Mad dogs and Englishmen…

Really looking forward to getting back to a London winter.

I’d just got out of a meeting when I saw people tweeting about the above trailer. I’d planned to stay somewhere nice and cool until dark (it’s stupidly unseasonably hot here in LA), but as the wifi I was on was a stuttering mess I braved a blast-furnace cab ride to get back and watch the thing properly.

Looks, feels and sounds perfect.

I read the novel on my last visit here and quoted from it. Funnily enough I borrowed “double tough” as a working title for another project in the same way that the Coens lifted the phrase “blood simple” from Hammett’s Red Harvest.  I adore the original movie, but I was sure the new version would be closer to the text and the trailer is pushing all the right buttons.

Just about all the new stuff I’m pitching this trip is Western at heart so it’s great to see a character as quintessential as Rooster Cogburn back on the big screen. But the Coens are right in pushing Mattie front and forward. True Grit was always about her.

Roll on Christmas…

About to start week two of meetings here in LA. It’s been a pretty fun run so far and a nice productive week despite 100+ degree temperatures and my insistence to try and walk between studios. I’ll be taking a nice chunk of homework back with me so it’s always a good sign when you’re looking forward to the plane ride as a chance to get some writing done.

The Donners’ Company meeting I already mentioned was great. And so far everyone allows me a little time to geek out at the stuff that covers the walls or is proudly displayed behind glass. I’ve seen a lot of Oscars this trip, but it’s stuff like Hellboy’s fist and the tiny R2D2 hidden on the deck of the Inferno* from GOONIES that get me really grinning.

A lot of people have been asking me what the meetings are like and how nerve wracking they are. Well the first thing is that they’re all incredibly relaxed. It’s usually lounging around on sofas talking about movies. I’ve waxed lyrical on everything from MOON to John Carpenter’s PRINCE OF DARKNESS, a bunch of westerns and even the Gilmore Girls so far. Some of the people I meet have been following me on Twitter and that certainly helps while others have just read something of mine and are eager to talk about their own upcoming projects to see if anything resonates.

I usually have about four or five outlines spinning around in my head – pitches that my management think are worth some time expanding on and occasionally the conversations allow me to riff off the kind of thing the studios are looking for. Also there are usually a few projects that have been sitting around a while that no one has quite cracked yet and I happily take those back to the hotel to start pulling apart.

I’m also writing each evening so all in all it’s a pretty full day. Buddying up while scribbling and drinking coffee with Amy from Eureka has been a blast.

I was back on the Disney lot this trip, got lost on the Warner Bros. lot, took a huge pile of comics to think about adapting from Dark Horse and ended up giving an iPad demo on the Dreamworks lot to the STAR TREK dudes – handily enough with the destruction of the Kelvin/birth of Kirk already cued up.

This coming week I’m popping over to Jerry Bruckheimer Films, Gale Anne Hurd’s company and revisiting the folks at Sam Raimi and Gore Verbinski’s offices among others so I may not get the chance to blog again before I hit the airport on Friday.

It’s not really appropriate for me to start snapping pics everywhere I go, but the odd thing surfaces on Twitter which as always is the best place to keep track of me. And as ever there’s a bunch of things I’m not going to talk about or even allude to in case they don’t come off, but yeah, it’s been a pretty successful trip so far.

Best get on before the sun climbs even higher…

*For the droid curious:

Landed in LA and after a slightly shell-shocked evening am feeling on an even keel this morning. Up at 6am, but that won’t last.

I was watching LETHAL WEAPON on the plane and although Riggs’ dog gets all the attention I think it’s worth remembering that Murtaugh has a cat.

In a completely unrelated turn of events I have a meeting tomorrow morning over at The Donners’ Company. As in Richard Donner.

THE OMEN, SUPERMAN, LADYHAWKE, THE GOONIES, and LETHAL WEAPON etc…

That’s not forgetting Have Gun Will Travel, The Twilight Zone, The Man from UNCLE and… well just go have a look at IMDB.

This trip is going to be less about containing my inner fanboy and more about having him talk about rabbits while I come up behind and shoot him in the back of the head.

But the trip has already reached new heights as last night I got to work with Eureka‘s Amy Berg at cracking a story open while we caught up and drank too much coffee. She also effortlessly trumped my lousy gift by cutting straight to the chase.

Writers out here don’t pull any punches, man.

Saving The Cat: An infrequently updated screen save of cats I spot in movies. No, I don’t have time for this.

I was in Edinburgh.

Now I’m off to LA.

Promise to blog more from there, take pics and drop the occasional name.

Should be a fun trip. Got on average two meetings a day and a pile of writing each evening.

Back here in a little while…