Weather, Weather Everywhere
Jan. 13th, 2009 06:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
handful_ofdustApparently, we're headed towards some big-ass cold snap as of tonight, which will probably put a major crimp in my workout plans. Also, Cal is currently insane--like certifiably, as in "whipped his pants off and took a shit on the couch"-type crazy. At the same minute Rod arrived, too, for maximum impact. Luckily, Rod is not so easily dissuaded from his task of trying to teach social skills to boys who don't want to talk about anything other than Little Einsteins: Flight of the Instrument Fairies; we therefore had a tiny slice of blessed quiet, followed by hours and hours of continuous whackadoo-ness. Fun times!
Meanwhile, I've been breaking my Goddamn head against Year Zero. The main problem here is that it began as a TV pilot, which means it has a million characters--and though none of them can be called "extraneous", as such, you still have to struggle to justify why some of them are in this particular narrative, especially when their original function was to lay ground for later storylines. I'm also picking and choosing my way between (at least) three different drafts, trying to find a through-line which works for a two-hour movie, while also trying to keep things startling, awful, sexy, etc. 'Cause it's pure horror, see? That's the market. Dude, it's making me nuts.
And I had more I wanted to talk about, but my back hurts. At least I'm still getting all sorts of input for A Book of Tongues, even in the middle of this car-wreck--I know the shape of Chapter Two, and hope to get started on that pronto, once the Year Zero memo/outline's done and off to Michael. I've also fixed a couple of logic holes in the synopsis, for which I'm very grateful, and recast some of the characters in my brain, to get further away from 3:10 to Yuma. It's a useful trick.
I was thinking again about hollycomb's Godfather slash, and remembering the time I took agincourtgirl to a triple feature of all three movies over three nights; there's this point right at the end of Godfather Part II where we suddenly interrupt Michael's endless brooding for a flashback to when everybody was young and non-emo, and when Sonny Corleone (who's been dead for a movie and a half at that point) walked in, the whole audience actually cheered. There's just something about James Caan, with his scary, sandy-haired bonhomie and his too-wide smile--how he fills up a room, the casual sex and violence he brings to every conversation. Andy Garcia's a fairly good replacement in Godfather III--"Temper like ya fatha!"--but he just can't compete. And what's great about hollycomb is how she gets that part of Sonny, the part that wants unconditional love but doesn't know how to get it, except through bribery or extortion. The basic problems of growing up Mafia, I guess (especially if you also look like you're Jewish, and all ;)).
Meanwhile, I've been breaking my Goddamn head against Year Zero. The main problem here is that it began as a TV pilot, which means it has a million characters--and though none of them can be called "extraneous", as such, you still have to struggle to justify why some of them are in this particular narrative, especially when their original function was to lay ground for later storylines. I'm also picking and choosing my way between (at least) three different drafts, trying to find a through-line which works for a two-hour movie, while also trying to keep things startling, awful, sexy, etc. 'Cause it's pure horror, see? That's the market. Dude, it's making me nuts.
And I had more I wanted to talk about, but my back hurts. At least I'm still getting all sorts of input for A Book of Tongues, even in the middle of this car-wreck--I know the shape of Chapter Two, and hope to get started on that pronto, once the Year Zero memo/outline's done and off to Michael. I've also fixed a couple of logic holes in the synopsis, for which I'm very grateful, and recast some of the characters in my brain, to get further away from 3:10 to Yuma. It's a useful trick.
I was thinking again about hollycomb's Godfather slash, and remembering the time I took agincourtgirl to a triple feature of all three movies over three nights; there's this point right at the end of Godfather Part II where we suddenly interrupt Michael's endless brooding for a flashback to when everybody was young and non-emo, and when Sonny Corleone (who's been dead for a movie and a half at that point) walked in, the whole audience actually cheered. There's just something about James Caan, with his scary, sandy-haired bonhomie and his too-wide smile--how he fills up a room, the casual sex and violence he brings to every conversation. Andy Garcia's a fairly good replacement in Godfather III--"Temper like ya fatha!"--but he just can't compete. And what's great about hollycomb is how she gets that part of Sonny, the part that wants unconditional love but doesn't know how to get it, except through bribery or extortion. The basic problems of growing up Mafia, I guess (especially if you also look like you're Jewish, and all ;)).
