I have been away for far too long, and I will try my hardest not to do that again, but I make no promises. The problem is I'm not good at prioritizing. Ever since I've been off of work I can't seem shit together. In reality I have plenty of time, but I feel like I'm always rushing to get shit done. I can't get my work done and I'm having a hard time fitting in any creative outlets. Well I hope all of that is going to change. I'm trying to change, but change is hard. I've made some decisions and I'll have to try to stick with them. There's some weird bug on the wall and I'm wondering if i should ignore it. I turned away and now its gone. I hope it doesn't end up in my coffee. Anyway, I really have no idea what the fuck I am talking about and I'm really just posting because I feel like I should. Maybe I'll post for real later. So, is a blog a creative outlet?
Diablo Cody, the chick who wrote Juno, writes this movie Juno and I thought it was pretty good. She was a blogger, and a stripper (though I wonder who was paying for a lap dance from her), and I guess she wrote a book. So she writes Juno and it gets made and she wins the fucking Academy Award. Her follow up was that movie Jennifer's Body that just came out, and I didn't see it. Why? Because it looked like a flaming pile of shit. They gave this chick the Academy Award! I think the success of Juno belongs to the director, Jason Reitman, and star, Ellen Page. I decided to do some research and see what has happened to other Academy Award winning writers.
1994 was a good year for writers. Eric Roth won the adapted screenplay award for Forrest Gump. He went on to write The Insider, Ali, Munich, and Benjamin Button, but he also wrote The Postman and Lucky You. The original screenplay award went to Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary for Pulp Fiction. Akiva Goldsman won for writing A Beautiful Mind, a movie I've never seen, and he has a very mixed resume. One film that he wrote that I love is Cinderella Man, but beyond that he wrote The Client, A Time to Kill, Batman Forever, Batman and Robin, Lost in Space, Practical Magic, I, Robot, I am Legend, The Da Vinci Code, and Angels & Demons. Is he a good writer? Well he does have way more credits than I could dream of. Also, has anyone seen Body of Lies because Academy Award winner William Monahan, won for The Departed, wrote it and I did want to see it. Is it any good? In the same year Michael Arndt won the Original Screenplay award for Little Miss Sunshine and his follow up movie is yet to come out, and its Toy Story 3.
I really should go over the follow up movies for all the people I just listed. Eric Roth won for Forrest Gump and his next film was The Postman. Quentin Tarantino won for Pulp Fiction and his next film, as a writer, was From Dusk Til Dawn. Roger Avary won for Pulp Fiction and his next film The Rules of Attraction. Akiva Goldsman won for A Beautiful Mind and his next film was I, Robot. I already discussed Monahan and Arndt. I have seen all of these films, except Body of Lies and Toy Story 3 obviously, and only liked one of them, though I, Robot had its moments. So I guess winning an Oscar isn't necessarily a good thing. It adds a lot of pressure. Also sometimes your best work will never get recognized. Paul Schrader wrote American Gigolo, Raging Bull, and Taxi Driver and he never even got a nomination.
Well that's my Oscar rant for today. I hope it made some sense. I'm not really sure what I am talking about anymore.
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Watch out for the bugs! Some of the writers you mentioned were good at taking someone else's work and turning it into a movie. Although I do not have a problem with adapted screenplays, I do think that original screenplays are a bit more challenging, and creative, because the work is truly your own.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the changes! I know exactly what you're going through. :)