A Film A Day...

I recently succumbed to a ridiculous whim and bought a job lot of 171 DVDs from eBay wholesale, for just over £1 each. I kept the best ones, about half of them, and sold the rest for £1 each almost immediately.

Thus, my DVD collection is now a DVD library. And suddenly I have loads of films I'm excited about watching.

My learned friend Jeremy Sheldon makes sure he watches a film every single day. This week, without really intending to, I have achieved just that.

Thursday: Nacho Libre. Flat and unimaginative comedy in the vein of Napoleon Dynamite. 3/10.

Friday: The Expendables. A wasted opportunity. Big on gore, low on everything else. 3/10.

Saturday: Animal House. Now I know where Ferris Bueller got his inspiration! Genius. 8/10.

Sunday: Serenity. Fun science fiction flick, though you can tell it's an extension of a TV show. 7/10.

Monday: The Secret In Their Eyes. Great slow-burning character piece. 8/10.

Tuesday: Gamer. Why are there so many bad reviews of this? I loved it. Good zeitgeisty script. 9/10.

Wednesday: Slither. Not too clever B-movie horror parody. 4/10.

Thursday: The Illusionist. On one hand, brilliant and beautiful silent storytelling. On the other hand, slightly irritating characters and not as good as Belleville Rendez-Vous. 7/10.

Friday: I'm just about to curl up with WarGames...

(Disclaimer: I'm sure my ratings show all kinds of bias and are no doubt heavily dependant on how I was feeling at the time - but hell, that's my MO.)

Secret Agent

Jeremy Sheldon provided me with an introduction to a guy who works for Curtis Brown, the pre-eminent UK literary agency.

I'm meeting him next week to get some advice on the perks and pitfalls of breaking into screenwriting. I'm excited.

Keep it on the QT, but...

You may recall that I was writing a couple of short-film screenplays.

The first drafts are done, and so far both are on track to be produced (one in England, one in Germany).

I received some very exciting news about the English one this weekend. A well-known British actor wants to star. I almost feel like I shouldn't be telling anyone in case I jinx it. But yes, I am excited. :)

I'm meeting my MA Creative Writing screenwriting tutor tomorrow, and I'm pitching a feature-length idea to him to try and interest him in co-writing it. Hollywood, here we come.