Tomorrow, I start work on that feature script I really should have written a year ago. What stopped me? Well, for one, the fact that the life of a feature writer never held much appeal to me. Given the choice, I’d rather be working in television, producing my own episodes or running my own shows rather than working in film, being tolerated as an occasional on-set visitor. I remember the story a successful television writer once told me about his experience in film. After scripting his second produced feature, he was finally invited to set where he was introduced to the female lead. “When she found out I was the writer,”he said, “she looked at me like I was something she’d found on the bottom of her shoe,” So thanks but no thanks. But this particular script will be different because the concept and budget should make it fairly easy to convince most any studio to give me and my producing partners (Ivon and Paul) a fairly long leash in producing the movie ourselves. I’ll start tomorrow and hopefully have most of the first draft done before I head to Tokyo at month’s end.
Why, yes, I’m Tokyo-bound – a month late but going nevertheless. Akemi will be heading over to visit with her mother and I’ll be tagging along to check out the state of the Japanese sushi and macaron industry. Let me know if you want me to bring anything back for you. Maybe a life-size Gundam statue or plastic facsimile of a katsu cutlet or one of those 500 lb tunas from Tsukiji Market? Let me know!
Today was Playoff Football Day. We gathered for eats, sweets, and to track our respective players in the NFL Fantasy Football Playoff Challenge. While nowhere near as exciting or meaningful as the RIP Fantasy Football League Championship won by my Snow Monkeys…
…it’s still very interesting. I’m rolling the dice on a darkhorse. Let’s see if my Snow Monkeys can make it 2 for 2 this season!
Tomorrow, I turn this blog over to guest reviewer Cookie Monster who will be weighing in with his thoughts on the first movie in our Superfilm of the Week Club: Superman and the Mole-Men. Did you all watch? I hope so. I’m expecting a lot of insightful comments!
Have a great trip to Japan. I’ll hopefully finish hacking out my lungs at a rate slower than they are regrowing back while you enjoy yourself. yep, a belated christmas present from who knows who has seen me “enjoying” the new year’s with a heavy duty cold. Your daily posts have provided some much appreciated moments of distraction, even stirring my nearly defunct appetite(well, always a silver lining in the darkest cloud). And eager to see how your project goes. REALLY wish you good luck on that. Looking forward to dealing with the time differences in keeping up with your posts for the next while.
I thought I would share with you…that I plan to post a sign on my office door saying: Don’t Karoshi! I’m pretty sure it will be a helpful reminder as I enter my last semester of my Masters program…If not, I’ll just curl up under my desk with thesis fragments….
Do you use the Blake Snyder Beat Sheet?
Hey, Joey…can you bring me back one of those pretty, animesque long-locked Japanese boy toys, preferrably one with a penchant for bleaching his hair white?
If not, then I’ll settle for a box of chocolates (from Belgium, of course…I don’t trust anything coming from Japan not to have fish in it. 😛 ).
das
I really want some of that ice cream!! You know I’m on a diet. Why do you torture me like this!? why? why? why? 🙁
Hi Joe:
There are rumours of a Stargate movie to be filmed sooner rather than later. Would this be what you and your Merry Men are working on?
Now that you are getting fairly close to being the guy in charge of picking the actors who populate your written world, how much control will you have over who gets picked, and how do you decide? Does personality or how well you got on with certain actors in previous projects come into it?
What is the best way to find funding for television or movie projects? I understand that there are two brothers in Vancouver that have funded their projects through real estate investing. Pretty clever. Also, do you create your work first, and then go looking for funding and a market, or do you shop your idea around and hope it gets picked up?
Sorry for all the questions, but I am very curious about this business since I’d like to get more involved in it in some small way. By the way, next time I win the lottery, I promise to come knocking on your door first.
All the best.
Patricia
@patricia stewart-bertrand
Joe’s been pretty consistent about there being little chance of a re-visit to Stargate any time soon. Not even DVD movies because of the collapse in the home video market.. And more than likely a Stargate return would be in the hands of someone way down the road who will reboot the franchise.
My guess is that Joe is working on something fresh. I just pray he doesn’t have any ideas for Syfy movies.. Like Snow Monkey Apocalypse…. coming to Syfy in 2013… haha
I sure hope that film isn’t one of those cheesy SyFy monster movies, starring David Hasselhoff, or something.
Speaking of old fossils…
The last two days have been lovely, with temps in the high 50s. I spent an hour or two each day down at the beach, looking for fossils (and whatever else I could find). A few weeks back I found an arrowhead, but nothing that special this time. Still, I found a few nice fossils, mostly coral, rugosa (horn coral), and bryozoas. Always thought the latter was ‘branch coral’, but it’s not. Bryozoas are filter feeding moss animals, and there is an abundance of these fossils in my area. The picture isn’t so good because my camera’s battery is dead, so I used a cell phone, which – as you can see – doesn’t take great pictures. Amid the sea glass, ‘Cape May diamonds’ (clear quartz crystal), shells, and other odds and ends are the fossils, but their detail is mostly lost because of the crappy picture.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v54/dasNdanger/fossils2a-1.jpg
das
Glad you are going to make it to Japan and glad Akemi gets to see her mom! Sending concentration vibes for you and script.
Hi guys. I’m hanging in there. Breathe in, breathe out. Thanks for all the supportive messages. It’s helped both me and my family.
Love the look on Lulu’s face. 🙂 Kinda like she saying…”Do ya mind? I’m a having a private moment with Ivon here.” LOL! 😀 Awwwww…man! Those truffles look dangerous! I’m trying to get back on track with eating right and staying healthy, and seeing those ain’t helping. Especially…when I’m a chocoholic.
Oooooh…Japan trip! Yaaaaay! Love your Japan trips! 🙂 That’s nice you’re taking Akemi with you to see her mom. Can’t wait to read about your Japan adventure. 🙂
Well, Tokyo in winter is a lot better than Tokyo in summer. Have fun! My sailor kid (acquired) and his wife just got stationed in Atsugi, her posts on Facebook have me reliving my time there. I’d like a selection of Kit-kats please.
Oral surgery today, a molar extraction followed by an implant. The tooth is long dead, had a root canal in it decades ago. But yay, joy, whatever.
That speculoos ice cream looks wonderful!!! I’ll have to go back and dig out the recipe which I think you had in another blog entry?? See what happens when you get old–the memory goes. LOL
Glad you get to go to Japan. I’ll bet Akemi is looking forward to seeing her mother. Now, I am guessing you are kidding on the Japan thing. But, on the off chance you’re not, my son’s world geography course will cover Japan later this spring. He would be thrilled to actually get something from the country itself. (maybe one of those tourist maps you could get for free or something like that) Anyway, hope you have a good time regardless.
Have a great day!!!!!
I’d love a signed copy of your new (& future) comics so that I can retire when I auction them off. You’ll be super famous one day I’m sure 🙂
Also a cute trinket from Japan would be FANTASIC the life sized things hold little appeal to me maybe a life sized version of you.. no?… ok!
I BOUGHT A HOUSE!! I can’t belive the bank gave me money for a house but they did and I found an awesome little semi bunglaow. I take posession on Feb 29th. Dang furtniture is expensive. Didn’t realize what I have now isn’t going to fill an actual house!
How is Max today?
Any recomendations on how to prepare a dog for a new house?
A feature film? Finally. It’s about time you got to work on the Untitled Tara Yelland Project. Your laziness has been really draining on me…
Japan! Yes!
I would love to go there one day. One of my friends went there in the springtime two years ago. He was thrilled.
Have a nice day.
@Thornyrose; I too got a nasty cold and cough for Christmas and was just asked again if I was sick; had to say yes, in fact for the past two weeks going on three. If I’d taken better care at the start (more Zicam) I would have not been this sick. I kept having to schlep out in teen degree weather to fetch tissues and cold meds which didn’t help. Plus they gave me a flu shot at doc which seems to have made everything worse.
But the good news is Downton Abbey is back, yay!
@ Penny, congrats on the house, good for you!
Have fun in Japan! Pick me up one of those unnecessarily cute yet delicious sweets that they make (I prefer chocolate).
Speaking of Japan, I’ve gotten into anime and manga a bit lately. Currently, I’m totally engrossed in this manga called Love Com. It’s a high school romantic comedy about a tall girl and a short guy, and it’s hard to put down. Funny, sweet, goofy, occasionally heart-wrenching. The characters are so believable. I keep thinking, “Yep, teenage boys/girls are totally like that.” There’s an anime, but it’s not released in English (although there’s a subbed version online), and since I’m a heretic and prefer the dubbed versions, I haven’t watched it, though I hear it follows the manga pretty closely.
Mr Mallozzi,
I won’t start like a toady by saying how much I like your blog and that I’ve become a regular recently after stumbling across it by chance. Damn, now I said it.
Anyway, I am a German born student and I’m currently thinking about applying at one of Germany’s top film colleges because I am really interested in scripting. It is pretty hard to be accepted at these colleges, they only take up to ten new students per year and in order to be considered you have to send in some examples of your own writing and some creative solutions to tasks they provide. I know I don’t really stand a chance, since there is hardly any practical experience or any previously published pieces to show off with in my resumé, but I love writing too much to not at least try my best. So my only chance is to blow them away with the stuff I send in. I am pretty confident in my basic writing skills per se, since I have long been ‘practicing’ by writing short stories, poems and even one full novel in my spare time for fun, but I obviously have no idea what it takes to be a professional writer and clearly lack the experience and ability to write on this level. I know it will take many years to develop a certain feel for what actually works in writing and what doesn’t, but I would really be thrilled if you can find some time to jot down a few pro tips, like what to think of, what to avoid and so forth. I really hope to get something back, even if it’s just some “So you want to be a writer? Then write” comment.
Cheers and greetings from too cold and rainy Germany, all the best.
PS: Is this the way mailbag posts are sent in? I never figured that out, really…