Box Office Weekly Is Going On Hiatus!
February 25th, 2009:(
The frowny emoticon says it all, but for details refer to the audio file.
Box Office Weekly #153
February 18th, 2009
Box Office Weekly #153 (MP3 - 11 MB - 17 min)
In today’s show, Weekend Box Office Figures… and in this week’s commentary, movies that screenwriters would love more than you. All this and much, much less, today on Box Office Weekly.
BOX OFFICE FIGURES (Courtesy Variety.com)
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Movies For Screenwriters
February 12th, 2009Some movies appeal to a broad audience, but some appeal to a limited but vociferous base. Like writers themselves, movies which appeal directly to screenwriters tend to be brilliant and overlooked. These are movies which defy the conventions of film-making or even better, push them so far that they become explicitly absurd. They’re the stories that only people who write stories can appreciate.
1 - ADAPTATION. - Charlie Kaufman, it seems, only writes for writers. Perhaps really he only writes for Charlie Kaufman. You recall BEING JOHN MALKOVICH or ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, screenplays that were so off-the-chart weird that you either had to really concentrate or just give up and let them wash over you. ADAPTATION was a brilliant formalist stunt disguised as a movie. In it a screenwriter named Charlie Kaufman (Nicholas Cage) frets about his inability to adapt the non-fiction book THE ORCHID THIEF into a screenplay. He solicits advice from both screenwriting guru Robert McKee (Brian Cox) and his breezier and more successful brother, Donald (Cage again). There is a specific point where Kaufman’s story becomes more action-oriented, less talky and more dynamic, almost as if Donald had taken the reins, and it all ends just like a better structured, less weird ending, which is perhaps the weirdest thing of all.
It winds up being a perfect critique of the three-act story structure, which it uses to completely obliterate its own story. Bonus points to Kaufman for bringing in real people for every character except for Donald, who doesn’t exist.
2- THE PRINCESS BRIDE - For a while there, it looked like William Goldman would run Hollywood. The man who wrote THE STING, BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID, MARATHON MAN and MISERY was incapable of doing wrong. And even when he did wrong (THE GREAT WALDO PEPPER, HEAT, MAGIC) it was far more interesting wrong than most people’s. Goldman knew how to work an audience, when to twist the plot, when to pull back and when to push things farther.
THE PRINCESS BRIDE, based on his own novel, is a satirical adventure. It’s also the perfect spoof of William Goldman’s writing style done by Goldman himself. And you can learn a lot by studying these scenes and this plot, then just dialing it down for your own work.
3- EYES WIDE SHUT - Stanly Kubrick’s last movie is mostly hated. To many it seems too long and too overwrought, and pointless. I disagree. It’s not all that much fun to watch, I’ll admit, but it’s sheer bliss to think about afterwards. Because here’s the thing about it: the movie has this tone of dread and horror going all the way through it, yet you can summarize it as follows: a man’s wife reveals that she almost cheated on him once, and he becomes so angry that he spends the rest of the movie almost cheating on her.
If you find the movie unsatisfying it’s probably because literally nothing happens in it. But it plays more like “oh my god oh my god, something is about to happen! Yow, that was close… uh oh, look, something is… oh my god, it almost happened! No no no! Don’t… oh, he didn’t.” It wears a little thin at two and a half hours, but it’s such a perfect anti-narrative, I can’t blame Kubrick for being unable to resist it. Plus it’s a big poke in the eye of American Erotophobia, which has it coming.
4 - VERTIGO - Included here as a challenge - most successful movies have a three-act structure. How many does this one have? I think 5. The first three end with Stewart failing to save Novak, the last two deal with him meeting her again and then killing her again. Or am I wrong?
5 - ROBOCOP - It’s simultaneously a cruel parody of action movies and a very effective action movie in its own right. Try pulling off such a stunt yourself! I’d buy THAT for a dollar.
There must be other movies that are especially good watchin’ for screenwriters. Any suggestions?
-daniel k
Box Office Weekly #152
February 11th, 2009
Box Office Weekly #152 (MP3 - 14 MB - 19 min)
In today’s show, Weekend Box Office Figures, TV Ratings and these stories: Woz, Woz, Woz - why?… the Village People were wrong, you CAN stop the music… and in this week’s commentary, Steve Martin’s lamentable career choices. All this and it turns out he’s more into you than I thought, today on Box Office Weekly.
BOX OFFICE FIGURES (Courtesy BoxOfficeMojo.com)
TV RATINGS (Courtesy A.C. Nielsen Company)
Stories We’re Following:
I CAN’T IMAGINE A MORE INNOVATIVE MODEL
TURN THAT CRAP OFF, I’M TRYING TO WRITE A BRIEF
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