I did a 30-minute internet [radio interview](http://www.blogtalkradio.com/123-Film/2009/10/05/Profile-John-August–Screenwriter) this afternoon with Sam Heer, in which we talked about Go, The Nines, the Burton movies and screenwriting in general.
If you’ve heard other interviews with me, there will probably be nothing revelatory. But it’s amusing to hear how fast we both manage to speak. It really sounds like we’ve been artificially sped-up, but it’s just a lot of caffeine.
My first movie, Go, will finally be coming out on Blu-ray on August 18th. Amazon has it [available for pre-order](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0024FAG26?ie=UTF8&tag=johnaugustcom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0024FAG26)
It’s the 10th anniversary, but it’s not a special looking-back-at edition. I had a few conversations with the Sony folks about the possibilities — the movie was a turning point for nearly everyone involved — but ultimately nothing got approved. The special features sound like the same ones on the DVD.
Regardless, I’m happy to see it in the new format. According to the release, it will be 2.40:1 1080p AVC accompanied by a 5.1 Dolby TrueHD soundtrack.
When you’re auditioning actors for a role, the scenes as scripted are sometimes not especially useful.
For example, if most of a character’s scenes are with groups of people talking, the auditioning actor probably won’t to have enough lines to really make an impression. And in television, you may need to cast a part that isn’t especially big in its first episode, but becomes more important later.
Knowing this, casting directors will often try to cobble something together. But a smart writer should also volunteer to write special scenes just for auditions. Sometimes they’re cut-down and rearranged versions of scenes from the script, but it’s also an opportunity to just come up with something new. On movies and shows in which I’m involved with casting, I’ll generally give the casting director specially-prepared sides a few days before auditions begin.
In the [Library](http://johnaugust.com/library), I have an additional audition scene from Go for [Mannie](http://johnaugust.com/downloads_ripley/mannie_audition.pdf), whose character didn’t talk much but was crucial to the first act.
And I just added three audition scenes from The Remnants:
[Chas, Mia and Wallace auditions](http://johnaugust.com/downloads_ripley/remnants_audition.pdf)
And all the casting sides for the [Alaska pilot](http://johnaugust.com/library#alaska).
One added bonus of writing new scenes for the audition is that you don’t get completely burned out on the real scenes. After you’ve heard fifty actors read the same ten lines, they become meaningless. You don’t want to be on set hearing them again.
Online video service Hulu is now featuring my first movie, Go. If you haven’t seen it — and you live in U.S., and you’re over 17 — it’s worth a look. It even has a great, minimalist URL:
[http://www.hulu.com/go](http://www.hulu.com/go)
(**Update March 2011:** Depending on licensing agreements, Go is sometimes available on Hulu. Other times, you’ll find it on Crackle, Netflix Instant or Amazon Streaming. It’s almost always available somwhere.)
I really doubted Hulu when it was first announced, because everything the studios touch tends to be needlessly complicated and crappy. But Hulu works great for catching up on old TV shows, and now movies. The advertising isn’t terribly intrusive, either.
Will I get residuals? We’ll see. But considering Go is easily available in hundreds of illegal sites online, I’m just happy to find it in a clean, well-lighted place with 480p resolution.