Endorsement for Jeff Kleeman

Over at Craig's joint, he's endorsing an off-slate candidate for the WGAw board, one Jeff Kleeman. Jeff had the mad temerity to run against the Writer's United slate, and then got smacked around for it. Smacked around as if he had no right to run. Craig explains some of the (magnificently tedious) internal politics involved in the above referenced post.

In a word, this attitude is bullshit. What Jeff brings to the table is experience on the other side of the business end, as a studio exec and producer. This is a good thing. More arrows in the strategic quiver during what will certainly be one of the most important contract negotiations in the entire career of most screenwriters working now. I've worked with Jeff on a movie, talked an inordinate amount of business with him, and he's one of those guys who's so smart he constantly reminds me that I am pretty much faking any business savvy I picked up in the last 12 years. He is terrifyingly well-informed about the legal/contract side, and experienced in many aspects of the production business. Oh, and he's a pretty spiffy writer. I wanted to be one of the people officially endorsing Jeff, but I'm WGA East, so I was ineligible.

Which leads us to the other article at Craig's -- about possibly merging Writer's Guild East and West. I know I can and should switch, but the point that I have to has always irked me. I wrote television and movies in New York, and now that I write television and movies based out of LA, I need to fork over a couple grand in "processing fees"? This is an anachronism well past its due date, and I hope we'll move toward a merger soon.

All that aside, although I cannot officially endorse Jeff Kleeman as a member of his guild, I can certainly put in my two cents and say that I'd want him riding point on any assault against the suits in which I might be involved.

WGAw brethren and sistren, Vote Jeff Kleeman for the Board.

Pre-Production Day 6-8 (edited)

Casting. Which is, of course, the one thing I CAN'T post about while we're doing it.

"We love her. She's who we had in mind for the part all along."
"According to John's blog, you were really frustrated you got turned down by three other actresses first."
" ... could you hold on a minute?"
And the bloody Cavemen parody video, which substitutes "Black Men" every time they say "Cave Men", has been yanked, so there goes posting Plan B. I have not seen the recut pilot, but I will say the ambush of the writers at the TCA based on the original pilot was ... um,

EDIT: You know what, I think I crossed a line here, in that the dialogue I quoted was probably cut from the broadcast pilot, The show's apparently been heavily recut, and although I will stick by my opinion that the original version was ... thoughtless, I don't think I should slam anything not broadcast yet. I will leave intact, however, my conversation with Tyrone

John: What's the premise?
Tyrone: It's a new look at racism.
John: I didn't know we were done with old racism yet.
Tyrone: It's the perfect network show. A way to do a television show about the black experience in America without all those pesky black people.

All this to say, by the way, there are some really good actors in this thing, and they are swinging, man, just chopping wood as hard as they can.

Slings and Arrows and fantasy heists

Way too wired for sleep on Friday night, I watch Season 3 of Slings & Arrows. The final performance of Lear in the series makes me cry, and you see maybe five minutes of it. Damn. Ultimately I don't find the third series as enjoyable as the first two, but it's still the best show about life performance I've ever seen. The fact William Hutt plays a dying actor doing Lear, so close to his own death ... again -- damn.

To decompress, reading The Lies of Locke Lamora. The reviews on this are strong, and deservedly so. I don't read a lot of fantasy literature -- make that "practically none -- but the tone of this thing is a delight. Think Medici Venice with some magic, a few molten glass towers, and now add a genuinely engaging heist story in the middle of it. That's right, it's really a dead solidly plotted con/crime story that happens to be set in a fantasy novel. No "thous", "forsooths", or fucking elves. Just a lightning-fast story of cutpurses, false priests, spies, rebels, and complicated financial scams set in one of the most fully, grittily realized "other places" I've read in a while. Mieville meets Thomas Crown, with slightly fewer bug-faced aliens and giant rib cages. Definitely recommended.