Wednesday, March 15, 2006

The Shield, a plea and a Hustle

I am continually impressed by "The Shield." The writing, the acting and the directing on it is superb and if there's any chance that anyone with any kind of a producing credit on that show is reading this I just want to take a moment here to beg for the chance to direct even 2nd unit. I actually fell in love with this show the first season it aired because it's about characters. In fact it's the only cop show, currently on the air where the plots focuses on characters as opposed to the killing of the week. I'm also extremely impressed with how they've taken a character who is basically a bad dude and made you root for him. The Sopranos did the same thing but the Shield takes it to a whole new level. The Sopranos also kind of fell victim to the occasional episode where you watched it and then said, "what the fuck was that about?" They also let plots drift away - or am I the only who's hoping to see the Russian Christopher and Paulie shot in the woods re-appear this season? Anyway, the Shield - Please, please, please hire me.

Also, I've been on DVD kick. We've watched recently, Crash, March of the Penguins, Sullivan's Travels (1942), Wedding Crashers, The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Hustle and Flow.

It's been a good run. I have great things to say about all these films though some I liked better than others. I think my two favorites were Wedding Crashers and Hustle and Flow, which was a movie I knew virtually nothing about before putting the disc in the machine, but I really related to it.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Reading and the Oscars

The Academy Awards always kill me. I have to watch them yet they're somewhat painful as a reminder of how far I still have to go. I was pretty pleased to see Crash win best picture. Not that I was rooting for it above all the others, but because it's the only one of the bunch that I've actually seen. I intend to see the others, I've just been too busy.

I did like Crash though. It was a powerful film.

Busy doing - readin' and 'riting and 'rithmetic... Quite literally. I've gotten a ton of emails pitching scripts so I'm trying to get through all of those. I'm working on one or two scripts of my own - one that I'm on a re-write of and one that's still in treatment form. AND doing my F******* taxes.

Oh - and I'm trying to prep some spec spots. Anyone know where I can get a 16 mm (preferably Super 16) for free?