Trailer Trash XXXIV: Dragonball Evolution (2009)

"The legend comes to life!"

At severe risk of losing all of my awesome cred, I'm going to go out and admit that I'm a mild anime fan. I've seen all of the Miyazaki and Satoshi Kon films. I've probably seen Akira a dozen times since I was 12. Patlabor, Excel Saga, Ghost in the Shell. I've watched all of Neon Genesis Evangelion three times. But that's about it.

(Okay, I probably deserve my wedgie, but hear me out.)

That's a lot of anime. But that's just the low end of the spectrum; if you ever had a passing interest in Japanese animation, most of those are the movies you probably would have seen first. More eager anime fans have usually seen a lot more (as there's a LOT of it out there) and would scoff at the list I made above. And hardcore anime fans? I won't even go there.

In case you haven't seen one, this is what a hardcore anime fan looks like:


Why did I feel the need to distinguish? Because the guy pictured above is probably the most excited about this week's Trailer Trash subject: Dragonball Evolution.

This movie hasn't come out yet, so you're all getting an extra-special glimpse at what Shit will look like in the future. (For more Future Shit, check out our examination of Fast & Furious.)

Dragonball Evolution is a live-action adaptation of a long-running and very popular anime series about a guy traveling around collecting magic balls. This is what ball-collecting looks like with live actors:



Chow Yun-Fat: WHHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY??? (Are you in this??) Are you that hard up for a paycheck? YOU ARE ONE OF THE WORLD'S ULTIMATE BADASSES, SO ACT LIKE IT ALREADY! Gah.

Is it just me, or does every location in that trailer look like the backdrop for a Mortal Kombat level?



"With this glow-in-the-dark bowling ball, I take my vengeance upon the Earth."

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.

The Writing Wire for 2/13:

Cleaning out the old linkbox...

- Writer/director Henry Selick talks with FirstShowing about collaborating with Neil Gaiman on the Coraline screenplay.

- The loss of Kim's Video isn't the only sad closing to hit NYC; it looks like the Sound Fix Lounge will also be shutting its doors soon. They're a wonderful little bar/music venue/reading space that's the basis of the opening scene of a spec script I just started. I'm sad to see them go.

- Thanks to Go Into the Story for bringing this funny comparison between Forrest Gump and Benjamin Button (both written by Eric Roth) to our attention. In case you haven't read it: Cake Man's got his official review over here.

- Complications Ensue advises how to keep the budget of your spec pilot script low. (Who'd have thought cats were so expensive?)

- The Onion AV Club asks the important question: What if Celebrity Nudity Database.com picked 2009's Oscar winners?

- Cinematical's got the casting scoop on the upcoming (sure to be EXTREMELY bizarre) David Lynch / Werner Herzog film.

- There are a hell of a lot of zombie movies coming soon.

- Screenwriter Denis McGrath gives his take on the Facebook 25 Random Things meme that's been going around. (I've yet to succumb to this one...)

- Speaking of Facebook? You can now be our fan!

What, When, Where this Weekend - Gomorra, The International, Two Lovers, Friday the 13th

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 weekend...

GOMORRA, written Maurizio Braucci, dir. by Matteo Garrone


Premise: A drama of five interconnected stories, each of them illustrating the levels of organized crime in modern-day Naples.

Playing: Lincoln Plaza, IFC Center

There's been a lot of buzz around this one - I can't wait to see it. Been a while since we've seen a different take on the mafia genre.

THE INTERNATIONAL, written by Eric Singer, dir. by Tom Tykwer


Premise: Interpol Agent Louis Salinger and Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Eleanor Whitman pool their resources in an attempt to break up an international arms dealing ring financed by a high-profile bank.

Playing: All over.

Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run, Princess and the Warrior) is one of those amazing directors I always forget about because there are such long breaks between his films. I'm in for this already - Clive Owen and Naomi Watts are also a bonus.

TWO LOVERS, written by James Gray and Ric Menello, dir. by James Gray


Premise: Leonard returns to Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, where he soon falls for two very different women: the family friend his parents wish he would marry and his beautiful but volatile new neighbor.

Playing: All over.

No matter how good or bad this movie is, I'm afraid all of the attention is going to go to Joaquin's newfound rap career or bizarre Letterman interview. (While we're on the subject - WTF?)

The trailer made this movie look extremely dumb (at least to me), but word on the street is that it's pretty decent. Check out a couple rave reviews here and here.

FRIDAY THE 13th, written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, dir. by Marcus Nispel


Premise: A group of young adults discover a boarded up Camp Crystal Lake, where they soon encounter Jason Voorhees and his deadly intentions.

Playing: Everywhere.

Iiiiiiit's a remake, just like every other horror movie these days. It's a classic - shame on you if you haven't seen the original. (Add it to your Netflix queue and you can consider yourself forgiven!)

What are you doing/seeing this weekend?

Encouraging Stats, So Keep Writing

I got an email today from Creative Screenwriting magazine with some figures they quoted from BoxOfficeMojo.com. For anyone out there who is worried that the economy - which is causing problems for the theatre and non-profit arts industries in particular here in NYC - is going to spell trouble for Hollywood, these numbers might put your mind at ease.

Year versus Box Office Sales
2009: $1.228 billion
2008: $1.041 billion
2007: $ 856 million
2006: $ 917 million
2005: $ 895 million

Here at the League, we've been having a lot of talks recently about whether Hollywood is going to start pinching pennies anywhere it can. This would mean that studios would not only reduce their slates, but buy up fewer scripts. Well, according to CS, that just isn't the case.

As sales rise, Hollywood will be picking up more and more projects, trying to meet the demand for movies as people flock to the cinema. I'm not sure whether the numbers take into account inflation or anything (or how much that would affect a five year spread), but the projection for 2009 is encouraging, to say the least.

Bottom line: don't worry yourself that Hollywood is going to put a freeze on buying material until this whole recession thing gets sorted out. People are still watching movies - in fact, they might need the escapism more now than ever. So keep writing.

Secondary Headings and Other Advice

While scrolling around the internet on various movie sites and screenwriting blogs today on my "lunch break," I stopped by the read the Unknown Screenwriter's newest post. Worth reading, especially if you're gearing up to begin sending your script out to producers and agents, the post is a short guide to ensuring that you don't screw yourself over with avoidable red flags in your spec.

One of the things that Unk talks a lot about is Secondary Headings (as in, use them). (If you don't know what these are, Mystery Man on Film did a great summary of the ins and outs of Secondary Headings just over a year ago). I'll admit, I didn't know these by name, so I had to do a quick search to see just what he was talking about. I was pleased to see that this is one of the screenwriting tools I developed a while ago, so I didn't freak out about something I should have been doing differently. However, since I now know them by name and from experience, I can tell you that they make a HUGE difference.

If you have particularly long scenes - or chase scenes, especially chase scenes - you'll find that these babies do an excellent job of breaking up the page and helping you highlight the key action and dialogue, without burying it with other text. As a quick example, say you have a chase scene through a supermarket. While it'd be easy to just begin with INT. SUPERMARKET - DAY and write a two or three page scene of people running after one another, that much uninterrupted action will bog down your script and the reader. Try it this way instead:

INT. SUPERMARKET - DAY

Bill spies Dale in the checkout line. Dale catches sight of Bill and takes after him. Bill flees down the

CONDIMENT AISLE

Arming himself with ketchup and mustard bottles as he goes. He chucks them backward as Dale takes off after him. Bill turns the corner. Dale follows.

BAKERY DEPARTMENT

The men sprint past fresh bread and an endless shelf of cakes. Dale grabs a PIE off of a rack and hurls it at Bill.

The pie nails him in the back of the head. Bill trips and falls headfirst into the

FROZEN FOOD SECTION

He grabs a 5 pound bag of ice and waits for Dale to round the corner.

In this (ridiculous) example, CONDIMENT AISLE, BAKERY DEPARTMENT, and FROZEN FOOD SECTION are the secondary headings. See how they break things up and keep the fast pace necessary for action scenes?

Do you use Secondary Headings?

The Writing Week (Vol. 2) part 58 - Writing An Epic?

Normally, I am a huge supporter of the 100-105 page script. Especially for an action spec, 105 is an ideal length. Anything done in that amount of pages (or fewer) that has a strong plot and characters is nearly untouchable, if you ask me. Nowadays, the industry seems to be looking for shorter and shorter scripts, too. In a time when money is on everyone's mind, productions slates are being cut by close to 20% sometimes, and everyone is looking on how/where to save in a budget, the 105 page trumps the 120 almost any day of the week. (OK, before you run off trying to find Variety articles on this, I'll clarify that it's my own opinion. But at least humor me and think about it.)

The past two things I've done, my comic book spec and the post-Apocalyptic one, rang in at 100 and 105 pages, respectively. Despite the shorter page counts, I still follow the conventional, 120-page, three act structure pretty closely. I don't know why, really, but I'm hard pressed to write a first act that doesn't end right around 30. The midpoint of two is negotiable, coming in somewhere between 55 and 60. Act three is where I tend to shave most of the time off, often bringing it in under 20 pages. I know it might seem a bit rudimentary to talk so much about page numbers and act structure, especially since the sequencing method has recently taken the writing industry by storm (from what I read). Nonetheless, act structure and adherence to page count "guidelines" is a big part of how I write, so it'd be foolish not to include it here. It is a safe way for me to write, a method that I understand and feel I can work pretty comfortably in.

However, something happened this week. My Roman army spec (which I'm more excited to be writing than I have ever been when writing from an outline) is coming out a bit longer than I had anticipated. At first, I was worried that my first act was going to be too short, and that my targeted 105 page count would be a stretch, at best. That's not looking like the case. I'm coming up on that beautiful, yet terrifying midpoint right now - terrifying because I find that pages 60-70 are THE WORST PAGES EVER to have to write - and I'm still not quite ready to deliver that big, midpoint jolt yet. I'm dealing with a lot in this script, so I'm not worried, but it begs the question: am I writing an epic?

Epics are interesting to me. I haven't studied them nearly enough as I should have, perhaps because I never planned on writing one. Even epic action movies (Dark Knight, Batman Begins, and pretty much anything else that came in over 2hours and 15 minutes in my opinion) are a category unto themselves. Movies like Gladiator, Braveheart, and even Last Samurai (that one was for you, Onyx) fly by because they're done so well. And they fit a certain structure. But what exactly is it? Are acts one and three still only half an hour, while act two fills up the bulk of the screen time? Or is everything proportionate to the higher page count? Guess I'll have to do a lot of script-reading and movie-watching to find out. In the meantime, does anyone think they know?

IMDB Lists the 25 All-Time Box Office Winners

Here's an interesting read, in case you haven't seen it yet. Imdb released today the 25 highest-grossing box office movies ever, adjusted for inflation, ticket price, etc.

Interesting to see where certain movies fall. While it's no surprise that The Dark Knight is on there, its ranking might catch you off guard. Of course, the #1 box office success should not be a surprise, but you might be interested to see that 8 of the top earners are Disney animated features (with a 9th being non-animated Disney). That Disney did so well with so many of its features is actually really understandable. Kind of interested that no animated/children's' movies past 1967 are on the list (with the exception of E.T. in '82).

Hopefully this list will have to be altered to reflect your movie someday.