15. Seven Pounds - Will Smith hooks back up with The Pursuit of Happyness director Gabriele Muccino. I enjoy Big Will and liked their first hook-up. and this project is intriguing. Check out the tagline: “In seven days God created the world… in seven seconds He shattered mine.”

14. Changeling - Angelina Jolie directed by Clint Eastwood. Talk about making my day–sign me up. My guess is that this picture will net Jolie another Oscar nom, and possibly yet another one for Clint as well.

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Once again, the lovely ScriptGirl and her weekly report…

No need to beat around the bush…let’s start counting down the 20 Fall/Winter movies that I’m most excited about…

20. City of Ember - Bill Murray starring in a sci-fi/fantasy flick? Count me in. I love apocalyptic stories (this won’t be the only one in this preview) series, and the book seems to have a strong following. Although the trailer and release date kind of give me that Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow vibe.

19. Defiance - Yes, I’m aware that this is the heavy-handed Zwickster. But I’m also a huge, huge Daniel Craig fan. The minute I saw Layer Cake I wanted him to be Bond. He’s great in Munich, too. Then again, I’m worried that this is just going to be a shiny, overdone Hollywood version of Come and See. This is ranked here solely because of Craig.

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A good way to both inspire yourself and create a feel for the world of your screenplay is to create a mock soundtrack. I’ve done this recently by creating a playlist on iTunes. I think about the key scenes of my story, and then I try to come up with music that both fits those scenes and the overriding theme and tone. I can’t listen to music all the time when I’m screenwriting, but a lot of times I do. This method is especially helpful if you are either feeling disconnected from your story or not in a writing vibe. Sometimes I play the soundtrack and just close my eyes and visualize. Hey, whatever works, right?

Who knows, this may be completely worthless for you. But it’s helped me, so I thought I’d pass it along.

Since I have raved about Netflix in the past, it’s only fair that I’m honest about the service’s shortcomings as well. The one thing that is really jacked up about Netflix is its priority settings:

In determining priority for shipping and inventory allocation, we may utilize many different factors such as the number and type of DVDs you rent through our service, the subscription plan you select, and other uses of our service by you. For example, if all other factors are the same, we give priority to those members who receive the fewest DVDs through our service.

So, let me get this straight…the more you pay, the less pull you have priority-wise? Isn’t that sort of taking advantage of your best customers? As someone who always gets four, five or six DVDs at a time, I think this just sucks. Looks like I’m never getting Spaced or any new release on Blu-Ray. Thanks a lot, Netflix.

I also did get to see Tropic Thunder, and will have a review on that up sometime this week…

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One of the things I want to do with this site is occasional film reviews. After reading the reviews–it’s currently in the low 20s over at Rotten Tomatoes!–I just don’t think I can go to the theater and see The Clone Wars. I’m a huge Star Wars fan, and after going home depressed after two of the three prequels, I’m not going to do it to myself again. I’m going to wait for the Blu-Ray, and rent it from Netflix at that.

I do plan on going to see a couple movies this weekend. The first is Tropic Thunder, Ben Stiller’s directorial follow-up to the hilarious Zoolander. The second, is Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Both are in the 80s on Rotten Tomatoes, and I’m a big fan of Woody Allen, but also Jack Black (the best part of the latest King Kong, if you ask me), Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz (Volver was awesome), Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson. I actually just watched one of my favorite Woody Allen films, Match Point, which stars the lovely Johansson. The only Woody flick I like better is The Purple Rose of Cairo.

Let’s hope that VCB ranks up there with those two films, as well as Annie Hall, Bullets Over Broadway and all Woody’s other gems. Let’s also hope that Tropic Thunder splits my side.

Also, am I crazy to think that The Dark Knight is a dark horse to win the box office one again?

Not from me. You get no immunity from me, you piece of shit. Every criminal I have put in prison, every cop that owes me a favor, every creep and scumbag that walks the streets for a living will know the name of Verbal Kint. Now you talk to me, or that precious immunity they seem so fit to grant you won’t be worth the paper the contract put out on your life is printed on. - Chazz Palminteri as Dave Kujon in The Usual Suspects

I’ve mentioned this before, but tickets are now on sale. I can’t wait to see one of my favorite films from the 90s, with one of its stars there to talk about the film. Gotta love The Usual Suspects. Gotta love the Alamo Drafthouse, too. Gotta love Chazz Palminteri (A Bronx Tale, Bullets Over Broadway). This is a no-brainer. Go get your tickets while you still can. I’m buying mine right now.

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UPDATE: Looks like I waited a little too long. Amazon is sold out at 7:33 PM CST. Guess I will be waiting for Blu-Ray.

Can I keep my impulses in check, or will I pull the trigger on this awesome deal? Man, my DVD addiction is bad. The only thing making me trigger shy is that I know they are coming out with 007 titles on Blu-Ray later this year. I’m thinking I’ll wait, but if you love Bond you might want to buy now–the deal will be over at midnight. Especially if you don’t have a Blu-Ray player.

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After watching all three seasons of Deadwood on DVD, I’ve now moved on to Firefly. I absolutely love it; it’s like Deadwood meets Star Trek, except nobody has pointy ears, and they don’t say “cocksucker” every two-and-a-half minutes.

Anyway, I’ve realized that Firefly’s female characters are one of the reasons I like the show so much. They are strong women, who were created and written against type.

Zoë Washburne - Woman first mate who wears the pants in her marriage. She may be handle herself like a man, but their aren’t many men who wouldn’t like to handle her (might have to save that for a character description).

Inara Serra - She’s an elegant whore. She’s a hooker who’s the most-cultured, sophisticated resident of the ship.

Kaylee Frye - She’s a woman mechanic. Not only does she dress, think and talk boyish, she knows how to fix stuff better than anyone who stands up to whizz. Still, deep down she’s a girly girl. That’s what makes her seem so real.

I tend to think the best characters are living, breathing ironies, and that’s what all three of those characters are. They are also original and STRONG female characters. And River Tam is just beginning to come into her own. She’s kind of like Rain Man, but younger and hotter. I have a feeling that she’s going to end up being a badass, too. Haven’t gotten that far.

Maybe Joss Whedon created such strong female characters because of his experiences on Roseanne and Buffy? Whatever the reason, Firefly is an excellent example of how men should aim to write women characters. And women writers, too, for that matter.

Today’s big screenwriting news is that Kurt Wimmer will re-write the Tom Cruise role in the spy thriller Edwin A. Salt…for Angelina Jolie. As a result, I’m a whole lot more interested in seeing Salt. Sorry, Tom, but it’s just a much more original concept now. After seeing Jolie in Wanted, we also know that Jon Voight’s offspring can pull it off.

This switch got me thinking…screenwriting is a male-driven industry, and most films have male protagonists, and most of the highest-grossing actors are men…BUT because of those facts, female audiences are almost ignored completely, deprived of protagonists that empower women.That’s why you should always at least ponder switching the way your protag pees–from standing up to sitting down.

I met Karen MCullah and Kirsten Smith, who wrote 10 Things I Hate About You, a long time ago. They were the ones who first planted the gender-switch seed in my head. I was struggling with a father-son coming-of-age spec screenplay, and it just wasn’t doing it for me. At their suggestion, I switched the protagonist to a female. It totally brought my story to life. In retrospect, the story was never compelling enough to sell. But it was much, much more compelling after I made the lead a female.

Before today, I hadn’t thought of that whole experience in forever. Looks like I’m going to have to pull out some scripts and think about doing some sex change operations. Off the top of my head, I might change an antagonist, a big-time villain, to a female. Think about it; if you write a bad-ass role for a fella, how bad ass will that character be when you re-write it for a female. Just think about it. Would Misery have been a classic if Kathy Bates’ character was written (by Steven King or William Goldman) a man? Probably not.

This won’t work for a lot of scripts, but I’m guessing it could also fix a few. I found switching the role after I wrote it the most effective way to do this. That way I wrote a STRONG female character. Not that I’m a chauvinist, but I definitely think she ended up being stronger because of that approach. Hey, it’s worth a try. If it fails, at least you got to be Lorena Bobbit for a day.