For My Consideration
One of the considerable perks of being in the Writers Guild is that come awards time, the studios will do almost anything to get you to see their movies.
Yesterday, my WGA card got me two tickets to see Dreamgirls and I am telling you, the only thing that could compare with Jennifer Hudson’s big song was the thrill of signing for my free tickets just one line below Diane English, creator of “Murphy Brown.” It’s weird: I’m not at all star-struck; I don’t understand the appeal of collecting signatures. But coming across the accidental debris of celebrities — or better yet, quasi-celebrities — is strangely fascinating. Look! Diane English is just as cheap as me!
Since one can’t always make it to the theater, studios also send DVD screeners. Two years ago, there was a big effort to cut back on the process, on the theory that it led to piracy. By recent evidence, the studios have decided not to worry so much about it. So far I’ve received:
- Babel
- World Trade Center
- United 93
- Notes on a Scandal
- Flags of Our Fathers
- Little Miss Sunshine
- Thank You for Smoking
I’ve also been sent the scripts for all of these, along with the script for Dreamgirls. As the weeks pass and envelopes keep coming, I’ll try to update the list of movies that I now have no excuse not to have seen.
Articles
December 28th, 2006 at 2:09 pm
It’s all gone black (on Firefox, anyway). I’m not complaining. I like it. It matches my morose mood.
December 28th, 2006 at 2:23 pm
The flood of DVD screeners this year has been nice.
It still blows my mind that screeners go out for awards before movies have even been released theatrically.
Children of Men The Dead Girl
and a few others I can’t recall I got to see in mid December.
December 28th, 2006 at 4:57 pm
Just another reason why making movies is much more fun than any other job!
Of the movies you’ve received, I’ve only yet seen “Thank you for smoking”, which was pretty great by the way. If you haven’t seen Jason Reitman’s short “Consent”, I’d really recommend taking a look at it too, it’s great fun - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbQhzz_RWNE
Babel looks very interesting. If you’ve had time to see it, what did you think?
Andreas
December 28th, 2006 at 6:28 pm
I have only seen united 93 and thank you for smoking… which was one of the best movies i saw this year… Actually i havent seen such a smart movie in ages…
Just checked out that “Consent” short… pretty damn funny… How was dreamgirls John? Sounds kinda cheesy, I mean music is so overdone in movies now i can’t see a performance (of the vocal kind) moving me anymore… Blame idol…
December 28th, 2006 at 9:00 pm
Hi John,
Do you know how a non-WGA writer might get her hands on the BABEL script? I haven’t been able to find it anywhere.
Good luck at Sundance!
December 28th, 2006 at 9:40 pm
All of Guillermo Arriaga’s other scripts are available in book form, so I’m sure you’ll be able to get it at Amazon or elsewhere soon. And I may retract my statement about having gotten scripts for each of those movies; I don’t see Babel anywhere. But the kitchen is kind of a mess at the moment.
Q: Couldn’t they just send out links to the script online, as .pdfs?
A: Yes, they could, and should.
December 29th, 2006 at 11:18 am
Ken Levine was behind me in line when I went to a screening of Stranger Than Fiction, and I was really excited about it until my boyfriend walked up to him and introduced us.