So how’s the future of cinema shaping up?

Ummm…

Don’t have a concrete answer for you. But I will say this. It’s a lot more shapely today than it was yesterday.

Watching Avatar felt like the first time you had ice cream. Or the first time you tasted cherry coke. There were times where I had to scoot back and go, “Where the fuck am I? What the hell is going on?” Whatever my final opinion of the film was – and I’ll be honest with you, I’m still not sure – there’s no questioning the fact that this theater visit was a completely new experience. And how often do you go to the movies and feel something new these days? Not that often.

People were calling this Dances with Smurfs, or whatever clever name they were coming up with. The point was, this was supposedly the exact same story as Dances With Wolves. Well good for me because I never saw Dances With Wolves (I will never EVER see a 3 hour movie with Kevin Costner in it. Ever.). So I didn’t have to worry about wolves or dancing. Instead, I got to watch what was, for me, a unique story unfold. Using clones of the creatures they were trying to excavate in order to understand the natives better definitely felt a little “90s” in its conception (not surprising since Cameron came up with this idea back in 93 I believe) but once we kicked into gear, I really liked it. I was actually so into it – and by “it,” I mean Pandora – that I started getting aggravated every time we’d wake up back at the Marine base. Being with the Na’vi was way more interesting, so I wished we could’ve stayed there the whole time. This brought up one of my big complaints with the film. Which is that basically there were only two locations. The marine base and the forest. Despite the grandiosity of the film, I actually felt like it was quite localized because of this. Cold hard steel or lush green forest. Wished there had been a way to mix it up more. But as for the love story – the key to the film – I thought Cameron did an amazing job. The guy gets knocked as a writer but that’s because most people focus on his occasionally clumsy dialogue. He actually understands structure and emotion better than most writers out there. He knows when you can slow down the script for ten minutes to just focus on your two main characters. Many writers/directors screw that up.

The CGI was definitely a weakness for the film. I bet if you cornered Cameron he would even admit so. From the very first moment when Worthington’s avatar gets up and starts walking around, the movements didn’t look natural, and the skin looked cartooney. Then when he runs outside, the movements looked even more unnatural. There were shots here and there where the creatures looked real, but for the most part they didn’t, and it did take me out of the film several times. The good news is that the Zoe what’s her name’s performance (the main female Na’vi) was really good. She totally convinced me that her character was real and thank God she did because let’s be honest : Sam Worthington is about as average as they come. From his monotone delivery to the strain you hear in the back of his throat anytime he’s forced to emote, he is barely serviceable as an actor (and gets by by the nick of his skin here).

This is where Cameron became not just the king of our world, but of Pandora’s. He obviously put a lot of thought into this and I absolutely loved the idea of a connection between the people and the animals and the earth. The trilly connector things that everyone had was such a perfect visual way to sell this point. From how you connected to the animals, to how you connected with the plants…it just felt obvious. So much so that when that fucking tree got shot down, I actually *felt sadness* *for a tree!!!* But what this ultimately did, was it made the love for these two feel bigger than ever. You felt a love not only between them, but between them, the rest of their people, the animals, the planet, everything. This was set up just right in the beginning, when the Zoe Na’vi gets mad at Worthington for having to kill a bunch of animals to save him. Cameron took such a gamble here with how far out he went, betting the house you’d come with him, you just have to admire him for it. I mean, if it didn’t work, it would’ve been a spectacular failure. We haven’t seen someone take that kind of chance in sci-fi since the original Star Wars.

Three-dee. I came into this about as skeptical as one could possibly be regarding the technology that’s supposedly going to save the movie industry. I left feeling mixed about it. Here’s the thing, when the first 3-D stuff starts hitting you, it’s really cool. It’s not perfect because there’s a lack of sharpness due to the way the glasses work. But it was definitely a new experience. However, once you start getting into the movie, the eyes do what they’re trained to do, which is to adjust. Once they adjust, it’s like you’re not watching 3-D anymore. What I mean is, you never go, “Ooooh, that’s such cool 3-D!” It’s just another set of moving images. I think part of the problem is that Cameron so obviously didn’t want to go for any cheap 3-D moments, that the use of the technology almost didn’t seem necessary. In the end, I didn’t say, “I have to go see another 3-D movie.” I did say, “That was neat. But unless another big time director is making a 3-D film, I ain’t paying for the 3-D version.”

I wish nobody had told me that the ending 30 minute battle was so amazing, because I went into it expecting to see shit I’ve never seen before in my life. Instead, I saw a finale that wasn’t even the best sci-fi finale of the year (that distinction goes to District 9). I’m still kinda torn about it, because I wanted to like it so bad. But there wasn’t even a single “money shot” in that final battle, like, say, when the mech machine catches the missile in D9. And even though I just propped up Cameron’s writing skills, he definitely got lazy here. The vague indication that destroying the sacred tree would somehow end the war felt thin to me. I wish he would’ve tried a little harder.

But despite my problems and misgivings, Avatar is undeniably an experience that stays with you. The sum of its faulty parts is a groundbreaking whole, and I can’t help but feel like I just saw what a real alien world looked like. I took a trip to Pandora, and it was awesome.

[x] impressive

Avatar scriptment: Avatar

What I learned: There are some things you can’t write. No matter how hard you try there are simply moments that are impossible to convey on the page. There’s a moment in Avatar where Worthington’s Avatar and the female Avatar are flying on these dragon things for the first time, dipping and diving in and around trees and mountains and they’re glancing at each other, smiling, and the music’s swelling, and it’s this shared experienced between them, and between the filmmaker and the audience, that I can’t imagine anybody being able to convey on paper. It’s just so unique to the medium of film.

Genre: True Story/Biopic
Premise: The true life story of a man with multiple personality disorder who pleaded insanity in three rape cases back in the 1970s.
About: Titanic director James’ Cameron’s treatment of the true life story of Billy Milligan. Supposedly, when this looked like it was going to be a go movie, Milligan claims to have taught Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, John Cusack, and Christian Slater how to accurately portray someone with multiple personality disorder. One wonders if he was speaking with the real actors, or if they had also become characters in his head.
Writer: James Cameron
Status: Dead
Details: 139 freaking pages.

Taking a break from The Black List today to give a little love to James Cameron. Tomorrow marks his first feature directorial effort in over ten years. And hence, we shall take a look at an old unproduced script of his, “Crowded Room.”

I can’t tell you how excited I was when I watched The Hollywood Reporter’s meeting of directors series that had Katheryn Bigelow, Quentin Tarantino, Jason Reitman, Peter Jackson, James Cameron, and Lee Daniels. Watching four of the directors I respect most chit chat as if they were hanging out at the local gym was better than 90% of the movies I saw this year. But the biggest gift was James Cameron’s response when asked how long he plans to direct for. I’d always assumed, since Cameron went AWOL after Titanic, that maybe he wasn’t all that into directing. Well it turns out I was wrong. Cameron divulged that the whole reason he went off the “deep end” (so to speak) was because he knew he wouldn’t be able to endure all that underwater stuff when he was older. Since he knew he could direct until he was 80, he decided to save that aspect of his career for later. He actually says that he’ll probably die on set! Hooray! Since, in my opinion, Cameron is the greatest big-budget director in the world (with no one else even close), this is about the happiest news I’ve come across in awhile.

So getting back on track here, in celebration of the release of Avatar, I thought it would be nice to take a look at one of Cameron’s older scripts, a little known project called “Crowded Room.” Crowded Room, unfortunately, doesn’t consist of any sci-fi elements, but is rather the true story of Billy Milligan, a man with multiple-personality disorder who raped 3 Ohio State college students in the 1970s, then pled innocent by reason of insanity, stating that it was one of his other personalities who did the raping, not him. I guess this was the case that began the end of accountability, huh?

This script is a bizarre mixed bag that is so clumsy in its execution, it makes me wonder just how interested James Cameron was in telling the story. The script starts off wonderfully, with us jumping between the multiple rape victims’ account of the rapes. Each one was methodical, with Billy catching them in the parking lot, bringing them to a secluded location, making them undress, reading them a poem, raping them, then taking them out to lunch.

It’s intense, it’s horrifying, it’s mysterious. During the accounts, Billy is said to have mentioned “the others” and some kind of “brotherhood,” so you’re thinking this has a lot of interesting places it can go. But interesting places to go it does not. What happens next is a brief snapshot of Billy’s trial, where he wins the case on the insanity plea, is then sent to a mental hospital for rehabilitation, and then, on page 40, we’re inexplicably thrust back to the beginning of Billy’s life, as an 8 year old boy, with a clueless mom and an abusive step father.

What follows is a bumpy reflection of – I guess – how Billy created these personalities.The people in his head consist of a Slavic man who reads and writes in perfect Serbo-Croation, a refined Englishman, a petty thief, an escape artist, an angry lesbian (supposedly the one who did the raping – not sure how that works). All in all, there are over 20 different personalities living inside of Billy. Now I know you’re probably reading this and going, “That sounds pretty cool.” But the problem is, none of these personalities is ever utilized in an interesting way. They occasionally pop up and start bitching about their situation. We hear a lot *about* what they can do. But as far using each of their unique traits to craft a story…no, we never get anything even close to that.

In fact, all we do is go back and forth between these lame points in Billy’s life (in one portion he’s involved in drugs! oh no!) occasionally jumping inside Billy’s mind where these personalities argue about how to keep their existence a secret from Billy. There’s absolutely no form to the story. We’re never given any clues as to where it’s going. And because of that, Crowded Room is as aimless as the mind of its main character.

I guess I’d understand the jump back to Billy’s earlier life if they left us with a cliff-hanger as to whether Billy would win the case or not – the implication being that we needed to go back and understand how Billy obtained this personalities in order to decide whether we wanted to root for his acquittal or not – but since his verdict is already decided, we leave that time without any sense of suspense whatsoever. After this long arduous flashback that takes nearly 80 pages, we come back to the present where a second trial seemingly pops out of nowhere, making an even stronger case for leaving us with a court cliffhanger, since we ended up coming back to the court anyway.

I wasn’t even clear on what this second case was about, but to be honest, by this point I was checked out of the story. There was just nothing interesting going on.

As long as we’re talking about cases, Crowded Room is another case for why I don’t think biopics work. People’s lives don’t fit into the three act structure. Ever. For that reason, they always feel clumsy and wrong, and because you must honor the truth of the subject’s life, you consistently miss out on some of the more intriguing opportunities the story can take advantage of. For instance, there are a few personalities in Billy that don’t seem to stem from logic. How does one of his personalities know how to read, write, and speak in a completely different language? How does one of his characters have better escape skills than Houdini? How can one of his personalities be left-handed? There is just some great potential to explore there, particularly if you jumped into the ream of the supernatural and began to ask, “What if this is more than just multiple personality disorder? What if the people inside his head are actually real?” That’s a movie I’d wanna see. Instead, we just get a bunch of cops and lawyers musing, “Did you realize that one of his personalities is left-handed?”

I don’t know. This started out great, but went south quickly. I’m still seeing Avatar this weekend though dammit. Thank God for present day Cameron.

Note: You can hear more opinions on this script by going over to Mystery Man’s site. He and some friends broke down the script themselves (I have not read the breakdowns so I don’t know if they liked or disliked the script).

Script link: No link

[x] What the hell did I just read?
[ ] wasn’t for me
[ ] worth the read
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius

What I learned: Um, biopics suck? Let’s see. What else? Cameron has an interesting style of writing. He’ll write these huge 10-line paragraph chunks that drive readers crazy, but then he’ll have like ten pages of just dialogue, so you forgive him. I’ll tell you what drives me crazy. It’s writers who add little mini-paragraphs between every line of dialogue (or even every couple of lines). I understand the intention is to give us a little insight into what’s happening in the scene. But it seriously interrupts the flow of the read. For example.

LISA
This pie is amazing.

She licks her fork seductively.

JOE
Thanks. It’s a special recipe.

He cleans off his plate.

LISA
So what are we doing tomorrow?

She walks over and joins him at the sink.

JOE
Ehh, maybe go to a movie?

He gives her a quick kiss.

AHHHHHHHHH!!! I guarantee if you write like this the reader will just stop reading your line descriptions and go straight to the dialogue. So you might as well save space and make your script look cleaner anyway by not including any of this nonsense. Only add the action lines if they’re absolutely necessary.

Genre: Biopic
Premise: The life story of chess legend Bobby Fischer leading up to his historic world championship match against Boris Spassky.
About: With 17 votes, this ended up number 13 on the 2009 Black List. Steve Knight, the writer, wrote 2007’s gritty “Eastern Promises.”
Update: David Fincher is now said to be directing this.
Writer: Steve Knight
Status: Unknown.
Details: 123 pages – August 24^th, 2009 – FIRST DRAFT (because this is a first draft, there have likely been significant changes to the script, potentially addressing the issues I bring up)
First of all, in making sure I didn’t step on anyone’s Black List buzz, I had to read five really bad Black List scripts just to get to one I could tolerate. I guess I was a little spoiled reading The Voices and Desperados, cause I’m here to tell ya, they ain’t all like that. Luckily, chess legend Bobby Fisher came along, the myth who inspired the delightful little film, “Searching For Bobby Fischer,” (with a pre-Morpheus Lawrence Fishburne!). But this first draft feels more like a game of checkers, as Knight is clearly still exploring the possibilities here. It’s a bit like taking a museum tour in a helicopter. It’s clumsy and messy and not the best way to see things, but there are wonderful things to see nonetheless.

Bobby Fischer is cut from the same cloth as John Nash (A Beautiful Mind) and Howard Hughes (The Aviator), a brazen paranoid schizophrenic who manages his delusions by escaping into the world of chess. Even as a kid, he was an oddball, losing himself in self-played chess matches instead of making friends and playing “real sports.” What would later become a central force in instigating his delusions, Bobby’s openly communist mother repeatedly tried to get him diagnosed as “crazy.”

But Bobby’s mastery of chess eventually led to him becoming the youngest American champion ever, at 15 years old. We don’t spend that much time watching Bobby’s meteoric rise to fame here, but rather focus on two key events. The 1969 “Good Will” chess tournament between the United States and Russia. And one of the most famous sporting events in American History: The 1972 World Championship between Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer.

Now a lot of you youngsters may be asking, “Why the hell did anybody care about chess?” Well here’s the thing, back in the 60s and 70s when America and The Soviet Union wanted to blow each other to pieces, there were only a few areas where they could prove their dominance over one another. One of them was sports (in the Olympics) and the other, what many considered to be the more important venue, since its application implied superior intelligence, was chess. For this reason, there was no such thing as a “friendly” chess match between the United States and Russia. It always carried a level of subtext. Whoever won was smarter, which, by association, made their country “smarter.”

The problem was, for as long as anybody could remember, nobody came close to challenging the Russians in this arena. That is, until Bobby Fischer showed up on the scene. The crazy wild-eyed swing-for-the-fences vagabond had more raw talent in his pinky toe than the entire Russian team put together. But his inner demons – his schizophrenia, his strained relationship with his mother – consistently hampered his ability to maximize his talent. Yet it was these deficiencies that turned him into such a superstar. You never knew what was going to happen when Bobby Fischer sat down to play chess.

Although the Good Will match is kinda fun, the draw here is the final act, and more specifically the 1972 World Championships. It’s here where Bobby did the impossible and defeated world champion Boris Spassky. The well-documented match was mired in controversy when, having gone down 2-0 to Spassky, Fisher walked away and refused to play unless they moved the rest of the match into a back room where it was quieter and he could concentrate. After some debate, Spassky agreed to the move, and Fischer went on to defeat him. Many people call Bobby’s demand one of the greatest chess “moves” in history, but for me, it left me feeling conflicted about the man. The lesson seemed to be, “If things aren’t going your way, whine and throw a tantrum until they do.” Could you imagine the Celtics being down 50-40 to the Lakers at halftime, then refusing to continue unless they moved the second half to a local high school? Is that really a heroic move?

And that’s the biggest challenge with writing Fischer’s story. You can see Knight struggling with it the whole way through. Fischer is so complicated, so all over the place, that it becomes almost impossible to define him with a single trait, that “fatal flaw” you traditionally assign characters in a dramatic story. For example, in one scene, we’re told that Bobby studies how the Russians play 18 hours a day. Then later on, when somebody points out to Bobby that Boris Spassky is “…up at five every morning to study. Goes to the ocean at six to swim then back to study.” Bobby replies with, “I have a routine too. Stand in the rain with a hooker. Wake up. Win.” So which is it? Is he a relentless worker or a careless vagabond? Since you never really know, and since you never really understand Bobby, it’s hard to find sympathy for him. It’s hard to get to know him.

But one thing is undeniable. Bobby Fischer is a fascinating character. If you go over to his Wikipedia page, you’ll read all sorts of stuff about his life that’s hard to believe. The trick is finding a way to focus all these events into a story that’s easy to digest. There’s some great stuff here, but Knight clearly has a ways to go (which he very well may have in the following drafts). The key lies in staying with the Russian conflict, as I think that’s where the story shines brightest. I didn’t care much for his relationships with his sister and his mother, as they felt like biopic cliché (i.e. Will the parental figure show up at the sporting event?)

Pawn Sacrifice isn’t there yet. But I have a feeling it will be. Fischer is too interesting of a human being.

[ ] What the hell did I just read?
[x] wasn’t for me
[ ] worth the read
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius

What I learned: Don’t be afraid to get messy in your first draft. Throw more things in there than you plan to use. Explore a relationship you didn’t initially plan to explore. You’re looking for your core here. You’re trying to find something, whether it be your theme or the heart of your story, that you can anchor your story around in subsequent drafts. It’s okay not to know that right away. I’m a big fan of outlining before you write, but I’m just as supportive of leaving that outline in the dust if you think you’ve found an interesting tangent. The point is, you can always reel it back in later.

note: scroll down for today’s review

Ugh, just what we need. Another freaking list right? Well, in light of trying to figure out my own “Green List”, as well as after bouncing around the internet the last few days, reading through Nikki Finke’s comment section, along with my own and others, there seems to be a section of Hollywood that believes a lot of scripts were overlooked for The Black List in order for agencies and production companies to get their own projects on the list. In fact, they even started a “Black List 2.0” in Finke’s comment section. It quickly got swallowed up in the discussion. However, I thought, why not give the idea some legitimate attention?

I don’t know if these complainers are the bitter “our script didn’t make it” minority, or if this is a legitimate claim. I, for one, have found that most of the scripts on The Black List were really good. But hey, if it’s true. If there are some truly great unknown scripts that didn’t make it because the writers didn’t have the connections, let’s hear about them. When The Black List started, almost all of the scripts on it were unproduced. Getting back to the spirit of that, let’s see if we can’t come up with a list that contains some of today’s true unknowns.

I want to make clear that I am in no way doing this to discredit The Black List. I’m one who thinks that what Franklin is doing is great, and that anything that promotes the writer or helps a project get made is a good thing. Think of this more as a (totally unaffiliated) companion piece. I want to celebrate more of the great scripts bouncing around town that, for whatever reason, didn’t make the original list.

So leave your Top 5 (in order) here in the comment section, or e-mail them to me. Requirements are loose, but basically I’m asking, readers, CEs, producers, anyone who has access to scripts in the pipeline, etc., to list their 5 favorites from the year that didn’t make the 2009 Black List. If no one lists anything, I’ll assume that there isn’t that glut of mythological great scripts floating around.

note: I am keeping an eye on IP addresses in the comment section. So please refrain from pumping up your great screenplay on multiple lists. I’m not saying it isn’t great, but that’s not what this exercise is about.

Genre: Comedy
Premise: After a woman sends an indignant email to her new beau, who’s gone radio silent post sex, she discovers he’s comatose in a Mexican hospital and races south of the border with her friends in tow to intercept the email before he recovers.
About: This is the number 8 script on 2009’s Black List. The casting cabinet has Isla Fisher placed neatly on the shelf to play Wesley. Rapoport has a bit of a reputation for writing raunchy female dialogue and situations, the kind of stuff that would make even the girls of Sex and The City blush.
Writer: Ellen Rapoport
Details: 112 pages (June 23, 2009 draft)

To prepare you for Desperados, one should know that the opening scene contains horse fucking. One should also know that the words, “enormous horse penis” are used. I’m just trying to acclimate you to the weather here. Everyone’s calling Desperados the “female version of The Hangover,” and I can confirm that tone and storywise, that’s exactly what it is. But is it as good as The Hangover, a script that made the original Scriptshadow Top 25 way back when? Or was the comparison just a brilliant marketing tool, culminating in a sweet spot as one of the official best screenplays in town?
Wesley is a cute 30-something lawyer who’s spent way too much time in the gym, pushing and pulling and shaping herself to be ready for the moment she meets Mr. Right. Problem is, she hasn’t met him yet, and she’s right on the cusp of that horrible female stage where you become the angry bitter single version of yourself. You know, the kind of guy/girl you always made fun of as a kid? But she decides to give the penis-bearing ones one last chance. And it ends in the worst blind date ever. But then, almost magically, she runs into Jared, a dreamy 37 year old Adonis with a personality as perfect as his smile. Jackpot!

The two go out a few times, and against her best friends’ (bitchy Brooke and Optimist Kaylie) wishes, Wesley has sex with him. Walking on air, she’s already hearing wedding bells. But then Jared doesn’t call. And Wesley gets so freaked she goes through that psycho stage where you check the person’s Facebook page 90 times a day to see if they’ve made any updates, confirming they’re living their life just fine and ignoring you in the process. When 24 hours turns into five days, Wesley’s had it. With the rage of all the failed relationships she’s ever had wrapped inside her, she sends him the mother of all “fuck off” e-mails. The problem is, is that Jared calls a few minutes later, calmly apologizing. It seems that he’s been in a car accident in Mexico, and he’ll be holed up in the hospital for a couple of days.
Oops.

Wesley, Brooke and Kaylie realize the only way Wesley has a chance of keeping this guy, is if they jet to the Mexican hotel Jared is staying at, break into his room, and delete the e-mail off his computer before he gets back from the hospital. So they jump on a plane and actually FLY TO MEXICO. To DELETE AN E-MAIL.

In what becomes a cross between The Hangover and Forgetting Sarah Marshall, the three friends hang out at a plush vacation style Mexican hotel, while Wesley runs around trying various ways of getting into Jared’s room. In addition to that, she must deal with that disastrous blind date she had the night she met Jared – the occasionally charming Huck – as by the father of all coincidences, he’s taking a vacation at the very same hotel!

This is easily the script’s sweet spot and where a lot of the laughs are. In one scene, Wesley wraps herself in nothing but a skimpy towel outside of Jerod’s room, hoping she’ll be able to convince the maids that she’s been locked out of her *own* room. I won’t give everything away, but I will say the scene ends with a naked Wesley in the bathroom with a curious 14 year old boy, who are then interrupted by the boy’s mother.

In between attempts to delete that incriminating e-mail and get back to LA, Wesley repeatedly and reluctantly bumps into Asshole Huck. Problem is, after a few run-ins, Huck doesn’t seem so much like an asshole, and even though she’s head over heels for Jared, there’s something kinda cool about this guy. After awhile, it’s clear she’s developing feelings for him, but she ignores them in order to pursue the man she believes she’s supposed to spend the rest of her life with.

What I liked about Desperados is its theme of how we present ourselves. The way we introduce the perfect version of us to everyone, hoping that if we trickle out our faults at spacious enough intervals, that the other person won’t notice, or be in too deep to turn back. It’s such a deceptive but common tactic that it almost makes you wonder if you’ve ever given anyone the “real” you. And if you’re not giving people the real you, can you even call the relationship real? I think it’s an interesting debate and by no means does Desperados dig that deeply into it, but definitely scratches the surface.

I also liked how Rapoport explored the notion of ‘how crazy is crazy?’ And how the relative notion of crazy is always in the eye of the beholder. Wesley is out there passing judgment on the fucked up shit people do every day. Yet she’s the one flying to Mexico to delete an e-mail from a guy who isn’t even officially her boyfriend. It gets you thinking about some of the crazier things you’ve done for a guy or a girl, and how in the moment those ideas seemed totally rational.

The only thing I didn’t like about Desperados, and what kept it from what I was sure would be an impressive rating, was the ending. Rapoport wrote herself into a bit of a corner with the two guys, and at the end, she has to find a way out of it. The reasoning for why one of the guys falls out of the running is the only time in the script where the writing felt forced. And because this took me out of the story at such a critical moment, I couldn’t help but lose some of my enthusiasm for it.

But hey, this is still a really funny – sometimes even hilarious – screenplay. I’m thinking 8’s the perfect spot for it on this year’s list.

[ ] What the hell did I just read?
[ ] wasn’t for me
[x] worth the read
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius

What I learned: (spoilers) I talked about this after my review of “The City That Sailed.” But since that review disappeared, let’s discuss it again. It’s hard to create a story based on a relationship when the people in the relationship are never together. In this case, you have Wesley and Jared who, because of the plot machinations, can’t meet up til the end. This makes a lot of writers, as well as producers and directors, nervous, because they don’t have their male and female leads together ever. Not only is that going to disappoint audiences (imagine Pretty Woman if Julia Roberts and Richard Gere weren’t around each other for 90% of the movie), but what actors want to play parts where their characters never act opposite one another? This is why a lot of writers add in a second love-interest. And usually, because audiences want to see their leads onscreen together, this love story becomes the main love story, which is exactly what happens in Desperados (with Huck). The key is to understand this problem (my lead characters are never together) before you write the script, because I guarantee you you’ll have to deal with suggestions later that your main characters are never together, and therefore you need to write in another character (or completely change your story). In the end, I think Desperados made it work because it was always less about the relationship and more about the comedy. But it’s still a slipperly slope, and I try to avoid stories like this when I can, cause they’re always tricky.