Today's Blind Items - The Curse Of The Stolen Script
Need to go back in the day for this one. Not too far back. The last few years of last century. You know at the beginning of Social Network when everyone is sitting around in college dorm rooms coming up with Facebook and the whole thing is kind of murky about who did what. Well, this is kind of like that, but not as murky. He probably didn't need to do it. He refers to a writer/director. He had some talent. Has some talent. The thing is though, he probably won't get a chance to do what he wants to do with that talent. For almost a decade we have been hearing about his new projects and he is working on some things and it is going to blow people away and he is working with some exciting people and everyone just needs to stay tuned.
You know what all that sounds like? Every one hit wonder and every person who has ever finished in the top 10 of American Idol when some intrepid reporter in their home town newspaper treks down to the basement of their parent's house to find out what they are doing now.
Everything started off fine. He did a couple of good things. He met another guy at school and they started talking about a project they should do when they got out of school. It turns out the other guy had a script. A really good script. Amazing actually. The guy let the subject of our blind read it and see if he had any notes for the script he could make over the Christmas holiday. The guy went back to to visit his family out of the country. Four days later he was killed in a car wreck.
Our writer/director could have given it to the family when everything was sent home. He didn't. In fact, he even went so far as to erase every bit of the script from the desktop of the other guy. The family never knew. Still doesn't as far as I know.
Our writer/director shopped the script around. He knew it was good. He made a whole lot of demands, but he got them because the script was so good. He thought he was on top of the world. It took a little while but the world grew to love the movie. The problem for our writer/director is that he was supposed to be this hugely talented writer/director but at least as far as the writing thing goes, he really was just average. On the hard drive of the dead person's desktop there had been another script. Not as polished. It had never really been edited. It was literally a 300 page script. It was all he had though. People were clamoring for something so he turned it into the studio and they said cut it down. He cut and he cut but the thing was still 220 pages, maybe a little more. His problem was he didn't know what to cut because he had no feel for the script. It didn't come from him. Oh, he was taking full credit for it. The studio was to blame to. They threw money at him and got what they deserved. A massive bomb. A huge bust. If left in the hands of the original writer, it probably could have been something special. It has its moments. The problem is our guy didn't know how to write the moments. Hollywood was basically done with him at that point. Fast forward a few years and he gets out of movie jail. I mean, he did do that thing (which he didn't really do) so maybe there is still untapped genius. Nope. His writing still sucked which no one could understand because of you the first thing he did and even the second thing had good writing in the first draft. It was the revisions that sucked.
So, our guy made a blah movie that faded when the writing went from adaptation to original. He does have some directing talent. His problem is that his ego has him convinced he can replicate the first success if only given the chance. So, far he has struck out. Miss after miss. Nothing ever gets beyond an option. His writing is not good. IF he decided to just focus on directing, he could make a few bucks, but he won't. He is still trying to chase that one hit wonder but if the one hit is not yours to begin with, then what are you really chasing?
How about Paul Thomas Anderson\Boogie Nights?
ReplyDeleteRichard Kelly
ReplyDeletedonnie darko
ReplyDeleteYup, donnie darko being a great movie and southland tales utter s***.
ReplyDeleteThe Sixth Sense??
ReplyDeleteI love the Cannes cut of Southland Tales.
ReplyDeleteThe direction and the performances of the actors is so weird and cartoonish.
Maybe I don't love it for the right reasons but I really do love it.
M Night Shyamalan
ReplyDeleteTroy Duffy
ReplyDeleteDonnie Darko was the first thing I thought of, didn't do well when came out, but critics liked it, has found a following now. Sequel was Southland Tales with just too much going on, wouldn't be surprising if that was over 300 pages. The Box after that, which was just bad.
ReplyDeleteM Night has a voice and style of writing and directing, you can tell it's him, he did movies before the 6th Sense and after, this blind doesn't fit.
Troy Duffy - Boondock Saints
ReplyDeleteGotta be Richard Kelly
ReplyDeleteRichard Kelly fits. Obviously not Shyamalan; bomb or hit, his movies still get made. Troy Duffy only has done the Boondock Saints movies, doesn't appear to have gone to film school as the blind infers, and I have to doubt that the second one was based on an originally 300 page script. Plus it wasn't a bomb. Southland Tales was.
ReplyDeleteThat could be a very good guess. Though, I personally loved Magnolia if that was the huge flop. I could never understand why his name is so "big" when he's really only did a few films and the majority is music video-type work and shorts.
ReplyDeleteThis could definitely be it too. He is had a really short list of work following Donnie Darko and that script is so intense, it's kinda crazy that he wouldn't have "more" in him.
ReplyDeleteRonald Maxwell? With "Gettysburg" being the movie everyone loved, and "Gods and Generals" being the bust?
ReplyDeleteHe wrote the screenplay for "There Will Be Blood", which won/was nominated for a lot of awards
ReplyDeleteOh, did he? I thought he just directed it. Probably not him then.
ReplyDeleteThis totally reminds me of a plot of a movie or TV show I've seen before but I think it was a book not a script, ugh it's going to drive me nuts
ReplyDeleteDonnie Darko came out in 2001. The blond says it is form the last few years of the last century, which I figured to mean the 1990s. That's why I question if it is Kelly.
ReplyDeleteThere's "The Player", but Tim Robbins kills a screenwriter there.
ReplyDeleteIt instantly reminded me of the plot of the novel The Bear Went over the Mountain, if that helps
ReplyDeleteThis is an amazing guess. If you go to his wiki page everything else fits, and those two movies match the feel of the blind movies perfectly.
ReplyDeleteWhoever it is, I hope this gets revealed and the family sues. What a comfort to them it would be just to know that their child accomplished his dream even if it was post-mortem.
ReplyDeleteI'm with the Troy Duffy / Boondock Saints guesses. Duffy angered Weinstein and still pays for it to this day.
ReplyDeleteThat's who popped into my head. Such a shame, I live Donnie Darko
ReplyDelete*love
ReplyDelete@ zelda zonk - Murder of Crows?
ReplyDeleteBradley Cooper movie The Words, I only saw it once but he publishes a book that was found in an old briefcase.
ReplyDelete@Salaam
ReplyDeleteThe last century is 2000 DURRERR
Interesting in the IMDb message boards for him someone asks if maybe he stole the idea from someone, as his other work has been subpar like the Wakowskis and the Matrix (the comment mentions they were sued for stealing the matrix idea and lost, which I never knew)
ReplyDelete*Wachowski
ReplyDelete@Salaam, but it was developed two years earlier, AFAIR.
ReplyDeleteA shocking BI.
Shylaman. The Sixth Sense was fantastic; the remainder of his movies sucked big time.
ReplyDelete♥
ReplyDeleteCameron Crowe? Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous as being the hits.
ReplyDeleteThe reboot of 90210 had Jessica Lowndes character steal the hand written songs of her friend / tour partner that died next to her in a car crash
ReplyDeleteSmdh that I know this crap
No way Cameron Crowe he did almost famous and that famous movie with John whatever
ReplyDeleteJohn Cusack
ReplyDeleteSay anything
RIP to the IMDB message boards. A good source of information on people, even if only from the number of deleted posts sometimes.
ReplyDeleteHarmony Korine-Kids/Gummo
ReplyDeleteLarry Clark directed kids but HK who wrote it also known as a writer /director ....Not my preferred fair so to speak but Kids was astonishing in its rawness(and was scripted except for 1 scene-many thought it was improvised ).
M night Shyamalan big follow-up was the expensive movie with whalberg and Bryce Dallas Howard the others or something
ReplyDeleteHuge bomb
Friggin clearly m night shamalamalamb
ReplyDelete@bugs friggen clearly you're an idiot. Everyone loved The 6th Sense out of the gate, it wasn't some cult film that slowly found its audience. Signs was a huge hit. Unbreakable was a modest hit. So check your life before you try to be a smartass on a gossip sight peace baby
ReplyDelete@bugs oh and Split is CURRENTLY a hit. So much for no other hits - Crawl out of your hoarder house and learn baby.
ReplyDeleteNot Shyamalan, I went to USC and was in a class that screened his first movie(the pretty good but mostly unseen Wide Awake) with him as a guest the very day he sold the script for The Sixth Sense. He'd been working as a personal assistant to a famous director(I forget who - my brain is saying Peter Hyams? Could definitely be wrong though but someone like that) for a few years and had been a script doctor as well. He was considered a good writer. I think his ego got the better of him and that's why his career stumbled(and probably will again). Instead of polishing and getting good feedback he surrounded himself with yes men who told him he was a genius and just filmed his first drafts, like George Lucas did with the Star Wars prequels.
ReplyDeleteRichard Kelly is the best guess because his filmography and lack of talent since Donnie Darko fit the clues. On the Director's Cut dvd commentary Kelly did with Kevin Smith, Kelly explained in detail what happens offscreen in Darko and Smith straight up told him to keep it to himself, because it was so dumb and ruined the movie(my words).
This reads like the film Morvern Callar with Samantha Morton.
ReplyDeleteM Night -- I refer to him as 'Midnight Shenanigans', as there is no way I can pronounce his name (apologies) -- did an amazing job with 'Unbreakable' as well as 'The Sixth Sense'.
ReplyDeleteThat movie was harrowing. I didn't know the whole movie was scripted. Which was the improvised part, the girl losing her virginity or the kid having sex with Chloe Sevigny?
ReplyDeleteThe Words, Bradley Cooper. But the old man he stole from hunts him down and crushes him with heartbreak and wisdom.
ReplyDeleteI think this is Kevin Smith - Clerks and then Mallrats. I thought so the whole time but the end where it says what are you chasing? Is a hint - Chasing Amy - another movie of his.
ReplyDeleteM night went to my grade school. And his second film about nuns and death filmed at that school staring Rosie O'Donnell called Wide Awake which was def based on his time at this school. This isn't him
ReplyDeleteSmith doesn't fit for a few reasons. While he's had various screenplays that haven't made it out of development (mainly his Comic Book takes, like Superman and The Green Hornet), he's not had difficulty getting films made, and arguably has had as much success with subsequent films (e.g., Zach and Miri Make a Porno), as he did with Clerks. He didn't bomb with any of his immediate successor films, either. He's clearly been pretty much an 'indie' filmmaker, with a cultivated following but no real big-budget reach.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Clerks was a script he very clearly developed while working at a bodega in New Jersey, and many of his films following that (films that were knows as part of the Askew Universe), all had the exact same type of script, which was heavy on philosophical exposition and very slim on action. If everything since Clerks were very different in tone, dialogue, content, etc., this would make more sense, but his 'Jay and Silent Bob' universe (Askew) has been pretty consistent. So has his troupe of actors, etc.
Test123
ReplyDeleteAs the story reads, the only living person who knows the truth is the plagarist and presumably he's not talking. So may I respectfully ask who told CD&N? Does he talk in his sleep? Did someone grow suspicious and hire a private eye to dig into his past? Or did he break down under the burden of a guilty conscience and confess to someone? Someone who ran into Enty's arms, hoping for a big payoff? But wouldn't a major news organization/publication pay more for a provable story?
ReplyDeleteReading this just reminds me of a Ghostface Killah song called Alex (Stolen Script). The music makes for good accompaniment while reading this.
ReplyDelete