Tuesday, January 24

Monday, January 23

She never felt like home

The pre-wrtiting process has begun. Two treatments for a potential (paid) writing gig are currently brewing over in these parts. One is reworking of my human trafficking script, whcih seems to be all the rage of political discussion these days. The idea is to focus more on the main relationship in the film, a brother and sister at odds with their decisions about becoming involved in this underworld.

The second is kind of a Chicano/a "Garden State" with a rougher edge, and hopefully a female lead, that could be good. This one is a little closer to my heart considering it deals with a lot of issues and things closely related to my growing up in the community and the enviornment that I did. I had a friend, a popular white kid, who was murdered by gang bangers about 8 years ago. Some people say it was motivated by a riff between his close circle of friends and the gang bangers. Others say that it was for dating a very popular Mexican girl. Reasoning aside, someone very close to me knew details that could have led to much quicker arrests. This person never came forward and I never knew about their inolvement until after the police caught the guys almost year after the fact. Very sad.

In other news, the business plan for Beyond the Mat has gone out to financers and now we're just waiting to hear back from people. Crossing fingers.

Olmos Productions has requested to read our latest draft of Californio. The script goes out tomorrow.

Blood Bond is supposed to be making the rounds at Fox. Kirk is in Taiwan doing prep work on another project.

I'm about to start writing something new. It feels prett f'ing good. Hasta.

Thursday, January 12

Up to Bat

Warren at The Screenwriting Life tagged me for the now infamous Scribosphere Meme, which I hadn’t noticed until this morning since I’ve been MIA the last few days. Argh, I hate being on the tail end of things. But thanks, Warren, much obliged.

ONE (1) earliest film-related memory:
My parents, mis padres, love the movies. Married 45 anos, their earliest dates consisted of going to el cine in their small, Texas town and when they had seen all of the films playing locally, they’d hop on a bus and head over to the nearest town to catch movies they hadn’t seen there. That said, they didn’t stop when they started having kids, movies became and important part of tiempo con el familia, family time together. My earliest memories are of Luke in the Rancor pit (sp?) in Return of the Jedi and watching Indiana Jones run away from the impending stone ball rushing after him in Raiders of the Lost Ark. There’s also an early memory I have of watching Rebel Without a Cause with my dad. “You’re tearing me apart!!!” Then there's also watching and crying at La Bamba con mi familia.


TWO (2) favorite lines from movies:

“It can’t rain all the time.” – Eric Draven, The Crow
“Stay frosty.” – Cpl. Hicks, Aliens.

THREE (3) jobs you’d do if you could not work in the “biz”:

Film Studies Professor/teacher
Own a Comic Book Shop
Journalist

FOUR (4) jobs you actually have held outside the industry:

Graduate Assistant to a Professor of Business
English/Math tutor
Boys and Girls Club Counselor
Hardware Handyman, True Value Hardware

THREE (3) book authors I like:

Sherman Alexie
John Steakley
Luis J. Rodriguez

TWO (2) movies you’d like to remake or properties you’d like to adapt:

John Steakley’s Armor, a great, pulpy sci-fi epic... and another project which I’ve been developing off and on for a while which I will leave unnamed for now. Gotta keep one in the bag. Con Safos.

ONE (1) screenwriter you think is underrated:

Tom Mankiewicz, who was responsible for making Superman into the film we all know and love. He turned what was originally a completely campy script into what we now know as one of the greatest Superhero films of all time.

THREE (3) people I’m tagging to answer this meme next:
Well since almost everyone I know has been tagged already, I’ll try:
The Write Brother
Phillip Morton (as Warren stated before me, let’s see if we can get any of the big boys involved in this)

Monday, January 9

She was a poem on legs.

Thursday, January 5

Reboundin'

It's always interesting to me the kind of influence the people near and dear to us have over our writing process, wether we like it or not. Certain inflections of personality, speech, their way of doing things, it all rubs off some. My process has always been informed by the people around me, they engage me and challenge me to think of things in a different light. This is also one of the blessings of having a solid writing partner. I'm fortunate to have an almost constant sounding board with Nick. My dear friend Ingrid has always been extremely helpful in this capacity as well. Other people ain't too shabby in this capacity either.

I've been stifled lately, unable to really write ANYTHING in the last few weeks - outside of the few posts here, of course. A potetnial (new and paid) writing job might break this cycle of zero output. Me hopes. Nine drafts (with a few more on the horizon) of Beyond the Mat was starting to get to me. Not to mention I also have three new DVDs to review for dvdtown.com. I needed the break.

March 1st is the tentative first day of production for Beyond the Mat.

"Un revolucionario verdadero cree en el mejor de las personas, en su valor y su listo."

Sunday, January 1

It's been a while

Qucikly, a few new things on the horizon. A potential pitch meeting and paying gig, if things pan out. Beyond the Mat is moving along nicely and as long as things keep moving as they are, the film is going into production in two months.

No word on Blood Bond.

Sent Californio out to another actor, waiting to hear back.

Coyotes outline rewrite is going slow, but I'll have something new soon.

Goals: Agent, Career start, New Script, Network, Californio, Assertive

Sometimes you'll watch a movie and it'll pull just the right heart strings to get you balling like a baby. Happy New Year everyone!