We’re now officially a month and a half away from the only screenwriting competition decided by REAL PEOPLE – aka YOU. Not these clueless fancy contest readers with their big contest price tags and questionable taste. I’d say that the average Scriptshadow reader is way more capable of judging a screenplay than those wannabes. So fine-tune those scripts. I have the utmost confidence that we’re going to find a killer screenplay.
HOW TO SUBMIT
What: Mega Showdown
When: Friday, August 1
Deadline: Thursday, July 31, 10pm Pacific Time
Send me your: Script title, genre, logline, and a PDF of the script
Where: carsonreeves3@gmail.com
Let’s discuss what occurred over the weekend. Despite my AI post sparking some controversy, with critics labeling me as the devil for supporting AI, this weekend’s box office results make one thing clear: AI just received some great news.
If movies are, indeed, in danger of being created completely by AI (I don’t think they are, btw), the first movies it’s going to happen with are these Disney and Universal live-action remakes.
Why? Because the scripts have already been written for these former movies. So all AI has to do is make a few modern changes and the script is taken care of. And then AI loves to generate these live-action video images, which is all they’re doing with these live-action remakes. They’re photo-realistic animation basically.
So anybody in the business is kind of in a pickle. On the one hand, you want to celebrate any cinematic success, as it keeps the lights on. But if you’re an artist, movies like How To Train Your Dragon are bad news. Cause these will soon be the testing grounds that Hollywood uses to experiment on AI.
The other big release this weekend comes from A24. “Materialists” is Celine Song’s follow-up to her well-received debut romantic drama, “Past Lives.” Her newest film opened solid for an A24 film (12 million bucks) but low for a romantic comedy.
Regardless of where it landed on the Success-O-Meter, I count it as a success. Getting to double digits as an A24 film is always a big achievement. The indie production company understands that if you don’t have IP, you have to try something fresh. Song is making the world’s first sad rom-com. The muted tones. The apathetic lead. It’s a combo that shouldn’t work but pulled in enough bodies to validate the risk.
Still, these movies have to be great to have legs. And, when I watch the trailer, I see too much lightness to pull in the requisite amount of bodies to make this a hit. But at least it feels original. In that sense, it’s the “Anti How To Train Your Dragon” – a film that could not have been conceived through AI.
Speaking of trying something different, Neon is crashing and burning with The Life of Chuck (2.5 mil opening). I tried to tell them that this was one of the worst stories I’ve ever read in any form in my life but they didn’t listen. But even if you disagreed with my review, the real lesson here is that you cannot write a movie that doesn’t have an identifiable genre and expect people to see it.
What is the genre for The Life of Chuck? Nobody knows! Cause it doesn’t have one. And people DO NOT SHOW UP TO MOVIES WHEN THEY DON’T KNOW WHAT THE GENRE IS. I know artists hate to hear this but it’s the truth. And the irony is that these very same artists do the same thing.
Moving from the past to the future, everyone is moviegasming over the July To Die For. We’ve got three huge movie releases happening in July. Marvel is trying, for a third time, to make Fantastic Four a thing. Warner Brothers is restarting the DC universe with Superman. And Universal couldn’t even wait the minimum amount of time for a reboot – 5 years – to begin another Jurassic Park adventure.
So, we’re going to play a brand new game here on Scriptshadow: Bang, Marry, Kill. Which of these movies am I going to bang? Which will I get down on one knee for? And which will I mercilessly slaughter? Go make your guesses down in the comments section before you continue (and make sure to offer your own BMK choices).
Okay, let’s start with Bang. I’m going to bang Superman. Wait a minute. I was not thinking before I wrote that sentence. Oh well, too late. Superman looks like something I could have a great night out with. It’s exciting, new, handsome. Of the three options, it will definitely make me laugh the most. Yeah, I’m banging Superman all night long. None of the other movies come close.
As for marriage. Ooh, this is a tough one. But I think I have to go with Fantastic Four. Why? Because it looks harmless. It looks like someone I can trust. I’m definitely not going to have the best whoopee of my life with Fantastic Four, but I can see us cuddling all night long after the physical fireworks. Will there be times during our relationship where I’m bored? Definitely. Will she annoy me at times? You bet. But overall, Fantastic Four is the lady I’ll be the most comfortable with.
This leaves… I’m sorry Scarlett Johansen… but this leaves Jurassic World as my murder victim. Literally the ONLY thing this movie has going for it is how Johansen is a super fan of the franchise and finally gets a chance to be in it. But outside of that, this reeks hardcore of a money grab. Three years after the “conclusion to the Jurassic World franchise?” THREE YEARS??? You couldn’t wait any longer? If you had some amazing fresh dinosaur idea, then sure. Fine. But this is such a “par for the course” concept that it’s slotting itself in the pole position for “most unnecessary movie of the year.” I’m sorry Jurassic World. But I need to kill you.
We have one more dark horse entry to throw into the mix. 28 Years Later. I can bang it, marry it, or kill it. Is there any way we can add a fourth option? Date it? I’m not going to lie. I’m scared to death of this movie. It looks to go beyond typical horror and more like something that haunts your nightmares for months on end. It looks… relentless. But I have no choice but to date it. It’s written by one of my favorite writers, Alex Garland. In that respect, it has a shot at being better than all of these films. So, assuming I don’t chicken out, expect a review next Monday.
Get back to writing your scripts. Mega-Showdown is coming!
