Options (Re: [UA] The Screenplay (was Re: [UA] Dream)

[John Nephew]

Excellent!  Yeah, OK, we'd probably sell the option for THAT for a song.
That is, if you could really reanimate Lorre to play the Freak.

This movie write up needs to be on UnknownArmies.com somewhere, doesn't it?
Any photoshop monkeys out there wanna mock up the movie poster out of clips
of the various stars?  That would be fun...

------------------------------------------------------
John Nephew    voice (651) 638-0077 fax (651) 638-0084
President, Atlas Games             www.atlas-games.com


----- Original Message -----
From: <stuartanderson at uswest.net>
To: <ua at lists.uchicago.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, June 21, 2000 12:44 PM
Subject: Re: Options (Re: [UA] The Screenplay (was Re: [UA] Dream)


>
>
> John Nephew wrote:
>
> > >     I'm not saying I want to buy an option right now (actually, I'm
> > looking
> > > forward to being able to buy myself dinner again sometime soon), but
what
> > do
> > > you think the cost would be?
> >
> > Well...I wouldn't actually suggest a cost unless I was speaking to
someone
> > who was definitely interested and able to make a deal.  And then it
would
> > depend on a number of factors.  The first option deal I signed, I was
> > willing to settle for a very small dollar amount, mainly because the
whole
> > process of negotiating it and getting all the details involved was a big
> > educational experience that I wanted to go through.  Understanding the
> > reality that most options expire unused, and most projects go nowhere, I
> > would be more inclined to simply ask for a bigger chunk of money to make
it
> > worth my time to negotiate the deal -- and to brush off people who don't
> > really have the resources to do anything with it.  But who knows?
>
> I think we're about sixty years too late to make a worthwhile UA movie.
> Here's what the movie guide entry would look like:
>
> Clash by Night
> 1941, written and directed by John Huston.
> Humphrey Bogart, Sydney Greenstreet, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre.
> *****
>     A surprisingly obscure film from the company of Casablanca and The
Maltese
> Falcon. Bogie plays Dirk Allen, a down on his luck, hard drinking
screenwriter.
> He's approached by Daphne Lee (Astor) who claims she's being hounded by
the
> family of a missing actress. She wants him to use his contacts in
Hollywood to
> help her find a reel of film she feels will vindicate her. At her heels is
> Greenstreet as industrialist Alex Abel, also pursuing the film, but
claiming Lee
> is not what she appears. Much of the story happens in flashback, leading
up to
> the disappearance of the actress, played with eerie aplomb by a Bette
Davis
> lookalike whose name we unfortunately will never know, since her credit on
the
> original negative is damaged and no other records of her have ever been
located.
>
>     The special effects are inspired for the time, showing a young John
Garfield
> as a hash slinging fry cook who can evidently conjure visions in grease
and a
> dreamlike scene where Bogie walks through a burning building, actually on
fire,
> yet emerging unhurt. Perhaps the reason for this film's comparative lack
of
> receptance was it's racy subtext, with intimations that the missing reel
of film
> is pornographic, and Lorre's bizarre, compellingly androgynous performance
as a
> character known only as The Freak. Evidently, the film was banned in
England and
> the Netherlands as too sexually oriented for the time. Definitely worth
the
> rental, if you can find it. A French version with English subtitles pops
up
> occasionally under the title Darkling Plain. Five stars simply for the
offhand
> reference to The Maltese Falcon: Bogie, setting fire to the presumably
missing
> reel of film is asked what's on it. "That? The stuff nightmares are made
of."
> --Stu.
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> UA mailing list
> UA at lists.uchicago.edu
> http://lists.uchicago.edu/mailman/listinfo/ua
>


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