Butler's Script Sale of the Week...
July 1st, 2001
Another slow week in the ol' script sales department as Hollywood considers the possibilities of another devastating strike. Still there were a couple that piqued my interest. TRUCK 44 sounds intriguing, even though writer/director Peter Berg is responsible for the very embarrassing VERY BAD THINGS (1998) The sci-fi RED WORLD sounds cool, as long as Bruckheimer keeps the narratively-challenged likes of Bay and West away from it. (Can we please get some story with our action?)
Speaking of story with action, the director attached to my pick of the week seems to be one of the few helmsman in Hollywood who can actually pull it off. Wolfgang Petersen is set to direct the action spec WHEN IT COUNTS for Red Cliff Prods.
Petersen, whose credits include THE PERFECT STORM (2000), AIR FORCE ONE (1997), and IN THE LINE OF FIRE (1993), knows how to balance breathtaking action with a coherent story. Think about it, which had a better story line: AIR FORCE ONE or PEARL HARBOR (2001)? AIR FORCE ONE was an action movie that didn't try to be anything else and yet managed to keep the viewer involved throughout. PEARL HARBOR was an action movie that tried to pass itself off as an historical account and was about as engrossing as a box of Goobers (less engrossing, actually).
PEARL HARBOR should have been directed by Petersen, who showed with THE PERFECT STORM that he could take a real life story and turn it into a valid cinematic narrative. In both of those movies, the audience knew what was coming. In only one did they care.
WHEN IT COUNTS is an action/comedy spec written by short filmmaker Michael Zaidan (PLUNGE, 2000). It concerns a single mother who must come up with an ingenious way of rescuing her kidnapped children. It may prove a challenge for Petersen as it will be his first Hollywood comedy. All his other offerings took themselves rather seriously. Based on his previous work, I'll be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
At the very least we should be guaranteed a story. Hopefully.
-- Edward Butler
(Sources: Hollywood Reporter, Variety)
Speaking of story with action, the director attached to my pick of the week seems to be one of the few helmsman in Hollywood who can actually pull it off. Wolfgang Petersen is set to direct the action spec WHEN IT COUNTS for Red Cliff Prods.
Petersen, whose credits include THE PERFECT STORM (2000), AIR FORCE ONE (1997), and IN THE LINE OF FIRE (1993), knows how to balance breathtaking action with a coherent story. Think about it, which had a better story line: AIR FORCE ONE or PEARL HARBOR (2001)? AIR FORCE ONE was an action movie that didn't try to be anything else and yet managed to keep the viewer involved throughout. PEARL HARBOR was an action movie that tried to pass itself off as an historical account and was about as engrossing as a box of Goobers (less engrossing, actually).
PEARL HARBOR should have been directed by Petersen, who showed with THE PERFECT STORM that he could take a real life story and turn it into a valid cinematic narrative. In both of those movies, the audience knew what was coming. In only one did they care.
WHEN IT COUNTS is an action/comedy spec written by short filmmaker Michael Zaidan (PLUNGE, 2000). It concerns a single mother who must come up with an ingenious way of rescuing her kidnapped children. It may prove a challenge for Petersen as it will be his first Hollywood comedy. All his other offerings took themselves rather seriously. Based on his previous work, I'll be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
At the very least we should be guaranteed a story. Hopefully.
-- Edward Butler
(Sources: Hollywood Reporter, Variety)
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