Posts Categorized: Film & TV

More on Taxi Driver: The Game

(More SPOILERS for Taxi Driver follow.)
My friend James has pointed out some more info on the upcoming Taxi Driver videogame:

“The game picks up where the movie left off,” said the developer in a statement. “As Travis reminisces about his bloody rescue of the young prostitute Iris, it seems the violent catharsis and recovery that ended the film has turned his life around. However, a terrible sequence of events finds him unable to stop the murder of someone very special to him. His ensuing quest for revenge finds Travis Bickle once again on an inexorable path towards violence. Players will fight their way through the mean streets of New York City in Travis’s bid for vengeance, to bring the ruthless rain that will clean the scum off the streets once and for all.”

Next Up: Kundun

I was rather perplexed to learn that they’re making Taxi Driver into a video game.
Allow me the first to say: wha…?!?
This is a bizarre decision on so many levels. For one thing, I can’t imagine there’s any sort of useful brand recognition. Watching The Godfather might make you fantasize about being a mobster, but nobody who sees Taxi Driver comes out fantasizing about driving a taxi.
(WARNING: Spoilers for Taxi Driver follow)
Actually, you could make this a really creepy and disturbing game. It could be like a Japanese dating sim, where you try desperately to connect with Cybil Shephard and Jodi Foster, only unlike the Japanese dating sims, there is no right choice at any moment, and no matter what you do, you become more and more distanced from humanity until you lose the game.
Unfortunately, I can’t help feeling that the more likely result is a shoot-em-up where you righteously mow down evil pimps, thereby missing the point of the film entirely. And then we can look forward to the inevitable film adaptation of the videogame, directed by Uwe Boll

In The Future, We Will Have Podcasts In Our Flying Cars

Predicting the future is a dangerous business.
I’m reading Emergence, by Steven Johnson, which was published in the heady and optimistic era of 2001. Much of it holds up. But then you come to a passage like the following, which describes what TV watching will be like in the magical, futuristic world of 2005:

The entertainment world will self-organize into clusters of shared interest, created by software that tracks usage patterns and collates consumer ratings. These clusters will be the television networks and the record labels of the twenty-first century. The HBOs and Interscopes will continue to make entertainment products and profit from them, but when consumers tune in to the 2005 equivalent of The Sopranos, they won’t be tuning in to HBO to see what’s on. They’ll be tuning in to the “Mafia stories” cluster,” or the “suburban drama” cluster, or even “James Gandolfini fan club” cluster. All these groups–and countless others–will point back to The Sopranos episode, and HBO will profit from creating as large an audience as possible. But the prominence of HBO itself will diminish: the network that actually serves up the content will become increasingly like the production companies that create the shows–a behind-the-scenes entity, familiar enough to media insiders, but not a recognized consumer brand.

Harry Potter for Sale

The British film industry is having a barn raising!
Well, actually, more like a roof raising.
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts–aka BAFTA–is holding a few dozen eBay auctions to generate money for its “Raise The Roof” fund (which helps pay for some much-needed repairs of BAFTA’s building.) Although most of the items are out of my range, it’s fun to browse the list. At the moment, the most expensive item is an authentic “Wanted: Sirius Black” poster from the set of the latest Harry Potter film. If you have a extra £922 (about $1750) to spare for the young Harry Potter fan in your life, then come next Christmas, you can be the coolest aunt/uncle/mom/dad/grandparent ever. (Unless you end up shattering their innocence when they discover that it doesn’t actually move like it does in the film.)
If, however, your niece is a young single woman, maybe she’d rather cozy up to the sweater Colin Firth wore when he plunged into the lake in Love, Actually.Or perhaps she’d prefer Paul Bettany’s tennis racket from Wimbledon, or the cashmere scarf that Liam Neeson wore to the 1996 Oscars. For anybody keeping score, Firth’s sweater is currently at £225; Neeson’s scarf is £30.85; and Bettany’s tennis racket is £26.75. The final sales price of these items will, at long last, provide a scientific demonstration of the relative sexiness of each of these three men.
Personally, I covet the signed Wallace & Gromit watercolour painted by Nick Park.

My Oscar Predictions

Oscar producer Gil Cates has caused some controversy with his decision to save time by handing out some of the more minor awards right there in the audience, instead of letting the winners come up to the podium. He has caused further controversy by defining the minor awards as “those most likely to be won by somebody ugly.” Overlooked in the furor is the fact that Cates will use the extra time to hand out several new and much-needed awards. Here is a brief look at the new trophies, as well as my predictions for the likely winners.
Best Supporting Performance by a Lead Actor: Jamie Foxx, who somehow managed to be classified as a supporting actor for Collateral, despite being onscreen for every single minute of the film. Next year, he will be following up his success with another supporting role in a film called Othello, starring Brad Pitt in the lead role of Iago, with Foxx playing his Moorish sidekick.

Oscar Riot

I debated whether I should announce this, since a tragedy of this order might spark rioting in the streets, but I have decided that my obligations to factual reportage outweight my duties to public order. It is therefore with much regret, and no little trepidation, that I hereby inform the world: I won’t be watching the Oscars live this year.
This is the first time in my adult memory that I’ve missed this important religious ceremony. Catching it has been trickier since I moved to Greenwich Mean Time, which is eight hours later than Pacific time, meaning that a broadcast which goes out over the airwaves at 5 PM in LA arrives in London at 1AM. We’ve therefore had a hard time getting Londoners to stay up with us–only our friend Courtney has been adventurous enough to camp out on our floor with us–but we’ve created virtual Oscar parties by connecting with our US-based friends via Internet chat, in a stirring union of film geekery and computer geekery.
That was back in the glorious multi-year period when the Oscars were broadcast on the publically-funded BBC. This year, they were outbid by pay-cable broadcaster Sky Movies–a channel we don’t receive.
At 1AM this monday, if there is rioting in the streets of London (or, at least, the hallways of our flat), you will know why.

Screenwriting Template

I was recently discussing the question of whether it makes sense to buy specialized screenwriting software like Final Draft. Most working writers will tell you that, at some point, you need to bite the bullet and buy Final Draft–but when you’re starting out, there’s no need to buy expensive scriptwriting software, and a good template for your word processor will do you just as well.
For anybody who is interested, here is the screenplay template I use. I downloaded it from somewhere years ago, and have modified it a bit since then. I’m embarrassed to admit that I no longer remember where I got it from in the first place, but I believe that distribution was encouraged, so help yourself.

We Have Nothing To Fear But Fear of Act II Itself

You tell a producer about a script you’ve got. They absolutely love the idea, and want to see it immediately. You send it to them–and weeks go by with no response. Then months. Do they love it? Hate it? Not have time to look at it? You have no way of knowing.
It’s an experience every screenwriter has had. But very few writers end up getting an apology like the following:

I have your letter of July 22 and after due investigation hasten my apologies for the discourteous treatment you received at the hands of two of our presumably responsible persons. Words cannot express how deeply I feel the great wrong committed against you… The two parties who committed this deplorable breech of courtesy have been dealt with in a manner commensurate with their acts.