It happened. I don’t know how it happened but it happened. Everybody brace yourselves. There’s no easy way to say this…………………

I joined Twitter.

I have been avoiding this for about four years now. I am a techy guy. I love technology. I once took apart my entire laptop and put it back together without instructions. I was one of the first people to say “You gotta check out this new video on Youtube.” I joined Myspace, left Myspace, joined Facebook, enjoyed Facebook. But this Twitter thing. I didn’t get it. It’s like a mini version of Facebook. My friend said it best: “What’s next, micro-Twitter? Where they only allow you to use one word?” It’s funny but is it really that far away?

Alas, everybody loves Twitter and I’m not going to be left behind. In a week I’ll probably love it. I probably won’t be able to do anything but tweet. Right now though? All I can think is “Someone’s going to buy this program for 500 million dollars” ??? Baffling.

For you Twitterers, you can follow Scriptshadow updates here: @Scriptshadow. I think that’s how you say it, right? Somebody help.

Genre: Sci-Fi Thrilla
Synopsis: A sci-fi Bourne Identity, Broken Amber is about a man who realizes that his life isn’t what it seems.
About: A spec that I believe came extremely close to being purchased by Warner Bros. Can anyone confirm or deny this?
More: I’m keeping the synopsis vague as it kinda spoiled the script for me. My suggestion would be you read it before you read the review.
Writers: Oliver Butcher & Stephen Cornwell

Soccer moms are hot. I mean honestly, who wouldn’t want to be with a soccer mom? Men, women, boys. We all want to be with a soccer mom in some way. Oh, except for one person. That would be Lucas Hall, who just got murdered by a soccer mom in the first 5 pages of Broken Amber. And if that weren’t bad enough, Soccer Mom comes over to Lucas’ house and KILLS HIS FAMILY TOO, Stepfather-style (the original John Locke). Bad Soccer Mom! This is not the kind of behavior I expect from a soccer mom. I like my Soccer Moms to be a little less…murdery.

Lucky for me Soccer Mom disappears, at least for the time being, and we meet a new family. Clay, his wife Nancy, and their two children. They’re the typical suburban family except for one problem: Clay ain’t happy (well, I guess that still makes them the typical suburban family – heh heh). He’s unmotivated, confused, moody, watches Dancing With The Stars (yes, I made that last one up). Everything about his life seems to be based in this odd pseudo-reality. Something is wrong but he can never quite figure out what it is.

Answers start to come when Clay goes in for his yearly check-up. Two tweakers have taken the clinic hostage and aren’t leaving without a body count. That is until Clay becomes Neo and Bruce Lee all-in-one and takes out the Tweak Twins like they were a couple of developmentally challenged 4 year-olds.

Either Clay’s got the Bourne trilogy on repeat or there’s something deeper going on here. A hunger is triggered. A hunger to find out who the hell he is. He starts making calls and asking questions which lead him back to his past. Or is it………..his fuuuuuutuuuurrrrrreeee???

Yes. We discover – spoiler alert (isn’t my whole site a spoiler alert?) – that Clay’s been placed in the past, his mind partially erased and reconfigured so he will forget his previous life. The truth is, Clay is a soldier from the year 2054 and he witnessed something so awful, so terrible, that they had to send him away. And what better place to send him than the past? ………….. Right?

….ummm…not so sure about that one but I’ll get to that in a second.

Anyway, the rest of the script is basically one giant chase sequence that features Clay running from the future government, who want to kill Clay in order to cover up their secret program, appropriately named… you guessed it: Amber (and, you know, he like, “broke” it).

So here’s the problem you run into and it’s a problem everybody who writes one of these sci-fi conspiracy movies has to address: Would the government really spend all this time and money (and resources) and endure the incredible risks involved with this kind of program – which probably costs hundreds of millions of dollars – when they could’ve just used a ten cent bullet to kill this guy and hide the body? I mean, wouldn’t that be just a smidgen easier? Problem solved. I just saved the government of 2054 millions of dollars and all I’m asking for in return is to send me back a hot 25 year old brunette who won’t call me lazy when I lay on the couch all Sunday.

The one other thing that bothered me about Broken Amber was that it relied too heavily on its twist (which is a good twist). But since it’s included in the original logline (which I took out), the movie for me rested on its characters and story. And Clay was never a compelling enough character for me to worry about whether he was caught or not.

Despite these faults Broken Amber has its moments and is worth the read.

[ ] trash
[ ] barely kept my interest
[x] worth the read
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius

What I learned from Broken Amber: If you have a big twist in your script, make sure the reader’s enjoyment doesn’t rest too heavily on that twist. In other words, you still want to make sure the rest of the screenplay is compelling. A big mistake beginning writers make is thinking their twist (or concept) is so awesome that a monkey can write the rest of the script and they’ll be fine. WRONG! Challenge yourself and approach each scenario as if you don’t have that twist to fall back on. Put the same amount of effort into your characters and story as you would any other script.

Well karma comes back to bite you in the ass, huh? The State of Play script review I posted today was taken down by Blogger because of a Universal legal threat. It’s not clear to me if it’s because I posted the review, used a picture of the poster, or posted the script. What pisses me off is that they erased the review not only from the blog, but from my personal blogger database, which means it doesn’t exist anymore. Not too happy about that. For those who are screaming, “why didn’t you back it up?”, my answer will ring true to anyone who’s tried to copy and paste a Word document into Blogger (my old method). The html goes nuts and requires 18,000 adjustments before you post. Therefore I just kept everything online.

So all you angry readers pissed off about my Inception review, you got your revenge! lol

Genre: Sorta Romantic Comedy
Synopsis: A loveless man who believes he’s dying meets a woman that turns his life upside-down.
About: Huge spec sale back in the early 90s. 1 million dollars. Yet the movie still hasn’t been made.
Writer: Kathy McWorter

Some people would tell you that the day The Cheese Stands Alone sold is the day the spec sale died. Why would anyone pay a million dollars, the rationale went, for a script with the word “cheese” in it? I can buy cheese at the store for $2.79. It was the height of the spec sale boom, and the suits were like, we’re now shelling out a million bucks for regular old movies with people talking? There’s no real hook in The Cheese Stands Alone. And in a heartbeat, the rats in Hollywood were second-guessing themselves. Get it? Rat? Cheese?

Do you blame The Cheese Stands Alone? Or was this actually a solid script that deserved the attention it received? If so, why has it never been made into a movie? Or an even better question: Why did that dreadful Jeff Garlin movie “I Want Someone To Eat Cheese With”, which was worth about $19.99, get made before this million dollar beheamoth? The answers are in the review…

I felt it was appropriate to put myself in the right state-of-mind, so I went out and bought several types of cheese. American Cheese, Swiss Cheese, Velvetta cheese. I wanted to become one with the cheese. In all honesty, I was preparing myself for a complete disaster. I just couldn’t wrap my head around the idea that a script with the word “cheese” in the title was any good. Brie cheese.

Never-been-in-love Vinnie (think a young mopey John Travolta) thinks he’s going to die because an x-ray taken on a routine doctor’s visit shows a large black splotch where his heart is supposed to be. He’s convinced it’s “a saw” and that he has weeks to live. The doctors try to convince him it’s a smudge, but he retorts with, “Doctors are paid to make you think everything’s fine.” So now Vinnie thinks he’s dying. He heads home where his rather eccentric New York family, mom, grandma, grandma’s boyfriend, and a 15 year old kid who’s had sex with every woman in New York, become convinced that Vinnie’s old fiance, Delia, has put a death curse on him for breaking off their engagement 3 years ago. Munster Cheese.

But their ruminations are quickly interrupted by his grandma’s surprise blind date she’s set him up with. The buxom, gorgeous, mysterious Naomi enters, and quickly grabs Vinnie for a night out. Vinnie, thinking he’s dying, spends every second of the date whining about his imminent death. Noami seems to be the complete opposite, throwing caution to the wind and living every second to its fullest. It makes for an awkward yet hilarious night out. Cheese whiz.

In the meantime, the mother storms over to the local grocery store, where Delia (the ex-fiance) works. Delia is even hotter than Naomi, and she knows it. She’s still bitter about 3 years ago so when Vinnie’s mom comes in demanding she release the curse on her son, Delia gives her a mouthful. Now even though Delia hates Vinnie’s guts, she also can’t stand the thought that he doesn’t like her. Which means she’d do anything to have him back. So she goes along with the “curse” accusation, and claims that she will not release it unless Vinnie marries her. Cheddar cheese.

That’s the basic set-up for the film. And you know what? It’s fucking hilarious. This is the perfect example of a script I was supposed to hate but couldn’t. A perfect example that if you craft a good story, it doesn’t matter what genre it’s in, it’s going to entertain. The Cheese Stands Alone stands alone because it’s about the characters. And McWorter is so good at creating intriguing memorable characters with wonderful dialogue, that it’s one of those rare occasions where you never have to go back and double-check who someone is. As soon as they speak you immediately know them.

If there’s one movie I couldn’t stand, it was My Big Fat Greek Wedding – for numerous reasons that I don’t feel like getting into. But if you were going to compare “Cheese” to any film, that would probably be the one. Yet this movie succeeds in every area that that movie failed. Every page is bursting with charm. It’s got more heart than all the films of 2008 put together. It’s completely authentic. Which leaves me scratching my head as to why it hasn’t been made. You could make this thing for 30 million bucks and it would gross 100 mil without breaking a sweat. If I became a studio head tomorrow, this is the first movie I’d add to my slate. I’m not kidding!

sorta related article of the day: The Golden Years.

[ ] trash
[ ] barely readable
[ ] worth the read
[x] impressive
[ ] genius

What I learned: A good mystery can take a very simple story and completely transfix the audience. In the story, after Vinnie leaves with Naomi (the girl Vinnie’s grandma set him up with through a friend of a friend of a friend), the grandma makes a call only to find out that the real date was sick and couldn’t make it. Which begs the question: Who the hell is Naomi? This is a choice the writer makes. She didn’t have to do this. The movie still would’ve been interesting if Naomi *had* been the girl the grandma set him up with. But since she isn’t, in addition to wondering how the date will go, we are now ravenously wondering who the hell Naomi is. And how the hell did she know to show up in place of this other girl? Sure, this isn’t a thriller. It isn’t a conspiracy film. It’s a film about a man who hasn’t found love. Yet adding this distinct and interesting mystery adds a whole new layer. Simple but extremely effective.

Hello everyone. I wanted to take a quick moment to thank everyone for visiting the site. We’re growing bigger and bigger every day (why am I saying “we”? I’m the only one here). Today we/I had a bit of a setback though. A private community of script traders gave me the heave-ho amongst fears that my reviews were drawing attention to them. Although I am upset, there are no hard feelings. I understand they were just covering their asses. This does not change much. I still have sources where I can get new material. But I may need a few people to step up to the plate and help out. I’d like to review at least 2 hot specs a week. So if you’re plugged in and have access to these scripts, send them my way. Your identity will remain anonymous. You have my word! Thanks everyone.