Weekend Box Office #116

So most of these movies opened yesterday. There's something about Christmas that drives people out of the house and to the theaters.

The new wide-release movies, and estimates for the 4-day weekend:

BEDTIME STORIES (3681 theaters). This looks like it is skewing pretty young for Adam Sandler's usual audience, though my niece and nephew were excited about seeing it. $45.2 million for the weekend.

MARLEY AND ME (3480 theaters). Never estimate the power of a comedy involving a dog, especially one that looks grown-up-friendly. $56.7 million.

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON (2988 theaters). It's length will hurt it, and reviews have been a little mixed. $31.2 million.

VALKYRIE (2711 theaters). I saw this yesterday, and it's okay, though rather slow and talky. I don't think it'll do that well, particularly when word gets around that it's not very action-packed. $25.2 million.

THE SPIRIT (2509 theaters). Lack of stars and no-profile hero aren't going to add up to all that much. $9.7 million.

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Driving Miss Daisy

So I watched this movie the other night, as part of immersing myself in a genre of film that myself and a writing partner are pondering writing.

What's hurting my brain is that, on a lot of pure storytelling levels, this movie just isn't very good.

The first act works fine, setting up the characters, and what they want, and the push-and-pull between Daisy and Hoak. Her need to keep control of her life, her way of spinning every situation so that even if she compromises, it seems to be on her terms. His finally getting her in the car.

But then the movie loses all shape.

There are some great scenes along the way, but it's just all very random. The only real structure is that 25 years are passing, and I guess they are slowly getting closer, but it's all rather wispy.

Ultimately, I think it's a good example of how a pair of great characters (and great actors) can make up for a lot of other ills. We like the dynamic between the two of them, and we're willing to briefly visit with them every couple of years in screen-time, even if nothing much has happened to them in the interim.

But it must have been a pretty thin year when it won the Oscar for Best Picture.

And I'm not sure why it's considered a comedy (it even won the Golden Globe in that category). Because there are some laughs here, but this is really a character drama enlivened by touches of humor, and the second half is pretty dry.

It's interesting to watch and tear apart, though.

********

On a snowy weekend that choked off the box office a bit, YES MAN did $18.3 million, SEVEN POUNDS did $14.8, and DESPEREAUX did $10.1. So I was ballpark for once.

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Weekend Box Office #115

Weighing in on the fullscreen vs. widescreen discussion that has taken over the comments in the previous post, I say go with the widescreen.

Though if it's a movie you really want to see, which format it's in shouldn't be a deal breaker.

If your TV is that small, just sit closer to the screen.

**********

Opening this weekend:

YES MAN (3434 theaters). This looks like exactly the kind of dumb-funny movie that people are looking for this time of year. Prediction: $23.2 million for the weekend.

THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX (3104 theaters). The title is a little clunky, and it doesn't seem to have the cachet that makes animated movies open big, though there's probably a little family audience for it. $9.8 million.

SEVEN POUNDS (2758 theaters). They are trying to keep the plot a secret, but word is that it's a major downer. I think a lot of people were underwhelmed by I AM LEGEND and HANCOCK, and that they might wait for the word-of-mouth on this, which might not be that great. $15.1 million.

*******

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE bounces from 169 theaters to 589 theaters this weekend. Look for it to do about $5.2 million, and keep building.

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My Links, Milk, Etc

So the time has come to redo all my sidebar links, which are embarrassingly out of date (sorry, Emily).

Anyone who has a blog they want to get on there, shoot me an e-mail.

*******

I saw Milk yesterday afternoon. It's a solid, solid film, with a great performance by Sean Penn.

Stunningly, it was the first movie I'd seen in a theater in at least five months, likely the longest stretch that I hadn't been in a movie theater probably since I was about 4.

Blame the economy, blame high ticket prices, blame the lack of gotta-see-it-now movies. In fact, though we went to a multiplex, Milk was the only movie there that I had any real interest in seeing. Quantum of Solace was a distant second, mostly because I keep hearing that it just isn't much fun.

********

THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL did a solid $31 million over the weekend. NOTHING LIKE THE HOLIDAYS limped in with only $3.5; I apparently vastly overestimated its appeal.

DELGO did only $916,000, finishing behind even something called RAB BE BANA DI JODI, which did $1.25 million (!) in only 105 theaters. Apparently there's a real market out there for films catering to specific cultural groups.

In very limited release, DOUBT, GRAN TORINO, THE READER and CHE all opened with very solid per-theater numbers.

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Weekend Box Office #114

Only a few things opening wide this weekend:

THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (3560 theaters). The commercials look interesting, and there isn't much competition. Prediction: $44.3 million.

DELGO (2160 theaters). That's a lot of theaters for an animated movie that isn't on my radar at all. $2.1 million.

NOTHING LIKE THE HOLIDAYS (1671 theaters). It'll be interesting to see how a holiday movie with Hispanic characters does. $10.8 million.

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The Unlikely-Friends Movie

So as part of trying to put together an assignment pitch with a co-writer, we're watching -- and reading -- a lot of films/scripts that fall into the unlikely friends genre.

Not exactly buddy comedies. More like two people of different worlds being thrown together, with some humor, but with a dramatic understory.

DRIVING MISS DAISY. FINDING FORRESTER. I AM SAM.

I read the script for the upcoming GRAN TORINO, and it's okay: good dialogue, story slow to kick in, not really sure about the ending. It's coming out Friday in limited release, and though the National Board of Review gave it best script, I think reviews may be a little mixed.

I also read the script for THE SOLOIST, by Susannah Grant (Erin Brockovich) and it's better; it's coming out early next year sometime, with Robert Downey Jr and Jamie Foxx.

It's becoming clear that for these stories to work, it's all about the characters, and the dialogue; the writers of GRAN TORINO and THE SOLOIST really do bring a distinct voice to the piece. But story is important too; even though neither film has a huge amount of plot to work with, both do a good job (though THE SOLOIST does it better) of using little dramatic moments and needs to keep goosing the story along.

Any more examples of this kind of film that anyone can think of, throw them out there. We're trying to immerse ourselves in the question of what films in this genre do right, and do wrong.

******

Clearly I overestimated PUNISHER: WAR ZONE, which stumbled in with a meager $4 million this past weekend. Though I had seen at least one good review somewhere, I hadn't seen the commercial for it until after I made my guess -- and then I realized how cheesy it looked, without having any real name actors to compensate.

CADILLAC RECORDS did about $3.6 million, on about a quarter of the screens that PUNISHER had. NOBEL SON completely tanked, with only $371,000 from 893 theaters, about 200 more screens than CADILLAC RECORDS had.

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Weekend Box Office #113

So not a huge amount that is new in theaters this weekend; this is the weekend that is traditionally the calm before the holiday storm.

PUNISHER: WAR ZONE (2508 theaters). This is getting solid reviews, though I'm not sure what the wanna-see factor really is. Call it $11.8 million for the weekend.

NOBEL SON (893 theaters). Looks like quirky fun, but this is the kind of movie that needed great reviews, and I'm not seeing them. $1.7 million.

CADILLAC RECORDS (686 theaters). This is supposed to be a bit formulaic, but the music (and Beyonce) should be something of a draw. $3.7 million.

*****

On the limited-release front, MILK goes from 36 theaters to 99, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE goes from 49 to 78, and FROST/NIXON opens in 3 theaters. All will be playing in a lot more theaters by the end of the month.

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Some Movies Just Shouldn't Try To Be Funny

So the other day I watched (on DVD) FINDING AMANDA, which stars Matthew Broderick as a TV writer who is hiding his serious gambling problem (he likes the horses) from his wife.

When he learns that his niece (played by Brittany Snow) is turning tricks in Las Vegas, Broderick volunteers to go get her and to put her into rehab, though actually it's just an excuse for him to go to Vegas and gamble more.

He finds her, but doesn't stop her as she turns more tricks, while she likes her job, which is painted here as being a pretty drama-free for a pretty young girl to make some good money (at times it's practically a recruitment ad). Indeed, even at the end there's every implication that she is going to stick with it.

This could easily have been a serious character piece, a la LEAVING LAS VEGAS, but instead the filmmakers keep trying to make it a wacky comedy, complete with strident "ha ha isn't this funny" music and Broderick pulling every comic-reaction face he has learned from his 80 years in the business.

(Okay, he isn't that old. But he's starting to look his age. Apparently the picture in the attic got accidentally sold in a garage sale. Obscure reference. Okay, moving on).

The problem with FINDING AMANDA is that there just isn't anything funny to this story at all. At all. It just feels like a train wreck, pretty much all the way through. Even when Steve Coogan shows up, he doesn't have anything funny to do.

There have been a lot of movies that have blended comedy and drama successfully. Let's take BEVERLY HILLS COP, which has a serious basic storyline -- tracking down the killer of your friend -- and layers a lot of funny scenes on top of it.

Because the humor comes from the comic conflicts. Eddie Murphy in LA, reacting with the pretentious peeople there. Eddie Murphy jiving with the bad guys. Eddie messing with the uptight LA cops.

FINDING AMANDA has no layer of funny. It's all just sort of icky, even to me, who is no blushing rose.

And the revelation in writer/director Peter Tolan's commentary that it is sort of based on a true story (he had a gambling problem, it was the daughter of a friend who was hooking) just makes it feel like he is in denial.

Trying to blend genres is fine -- but it needs to work.

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And the Number One Movie is... Four Christmases. Sigh.

This is the problem with Hollywood.

I haven't seen Four Christmases, but it has gotten some of the most god-awful reviews of any major Hollywood movie that has come out for a long time.

And yet it made an estimated $46.7 million over its first 5 days.

Because, sadly, this is exactly the kind of movie Hollywood wants to make. High concept tales that can be described in a sentence, that seem fun, and that stars A-list actors who seem fun too.

The kind of movie where EVEN IF IT SUCKS it'll still make a lot of money.

Sadly, that's probably the best advice to give anyone who is looking to sell a screenplay: write a movie that's high concept actor bait, that will draw an audience even if it sucks.

Even if, at the end of the day, you might not actually want it on your resume.

*******

TWILIGHT, BOLT and QUANTUM OF SOLACE finished 2-3-4 for the holiday weekend. AUSTRALIA only did about $20 million for the 5 days, while TRANSPORTER 3 did $18.5.

*******

I ate a lot of my mother-in-law's turkey, did a little work, and pondered what I'm going to write next.

Then I wound up swapping with an ailing writer to bring 25 pages into group tonight, so I'll bring the almost-last chunk of my violent thriller in, and force two actors to read the sex scene.

Then I'm going to write something that my parents can actually go see.

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Weekend Box Office #112

The long holiday weekend starts today, with three big movies getting released, though I'm underwhelmed by them all.

The wife and I would like to cocoon in a theater sometime this weekend and catch a movie or three, but there is absolutely nothing on my wow-I've-got-to-see-that list at this point, except maybe SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE.

So if anyone wants to rave about anything out there now, go for it -- it's word-of-mouth time in the comments section.

Otherwise, opening wide this weekend:

FOUR CHRISTMASES (3310 theaters). I've scanned a few reviews for this, and they all basically say it's awful, except for when Jon Favreau is in it, and that's not very much. It's only 82 minutes long, but apparently it feels like an eternity. Still, people will see it. Estimate: $32.2 million for the 5-day weekend.

AUSTRALIA (2642 theaters). This is almost twice as long as Four Christmases, and apparently it's uneven, messy and corny, with one's enjoyment pretty much predicated on your tolerance for that. The ad is rife with good reviews, but I couldn;t help notice that the top one is by the shameless Jeff Craig of Sixty Second Preview, who gives 4 stars to everything. $25.1 million for the weekend.

TRANSPORTER 3 (2626 theaters). Apparently this is exactly what you expect, for better or for worse. $25.2 million.

*******

Last weekend, TWILIGHT made $69.6 million, so I was damn close. BOLT only did $26.2 million, so my guess on that sucked.

Look for TWILIGHT to take the top spot again this weekend.

*******

Happy Thanksgiving. Save a drumstick for me.

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Weekend Box Office #111... And I Need a Character Name

First the weekend. There are only two movies opening, and both are going to be pretty huge.

BOLT (3651 theaters). It looks like it skews a little young, but reviews have been good, and the 3D will help. My guess: $51.1 million.

TWILIGHT (3419 theaters). Huge advance sales, and a big teen audience (or at least a big teenage girl audience). It's hard to tell how far the audience will really expand from there, but the first weekend should be big. $68.2 million.

Jump in with your guesses, because either could be a lot bigger or smaller.

******

So I'm wrestling with one of the character names in the thriller I just finished, and I'm looking for a little random help.

Because it's sort of a character-thriller in which the main characters are introduced on the fly, I'm looking for a name that will fix itself in the readers' heads, so that they'll remember who he is, without it being too on-the-nose.

Here's the character: he's 22, a former jock sunk into a life of laziness and frustration, the alpha-male of the group. Nicknames are fine, and might actually work better, but aren't required.

Go.

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Screenwriting Books

So I finished a first, roughish draft of my new script last night, written somewhat oddly because I've been bringing chunks into my screenwriting group and rewriting as I went along.

It needs a rewrite, but hopefully not an enormous one. It also happily only came in at 91 pages, so I have room to play, though I'm more than willing to keep it in double-digits.

Anyhow, I'm going to toss it aside for at least 3 weeks, and let my brain forget all about it, while I ponder the high-concept comedy I think I'm going to tackle next.

One thing I like to do from time to time is read a screenwriting book. Like many people, I started out with Syd Field, and he's nice if you're a beginner, but I got tired of him pretty quickly.

About 12 years ago I actually attended one of what's-his-name's weekend seminars. Wow, I actually can't remember his name any more, but you know the guy. 30 hours, tears apart Casablanca, eventually wrote a book covering the same basic ideas.

It was a riveting 30 hours, and I took a ton of notes, and then never looked at them again.

In the last 10 years I've occasionally picked up a screenwriting book and read through it, though now I like to use them to get my brain churning on a particular project. Usually when I'm heading into a rewrite, just to get me to consider things from different angles.

Now I'm at an interesting place, because it's two projects. One a rewrite in which I'm about to tighten down the screws, but have room to build on an addition or change the decor I have to.

The comedy is something I made a couple of false starts at before, but I think I finally have a take on, yet I still have to work out the storyline.

I have no doubt that I could do both pretty well at this point -- but at the same time sometimes it's nice to have another perspective to feed into one's mental chopper.

So I guess the question is, what's your go-to book? If I walk into a bookstore looking to grab something to goose my brain, what should it be?

Go.

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Your DVD Shelf

So today's question is this:

I visit your house/apartment, and you spot me looking at your DVD/VHS shelf.

1. What's on there that you instantly force me to borrow, because it's a great movie and you figure I haven't seen it?

2. What you do also lend me, because even though it's not considered a classic, it's a personal favorite?

3. What movie is on there that you have no rational explanation for owning, and which you try to slide under the couch while I'm distracted?

My answers are:

1. 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS, 2 DAYS. Great in-the-moment filmmaking, and a harrowing character-drama tale.

2. RUNNING SCARED. The one with Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines. A good blend of comedy and cop procedural, and funny as hell.

3. LEGALLY BLONDE 2. I have no idea why this is on the shelf. I haven't watched it, and I'm not sure my wife even did.

Your turn. Go.

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Weekend Box Office #110

The only movie opening wide this weekend is QUANTUM OF SOLACE, in 3451 theaters.

It's being called the first true Bond sequel, because it picks up right after the last movie ended, and deals with his trying to get revenge for his villainous girlfriend's death.

As opposed to the normal Bond movie, where there's no mention of the hot girl he was banging in the last scene of the previous one.

It's a new Bond, and word is he spends this entire movie incredibly pissed off, for better or for worse.

Look for it to do about $57.4 million for the weekend, though I wouldn't be surprised if it is higher; there's not a lot else out there.

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What To Write

My hour-a-day pledge lasted about 17 days, until last Friday, when I missed a day. Still, I've been writing regularly since.

I'm determined to get a semi-polished rough draft of this dark thriller done by the end of the week; about about 78 pages into at this point, and I know everything to come.

Though I woke up yesterday morning with a very dark thought about how to spin one late sequence to make it even more cruelly memorable. I told my wife about it, and she cringed.

I'm going to need therapy for this script. And E.C., if it's ever a movie, you aren't allowed to see it.

When this draft is done, I'm going to throw it to the side for at least 3 weeks, see I can reapproach it in December and polish it up to a shine. It's getting there though.

Meanwhile, I'm already thinking about what to write next. It's going to have to be something fun, because my brain needs that. Probably one of two projects that I've put a lot of early brainstorming (and a couple of false starts) into in the past.

I'm coming into the time of the year when Hollywood shuts down for the holidays, and the reading biz is dead, which I need to take advantage of by letting my writing side fire on all cylinders.

Next year is going to be the year I sell something.

In the meantime, rent does need to be paid, so if anyone needs notes in the next two months, I'm more than available, and turnaround will undoubtedly be fast.

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Thank The Lord For The Movie Business --

-- Because it seems to be economy-proof, and really it's one of the strongest exports this country has.

The latest evidence is the fact that Madagascar 2 made an astounding $63 million over the weekend, including some $17 million on Friday, when the kids were in school during the day.

Role Models did a very solid $19 million, though Soul Men stumbled in with only $5.6 million.

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Weekend Box Office #109

So I've been guilty of blog avoidance this past week. Apologies.

But I have been writing a lot, so there's that.

I still haven't been inside a movie theater in about 4 months. Maybe this weekend. Since, you know, it is the business I'm in.

Opening this weekend:

MADAGASCAR 2 (4056 theaters). I didn;t see the first one, but I guess the kids will come out for it, and it is a ton of theaters. $29.8 million for the weekend.

ROLE MODELS (2791 theaters). This is actually supposed to be funny, though it's also rated R, which is odd (and likely problematic box office wise) for a comedy with kids in it. $10.8 million.

SOUL MEN (2044 theaters). I actually gave notes on this, though I have no idea if or how they were implemented. $13.7 million.

********

Last weekend, ZACK AND MIRI only made $10 million; not bad, but not as well as I thought it might. It trailed HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3, but during the week it was finishing as top film each day.

CHANGELING did $9.4 million, and THE HAUNTING OF MOLLY HARTLEY did $5.4 million. ROCKNROLLA did $1.9 million.

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Weekend Box Office #108

Let's just jump right in:

ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO (2735 theaters). This is the first movie that has sparked my interest in a while, just because I like funny R-rated movies and the cast is solid. I think it'll do well; call it $18.8 million opening weekend.

THE HAUNTING OF MOLLY HARTLEY (2652 theaters). I have no idea why they are opening this movie so wide, because I have no idea why anyone would drop $10-plus to see it in a theater. There are no name actors, the title sounds like a dull basic cable movie, and it's a horror-thriller rated PG-13. They are advertising it a lot; I don't think it'll help much. $4.4 million for the weekend.

CHANGELING (1850 theaters, expanding from 15). It definitely has a pedigree, but reviews have been very mixed, and apparently it just ultimately isn't all that great. It'll probably do about $8.2 million for the weekend, then drop like a rock.

ROCKNROLLA (826 theaters, up from 19). Just not enough of a hook to draw more than core fans of Guy Ritchie's earlier, similar movies. $1.5 million.

******

My writing continues solidly. Today will be day 11 of writing at least an hour.

I am dealing with the weird moral conundrum of writing a violent movie (albeit one with a solid story and characters) that I wouldn't actually want members of my family to see.

My wife says that if this is ever made, she's just going to tell her mother that I edited it.

Oh well. I'm just going to write the hell out of it, and let the chips fall where they may.

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When Everything Snaps Into Place

So after an unfocused summer in which I completely lost touch with my write-for-an-hour-a-day mantra, it's back on again.

Today will be Day 7.

And something surprising happened over the weekend. I'm still working on my dark thriller, and I always had a basic roadmap for where it was going; I just hadn't worked out the specifics of the journey.

I've been bringing 20-page chunks into group, and after some false starts I figured out a few things.

But all my character brainstorming last week broke the logjam. On Friday night, I found myself writing (in longhand) what happens beat by beat in the second half.

Yesterday I fleshed out a major subplot. And it's all working. It's all there.

Sick and disturbing, but there.

Now I just have to write it. An hour a day. Won't take that long.

Feeling good.


*********

High School Musical 3 made an estimated $42 million over the weekend. I guarantee that brains at Disney are churning trying to figure out how to get them all left back at school for another year.

Saw V made a very strong $30.5 million. More good news for me, because tonally my new script is more than a little Saw-like, for better or worse.

Pride and Glory limped in with about $6.3 million, about what I predicted.

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Weekend Box Office #107

Young adult audiences should be happy this week. Audiences looking for good grown-up fare? Not so much.

HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3: SENIOR YEAR (3623 theaters). This is the first one to play in actual theaters, the wanna-see factor among audiences of a certain age should be huge, and if the Miley Cyrus concert movie made a ton, this should do well too. Prediction: $36.1 million for the weekend.

SAW V (3060 theaters). Of course, the cool kids will buy tickets for the G-rated HSM3, and then sneak into this. $19.8 million.

PRIDE & GLORY (2585 theaters). This has been on the shelf for a little while, reviews haven't been all that excited, and ultimately it looks like the kind of thing you can see on cable TV. They are advertising this a lot, but I don;t think Ed Norton and Colin Ferrell are really all that much of a draw. $6.1 million.

CHANGELING opens in 15 theaters, and is getting good reviews. Opening in 9 theaters is the weird SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK.

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Scariest Title I've Seen On a Script This Week

"Untitled Rob Schneider Project".

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All Hail the Character Bio

So I've been wrestling with a fairly high-concept thriller for the past few months.

My script group is both helpful and unhelpful in this respect. It's helpful because deadlines are keeping me writing.

It's unhelpful because I've been fairly busy otherwise, so writing time that should have been geared toward brainstorming the basics of my script were instead focused on churning out pages before they were ready to be churned out.

Which is a helpful process in and of itself. Knocking out pages, and getting great feedback on what's working and what isn't, has really helped me figure out the essence of the first 45 pages of the script here, which is all I have written so far -- though I know where the script is going, in general.

But those 45 pages still need reworking.

So the last two days, I devoted about 4 hours to not typing, at all. Instead, I just thought about my characters.

Which is usually basic no-shit stuff. Story is character.

But my past scripts tended to be stories following one main character, which means generally I'd thought a lot about that one character just in putting the script together.

This is more of an ensemble tale. A half dozen major characters, and a definite focus on character despite it being a thriller.

Oddly, my back-assward approach to writing the script, churning out pages and then really digging into my characters, really seems to be paying benefits. Because now I went into my character bios knowing a lot more about these characters, through what they have been doing in the scenes that I wrote, than if I'd tried to do it before writing page 1.

But the best thing is that, even as I sat down writing these character bios, these characters surprised me.

And spoke to me.

Things started coming out of my pen about these characters that I'd never thought about, but which serve the script well.

It's not rocket science, but it's a step too many writers neglect. Including me.

Think about your characters. Write their stories. Ponder their needs, their desires, their dramatic needs, their frustrations.

Because it's the real meat of a screenplay and (take it from someone who knows) most writers aren't thinking very deeply into their characters at all.

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Musings on the Movie Biz, and Weekend Box Office #106

It occurs to me that I haven't been in a movie theater in months.

When I lived in Manhattan in the 1990s, I lived in movie theaters. I was a movie theater manager for about 7 years, from 1986-1993, and I used to see 100-150 movies in theaters a year.

Of course, I was a single man then. I had a lot of disposable income, I was a social retard, and I had a lot of free time.

Now, not so much (well, I'm still something of a social retard, but now I'm married).

Plus I think it's becoming a real issue for a lot of people, that DVD prices are going down, and movie prices are going up.

There's nothing like seeing a movie in a theater with a big crowd, particularly an event movie. But if one can own a copy of a smaller film (say, The Visitor) in a couple of months, why does someone need to pay more to see it now?

The movie box office is doing well, for certain big movies. But I think the shift is coming in which movie theaters are going to be even more and more about movies that need to be seen on a big screen. Which isn't really good for the movie business in general.

I guess we'll see.

*******

Opening in wide release today:

MAX PAYNE (3376 theaters). It sort of looks like a dumb video game movie, but the black-winged creatures look cool, and the presence of Mark Wahlberg will help. Plus this is a lot of screens. Prediction: $21.1 million for the weekend.

SEX DRIVE (2421 theaters). It's supposed to be funny, but it has a fairly no-name main cast, and it's going to lose a big chunk of its young male target audience to Max Payne. $5.1 million.

W (2030 theaters). My prediction is that this is going to tank, bigtime. Republicans aren't going to want to see it, while reviews say that it is actually a fairly moderate look at Bush, so Democrats aren't going to want to see it either. I think we're in a period of time when everyone is sort of tired of George W. Bush, and ready for him to just fade away -- which isn't going to get a lot of people to drop money to see this. $4.1 million.

THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES (1591 theaters). They are advertising the hell out of this, and though reviews aren't over-enthusiastic, there's an audience out there for a movie with a fairly sharp cast like this one has. $7.6 million.

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10,728... and counting.

Every once and a while, I crack my records to figure out how many pieces of paid coverage/notes I've written.

It's higher than the Dow, now.

Work is pretty steady. I'm actually working for a bunch of companies that give me a couple of things a week, so it generally adds up.

If I ever get to 20,000, though, I'm going to go on a killing spree.

*****

Though I haven't gone to an actual movie theater in way too long, I caught up with the Al Pacino film "88 Minutes" last night.

It occurred to me that if Pacino had died 20-30 years ago, we'd be talking about all the great movies he never got to make, all of the great performances he never got to give.

Unfortunately, Al keeps throwing his career under the bus, making bad movie after bad movie in which he seems to keep playing characters with the same basic arc: they get louder as the movie goes on.

I like him as an actor (in theory), and he's always interesting to watch, but he really needs to start making good movies again.

88 Minutes is the classic example of a movie in which the "why" of the character being run through a lot of hoops is really the central mystery. But at the end, when the "revelations" come, the why really doesn't make any real sense at all.

C'mon Al. Really.

******

At the box office this past weekend, the Chihuahuas won again, doing $17.5 million.

Quarantine did $14.2, while Body of Lies did only $12.8. Not great considering the budget was somewhere around $100 million (depending on who you ask).

The Express did poorly, at only $4.6 million despite being in a lot of theaters. The Duchess only found $3.3 million, while City of Ember limped in with only $3.1 million.

Rachel Getting Married, RockNRolla and Happy-Go-Lucky are all doing well in limited release.

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Weekend Box Office #105

So the economy is loudly tanking... but there's still the movies.

Even in the Depression, the movie business did well. People are loking for an escape.

Of course, they didn't have TV back then.

Still, the movie business is one of the few things that actually funnels a large chunk of money back into the U.S. economy from the rest of the world.

Now all Hollywood needs to do is make some good movies. But I fear we may be doomed for another weekend of Chihuahuas in first place.

Opening widely this weekend:

THE EXPRESS (2808 theaters). Reviews haven't been nearly good enough for a film like this to do well, while the commercials hide the fact that this is actually a rather depressing story. $7.8 million for the weekend.

BODY OF LIES (2710 theaters). Reviews have been pretty glum for this too; apparently the movie is just rather boring. Leo and Russell will bring out some moviegoers, but how many? Prediction: $12.3 million.

QUARANTINE (2461 theaters). I wouldn't be surprised to see this do well, and maybe even sneak into first. They are advertising the Hell out of it, and it looks freaky. But people may just wait 8 weeks for it to come out on DVD. $13.1 million.

CITY OF EMBER (2022 theaters). I read this book for someone, and thought it was problematic as film fodder; it's a bit too bleak for kids, while the young leads aren't going to bring in adults. Reviews aren't great, and I think it's going to tank. $4.1 million.

THE DUCHESS (1207 theaters, up from 127). This is supposed to be okay, but I think it's time for Keira to start doing movies where she isn't bound up in corsets. $5.2 million.

********

Last weekend, the Chihuahuas dominated, with $29.3 million. Nick and Norah only did $11.3 million; solid enough, but not as good as I thought it might.

Nothing else did well at all. American Carol did $3.6, Religulous did $3.4, Flash of Genius did $2.3.

Blindness completely tanked, doing only $1.9 million. How To Lose Friends and Alienate People was a complete non-starter, doing only $1.4 million on more screens.

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Weekend Box Office #104

So there's a lot opening this weekend, as October starts ushering in (generally) more-interesting movie fare...

BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA (3215 theaters) ...Which isn't to say there won't be crap as well, and early reviews on this are pretty dire. Still, in the absence of other kids movies, it'll make money. $24.3 million for the weekend.

NICK AND NORAH'S INFINITE PLAYLIST (2421 theaters). They are doing a lot to make this look funny and romantic, and Michael Cera and Kat Dennings seem like the perfect cast. $17.8 million.

HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS AND ALIENATE PEOPLE (1750 theaters). This is supposed to be sort of annoying, and I'm not sure there are nearly enough Simon Pegg fans out there. $4.3 million.

BLINDNESS (1690 theaters). This looks interesting, but reviews have been sort of underwhelmed. $8.9 million.

AN AMERICAN CAROL (1639 theaters). Conservatives taking satirical potshots at a Michael Moore-like character. Not screened for critics, and it's hard to believe that this will be high on anyone's radar, though I have seen a lot of ads for it. $3.5 million.

FLASH OF GENIUS (1098 theaters). I've seen a few reviews for this that said it was solid but sort of dull. $3.8 million.

APPALOOSA (expanding to 1045 theaters from 14). Supposed to be pretty good for its type. $4.7 million.

RELIGULOUS (502 theaters). Supposed to be funny but offensive, and this isn't many theaters. $3.1 million.

Opening in limited release in Jonathan Demme's RACHEL GETTING MARRIED, which is supposed to be pretty good.

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Color Me Wrong On "Fireproof"

This is a movie that is so low budget that it stars Kirk Cameron, while his female lead is an actress who took a leave of absense from performing at Disney World to do the film.

It opened on only 839 screens, and its presence out here in LA is about as small as the teeny ads for it.

I thought it would tank.

Nope.

It made $6.8 million over the weekend, good for 4th place -- and it almost edged Lakeview Terrace for third.

It did twice as much as Spike Lee's heavily-advertised movie did -- and that movie opened on almost 300 more screens.

The secret?

The Christian audience.

Filmmakers have been trying to tap into it for a while now, and there is a history of Biblical movies doing well.

But this film is different -- it's a marital drama. It's about a husband trying to save his marriage, and asking God for help.

(Though it probably helps too that he is a fireman, so they had some exciting rescue scenes to put in the trailer).

Obviously there are communities where this film is doing very well, where religious leaders are spreading the word and getting the audience out.

It'll be interesting to see if the movie has legs. Probably not; it'll be lucky if it makes much over $15 million total.

But that's good enough to inspire a flood of this kind of movie. Be interesting to see if the number of scripts I see with a religious edge (which is really extremely low) takes any kind of untick.

*******

Otherwise EAGLE EYE did a very solid $29.1 million, while NIGHTS IN RODANTHE gave a nice kick to the romance genre by bringing in a pretty impressive $13.4 million.

On the other side of the spectrum, THE LUCKY ONES, starring Tim Robbins and Rachel McAdams as veterans returning home from Iraq, opened on about half of the theaters that FIREPROOF did, and did only 1/40th of the box office, bringing in only $183,000.

The audience's near-complete disinterest in seeing anything involving the Iraq War continues.

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Weekend Box Office #103

I'm in a funk, but I'm trying to get over it and post more regularly.

Opening wide this weekend:

EAGLE EYE (3510 theaters). They are pouring a lot of money into advertising, and though reviews have been mixed, there's not much out there to compete with it. Prediction: $18.6 million for the weekend.

NIGHTS IN RODANTHE (2704 theaters). As likable as Richard Gere and Diane Lane are, I feel like I've seen the movie just by watching the commercials. It does skew to an underserved older audience, but they may be home watching the debate tonight. $8.5 million.

MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA (1185 theaters). It's 2 hours 40 minutes long, and most reviews say it's dull. $5.9 million.

FIREPROOF (839 theaters). I have no real idea what this is about, other than that it stars Kirk Cameron as a fireman. $700,000.

Opening on between 100 and 500 screens: CHOKE and THE LUCKY ONES. CHOKE looks interesting; if anyone sees it, drop a comment.

******

Last weekend, LAKEVIEW TERRACE made $15.o million, MY BEST FRIEND'S GIRL did $8.3 million, IGOR did $7.8 million, and GHOST TOWN limped in with $5 million.

So I was actually ballpark, first time in a while.

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Weekend Box Office #102

It's nice to have a computer that actually works fast. It's a revelation.

Not much reason to leave the house this weekend:

MY BEST FRIEND'S GIRL (2604 theaters). I've seen commercials for this on TV, and I'm still not sure what the premise is. They didn't screen it for critics, and I have a feeling audiences won't be flocking. $7.3 million.

LAKEVIEW TERRACE (2464 theaters). The movie's not supposed to be very good, and I feel like the coming attraction gives away the whole first half. Still, somehow it's the the most interesting of an underhwlming lot. $13.7 million.

IGOR (2339 theaters). Reviews are unenthused. $8.7 million.

GHOST TOWN (1505 theaters). They've been advertising the hell out of it, but it looks like lightweight Ricky Gervais. $4.5 million.

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In Computer Transition

So we finally bought a new desktop computer on Saturday, a cheap-ish HP from Best Buy, to replace our ancient Gateway, which in human years needs a walker and doesn't have one.

I'm not a big computer download-frenzy geek. All I need to be able to do is write, go on the Internet, and print. Not major demands.

One out of three? That really isn't working for me.

I bought Microsoft Word for my laptop last year, and successfully loaded the extra copy on the desktop. All good.

But when I went to hook up my DSL, I got a weird error message, and it wouldn't take the disk info.

It also won't recognize the printer driver disk either, despite the fact that it's also an HP.

So after fruitless hours on hold with tech support yesterday afternoon, today I'm going to track down a Geek Squad member, and rough them up if I have too.

Can't be too hard; they have those little spindly geek arms.

*****

I had pages up in group last night, and it went pretty well. My thriller is growing, and I got some great suggestions from the gang last night.

I keep falling off my hour-a-day thing, but I've probably written 9 of the last 11 days, so I'm not feeling like such a lazy ass.

*****

Solid weekend at the box office last weekend. BURN AFTER READING did $19.1 million. TYLER PERRY'S THE FAMILY THAT PRAYS did $17.3 million.

RIGHTEOUS KILL did a pretty good $16.2 million. THE WOMEN did $10.1.

PROUD AMERICAN did $135,000 in 750 theaters. That's $180 per theater for the whole weekend, or about 25 people per theater for 12-15 shows, or about 2 people a show.

So if you're looking for some quiet place to have sex...

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Weekend Box Office #101

So the interesting thing about the 4 wide-release movies this weekend is that they are all being sold more on the names attached to them than on their plots.

Which could be a good or bad thing, because the reviews for most aren't great.

RIGHTEOUS KILL (3152 theaters). Despite what some ads might have you believe, this obviously isn't the first time these two have been on-screen together; they had several scenes together in HEAT (while they also both appeared in GODFATHER II, though not at the same time. Yikes, that was 34 years ago, I'm old). Unfortunately, this movie's not supposed to be all that good. Prediction: $10.1 million for the weekend.

THE WOMEN (2962 theaters). There's not a man to be seen in this movie. Unfortunately, reviews for this are pretty dire as well. $11.1 million.

BURN AFTER READING (2651 theaters). At least something is getting pretty good reviews, though they aren't doing a very good job selling the hook to the story. $9.3 million.

TYLER PERRY'S THE FAMILY THAT PREYS. Not shown to critics, and like Perry's other movies it's likely to be heavy-handed and melodramatic. But never bet against Tyler Perry. $14.2 million.

PROUD AMERICAN (750 theaters). This is a documentary with uplifting interviews with people about how great our country is. This is a pretty big release (particularly in California) for a documentary without much pedigree. $2.0 million.

******

Last weekend was one of the most quiet weekends at the box office in the past five years; BANGKOK DANGEROUS came in first, but only did $7.8 million.

******

Prayers go out to the people around Houston and Galveston. Hopefully anyone in an unsafe situation got the hell out of there.

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$35 to go see a movie? Yikes.

So there was an article in the LA Times this past week about Australian company Village Roadshow Ltd, who are planning to open a trio of "Gold Class" movie theaters in Southern California (in Pasadena, Costa Mesa and Ontario) where admission will cost $35 a ticket.

And you don't even get free popcorn for that.

Actually, it doesn't seem like you get anything free, except I guess the ability to see a movie without the riffraff.

The theaters will be set up with seats next to tables, which limit the seats to 30-40 per theater (which probably explains the high price; most of it probably goes to the movie studio to justify opening a new movie there).

The theaters will serve posh food, but it won't be cheap. According to the article, a mushroom-and-brie pizza and a bottle of beer will run you $28. So if you want to share the pizza with a date, and get her a beer too, you've already dropped over $100, for pizza, a couple of beers and a movie.

The waiters will be black-uniformed, "stealth-like" servers who can be summoned by the touch of a button, and deliver food without disturbing anyone's movie expertise. In theory. I guess ordering is by mime. And you probably have to tip them, too.

Staffing costs will be relatively high, with as many as 30 workers, including chefs and line cooks, on duty at a time and commanding salaries as high as $100,000 a year.

They're going to have to sell a lot of overpriced food to cover that.

Supposedly this works in Australia. But really, won't anyone who can afford this prefer just having a nice expensive dinner somewhere else, and then watch a movie without having to fumble around in the dark for your lobster roll?

Is multitasking really that necessary during leisure time? And is combining dining and a movie really worth paying a $25 surcharge per ticket?

I was a theater manager for 6 years, and I think it's nuts. And doomed to failure.

I guess we'll find out. Stay tuned.

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Weekend Box Office #100

Rather a bland weekend moviewise for my 100th installment of these things.

The only movie opening wide is:

BANGKOK DANGEROUS (2650 theaters). Nic Cage has made an awful lot of bad movies in the past few years, and given that this one wasn't screened for critics, I don't have high hopes for it. Still, lack of competition might help -- a little. Prediction: $14.4 million for the weekend.

*****

Though last weekend was a holiday weekend, it wasn't a big box office weekend at all. TROPIC THUNDER was the top movie for the third straight weekend, though it is slipping pretty fast.

Of the newbies, BABYLON AD made only $11.5 million in its first 4 days, in a lot of theaters. TRAITOR did about $10 million for the four-day weekend.

DISASTER MOVIE limped in with only $6.9 million in four days; apparently people are catching on that these kinds of non-satire satires just aren't that funny.

COLLEGE did an atrocious $2.6 million despite being in over 2000 theaters.

HAMLET 2 completely tanked, with only $2.1 million from almost 1600 theaters. I saw a lot of commercials for this movie, and it's supposed to be funny, but they couldn't make people want to go see it. While their pushing the whole "Rock Me Sexy Jesus" thing, which seemed like it was geared to try to provoke controversy and get more publicity, seemed to be received with a big yawn by the Christian community.

******

Rolled out of bed early today, and did some writing. Felt good. Day 1; I'll try to keep it going.

******

By the way, anonymous posts attacking other posters will be deleted, and whiny posts complaining about these posts being deleted will be deleted as well.

Despite the smell of sour milk and hormones, this isn't a middle school cafeteria.

******

My brother is a fireman in Anchorage, who sat next to Sarah Palin on a plane once. He says she was a nice woman.

He's still voting for Obama.

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The Writer's Group I Belong To Needs Another Good Writer --

Again, this group is cool because we have some really good actors cold-reading pages on the stage.

Every Monday night, 4 group members bring in up to 25 pages each, to be read by the actors and commented on by the other writers. We meet in a small theater in Studio City, something that has been going on for almost 5 years now.

There are 16 writers in the group, so you'll be responsible for bringing in pages about every 5-6 weeks or so, because the last Monday of the month is for a full read of a script that has been workshopped through the group.

The big responsibility here is to be able to give this group most of your Monday nights, and show up at least 75-80% of the time. Everyone is friendly, though the notes are generally incisive; you need to be able to smile as your script pages are dissected. Dues are $30 a month.

Writers don't have to be amazing; this group is about learning to a certain extent, and honing one's craft. Though you will be asked to submit a script, and it will need to show some writing skill.

Applicants must have completed and registered 3 screenplays. No TV scripts, multiple authors or adaptations accepted. If you are interested, you can e-mail me and I'll tell you where you can send your scripts.

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Weekend Box Office #99

Jeez, I disappear for a week and the comments turn into the Bickersons.

Obviously I need to post a lot more.

Anyhow, if you thought last weekend was bad, these are the choices for this weekend. The first three didn't even screen for critics, which is always a really bad sign.

BABYLON A.D. (3390 theaters). I'm seen ads for this movie, and all I get from it is that it stars Vin Diesel, it looks like it's set in the future, and stuff blows up. Which is probably enough for his audience. Prediction: $12.1 million for the weekend.

DISASTER MOVIE (2642 theaters). Remember when satirical movies were actually satirical, and not just trotting in characters from movies released in the past year? And how is Juno a disaster movie? $13.2 million.

COLLEGE (2123 theaters). At least it's rated R, though it's hard to believe many people will care. $5.7 million.

TRAITOR (2054 theaters). I love Don Cheadle, but this just feels like a movie a lot of people will wait for the DVD on. $8.9 million.

HAMLET 2 (1597 theaters, up from 103). It's trying hard to position itself as the hip movie to see, but it hasn't quite found its way there yet. Though apparently it's funny as hell. $7.1 million.

******

Yeah, last weekend THE HOUSE BUNNY made over 14 million to finish in second. I'm baffled, because the premise is so dumb. Are there that many Anna Faris fans out there?

DEATH RACE underperformed hugely, while THE ROCKER was a huge bomb, making about $2.6 million despite being in more theaters than House Bunny.

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Weekend Box Office #98

Ah, the dog days of August. The big blockbusters are starting to fade away, and the other movies are coming out.

THE ROCKER (2784 theaters). Apparently this is a bit too reminiscent of "School of Rock", while I'm not sure enough people out there want two hours of Rainn Wilson, who seems like he is best in small doses. Prediction: $8.2 million.

THE HOUSE BUNNY (2714 theaters). Though this got a decent review in the LA Times, I'm not sure who the audience is; it looks too tame for guys, while it doesn't seem to have enough of a hook for girls. $7.7 million.

DEATH RACE (2531 theaters). Meanwhile, this is where all the guys will be. $21.8 million.

THE LONGSHOTS (2089 theaters). This has a weird pedigree -- it stars Ice Cube, it is directed by Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst, it was written by a writer from the Sopranos, and it's a family comedy about a girl playing football? $5.6 million.

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Scratching My Itch

So I've been so busy with work over the past few months that I hadn't written a word of my own stuff.

Which is always worrisome. There's always the niggling fear that if not-writing goes on too long, it'll turn into never-writing-again. Which I didn't want.

But I just didn't have the time... or when I did, I was just too brain-drained from other people's scripts to focus on my own.

Still, I had an idea in my head for a script, that I'd been thinking about for months.

Unlike most of the things I write, it didn't have a supernatural element. It was just a thriller. A nasty, violent, high-concept thriller.

I pitched it to my wife on the drive down to the shore 3 weeks ago, and not only did she like it, she brainstormed it in darker directions.

That's my girl.

Still, other than jotting down a few handfuls of notes (and pretty much figuring out the whole structure of the script in my head). I hadn't written word one.

I was ripe to bursting with words. I had blue balls of the brain. But the time wasn't there.

Last Thursday, the woman who ran my writing group called with word that a slot for Monday (last night) had opened up, and did I want it. I said no... and then I said yes. Because I wanted to push myself, to write at least 10 pages over the weekend.

I wrote 19.

They are rough, the characters need development, and when I brought it in last night I wasn't sure what the writers/actors would make of it. They're a tough crowd.

But they loved it. I've got something by the tail, and now I just have to write it.

Time will be made. The brain balls will not get blue again.

******

Tropic Thunder beat out Dark Knight over the weekend, making a very solid $25.8 million. Though this seems to be one of those odd comedies that seems to be scoring a little better with critics than audiences.

Star Wars did $14.6, so I was really close on one guess. Mirrors did $11.1; I'm not sure where the horror/thriller audience has gone.

Vicly Christina Barcelona did $3.7 million. Fly Me To The Moon only did $1.9. Henry Poole did only $805,000, which for 527 theaters is pretty bad.

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Weekend Box Office #97

We're back to the time of year where more than two movies come out a week in wide and fairly-wide release.

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (3452 theaters). I'm burned out on the Star Wars series; I never even saw the third one. And the animation here looks really cheesy. So this is hard to predict, though I don't think a lot of people are going to be that excited about it. Prediction: $14.8 million for the weekend.

TROPIC THUNDER (3319 theaters). This is getting some good reviews, and a lot of protests against its offensiveness; it opened on Wednesday to okay numbers. I don't think it'll be huge this weekend, though it might have legs. $18.1 million.

MIRRORS (2664 theaters). As horror-thrillers go, this looks trippy and high-concept enough to contend for the number one slot. $16.9 million.

VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA (692 theaters). On the plus side, it's getting good reviews. On the downside, a lot of people don't want to see a Woody Allen movie until word of mouth really kicks in. $5.2 million.

HENRY POOLE IS HERE (527 theaters). I've seen commercials for this, and I have no idea what it's about. Which is never good. $1.6 million.

FLY ME TO THE MOON (3D) (452 theaters). I'm not sure why this is getting such a limited release. $2.9 million.

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The Dark Knight/Pineapple Express

So I took a half-day off on Sunday, and went out with the wife to catch these two movies.

Nothing like taking a break from plot, plot, plot, to experience more plot.

But both movies are happily extremely satisfying, and I'm not going to go into a long explanation of why here; I have work to do.

But I'd like to focus in on one aspect that works well, and that's fleshing out the villains.

It's always a dilemma for writers about how to handle the villain's backstory. Sometimes no explanation can leave a bad guy feeling too cryptic, while too much explanation can feel like it is erasing too many of the shadows that should be there.

So I had mixed feelings when the Joker tells his story about the smile being carved into his face, because it seemed like it was a too-easy way to set up why he went bad.

But then, he tells the story to a different character -- and it's a completely different story.

Brilliant. Because it hammers home the sense that something messed-up caused him to be that way, but now we're not sure what it was -- Door #1, Door #2, or Door #3, which we can only imagine.

It's acknowledging that there is a dark backstory, but not revealing it. Perfect.

In Pineapple Express, they take a different route, humanizing the villains, by giving them quirks that help flesh them out and make them human and almost likable. One guy just wants to get home to have dinner with his wife.

Then, when the script actually goes in the direction of killing some of these characters off -- while keeping the overall tone funny -- it's an interesting, fresh effect.

Don't stint on the villains.

*******

My last weekend numbers were way off, likely because I was over-impressed by the opening Wednesday numbers, and because the Olympic coverage gave the box office a big hit.

(Go Michael Phelps go).

Pineapple Express did a solid $23.2, though, and the Traveling Pants girls did an okay $10.7 million.

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$60 Notes is Now $80 Notes

I know. I feel bad.

But it's time.

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Trying To Get My Guano Together/Weekend Box Office #96

I'm in a rut.

I'm deluged with work, which on one sense I'm thankful for -- the economy isn't great, I'm in a weird uncertain business, and we're in debt so we can always use the money.

But I literally have piles of work lying around my office, that fall into four categories:

1) PRODCO WORK. This is the quick turnaround stuff, the companies I work for who send me something and need it back in a day or two. Usually the best-quality stuff, though not always. But it immediately goes to the top of the pile.

2) THE CABLE NETWORK I READ FOR. This is stuff that's not do for a week, or two, so there's no rush -- until it has been sitting there for a week or two. Then it has to get done.

3) THE TINY COMPANY MY FRIEND WORKS FOR. Half-price scripts with very little coverage required, so I can bang them out in an hour or so, and there's no deadline... again, until they have been lying around for a while, and need to get done.

4) MY $60 NOTES. This is the pile that is starting to take a toll. When I started this, it was as a lark; I wanted to develop this side of my brain, I wanted to be able to read a script and give constructive notes on how to fix it (which my regular coverage generally doesn't require in any extensive fashion), I thought I could help people, I was appalled by what other people online were charging.

I figured 2 or 3 a week would be easy to juggle in.

It's more than that now, and the problem is that they are more time-intensive than I wanted. Because I don't half-ass it; I curl up with the scripts, and take a lot of notes, and even jot down typos and format stuff, and then I type it all up. And suddenly a big chunk of my day is gone, and I have to do one the next day, and the next.

I like what I do, and I'm actually not getting burned out from the work. It's just so time-intensive, that at the end of the day I just want to curl up in the living room with the wife, and watch a little TV, and play some Scrabble, and go to bed.

But I haven't done any screenwriting in weeks.

So as much as I hate to do it, I'm going to have to do something with the $60 notes. Either shut it down (which I don't want to do) or raise the price (which I don't want to do) or maybe both.

Word to come. Because something has to give.

**************

Of course, whenever I get down, something comes along to remind me that my life isn't so bad.

Pop over to my friend Deb's website, and if you are inspired to buy something from her, please do. It's for a good cause, and she's good people.

**************

This weekend in theaters:

PINEAPPLE EXPRESS (3072 theaters). This opened on Wednesday, and it's doing pretty well. Look for it to do about $38 million over the weekend, though it would do better if not for the Olympics.

THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELLING PANTS 2 (2707 theaters). The girls in the cast are suddenly biggish names, and this also opened half-decently on Wednesday. $18.6 million for the weekend.

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Weekend Box Office #95

I'm swamped with work; it's wall-to-wall at this point. I'm not complaining, but I've put the writing on hold until at least next week.

Sigh.

It's just as well that there's nothing new that is tempting at the theaters this weekend (though I still need to see Dark Knight...)

THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR (3759 theaters). Word is that there's lots of special effects, but that it isn't as fun as the first two. They've been advertising the hell out of it, but I feel like I've seen the whole movie, and it's hard to get really excited about it. Still, it'll make some money, probably about $43.2 million this weekend.

SWING VOTE (2213 theaters). This will be a test of Kevin Costner's drawing power, because there's just not much real hook here (while any Presidential election that pits Kelsey Grammer against Dennis Hopper is just rather scary). I think it'll tank. $8.8 million for the weekend.

The buzz is good (okay, that was unintentional, but heh) on PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, which opens on Wednesday.

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Chasing The Good Idea

So I've been in something of a writing rut recently.

Mostly it's a time management problem. Work is busy, and when I'm busy, I don't have the time to write, while I'm so burned out thinking about other people's scripts that I don't want to tackle mine.

(My mother is right, I should have become an accountant).

I took the weekend off to take my wife south for her birthday, and we had a relaxing time knocking around the area about 25 miles north of San Diego.

We did go to the Del Mar track for a while, but honestly it's not the most user-friendly track; it's a long walk from parking (even with the tram, which doesn't actually go to the parking lot that most people wind up in) while the betting lines are huge as well. We wound up taking off after a couple of hours, and blowing off Gnarls Barkley, rather than fighting the crowd to see a concert where it wasn't even clear where the concert was being held.

Santa Anita is better.

Anyhow, the point really is that on the way down I pitched my wife this thriller idea I've been toying with for a little while, a violent, definitely-R tale that I wasn't sure what her reaction to would be. Because there's some dark stuff in there.

Not only did she like it, but she helped me brainstorm an even darker ending. Heh.

So I've been wrestling for a while with the question of what to focus on banging out this summer. I was working on a comedy, and it's first 40 pages got a good reaction in group, but I pulled it back because I really needed to go back and work out the plot, before I wrote myself into a corner.

I'm also concerned about its possible resemblance to the upcoming Ricky Gervais film GHOST TOWN, written by David Koepp and John Kamps. If anyone has a line on that script, let me know.

So I'm leaving the comedy on the hydraulic lift for a while, and I'm going to try and bang out this thriller, which is one of the rare things I've set out to write that doesn't have some sort of supernatural/fantasy element to it.

I'm going to try and reinstitute the old hour-a-day thing, though maybe not today, because I have a pile of work left over from not doing it over the weekend. Sigh.

*******

THE DARK KNIGHT did a solid $75 million for the weekend, breaking the ten-day record by some huge margin. Good for it. I still haven't seen it yh I wwillet, but I will.

STEPBROTHERS did a strong $30 million. X-FILES only did about $10 million.

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Weekend Box Office #94

So thanks for all the suggestions, though ultimately we don't take any of them.

We're going to go down and stay at Cardiff-By-The-Sea, about 25 miles north of San Diego. Maybe hit the Del Mar Racetrack on Saturday, both for the horses and for Gnarls Barkley playing there afterward.

This weekend at theaters:

THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE (3185 theaters). The reviews I've seen haven't been good, while there doesn't seem to be much of a hook to this; it looks like sort of a serial killer tale/FBI procedural, which isn't necessarily the way to bring back the fans. I don't think it's going to do all that well, considering its summer movie placement. $13.8 million for the weekend.

STEP BROTHERS (3094 theaters). They are advertising the hell out of it, and it looks like dumb fun, though it's going to lose a lot of the potential family audience because it's rated R for "pervasive language". Figure it'll do about $18.5 million.

Of course, the big question is about how much THE DARK KNIGHT will do on weekend two. Movies like this often drop big, but this film will likely helped by the fact that a lot of people didn't see it last weekend because of the big lines or because it was sold out, word of mouth has been great, and it seems to be the kind of movie that people will see multiple times.

My guess is a remarkable $102.5 million second weekend. What's yours?

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I'm Looking For a Weekend Getaway

I want to take the wife somewhere out of LA this weekend for her birthday, and we're looking for something interesting and different. Probably just a one-night stayover somewhere, on Saturday night.

The coast is too tourist-swamped, San Diego's full of Comic-Conners, and we're on something of a budget. I'd also not like to drive more than two hours.

Just thought I'd throw it out there, and see if anyone had any tips about somewhere cool to investigate. Post a comment here, or shoot me an e-mail.

*****

Yeah, DARK KNIGHT made over $158 for its first three days. I'm an idiot for not seeing that coming.

I didn't see DARK KNIGHT -- I hate lines, and winding up in a crappy seat -- so the wife and I went to see HELLBOY 2 instead. Entertaining, and solid enough for what it is. DARK KNIGHT completely swamped it though; even though HELLBOY 2 probably got a little bounce from people shut out of sold-out DARK KNIGHT shows, it still dropped 70% over the weekend.

MAMMA MIA made $27 million, though expect that to drop fast, as word-of-mouth has been fairly dire.

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Weekend Box Office #93

It's going to be a busy weekend at the cinemas.

THE DARK KNIGHT (4366 theaters). I haven't heard anything but good buzz for this, and only the sense that it is rather bleak and doesn't seem like a kids' movie is going to keep it from putting up mega-huge numbers this weekend. Still, my guess is that it'll do about $89 million.

MAMMA MIA! (2976 theaters). I was semi-into seeing this, but the LA Times review today was underenthused. I have a feeling that when push comes to shove, the date-nighters might go to see The Dark Knight. Still, figure it'll do about $15.4 million.

SPACE CHIMPS (2511 theaters). Never underestimate a kids' movie, though its audience seems limited to those who have already seen Kung Fu Panda and Wall-E and don't want to see them again. $5.1 million.

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So Why Did "Meet Dave" Flop?

I was going to do a piece on this the other day, and then the LA Times had an article yesterday that touched on a few things as well, including the fact that the head of Fox hates sci-fi comedies (he thinks they always bomb, never mind "Men In Black"). He was the one who wanted that aspect downplayed in the advertising, despite the fact that that's the hook here, which was a fatal mistake.

I read this script in December, 2004 (when it was called "Starship Dave" -- a much better title -- and here's an except from my comments:

"STARSHIP DAVE is takes a very high-concept idea - tiny humanoid aliens come to Earth in a spaceship disguised as a man, and wind up wooing a human woman - and generally does a good job finding the laughs in it. Though the story is a bit thin at times, screenwriters Rob Greenberg and Bill Corbett have a lot of fun with the fish-out-of-water elements of the tale, the conflicting personalities of the alien crew and the awkwardly funny central romance add a lot, while the premise offers a lot of slapstick opportunities for a good comic actor. The result could use some punching up of the plot and some of the laughs, but there is a lot to like here, and there is a commercial film in the material."

And I stand by that -- it is a commercial idea, and it could have been a funny movie. And though the movie is apparently on the low side of mediocre, I don't think it was the mostly-bad reviews that did it in; they certainly didn't hurt Norbit. So what then?

THEY SOLD IT POORLY. The concept of the script really is a funny one, about these little people in a spaceship disguised as a man, trying to figure out how to interact with the world. But there was little sense of this in the advertising, which just sort of offered up a vague sense of the movie, without anything to make one want to check it out. A concern that spins into --

IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE A FAMILY MOVIE. But the problem with this is that there's nothing in the commercials that really screams "This is for kids", and families are reluctant to take kids to movies if they don't have a really good sense of what they are going to be about. An Eddie Murphy movie like "Daddy Day Care" was a hit because they made it very clear in the commercials that it was going to be a goofy slapstick family comedy with men fumbling with little kids and some parenthood messages in it. Box office.

IT DIDN'T LOOK ALL THAT FUNNY. This is another offshoot of not selling it right. The script I read was full of amusing little ideas, but the main thing that one takes away from the commercials is Eddie Murphy eating a lot of hotdogs, while a guy in his mouth ducks. Sort of dumb, and not particularly funny.

MAKING A GOOD MOVIE PROBABLY WOULD HAVE HELPED. At least with word of mouth, and making this catch on. And with providing fodder for funnier commercials. Though I'm not sure where they went wrong with the movie, other than to say that Eddie Murphy's recent non-track-record for making funny movies is becoming an increasing sign that his attachment to a film isn't making the movies better, and may be making them worse.

EDDIE MURPHY NO LONGER HAS A BUILT-IN AUDIENCE. This is also a key thing. Eddie Murphy was once an edgy, R-rated guy; now he makes dumb comedies for family audiences. And these movies succeed or fail entirely based on whether or not the movie has a high concept -- it's not because he's starring in it, it's not even really how well they are executed, it's whether or not it looks like a possible fun time at the movies. And though they could have made this look like a fun time at the movies, they forgot to do that.

Don't underestimate the lure of the fun time at the movies. That's one reason Hellboy 2 outdrew this 7-to-1 opening weekend; even though Hellboy 2 is a big comic-book movie, its commercials were funnier than Meet Dave's ever were.

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Weekend Box Office #92

So this is a tough weekend to call; there are three pretty-big movies opening, and any of them could wind up number one.

HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY (3204 theaters). They are doing a good job promoting this movie, to make people (like me) who didn't see the first one interested in seeing the sequel, which I think will outgross the original. $30.2 million first three days.

MEET DAVE (3011 theaters). Eddie Murphy has completely lost his comic edge, but this movie looks harmless enough, though reviews haven't been great. I read the script a few years ago, and liked it, though I don't recognize much of it from the commercials I've seen. $26.7 million.

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH (2811 theaters). I think this may nab the number one spot, because it looks like a fun, visually-interesting adventure. But the LA Times calls it "tame", and though the 3D version is supposed to be a lot better, it's only in about 600 theaters, which are liable to be a lot more crowded than the 2D theaters showing this film. $38.2 million.

So that's my order. Journey, Hellboy, Meet Dave (though Hancock may be in that mix too). Feel free to post your predictions for order and $.

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Some Writers Need An Editor... Badly

So yesterday I read a 165-page, woefully-overwritten screenplay, with huge mobs of typos and spelling mistakes roaming its pages.

This thing is embarrassing. "Boston" is misspelled as "Bostin", twice. "Adolf Hitler" is misspelled "Adolph" time after time.

Apostrophes are salted in where they have no right being, and missing from where they should be. It's so bad that a key word in the title is misspelled, both in the title and throughout the script, yet I have absolutely no idea whether this is intentional or not.

On imbd, the title is correctly spelled, though.

Yeah, it's on imdb. As a film about to go into production. Maybe.

Because this mess of a script is written by a hip, finger-snapping Oscar-winning writer-director. I can't write his name -- I'm probably not even supposed to be alluding to reading this script, which is currently making the rounds -- but you can probably guess who it is.

Let's keep it between us.

A lot of people reading scripts by well-known writers can get into bad writing habits, because well-known writers can get away with things that unknown writers have a harder trouble doing.

Shane Black (who isn't the writer referred to above) can write whatever sort of witty aside he wants in a script, and he gets a pass, though mostly it works because he's such a good writer that it's clear whatever he is doing that he is in firm control of everything on the page. And no one is going to care if he misspells a word or two or thirty -- though he probably won't.

But there's no excuse for sending something out that is in this bad a shape. Especially something that is nominally a spec, that you are trying to get someone to give you a lot of money to make.

Because what the script should be saying to them is: "Yes, this story is different, and it's all over the place tonally, and it's unclear whether the same audience who would like this long, well-written part over here would actually like that incredibly-brutal other part over there. But shit, it's so well-written throughout, so polished and crisp that obviously I can pull it off".

Instead, the message it is giving is: "I couldn't care enough to actually reread this -- or get someone else to reread it -- and I don't have any real explanation why I'm spelling words like that -- but I promise the movie will be good. Really."

Looking beyond the typos and spelling problems, the script isn't bad. It's way overwritten, and certain sections need to be tightened down a lot, and it is all over the place tonally but there is some good stuff here.

(And no, you can't have a copy. I no longer have a copy).

But it's a borderline script, that he's been trying to get someone to greenlight for a while. The perfect example of a script where the writing needs to be spot on, to convince the people with the money that you are in firm, professional control of everything.

Instead, he has given them another reason to say no by having a script that constantly knocks one's brain out of the story by leaving around a forest of poor punctuation and egregious spelling mistakes to trip over and get lost in.

I don't get it. But then again, it's Hollywood.

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Hancock

So I saw this yesterday, and it's an odd movie.

*** No Real Spoilers here, but there will be in the comments ***

The first half is sort of a comedy/superhero/drama, and is pretty much the movie they are selling in the commercials. In fact, I wish I'd never seen a commercial, because they give a lot away.

But then in the middle, when they basically resolve the first-half storyline and need to take the story in another direction, there's really a huge tone shift. Suddenly it's a lot more of an adult film, much more of a drama, more violent, and not very light any more.

I thought a lot of it worked, but aside from the tone shift, what really didn't work for me is the fact that it feels like they rush through it. They introduce an interesting idea that they could spend a whole movie really exploring, but here they rush through it in about a half hour, all the way up to the somewhat-flat, lame-villain climax, and then the movie is over.

Overall, I'd recommend the movie, because a lot here works, but there are a lot of good talking points about what they did in the second half of the film here.

If you've seen the movie, let's talk about it in the comments section. If you haven't, you probably don't want to read the comments, because that's where all the spoilers are going to be.

*****

After HANCOCK, the wife and I went to see WANTED (we dropped $19.50 on the snack bar in between, so it wasn't really like sneaking in), and I was surprised at what a solid action movie it is, including an eye-popping sequence on a train. The tale hangs together well, and is well worth checking out.

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Weekend Box Office #91

Nice long holiday weekend. I've got my workload down to a manageable level, so I'm taking the day off today, and hitting the coast with the wife.

I also plan to see some movies this weekend --I'm falling behind.

HANCOCK (3965 theaters). This actually opened on Wednesday (Tuesday night in some theaters) and it's doing pretty well, despite the fact that occording to a lot of critics the movie takes a weird twist halfway through that's not reflected in the commercials and doesn't really work. It's gotten more bad reviews than good, but I still hope to see it this weekend, and then I'll weigh in. Figure it'll do about $66.4 million for the 3-day weekend, though it'll be interesting to see what the word of mouth is and how that affects things.

KIT KITTREDGE: AN AMERICAN GIRL (1843 theaters). This must have one of the most limited audiences of any movie that has come out for a while; I'm not sure there are enough little girls thrilled about this movie to put up big numbers. $5.2 million for the weekend.

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"Funny Games" Hurt My Brain

So I watched FUNNY GAMES on DVD; it's a recent remake of a 1997 Austrian film of the same name.

The original is supposed to be pretty good, which probably explains how they lured Tim Roth and Naomi Watts to star in this, as a couple menaced by a pair of preppy sociopaths.

The movie remake does a few things right, but basically it's a bit too nihilistic and one-note to really work well; it would be a classic case of torture-porn, except most of the real violence occurs offscreen.

The first thing ironically worth mentioning is that, in God apparently responding to my last post about cellphones, this film actually does a good job with the whole cellphone thing.

Here, early on, one of the sociopaths "accidentally" knocks Naomi Watts' cellphone into a sink full of water, disabling it. Later on, as Watts and Roth try to dry it out to get it to work, their obsessive use of a hair dryer makes for a fairly good sequence. It feels real, as does most of the movie, for better or for worse.

Unfortunately, there's one jaw-dropping moment that doesn't feel real, that really inspired this post.

With about 20 minutes to go, and the violence escalating, Naomi Watts has a familiar thriller moment in which she is able to get her hands on a shotgun, and kill one of the bad guys.

Go Naomi.

Unfortunately, the surviving bad guy reaches into a chair, pulls out a remote, REWINDS THE MOVIE WE ARE WATCHING, and stops her from grabbing the shotgun, saving his friend. WTF?

Seriously. This happens.

Nowhere else in the movie (except for a few places when one of the sociopaths stares at or talks to the camera) is there any sense that this has any fantasy aspect to it at all; indeed, as mentioned, it's all very creepy-realistic.

Nowhere after this moment do the characters discuss what happened, or explain the remote, or use it again.

I suppose if writer/director Michael Haneke (remaking his own movie) had done a commentary, he might have tried to explain how it was a nod to the complicity of the audience in watching all the violence and blah blah blah.

It doesn't matter. It's a stupid device, that pulled me out of the film. It subverts the logic of the movie and makes me dislike it all just a little bit more.

One for my imaginary file of THINGS YOU DON'T DO IN A MOVIE.

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Can You Hear Me Now?

I've read a lot of thrillers and horror scripts over the last few years, and many of them come to the inevitable point where the main character(s) could really use some outside help, but are unable to summon it.

The modern-day complication is that pretty much everyone has a cellphone, which has to be accounted for so that the possibility that it can actually be used can be eliminated.

Unfortunately, there seem to only be a few ways to tackle this, and most of them have become cliched, very familiar and fairly uninspired.

Too many people fall back on simply having themain characters BE OUT OF CELLPHONE RANGE, which can work if they are in the middle of the desert or out in the wilderness. But I've read a scary number of lazy scripts where characters find they have no cell phone reception, despite being in the middle of a suburban area. The last script the characters had this problem, they were locked in a high school.

An alternative is to DISPOSE OF THE CELL PHONE, either by having it destroyed or lost along the way. But easily the most cliched scene now is the workaholic guy whose wife/girlfriend/buddy throws his cellphone out the car window, so that they won't constantly be on it for what is supposed to be a restful holiday weekend. Never mind that most people have so much info on their phones now that this comes off as an immature, stupid act that would simply serve to piss the cellphone owner off.

Occasionally the problem is a DEAD BATTERY, though this is handled in melodramatic fashion, with the battery dying at just the wrong moment.

The other one that keeps cropping up is the LEFT BEHIND CELLPHONE, usually marked by an early scene in which someone tries to call the main character, only to have the requisite shot of the phone ringing where the characters were before, but no longer are now.

Sigh.

It's time to come up with some inspired ways to eliminate the cellphone logic hole. If you've got one in your script, see if you can eliminate it in some interesting, clever way.

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Weekend Box Office #90

This is the first time I've been a day late in my weekend preview for a while. But my wife has been home battling a virus, and that's a distraction.

She's doing better though.

Otherwise, I think I'm over the hump in being swamped; I still have work, but I don't feel buried under pressing deadlines.

Hopefully I'll be able to do some major digging back into my screenplay this week, though now I'm concerned about its possible resemblance to an upcoming Ricky Gervais/Greg Kinnear script called GHOST TOWN. If anyone has a line on the script, let me know.

This weekend:

WALL-E (3992 theaters). Is anyone more reliable than Pixar? This has gotten a lot of very solid reviews, and should do well. My guess? $71.1 million for the weekend.

WANTED (3175 theaters). It sort of looks like action claptrap, but reviews haven't been entirely dismissive, and I'm sure there will be people checking this out. $31.2 million.

*****

I've been wading my way through a box of DVDs, and I can report that 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS and 2 DAYS is small, European and rivetting throughout.

Meanwhile, I wanted to like BE KIND REWIND, but it just isn't really all that funny, despite an amiable tone.

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The Incredible Hulk

Saw this yesterday.

It's pretty solid, particularly early on. I liked the way they acknowledge the origin stuff without spending a lot of time on it, while they do a good job putting Bruce Banner and his needs front and center.

The special effects are solid, and make this worth seeing on the big screen. There are some logic quibbles at times, like how this huge big green monster keeps disappearing after confrontations without no one seeming to know in which direction he went, while the fact that the final battle probably kills countless people is rather glossed-over as well.

Still, I was entertained enough.

*****

I also saw PERSEPOLIS on DVD. Animated, very different, and worth checking out.

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Weekend Box Office #89

Still swamped with work, which is good, because the economy sucks.

This weekend, two comedies are pitted against each other. Neither got very good reviews from today's LA Times, though. I have higher hopes for GET SMART than I do for THE LOVE GURU, which honestly just seems dumb; it might be funny, but the commercials certainly aren't convincing me.

If anyone sees either movie this weekend, pop back in and leave a comment about whether it's worth seeing. Though with temperatures around 105 here today, the air conditioning alone might make it worth it.

GET SMART (3911 theaters). This at least looks actiony, while I generally like Steve Carell, and the former Rock should also bring people in. $45.5 million for the weekend.

THE LOVE GURU (3012 theaters). Mike Myers can often make me laugh, but still... $17.8 million.

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When Casting Is A Spoiler

So the other night I was watching the DVD of a movie called "Cleaner", directed by Renny Harlin and starring Samuel L. Jackson, Eva Mendes, Ed Harris and Luis Guzman. It was a random arrival for my online-DVD-reviews-in-exchange-for-free-DVDs gig.

It's not a bad movie, and it does some things well. But it went straight to DVD basically because it doesn't do enough of them well enough for it to really have deserved a theatrical release, though I'm sure Jackson didn't know that was going to happen when he signed on.

And Jackson almost makes the movie work; he's very watchable, as always.

*** SPOILER ALERT -- IF YOU REALLY CARE ***

The problem is that though this is essentially a mystery, in which Jackson is trying to figure out who tricked him into cleaning up a crime scene, it is really painfully obvious for most of the film who the bad guy is going to be.

It's going to be Ed Harris' character, ex-cop Jackson's buddy and former cop partner. How do we know this?

Because it's such a nothing part that there's no reason why Ed Harris would do the movie unless he was going to turn out to be the killer.

For the first 80% of the film, Harris just occasionally wanders in, and really has nothing to do. The writer doesn't even attempt to really give him a storyline to make this seem like an Ed Harris-worthy part; he's just a minor character.

As if.

So it's distracting, because when we're supposed to be being misled into thinking that maybe Luis Guzman is the bad eye, our eye is firmly on Ed Harris throughout, waiting for him to come out of the shadows for the requisite showdown ending.

Sure enough.

This happens on LAW AND ORDER a lot too. Some B or C-list actress will pop up in a guest starring role, and initially it'll seem like they are just a family member. But of course they are always more important than we should initially think -- except we know that they are going to be the key character, so it doesn't really work.

Just once I'd like to see a really clever bait-and-switch, where we see a guy in the they-are-only-in-the-movie-because-they-are-the-bad-guy part, and it turns out that they aren't the bad guy, and in fact it is a nothing role. Just to shake up people's expectations a bit.

*****

THE INCREDIBLE HULK made an estimated $54.5 million this past weekend, so I was friggin' close.

THE HAPPENING made an estimated $30.5 million, a lot more than I thought. So M. Night is going to get to keep making movies. Here's hoping he knocks one out of the park soon, though I think he could really use some screenwriting help, either by co-writing or simply by getting someone else to pen one of his scripts.

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Weekend Box Office #88

So I'm absolutely swamped with work. No time to write, no time to see any movies this weekend. Not that the reviews have been that great anyway.

THE INCREDIBLE HULK (3505 theaters). The few reviews I've seen have been okay, and it'll probably do something, though I think the failed version of a few years ago knocked the bloom off this rose. $53.4 million.

THE HAPPENING (2986 theaters). I think M. Night has talent, and wish he'd stop blaming critics; the bottom line is that every movie he has done since THE SIXTH SENSE has been seriously flawed. Apparently this film isn't great, but it's supposedly better than LADY IN THE WATER, which will at least reverse his slide of every movie he makes somehow being worse than the one before. $21.1 million.

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Breaking My Story

So I've fallen off the writing wagon again.

I strung together about 10 straight days of at least an hour a day, but then life swarmed in and knocked me off track.

Now I'm trying to scramble back on, Indiana Jones style.

The problem is that I'm working on a new script, that I have a rough idea of the story of; it's a fairly high-concept buddy comedy. I know where it starts, I know where it winds up, I know stuff that happens along the way.

Not enough stuff, though.

And therein lies the problem. Because I've always been a writer who too-often wrote by the seat of his pants. Who just never worked out enough of the story beforehand.

Which works, if you have a zillion hours to give to writing, as I did in my single days.

My Nicholl semi-finalist script was written in the most time-consuming way possible. Literally, I wrote draft after draft, throwing out things that weren't working, and bending the story in a new direction, and then another one, and then another one.

The draft I wound up with is a solid script, but it took at least 20 full drafts, and I left endless excised sequences littered on the side of the road.

It's not the most time-effective way to write. At all.

My second-favorite script I actually wrote as a serialized treatment/story first, sending chunks to a friend in e-mails, so that when I finally typed it up the first draft was much, much closer to where it needed to be.

Since then I've tried to be outline guy, but the irony with my screenwriting group is that it doesn't really facilitate this. Because I need to come up with 25 pages every month or so, even if I'm in outlining phase.

So I knocked out a first act of this buddy comedy, and everyone loved it. The problem is that I really don't have solid concrete sequences for acts two and three, just basic ideas.

I hadn't really "broken" the story. And it really needs to be broken.

So that's what I'm working on now, just trying to figure out the basics. Who my characters are, what they want, how they are pursuing this need, what their flaws are, what their arc is, what their journey is, what conflicts they face along the way.

Figuring out how the story best serves this -- and how all this will best serve the story.

You know, basic ingredient stuff. In theory, it's much easier to figure out now than when I've written 40 pages that are ultimately not going to work.

The problem is that I write best when I'm actually in a scene, writing. That's when my mind comes up with great stuff, just being in the moment.

What I need to do is translate that to when I'm just sitting there with a pad of paper, beating out the plot.

It's one of my admitted flaws as a writer. Not taking the time to just sit down, pre-writing, and ask the important questions about my screenplay and what its basic story elements are.

So that's where I am now, a process that is cluttered by the fact that in 13 days I need to bring in another 25 pages. It'll probably be the first 25 again, reworked and hopefully setting up a story that has been worked out a lot more than it is now.

But that's writing.

********

Last weekend, KUNG FU PANDA made an impressive $60.2 million. YOU DON'T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN also did well, making $38.5 million.

I like Adam Sandler, though I wish he'd make better movies, though clearly there's no real economic reason to.

SEX AND THE CITY came back to Earth, dropping 62.8% in its second week, though its opening was the biggest for a romantic comedy ever, and it crossed the $100 million line yesterday, on day 11.

It'll be interesting to see how Hollywood tries to recapture this female audience (surprise! it exists!) in the future. A lot may depend on how THE WOMEN does this fall.

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Weekend Box Office #87

So we're getting to the point of summer in which grosses are getting tougher to predict, particularly when the movies get mixed reviews, as is the case this week.

KUNG FU PANDA (4114 theaters). It's not Pixar and it hasn't gotten raves, so I'm not sure how much adult business it will do. The commercials are somewhat funny, and I'm sure the family business will be there. Call it $40.3 million for the weekend.

YOU DON'T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN (3462 theaters). This is really sort of a weird premise, the amusing bit with him kicking a guy in the face is now overplayed, and I'm not sure the basic idea here is enough to lure bog audiences. Call it $17.7 million.

Otherwise... life goes on.

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Indy 4

So maybe it was because I went in with considerably lowered expectations (I have friends who hated, hated, hated this movie), but I didn't hate INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL.

In fact, I was entertained in a turn-off-your brain kind of way.

*** NO REAL SPOILERS ***

Though I think I can see what a lot of people don't like about this movie. It's basically just a stew, made up of bits and pieces from the other movies.

Chases, fights, fights during chases, people swinging on things, scenery-chewing one-note bad guys (Cate Blanchett won't be getting an Oscar nom for this cardboard performance), the same old plot of some Indy trying to keep some ancient object with magical powers out of the hands of the bad guys, here Russians who drive around in vehicles marked with a big red star, even when they're in South America.

Shia LaBoeuf isn't bad, and he has some good banter with Harrison Ford. But Shia doesn't have the edge that really would have made him convincing as the knife-wielding greaser tough-guy he's supposed to be; he feels more like a kid in a Halloween costume.

And if it's really a spoiler to you going in that he's going to turn out to be Indy's son, then you haven't seen any movies before. Though the movie really does fall way short in mining any real emotion out of this, or out of the reunion between Indy and Marion, or out of the fact that Indy is now rather old, even though Harrison Ford does fine in the role.

The plot is also rather silly, basically just an excuse to have a bunch of chases, even though a lot of them don't make much sense logistically.

So how could I generally like it?

Because Indiana Jones movies really aren't about logic. They're based on the old adventure serials, where wild stuff happens, and a lot of it isn't remotely convincing but what the hell, it's fun. And despite what some major critics have said, there is a lot of fun stuff here, including a well-choreographed chase through a jungle.

It's not a movie I'll likely see in a theater again or buy on DVD, though if it comes on TV I might find myself drawn in for a stretch. But for Indiana Jones fans who don't expect this to be another RAIDERS, it's certainly roughly on the level of the other two movies.

So, a soft recommendation. I'll give it a B-.

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Weekend Box Office #86

So I'm not going to be seeing Sex In The City this weekend. Not really because it's a "women's movie", but because the TV show never hooked me; I sampled it a few times in season 1, and I never got into it.

Though of you who do go, let me know what the male-female ratio is, because it may be record-setting. Though for you single guys, it might be a good place to pick up women.

SEX IN THE CITY (3285 theaters). Despite its apparent audience being limited to women over a certain age, I think this will do pretty well, particularly since the reviews I have seen have been generally positive. Call it $30.3 million for the weekend.

THE STRANGERS (2467 theaters). Though they probably should have released the Adam Sandler movie today as pure male counterprogramming, it'll be interesting to see if "The Strangers" can work as a date movie alternative when the guy refuses to go see Sex and the City. The LA Times review is solid, so it should do something. $16.2 million.

Look for Indiana Jones to finish number one again, though it'll likely slip to about $45 million or so for the weekend.

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So Today I'm 45

When I was younger, I thought people in their 40s were old.

Hell, as a kid, most of my friends' parents seemed ancient, and they were probably in their 30s.

But now I'm 45.

I don't feel 45.

Well, in some ways I do. My body has started its inevitable decline; I don't have the energy I used to have.

But mentally, I don't feel 45 at all. Maybe a perpetual 30.

I think that now Julie Franco has retired, I'm officially older than everyone playing major league baseball. If I had kids, some could be the age of a David Wright or a Lebron James.

Scary.

On the positive side, John F. Kennedy and Bob Hope were also born on May 29. And they did pretty well.

I've always thought that one's birthday was a more-logical time to make resolutions than New Year's. It's already a transitional day, a day in which we are saying that we're a year older, and what's going on in our lives?

So I'm going to make the usual resolutions. Write more often, and with more purpose. Make more time for friends. Try to eat better, exercise more, and drop at least 10 pounds. Talk to my siblings on the phone more often.

And try to do something with my writing career before I hit 46.

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