The Writers Guild of America west hosted a very interesting event last night.  The idea was, essentially, a summer movie social between film journalists and the writers of the summer movies.  It sounded like a nice idea, so I went.  The problem was that you quickly realize that you are surrounded by writers of movies that you haven’t seen and movies that you haven’t liked.  The one safe guy in the room was Rich Wilkes, screenwriter of XXX, the one movie that no one has seen, but that everyone is sure is going to be a massive hit.  He added to his accessibility by looking for all the world like the stunt double for Universal’s Michael Moses, dressed for the X-Games. 

Wilkes was happy and relaxed.  Here is a guy who was high heat almost a decade ago, with four credited releases in three years, something that is extremely rare these days.  But all four movies failed.  (They were Airheads, The Stoned Age, The Jerky Boys and Glory Daze.)  I’m sure he’s been paid to work on projects in the five years before XXX started pre-production, but he is high heat again and five years of frustration has probably made him a very appreciative guy.

I don’t know how to suggest an improvement on the concept to the WGA.  I like the idea a lot.  They were very generous, offering free beer and wine and a healthy array of food.  But the press turnout was fairly weak and I don’t care how cute his girlfriend is, seeing Scooby Doo screenwriter James Gunn coming across the room forces one to avert one’s eyes.  (I have a feeling that I would really get along with Gunn… for everything that is wrong with Scooby Doo, it isn’t the screenwriting that is the villain, but the whole concept of the film.  Nonetheless, it would be hard to chat with him over a beer and a meatball without asking what it is like to be part of the worst film of 2002 and trying to get him to explain why he thinks, as he said in a Zentertainment interview, the film is good.)

I really like talking to screenwriters.  They are generally smart, committed and willing to dish the productions on which they’ve worked.  If you put me at a roundtable, I can keep the conversation rolling for everyone there, if necessary.  Put me at a cocktail party and I get really shy, especially when I’m not sure who is standing behind me, and knowing that when I get rolling, my mouth can get me laughs and trouble in equal measure.  I mean, the guy who wrote Bad Company was right there… just inches away… and my only conversational options were sycophant or asshole.   (I went for “wallflower.”)

Maybe a three hour event where the Guild sets up 30 minute salons, mixing the screenwriters and the journalists.  More relaxed than real interviews, but someone to get the room rolling.  I think the value of an event like this is not so much discussing the specific movies from each writer, but really getting a chance to meet all these folks.  Presumably, we are all going to be in town together for a long while and writers always get short shrift from e-journs.  Promoting those relationships is a great idea… it just needs to be seeded a little more aggressively.

P.S.:  Did I ever run a correction to my farewell story to Zen’s Sean Jordan, explaining that Zentertainment will continue to operate with the rest of the team out doing good work every week?  If not, I now have. 

SPEAKING OF CRAP:  Word from Variety that MGM has sold off three foreign territories for Windtalkers very, very late in the game.  Remember, the film was originally scheduled for release last July, then November, then spring and now, next week.  MGM is now admitting a $120 million negative cost, which they say includes interest expenses created by the delay, though I am curious what bank gave them money at an 1.8 percent interest rate, which is what they seem to be claiming. 

As much as I hate Windtalkers, I feel some sadness for the MGM team that talked to Variety’s Carl DiOro for this story.  They sold Japan, Italy and France.  The only major market left for this film is Australia.  And they still have to cover their $90 million production cost and an additional $25 million-plus in P&A.   Given the overseas sell-off, that means that the film’s Domestic Breakeven Estimate is, as the story subtly suggests, about $100 million.

It ain’t happening.

Even if Windtalkers opens to $20 million, which I doubt, it will have a hard time getting to $50 million as a domestic total.  There are people who will like this film… but not many. 

The whole Variety story is here.

SPEAKING OF MGM:  The L.A. Times’ Patrick Goldstein did a terrific profile on the father and son producing duo – but not team – of David and Gary Foster.  It’s not exactly brute journalism, but is the kind of industry insight story that really adds to an understanding of the people who actually make the machinery in this town operate. 

39-year-old Gary has produced movies like Side Out, Sleepless in Seattle, Just Cause, Tin Cup, The Score and the in-production, Daredevil.  His 72-year-old father, David, started his producing career with McCabe and Mrs. Miller (quite a start!) and has since produced films such as The Getaway, John Carpenter’s The Thing, Short Circuit, Running Scared, The River Wild, The Mask of Zorro, Collateral Damage and Hart’s War, the MGM release that he still feels MGM mishandled into a box office failure.

Good stuff.  Read it here.

HOW TO:  Spyglass Entertainment, which is responsible for this summer’s Disney’s CG epic Reign of Fire, has picked up the rights to Underdog, to be made as a live action feature.  Hmmmm… I loved The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle.   I thought it was dumb and bright and really got the Jay Ward feel down perfectly.  But it got brutalized.  And given that Underdog is a 4 foot tall dog who doesn’t really look like a dog, there is really no way to do the film without making Underdog and Polly Purebred into CG creatures.  (Danny DeVito… your phone is about to ring with a deal to play Simon Bar Sinister.)  Given an inevitable mixture of CG and reality, how will Spyglass set the tone for the film?  Tough nut to crack...

READER OF THE DAY:  The Mack sent in this curiosity:  “So, I'm bored and am looking up old movies at work on Amazon, and I notice that if you go to the page for The Secret of NIMH 2 (a children's movie) Amazon offers you the incentive deal to also buy L.I.E. at the same time?  What's the word here?  Creepy?  Disturbing?  (The link is here)

And this from M&Ms:  “As for your "suggested promo items"...I took that to mean films not yet released. How about… A "Reign of Fire" hibachi?

Finally, Auntie EM adds:  “Sounds like Velma has nice Ya-Ya's!  I met Matt Lillard at a film festival and he was very funny & down-to-earth. I really enjoyed giving him crap about not having any Scooby Snacks. He readily admitted that the movie will make "like a gaziilion" dollars, but it will allow him to pursue more artistic, indie stuff.  He also said, "Yeah, I've  done a few shitty movies, but so has Russell Crowe".   Gotta love a guy that doesn't take himself too seriously.

E ME:  Gotta… but where does that leave me?  Do you care whether a studio crashes and burns?  What would you say to the summer’s movie writers?  And what franchise that you’d like to see on the big screen hasn’t been exploited yet?