Devil Inside

Three philosophical posts in a row... Kinda scary because if you know me at all - that kinda depth just isn't there... Scratch the surface and you're lucky to get deeper than a puddle.

So in that light - let's go back to writing, whining and my problems...

See? Aren't we all a bit more comfortable now?

Here's the new one:

Tomorrow I have a phone conference - which is what I do since I am in Indiana - with a BIG PRODUCER and a BIG COMPANY. BIG COMPANY produced all the big action films of the 80's and a little bit of the 90's... Tomorrow is just a "Hey this is what we have and this is kinda what we think we want - but please for the love of God don't give us BLANK because that is definitely not the direction we want to go..." To be fair - I have talked with this guy on the phone before - in a Van in Virginia on my rapidly dying cell phone - while he was on the set of a BIG MOVIE in Baltimore with Nicole Kidman...And I guess I did well enough that I got to come to the office to make a pitch for three underlings... But not well enough there to get the job...

So I read the script. Ryan read the script. And Ryan starts out by telling me that he has figured out the problem - the script can't decide if it wants to be an action movie or a romantic comedy. I tell Ryan - that is the formula that this company invented. They do action and comedy and mix the two.

Now granted - Ryan missed out on the classics of 80's cinema - the Beverly Hills Cops, the Lethal Weapons, the Die Hards - any movie that was done so well the first time - that it necessitated at least one sequel.

But to be fair - once I steered Ryan away from that - he did have a brilliant analysis of the script and gave me a great way in for the problem they really want addressed.

The Bad Guy.

The bad guy is an interesting part of most scripts. And it's funny to watch movies and think about things from his point of view. In working with this script - I watched two films this weekend. One I had seen - In the line of fire - (brilliant - go see it if you haven't - and only a homeschooler like Ryan has an excuse as to why he should not have seen it - oh and the fact he was like 6 when it came out) and one I had not seen - The Bodyguard -(hmmmm. Now I know why I had not seen it. To be fair - it was nice to see a young Whitney before crack - but her acting really wanted to make me pick up the pipe again...)

It was interesting to see what the motivation for the Bad Guys was. In one - he is sick of his country and feels as if he has been written off - so he decides to kill the president. In the other - the bad guy is just hired to kill the singer.

When everything in your script comes down to the motivations of the bad guy - they had better be good. Blowing up the moon good. Getting "one million dollars" good.

And if they can't be good - let them at least be logical.

It's funny to me that we can't have a really bad guy - no explanation necessary - anymore. It's not enough to have a scar, sit in a wheelchair and stroke the white cat. We have to know WHY. What happened in your childhood? Who made you this way? Whose fault is it that this is what you have become? Because, heaven knows - you were a good person like the rest of us before that...

In working with Cops for 15 years - I learned way more about crime and murder and everything than I would ever want to. And while a lot of murders are crimes of passion - it is the ones that are planned out that catch our interest. If you siphon off the majority of those that are just ass backwards planned - you are left with really a tiny tiny microscope sized piece of murders - and yet that is what 90% of our films are about.

The film that I sold to the mini major: I set out to do a typical criminal - like the ones I had seen for years. They were stupid. Careless. Forgetful. Rushed. Disorganized. And if they were at all interesting, it was because they shared one trait:

They were lucky.

But lucky - it's really not that dramatically interesting. No one really fears a lucky criminal. He just isn't that scary. Unless you run a casino....

Truth is: We want to be able to draw the lines. We want to see who our Bad Guy is, and figure out where he is going. We want to see how he is caught. We want to see if we are smarter than the cops and can get there first. And we want to be scared - that he might get away with it. That he might catch the girl first. That he might not be stopped.

So we come up with smart villains. And motivated villains. And crazy and lucky just don't cut it anymore.

So where do we go to find these guys?

Just look no further than your own black heart. That's where I go to the well....

I think we all have a depth of depravity that we are afraid to mine. If we were left alone unfettered with out personal beliefs and morals and fear of getting caught - we would be dangerous.

How many times have you stood in a bank and thought about how you would take it down? How many times have you listened to your boss rant and rave and chew you out while you fantasized about sticking a letter opener in his eye? And for the kids: I'll stop there... But you have the idea.

A writer was once asked, How do you write such wonderful Women characters? He said - I write them as a man then remove reason and logic. To get your villain - write a hero - then remove morals and self control.

The best stories have the good guy and the bad guy wanting the same thing. They both just go about getting it in different ways. One is trying to uphold the conventions of society and one wants to usurp them.

While lucky foolish or in the moment probably covers a lot of criminal acts - plotting planning and thoughtful makes for better movies...

Because in the end - someone who thinks logically and acts methodically can be caught. While lucky and crazy run free...

So now - I have to some how decide how a smart and motivated criminal would want to be as foolish as to apply his genius to the stupid job of wanting to kill an NBA star... And make him interesting and believable to the audience.

I guess his daddy spanked him too much when he was a boy...