Sunday, February 10, 2008

Apologies for "The Deal"

Even though "The Deal," a film I co-wrote with Nick Angelo, was filmed two years ago, I didn't have a chance to see it until last night. The film had only been released in Europe. Nick Angelo secured a copy from the UK and a region 2 player so we could have some friends over and watch it.

Let me start by saying this to anyone who's seen it: I'm sorry. I assure you, I'm a much better writer than this. I've often said, there are things you do for love and there are things you do for money. This was done purely for money.

While the script was never meant to be brilliant or even exceptional, I can assure you the original draft was much better than this. It was competent. It made sense.

Most interesting about watching the film was seeing the very bizarre flashback sequences and the new scenes that Angelo and I had never written. However, that's still no excuse. I knew that the final draft of the script was worse than where it started.

If nothing else, I will always be honest with you. If I write something that doesn't turn out well, I'll be the first to admit it. In other words, Don't watch this movie!

I'm happy to have a produced credit (important in Hollywood) and to have been paid. But I'm much prouder of my comic book projects as I have creative control over them. And, perhaps in the near future, I will get another screenplay made that ends up as a better product. When I do, I'll let you know. Until then, skip this movie.

2 comments:

Jake Ekiss said...

I'm reminded of a quote from Frank Miller about movies. Something along the lines of, if you're a writer in Hollywood, the second you stop working it's like your script is a fire hydrant and there's a line of dogs waiting to pee.

Sorry about the film, chief. Good luck with the comics though. You've got some good things going there.

orinlouis said...

yeah, imdb raters hardly waxed panegyric, but they're dumbheads...not to say it doesn't still suck...


nobody's seeding it, but a torrent does exist and will likely outlive me in my queue.