Fresh start to the new year. I guess that goes without saying. So why say it, Chris? It's hackneyed. Cliche. I'm a writer. I should know better. But I guess it's true. Actually, it's not even really that true. My start to the new year is a lot like my end to the old year: working on the rewrite. Yesterday was the first real day back at it, the first Monday after the two week grace period of Holiday meshugas. You could almost hear The Business slowly waking from its slumber; people not used to thinking about whatever silliness was on the docket December 20somethingth. If my attitude and enthusiasm were any indication of anyone else's attitudes and enthusiasm, then it was a slow day indeed. Today is not much better, although I am proud of myself for actually getting up when the alarm went off.
Slow as things are, there have been a few signs that people are ready to shake off the torpor of a two week holiday and get caught up on what's what. I got a call from my manager, my writing partner, the film director and the film producer. No one - except Matt, writing partner - had anything much to say, they were all just taking the temperature. (This is an expression I use but am not sure I fully endorse, as it had some subtly rectal connotations. It is however a chic phrase here in showbizwood, and maybe other places, too. I use it only because I am undecided about my feelings. More to follow.)
Matt mentioned that our long-loathed pilot for the Cop Comedy was percolating some interest at his agency and that perhaps we were going to move things to the next level, which is to say shop the thing around. So far, the people who have not liked it have all been FOWs (Friends Of the Writers) and so nothing tragic has really come of their disdain, professionally speaking. Who knows, maybe new life can be breathed into the once-moribund project that is Crime And Order: NY.
As for my rewrite, well, what is there to say other than it is slow, slow, slow? I am still stuck at the precipice of the 3rd Act, attempting to shore up all the little directives from the director before I lurch ahead into the fray. Truth is, it was good to have a little while away from it to get some perspective. If I did nothing else yesterday (and I did) I realized that some of the things that I'd written over the last few weeks were crap. Ah, the joy of being a writer!
A quick note about Million Dollar Baby: see it. I don't care if a few reviewers call its sentiments cheap or whatever else their problems are, it is a damned fine film and I don't blame the guy (Clint) for taking it over mine.* I would have. It's probably a better movie that Get Low will ever be. Or, a little less self-critically, it's the kind of movie that I would have taken over my movie, if that makes any sense.
*Clint was exclusively courted for Get Low about a year and change ago. He was circling the project for a while, but never committed one way or another. When he finally said he "liked it but didn't love it" we suspected he was passing. Then the trade papers announced Million Dollar Baby, and we knew the horse was out of the stable. So to speak. This does not mean I liken Clint Eastwood to an animal. In no way whatsoever. Although, if he were an animal - specifically a horse - I suppose he'd be Man-O-War or Secretariat, depending on which one lived longer and aged more gracefully.
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