Month: July 2004

So my final decision is Wildcard No surprises there then, it was my favourite before and they haven’t done anything to ruin it. If anything it’s slightly better.

Both Feast and Does Anyone… have improved too – especially the later, and to be honest there’s potential for an enjoyable movie from all 3 – in the end it was more a question of the kind of story I’d enjoy than quality per se. I’ve a hunch the PGL team might pick Does Anyone… Feast still seems too expensive – although what do I know?

Anyway – off to check the site – official results should be up.

Just finished reading Wildcard the Top 3 revised version.

It’s another case of slight tweaking. They changed the con at the beginning and a few details through the rest of the story. They also dropped one of the subplots about the female cop’s relationship with her lover. In this version they have the girlfriend in one scene just so we know she’s a lesbian before there’s dialogue about it. I think the script’s better for it – there were too many threads before and the relationship isn’t central to the story.

So they’ve tightened it up slightly but there’s no massive changes and no massive improvement either – but no worse either. So that’s still

8/10

Feast

This has changed a lot less than Does Anyone… – They’ve changed the beginning and the end, one of the characters but not a lot else. It’s pretty much the same structure as it was. A couple of the deaths – human and monster – have changed – for the better actually, in a movie like this you want interesting deaths. The character who gets all the good lines and who therefore you tend to like despite yourself – now survives to the end of the movie rather than dies 3/4 way through as in version 1 – so that’s more satisfying.

Overall – it’s an improvement, but not by much. 7.75/10

Ok so thanks to a nice man at PGL website technical support I now have all 3 revised scripts.

This entry is about Does Anyone Here Remember When Hans Gubenstein Invented Time Travel?

Well this is a major re-write. A lot has changed. The basic concept is the same but I only recognise a couple of scenes from the original. They’ve added the love story so maybe it is Groundhog Day mk II after all 😉

I have to say though that this change does make a big difference. Not just because everyone likes a love story – but because it gives the main character an arc. Before we had a series of ‘do-over’ time-travel episodes – many humourous – but just a series of scenes really. By giving the main character a love interest that he eventually learns to give it chance with – we have a sense of progress rather than just a series of funny scenes and then an end.

One thing – in the new version the bad guy gets killed when he tries to destroy the time machine. This causes a time loop feedback thingy which results in him getting fried by radiation and leaves him a smoking burnt husk. Which leads to this

Sid bends to inspect the SMOKING HUSK. Hanz’s TIME DEVICE perched ON TOP of it.
HANZ GUBENSTEIN (cont’d)
Don’t touch it. It’s evil stuff.

Ahem.

Well ok, I accept that this is an hommage rather than a steal. But if you’re writing a time travel comedy do you really want to compare yourself Time Bandits? It’s gonna hurt ya.

So anyway I think they’ve improved it significantly. If this is executed well – with likeable actors in the main roles – it could be a pretty decent movie.

8/10

Well results are in for the top 3 (have been since tuesday but I’m only now getting around to writing this up). They picked the same three as me.

Also I got the timing wrong. The re-writes were for the top 6 and were part of what was used to choose the top 3. The revised scripts are now on the website – at least they are for Wildcard and Does Anyone…? The version of Feast seems unchanged – but that’s probably just an oversight on the website management rather than an indicator that no changes were needed.

So I’m re-reading the two I’ve got and will publish thoughts here when I’m done.