You are currently browsing all entries tagged with 'hollywood'

R.I.P. Ralph McQuarrie

  • March 4, 2012 12:42 am

Conceptual artist Ralph McQuarrie has died, at the age of 82. He was the guy, instrumental in realizing the world of Star Wars for George Lucas. With his concept drawings for the likes of Darth Vader, Chewbacca, C-3PO, and pretty much the whole shebang of the Star Wars universe, his work sold 20th Century Fox in giving a young Lucas a chance in directing a film that pretty much changed everything in Hollywood.

When I was a kid, I was amazed to see these “not really Star Wars” art floating around in magazines like Starlog, especially art depicting a more slender Darth Vader with a different type of helmet or a more feminine looking C-3PO trekking through the desert, as if it walked off the Metropolis set. What I would later learn is that these were early concept drawings of Star Wars, which made it cooler because to me, they were now alternate universes of what Star Wars could be and just opened up that world for me even more. Check out some of the early concept art:  Read more...

How to Survive Lunar New Year if You’re an Asian American Criminal

  • January 22, 2012 8:58 pm

Dear Asian American Criminal:

Let me start off by saying that I don’t condone your criminal lifestyle—the murdering, the thieving, the embezzling, the assaulting and all the other illegal, awful things you do. But I know you are loyal readers of this blog because…well, just look at the shit we write about. And as loyal readers, I feel an obligation to return that loyalty to you and I can’t think of a better occasion to do that than on this Lunar New Year holiday. So let me just give you this one piece of valuable advice if you plan on committing your heinous crimes on this day of all days:

Don’t do it in Chinatown!

It doesn’t matter if you commit your crimes in Chinatown on the other 364 days of the year, this is the one day you must avoid it because I guarantee that you will get caught. Why? Because if Hollywood movies and TV shows have taught us anything, it’s that white cops are always busting Asian criminals in Chinatown while the new year’s celebrations are taking place.  Read more...

Life’s a Pitch – Part II

  • November 23, 2011 11:37 am

In Part I, I described the prep work my producer and I went through for a pitch we were taking around town for an adaptation of a Young Adult novel.  Now it was time to go off on “the dog and pony show,” as my agent once affectionately described it.

It’s always best to arrive earlier than later, so for our first pitch, the producer and I decide to meet 20 minutes early.  We go over last minute notes, how we’re going to intro, etc. We finally get called in 15 minutes after our scheduled appointment.  Read more...

Life’s a Pitch – Part I

  • November 14, 2011 4:06 pm

If there’s one thing I hate about being a screenwriter—it’s the pitch.

Doesn’t anyone realize how unnatural it is for writers to be delivering pitches?  Hello?  If we were “good in a room” we wouldn’t become reclusive writers who like to spend hours on end alone with a computer in the first place.  There have been many times when I wanted to shout “Damn it, Jim!  I’m a writer, not an actor!”
But whether I like it or not, pitches are part of the job and for those of you who are aspiring writers, here’s a rundown of the process of a recent round of pitches.  Read more...

DADDY FAN – Hollywood, family – Part 2

  • November 4, 2011 7:28 am

“You’re the girl in the relationship, Rog.”

What?  Did I hear that right?  Did a girl friend of mine just emasculate me with a quick flick of her tongue?

I just stood there for about 6 seconds, face frozen with a half-smile, trying to figure out if what she had just said was a kick in the balls or a verbal embrace of understanding.

some days, I look like this. just less Ryan Gosling-ish...

It was the later.  F-me, she was right.  I am the girl in the relationship.  Which means my Sexy-Korean-Wife-Lover-Mama is the man.  Me?  Girl.  Wife?  Man.  How the heck did I lose my manhood so unexpectedly?  It was like the tooth fairy visited me in my sleep, but instead of taking my tooth, she spirited away my penis.  And she didn’t even leave a nickle – just a hole in my spiritual crotch.  It sucks…yet I have nothing to suck.  Read more...

On the Business…of Business

  • October 27, 2011 1:18 pm

As this NBA lockout drags on (when will it ever end?!), a ridiculous number of comments/posts/articles remind me of a misuse of terminology I see continually perpetuated in conversations revolving around both the business of basketball as well as the business of film. It’s a misuse or misunderstanding of common business-related terms, something most business students learn in Business Administration 1A (or whatever class number is assigned to the “Introduction to Business” course at the college level). Here it goes:

The terms “revenue” and “profit” are NOT interchangeable.

I repeat: the terms “revenue” and “profit” are NOT interchangeable.

In this latest NBA lockout conversation, a number of complaints have arisen (mostly from the players’ side, understandably) about how the NBA has seen a “growth in revenue” in the last few years and how this should be justification that players need not sacrifice anything even given the current state of the economy.  Read more...

To Live and (Screen)Write in L.A.

  • September 8, 2011 12:01 am

Occasionally, a friend will ask me if I can talk to a friend of theirs who wants to become a “Hollywood” screenwriter. I’m not sure why people bother asking me to dispense advice to anyone because, frankly, I don’t have anything helpful to say about the biz unless you want to know how to hit on Rachel McAdams on three separate occasions and be rejected on three separate occasions or the best way to sneak onto a movie studio lot if you’re Asian (drive up to the gate with a bag of Chinese take-out on your passenger seat and tell the guard you have a lunch delivery for “Mr. Goldbaum” or just say: “Hi, I’m Justin Lin and I’m here for a meeting about [insert name of any movie in development at that studio since Justin will most likely be attached to it already]“).

Still, they insist and when I talk to the aforementioned aspiring Hollywood screenwriters, the discussions range from questions like “how do I write a script that will sell for $1 million?” (this usually comes from the Korean or Chinese aspiring Hollywood screenwriters) to them telling me how they know someone who knows someone who is “tight” with “big-time” director Justin Lin and how they’ll be happy to pass on any of my scripts to him too (Them to me: “So my cousin knows a producer who knows Justin Lin.” Me to them: “Oh, didn’t he direct Step Up 3D?”).

But the one thing that almost always comes up is how the aspiring screenwriter has no plans to move to L.A., but will still become a successful Hollywood screenwriter while continuing to reside in Gainsville or Des Moines or Hong Kong or wherever they are currently residing.

And this is when I’m able to give them the only really helpful and practical advice I know: if you want to pursue a career writing screenplays in Hollywood (a.k.a. studio films), you should move to L.A.  Read more...

Adventures as a Hollywood Assistant

  • July 7, 2011 11:44 pm

Right after making my first feature Shopping for Fangs, I was asked by my director friend Peter Chan if I would be his assistant on his first Hollywood movie The Love Letter for Dreamworks. I slept on the offer for a week. It was the summer of 1998. I was broke and trying to make my second feature… what have I got to lose?

Of my various talents, I knew I was chosen for one essential quality–I was reliable and trustworthy… or at least that was what Peter saw in me.  Read more...

Hero Complex Film Festival Part II: KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!!!

  • June 16, 2011 10:53 pm

Here’s Part II of my report from the Hero Complex Film Festival presented by the LA Times — essentially it’s a celebration of all things geek, especially comic book films and properties. In Part I, I discussed the double feature of STAR TREK II/STAR TREK (2009), and I have to admit, we sort of geeked out this week on YOMYOMF, to the point that we talked Trek again on Guest Offender Brian’s entry on why STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN is the greatest sequel ever.

My second day at Hero Complex was a double feature of the director’s cut of SUPERMAN and SUPERMAN II: THE DONNER CUT. If you’re not familiar with the Donner Cut, with legendary director Richard Donner in attendance. Gene Hackman. Marlon Brando. Christopher Reeve. Terence Stamp. John Williams rousing score. SUPERMAN had all the ingredients to create a cinematic recipe that to this day, still gives me goosebumps. To see the films on the big screen again, as they were always intended, was amazing.  Read more...

Hero Complex Film Festival: The KHAAAN!!! Edition

  • June 13, 2011 11:21 pm

If you didn’t know, the geeks have inherited the Earth. Catering to geek culture is a Hollywood mantra now, with superhero movies coming out of the yin yang for summer blockbuster season, graphic novels and other comic properties being picked up and adapted for big screen annihilation and Comic Con becoming the Mecca of Geekdom every year, where every studio will head south to San Diego and evangelize and cock tease the masses in the hallowed Hall H.

But, with news today of several studios opting out of Comic Con presentations this year, because of hype in a vacuum, we may have crossed a tipping point with geek and fanboy-dom.  Case-in-point: The fervor for SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE UNIVERSE was insane at Comic-con last year, which didn’t translate into boffo box-office numbers, where it really mattered (Side note: We Offenders loved this film).

But, in the meantime, geeks still rule (thank the Maker), because the 2nd annual Hero Complex Film Festival presented by the Los Angeles Times, was held this past weekend, and it was hella fun. This film festival was created by LA Times reporter Geoff Boucher, who also runs the Hero Complex blog, a news site on all things geek (movies, TV, comics, games, multimedia).  Read more...

I’m Glad I Have a Penis.

  • June 2, 2011 12:00 am

That’s not to say the revelation just dawned on me.  Although, to be fair, you do take things for granted when they’re around all the time, like your genitals.

Fate rolled the dice on those a long time ago and unless you’ve got a lot of money and a good doctor, that equipment’s what you’ve got for the rest of your life.  Much like the various classes in a role-playing game, each gender’s got pros and cons.

Now what qualities may be considered as positive or negative is largely a subjective matter.  Largely.

I think everyone from both genders can agree that women unequivocally got the shorter (or nonexistent) end of the stick when it comes to urination.

Generally speaking, I imagine it’s not so bad, aside from the whole “having to sit” bit.  In private residences such as one’s home, I can’t see how it would be that big a deal, especially since there wouldn’t be many people at your house – again, generally speaking.

However, as a frequenter of public water closets, I have witnessed many a time the phenomenon known as “THE LINE TO THE WOMEN’S RESTROOM.”  Read more...

RED DAWN REDUX: We All Look Same!

  • March 16, 2011 6:16 pm

Wow, remember when we talked about the idiotic attitudes of the producers behind this RED DAWN remake? It was one of our very first YOMYOMF blog entries and it caused quite a discussion on the continued racial ignorance that permeates today. If you don’t know what’s up with this remake of the cheesetastic ’80s Communist invasion in Middle America action movie, then here’s a quick recap: In this new version, the bad guys aren’t invading Soviets, but Communist Chinese! It stars Tom Cruise’s stepson and is vying for a pussified PG-13 rating.  Read more...