Writer C.J. Cherryh says that “no rule should be followed off a cliff.” She refers here to the rules of writing and good grammar. But she also mentions this with respect to her own guidelines, some of which she conveys on this page. Good stuff. And a good reminder that though I’ve come a long […]
I’ve been more or less silent around here lately. Sorry about that. I think this cartoon, taken from the pages of New Yorker (March 21, 1994,) sums things up rather nicely: Too many projects. And too many projects necessarily means choosing just one or two to focus on. Either that or a picking up some […]
Oh, Lordy, has it already been a week? A quick check of my calendar reveals…hey, where the hell’s my calendar? Well, almost a week, anyway. I owe this blog a handful of oddball posts. In fct, I owe a lot to a lot of people. LAist was gonna get two additional posts this week, but […]
March 20, 2005 – 11:48 pm
The other day I promise Danny to print up a copy of The Last Hit for him so he can pass it on to someone else who can pass it on to a magician somewhere who can wave his bejeweled staff and cause it to open on five thousand screens nationwide. When I get home […]
February 28, 2005 – 12:05 pm
I worked a short time as a script reader. I only read about a hundred scripts, but no more than a handful of them were written with a modicum of confidence, style and ability. The rest were various shades of horrible. A script reader is the second of many hurdles separating a screenplay from production. […]
February 9, 2005 – 9:10 am
On January 27, 2002 I met John Sanford. It is a cool Sunday, overcast and gloomy. I’d read his novel, The People From Heaven back when Andrew Davis was looking for something to develop by a Santa Barbara writer. The book, an experimental novel about a black woman named America coming to a hostile New […]
January 26, 2005 – 10:22 pm
Seventeen months ago, a pair of cool producers optioned the delicate skin. There was a fair amount of sernedipity involved. I had just posted it over at Triggerstreet.com when one of those producers happened to stumble upon it. Hers was the script’s very first review, and it glowed. This amazed me at the time, because […]
January 12, 2005 – 1:47 am
I’m trying to accumulate twenty pitchable script ideas for the new year. I’ve always had three or four within reach, but I’m making a determined effort to pour every ounce of creative strength I have into a long list of ideas. I don’t want toss-away notions. I want twenty ideas that speak to me, that […]
January 7, 2005 – 8:31 pm
This is me, writing: Sprawled on the floor, blue pen, thick notebook. I write about how I’m unable to write. KUSC 91.5 plays and I wonder, does life have four movements like a symphony, three movements like a concerto or multiple, phasing movements like a John Digweed set? I begin a list of partial ideas. […]
So I talk with Nena Eskridge today. She’s one of the two amazing Philly-based producers who optioned the delicate skin (the script that’s kind-of sort-of about the Black Dahlia) back in August. As always, the conversation is long and leisurely. She’s a warm and talkative person, and our meanderings tend to run the gamut from […]
Say I’m talking about my script, the delicate skin, to an executive and he’s read it and he knows it’s about Elizabeth Short (The Black Dahlia) and he leans forward and he says, “Brian DePalma’s at work on the adaptation of James Ellroy’s novel, “The Black Dahlia.” Of course I know this is coming, and […]
March 25, 2004 – 12:22 am
Just for the record, Kevin Bacon passed on my Black Dahlia-based opus, the delicate skin. I’m very disappointed in him. We won’t be playing Footloose as often at the store, that’s for sure.
March 10, 2004 – 10:48 am
Nothing much new on this end. I’m focusing on putting together a slew of potential new projects for pitching purposes. I just wake up, sit at the computer, and try to come up with a new idea per day. So far I’ve got two of them. But since I’ve been at it three days, that […]
