I love the Alamo Drafthouse. I especially dig their special events.  I’m lucky enough to actually live within walking distance of the Lake Creek location.

Next month, I’m definitely going to go see The Usual Suspects, one of my all-time faves, with special guest Chazz Palminteri. Unfortunately, tickets aren’t on sale yet. I’m also looking forward to the Pinneapple Express, because the Apatow crew has been on fire lately (other than Walk Hard). I wonder what will be better: Pinneapple Express or Tropic Thunder? August is going to be a good month at the Alamo.

Anyway, here’s that montage:

And you thought Ben Stiller and Tom Cruise teaming up to do the Hardy Men was a bad idea. Seriously, can you even imagine trying to script Top Gun 2? Especially with the Cruister’s current reputation? And if Katie Holmes–yes, the one who almost ruined Batman Begins–actually ends up co-starring…this could be the worst idea since Guy Ritchie’s Swept Away. I’d go see it opening night just for its sheer comedic value. I mean, is he trying to ruin his career?

Considering my last post, I found it extremely interesting that First Showing is actually hosting a “Where Could The Dark Knight Go Next?” contest. Pretty cool…

With the entire world wrapped up in The Dark Knight this weekend, I thought it would be fun to hold a contest for fans who can’t stop thinking about Batman.

Rules? Here they are:

The rules are simple: write the best story for the sequel to The Dark Knight in 500 words.

Damn. My version long-winded version is 1,500 words right now. I have some serious editing to do before tomorrow night’s midnight deadline, that’s for sure. Head over to First Showing for more details. Good luck to all of those who decide to enter.

I’m a huge Batman fan, anybody who knows me knows that. That’s why it’s not really odd that this post will precede my introductory post, which I assure you is coming. Obviously, this week was exciting for me. The problem, however, was that I came home from watching the record-breaking The Dark Knight twice–once on Imax Thursday at midnight, and again on Friday afternoon–with bats on the brain. That was a very bad thing considering that I was already a bit stuck on my current project, and had allotted most of the weekend to spend on screenwriting.

What did I do? I created an exercise that both got those bats off my brain and freed me up to write. I did a mock treatment for how I would do the sequel to The Dark Knight. The idea was that it would be fun and, more importantly, lacking any real pressure. As most screenwriters seem to be, I’m also a world-class self saboteur. I put so much pressure on myself to deliver that sometimes I cripple myself. Everything has to be perfect. Because of that, I spend way more time than I should plotting, rewriting existing scenes and, worst of all, stuck in my head. Anything to avoid moving forward with…something shitty. This exercise worked wonders once before, when I did a mock treatment for Beverly Hills Cop 4. Since I am currently doing a summer-popcorn spec, I figured doing this exercise again with the upcoming third Nolan Batman movie would be worthwhile. Here’s what I came up with for the post-Joker era of the franchise…

First off, I would up the ante. Three villains this time, instead of basically two in each of the previous installments. But who?

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