{"id":3167,"date":"2010-03-09T10:58:19","date_gmt":"2010-03-09T17:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/?p=3167"},"modified":"2010-03-09T10:58:19","modified_gmt":"2010-03-09T17:58:19","slug":"teaser-tuesday-blockbusted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/?p=3167","title":{"rendered":"Teaser Tuesday: Blockbusted"},"content":{"rendered":"

Excerpt from \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A Hero\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Journey,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Rolling Stone<\/em> no. 397, June 1983
\nBy Charles Huff<\/p>\n

Our Hero stands tall against the forces of evil. In this case, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153evil\u00e2\u20ac\u009d represents a scene from his next film, one which refuses to achieve the rhythmic perfection for which he has become famous.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Faster, more intense,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he repeats to his editors, over and over, a filmmaking mantra. Faster, more intense; faster, more intense; faster, more intense, for what seems like hours. If they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve heard it enough, none of them lets on.<\/p>\n

Finally he watches the scene and is satisfied.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s stop there for today,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he announces in a clear, crisp voice. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Thank you everyone.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Only he won’t be stopping here today; he will spend the majority of the evening in the studio with this editing machine, watching his work in progress again and again. His wife stops by with dinner, a thirty-minute break to inhale a plain hamburger, fries, and a gigantic coke. Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s back to the reels. He takes copious notes with a number two pencil on yellow thin-ruled legal size notepads. There are hundreds of them stacked against the wall of his home office in Manhattan Beach, California.<\/p>\n

Even in these nascent days of computer technology, most of the screenwriters I know have already made the transition to word processors. You can hear them comparing their bits and bytes against one another as they procrastinate in the endless coffee shops and diners that dot the LA landscape.<\/p>\n

In his movies, Henry Lane frames the relationship between old technology and new technology as a constant battle; in his real life, the war has already been won.<\/p>\n

You pride yourself on the cutting-edge technology that brings your stories to life, I ask him one afternoon over cheap beer. Yet you rely on the oldest of mechanisms to record your work. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen that ancient reel to reel tape recorder you keep by your bed for the ideas they come to you in the night.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m comfortable with,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he says. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153More than anything else, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a creature of comforts.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

The blockbuster success of Henry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first two films has guaranteed that comfort for life. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re drinking our cheap beer as we sit on the deck of his home, which is both large and beautiful. I stare at the ocean, rolling in, rolling out.<\/p>\n

The large and beautiful home sits on a thin strip of sidewalk known as The Strand. Just past that strip is the beautiful California coast, and along the coastline roars the ocean.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I’ve lived here for five, six years, and I spend a couple hours every day just staring at the water,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Henry admits. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It’s reassuring, like no matter what else happens in your life or your mind, there is always something that will be constantly moving, never stopping, never tired. It’s comforting, I guess, though comforting from what, I’m not sure.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

A pissy reporter in a People<\/em> magazine feature, annoyed because he repeatedly refused her request for an interview, once described Henry as “an awkward gazelle, long and edgeless, with a hint of frump.” She nailed it, except for the frump, which has somehow evaporated with age, and that’s shocking, because Henry refuses to exercise.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve known Henry for more than a decade, so his nearly implacable calm in the face of enormous tension is something I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve grown used to. It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s any easier to handle, especially when I know he must be sweating right now. At least a little.<\/p>\n

I empty the last of my brew. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re staring down the end of a six-year journey that has made you wealthy and the most successful filmmaker of all time. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve changed the entire landscape of filmmaking and impacted our culture for probably decades to come. One more movie, and then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all over. What if it\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153What if it sucks?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Henry chuckles. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6depending on who you ask, all my movies suck. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just trying to stay true to the story and see this through.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Then what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s next, Henry? Another big movie? Something small and personal?<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153A lot of rest,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he replies, grabbing my glass for a refill. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I can be incredibly lazy when I want to be.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

From Blockbusted<\/em> (title tenative), due 2010 from Alert Nerd Press<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Excerpt from \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A Hero\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Journey,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Rolling Stone no. 397, June 1983 By Charles Huff Our Hero stands tall against the forces of evil. In this case, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153evil\u00e2\u20ac\u009d represents a scene from his next film, one which refuses to achieve the rhythmic perfection for which he has become famous. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Faster, more intense,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he repeats to his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[180],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alert-nerd-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}