Three weeks down, forty-nine to go...

Gosh, where does a month go. It's been ominously quiet on the work front so far in 2006, so I'm really looking forward to the tax, website design, credit card and accountant's bills all tumbling through the mail slot on the 31st. Guess this is why the supreme being created bank overdrafts...

Feeling in need of some serious faith restoration & with a nice glass of Montepulciano in hand, I caught "Grosse Pointe Blank" again on the goggle-box. Fews years old now, but what a f**king great film! Anyone wanting to know what is so exhilirating and emotionally uplifting about making movies should watch this little gem, 'coz it's all there; great characters, dialogue so sharp you could shave ice with it, and humour of the darkest variety. Do yourself a favour next time you're in the video store and don't just stand around chatting up the girl on the counter; you know, the one with the interesting tattoo in the small of her back.

Just heard from an old friend who's moved to the sunny, orange-grove-bedecked state of California that the film I shot for them has been picked up for distribution (non-theatrical, alas) in the U.S. As we say in Oz, you little ripper! Been a quirky month that way - had another pal just back from sterilizing his brass monkey in Canada, and what did he spot in a store in Toronto - not one but two of the lo-lo-budget films we shot recently. Kinda scary since neither film got the remotest nibble from distributors/sales agents in his home country - I take this as a good sign that we know what the hell we're doing, and if it means we end up working for US/Canadian companies for the rest of our God-given so be it.

Also caught 'Underworld - Evolution' at the local multiplex. A much better effort than the first one, although like it's progenitor it's a little overly complicated in the plot department. Also had some weird stuff going on with the print we saw - when it cut to the last reel it suddenly looked like a whole different film, almost like they'd switched film stocks part-way through the shoot. Weird, but I guess only disturbing to us cameramen. Main attraction - Kate B's butt clad in tight, shiny PVC. Main annoyance - it is established (I think it was mentioned at least twice) that killing the original vampire & lycan brothers will destroy all their respective bloodlines, but when the baddies are sliced'n'diced in the end, absolutely...nothing...happens. Then Selene's final voiceover implies we're in for more of the same battles between canines & fur in the next sequel. Sloppy writing like this really puts a flea up my ass; there's nothing lazier or worse to me than a very-well-paid writer establishing a 'narrative logic' in his film then pissing it all away at the climax like it means nothing. I know they have to keep their franchise rolling as good business, but that's just plain wrong IMHO.

This has kinda spurred me on to pick up pen (well, mouse & keyboard) and start writing my own film scripts again. I've got several in the pipeline already from over the years, but have lacked the motivation to actually finish any of them (kind of a short-coming in my character, that). So, a new new year's resolution - finish all the scripts I've started, and try to get at least one of them 'out there'!

Thought for the week, and how very true: Love looks through a telescope; envy, through a microscope.