Bride of Bigfoot

Thanksgiving went well, and by well I mean any Thanksgiving where somebody isn't peeling out of the driveway with their middle finger out the window is a good holiday, our current barometer for measuring such things.

I am always in charge of the post-meal movie, and it is usually hard to find something that appeals to the six to sixty age bracket, but this year I thought it would be easier because circumstances dictated that nobody in attendance was under eighteen. I selected THE ICE HARVEST because it seemed to be a holiday comedy, although the box neglected to mention that this particular John Cusack Christmas movie opened with several extensive scenes in a strip club, for which my wife held me personally responsible. I had to tell her, Just because I have written a few movies that happen to have scenes in strip clubs does not mean I am responsible for every movie with scenes in strip clubs. So we put in RV instead, mild enough for any audience and easy to sleep and digest turkey to.

My hometown of Muncie, Indiana is going to be hosting a reality show called "Armed and Famous" and is about third-tier celebrities getting police training and going out on the mean streets. With guns. Seriously. Check it out here.

Spent a lot of Friday and Saturday morning cooking out PRIMAL for director Michael Su. I noted in working on the rewrite that the monster is referred to as both a yeti and a sasquatch. These are two different things. I knew I was the right person for this job.

Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

Thanksgiving Morning

It's a perfect Thanksgiving Day in Indiana; the sun is bright and the air is crisp. We would say that the frost is on the pumpkin.

Downstairs I hear the Macy's Parade on TV. For only the second time in the last 19 years somebody besides us is hosting Thanksgiving, so we are having a more peaceful morning than usual. We are off to my mother-in-law's, where the debate is already raging between football and holiday movies. She makes oyster dressing and liver pate so my mouth is already watering. My wife is finishing deviled eggs and a fondue downstairs.

I baked cookies last night and played "Memoir 44" with my brother. I won two battles and he won two battles.

I saw the trailer for We Are Marshall at the movies the other day and it still brings a tear to my eye.

Winter is closing in. We start thinking again about Scrabble at night and old movies on Sunday mornings.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

John

Sasquatch Redux

I am doing a rewrite for director Michael Su and producer David Sterling on a bigfoot feature called PRIMAL. It goes into production in L.A. in December.

Yes, I know that there is a danger I will become "the Bigfoot guy," after the success of my earlier Bigfoot movie, AMONG US, currently extremely popular on the Space channel in Canada. And I'm basing this assumption on the fact that when I went to Canada this summer they let me through the gates.

But how many guys get to write two Bigfoot movies in their careers? Not William Goldman, not Michael Tolkin. So there you go.

Updates on PRIMAL soon!

Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

Blue Monday

A couple of new projects percolating I hope to add to the ol' sidebar soon. In the meantime, the Colts lost. Once the worst undefeated team in football, now the worst 9-1 team. I missed watching the game as I had promised to take my wife to the movies. It was the first game I missed watching so far this season. As we were leaving the theatre I clicked on the radio and heard the score. And my first thought was: If only I had been watching, they wouldn't have lost.

I can feel winter coming on. We start wanting to play Scrabble and stay inside and watch old movies. You know how most couples have a "free pass?" I mean a fantasy one, not the neighbor. My wife's are George Clooney and Johnny Depp. Meaning that if either of them came down in a spaceship in the cornfield behind my house and wanted to take her away, she could go. Let me give you a piece of marital advice to young newlyweds: if your wife asks you whose yours are, you say you don't have any. Even if she has a whole list. Even if yours might be Bridget Fonda and Gong Li. You have none. And that is how I have stayed married for nineteen years.

But watching old movies made me think of one I can't shake loose. Suzanne Pleshette, in a time machine, back to 1966.

Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

Turn the Page

I haven't done a meme in a long while, but this one on pal Chris Hardie's blog struck my fancy, with answers off of the top of my head:


1. One book that changed your life?
Feature Film-making at Used Car Prices by Rick Schmidt.


2. One book you have read more than once?
For a while I used to re-read Joseph Heller's Catch-22 every year.


3. One book you would want on a desert island?
D&D 3rd Edition DM's Guide.


4. One book that made you laugh?
Candide by Voltaire.


5. One book that made you cry?
Streets of Laredo by Larry McMurtry.


6. One book you wish had been written?
One more Coffin Ed and Gravedigger Jones book from Chester B. Himes.


7. One book you wish had never had been written?
Mein Kampf by Adolph Hitler.


8. One book you are currently reading?
Michael Connelly's Echo Park; I've been hooked on his Harry Bosch mysteries for a while.


9. One book you have been meaning to read?
My Life by Bill Clinton.


Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

Sundown, Yellow Moon

Has it really been two weeks since I posted here? I have been busy reading scripts for a couple of possible rewrite jobs, as well as girding up to record a commentary track for SEX MACHINE, which now has a DVD release date of March 2007. It's been so long since I actually did the rewrite I'm going to have to sit down and figure out what the hell I was thinking back then; a common enough pasttime, I'm afraid.

More news soon; in the interim, give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.