What, When, Where this Weekend - Severed Ways, Tokyo Sonata, Last House on the left, Sunshine Cleaning

What, When, Where is a weekly guide to select screenings, discussions and events in the NYC-area of interest to screenwriters. Have an event you'd like to see listed here? Give us a heads-up at info@screenwritersleague.com.

Opening this week...

SEVERED WAYS, written and directed by Tony Stone


Premise: In the 11th century, Vikings, Indians, and Irish monks collide on the shores of North America in a historical epic adventure of exploration, personal glory, and religious dominance. Abandoned by a Western exploration party and stranded in the New World, two lone Vikings wade through a grand primeval landscape, struggling for survival while still in the grip of their Norse ways.

Playing at: Angelika

If the premise doesn't sound knock-you-on-your-ass awesome enough, this movie has a black metal soundtrack by Burzum, Morbid Angel, Judas Priest and Dimmu Borgir. This has the potential to be the most metal movie ever filmed.

A DIY-Viking Epic? I'm in. Oh, lord, I am so in.

TOKYO SONATA, written by Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Max Mannix, dir. by Kiyoshi Kurosawa


Premise: An ordinary Japanese family slowly disintegrates after its patriarch loses his job at a prominent company.

Playing: IFC Center, Lincoln Plaza

One of the best-reviewed movies opening this week, and I really enjoyed the director's previous horror films Pulse and Cure. I'll check this one out.

LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, written by Adam Alleca and Carl Ellsworth, dir. by Dennis Iliadis


Premise: After kidnapping and brutally assaulting two young women, a gang led by a prison escapee unknowingly finds refuge at a vacation home belonging the parents of one of the victims -- a mother and father who devise an increasingly gruesome series of revenge tactics.

Playing: All over.

A remake of Wes Craven's Last House on the Left, which was a pseudo-remake of Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring. The original was pretty brutal and hard to watch - I'm curious whether they'll change enough in this version to make it worth remaking.

SUNSHINE CLEANING, written by Megan Holley, dir. by Christine Jeffs


Premise: Industrious single mother Rose Lorkowski starts an unusual business in order to send her son to a private school; alongside her unreliable sister, the two women enter the world of biohazard removal and crime scene clean-ups.

Playing: Loews Lincoln Square, Landmark Sunshine

I'm intrigued by the idea alone. There's a lot of potential dark comedy in it, but this'll likely wait for the DVD release...

What are you doing/seeing this weekend?

Tullio Pinelli, frequent Fellini co-screenwriter, 1908 - 2009

Screenwriter Tullio Pinelli has passed away at the age of 100.

Pinelli collaborated on screenplays with Federico Fellini for decades, with screen credits on many of my favorites of his films, including Nights of Cabiria, La Strada, 8 1/2 and La Dolce Vita. He had a long, healthy career, with more than 80 film scripts to his name.

The New York Times obituary can be found here.

Very sad news indeed.

The Writing Wire for 3/11: Hamartia, Screenwriter's Block, Lesbian Vampire Killers, Boob, Eerie Horror Fest, Cheap Two-year-olds

- Do you know your what protagonist's hamartia is? Or even what hamartia is at all? Unknown Screenwriter can fill you in.

- Does 'Screenwriter's Block" exist? The WGGB doesn't seem to think so. Danny Stack gives his take.

- Film School Rejects gives a run-down of must-see indie movies playing at this year's South by Southwest Festival. There are plenty of movies I'm interested in checking out - the list includes movies titled Lesbian Vampire Killers and Make-Out with Violence. NOW you're clicking. (Also, the trailer for SXSW short Boob. Has to be seen to be believed.)

- MTV Movies Blog has an interview with Jonathan Demme about not making Rachel Getting Married "too entertaining." The movie (one of my favorites of 2008) hit DVD this week, so add it to your Netflix queue if you've been lagging.

- A 3-D Re-Animator movie?! Only if Jeffrey Combs is involved.

- Wes Craven talks to the Onion about remaking his horror classics The Hills Have Eyes and Last House on the Left three decades later.

- Speaking of horror movies: the Eerie Horror Fest has opened their call for entries for the 2009 Horror Screenplay competition.

- In an open letter to Hardcore Nerdity, Watchmen screenwriter David Hayter asks fans to see the movie again.

- John Woo is shooting a Stranglehold movie as a followup to his classic Hard Boiled. The movie will be a remake of a videogame that was a sequel to a movie. I know that blew Cake Man's mind already.

- In non-movie news, there's a two-year-old girl for sale on Xbox Live. (Thanks, Lokor!)

The Writing Week (Vol. 2) part 62 - Writing Momentum

There's something that we've talked about indirectly here a lot, something that keeps us moving forward at a healthy pace, but once it's lost, it's hard to regain. That, my friends, is momentum. Just like in physics, I believe that there is a momentum for writers. You know when you have it, and when you don't.

On Tuesday of last week, I got notes from the League on my first draft of my Roman-army spec. And there were a LOT of notes. To give you some background, this particular project is one that about half of the League had major trouble conceiving of when I first outlined it. They thought there were major plot holes, huge character problems, and that I failed to get from A to B. All this based on a semi-coherent outline written more for my guidance than for theirs. nonetheless, they had some big concerns.

On Tuesday, all the doubters admitted that they were pleasantly and genuinely surprised - I hadn't written a perfect draft, but I proved to them that what I wanted to do was possible. As far as the responsibilities of a first draft, I had done what I needed to do. Yet, there was a flip-side to that; I had a great deal of work ahead of me, work that would change the tone and massive structural points of my script. In an effort to wrap my head around everything, I lost momentum on the project.

Writing momentum is something amazing, something great, and something psychologically terrifying, because the last thing in the world we want to do is lose it. I'm sure you've experienced it. You're working consistently, banging out a solid draft, when you miss one day of writing or take some time off in between drafts or any other number of things that cause you to immediately cool down. It's not a good feeling. Getting back to the computer gets harder with each day you're away from it. The only real cure seems to be to force yourself to sit down and wait it out, staring at the blinking cursor until you manage to get rolling again.

Well, on Friday, I found something out. I was at a meeting for work, typing away like a madman, taking minutes for five straight hours. As I sat there, fingers clicking over keys, I began visualizing the changes needed to improve my script, and I had the desire to run home and begin to make those changes. Maybe it was the fact that my mind was wandering by the time hour four of note-taking rolled around, maybe it was the beginning of the sickness that sent me home from work five hours early today, maybe I just had an epiphany, coincidentally, at that time. Whatever it was, the mere act of such frantic typing got my mind working, thrusting me into my script once more as if I had hit my stride and couldn't get my thoughts out fast enough. It's strange, but maybe the cure to a loss of writing momentum is frantic writing about something unrelated to your script.

Remembering Heath Ledger

I was very happy when Heath Ledger won the Oscar for The Dark Knight. Yeah, it was a shoe-in since the film’s premiere, but it was still a great to hear his name announced. His untimely death made the already-high expectations of his Joker difficult to live up to…and he exceeded them. The quirky mannerisms, the voice, the petrifying stare: he created one of the great villains in movie history (bettering Hollywood icon Jack Nicholson in the process) and was properly recognized for his achievement.

But The Dark Knight will not be his Rebel Without a Cause, the film that defined James Dean and engrained his effeminate male “cool” into America’s psyche. That distinction goes to his portrayal of Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain.

I have to admit, I really had no interest in seeing Brokeback when it first came out. The trailer made it look campy: a rocky love triangle involving Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Michelle Williams that involved slaps to the face and melodramatic lines with the inspirational theme from Shawshank in the background. It seemed like kitsch.

I was dragged to see it in theatres; afterwards, I decided Heath Ledger was my favorite actor of my generation.

It’s an injustice to simplify the movie as a gay love story. It’s really not a love story, as it’s about a man who lacks the ability to love. The story shows how this inflicts collateral damage upon his daughters, his ex-wife, and the love of his life, Jack.

But he is also pained, even though the story provides little dialogue or action to substantiate such. It’s all Heath Ledger. He rarely smiles. When he talks, he barely opens his mouth. When he parts from Jack, though Jack looks in his rear-view mirror and cries, Ledger only slumps his shoulders and walks away. He doesn’t even engage people with his eyes. He’s an enigma, and not even Jack can open him up.

The performance personifies Heath Ledger, the actor. William Goldman wrote that the problem with modern Hollywood is that there is no mystery behind our movie stars. Ledger was never a YouTube sensation, was never involved in a stupid arrest, was never one to grace the cover of US Weekly. He was a handsome movie star who remained shy and quiet. He was Hollywood’s next pretty-boy in Ten Things I Hate About You and A Knight’s Tale, who turned down the big paychecks for movies he wanted to do.

It gave me hope when he landed the role of the Joker. It was the most coveted role in Hollywood, sought after by ever young male in the game. But it went to the guy who would not conform; the guy who became a star by following his heart.

He won the Oscar for playing a destructive psychopath. I wish he had won for Brokeback as well. It would have been fitting for Ledger and would have been another example of his affect on Hollywood: a soft-soft spoken role wins over a charismatic character with an accent.

Trailer Trash XXXVII: Clownhouse (1988)

"The clowns... The clowns, Randy... they're here..."

Fear of clowns is a pretty common phenomena that can be easily explained: clowns are f***ing scary. Clownhouse is a movie that UNDERSTANDS that. If you want to scare someone, you don't necessarily need a good script, believable actors or haunting set pieces. All you need is clowns.



Everyone falls into one of these four categories: 1) People who don't mind clowns, but don't seek them out. 2) People who would rather be dead than be locked in a room with a clown. 3) Juggalos. 4) Clowns.

Which one are you?


"All this clowning around is about to come to an end!"

Trailer Trash is a weekly tribute to oddball, cheesy and often just plain terrible movie trailers. Writers: These movies got made... so can yours! You can read through our archive by clicking here.

Competition Alert - Dentyne "Realationships" Playwright Contest

Hi all, sorry this one is so last minute, but we just dug this up. If you have some time to write a 10-minute play this weekend, it's worth checking out.

The Dentyne "Realationships" Playwrights Contest?

Dentyne® and Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC), a leading not-for-profit professional theatre company which produces plays and musicals on and off-Broadway, are supporting the original face-to-face entertainment form by inviting budding playwrights from across the country to write short plays about sustaining personal relationships in the age of technology - all for a chance to have their works performed by professional actors in front of a live audience in New York City!

Who Can Enter?
The contest is open to all other amateur playwrights who are legal residents of the 50 US states and DC and who are 18 years of age or older at time of entry.

Entry Requirements & Timeline
Entrants must submit original, two-person plays that take place in a contemporary setting on the theme of sustaining personal relationships in the age of technology. One grand-prize winner will be chosen in the general public contest to receive a $7,500 prize plus a trip to New York City to have his/her play produced and performed live by MTC!

Click here for more information.

Good luck!