Here’s why.

Stop trying to help the writers write a better script! It’s a software panacea that WILL NOT be accomplished. Software cannot be your teacher. It cannot hold your hand and tell you what to write. It cannot inspire you. Case in point from the Movie Outline Software.  This is a feature they describe:

Movie Outline comes with 12 scene-by-scene outlines and analyses of successful Hollywood movies which can be viewed simultaneously to your own project to compare structure, pacing and FeelFactors, which are elements of your story that evoke an emotional or intellectual response such as gore, shock, tension, conflict, action, mystery and romance. By setting the level of each FeelFactor for each step in your story you can visually gauge the pacing & development of your narrative in the form of a colored graph. You can also export your own outline and script into the library in order to compare multiple versions of your project, helping you track changes and plan rewrite.

FeelFactors! You can set the FeelFactor for each step in your story! Ok, I get it, your trying to provide a nice new shiny feature. Some schmuck out there will buy the software and think, “Oh, setting the feelfactor sounds nice. I’ll know if my script is good.”

No, you can’t. You will never know for certain. No graph. No chart. No factor, will ever tell you how good your script is.  Software designers, I plead to you, no I beg of you, stop wasting our time with FeelFactors and help us organize our thoughts better! The two most successful screenwriting programs on the market, Movie Magic and Final Draft, both provide a clean, simple to use interface that does nothing more than help us organize our thoughts, not be a better writer.

Now, you might ask, “Isn’t software supposed to make us better writers?”

NO! Software, and the entire purpose of software design, is to make it EASIER to write, not to make you a better writer.

Isn’t this just semantics? No. The fundamental core of good software design is to examine the user and make their job easier. That’s it. Period. Make the user’s job easier. You will not become a better writer without sitting your ass down and writing… a lot. If the software process of tracking your ideas, laying out your plot, and writing a scene is disconnected from how you, as a user, organize your thoughts, then the software has failed you.

Notice the repetition. Help me organize my thoughts because when they are out of my head and on the page, somewhere, anywhere, that leaves me to be creative. That’s all we want as writers. To be creative. To be free of the clutter that is in our brains and to hone in on the story we are trying to tell. When the software is cluttered with all sorts of additional “features” we feel obligated to try it out. Then we waste time with a cluttered user experience and have a hard time feeling like we’ve really “let it all out”.

Designers, please, if a feature does not meet the simple requirement of helping us easily organize our thoughts, tell your management it’s a bad idea. If you must spend the money on something then do more user testing. Watch users utilize the software for hours on end. You will learn more in those hours than all the white boarding you do behind closed doors.

Help us organize our thoughts and we will buy your software.

*I have not used the Movie Outline Software. It does seem to have some good features, but FeelFactors made me chuckle

DVD/Bluray March 16th

A film I wrote is coming out on DVD March 16th. I wrote the first two full drafts, it was approved, and they shot it under the Lionsgate banner. I have yet to watch the final cut, but from what I’ve seen so far they did a good job with the overall look and feel.

The synopsis reads:

On these streets everyone is fighting for a way out, but after a lifetime of hard knocks, a down-on-his-luck cage fighter gets the o pportunity of a lifetime when he is chosen to compete against the MMA world champion during a massive competition. The stakes are high and the reward great…but should he lose, it will cost him his life.

A bit melodramatic for my tastes, but this industry revolves around money and these films, though they might not be cinematic masterpieces, make a ton of money. Anyone remember Van Damme? Nuff said…

Generally I am not one for depressive content as I believe that films should uplift and potentially provide some sort of positive catharsis. I am, however, a sucker for dark films that have emotional undertones. After watching the film I came to the conclusion that….

The critics  missed the point.

Spike Jonze was in charge of bringing a book to life that superbly captured the angst of a 11 year old boy. It’s a move for adults, about what it was like being a child. The frustrations with your parents, the bickering with siblings, the confusion about identity. (And your lying if you say you didn’t experience this in some way). Granted, not everyone has the same parental story, but we all remember being confused about something when we were children.

Where the Wild Things Are is a fairy tale that allows children to feel that anger/sadness/etc without feeling shamed. Why? Because Max, the boy, feels it too. Children reading the book or watching the film can identify with Max on some level. Adults can recall what it was like. If anything, the movie should help families remember the confusion everyone has as a child. It’s not all lollipops and fluffy clouds. Kids have troubles too and parents best remember this truth. Parents who deny this fact are deluding themselves and best remember what Bruno Bettelheim, a child psychologist, had to say in his amazing book The Uses of Enchantment. (I find this to be a fantastic book for writers).

I wont go into a diatribe about how the Wild Things teach Max a lesson about life and family. Or how being King (AKA, his mother) is not that easy. Or how Carol, the Wild Thing, represents Max, with the very same out of control tantrums. I wont because I expect the audience is smart enough to know this. The ending of the film, with Max’s subtle smile, says it all. Max learned a lesson. The bravery of Spike Jonze for having such an ending and, indeed, creating such a risky film, should be rewarded. He must have fought tooth and nail, like a Wild Thing, to have his vision brought to life.

Overall I enjoyed the film and encourage others to see it. But remember, watch it, as best you can, from the eyes of a child. Don’t forget what it’s like being a confused kid.

What did the director re-write? Well, he consolidated characters and overall streamlined the script. Most importantly…. he kept the heart of the character. A likable, down on his luck fighter, who never takes his situation to seriously. Someone you’d want to have around because he makes you want to be a better person. Again, Rocky for the UFC generation. All of this is usually done in the second, third,etc…. drafts, which I never had the chance to work on. But what’s fair is fair. He worked on the script and will get a Screenplay credit. I can tell he thought about the story a lot so the man deserves his share.

Hector Echavarria, who has been around the low budget industry for a while, did a great job producing and getting the film made. I don’t know how he does it, but he always seems to pull through. (He also acts in it and did a good job).

I’m excited to see the rest of the film and hope it holds up throughout the story.  I am assuming it’s still slated for a DVD release. The previously scheduled date was December 6th, 2009. However, I’m crossing my fingers and hoping it turns out well enough for a theatrical release, if at least in a few theatres. I wont hold my breath.

Bottom line… no bitching. No whining. No procrastination. Writers block? Write your way out. Even if it’s shit.

I had to learn the hard way and wish I had someone to tell me sooner. Skip to the 12 minute mark for the most pertinent dialogue.

The Sound of Young America

While we all may not all be headed towards vamparism (just some of us), there are parallels which can be drawn to our current condition.

See for yourself:

I can see it now. Big pitch. Tent pole film. 300 million dollar budget. Ready to sign the check and… “Hey, your that guy who wrote the Wolverine sucked post.”

Long pause.

“I produced that film so you can kiss my…”

Either way, I found a gem of a review that is anything but kind. In fact, with quotes like this:

Also, I think the Blade movies showed us that it’s okay to make a comic book movie for a violent character R-Rated.  Wolverine isn’t a “kiddie character” like Spiderman or Superman.  He has three 1-foot long incredibly sharp, indestructible blades on the back of his hands and goes into berserker rages that sends him into violent episodes. Think a coked out butcher with two machetes….on PCP.  Making this into a kid friendly movie is like putting a pedophile in a clown suit and giving him a job driving an ice cream truck.

I would never write anything like this, but it sure as hell made me laugh. For your reading displeasure, here is a link.

Why someone named “Kriss” thinks Wolverine Sucked.

Start date is August 15th with a UFC stocked cast.

Christopher Holland will be played by Rashad Evans (right), the current UFC Light Heavyweight champ who beat the snot out of Chuck Liddell and Forrest Griffin. I’m happy with the selection since Rashad Evans is fairly outspoken and charismatic. He may not be an actor, but he just might be able to pull it off.

Another role will potentially be filled by Lyoto Machida, another top notch UFC fighter who’s currently in line to fight Rashad. They are both undefeated so one of them will come out having lost their first fight. I hope there’s no bad blood on set otherwise it could get nasty. The good news… they don’t have to fight each other in the film.

Kieth Jardine (below), who trains in the same camp as Rashad, will also be in the film as one of the three major fighters. I’ve spoken with him a few times with regard to acting and he’s a nice enough guy. As long as he can bring the intensity he has in the ring, along with the angry looks, to the film set, he’ll be fine. After all, he is a fighter playing a fighter.

I’m looking forward to a few re-writes now that I know a few of the cast members. I expect to have a short chat with each of the fighters to find out who they are as a person. That way I can tailor the dialogue to fit their style. After all, acting isn’t their primary job so it’s my job to make their’s as natural and easy as possible without sacrificing the story.

…one of the worst adaptations, and perhaps, major release films of the year. (The award for worst major release probably goes to A Haunting in Connecticut, but I give it more slack due to budget).

Why?

There are too many reasons to list, but for starters, the core of Wolverine was lost in this film. Wolverine is a lost soul. He always has been. He’s a dark character in search of himself and if anyone crosses him they pay the price. He enjoys a good fight and never, ever holds back when provoked. Hell, the opening issue of Wolverine has him standing on a pile of bodies (see pic at right). He’s a mans man. He’s a guy who would spend winter in the Canadian Rockies hunting bear with his hands. The guy who stabs himself just to put a knife through the fly that landed on his arm. After all, he can heal, so he takes risks and has a very casual attitude towards bodily harm.

What version of Wolverine did we get?

The tanned skin, glossy toothed, castrated version. This is the PG-13 version of Wolverine that the studio  decided would command the largest demographic. It’s the equivalent of putting nipples on Batman.

SPOILER ALERT, Don’t read on if you haven’t seen the film. I discuss a few scenes in detail and major plot points.

The opening of the film starts with giving us a glimpse into the childhood of Wolverine. This is the first problem.

Wolverine doesn’t have a past.

The X-Men films set it up perfectly. Wolverine is confused about who he is and routinely goes searching for the keys to unlock his past. What does Fox do? They waste a perfect story setup and show us that: Wolverine is about 120 years old, has bone claws, is the brother of Victor Creed , and killed his own father. (To add insult to injury, much of this deviates from the comics). Now the mystery, the reason Wolverine, as a character, is so compelling, has been destroyed.  X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The title says it: “Origins”. However, the filmmakers, fail to realize that Wolverine’s origin story IS HIS LOST MEMORY, not what actually happened!

Shortly thereafter Wolverine is in Canada with Silverfox, whom we get the impression he is in love with. Then we get this gem of a scene…

Wolvy and SIlverfox are riding in the car and expounding upon why Stryker has come back to ask Wolvy to help him. Wolvy, the castrated version, utters the line, “Cause I’m the best there is at what I do , and what I do isn’t very nice.” Ok, I get it, this is a classic Wolverine line. One that has to be included, but why here? At this point we’ve seen Wolverine fight through a few wars, join a team of mutants, and basically stand around as everyone else does the work. We haven’t seen him be the “best he is at what he does” because he does NOTHING. Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds), Agent 0, and Victor Creed do all the work. Now Wolverine is like the kid on your block who TALKED about being good at something instead of showing you.

Another line of dialog, later in the film, illustrates this perfectly. It goes something to the effect of, “No laws. No code of conduct. If I do this I’m coming for blood.” Fine, but we haven’t seen him hurt anybody at this point in the film (other than the flimsy war sequences). So, do we believe him? No. Is there urgency to his words? No. Does he follow through? Nope. No blood is spilled. Creed stays alive at the end. So what is Wolverine? Answer, a blowhard.

Action Sequences

The action sequences, for the most part, lacked any kind of urgency, which is more of a plot problem. However, the action sequences and fight scenes should at least make sense. Nothing illustrates this more than the first fight between Gambit and Wolverine.

Gambit and Wolverine discuss the “island” that Gambit escaped from. Wolverine wants Gambit to take him back. Gambit believes Wolverine works for Stryker and is lying. Wolverine denies this at which point Gambit points out the dog tags. They look a lot like the dog tags of the guy who brought Gambit to the island in the first place. In other words, “I’ve seen Victor Creed and know who he is.” Never mind this horribly thin connection and the fact that dog tags are all over the place. I guess every ex-military person works for Stryker. Gambit is either stupid or this is another plot device to set up a fight.. which it is….

Gambit blasts Wolvy through a brick wall and into an alleyway, where, surprise, Victor Creed has just finished killing Wraith. Gambit follows Wolverine into the alleyway, sees Wolverine growling at someone down the alleyway, doesn’t look and gets knocked out with an elbow to the head. This allows Wolverine to proceed with fighting Victor Creed, presumably, without Gambit seeing Creed. Wolvy and Creed fight. Wolvey beats his ass and just as he’s about to finish it we cut to, surprise, Gambit, awake and lively, running along the rooftops for no apparent reason… Well, other than to leap from the top of the building, charge up his staff, and create a huge exlposion. The explosion dislodges Creed from Wolverine’s grasp and Creed runs away to fight another day.

So wait, Gambit, previously knocked out, lying in the alleyway, wakes up, ignores Wolverine and Creed fighting, and climbs up the side of a building just to jump off? Wouldn’t he have at least glanced at the two fighting studs and seen Creed, the guy he acknowledged hating, being beaten to death by Wolverine? Wouldn’t that cause him to abort his leap from the building?

Fireballs and helicopters. The “I’m too cool to turn around when something explodes behind me” scene is fodder for the straight to DVD market. It’s cliched. Overdone. And frankly, stupid. You know the scene I am talking about.

Onto the end of the film, because I am growing tired.

Wolverine goes to the island to exact his revenge, discovers that Silverfox is alive, and begins to walk away. She betrayed him. His love. His life. She lied to him. He was ready to kill Creed over her death and he just walks away. No major anger. No Wolverine temper. Nothing in as much as disappointment. Then, wait, she screams! Wolverine rushes back into the building to help save her. This seesawing back and forth makes Wolverine look like a pansy and deviates from the berserker that he really is.

Introducing Weapon XI (11). Wow. Basically we have just established that in this world Wolverine is not unique. They can manufacture mutants by combining DNA. The relative ease in which Wolverine dispatches Weapon XI brings into question Wolverine’s own skills. If Weapon XI can die so easily then Wolverine can as well. Great. Character suddenly not as bad ass.

ENGAGE. So they have to type “Engage” into a computer to activate the Weapon XI? Why? Wouldn’t, given that they can replicate mutants, they have something more advanced than WIFI and command prompts? Better yet, why didn’t they implant this same feature into Wolverine? It would have saved a fortune.

I have sympathy for the director and writer. Really. I know it can be difficult dealing with Producers who have to protect the bottom line. One group wants to make the perfect film. The other wants to make the film that makes money. Sometimes they don’t have the same vision, but the truth is, both needs can be met. Anyone remember the box office take of The Dark Knight?

What would I do?

Start the film in the snow swept mountain tops of the Canadian Rockies. Wolverine, dressed in tattered clothing, trudges through the snow, sniffing his way across the land. His hair is long. Face bearded. Silence. He sniffs the air and darts away. CUT TO: A grizzly bear sniffing the air. It turns and faces Wolverine, crouched and ready. The bear rears up and we have our first action scene. Wolverine is slammed against a tree. Claws tear through his back. This bear would destroy a human, but Wolverine gets up and keeps coming back. With his bare hands (no claws) he kills the bear.

Wolves emerge from the woods and begin feeding as he walks away. A few scenes later, after establishing his animal like behavior, we have him decide to emerge from the woods. He’s found some kind of peace living amongst the animals. It’s clear when he stares at the vast wilderness and far away you can see the twinkle of the city lights.

The purpose of his return? To figure out his past once and for all. The journey involves a trilogy of epic films that have Wolverine uncovering his past by putting together clues and following leads all across the globe. From Japan to the depths of the Amazon. Wolverine gets in brawls, huge battles, and runs across characters (Gambit, Blob, etc…) that reveal a secret of his past. Everything culminates in an epic battle with Sabretooth at the end of the third film. Only, he doesn’t find all the answers, just random memories and potential lies. He seeks out Professor Xavier for help, joins the X-Men, and continues his search. Subsequent films can explore his past in more detail, like his time in Japan. You could have an entire trilogy on that time alone.

Play up the mystery that surrounds his past. We don’t need to know everything. Use this mystery as an integral part of his character. Make Wolverine the anti-hero. He is reluctant and jaded. His straight forward behavior gets him in fights. He has a been there done that attitude.

I could go on. Marvel, please, please, buy back the rights to one of the greatest comic book characters of all time! We need a re-boot already.