October 14, 2004
I'm supposed to be working on a rewrite of a script for JMJ, but I haven't been. I finished a different script instead. The other day -- Oct. 2, to be exact, while I was jogging -- I had an idea for this film. I guess it was a result of the Star Wars/THX/George Lucas DVD fest that I wanted to do something in a sci-fi vein, and I was thinking about the dream sequences I'd cut out of Rocketman and I came up with this story and I started writing the script that night and figured I'd do my best to just pound it out, like all those stories you always hear about Taxi Driver being written in three days or whatever. I just finished it this evening. There's no title yet. Only 70 pages, but when you write a scene that consists solely of something like The capsule drifts deeper into space, it's hard to convey how you envision that lasting a good three minutes or so.
It's about a man who wakes up from hibernation seven months into a year-long space trip (no specifics are ever given) and finds that his capsule has been jettisoned and is drifting aimlessly and irretrievably in deep space. From that point on, it plays out in almost-real time as he gradually realizes his situation, that it's a hopeless one, and that he's got a very finite amount of time left to live. The movie is basically about him coming to terms with this, and at the end he dies. It's sort of like the second half of Bowie's Space Oddity, now that I think of it.
So it's an almost real-time movie, set in two very limited locations, with only two actors. The kind of thing that could be shot over, say, two weekends...which would make shooting on HD affordable...etc...etc...
Anyway, now I've got to get back to that other rewrite.
Posted by David Lowery at October 14, 2004 03:49 AM
Comments
that’s quite amazing. i don’t know if i could ever conceive of an idea and get it written in just two weeks. as a matter of fact i’ve been working on the same script for about three months now with no hope of finishing in the near future. although i haven’t had much time to write in the past month. anyway, your description sounded quite interesting. i’d really like to read it if you were ever inclined to let me.
Posted by: bryan at October 14, 2004 10:11 PM
So does this mean I get to direct your new one instead?
Posted by: jmj at October 14, 2004 11:43 PM
JMJ --You're making me feel selfish, but I think I'll keep this one for myself. Can I shoot it in your garage, though?
Bryan -- I've never managed to do this before either -- it usually takes me at least three months to finish a feature (even a really short one). I've got a terrible mixture of laziness and anal rententive attention to detail...I'm always one to drag out every single particle of a sentence. But that the locations and characters were so limited in this story really helped.
Now if I can get it made within the next six months...THAT will really be something.
Posted by: Ghostboy at October 15, 2004 02:47 AM
Mi garage, su garage
Posted by: jmj at October 15, 2004 12:36 PM