I’ve actually been looking forward to Oliver Stone’s W since it was announced. I know, I know, Stone’s last several outings, at least, have been just awful. For some reason I smell a comeback with this one. After all, the last two movies of his that I’ve enjoyed, other than Natural Born Killers, have been Presidential biopic flicks–JFK and Nixon. The Oval Office just seems to bring the best out of Oliver.

W is going to be different, though. Sure, like his other two Presidential movies, it will be controversial, there’s no arguing that. But, unlike Kennedy and Nixon, George W. Bush is an extremely unpopular President. He’s also the current President. It will be a difficult movie to pull off right now. Half the country, if not more, will want him portrayed as an ex-drunk screw-up turned war criminal President, while the rest of the country will just hate on the film–like they did Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11–and try to paint it as just another example of the liberal media and its propaganda. This film could also have an effect on the upcoming Presidential election, which is about a month after its release. I do think Fahrenheit 9/11 had some effect on the last election, although obviously not enough to make the difference.

Normally, I wouldn’t trust Stone. But after watching the film’s trailer (below) and seeing that Stanley Weiser (Wall Street) is the scribe, I’m on board. Regardless if W is any good, it will be a groundbreaking project. Biopics are hardly ever done when its subject is still in the public spotlight like this. Sure, there was The Queen, but there is still something about this that is unprecedented. I definitely don’t envy Weiser for getting to pen this project. Then again, with a President this unpopular, won’t just making him look bad make Weiser look good? We’ll see.

Enjoy the trailer, compliments of Lions Gate:

I’m pretty sure all screenwriters try and keep up with the latest developments in Hollywood, the trades and such. It’s always good to know what’s coming out so you don’t slave on your reverse-aging spec script for a year only to find out that David Fincher’s upcoming The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is going to kill your baby once and for all. Well, while you’re checking out AICN, Coming Soon or Variety, why not have a little fun, too?

What in the hell am I talking about? The Hollywood Stock Exchange, that’s what. HSX is a mock stock exchange where you trade stocks that are based on Hollywood’s players and projects. I actually just cracked the top 4,000 players out of around 2 million. So, yeah, I’ve been playing for five years and I’m hooked. But it’s a great way to stay caught up on the film industry. Because of my involvement in HSX, there is basically never a film that sneaks up on me. I’m always in the know, and I always have fun trying to stay there.

Make sure to head on over there and start playing–you’ll enjoy yourself. That way you also won’t be left in the dark when I post on HSX developments from time to time. My username is absolutebest if you want to add me to your league, or list me as a referral ($50,000 in my digital pocket, baby).

I read John August’s blog pretty frequently, and that’s where I saw his recommendation for Christopher Riley’s script format and style book The Hollywood Standard. Here’s what he says about the book:

This is strictly about formatting, and on that level, it’s solid enough that I hereby abdicate all common formatting questions..

After buying and using the book–from Half.com, one of my favorites sites, for a good price–I couldn’t agree more. From binocular POVs to intercutting telephone conversations and beyond, Riley’s answered all of my questions. All screenwriters should own this book and keep it at their desk, right next to their thesaurus.

I was already pumped about August’s Tropic Thunder, but now I’m really psyched. One of my favorite documentaries of all time is Hearts of Darkness, which chronicles Francis Ford Coppola making Apocalypse Now. I just recently Netflixed and re-watched it, and it doesn’t get any less interesting with time. Probably the opposite, actually. A must-see movie for any serious fan of film.

Now, Paramont has been clever enough to come up with a Hearts of Darkness mockumentary called Rain of Madness, which even has its own site. What a great idea. After seeing how well The Dark Knight’s viral marketing did, and knowing that they’ll be able to put this on the DVD–just brilliant. What I’m wondering is how long Rain of Madness will actually end up being, and if scribes Etah Cohen and Justin Theroux penned it in addition to Tropic Thunder? If I had to guess, I’d guess that they were heavily involved with the project.

Regardless, with the emergence of both Blu-Ray and its increased storage capacity and Internet viral marketing, expect opportunities for screenwriters to extend beyond the initial script.

Here’s that Rain of Madness trailer. To download in glorious QuickTime, go here. Enjoy:

(hat tip: First Showing)

Is there anything worse than having your computer crash? I was searching for a torrent of an older TV series somehwat similar to my spec script (er, no I wasn’t) late last night, and after finally finding it my tired, lazy, ignorent ass didn’t scan it. Guess what? Yep, I got a virus and my computer crashed. Guess what else? Yep, I hadn’t yet backed up the first 38 pages of my script or my exhaustive set of notes.

Luckily, I’m pretty computer profecient and was able to do a non-destructive system restore, which only took a couple of hours after I figured it out. I didn’t lose anything, except my mind temporarily.

The moral of the story: back up your shit.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m currently writing an action/fantasy spec script. Of course, I’m not going to divulge my story here, but what I will share is something I discovered during the process of crafting said story. When it comes to scripting action, fantasy and sci-fi flicks, you really have to start things off with a bang.

Not only do you have to grab the audience’s attention right away in these genres, but you also have to set the stage for the rest of the film. This is especially true when the protagonist and audience will be journeying into a new world. Nine times out of 10, an introduction into that world as a prologue will be more entertaining than kicking things off in your protagonist’s ordinary world. Additionally, the foreshadowing of the new world the protagonist will enter makes their introduction much more fascinating. The audience instinctively knows that the protagonist and new world will collide at some point, and that makes them much more interested in your protagonist. After all, if nothing extraordinary is going to happen to your main character, why should the audience give a damn about them any more than the fat guy who’s chomping popcorn next to them? Show your audience where you are going to take them right off the bat, because in these genres that’s what they paid for.

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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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