Tag: Burn Hollywood Burn

Hollywood Renaissance: Will The Russo-Ukrainian War Cause A Vibe Shift In Audience Appetites?


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The way we’ll know if things are changing with movies is a war movie — or just a more serious movie in general — will suddenly blow up into blockbuster status out of the blue.

If the last time there was a major war in Europe is any indication, there’s a chance that we’re in for not just a War Movie Renaissance, but a Hollywood Renaissance. A portion of the Hollywood Gold Age — as I understand it — was right around 1937 – 1946.

Or, put another way, it’s possible that we’re in the middle of an entertainment vibe shift and we just don’t know it yet. Come to think of it, there were a lot of serious movies that became popular around the time of the height of the Vietnam War.

Of course, there is the risk that the exact opposite will happen — people, seeing how horrible reality is, run away into silliness and comedy. But even that would be better than the now overwrought and self-indulgent superhero movies.

And there are some caveats — because of the changes in showbiz, it could very well be the big streamers that reap the rewards of whatever vibe shift we may be about to undergo. It won’t be like the good olde days — it’s not like we’re going to leave home to go see a very good God Father 4 in the theatres.

Please give us movies that aren’t superhero movies.

The industry has changed so much that there might be a significant lag time between when it becomes clear that audience want something different than superhero movies and when Hollywood actually does anything about it. So, it could be just about when the “Great Reset” or “Fourth Turning” of 2024 – 2025 happens that we get to have a series of great movies to watch again.

All of this is very speculative. But one of my favorite quotes about Hollywood is, “Nobody knows nothing.”

Of Marketing These Five Thrillers


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m just daydreaming here, but I often find myself thinking about the marketing of these five novels and how that should change the novels themselves. One issue is, as it stands, the Olivia Munn-type character is the protagonist of only two of the novels. Then her son is the protagonist for two novels and then my Lisbeth Salander-type person is the hero of the last book.

This works, at least from a creative standpoint because I see the first three novels as a trilogy and the last two novels as the beginning a new series based around my personal interpolation of the Lisbeth Salander trope.

And, yet, at the heart of these five novels is the relationship between the Olivia Munn-type character and my Lisbeth Salander type character. But I sometimes find myself struggling with how all of this would be marketed. People want a character they know they’re going to come back to once they grow familiar with it and I wonder how marketing would deal with the shift in focus over the course of the series.

I personally think I’m overthinking things. The point is to tell a series of great stories that have an overall theme to them. I can’t get too worked up about the marketing of the stories if I do a good to great job telling the individual stories. And it’s not like people’s favorite character — if she becomes one — will be missing. She’ll still be there, it’s just the focus will be on her son, and, then, later a fucked up woman about Lisbeth Salander’s age in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

Imagine Olivia Munn playing this type of character (to some extent) and that would be the protagonist two novels in this series and the series’ overall heart.

And, I want to be clear, my interpolation of the Lisbeth Salander trope is a variation on a theme. The two characters are dramatically different, to the point that, again, only for marketing purposes might their similarities be enough to highlight.

Anyway, I have a long ways to go before I have to worry about such things in real terms. I have to fucking finish an actual first draft, for Christ’s sake. But every time I get closer to a serious first draft, I get closer to not embarrassing myself.

It’s just taken much, much, much longer than I expected because apparently my storying telling ability sucked a lot more than I realized when I began this process a few years ago.

Olivia Munn, Call Your Agent (Maybe, Eventually?)



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Feeling rather sheepish about this. Rather than talking about this change, I should keep it to myself. But, alas, I have no friends and no one likes me — and I’m 100% extroverted! — so, lulz, here we are.

So, the newest version of this first novel in what I hope will be a five novel series has me go back to what I had before — a female protagonist who in my imagination looks a lot like Olivia Munn. I really need to stop doing this. I really need to, like, finish the first novel so I can, if nothing else, try to get to the next step in the process — have beta readers.

But here I am, starting all over again.

And, yet, at least I’m starting from scratch for a reason. I hope to do some reading — and development — before I start writing again so when I do I’m going to knock what I do write out of the park.

That, at least is the vision.

And, yada, yada, yada, I sell the novel or novels, the series a huge success and Olivia Munn plays the heroine of these first few novels in the series. You gotta dream, man. Dreaming is free.

Movie Pitch: ‘All Clear’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It is possible that the Russo-Ukrainian War may evoke a rather abrupt “vibe shift” in American popular entertainment. It could be that the next few years will see the rise of War Movies becoming popular again.

We could see movies set during the various wars the United States has been a part of over the years. And, sadly, we might see more than a few movies set in WW3. So, here’s my pitch for a movie like The Day After.

Act 1

A series of people from all walks of life are seen getting onto a plane in NYC for a cross-country trip to LA. In between their farewells (which would establish each character) we hear bits and pieces of an escalating war somewhere off in some distant land.

Inciting Incident: Now, while they’re up in the air, there’s some sort of emergency. They have to make an emergency somewhere in the midwest.

While there on the ground for what is meant to be a short amount of time, WW3 breaks out and everyone across the US EMPs zap electronics. So they’re stuck in, say, Iowa somewhere.
Act 2

So, the first part of the second act would be the different people on the plane making new friends and realizing that suddenly everything is existential. They now have to figure out what to do. A small group, maybe four or five people, are now a group and they head out of the Iowa city they’re in (chaos is beginning to take over.)

Midpoint: they finally find a small town in the middle of nowhere that will take them.

The latter part of the second is about how this diverse group of people begin to deal with their lives are changed forever. This is when one of the people on the plan begins to grow power hungry and becomes a Trump-like demagogy.

The end of the second act is when people start to realize that Nuclear Winter is here for a while and there’s a chance that they’re all going to die. The power hungry fromer passenger begins to kill people and our small group of goodguys from the plane have to figure out what to do.
End
Things appear to get better when American troops from a part of the country that hasn’t been struck by a H-bomb try to come to save the day. But they come too late — some of the passengers we’ve been focused on have been captured and are set to be killed.

The climax is a Zero Dark Thirty type attack on the villian’s lair.

Our core group of people are saved and the move ends with them heading west to safety and the continue struggle of living in post- limited nuclear exchange America.

If I Wasn’t Writing 5 Novels About Trumplandia, I Would Be Writing A Screenplay About Global Climate Change


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Things are going really well with these five novels I’m working on. I’m still struggling with the first novel, ugh, but I do have five solid novel concepts. But in the back of my mind, I have this really, really great screenplay that is about the implications of global climate change.

I have a beginning and an ending, but there’s a huge void where the middle part should be.

And, yet, there is a part of me that always occasionally wants to use this global climate change-themed screenplay as my “second creative track.” Some of the people I’ve told the general story to were rather enthralled by what I’ve come up with.

But I love these five novels too much. Though, I will admit the practical aspects of developing and writing five novels have me stumped at the moment. Should I just focus on the first book and use it as a calling card for the other five novels, or should I make at least an attempt to do one run through through the all five novels on a first-draft basis?

At this point, I just don’t know.

The thing about this screenplay percolating in my mind is so much better than Don’t Look Up. It addresses the implications of Global Climate Change in a way that is far more clean on a storytelling basis. None of the bonkers, scrambled storytelling of Don’t Look Up that I found so grating.

Though, one element that is interesting about the characters I’ve come up with is I like how it kind of switches the gender roles of the Hero With A Thousand Faces trope we’re so used to.

Anyway.

What I think is going to happen is I’m going to really focus on the first book of this five book series, then if I get a literary agent and sell it, I’ll use that foot in the door to sell the other four novels in the series. And, then, maybe, I can figure out a way to sell my far-better interpretation of Don’t Look Up.

Thoughts On ‘The Batman’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

So, I walked out of The Batman. Now, let me be clear — I did this not because I didn’t like the movie, it’s just from a storytelling point of view it wasn’t doing much for me. (I must also note that there were some guys in the theatre who were creeping me out and I was being paranoid that they were going to jump me in the parking lot once the movie was over tonight.)

Anyway, The Batman was a good movie, just not good enough to keep me in my seat.

I think some of this had to do with me not being the intended audience. I’ve grown very, very tired of comic book movies. I’ve come to believe that particular market has “matured” to the point that it needs to be sent off to pasture so some other genre can, thankfully, replace it at last.

But another problem I had was I just didn’t really see the point of Yet Another Batman Movie. I just didn’t care. I didn’t care about the characters and I didn’t care about the plot. It was pretty to look — especially Zoe Kravitz — but the whole thing left me feeling rather meh.

And, yet, I’m not saying what I saw was “bad.” It wasn’t all that bad. Just kind of hum-drum. I wish we could get a solid reboot of the Alien or Terminator franchises. I think good scifi should make a comeback.

The Possibility Of Seoul Expat Life Interpolation In ‘I Want You Back’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I am so spooked by the publicity stills from the upcoming romcom “I Want You Back” that I’m beginning to think that either one of the screenwriters or one of the producers was, at some point, an expat in Seoul.

The only reason why this isn’t Nori’s women’s bathroom is the real Nori’s women’s bathroom has just one room and is across from an even more gross men’s bathroom.

And maybe even was a regular at Nori Bar in Sinchon where I used to DJ. This is both cool and rattling. It’s cool because expats in South Korea represent! It’s rattling because I’m doing a huge amount of similar interpolation in these five novels I’m working. (That no one in my family cares about.)

It’s one of those things where it’s not like I have a monopoly on the expat experience. And it’s getting pretty damn close to being 20 years since I got to South Korea the first time in 2004. So, I just have to accept that someone had the same I idea I had, in a vague way.

But as anyone who’s ever been an expat in South Korea can tell you — the place is a goldmine of creativity and human drama.

Wait, What, ‘I Want You Back’ Features A Noraebang Scene?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Wait a second…

I feel like someone who has lived in South Korea as an expat is digging into experiences I’ve gone through and it’s making me nervous. The above picture from “I Want You Back” is a prime example — that could be me and Annie Shapiro way back when.

The two protagonists are drinking soju (straight from the bottle!) and OB, both of which are fixtures of expat life in South Korea. I think maybe the characters are doing this in LA’s Koreatown — that would make the most sense — but it is eerie.

Then there’s THIS picture. It took me a double take to make sure it wasn’t set at Nori in Seoul.

Could it be that someone was an expat in Seoul (or somewhere in South Korea) then decided to interpolate those experiences in LA’s Koreatown? Spooky, spooky, spooky.

The only reason why I know the above ISN’T at Nori is the layout of the women’s bathroom is all wrong.

Anyway. We’ll see, I guess.

I just wish someone in my family genuinely cared about MY creative aspirations and didn’t just give them lip service so they didn’t feel bad for not caring about me.

My Pitch For a ‘Civil War’ Movie

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Apparently, there is a Civil War movie being produced. Here’s how I would lay out the plot of such a movie.

Act 1
In the background of a conversation between a liberal mom and a conservative son is an announcement that the post-Election Day debate is growing tense.

Inciting Incident: Rather abruptly, things collapse across the United States as there is a huge debate about who POTUS is

The Heroine gets separated from her son in the chaos.
Second Act

Midpoint: the Heroine gets captured by Red forces

We see that tactical nukes have been used across the United States and the lights go out.
Third Act
The chaos of all of this allows her to get out her imprisonment.

The moment of truth is when she’s about to get murdered by Red forces — she’s saved by her son, who is now the leader of Red forces.

Julia Fox Is Intriguing


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The more I learn about Ye’s new muse Julia Fox, the more I find her intriguing. She seems rather…wide open…about her life, but unlike Kim Kardashian, she seems to actually have some discernible talent.

Fox seems like an actual person worth becoming a stan of, unlike most of the Kardashian clan that seems to simply fill a cultural niche because…they fill a cultural niche. (I exclude Kendall from this evaluation because she is actually gorgeous enough to be a model.)

I’m impressed that Ye would pick Fox, of all people, to be his muse. As a creative person myself, I could definitely see where she might inspire art. (Especially dat ass — holy shit.)

But she’s more than a pretty face and thicc ass, she genuinely seems like an interesting person unto herself. I honestly barely know anything about her, but the information I’ve passively learned about her in dribs and drabs has been compelling.

I look forward to her coming unto her own in the 2020s. Maybe, if things like Fox continue to bubble up to the cultural surface, not everything will be a dystopian hellscape of civil war or autocracy.