Yesterday, I finished the rough draft of my next script. Of course it’s short
18 pages and my beats are all over the place, but Blake Snyder says that’s
normal. Tomorrow I’ll sit down to punch up my scenes, set-up my protagonist
better, deepen the B-Story, and amp up my midpoint. All in a day’s work?  Sheesh.

Gonna try and see WANTED tomorrow. The film is based on the
graphic novel/comic book series by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones (published by
Top Cow), which I’ve read and own. This is the English-language debut of Russian
filmmaker, Timur Bekmambetov of Night Watch fame (the highest grossing Russian
film of all time). I’ve read that book and seen the film too. Both are slightly
overrated. I guess it’s all relative to what’s come before you.

For those of you who don’t know, they’ve taken the Catwoman-esque, African-American
assassin role, The Fox, and rewrote it for Angelina Jolie. It’s bad enough
she was in A Mighty Heart. On top of that, Morgan Freeman plays Sloan, a character
that didn’t exist in the original. He
shows the ropes to the protagonist, Wesley Gibson, played by James McAvoy,
which was the job originally held by The Fox.

So they’ve replaced a strong
female, African-American role with a white woman and a black man. I know
they have to get talent attached who can open a movie, hence AJ and MF, but
it’d be nice to see more roles for people of color beyond Morgan Freeman mentoring
someone, again. I love the guy, but you know what I mean.

Out of the 21 sales:
9 – Adaptations (comic books, graphic novels, novels, video games)
5 – Original Specs (2 of which are under Hilary Swank’s prod co)
3 – Remakes of films (the original films were adaptations of books or
true stories)
2 – Based on characters created previously (Sherlock Holmes, Merlin)
2 – Based on true stories

What this tells me is that in addition to working on our spec screenplays,
it behooves us to work on other forms of storytelling. I converted a script
treatment to a graphic novel treatment out of frustration with all the N-Os. Ironically,
the same reason why my script wasn’t viable (period) made it a non-viable property
for a graphic novel. These days the comic books companies have deals with
the studios, so they are looking at titles that can be dropped into the pipeline
for films. So if you’re writing a graphic novel, think about how it could translate
to the screen and what types of logistical limitations there are. 

Sad to say, with the media/entertainment world so highly integrated vertically
and horizontally, we as writers have to be aware of how this will impede our
ability to make sales.

On other comic book adaptations for film, get this…Liev Schreiber as Sabertooth in the upcoming Wolverine movie. WTF!

That makes no sense at all. I guess if Hugh Jackman can be Wolverine then the casting makes sense. Can’t actually have someone badass playing Tooth. That would make Hugh looking extra-wimpy. I have little faith in this thing.

Writing (Original Screenplay):
Juno by Dibalo Cody
Lars and the Real Girl by Nancy Oliver
Michael Clayton by Tony Gilroy
Ratatouille by Brad Bird. Story by Jan Pinkava, Jim Capobianco, Brad Bird
The Savages by Tamara Jenkins

Writing (Adapted Screenplay):
Atonement by Christopher Hampton (based on Ian McEwan’s novel)
Away From Her by Sarah Polley (based on Alice Munro’s The Bear Came Over The Mountain)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Ronald Harwood (based on Jean-Dominique Bauby’s novel, Le Scaphandre et le Papillon)
No Country For Old Men by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (based on Cormac McCarthy’s novel)
There Will Be Blood by Paul Thomas Anderson (baed on Upton Sinclair’s Oil)