People jonesing for mo' SEX MACHINE before its DVD debut this spring can check out this on YouTube: A little package done for an Austin, Texas, cable TV show about the movie's screening there. Has some nice footage and a funny Q&A. NSFW! But you probably already knew that.
Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Betcha By Golly Wow
Apparently ARMED AND FAMOUS is going over to VH-1, if y'all want to see more of our midwestern crackheads.
In other entertainment news, my war against STUDIO 60 continues. However, after my last post, I spent some time on the internet and found out a lot of people think that it stinks. I smell doom around it. And believe me, I have smelled a few doomed projects, many of them my own.
I have to give credit to STUDIO 60 for one believable subplot. I can believe a poisonous snake can get loose in a studio, and a ferret would be set loose to catch it. I believe this because once when I worked at WIPB-TV a penquin got loose and pooped on my foot. And once when I worked at WXOW-TV a piglet got loose in the back of the production van and shat all over the place, and it stunk so bad that when I drove up to the TV station an engineer smelled it from clear inside and came out with a bucket of water.
Less believable is the subplot where Amanda Peet, an unwed mother and also some high-up at the fictitious network, ends up locked on the roof with her coke-addled stalker, who happens to be an employee who in real life is married to the mom from MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE. He mentions that it is an essential element of any romantic movie to be in a creepy situation like this. Note to writers: just because you point out something is trite in the context of your story, doesn't make it suddenly cool and all self-referential. It's still trite. That goes double if you try to put some 70s music to it, unless you're Quentin Tarantino and maybe not even then.
Until later, give me a holler at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
In other entertainment news, my war against STUDIO 60 continues. However, after my last post, I spent some time on the internet and found out a lot of people think that it stinks. I smell doom around it. And believe me, I have smelled a few doomed projects, many of them my own.
I have to give credit to STUDIO 60 for one believable subplot. I can believe a poisonous snake can get loose in a studio, and a ferret would be set loose to catch it. I believe this because once when I worked at WIPB-TV a penquin got loose and pooped on my foot. And once when I worked at WXOW-TV a piglet got loose in the back of the production van and shat all over the place, and it stunk so bad that when I drove up to the TV station an engineer smelled it from clear inside and came out with a bucket of water.
Less believable is the subplot where Amanda Peet, an unwed mother and also some high-up at the fictitious network, ends up locked on the roof with her coke-addled stalker, who happens to be an employee who in real life is married to the mom from MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE. He mentions that it is an essential element of any romantic movie to be in a creepy situation like this. Note to writers: just because you point out something is trite in the context of your story, doesn't make it suddenly cool and all self-referential. It's still trite. That goes double if you try to put some 70s music to it, unless you're Quentin Tarantino and maybe not even then.
Until later, give me a holler at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Where Waters Fall Frozen
ARMED AND FAMOUS, the reality show taking place in my hometown of Muncie, Indiana, has been cancelled after three weeks. In a way, I'm glad. Last week's episode, featuring domestic abuse, prostitution, and assorted crackheads on the familiar streets of my old southside neighborhoods gave me nightmares. I thought it looked like a frightening place to visit, forgetting I had grown up there.
In this nightmare I was appearing on the show and responding to a police call, feeling somewhat untrained. It was very dark and I couldn't see anything as we pulled up to a house where a guy was holding his wife and kids hostage. I was sent around back and all of a sudden the guy loomed out of the darkness with a pistol to a kid's head. I warned him I was going to shoot him if he didn't put down his gun so he shot me first. As I was going down I was able to get off a shot and kill him. I saw the whole thing was being taped as I fell to the ground.
Right now JANE EYRE is on Masterpiece Theatre, and I think that's safe enough.
I stood outside in the snow tonight and cooked myself a nice New York strip on the grill, so I think I'm ready to return to the living.
Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
In this nightmare I was appearing on the show and responding to a police call, feeling somewhat untrained. It was very dark and I couldn't see anything as we pulled up to a house where a guy was holding his wife and kids hostage. I was sent around back and all of a sudden the guy loomed out of the darkness with a pistol to a kid's head. I warned him I was going to shoot him if he didn't put down his gun so he shot me first. As I was going down I was able to get off a shot and kill him. I saw the whole thing was being taped as I fell to the ground.
Right now JANE EYRE is on Masterpiece Theatre, and I think that's safe enough.
I stood outside in the snow tonight and cooked myself a nice New York strip on the grill, so I think I'm ready to return to the living.
Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
Friday, January 26, 2007
Wild Strawberries
I had been complaining that there was no winter, so of course I woke up and the world was ringed in a crystal-clear ice, snow dusting the fields. Thursday morning I walked down the hill to my office in a bitter, biding wind and I heard a "caw! caw!" I looked up and saw a crow in a stark bare branch above my head, against a cold iron sky. It was so Seventh Seal that the film buff in me had to admire it even as I was filled with dread. Later that day I fell ill and left work and that night while I was bundled in a blanket on the couch and feeling miserable my daughter asked if she could borrow some clothes as Friday was "Nerd Day" at school and certainly I had something that would fit the bill. It is January in Indiana.
Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Studio 60 in the Cornfield
It's funny that right after I declared war on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip for their unfair portrayal of midwestern life they slipped off the air. But they crept back on last night thinking that I had forgotten about them. If only it were so.
I don't know, perhaps midwestern life is a lot different than life in LA. For instance, we saw Amanda Peet meeting a new rival and within ninety seconds they were all, "You don't like me, do you?" In most offices this animosity would lie under the surface for many years and long-term subterfuge would be employed rather than out-and-out confrontation. But we are not as hip as Amanda Peet.
Even more alarming was the depiction of office romance, where a recovering coke addict abruptly falls in love with his much younger boss, who happens to be pregnant by an unnamed man. He begins stalking his boss to the point that most people would be fired and dragged off the premises by the police. But this is accepted as cute and funny by his colleagues even though most people I know would be creeped out by this man's behavior.
In LA, people get married a bunch of times and give their kids dumb names and booze it up while leaving their panties and newborn babies at home. We have those people here also, but they live across the creek in the trailer park. I guess I expected more of my Studio 60 characters.
Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
I don't know, perhaps midwestern life is a lot different than life in LA. For instance, we saw Amanda Peet meeting a new rival and within ninety seconds they were all, "You don't like me, do you?" In most offices this animosity would lie under the surface for many years and long-term subterfuge would be employed rather than out-and-out confrontation. But we are not as hip as Amanda Peet.
Even more alarming was the depiction of office romance, where a recovering coke addict abruptly falls in love with his much younger boss, who happens to be pregnant by an unnamed man. He begins stalking his boss to the point that most people would be fired and dragged off the premises by the police. But this is accepted as cute and funny by his colleagues even though most people I know would be creeped out by this man's behavior.
In LA, people get married a bunch of times and give their kids dumb names and booze it up while leaving their panties and newborn babies at home. We have those people here also, but they live across the creek in the trailer park. I guess I expected more of my Studio 60 characters.
Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Weighing In
My wife's best friend from childhood has turned out to be a best-selling author, and with one thing leading to another she ended up staying with us for a few days. She gave me this as a Christmas present and thus earned my undying respect, but even more than that she rather kindly talks as if somehow we share similar career paths. That would be like Donald Trump walking outside Trump Tower and telling the guy with the "Will Work for Food" sign that they are both entrepreneurs. Allow me to examine this more closely.
Best-selling authors get paid six figure advances. B-movie scriptwriters figure they might get paid someday. Advantage: Best-selling authors.
Best-selling authors have book clubs that meet to discuss their works. B-movie scriptwriters have drunk dudes hosting "Bad Movie Nights. " Advantage: Best-selling authors.
Best-selling authors see their books in the front racks at bookstores. B-movie scriptwriters pray they don't see their DVDs in the dollar bin. Advantage: Best-selling authors.
Best-selling authors have friends in the same circles, who send them gifts like Prada bags and IPods and advance copies of books. B-movie scriptwriters have directors who every once in a while send them pictures of scream queens in bikinis. Advantage: B-movie scriptwriters.
Best-selling authors get on the Today Show, or Oprah. B-movie scriptwriters might get asked to be on a late-night cable-access show. Advantage: B-movie scriptwriters.
Best-selling authors appear in "People." B-movie scriptwriters appear in "Fangoria." Advantage: B-movie scriptwriters.
Perhaps all things are equal in the end, after all. If loyal readers can think of any other comparisons, feel free to post them. Until then, give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
Best-selling authors get paid six figure advances. B-movie scriptwriters figure they might get paid someday. Advantage: Best-selling authors.
Best-selling authors have book clubs that meet to discuss their works. B-movie scriptwriters have drunk dudes hosting "Bad Movie Nights. " Advantage: Best-selling authors.
Best-selling authors see their books in the front racks at bookstores. B-movie scriptwriters pray they don't see their DVDs in the dollar bin. Advantage: Best-selling authors.
Best-selling authors have friends in the same circles, who send them gifts like Prada bags and IPods and advance copies of books. B-movie scriptwriters have directors who every once in a while send them pictures of scream queens in bikinis. Advantage: B-movie scriptwriters.
Best-selling authors get on the Today Show, or Oprah. B-movie scriptwriters might get asked to be on a late-night cable-access show. Advantage: B-movie scriptwriters.
Best-selling authors appear in "People." B-movie scriptwriters appear in "Fangoria." Advantage: B-movie scriptwriters.
Perhaps all things are equal in the end, after all. If loyal readers can think of any other comparisons, feel free to post them. Until then, give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
O, Happy Day
At the beginning of the season I stated that a Colts/Bears Super Bowl would be great, but I doubted we would see it.
And now we will see it.
2006 mostly sucked. Actually, so did most of 2005. But 2007 is turning into the best year ever.
We went out to dinner the other night and saw our wedding photographer--a good harbinger for my twentieth wedding anniversary this year; or, as I like to tell my wife, "Two Decades of Excellence."
Go Colts!
Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
And now we will see it.
2006 mostly sucked. Actually, so did most of 2005. But 2007 is turning into the best year ever.
We went out to dinner the other night and saw our wedding photographer--a good harbinger for my twentieth wedding anniversary this year; or, as I like to tell my wife, "Two Decades of Excellence."
Go Colts!
Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Back in the New York Groove
With PRIMAL tucked away and percolating along in California, I tip my keyboard towards the great state of North Carolina and a new project, a rewrite of a horror script featuring a junkyard killer titled MENTAL SCARS, for producer Richard Myles. More soon.
Today I recorded my audio commentary track for the DVD release of Christopher Sharpe's SEX MACHINE, and hope I didn't talk out of my ass too much. Try talking for 90 or so minutes straight without talking out of your ass. It's not easy. But I hope people enjoy it, and it is winging its way to Texas soon.
It was fun to watch SEX MACHINE again. I think people will enjoy it when it gets out there to a video store near you, in Spring 2007.
You know, Al Gore may have something. It's the middle of January, and it has been a modest 40-50 degrees in temperature, with nary a flake of snow anywhere. Not that I'm complaining.
My Colts keep breaking my heart, but pulled off a shocker over the bruising Ravens and earned a trip to the AFC Championship against their old Achilles heel, the Patriots. We'll see what happens. Do I dare to eat a peach?
Also have to love the Saints. In the late 80s I worked at WXOW-TV in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, where the Saints had their training camp, and got to mix with Saints luminaries such as Bobby Herbert, Dalton Hilliard, "Ironhead" Heyward, and others, and have followed their largely hapless adventures since. I usually like to jump off bandwagons when others jump on, but I will stick with the Saints.
I was going to write a bit about how I like the ends of things, when great comic book runs dry up and flame out and the foster kid joins the wheezing sitcom and so on, but hate watching final episodes, and the fact that I won't watch the final episode of THE PRISONER has stuck in my brother's craw for years, but downstairs I hear my wife singing along to The Carpenters, and that is a siren's call I cannot ignore.
So, until later, give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
Today I recorded my audio commentary track for the DVD release of Christopher Sharpe's SEX MACHINE, and hope I didn't talk out of my ass too much. Try talking for 90 or so minutes straight without talking out of your ass. It's not easy. But I hope people enjoy it, and it is winging its way to Texas soon.
It was fun to watch SEX MACHINE again. I think people will enjoy it when it gets out there to a video store near you, in Spring 2007.
You know, Al Gore may have something. It's the middle of January, and it has been a modest 40-50 degrees in temperature, with nary a flake of snow anywhere. Not that I'm complaining.
My Colts keep breaking my heart, but pulled off a shocker over the bruising Ravens and earned a trip to the AFC Championship against their old Achilles heel, the Patriots. We'll see what happens. Do I dare to eat a peach?
Also have to love the Saints. In the late 80s I worked at WXOW-TV in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, where the Saints had their training camp, and got to mix with Saints luminaries such as Bobby Herbert, Dalton Hilliard, "Ironhead" Heyward, and others, and have followed their largely hapless adventures since. I usually like to jump off bandwagons when others jump on, but I will stick with the Saints.
I was going to write a bit about how I like the ends of things, when great comic book runs dry up and flame out and the foster kid joins the wheezing sitcom and so on, but hate watching final episodes, and the fact that I won't watch the final episode of THE PRISONER has stuck in my brother's craw for years, but downstairs I hear my wife singing along to The Carpenters, and that is a siren's call I cannot ignore.
So, until later, give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
Friday, January 12, 2007
Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth With Money in My Hand
Well, I saw the debut of the new reality show ARMED AND FAMOUS, which takes place in my hometown of Muncie, Indiana, and it was pretty much what I expected. I knew it would start with a shot of some cornfields. Of course, we saw some rubes looking at the limo coming into town with open-mouthed wonder. Of course we saw the trailer park, and the only restaurant in town where you can throw peanut shells on the floor as well as the longtime all-night cafe fondly called "The Awful Waffle." We saw Wee Man riding a bull at a local bar, natch, with plenty of guitair pickin' on the soundtrack.
What surprised me was that there was more crack than I thought and fewer mullets. It surprised me that Jack Osborne was such a dead shot. But the biggest surprise was that I think my whole family had a celebrity sighting of Trish Stratus and didn't know who she was. It started with my son observing, "that chick is pretty hot, for a cop," at which point I noted an attractive, buffed-out young woman who did seem unusually desirable for the local constabulary. While we were watching the show my wife said, "Didn't we see her somewhere?" and both being somewhat unfamiliar with the intricacies of life in the WWE realized we may have missed our brush with greatness.
So far, I have seen three people I have met on the show; thankfully, they are the mayor, the police chief, and a policeman who is the son of my mother's best friend.
New projects on the horizon; until then, give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
What surprised me was that there was more crack than I thought and fewer mullets. It surprised me that Jack Osborne was such a dead shot. But the biggest surprise was that I think my whole family had a celebrity sighting of Trish Stratus and didn't know who she was. It started with my son observing, "that chick is pretty hot, for a cop," at which point I noted an attractive, buffed-out young woman who did seem unusually desirable for the local constabulary. While we were watching the show my wife said, "Didn't we see her somewhere?" and both being somewhat unfamiliar with the intricacies of life in the WWE realized we may have missed our brush with greatness.
So far, I have seen three people I have met on the show; thankfully, they are the mayor, the police chief, and a policeman who is the son of my mother's best friend.
New projects on the horizon; until then, give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
Monday, January 08, 2007
Everybody's Talking
I have not one, but two projects in the hopper that I need to be rolling on, so here are just some links to things on my mind:
An extremely cool article on tech trends in 2006, here (poached from my pal Bill Cunningham).
The reality show based in my hometown, ARMED AND FAMOUS, gets the stinkeye from The Washington Post, here.
Not for me, but interesting.
This site, $1,000 Spielberg, is also pretty interesting. When they get down to $100 Spielberg, I am so there (also poached from Bill).
If you missed "Bigfoot Stole My Six-Pack," the theme song of my sasquatch epic AMONG US, currently playing on the SPACE channel, somebody YouTubed it here (courtesy of my pal Tim Shrum).
You know what song brought tears to my eyes the other day? "Year of the Cat" by Al Stewart.
Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
An extremely cool article on tech trends in 2006, here (poached from my pal Bill Cunningham).
The reality show based in my hometown, ARMED AND FAMOUS, gets the stinkeye from The Washington Post, here.
Not for me, but interesting.
This site, $1,000 Spielberg, is also pretty interesting. When they get down to $100 Spielberg, I am so there (also poached from Bill).
If you missed "Bigfoot Stole My Six-Pack," the theme song of my sasquatch epic AMONG US, currently playing on the SPACE channel, somebody YouTubed it here (courtesy of my pal Tim Shrum).
You know what song brought tears to my eyes the other day? "Year of the Cat" by Al Stewart.
Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
The Da Vinci Curse, Japanese Flava
The poster for THE DA VINCI CURSE in its Japanese release, via my pal Shogo (the DP for SEX MACHINE). How cool is that?Sunday, December 31, 2006
Shine On, You Crazy Diamond
It's high noon on New Year's Eve and I just sent out my second draft of PRIMAL, the bigfoot movie I am doing a rewrite on. I talked to producer David Sterling, who must have been an early riser out in LA, then did one last look-over and shot it out.
Later today it is dinner and a movie with the family and off to some friends for the New Years party we have gone to for several years.
I looked back through my blog and realized I pretty much have the same resolutions each year--lose weight, work harder and smarter, shepherd my kids safely through the year--so they hardly bear repeating here.
I had a good year with both SEX MACHINE and BLACK MASS/THE DA VINCI CURSE/DEAD KNIGHT screening and getting picked up for distro. I am finishing the year with a lot lined up for 2007; we'll see where that all leads.
Last night my brother and I tried the new Axis and Allies game, Battle of the Bulge. It has a surprisingly different mechanic than the others in the long-standing series of board games but makes sense in the logic of the game. I played the Axis and made a startlingly large land grab as the Allied supply lines got tangled. Axis won, and another alternate universe falls.
Happy New Year, everybody!
Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
Later today it is dinner and a movie with the family and off to some friends for the New Years party we have gone to for several years.
I looked back through my blog and realized I pretty much have the same resolutions each year--lose weight, work harder and smarter, shepherd my kids safely through the year--so they hardly bear repeating here.
I had a good year with both SEX MACHINE and BLACK MASS/THE DA VINCI CURSE/DEAD KNIGHT screening and getting picked up for distro. I am finishing the year with a lot lined up for 2007; we'll see where that all leads.
Last night my brother and I tried the new Axis and Allies game, Battle of the Bulge. It has a surprisingly different mechanic than the others in the long-standing series of board games but makes sense in the logic of the game. I played the Axis and made a startlingly large land grab as the Allied supply lines got tangled. Axis won, and another alternate universe falls.
Happy New Year, everybody!
Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Stamping the X into XMas
Thank God Christmas is over. Aside from the usual trauma and catastrophes I broke an antique chair at my mother-in-law's house which will probably end up at the center of family disagreements for the next few decades or so, surpassing the Thanksgiving when my dad bit into one of my mother-in-law's brownies and broke out his front tooth.
This year, I hauled in some new clothes and Charles Frazier's new book and a few bottles of wine (including one from Coppola's vineyard), and spent an Amazon gift certificate on Philip K. Dick's Flow My Tears the Policeman Said, the Robin Hobbs Liveship Traders Trilogy, and a couple more of those great, great Hard Case Crime paperbacks.
I am chunking along on Primal for a January 1 delivery date. I saw some location photos of a pretty cool cave that will play a central part in the feature, and am working that in.
I have dozed through a few movies but been wide awake during a couple of really good ones, including Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing and Charm School and Little Miss Sunshine. Marilyn Hotchkiss was so good I immediately put it back in and started listening to the commentary track, because I had a couple of suspicions about why things were done, most of which proved out to be true.
My brother got the Star Trek cartoon series on DVD and I proved that there was a character with his name in it, a sore point in his early childhood, according to our mother. In real life, he was named after Eric Fleming, the trail boss in Rawhide.
I played the new Marvel board game, which is fun but needlessly complicated, though I won in a last-ditch battle, Wolverine vs. Spiral, which catapaulted me in points over my middle-school nephew who was making hay with the Hulk. Then I turned around and stunk up Risk 2210 A.D., which is very fun even when you are down to holding Siberia and one or two other places while your brother rampages over the other continents. But like a true rogue state, I kept lobbing nukes at him, a nice added bonus missing in the earlier Risk games.
I'm ready to chuck 2006 aside and solider on to 2007. In the meantime, give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
This year, I hauled in some new clothes and Charles Frazier's new book and a few bottles of wine (including one from Coppola's vineyard), and spent an Amazon gift certificate on Philip K. Dick's Flow My Tears the Policeman Said, the Robin Hobbs Liveship Traders Trilogy, and a couple more of those great, great Hard Case Crime paperbacks.
I am chunking along on Primal for a January 1 delivery date. I saw some location photos of a pretty cool cave that will play a central part in the feature, and am working that in.
I have dozed through a few movies but been wide awake during a couple of really good ones, including Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing and Charm School and Little Miss Sunshine. Marilyn Hotchkiss was so good I immediately put it back in and started listening to the commentary track, because I had a couple of suspicions about why things were done, most of which proved out to be true.
My brother got the Star Trek cartoon series on DVD and I proved that there was a character with his name in it, a sore point in his early childhood, according to our mother. In real life, he was named after Eric Fleming, the trail boss in Rawhide.
I played the new Marvel board game, which is fun but needlessly complicated, though I won in a last-ditch battle, Wolverine vs. Spiral, which catapaulted me in points over my middle-school nephew who was making hay with the Hulk. Then I turned around and stunk up Risk 2210 A.D., which is very fun even when you are down to holding Siberia and one or two other places while your brother rampages over the other continents. But like a true rogue state, I kept lobbing nukes at him, a nice added bonus missing in the earlier Risk games.
I'm ready to chuck 2006 aside and solider on to 2007. In the meantime, give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
Sunday, December 24, 2006
World's Finest Christmas
From Justice League of America 100 Page Super Spectacular, only 50 cents in 1973; the first comic I ever remember reading, given to me by my pal Tom Cherry after I wrote about it in this blog. I re-read it last night, and it is still great. Merry Christmas, everybody!
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
News From Around the Globe
Reality show fever gripped my hometown of Muncie, Indiana, when "Armed and Famous," a celebreality show with people like Erik Estrada and Wee Man becoming real cops and patrolling the streets, came to town. First the local paper was front-page breathless about LaToya Jackson failing her physical and the radio station carried on about whether Erik Estrada had a toupee. But soon the bloom was off the rose when people saw them taking multiple takes of certain events and paying people to allow their faces to appear on-camera. The bitter truth is that reality shows aren't real. Just ask all my pals in the Writer's Guild, trying to get credit as writers on reality shows they worked on that allegedly don't use writers.
But my wife saw Jack Osborne at Cheeseburger in Paradise.
In other fictional programming news, I recently took "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" to task for making fun of midwesterners, showing a native of Columbus, Ohio who still used a record player and had never heard of Abbot and Costello. So the show fired back in a recent episode with a running gag about an overtime basketball game featuring "Muncie State." Now it's on. When you make fun of a Hoosier's basketball, it's on.
Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
But my wife saw Jack Osborne at Cheeseburger in Paradise.
In other fictional programming news, I recently took "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" to task for making fun of midwesterners, showing a native of Columbus, Ohio who still used a record player and had never heard of Abbot and Costello. So the show fired back in a recent episode with a running gag about an overtime basketball game featuring "Muncie State." Now it's on. When you make fun of a Hoosier's basketball, it's on.
Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
Sunday, December 17, 2006
And Eat It Too
Had to reboot my PRIMAL rewrite, so I have been chugging along on that for an end-of-the-year delivery.
I went to my nephew's birthday party and had one of the best pieces of cake I ever had. It was baked by an eastern European immigrant who is trying to break into business here, so he made this as a friend of my nephew's family to get the word out. It was so good that I have dreamed about that cake since. It is in the top ten pieces of cake I have ever eaten in my life. It made me weep to see crusts of it on disinterested kids' paper plates. All I can do is wish this man with his American Dream well.
I bought my nephew a classic version of Stratego. And all he did was immediately shove everything else aside and have me teach it to him. For my other nephew's birthday, I bought him Risk, and the same thing happened. Take that, Xbox. I still carry the torch for comic books, board games, and snap-tight models as the "bad uncle" I never had myself.
They served Colts Touchdown Sundae ice cream, and I observed that it started off tasting good, but the longer you ate it, the more bitter it became.
Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
I went to my nephew's birthday party and had one of the best pieces of cake I ever had. It was baked by an eastern European immigrant who is trying to break into business here, so he made this as a friend of my nephew's family to get the word out. It was so good that I have dreamed about that cake since. It is in the top ten pieces of cake I have ever eaten in my life. It made me weep to see crusts of it on disinterested kids' paper plates. All I can do is wish this man with his American Dream well.
I bought my nephew a classic version of Stratego. And all he did was immediately shove everything else aside and have me teach it to him. For my other nephew's birthday, I bought him Risk, and the same thing happened. Take that, Xbox. I still carry the torch for comic books, board games, and snap-tight models as the "bad uncle" I never had myself.
They served Colts Touchdown Sundae ice cream, and I observed that it started off tasting good, but the longer you ate it, the more bitter it became.
Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
Friday, December 15, 2006
Party Like It's 1983
When I was a kid, Fangoria was the coolest magazine around. My somewhat steady appearances lately denote an overall decline in quality. Check it out here.
Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Sex Machine Revs Up March 2007
Sex Machine Leaves Mark on Anthem Pictures
Scary Actioner – part Frankenstein, part pulp – Acquired for Worldwide Distribution
Agoura Hills, CA – Anthem Pictures President & CEO Chuck Adelman announced today it had acquired all rights to Austin, TX filmmaker Christopher Sharpe’s debut feature film, Sex Machine for worldwide distribution. The scary action-thriller is scheduled for a DVD Premiere in the United States in March 2007.
Sex Machine, which takes its name from a mysterious tattoo on the hero’s arm is the gripping story of a man who wakes up in the middle of a gangland hit to discover that his limbs are not his own. Frank is a tough-talking patchwork assassin, stitched together from the body parts of other failed assassins. When Frank learns that his ex-girlfriend is the next test subject, he opens both barrels on his “creators” and unleashes a gory bloodbath of revenge.
“When we first screened the movie we knew we had a winner – not only with the audience who love movies like Reservoir Dogs or The Killer, but with the folks who like their gore, “said Adelman. “Sex Machine really delivers the goods. This is a pulpy hybrid of horror and hitmen that really goes for the throat.”
Sex Machine, winner of the 2006 MicroCinema and DeadCenter Film Festivals was shot in and around Austin, TX and Oklahoma City, OK and comes from the demented minds of Director Christopher Sharpe and screenwriter John Oak Dalton. Shot for over several months as cast and crew were available, Sharpe and Director of Photography Shogo have infused with the movie with what critics have called, “killer visual style” from the opening credits onward. Hundreds of sketches, conceptual photos and makeup tests were completed so that the filmmakers could keep a consistent and interesting look on their meager budget. The planning paid off.
The movie was brought to Anthem by writer-producer Bill Cunningham (Scarecrow, .Com For Murder and the upcoming Gore Gore Gore-met ) when the director sent him a copy for his advice. “I watched the movie from beginning to end without having to fast forward, which is a testament to the story’s punch. I called Christopher right away and asked if the film had distribution and if he was represented by anyone. I wanted to be that guy. From there I took it around to my colleagues in the industry and Chuck really responded to what I did – the film’s pulpiness.”
Plans for the March 2007 DVD include: the feature, trailers, a DVD commentary track with the filmmakers, a behind-the-scenes feature and a gallery of stills and artwork.
# # #
Yeah, I better get that commentary track cranked out.
Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
Scary Actioner – part Frankenstein, part pulp – Acquired for Worldwide Distribution
Agoura Hills, CA – Anthem Pictures President & CEO Chuck Adelman announced today it had acquired all rights to Austin, TX filmmaker Christopher Sharpe’s debut feature film, Sex Machine for worldwide distribution. The scary action-thriller is scheduled for a DVD Premiere in the United States in March 2007.
Sex Machine, which takes its name from a mysterious tattoo on the hero’s arm is the gripping story of a man who wakes up in the middle of a gangland hit to discover that his limbs are not his own. Frank is a tough-talking patchwork assassin, stitched together from the body parts of other failed assassins. When Frank learns that his ex-girlfriend is the next test subject, he opens both barrels on his “creators” and unleashes a gory bloodbath of revenge.
“When we first screened the movie we knew we had a winner – not only with the audience who love movies like Reservoir Dogs or The Killer, but with the folks who like their gore, “said Adelman. “Sex Machine really delivers the goods. This is a pulpy hybrid of horror and hitmen that really goes for the throat.”
Sex Machine, winner of the 2006 MicroCinema and DeadCenter Film Festivals was shot in and around Austin, TX and Oklahoma City, OK and comes from the demented minds of Director Christopher Sharpe and screenwriter John Oak Dalton. Shot for over several months as cast and crew were available, Sharpe and Director of Photography Shogo have infused with the movie with what critics have called, “killer visual style” from the opening credits onward. Hundreds of sketches, conceptual photos and makeup tests were completed so that the filmmakers could keep a consistent and interesting look on their meager budget. The planning paid off.
The movie was brought to Anthem by writer-producer Bill Cunningham (Scarecrow, .Com For Murder and the upcoming Gore Gore Gore-met ) when the director sent him a copy for his advice. “I watched the movie from beginning to end without having to fast forward, which is a testament to the story’s punch. I called Christopher right away and asked if the film had distribution and if he was represented by anyone. I wanted to be that guy. From there I took it around to my colleagues in the industry and Chuck really responded to what I did – the film’s pulpiness.”
Plans for the March 2007 DVD include: the feature, trailers, a DVD commentary track with the filmmakers, a behind-the-scenes feature and a gallery of stills and artwork.
# # #
Yeah, I better get that commentary track cranked out.
Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Zardoz Redux
I think I am about two-thirds through the PRIMAL rewrite for director Michael Su and chugging along. For those tracking my propensity for writing shower scenes, this one pretty much takes place outdoors where there is no plumbing. So we had to settle for a sponge bath, naturally.
I finished listening to Paul Giamatti read A SCANNER DARKLY by Philip K. Dick, and it was a great audio book. I had picked up the paper version some time ago because SEX MACHINE FX person Leah Sharpe got a job working on the movie version down in Austin, and I figured I would check out the movie at some point. But it just got too depressing, so I shelved it. I came back to it a week or so ago on audio book and really enjoyed it. What I like most about what I call "hippie-fi" is how virtually everyone up until William Gibson wrote NEUROMANCER had no concept of what the wireless, internet, cell phone future would actually be. There are always rooms with huge banks of tape-spinning computers and guys (and women) walking around in plastic jumpsuits open to their navels. Drugs and sex always play a big part, a failure to forecast the Reagan Era. Just think Sean Connery in ZARDOZ, John Saxon in EARTH TWO, and Charlton Heston in PLANET OF THE APES to see the kind of future lantern-jawed, blue-chinned, hairy-chested leading men they were forecasting in the 60s and 70s. Were it that we could return to that (future) past.
I would love to write a screenplay that takes the stance that it was written in the 70s and forecasting the 90s (like A SCANNER DARKLY), then raid a Salvation Army and shoot it with all the sideburns and bell bottoms and plastic ray guns and giant computers still intact. There's something deeply appealing about that.
And I know I could do it, too. I remember shooting a Super-8 short in the early 80s that featured a guy talking on a phone in a car, and having to make sure that you could see the cord trailing off to the dash, because of course if the phone didn't have a cord it would look broken. And I was also the guy that thought CDs would never take off because, after all, they were just little records. Nostradamus, indeed.
Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
I finished listening to Paul Giamatti read A SCANNER DARKLY by Philip K. Dick, and it was a great audio book. I had picked up the paper version some time ago because SEX MACHINE FX person Leah Sharpe got a job working on the movie version down in Austin, and I figured I would check out the movie at some point. But it just got too depressing, so I shelved it. I came back to it a week or so ago on audio book and really enjoyed it. What I like most about what I call "hippie-fi" is how virtually everyone up until William Gibson wrote NEUROMANCER had no concept of what the wireless, internet, cell phone future would actually be. There are always rooms with huge banks of tape-spinning computers and guys (and women) walking around in plastic jumpsuits open to their navels. Drugs and sex always play a big part, a failure to forecast the Reagan Era. Just think Sean Connery in ZARDOZ, John Saxon in EARTH TWO, and Charlton Heston in PLANET OF THE APES to see the kind of future lantern-jawed, blue-chinned, hairy-chested leading men they were forecasting in the 60s and 70s. Were it that we could return to that (future) past.
I would love to write a screenplay that takes the stance that it was written in the 70s and forecasting the 90s (like A SCANNER DARKLY), then raid a Salvation Army and shoot it with all the sideburns and bell bottoms and plastic ray guns and giant computers still intact. There's something deeply appealing about that.
And I know I could do it, too. I remember shooting a Super-8 short in the early 80s that featured a guy talking on a phone in a car, and having to make sure that you could see the cord trailing off to the dash, because of course if the phone didn't have a cord it would look broken. And I was also the guy that thought CDs would never take off because, after all, they were just little records. Nostradamus, indeed.
Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
Saturday, November 25, 2006
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.
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.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
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
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
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
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.
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.
Monday, November 20, 2006
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.
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.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
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.
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.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
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.
More news soon; in the interim, give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)