screenplay

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Who’s Watching the Watchers Watching Watchmen?

March 24, 2009 in classics, film, graphic novels by Claire | 2 comments

When books become movies

I finally saw “Watchmen.”  The original plan was for me to run out and see the very first matinee on the very first day it opened–and by “plan,” of course I mean “fantasy.”  I didn’t even come close.  It had been out for a couple of weeks by the time Rob and I actually made it to the cinema. 

I was dying to see “Watchmen” because I read the book this year and was blown away by it.  I wanted to roll around inside that book forever–it was that kind of feeling.  I like reading graphic novels in general, but Watchmen is to its genre what “The Simpsons” is to prime time cartoons: it inverts and subverts convention and defies expectations and yet somehow stays true to its identity.   If you haven’t read Watchmen, I can’t explain it to you–just go read it.  (And, by the way, according to one of my husband’s colleagues, I haven’t actually read Watchmen, because I’ve only read it once.  For legions of fans, you only really get to say you’ve read the book if you’ve gone through it at least half a dozen times.  And it is true that I probably missed tons the first time around–I look forward to rereading it one day.)

So I went off to the movie with a fair amount of anticipation.   Almost three hours later, I walked out with a fair amount of a shrugging sort of  ”well, that was kind of fun.”  Was it faithful to the original?  It was.  Did it transcend the original?  No.  Was it as good as the book?  Not really.  Was the adaptation flawed?  I’m not sure.   Would I have liked it if I hadn’t read the book?  I doubt it. Read the rest of this entry »

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Want to Write Your Own Screenplay?

February 21, 2009 in film by Claire | 2 comments

First buy a book . . .

It’s awards season, the time when people all across our great country are thinking, “I could write a better screenplay than THAT.”  In an incredible show of goodguyship, my husband Rob took a break  from writing episodes of “The Simpsons” to read and review some of the top screenwriting how-to guides for those who want to plunge in.  The rest of this post is all him:

Aspiring novelists who walk the fiction aisles at the bookstore wonder how it must feel to finally have a book published after years of hard work, and then they all have the same thought:  maybe I should just write a screenplay.  Movie scripts are a lot shorter, pay a LOT better than novels, and if you do sell one, you’ll have time and money to write your novel, for which, of course, you’ll write the screenplay.  Or maybe you should just write the screenplay first.

The problem is, how do you go about writing a script?  Might there possibly be a book out there that tells you in insufferable detail how to go about the process?  Actually, there are several hundred of those–leading to the thought that maybe the aspiring writer should skip both the novel and the screenplay and go right to publishing his own writing guide.

Anyway,  Claire and Kim asked me to come up with a list of the best screenwriting how-to books, but after agreeing, I realized that I haven’t bought one of these books in years.

So I headed over to The Writer’s Store in Los Angeles.  I spoke with Anthony, one of their extremely knowledgeable salesmen, and asked him to name their top-selling screenwriting book.  He immediately said, “Save the Cat” and pointed to a big empty space on the shelves where it sits when it’s not sold out.  I bought several others he recommended, found my old favorites, and borrowed Save the Cat from a friend, knowing full well that just because it was the flavor-of-the-month didn’t mean it belonged on my list.  From those choices I compiled my top-five list of screenwriting books: Read the rest of this entry »

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For Shame

February 3, 2009 in book review, film, Uncategorized by Kim | No comments

The Reader as a Book

Like most of the world, my continuing response to the Holocaust is “how could that be?”  Where was human decency?  I’ve learned that there isn’t one answer, but many large and small ones.  The Reader by Bernhard Schlink provides an insight.  When Hanna answers the judge with a truly wondering “what would you have done?” the reader (or viewer in the movie) has to live in her shoes and, hopefully, truly wonder.  It is a question from Hanna to everyone who stands by in life, and it is a question from the Nazi era generation to future German generations.

The Reader is the story of Micheal, a teenager who has an illicit affair with Hanna, a woman more than twice his age.  They have sex (Kate Winslet has her own sex sub-genre this year between “Revolutionary Road” and “The Reader”) and he reads to her.  Hanna suddenly disappears largely due to a desire to keep her own secret.  Years later, Michael attends a Nazi criminal trial and Hanna is one of the plaintiffs.  He discovers her secret, knows that it would reduce her sentencing, possibly her culpability (I don’t think so, personally) and yet says nothing.   Hanna receives a life sentence while her fellow plaintiffs receive four years.  For years, he reads into a tape recorder and sends Hanna the tapes.  He does not interact with her until just before her release over twenty years later. Read the rest of this entry »

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Without a Doubt, it will be Nominated for the Oscar for Best Writing Adapted Screenplay

January 18, 2009 in film by Kim | No comments

As a reminder, Claire and I are going to guess which screenplay will win the Oscar for Best Writing Adapted Screenplay.  I’ve written about “Revolutionary Road,” which is a contender in my opinion, and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” which I think belongs in Best Writing Original Screenplay.  For those of you who missed the moment on the Golden Globes, “Slumdog Millionaire” won the writing award, along with every other non-acting award.  The nominees for all of the Oscars will be announced on January 22nd, and I’m positive “Doubt” will be on the list for Best Writing Adapted Screenplay.

John Patrick Shanly wrote both the play and the screenplay for “Doubt.”   In the preface to the play, Mr. Shanley writes what I have so long advocated, that it is through the struggle of doubt that we learn what we truly believe, that we test the mettle of what we’ve accepted as truth.  I wish I could remember the name of the famous theologian who answered the woman to who told him “I’ve been a Christian all of my life and I”ve never doubted” by saying “Then, madam, you are no Christian.”  Mr. Shanley states, “Doubt requires more courage than conviction does, and more energy; because conviction is a resting place and doubt is infinite–it is a passionate exercise.”  Read the rest of this entry »

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How could the Oscar for Writing Adapted Screenplay possibly go to “Benjamin Button?”

January 6, 2009 in book review, film by Kim | No comments

As I discussed earlier with regard to “Revolutionary Road,” Claire and I are going to try to predict which screenwriter will win the award for Best Adapted Screenplay.  Now, I should be perfectly clear, we have absolutely no qualifications to do this, but so what.  While I don’t know which screenplay I’ll pick to win, I know it won’t be for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”

I read the story of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald before I saw the movie not worrying that it would ruin the story; the previews already tell the story of a baby born old and growing younger in body.   In any event it was irrelevant, the only thing adapted from the short story to the movie was the title, that’s it.  Not a single fact is the same.  Moreover the concept is different.  In the Fitzgerald story, the baby is born mentally and physically old and both aspects of his life grow younger.  The story familiar to all of us who read The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer of goola baby born physically old and mentally young, then grows younger in body but matures mentally with age, that is the ”Benjamin Button” movie plot line.  Mr. Greer explains that he didn’t know of the movie or the short story and the movie didn’t know of him until his book was published, which explains why the movie wasn’t named after Max.  However, it doesn’t explain why the movie is entirely different from the short story, yet still used its title.  If this concept intrigues you, I recommend the Tivoli book, it’s a nice read. Read the rest of this entry »

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