The Writing Wire for 5/1 - Teaming Up, More More Moranis, Why Videodrome?

- FilmLinc has an exclusive interview with the filmmakers behind Sugar focusing on the power of creative collaboration. You can read DOA's review of the film over here.

- Miramax has drafted Rachel Getting Married writer Jenny Lumet to write for a project titled This Strange Thing Called Prom. Haven't read Rachel, yet? The screenplay is still available for download here.

- FSR asks the question that's been on my mind: Why the hell is someone remaking Videodrome?

- George Romero's ...of the Dead series could become novels.

- Is Rick Moranis coming out of retirement for Ghostbusters III?

- The Hobbit's going to be broken into two films.

Any links you wanna send our way?

More free academy consideration screenplays for your perusal - Rachel Getting Married, Synecdoche, New York

Words can't describe how happy it's made me to have the screenplays of a few of my favorite movies of the year made available online by their studios. I linked to the first batch of free screenplays (click here for that post) earlier, including Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona and The Dark Knight. This new batch has me even more excited.

Rachel Getting Married is currently my frontrunner for favorite film of 2008, and Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York has to at least win for the year's most unusual script. I'm looking forward to comparing these scripts with the DVD releases of the films.

Here's the treasure:

Rachel Getting Married - October 17, 2007 revised draft by Jenny Lumet

Synecdoche, New York - July 30, 2007 revised draft by Charlie Kaufman

I've Loved You So Long - undated, unspecified draft by Philippe Claudel

Thanks again to SimplyScripts!

Rachel Getting Married - A Wonderful Union

Like Zombie did a few weeks ago, yesterday I treated myself to a morning at the cinema and saw Rachel Getting Married. Written by Jenny Lumet, Rachel Getting Married is, as I'm sure you're well aware by now, about dysfunctional ex-junkie Kym, played wonderfully by Anne Hathaway, getting leave from rehab to attend her sister Rachel's wedding. and all that happens over that wedding weekend.

Normally, I'm a little skeptical of heavy family dramas. Don't get me wrong, there are a number of excellent movies of this variety. but there's a certain mood I have to find myself in in order to sit through the ups and downs of a family's crazy roller coaster ride of a relationship on film. however, one of the many things I found interesting about Rachel was that most of the turbulent events already happened - off-screen - well before the movie began. I'd be lying if I said that the family had ironed out all of its problems by the time the film started. On the other hand, though, this seemed, for lack of a better word, to be a very 'normal' family. What Kym has both gone through and put the family through has tested this family, even pulled it apart in some cases. Yet I believed everything that these people said and did. Though I have not personally encountered any of the major ordeals that these people did (drug abuse and rehab, death of a sibling - not a spoiler, as you figure this out pretty damn early on), I believed that the character acted as people in such situations would.

A few other things of note about the film (and script) are worth mentioning. For one, the audience learns a lot, and I mean A LOT about Rachel and the circumstances of her present situation in the first few minutes of the film. This is very much not a movie that, if you decide to wait for the DVD, you could put in and make a sandwich in the kitchen while it begins. There is a ton of information subtly yet noticeably dropped in the first two or three minutes of the picture that explains a great deal about Rachel's character. It's quite interesting, actually, as I'm not used to so much being given at the top of a film - it was sort of the dialogue equivalent of the scroll at the beginning of Star Wars, only it mattered more to the plot.

Also, Rachel Getting Married had some of the most fully realized characters I've seen on the screen recently, in spite of the fact that there were literally dozens of people on camera for much of the film. I felt as though I knew or at least knew of almost everybody who appeared on camera. From the pampered, prissy maid of honor to the groomsman who thinks he's cooler than he really is to the spiritual mother-in-law, everyone on film was a genuine, fleshed out person, not just a stereotype to fill a necessary role. Sure, the prissy maid of honor might sound like a stereotype in some cases, but in Rachel, I felt as though I knew this person, knew who she was and her general life story, and I knew that she belonged. The characters, even those who had few lines or little screen time, were real, and that, more than anything, is a testament to the writing.

Rachel Getting Married, while unsettlingly awkward at times, is a great watch. Jonathan Demme's direction does great honor to what must be, in my opinion, the driving force behind the strength of this picture - Jenny Lumet's script. I'll be looking for this script to give it a read, and possibly, to appear as one of the five nominees at the next Academy Awards.

What, When, Where this Weekend - Rachel Getting Married, Ballast, Nick and Norah...

What, When, Where is a weekly guide to select screenings, discussions and events in the NYC-area of interest to screenwriters.

Opening This Weekend:

RACHEL GETTING MARRIED, dir. Jonathan Demme, written by Jenny Lumet



PREMISE: A young woman who has been in and out from rehab for the past 10 years returns home for the weekend for her sister's wedding.

PLAYING AT: Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, Regal Union Square

The film is directed by Silence of the Lambs' Jonathan Demme and has received pretty high praise in most reviews I've seen - many comparing it to gems directed by Robert Altman (here and here, for example). It doesn't hurt that it stars the oh-so-make-out-withable Anne Hathaway. (Cue inappropriate comment from Cake Man... NOW.)

This is the first feature for screenwriter Jenny Lumet, daughter of Dog Day Afternoon's (and many other films') Sidney Lumet - so we know she comes from good genes.

BALLAST, written and directed by Lance Hammer



PREMISE: A drama set in the Mississippi delta, where one man's suicide affects three people's lives.

PLAYING AT: Film Forum

The film was nominated for the Grand Jury Award at Sundance (ultimately losing to Frozen River). You can read This Savage Art's praise here.

NICK AND NORAH'S INFINITE PLAYLIST, dir. Peter Sollett, adapted by Lorene Scafaria



PREMISE:Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist is a comedy about two people thrust together for one hilarious, sleepless night of adventure in a world of mix tapes, late-night living, and, live, loud music.

PLAYING AT: Just about everywhere.

I like Michael Cera, but the trailers for this movie make it look too Juno-sugary for my tastes. This review certainly didn't make it look any more appealing to me:
"An emo cover version of a John Hughes comedy ... unless you believe that Death Cab for Cutie’s lyrics really speak to your life, Nick and Norah’s charms are frustratingly finite." - Time Out New York

BLINDNESS, dir. Fernando Meirelles, adapted by Don McKellar



PREMISE: A doctor's wife becomes the only person with the ability to see in a town where everyone is struck with a mysterious case of sudden blindness. She feigns illness in order to take care of her husband as her surrounding community breaks down into chaos and disorder.

PLAYING AT: Clearview Chelsea, AMC Loews

What're you seeing this weekend?