So Fetch Friday: Terminating Stuff

An exciting bit of news today. My short film Dead Inside is making progress. Not only has it been shot, but it also has an official poster and trailer. It's not very often I get to comment on my own movies. So far it's looking pretty good. The guys I got to direct it are professionals and we got some quality actresses. No big names yet, but maybe soon.  I suppose to put it all into context I should offer some information about the film itself.

This is a strange film with quite a history to it. It all started when I was in college. I heard a few stories about hitchhiking ghosts and decided to try something out with it. The project quickly degenerated from a compelling psychological thriller into a coping mechanism for all the troubles I was facing at the time. The concept was that a college dropout is driving home when she encounters a mysterious woman simply known as the Passenger. The two would have engaged in a conversation about the girl's problems (which was basically just my way of writing the issues I actually had), ending with a car crash and the main character waking up in an ambulance and the reader being left to question the Passenger's identity.

Fast forward a few months later and I'm out of college, taking part in a screenwriting class and trying to develop an idea for a short film. I had been working with a few story ideas. After several failed attempts to develop a concept for a romance centered on two castaways who have to work together to survive despite a language barrier, I suddenly found myself interested in revisiting that older idea. This time I fleshed it out more, drawing on my experiences as well as one other curious addition. At the time I was busy collecting David Lynch films and I'd been watching a lot of them. Naturally I drew inspiration from those (particularly Lost Highway) to create a strange surrealist short. The result was an emotional ten-page surrealist film. Fast forward about two years later and I find out there's a filmmaking club at my new school. A week later I pitched it to a director and next thing I knew we were in pre-production.

Emily Thurston is a young woman who once thought she knew her passion only to end up dropping out of college when it proved disastrous. Now she makes a living as a waitress, a miserable life. That all changes when she encounters a mysterious customer who begins to put her on the right path. Through a series of strange dream-like experiences, Emily is now left to figure out where she really belongs. Will she figure out what she really wants to do with herself?

We don't have a precise release date for this movie yet. I have been told that there should be two more months of post-production before it is finished. In the meantime, here is the trailer:

This week, I got talked into seeing The Maze Runner, and I'm not sure it was that great a movie. The scenario didn't make a lot of sense, and one thing in particular stood out. There was never at any point in the film a single solitary explanation for why it was only boys who were put into the maze. I assumed there was a reason of some sort that would eventually become clear but there wasn't. You could literally re-write the entire film with a mixed-gender group of characters getting stuck in the maze and it would change nothing about the plot. There was supposed to be some significance in a girl finally being brought into the maze as well but not much of an explanation for the sudden change.

I've been re-watching the Terminator series in preparation for the new movie. I'm hoping to see it sometime tomorrow. So far I've seen The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day though I probably will not be able to watch Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines or Terminator Salvation, largely because they proved not to be as easily available as I anticipated. I did, however, manage to find The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and it's been an interesting experience watching that. So far I think I'm still trying to get used to the fact that absolutely none of the original actors were involved (at least not that I've seen).

This does make it seem a little jarring when a woman who doesn't look that much like Linda Hamilton keeps referencing the events of the films. This does have the effect of making the show feel a bit cheaper, but it's also possible that it will improve as the season progresses. On the bright side, there is the fun fact that Sarah Connor is now (at least as far as I'm aware) officially the first character to claim the honor of being played by two different Game of Thrones stars. In The Sarah Connor Chronicles she was played by Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister) and now in Terminator Genesys she is being played by Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen).

As for other shows, I've still been trying to find some things. Killjoys is looking okay so far. It seems to have a Firefly vibe but there is some good action and I can definitely give it credit for having a strong female lead. In fact really she seems to be the protagonist, the other two guys are more like sidekicks. First Mad Max: Fury Road and now this? Is having a strong female lead with a male sidekick starting to become a trend now? That's pretty good.

The Brink is also looking like a lot of fun. The first two episodes have been hilarious, even with Jack Black. It definitely seems to draw a lot from Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb as it has that same kind of feeling. So far we've had spiraling political tensions, two jet pilots getting high on morphine (one of them puking all over the cockpit), and Jack Black somehow getting confused for a CIA informant. It's proven to be a lot of fun.