Bruuuuuuuuce!

While Boy-Morgan has charged ahead with dealing with the nuts-and-bolts aspects of pre-production, I've pounded out a rough draft of the script. Overall, the pacing and dialogue are pretty much right where I want them, but the action/gore scenes are in sketchy, skeletal shape right now. The goal for today is to bear down and bring them to life. It's a matter of finding the right level of nitwit energy to bring to the script, so I've been looking to other films for inspiration. First and foremost, of course, there's the entire Sam Raimi/Bruce Campbell oeuvre -- Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness. Bruce Campbell is my personal spiritual guru.

Other influences: Danny Boyle's Shallow Grave, which is useful to examine for our purposes as, much like our film, the action is contained chiefly to one set: the Edinburgh apartment shared by the lead characters. It benefits greatly from John Hodge's witty, tense, meaty script, as well as from a triumvirate of fantastic actors: Ewan McGregor, Christopher Eccleston, and Kerry Fox.

Street Fighter: I will go to my grave insisting Street Fighter is a hidden gem of a movie. Sure, it's somewhat half-assed, but it's got some great lunatic energy, it's relentlessly self-amusing, and the actors all look like they're having a blast. Plus I admire any film that goes to great time and effort to set up a fleeting Godzilla visual gag. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I've been taking a long look at Battle Royale: grim, bloody, poignant, and awesome. And finally, the influence of the gleefully cheeseball 1977 Hardy Boys television series with Shaun Cassidy and Parker Stevenson should not be underrated. In fact, Boy-Morgan and I first met, lo these many years ago, when he contacted me to comment about an essay I'd written about the show. Roderick Kills features a couple of earnest and cheerily oblivious young investigators, who somehow manage to find themselves involved in a wildly improbable mystery and who muddle happily about in search of a solution. Frank and Joe Hardy would recognize the protagonists of Roderick Kills as kindred spirits.

With a little luck and focus, I should be able to finish up the script this weekend and submit it to Boy-Morgan for his consideration.