Los Angeles Or Bust » Comics

Day 1 – LA Trip

Aadip — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:00:20 +0000

Hey all.

We just got to LA, actually Burbank, picked up our Electric Blue VW Beetle and went off to Sherman Oaks.

We found it really hard to fit all our luggage in the car, so I don’t think we’ll be buying one anytime soon, or at all.

After a lovely vegan meal at Kung Pao Bistro (in Sherman Oaks, on Ventura), I bought a couple copies of Spider Man with Barack Oabama on the cover, learned that Virgin Comics is no more, and we killed time at the Galleria. Laura bought new flip flops and saw Hotel For Dogs (cute story, some poor acting, but if you love dogs you gotta see it). The lead dog, Friday, acts just like the Brando so we’re a little puppy sick already.

Click and Clack Cartoon

Aadip — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 01:01:49 +0000

The in-laws and I just watched one of the worst things I’ve ever seen–PBS’s
Click and Clack’s As The Wrench Turns. They should have named it As The Stomach
Turns. OK, that’s not that funny, but neither is the show. They took what was
one of my favorite radio shows (Car Talk) and made a mockery of it in its first
two episodes. Did I mention this show is in cartoon form? Sheesh.

Note to PBS, the plot of your pilot should not be about saving the show from
cancellation. Also, don’t make the second show about Outsourcing the radio
show to India. The first episode barely had the brothers Tappet in it and focused
more on the secondary (one-dimensional) characters. The second episode was
full of offensive jokes and low-blow humor. Stupid stupid stupid. I can hear
this show getting cancelled already.

My father-in-law turned to me and said, they should’ve had you write this. Shame on you, NPR and PBS.

Catching Up on Blogging

Aadip — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 23:44:02 +0000

p>Just got back from Spokane for the Democratic State Convention.
What did I learn? I learned that politicians’ stump speeches are actually pitches
to the voters. It’s all very similar to our story/screenplay pitches where
we need a solid hook with a concrete beginning, middle, and end, a repeated
theme, a focused delivery, and emotional impact.

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.

So You Wanna Sell A Spec?

Aadip — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 23:46:45 +0000

As many of you know, I try to keep up on what’s being sold down in the old
H-W. So after analyzing the recent sales posted on Done
Deal Pro, I was slightly disheartened.

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.