A Few Random Things...
In the spirit of catching up, here are a few random things that I wanted to get onto the blog at some point over the past couple of weeks.
To the person who landed on my blog by searching for "The Two Jakes" spoiler, I believe the answer to your question is Robert Towne. With all due respect to the man who created one of my favorite movies ever -- Chinatown -- this sequel was so poorly conceived that I can only blame Towne, who wrote this follow-up as well. Thus, the only possible spoiler of The Two Jakes had to be Towne himself. Look, no question Towne is one of the all-time greats, but it can also be somewhat heartening to see that even the best screenwriters sometimes write bad films. Another example would be the brilliant Charlie Kaufman's horrendous Human Nature.
And while we're on the inspirational side of things, here's a great quote I found in this month's scr(i)pt magazine (with The Simpsons Movie on the cover). In an article about the new Harry Potter movie, there was a quote from screenwriter Michael Goldenberg. He was talking about a screenwriting book he had read, and couldn't even remember what book it was. But the line that stuck in his head was that despite the odds against success as a Hollywood screenwriter, "Of all successful screenwriters, 100 percent have at one point never sold a script." Puts things into perspective, no?
What else? One more brief item, for now. I am long overdue to update the links in my sidebar. I will certainly be eliminating some of those (some don't work or are now defunct). I will be adding others in as well. But I've always been about focus rather than volume, with this blog. And thus, I've never included links to every blog around the Scribosphere. I hope this doesn't offend anyone, if I don't include them.
But my point in saying this is that over the past 2+ years that I've been doing this thing, the number and type of screenwriting blogs has exploded beyond what I assume anyone imagined it would. I certainly don't even know them all, let alone read them all. Who has the time? Still, I'm really proud to have been among the "early adopters" within this group, and though I may have lost some of my readers over the time that I blogged infrequently and was working regularly, I'm glad that I've gotten back into a groove now (more or less) and am slowly winning some of you back.
I have also gotten back to reading a number of blogs regularly, via RSS feeds. That's something that dropped off while I was working at the "day job." So now, if you think I may have overlooked your blog, and should consider adding it into my links, please either send me an email or post something in the comments here. As a guideline, I tend to include blogs that are primarily focused on screenwriting, and have a specific angle or tone that speaks to me and/or offers something unique. So yeah, that's that. I already know a number of links that are sorely missing, but let me know. I'll review them, and update in a few weeks!
Have a great weekend everyone!
Tags: screenwriting, Scribosphere, screenwriting
To the person who landed on my blog by searching for "The Two Jakes" spoiler, I believe the answer to your question is Robert Towne. With all due respect to the man who created one of my favorite movies ever -- Chinatown -- this sequel was so poorly conceived that I can only blame Towne, who wrote this follow-up as well. Thus, the only possible spoiler of The Two Jakes had to be Towne himself. Look, no question Towne is one of the all-time greats, but it can also be somewhat heartening to see that even the best screenwriters sometimes write bad films. Another example would be the brilliant Charlie Kaufman's horrendous Human Nature.
And while we're on the inspirational side of things, here's a great quote I found in this month's scr(i)pt magazine (with The Simpsons Movie on the cover). In an article about the new Harry Potter movie, there was a quote from screenwriter Michael Goldenberg. He was talking about a screenwriting book he had read, and couldn't even remember what book it was. But the line that stuck in his head was that despite the odds against success as a Hollywood screenwriter, "Of all successful screenwriters, 100 percent have at one point never sold a script." Puts things into perspective, no?
What else? One more brief item, for now. I am long overdue to update the links in my sidebar. I will certainly be eliminating some of those (some don't work or are now defunct). I will be adding others in as well. But I've always been about focus rather than volume, with this blog. And thus, I've never included links to every blog around the Scribosphere. I hope this doesn't offend anyone, if I don't include them.
But my point in saying this is that over the past 2+ years that I've been doing this thing, the number and type of screenwriting blogs has exploded beyond what I assume anyone imagined it would. I certainly don't even know them all, let alone read them all. Who has the time? Still, I'm really proud to have been among the "early adopters" within this group, and though I may have lost some of my readers over the time that I blogged infrequently and was working regularly, I'm glad that I've gotten back into a groove now (more or less) and am slowly winning some of you back.
I have also gotten back to reading a number of blogs regularly, via RSS feeds. That's something that dropped off while I was working at the "day job." So now, if you think I may have overlooked your blog, and should consider adding it into my links, please either send me an email or post something in the comments here. As a guideline, I tend to include blogs that are primarily focused on screenwriting, and have a specific angle or tone that speaks to me and/or offers something unique. So yeah, that's that. I already know a number of links that are sorely missing, but let me know. I'll review them, and update in a few weeks!
Have a great weekend everyone!
Tags: screenwriting, Scribosphere, screenwriting
posted by Fun Joel | 11:56 PM
5 Comments:
Hey, for awhile, I knew it was time to water my cactus whenever you posted.
Glad you are regular again. Plus, you are still in great form.
Good to have you back in the saddle, Funjoel.
- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA
With due respect to all the great people who worked on it, I think there's a *lot* of people who spoiled THE TWO JAKES.
I like the screenwriter quote because it knocks the pros down a peg, back to when they first got going (like me ha)
I don't want the only one in the room wearing bright yellow pants
Human Nature isn't nearly as bad as Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, which is basically unwatchable
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