like he’s in any danger and therefore will never really care much for what happens to him. And if the audience doesn’t care what happens to the main character, they won’t care what happens to the story because there’s no longer an emotional investment in the story … which is the exact opposite of what you want as a storyteller. It’s this very same reason why Superman will never be as interesting as Batman. If Superman is invulnerable, why should we care how Lex Luthor tries to kill him? That’s why the writers invented kryptonite.

But in The Spirit, there is no logic, let alone any kryptonite-like plot device. There are, however, many other screenwriting mistakes, but I won’t belabor the fact that Miller should have taken a different approach with the script.

As for his biggest directing mistakes … wow, there are too many to list and would fill a week’s worth of blogs. But let’s just say that emulating Rodriquez’s CGI-heavy visual style from Sin City definitely didn’t do him any favors.

Suffice to say, The Spirit sucked massive donkey balls. The sweaty, hairy kind.

I’m disappointed, Frank. I used to love your work. Now I’m just heart broken.

True, humans love to talk, but all (good) psychologists will tell you that the majority of human communication is nonverbal. We gather far more information from a person through his body language than by what he says.

For example, lets say you have an older teen as your main character. Let’s call him Timmy. He happens across a gorgeous young woman in her 20s. Let’s call her Betty. Our Timmy decides to ask this beauty out on a date and her response is simply “No thanks.” Not practicularly dramatic and fairly predictable right?

Well, let’s add in three different nonverbal cues to Betty’s single-line response and see how it plays:

RESPONSE #1

Betty laughs in his face, nearly brought to tears.

BETTY
No thanks.

RESPONSE #2

Betty looks Timmy up and down then crosses her arms.

BETTY
No thanks.

RESPONSE #3

Betty clutches her purse, pulls her jacket shut, and scuttles off.

BETTY
No thanks.

Notice how each nonverbal response gives the line “No thanks” a whole new meaning and puts a different spin on the tone of the scene?

So next time you’re contemplating giving your character a long speech to explain her feelings, think first about what information you want to give the audience and try expressing that info through the character’s actions, not her words.

Remember the classic mantra: show, don’t tell!

]]> http://patrickvuong.com/archives/711/feed 0 http://patrickvuong.com/archives/645 http://patrickvuong.com/archives/645#comments Wed, 18 Feb 2009 00:42:44 +0000 admin http://patrickvuong.com/?p=645

Almost all of my beloved screenplays are adaptations of some sort.

My favorite action movie is Terminator 2, which is a sequel to the 1984 movie. My favorite martial arts movie is Drunken Master 2, which is a sequel as well but also pulls elements from the biography of real-life folk hero Wong Fei Hung. And my favorite movie of all time (L.A. Confidential) was written by Curtis Hanson and Brian Helgeland and based on a novel by James Ellroy.

So, I obviously think that adaptations can be fantastic. Unfortunately, May Payne is not one of those. I recently watched this on DVD and was truly disappointed in how poorly it was translated from what was only an above-average video game into a subpar motion picture.

I mildly enjoyed playing the video game back when it came out in 2001 and was hoping for big things for this movie because I’m a fan of both Mark Wahlberg (who plays the title character) and Mila Kunis. Sadly, the script by Beau Thorne and the direction by John Moore come across as obvious rip-offs of superior movies, a cinematic battle in which style brutalizes substance and logic must flee from predictability.

[SPOILER ALERT: Do not continue reading if you haven’t watched the movie and don’t want to know about the very obvious plot “twists”.]

Max Payne centers on the eponymous detective who’s trying to find out who killed his wife and baby. There’s a sorry stab at screenwriting complexity by throwing out red herrings regarding a drug called Valkyr and visions of valkyries and demons. Thorne and Moore attempt to create a character-driven neo film noir … but forget to bring the mystery, the suspense, or even three-dimensional characters. It’s no surprise than that in a film filled with corrupt or angst-ridden characters, the most caring person (BB Hensley played by Beau Bridges) is so obviously the main villain.

And how does Max survive being left for dead in a frozen river? Visions of his dead wife telling him to go back to the land of the living – one of the worst examples of a deus ex machina in recent cinematic history. There are loads more examples of such bad writing.

Plus, it’s a sad fact that a movie adapted from an amazingly violent game based solely on the pleasure of shooting as many thugs as possible ends up having virtually no gunplay in the entire first act. When the action finally arrives in the third act, it’s neither thrilling nor satisfying. The original game borrowed heavily from The Matrix and various John Woo movies, with its “bullet time” being very prominent in the game play. But here in the 2008 movie, the bullet time appears even more derivative and, for the most part, rather pointless and fake.

So my verdict on Max Payne? It was a maximum pain to watch.

Happy New Year … again!

Today is the first day of the Year of the Ox, according to the lunar calendar, and just want to wish everyone all the best — and that’s no bull. Ok, bad jokes aside, I did give me and my girlfriend an early New Year’s gift. We watched Slumdog Millionaire last night and I have to say that it was damn good movie. Damn good.

Who knew one could make such an emotionally compelling movie based on such a simple premise: A teen from a Mumbai ghetto gets a chance to reunite with his childhood love by going on India’s version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, but is accused of cheating?

Well, it most definitely starts with the script, which was written by Simon Beaufoy and based on a novel by Vikas Swarup. Obviously, the directing by Danny Boyle and the acting by this cast of unknowns are on another plane of cinematic excellence, but the magic truly starts with the printed words.

The screenplay explodes with vibrantly flawed characters, heart-wrenching plot points, brief but intense “action” scenes, and some touching humor -– all balanced on a great script spine (AKA structure) that interjects flashbacks with the through-line, which is centered on one question: Did our hero (Jamal) really cheat on this widely popular game show?

If you missed Slumdog Millionaire when it opened in 2008, check it out in the Year of the Ox. It’s one foreign film that anyone with a heart can relate to.

Bloggers and online movie “journalists” around the world are screaming bloody murder and demanding that 1. any adaptation be halted and 2. any adaptation not be handled by these two (the world’s biggest box office draw and the world’s most famous director).

Why?

To watch the original movie is to know their reasoning (which I don’t necessarily agree with).

Oldboy is a 2003 thriller from South Korea about a man who’s kidnapped for 15 years and then suddenly let go, released by unknown forces so he can find out who destroyed his life.

Aside from the great premise, this Chan-wook Park opus is perhaps one of the most stylistic, gritty and thought-provoking movies I’ve seen in recent years. It’s a thinking man’s revenge thriller, with intelligence mixed in with the brutal violence. It has a 2-minute-long uncut fight scene that, while not technically proficient, is viserally real and unique. But then there’s plenty of emotion and drama, plus a strange romance, that defies the movie’s genre. And, it has a devastating surprise ending that wrenches your insides and makes The Sixth Sense twist seem like child’s play.

So do I think Smith and Spielberg can do Oldboy justice?

That’s kinda like asking if the L.A. Lakers of the 1980s could beat the Boston Celtics of the 1950s. Nobody knows, but I hope Smith and Spielberg can pull it off, for all of our sakes. I like them both and though I think their movies are flawed, they are pretty skilled and talented when they aren’t making Wild Wild West or AI. The reason why people are protesting is because Oldboy is not a glossy popcorn entertainment, which is what Smith and Spielberg are known for.

I’m reserving my judgment until I see something concrete.

Until then, check out a clip of the original and decide for yourself if you think Will and Steven could do a similarly ground-breaking job.