Author: Todd

It’s cooled off in the greater Los Angeles area…at night anyway. And I like it. I really enjoy where we live now. It’s funny, the moment you leave West Hills and enter Calabasas on the 101 it’s like this massive burden is suddenly lifted. It’s Urban vs. Rural. Granted the sacrifice is the drive but I don’t need to travel into the big city often. And walking out onto the deck to a view of hills and trees is so much more pleasant than a view of buildings and cement. Now if the day comes that I move into the world of Television and find myself driving to Burbank every morning then I may start cursing the lovely Thousand Oaks, but until then I’m happy.
Mass Destruction
Patrick sent a wonderfully written email to Josh in which he wished him the best of luck but said we had most likely come to an impasse. Josh replied by saying he went ahead and sent the trailer and treatment to a producing partner to test the waters and would get back to us. Guess he’s not ready to let us go just yet.
Patrick already tested the waters with Garner and will do so again. I shot the trailer and treatment to Tiger Hill and we’ll eventually make the rounds to Paramount and numerous others.

Tiger Hill
I had a fantastic time working on the little Tiger Hill video game concept today. Only six pages so extremely short and sweet compared to my normal War and Peace outlines but man did I have fun. I was cracking myself up and not often do I work on a project that allows that. I shot the pages off to them, traveled about twenty feet to make a pee pee and they had replied before I could even get my fly zipped. They loved it and now we’re moving to the next step.
I guess what pleases me most is that they don’t shove me into any specific genre. They consider me a writer. Horror, thriller, action, drama…writers write and they don’t seem to have any challenges beyond that. It makes me feel good. I mean, I’m not supernaturally stupid, I am aware of my talents…of my strengths. I could never write a movie like “Amadeus”. I love the movie, am jealous of the movie but know that in my current level of life experience I could never write it as well as others. But when it comes to Thrillers or Horrors or Action or Mystery there is no doubt I could hold my own with the best of the best. Just because I haven’t had the opportunity to write in another genre doesn’t mean I can’t. Just think I should have a say before some bozo makes the decision for me.
Thunder
Very little word on my and Dean’s little thriller at this point. No word from the Morgan Freeman compound. No clue who we went to as Quintin’s replacement. But we did get word late last week that the Pang brothers may be interested. And that’s really all that it takes. One actor, one and/or two directors in this situation and suddenly the fires ignite. And the Pangs would be sweet. But I’ve never really worried about Thunder. It’ll happen. With whom, I’ve no clue. But it’s just too cool not to. And like always it’s simply a numbers game.
Magnus
Tomorrow I dive into the robot killer. I have been saying this for weeks and although I have toyed with it, tomorrow Magnus gets my sweet lovin. I have most of it worked out in my piddly little brain so it shouldn’t be difficult and as I’ve said before, I’ve always liked this story.

I preordered the Harry Potter and can’t wait until both it and the extended Return of the King are mine to roll around with.

I miss being less than responsible. The good ol’ days. There was a time when I’d watch all three Star Wars movies as well as the extra footage in one sitting. Too Busy.
“Last Vamp” went to SciFi last Thursday. I shant expect their thoughts and comments until next week at the earliest. Whitley, Michael, Frank, the producing crew has been above-and-beyond with support and we’re all keeping fingers crossed that SciFi’s reaction is just as positive. But for now there’s not much to do other than jump onto other projects that may be feeling lonely.
I did get a very uplifting email from Whitley yesterday. He has a mini-series at NBC and has been pushing my name. At first he was told no writers the executive hadn’t heard of. Well, that’s me. Then the Executive came back and said it was okay if he hadn’t heard of the writers as long as they were feature writers. Still not great since Jason X doesn’t exactly blow an executive’s mind. Then the Executive said they could have anyone they wanted as long as he could choose from a list. Whitley told me I was the first name on the list. Made me feel good. It still may be a tough sell with my horror/thriller background but I can’t deny the warm fuzzy feeling at Whitley’s willingness to go to bat for me.
Friday I finally met with David and Brad of Tiger Hill. They pitched me a game concept that blew my mind. I toyed with it this weekend. More on that down the road. I also jumped back on Magnus this weekend. I came up with some beats that got me excited. This would be a great project. It’s SciFi Action movie and it would be nice to open my genre a little. I love horror and thrillers but I hate when the retards in control assume that I can’t write anything else.
“Retard” is politically incorrect isn’t it? Well I can get away with it since I think I’m the resident retard on “Scarecrow”. At least it feels that way. It seems every article I read mentions Jason X then quickly tosses in a disclaimer. Thank the Heavens for Raimi and the Pangs and Stuart or we would have had a freaking Scarecrow in Space on our hands.
Today I sent Josh an email to see if we were still on for pitching Mass Destruction to Fox. But Josh is still caught up on the third act’s big twist. He doesn’t “buy” it. I go all battle mode at times like these. I want to argue and fight. I don’t think it’s a brilliant twist. I know it is. For this story it is perfect. I am utterly baffled at why he doesn’t buy it. I’d love to just lay it out here for all to read but we’ll take the story elsewhere and it’ll get made so there’s no reason to blow the third act twist now. I tend to lean toward burning bridges at times like these. Patrick prefers building them. I guess that’s not a bad combination…a good balance. We’re like Butch and Sundance. I’m Butch and Sundance and he’s the chick.
Well, no, that’s not true but it made me laugh real hard.
Anyway, later today one of us will send Josh an email wishing him luck but that we’re gonna take the idea elsewhere. We will most likely go to the places that liked us for Narcosis but thought an underwater movie was too challenging. It’s a pretty big list. We have a three minute trailer and a five minute pitch. It should be in, out and cash the checks.

The great thing about this new Empire is Ian McDiarmid’s replacement as the Emperor. How cool is that? He was the Imp in Jedi as well as Episodes I, II and III but way back in the original Empire it was a different actor. Don’t recall his name but I remember he had bug eyes. And it always bothered me that between Empire and Jedi there were two different actors. But Lucas and crew fixed it and I dig it.
Empire is wonderful. What a fantastic movie.

I saw Empire with my Granny back when it first came out. I never remember where I was and who I was with when I see movies. I just remember the movies. But that one I remember. And all these years later it’s still an amazing adventure. As far as second acts are concerned it’s probably in the top ten best.

And yes, anybody who know anything knows that Empire is the best but I never understood all the bashing of Jedi. I think Jedi is great. You get Leia in a gold bikini — and let’s be honest…if you are hetro and fall into the late Gen X category and you didn’t pause that old VHS while mom and dad were out of the house on several occasions then you were obviously one of the few who believed that old wives’s tale about going blind. We also get Han saved from Carbonite and I’m sorry, Harry but Lucas was right. I love you/I know was brilliant. Good work. But Killing off Han would have been bad. Because Luke’s becoming a Jedi was a given. I was always more impressed by the pirate becoming a general. Granted the movie hits the horse rapids when we meet the dwarves in furry costume but they’re cute and when we watch Vader finally conflicted by Impy’s killing Luke…wow.

I love Jedi. It’s right behind Empire in my book.

Finally, I always wanted to see James Earl Jones under the mask. Yes, I understand why that might have raised questions but when I would hear that voice I would see that face under the mask. Pulling off the mask to see some bloated white dude never did it for me. And that’s why I never felt connected to what the above scene was supposed to do. Old Anakin was always a stranger to me. But to see a young Anakin in this new edition. Oh, yes. I’m on board for that. No complaints.
Well, enough about George’s empire. It’s time for me to make my stupid mark. Today I’ll work on Psychopath or Magnus or both. But first I’ll make some naked yoga sweat then tool over to Starbucks and help myself to a Venti Iced Chai.

Come on Sam… Remember what Bilbo used to say: It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to…

We spent Friday Night with the Loreys. No word yet from the directors who were sent Thunder. The script did go directly to Morgan Freeman and Quintin Tarantino rather than stopping at their agents as we assumed it would. Tarantino, we heard back from immediately. He only acts in movies written and/or directed by his friends or his own movies. Wasn’t aware of that. Considering the reply was immediate we gather he didn’t read the script. I assume the script then went to the next actor on the list. Freeman, we haven’t heard back from.
The weekend was spent working on Mass Destruction’s beat-outline. Patrick and I debated just about every possibility and settled on what we felt was the best approach for both Fox and for the movie as a whole. I shot my polish off to Patrick Monday morning and he in turn shot it to Josh. No word yet on Josh’s reaction.
Sunday night, I channel surfed between assorted shows and the Emmys. I was watching because Jim Vallely moved from My Wife and Kids to Arrested Development and Arrested was a good bet for best comedy. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of Jimmy if they won. They did win but I missed it. I later heard that Mitchell Hurwitz, Arrested’s Executive Producer, personally thanked Jimmy at the end of his speech. It was the sort of praise you rarely witness out here.
Monday afternoon I got Last Vamp notes from Michael and Jerry. Very basic notes…mostly type-o’s. There seems to be some concern about the option on the books being up either at the end of the month or this week. I’ve had conflicting stories. So I took Tuesday to give the girl a quick polish and shot the script to Michael yesterday afternoon. The process took Whitley a little by surprise since he was still working on notes for the previous draft. Michael and Whitley were supposed to give this latest draft a read last night and hopefully we’ll go to SciFi this week.

Tuesday, I took a long enough break from Last Vamp’s polish to go with Mel to the wonder that is Best Buy. We grabbed Hensleigh’s Punisher and the Star Wars set.
That afternoon the power blinked. This was bad. My marathon rewrite of Last Vamp was lost. Freaking Final Draft. The morons who created the program figured in their infinitely stupid wisdom that it would be a splendid idea to leave “autosave” off as a default. I bought XP Professional specifically because it has an autosave feature. Of course, I learned that the feature only autosaves Microsoft products. Freaking Microsoft. So, it was back to ground zero. It wasn’t difficult because I remembered all the changes as I got to them but it was time consuming and frustrating. Needless to say Final Draft is now set to autosave every three minutes.
That night I took a long enough break so that we could watch the premiere of My Wife and Kids. We thought it was a great season opener. Dean directed the episode and tells great stories but you’ll have to read those in his journal.
At this point both TiVos are working overtime. We have all the new shows plugged in. Our rule of thumb is harsh. You got one episode to prove your worth or you get the TiVo ax. Hawaii was the first TiVo casualty. SCI NY may be the next to go. Love Gary but the premiere was dull.
Wednesday, Devin dropped by on his way to school bringing gifts. He’d burned copies of the old game Curse of Monkey Island. I played the first two back in the DOS days but this one will be new to me. After shooting Last Vamp to the producers I crashed (I’d pulled an all-niter) so I missed Noel’s showing up. He and Mel have been wrestling the DMV for…4 years now? Anyway Noel bought a Jeep from us back when VHS’s were popular and he and Mel are still trying to get the thing transfered into his name. I was up when they returned so the three of us hung out. It was good to see him again.
Today I’ll slide back into Magnus. I’ve had to put it off longer than expected but I spoke with F.J. today and they are still enthusiastic.
Friday, I have my continually postponed meeting with Tiger Hill to discuss a new video game.

Mel has been great throughout these last few weeks of crazy busy. She’s kept the phone answered, food in front of me and distractions to a minimum. The wind caught our patio umbrella shattering the glass top. Mel handled it. When I lost pages to the power outage, she and Devin coordinated the shipment of a battery powered surge protector. When the Explorer needed service, she handled it. I haven’t written a check in 8 or 9 years. She pays the bills, manages the taxes…I’m actually starting to wonder what it is I do around here.

I’m looking forward to the Star Wars. When I was growing up and friends would come over the same question was always spoken, “Matchbox cars or Star Wars figures?” This was before Atari. This was back when Dungeons and Dragons was a game played in your mind and resulted in your crawling into the sewers to hack up your buddies with kitchen knives. Back when Tonka Trucks were made out of metal and playing with them resulted in a severed limbs 3 out of 10 times. Ah, nostalgia. I wish I still had all of those old Star Wars figures. I had them all. The Death Star, X-Wing, Land Speeder. I’d be an Ebay millionaire. Oh well. At least I’m pretty.

I guess the big news this week comes by way of an old source. I wrote Scarecrow at the end of 2002/beginning of 2003. After completing my steps Revolution brought Stuart Beatty in to do a rewrite and somehow it then went into turnaround. There were numerous reasons given but I was never clear on the exacts. It floated around for a few months then Raimi’s Ghost House productions picked it up where it’s sat since. Until this week. The Pang brothers have signed on as directors.
Dean called with the news, then Patrick (having been told by his agent) and I got the standard stream on congratulatory emails throughout the day. Drew, my favorite of the Terminal Reality crew working on Demonik, shot me an email having read an article at CHUD. Here’s an except.
After getting attention for their Thai crime thriller Bangkok Dangerous, about a deaf-mute hitman, the brothers Pang made an impression on the horror genre with their creepy pant-soiler The Eye and its follow-up.
Not to be confused with those virtually unwatchable direct-to-video slasher movies, this Scarecrow follows a family who takes over an old sunflower farm and begins to experience increasingly odd behavior from some of their members. The story comes from Todd Farmer (Jason X) and Stuart Beattie (Collateral), and knowing the Pang brothers, it’ll have its share of unsettling scenes and outright crap-scares.
By the way, they spelled Stuart’s name wrong.
The original article made the front page of the Hollywood Reporter so this is all good news. Looks like I may finally get a second credit. I’ll probably share the credit with Stuart but I always thought he did a good rewrite considering the stupid notes he was given. A lesser writer would have resulted in the script being shelved forever.
I finished Last Vamp about 10 minutes ago and shot the 200 pages out to Whitley, Michael and Andrew. Michael will forward it on to Frank, Jerry and the rest of the crew.
This was a tough rewrite…well a time consuming rewrite. The beats were there, the elements already set up but when you make any change the hard work becomes keeping everything else from unraveling. It was alot of meat and taters work.

But, hey, I ain’t complaining. I like “my” job.
Although I have corresponded with Drew a couple of times this week I’ve heard nothing about my level one rewrite on Demonik. But, of course, I fully expect to learn that somehow my draft is the very cause behind global warming and will most likely be blamed for the death of all little babies.
I was supposed to have met with David and Brad from Tiger Hill yesterday but Dave hit me with an email explaining that he was under the weather. The meeting has been pushed to next week.
Speaking of Dave…David Bergantino called from London today. He’s taking a week off of work to recharge. David works for a Developer, very much like Virtual Reality. Dave and his team are designing racing games.

Patrick called Josh concerning Mass Destruction and discussed our proposed changes to the pitch. Josh agreed and Patrick has spent this week creating a bullet outline. Good man, Patrick. I really needed to finish my rewrite so he was there to pick up my slack. This weekend I’ll make the outline pretty with ALL CAP headings and pretty bold captions. Monday we’ll send it to Josh and pitch Alex at Fox later in the week.
I’ll shoot F.J. an email today just to make sure that there has been no interest lost in my pursuing Magnus and if all is well I’ll jump back onto it next week as well. I normally don’t like developments but this is a good story.

So, I’m on the phone with Dean. I’m trying to work but he keeps bothering me. It’s unending. He’s now telling me about his taking a big dump, a process to which he refers to as getting a big demon out of him.
Mel and I are heading to their house tonight to take part in massive quantities of alcohol and heroin (Also called diacetylmorphine). It’s all good, Dean gets the good stuff. I’ll take some swim trunks this time because I’m tired of his neighbors posting my nude hot tub shots on the www.nakedwrestlers.com.
He’s on his way home from pitching a one-hour at Touchstone. Sounds like it went great. Hard to believe it wouldn’t have. It’s a fantastic idea and only the utterly stupid will pass. That’s not an opinion. It’s a law of nature. Like gravity and Crop Circles.
Enough for now. Gonna jump in the shower and shave my balls.