3 pages

Okay, to really open up for ya - - - to whet your appetite - here are the first three pages of the screenplay for the next project. I formatted this as close as possible to the actual script, but hey - it's a blog, it won't be perfect.

Enjoy.
SMA

Diamond Road V2 2005

FADE IN:

EXT. CORNFIELD - DAY
A gentle wind plays on the baby fresh leaves of an enormous green COTTON FIELD. A cloudless blue sky above completes the perfect dream of a day.

The quiet is broken as three bright yellow AIRPLANES (old AIR TRACTORS) SCREAM past overhead.
In unison, they release a yellow powder which drifts downward toward the field.

CROPDUSTING!

I/E. COCKPIT - CONTINUOUS
The cockpit of the first airplane VEERS into view - EDDIE DUNGRIN, 24 a slickback haired, James Dean with a sense of humor - flyboy at the stick.

The radio CRACKLES:

RADIO VOICE
Betcha can’t.

EDDIE
Of course I can. I just don’t wanna.

RADIO VOICE
Right.

Eddie wrestles with himself.

EDDIE
Dammit. Okay. Watch me.

I/E. ANOTHER COCKPIT - CONTINUOUS
- Piloted by SCOTTIE, 23, Eddie’s best friend. Burly with curly hair, he is slightly more responsible than Eddie. Only slightly, but it’s enough to see that trouble is on the way.

SCOTTIE
Bad idea, Eddie. Don’t do it.

BACK TO:

I/E. EDDIE’S CROPDUSTER COCKPIT - CONTINUOUS

EDDIE
It’s no big deal.

His face belies the words. Whatever it is, is a big deal.
Eddie concentrates as The GROUND races by. In the far distance, sticking from the field, a FLAG on a pole quickly approaches.

RADIO VOICE
Fifty bucks.

Eddie concentrates. The bet is on.

EXT. FIELD - CONTINUOUS
Eddie’s airplane SCREAMS past, a yellow blur, flying low to the ground.

INT. EDDIE’S CROPDUSTER COCKPIT - CONTINUOUS
The flag approaches. Eddie dips lower.

EXT. FIELD - CONTINUOUS
WOOOMP, the propeller slices through the flag, turning it to instant confetti. The airplane buzzes past.

INT. EDDIE’S CROPDUSTER COCKPIT - CONTINUOUS

EDDIE
Yeah, baby! Fifty bucks.

EXT. EDDIE CROPDUSTER - CONTINUOUS
A secondary WATERING POLE suddenly appears from nowhere. The landing gear slams into it, and with a SCREECHING rip, the left wheel TEARS off the bottom of the airplane!

INT. EDDIE’S CROPDUSTER COCKPIT - CONTINUOUS
Eddie pulls back on his flight stick, pulling the airplane to a higher altitude.

EDDIE
Uh, guys - what happened?

SCOTTIE
Geez, Eddie. I think you
tore up the landing gear.

Scottie pulls his airplane under Eddie’s and looks up through the glass canopy. Underneath the belly of Eddie’s airplane, the twisted landing gear vibrates in the wind.

EDDIE
Well?

SCOTTIE
It’s going to be a rough landing.
Your left side is gone. You’ll
have to land it on the right side.

His airplane arcs away from Eddie’s.

EDDIE
Damn it.

EXT. GRASS STRIP - MOMENTS LATER
Scottie stands on the edge of the landing strip, next to his airplane. He watches as Eddie’s airplane drifts slowly toward the ground.

INT. EDDIE’S CROPDUSTER COCKPIT - CONTINUOUS
Eddie holds the stick tightly, guiding the airplane as best as possible to put the majority weight on the one remaining wheel.

EXT. GRASS STRIP - CONTINUOUS
The airplane descends timidly - in a near stall. The single wheel hits - bounces - hits again.

Dirt flies as the strut that held a missing wheel rips a ditch into the ground. The airplane travels forward on the remaining wheel.
The airplane hops off the ground and then back again.


Hopefully you can see the rest at the movies in a couple years.

Salon.com News | 450 sheep jump to their deaths in Turkey

At the risk of becoming one of those blogs that does nothing but regurgitate other news - I had to put this up. It's just too weird.
Some people mention lemmings... I was thinking more about someone trying to get to sleep counting sheep... In the cartoons, they always fly past, don't they?
Or, biblically weren't sheep always used in sacrifices? I guess you'd call this self sacrifice - hmm, how very paternal.

Or... had the sheep had enough from the shepards?

Salon.com News | 450 sheep jump to their deaths in Turkey: "450 sheep jump to their deaths in Turkey

July 8, 2005 | Istanbul, Turkey -- First one sheep jumped to its death. Then stunned Turkish shepherds, who had left the herd to graze while they had breakfast, watched as nearly 1,500 others followed, each leaping off the same cliff, Turkish media reported.

In the end, 450 dead animals lay on top of one another in a billowy white pile, the Aksam newspaper said. Those who jumped later were saved as the pile got higher and the fall more cushioned, Aksam reported.

'There's nothing we can do. They're all wasted,' Nevzat Bayhan, a member of one of 26 families whose sheep were grazing together in the herd, was quoted as saying by Aksam.

The estimated loss to families in the town of Gevas, located in Van province in eastern Turkey, tops $100,000, a significant amount of money in a country where average GDP per head is around $2,700."

view to a kill

Wired News: "Steel Curtain Rings Down
James Henry Smith was a zealous Pittsburgh Steelers fan in life, and even death could not keep him from his favorite spot: in a recliner, in front of a TV showing his beloved team in action. Smith, 55, of Pittsburgh, died of prostate cancer Thursday. Because his death wasn't unexpected, his family was able to plan for an unusual viewing Tuesday night. The Samuel E. Coston Funeral Home erected a small stage in a viewing room, and arranged furniture on it much as it was in Smith's home on game day Sundays. Smith's body was on the recliner, his feet crossed and a remote in his hand. He wore black and gold silk pajamas, slippers and a robe. A pack of cigarettes and a beer were at his side, while a high-definition TV played a continuous loop of Steelers highlights.
-- Associated Press"


So Basically, you got to view the lifestyle that probably killed him. Nice.

It's kinda like a death diarama. Leave a comment - come up with your own death diarama.


Winner gets a signed "The Last Broadcast" DVD.

Think you've seen it all ?

TheWMURChannel.com - News - Man Pulled From Women's Outhouse Tank

If you haven't heard about this one yet, check it out. This is as close to the story as you can get - video clip included.

Hey Paul, you still think blogs are boring?

lazy summer day

So, I finished the third draft of the new version of the rewrite of Diamond Road.

This one, I'm going to actually give to a couple friends to read - for notes.

I've spent the last couple days hanging out a bit with friends. A couple in from New York, showing them the town a bit. Actually, since they know the town, I'm showing them things people don't always see when the go to Los Angeles - the mountains, and such.

An evil neighbor of ours lent me a notebook computer - to see if I'd be interested in buying it - It was a great machine, but would represent only a slightly vertical climb from my current machine. However, this set off the great laptop wanderlust of '05. I've been online looking at what the latest greatest offerings are. Whatever I get next, it's gotta be light. This Vaio has been good, but it's so damn heavy. With the battery currently lasting a mere twenty minutes (and that's a new battery), this effectively is not really a portable computer.

Anyone have any ideas on systems they like?
I recently became aware of ASUS notebooks and am quite enamored with them. I think that's the direction I'm heading.

No news on the eviction front - I'm waiting for the axe to drop anyday now. Our landlord (now former, I guess) managed to do one last half-finished job. The main water line between the city and our house broke. It required going through a concrete walk in our backyard and some deconstruction of a little pump enclosure I made. Of course, it's now a huge rubble pile, and I imagine it will remain so till the end of our days here - however many they may be.

Ah well, it's amazing how placid I've become about the whole thing.

Watched Land of the Dead last night. Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed. Seemed more like a Road Warrior movie than a zombie movie. I guess if I'd gone in with that expectation, I'd be satisfied - it had a enough gore and all - but somehow it didn't have that sense of dread that all the others have managed to lay over you. I'm going to speak blasphemy here but - my favorite zombie movie at the moment is the remake of Dawn of the Dead. How about that?

Have a good weekend and enjoy the longest days of summer.

I felt it

Okay - 1:55
Felt a rolling quake.
Small, very small...

With the last three days of seismic activity, it's getting a bit nervous.

Update -
This one was near Big Bear and measured 5.3
Not nothing, but still not a major quake. It's enough though to prompt testing the flashlight and looking at the water supply.

In looking around for what could need re-situating, things that could fall from shelves, etc. - the only thing I moved was a large glass bottle of Gin.

Priorities, Baby, Priorities.

firefox

In the endless search for distraction while writing (I've gotten too good at Minesweeper), I finally installed Firefox. (Yes, Steve - it took a while. You know who you are)
It offers some pretty cool stuff, but the load up is so damn slow.

I really like the extensions, and am writing this really pointless post because of the "blog" extension. Pretty cool.

Hey, anyone remember that movie with Clint Eastwood called Firefox?


Writing continues. A first draft finished, I'm going through the depressing moves of crossing out the crep. Not much left of the original. Screenplays are like the bionic man. Rebuild, faster, stronger, better than before -- unless the patient dies on the table.

More soon.

Hey, in regards to this blogging stuff -- if anyone here knows how to add links to the template without having to actually go into the template settings, let me know.

Happy Memorial Day

Hey, it's raining!

what the heck is that? Here in Sunny Southern California, that simply should not be possible. 2005 has been one wet year. Some friends moved here from Atlanta and I keep telling them - no rain, every day will be sunny. So far, I'm sounding pretty delusional.
I'm guessing there are going to be many a memorial day BBQ chef concerned with this. Here in SOCAL we don't know what to do when wet round things comes from sky. It'll be a top story on the news for sure, maybe even supplanting Michael Jackson.

House update:
The Final Walk through... a couple days ago, the soon to be 'new owners', their snake, I mean - agent, and the present 'owner' (my soon to be former landlord) and his agent, went through the house to do last checks. I heard the one woman comment to the other as they entered my office - "hey, this is a cute bathroom back here. I never saw this before."
wh-wh-what??? You just spent 700k on a place and you don't even know all the rooms? If I were spending that money, I'd be on my hands and knees looking at the moldings. I, as our neighbor commented, would be crawling through windows, over the roof, etc.
I actually feel sorry for them. They look so scared. I don't know if they have any real allies - certainly not their agent. He walks around like he's on egg shells or a mine field. Maybe they'll have the last laugh, but I do feel like they're lambs being led to the slaughter.

So our landlord could barely make eye contact with us, couldn't say anything, nothing.
I guess from here we're looking at 60-90 days and "It's ovah, Johnny"

Weather update - Rain just stopped. BBQ's are on again. Things can continue in SoCAL, though now the roads are probably going to be slick and full of car accidents.

As I wrote this, the house started making this weezing sound - right above me. Very creepy. I looked around and finally spotted a neighborhood cat in the eaves, avoiding the rain, but coughing up a hairball. The sound of the cat echoed in such a way as to make it appear to be coming from the ceiling.

Immortalized the moment with a digi-pic.
.

writing update:

After a strong first two days on the screenplay, cranking 51 pages out (yikes), I lost two days. Followed by a tepid (in comparison to the first days) 10 pages yesterday, it closes the week out with a daily average of (61 divided by 5) 12.2 pages per day. Hmm.. That means that I could have a first draft ready to be dissected in aproximately 7 more days. That'd be pretty cool.

Let's see how that goes.

By the way, I'm not claiming it's a great 61 pages, just 61 pages. I'm sure every word needs to be re-written at least three more times.

SOCAL resident/weather awareness update:
Marianne just came home from somewhere. We commented on the rain, and she said, "Yeah, I kept telling myself, wow this mist is really heavy today. Even as I was turning on the wipers, I couldn't understand that it was rain".
See - happens to even the most rain aware people, us folk from Pennsylvania.


Happy Memorial Day and I hope you enjoy YOUR time off, and even though their leader (and ours) is an absolute idiot, give some thought to the troops in Iraq.

The writing begins

Well, the official beginning of script re-re-rewriting has begun. After spending a good two months on the outline, I feel that I may have the skeleton upon which to build - er re re re rebuild Diamond Road (as it is currently entitled).
I'm guessing that it's such a radical redux that I will rename the script as well.
The Adventures of Eddie Dungrin. Hmmm... sounds like Richard Dreyfuss would be the lead in that. No. Don't think so.
I'll have to give it thought. Kind of a shame cause the last scene of the movie now is of eight diamonds laying on a long desert road as a pickup truck drives away.
Diamond Road, get it?

I hear that the house closing is coming this week. We're trying to enjoy ourselves as much as possible though we take turns waking up with stress nightmares, or whatever. I feel like someone nearing an execution.

I started looking at rentals today. Good news is that in spite of the real estate purchase INSANITY that continues to abound, rents haven't gone up much.

The whole real estate crash/bubble thing is starting to make the main news, so I really have the feeling that we're going to start seeing the cracks in the financial walls getting larger pretty soon. Check this Blog out if you're getting the urge to buy.

Marianne and I went to a drive-in this past weekend! Yeah! This used to be a favorite past time of ours in Pennsylvania as there actually was a drive-in near where we lived. Alas it is now a Target center. That, let me tell you, is Bucks County, PA's loss, not gain.

This past Saturday night, the breeze coming in through the open window really gave me the Drive-in urge. Feeling a bit melancholy, I set about looking for something that might still exist. After going through depressing lists of drive-ins that were no more, goggle actually found that one still exists in L.A. County. Better yet,it wasn't too far from us - located in the City of Industry.
Slight digression: When I heard that was an actual place one could live, I had visions, (in Black and White of course) of people marching to and from work, Trader Joes, etc. ala the Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis'.
In fact it is pretty much a train yard, freight, automotive repair type of place.

They have a DRIVE IN!

We got there with time to spare except for one snafu. We had to cross a set of said train tracks and a freight train happened to be rolling past. A freight train that was about two miles long.
Twenty odd minutes later, we finally were on our way again. We went to see "Kingdom of Heaven" (eh) while the rest of the crowd was evidently there for "Revenge of the Sith". I pondered seeing that as the first time I saw Star Wars was at a Drive in during a birthday party. I was nine. Anyway, we watched Ridley Scott redo Gladiator. When the crowds settle down, I'll spend my bucks on a digital presentation of Lucas's last (hopefully) star wars movie.

Back to the drive in. Many nine year old will have the same fond memories of Sith that I have of Star Wars. A beautiful summer night in California with jedi battling it out. Before our movie started, I walked to the concession area centrally located to get Popcorn. 'Sith' was just beginning and I have to admit, the kid in me got a thrill out of hearing the Star Wars theme reverberate from about eight hundred car stereos. You could even hear it coming from the cars on the road still pouring in. Nowadays, with the squawk boxes replaced by FM transmission, you get to hear movies much better, and from much further away than the old days.

I think I see a tradition beginning. Lawn chairs, some boom boxes, friends and a double feature on a summer night for seven bucks per person. Life doesn't get much better than that, does it?

Oh, guess what our second feature was?

xXx State of the Union. Okay, our buddy Johnny is the evil henchman, but I never thought I'd watch that again on the big screen. We sat through it though and goofed on it. I don't think Johnny would mind. Dammit, we paid for it, we're going to goof on it.
Good for the heart. If you're feeling down, go to a drive in with someone fun. Make noise, laugh. It may not be the best way to see a movie, but it's one of the best ways to experience one. Trust me. You'll feel better.

May Day

So, lots happening here. As I wrote, the agents were here... then the open houses.
UGHHHHHH!!!

We left a few minutes before the first one, but already there were people waiting. I swear, if you beat the Addams Family with an ugly stick, what was waiting outside is what they would look like.

The second open house, which was a Sunday, we left good and early and came back good and late. The house looked untouched, and there wasn't really any evidence of anyone having been here. I was thankful for that, and it made me wonder how many, if any people had showed up. Later, a neighbor dropped by to give us some stuff, so we asked her if people had shown up.

They had valet parking. I can't believe it. Valet parking for an open house!

Three days later, the agent called me up to tell me they had an accepted offer. I asked him what the price was, and he told me that while he couldn't tell me the price until it was recorded, it did go above asking.

I'm figuring in the $700,000.00 range.

He then was wondering about a time for a home inspection.

So, the home inspection was a couple days ago, and I got to see who the Einstein's that are the buyers were.

Da Da Da Dum (finger) snap snap

It isn't quite the whole Addams family, actually it's a couple (two women (I think)) who look Goth (though they had a DANZIG bumper sticker on their car which I don't think of as quite goth)

According to their agent, they just started a record label. It hasn't made any money so basically ----
They're unemployed!!

Now, I understand theres some money coming in from somewhere else, still -- remember that cipherin class in a previous post?

These are the people that are getting to the party right before it's over. I kinda feel bad for them, except I feel worse for myself losing my place.


So, it's becoming a reality. We're going to have to hunker down in the desert and wait for the real estate armegeddon to pass before doing anything.

If you want to read about the real estate bubble, there's no shortage of stuff - just google it.

However, I just saw something today which I think may bode much more serious.

If you don't know what Fannie Mae exactly does, here's a quickie. If you do know, jump to the link.

A person wants to get a loan to buy a house. They go to a mortgage lender. The mortgage lender lends the money. Then they sell the Loan to Fannie Mae for an origination fee (a combination government/private company)
This, by the way, is how interest only, etc. -- the whole crazy real estate thing - has been working -- it's largely government/bond subsidized.

If Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac were to go under/close shop, the real estate market would be dead and buried in twenty four hours.

Now - the link...

Here's a link.


Whatcha think? Could this be serious?



What else?

We had a great time a week ago for opening night of xXx State of the Union.
Pretty bad movie, but our neighbor Johnny!!! rocked!
He got to kick Sam Jackson's ass as well as Ice Cube - ending up getting killed of course. Juicy part, Opening credit billing. Can't ask for more than that.

We had drinks at the Lucky Strike Lanes in Hollywood before checking the movie out at the Chinese Theater. Ultimate Hollywood for an ultimate Hollywood movie.

Diamond Road is getting the serious re-working. For those of you who don't know, or want to know what's next - that's it. I'm doing an action adventure next. Old School. None of this Michael Bay crap that's been infecting action so much. Speaking of, if you want to see a fun, old school adveture, check out Sahara. Not bad.

So, there you have it in brief on this May 6th, 2005
Oh - which means that tonight is the big screen premiere of HEADHUNTER, a movie I was heavily involved with for the last year. Hell, I'm a co-producer.
If you live in Los Angeles, and you read this before midnight tonight... check it out. Santa Monica Laemmle 4 at midnight.

For those I don't see there, see you in the digital ethers.