Year 2 Week #10 or whatever. Arthur Bell - Play, Movie, Comic

First off. If anyones reading this thing. I've decided to only post to one of my blogs a week. Either this one or the food one:

http://theeatingproject.blogspot.com/

I just don't have time with sleepwalkers, School and Cultures of Wonder to do both so I'll only post to this one once every two weeks.

But I'm going to still try and keep up with the idea of working on the projects I posted during the first year in the same order.

So without further ado... the progress I've made on The Arthur Bell project.

First off I came up with the rather bazaar idea a while back that I would incorperate all the real people throughout time who are named Arthur Bell these are the ones I found

The Dancer

The Whiskey Maker

The Botanist

The Radio Personality

The Saint

The Gay Rights Activist

Along these lines I also wrote the following scene about a guy names Arthur Bell (who may be a reincarnation of his namesake) meeting with a sort of immortal mystical hollywood character named "Johnny"

A cafe somewhere on the sunset strip

Arthur sits with a Johnny, a mysterious sort of Showbiz character.

Johnny: Oh this fucking life. How do you live this life? (to the waiter) Scotch please and water. Nothing to eat. Not now maybe later. (back to Arthur) god it’s like all anyone wants to talk about these days is marriage. Brad and Angela “TomKat” and the fucking alien baby of there’s what’s it’s name Sufi or something? No I don’t think Brad and Angela are going to get married I mean their going to marry but their not going to be married you know what I mean. There will be a wedding that’s for sure. I know these people. Brand and Angela and Vince and Jen and whoever else. There all fucking each other. Hell I’ve fucked each one of them and I’m not even good looking. That’s like all these people do. They fuck more than they act. They are fuckers. Anyways… marriage who has time for it? All those shots in the magazine are staged. I know I’ve been there when they shoot them. Those ones with Brad and the little mohawk kid I was there when they shot those. They got that kid from a casting agency that specializes in orphans. Actually the agency adopts orphans but…

Anyways… Arthur Bell that’s what you where asking about yeah haven’t heard that name in a while. Fucking marriage again. His marriage made him. He married well as they say. That’s where he got his initial round of funding if you know what I mean.

(The Waitress arrives with his drinks)

Johnny: Thanks honey. (to arthur) you want any food? Booze?

Arthur: I’m fine. Maybe coffee.

Waitress: Coffee. Sure. (to Johnny) How about you? You want any food now?

Johnny: Sure I’ll have a salad with bacon.

Waitress: We have a few salads that have bacon.

Johnny: You choose. Whatever just a salad with bacon on it. A bacon salad.

Waitress: How about a warm spinach salad?

Johnny: Whatever.

(Waitress leaves)

Johnny: (without missing a beat) Arthur Bell had a huge following here in LA and up north. He claimed it was like 500,000 people but it was more like two, but still 200,000 people is a shit load of people.

Arthur: How do you know how many people he had…

Johnny: I don’t really it’s just an estimate. A guesstimate as they say. I looked more like 200,000 than five. I knew Arthur Bell. I knew a lot of those guys.

Arthur: Wait that’s… how old…?

Johnny: I knew Jim Jones too. He was a fucking asshole. Total speed freak and sexual deviant. When the whole Kool Aid thing happened I didn’t even bat an eye. I was like “that’s what you get for taking your orders from a guy like that. You go to South America with to build a workers paradise based on Benzedrine and Sodomy and what do you expect to happen?”

But I digress… Arthur Bell was not an asshole or a sodomite or a drug addict he was a believer. People say he did it for the money that he was stealing from these people but I say he did it out of fear. He truly believed there where 10,000 families that have, throughout history conspired to rule the world and that he was part of a sacred secret order that has been working in secret to keep them in check. He also believed that there where little metal men beneath the earth but you know…

Why did you want to hear about Arthur again. I don’t remember if Eric said.

Arthur: Well see, my name is Arthur Bell, I mean...

Johnny: Oh okay. I guess that’s as good a reason as any. You where curious about your name sake.

(The waitress arrives with salad and coffee)

Johnny: Thanks sweetie. Bacon looks delicious. (to Arthur) You sure you don’t want anything else? It’s on the studio.

Arthur: No thanks. Hey can I ask you something?

Johnny: Sure that’s what I’m here for I guess.

Arthur: How do you know all this stuff. I mean, I’m sorry but who are you?

Johnny: What did Eric tell you?

Arthur: Uh… he just said he knew someone, Johnny, he said he knew a guy named Johnny who could help. He didn’t really tell me much.

Johnny: Isn’t that just like Eric! So mysterious. So aloof. Only as much information as you need to know right? I bailed him out of jail once. Did you know that? He used to think he was some sort of Gangster. Fuck one night in city jail cured him of that right?

There’s really not all that much mystery to what I do. I’ve just lived in L.A. all my life so I know it really well. You know I was born here and I never left. I’ve never been anywhere else. I mean I’ve been to Pacedena a couple of times but besides that I’ve never even left the county. So now I know things about the city and people come to me and ask me questions and I answer them and they give me things or do things for me. Pretty simple stuff. No big mystery.

Arthur: I don’t know about that.

Johnny: Yeah well, enough about me. We’re here to talk about Arthur Bell and I guess we’ve discovered that you, in fact, are Arthur Bell.

Arthur: Well I’m a Arthur Bell.

Johnny: Right. Good point! There must be hundreds of you out there. I knew one I think that made Scotch.

Arthur: Scotch?

Johnny: Well yeah I didn’t know him but I knew of him. Bell & Sons whiskey. First blended scotch to really get any attention. It’s okay I guess. I don’t know I’m fine with Dewer’s. It has a comforting watery taste.

Arthur: I’m not much of a drinker.

Johnny: Yeah well who is? (he toasts to Arthur then finishes his drink) Arthur Lowler Osborn Fosntain Bell. Let’s see. He was born somewhere in the midwest, sometime in the 1910’s I imagine, I don’t know much about that stuff. If it doesn’t happen in LA well… you know. Anyways he came here in 1934 and founded Mankind United and The Church of Jesus Christ and the Golden Rule. I can’t remember which came first or whatever but they where really the same thing. A cult dedicated to the overthrow of the worlds “hidden rulers”. It seems that since time immemorial there’s been 10,000 families who’ve controlled everything, big surprise there huh? Well Arthur Bell, the other Arthur Bell, was working for the other side, the good guys, he was working for these people called the “Patrons” and these guys have been around as long as the Hidden Rulers have, they’ve been keeping them in check. Standard good and evil shit, real epic stuff. According the Arthur they’ve been fighting this spiritual war in secret for the past few centuries and maybe even longer. He even claimed every so often that America’s Founding Fathers and even the Apostles where actually “Patrons”. However Arthur himself was not a Patron. He was something else. He was “The Voice”.

Arthur: The Voice?

Johnny: (very serious) The Voice. (laughs) No but seriously why do you want to know all this shit? Are you working on a script. I could get you a meeting. You know who would be great? The Coen Brothers. I’m going hunting with them this Friday. Want to come?

Arthur: I don’t really hunt.

Johnny: Neither do they. That’s why it would be fun. It’s fun to do things you don’t really do. Do you want some of my bacon? (Not allowing Arthur to respond) No seriously what are you talking to me for? I mean let’s take this to the studio. Get a real expert on it. Some asshole who’s entire job is to know shit like this.

Arthur: Isn’t that what you do?

Johnny: Fuck no!

Year 2 Week #4 Inside the ACLU - Film

I haven't really spent any time thinking about this one over the past year.

I did a little brainstorming this week and came up with a few little concepts. It's still a very nebulous thing.

Here's the original post: http://gotprojects.blogspot.com/2009/02/week-4-inside-aclu-playshort-story-or.html

Here's my notes:

The ACLU was originally a group of fiercely libertarian lawyers who banded together in the colonial united states. They where instrumental in the founding of the country.

There original leader was present at both the signing of the declaration of independence and both continental conferences.

Something happened during the revolutionary war in that made it essential that they be erased from the history books.

They've operated since then as a sort of clandestine branch of the United States government.

Not sure why they ever felt the need to create a public face.

Sort of like the Freemasons, every ACLU lawyer knows there are secrets most just don't really know what they are.

All scenes take place in super hippy dippy "progressive" settings. Especially the really sinister stuff. Maybe the first time we see get a glimpse of their darker side is at Cafe Gratitude.

We could get totally absurd and have Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders be rival shadowy empires.

Each regional branch of the ACLU has a distinct character and purpose.

The Oregon branch is much more cultish than the others. They hold tight to old rituals and practices. The other branches are a little freaked out by them. They in turn look at all other branches of slightly heretical.

The LA branch is totally fixated on celebrity. Very much like scientology they actively recruit people from the entertainment world with whom they share some but not all of their secrets. Most other branches see them as essentially a rogue element and never associate with them except when unavoidable.

The Chicago branch is the paramilitary center. They are the people who continue the work started during the revolutionary war, whatever that was. They have the closest ties with the government.

Their main offices in New York are really just for show.

The real power center is in Butte Montana.

Year 2 Week #3 The Patchwork Girl of Oz - Film

I can't figure out how to make a text attachment to one of of these things so I'm just going to cut and paste the first few scenes that I've written up from this project.

There pretty rough and I'm not sure how the formating will transfer but here goes:

Prologue
Ext. Night an Old out of use Hollywood lott

As we pan in toward a building on the lot the first thing we see is a large cobwebbed sigghn with the Z in O. Oz symbol.

We pan past that and into a sort of broken down old cabana on a out of use Hollywood lot. As the camera pans through a bunch of old relics of the past 50 years. We see an overwhelmingly large amount of them are pieces from past oz movies. Some from the MGM movie if we can get them. Even some from the Wiz maybe.

Voice Over
Many years ago, through the kindness of Dorothy of Kansas, afterward princess Dorothy of OZ, a humble group writers and film makers where appointed the Royal Historians of OZ with the honor of Chronicaling that wonderful fairy land.

But after making 48 movies, 44 play and 182 books and countless other works of imagination about the interesting but queer people who live in the land of OZ, the historians learned with great sorrow that by an edict of the supreme ruler, Ozma of OZ…

As we pan out from the old Ozcot sign we see that it’s now the signet above the gate to the royal palace of OZ. Where we see Ozma holding court talking inaudibly to a great assemblage of her subjects. The Lion, the scarecrow, the Tin man and the Wizzard are all there as well as Aunt em Uncle henry, Dorothy and Toto. Also in addentance are some less familiar inhabitants of OZ, the hungry Tiger, the shaggyman, the Wizards amazing Piglets, The shaggy man, the Sawhorse even Jelly Jam.

Voice Over
All communication with the OZ would be cut off and…

We see the gates of OZ which opened a second before to let us in close in our face.

Voice Over
Her country would there after be rendered invisible to all those who lived in the outside world.

The Screen goes black

Voice Over
The Children who had learned to look for the stories of the happy people inhabiting that favored country where as sorry as the historians that there would be no more stories about OZ.

Cut to:
A series of scenes of children furiously writing letters. Pages flying through the air. Mail heading into mail boxes.
Voice Over
They wrote many letters to the historians asking if he didn’t know any adventures that had happened before the land of OZ was shut off from the rest of the world and he did. But it was not enough.

More scenes of children writing, first with feather pens then typwriters, using a telegram machine then finally sitting at a computer writing and email.

Voice Over
Finally one of the children inquired why we couldn’t hear from princess Dorothy by electronic mail. Which would enable her to comminticate with the historians whatever happened in the far off land of OZ without them having to see her or even know where the land of OZ is. That sounded like a good idea so the historians all got together.

Cut to:
A group of writers, filmmakers and such, maybe even a few people who worked on the 1939 film. There’s a few showgirls from the staged version, hopefully a quincy jones look alike or someone else from the Wiz. There all standing around a computer mumbling, poking at it, trying to get it to work. Finally a twenty something young man in sweats and a t-shirt sits down and starts typing.

Voice Over
And got themselves a computer. Regestered themselves a email address and started sending Dorothy messages through cyperspace.

Now it wasn’t likely Dorothy would have a computer or ever be looking for emails but one thing the historians where sure of and that was that the powerful sorceress Glinda the good would know what he was doing.

For glinda had a big book…

Cut to:
Glinda standing in her chamber reading her big book. She is beautiful and serene, interested in what she’s reading but never surprised.

Voice Over
In which is recorded every event that takes place anywhere in the world, just the moment it happens. And so of coarse the book would tell her about the email address.

Cut to:
Glinda walks from her chamber swifly down the beautiful hall in her palace to dorothy’s room down the street. Dorothy’s room is a little more modest but still nice.

Voice Over
And that is how Dorothy heard that the historians wanted to hear from her.

Cut to:
Dorothy and the shaggy man contructing an elaborate “computer” out of emeralds and sticks and huge vine like wires.

Voice Over
Luckily there was a shaggy man in the land of OZ who knew how to build a computer and connect it through the air it the internet. The result was that the Historians begged so hard to be told the latest news of OZ so that they could tell it to the children of the outside world.

Cut to:
Dorothy kneeling at the feet of Ozma in her thrown room.

Voice Over
Dorothy asked permission of Ozma and Ozman graciously conceded.

The camera pulls away and tranvels down the halls of the palace sweeping outside through the emerald city in all it’s splendor.

Voice Over
That is why after ___ long years of waiting another OZ story in now presented to the children of the world.

Titles Run

While the titles are running the camera continues to sweep through the country side slowly pulling farther out as it goes eventually we see the whole map from obove with it’s four colored blocks surrounded by the deadly deasert. It appears now like a traditional map with titles and everything.

Title:

The Patchwork Girl of OZ

As the credits continue to roll we pan in on Munchkin land the large blue block on the western side of OZ. As we pan is we begin to see details once again slowly we see a model of a forest inside muchkin land, as we continue it turns into a real forest. Paning through the forest we eventually reach a small clearing with a little house of the Munchkin style, painted all blue with a tall pointed roof and little points all the corners of the roof.. On this particular munchkin house however the paint is peeling and even some of the little poity parts have begun to slope. The front yard of the house is completely desolate with nothing in but a decreped old “Bread Tree” drooping and leaf less with just two odd looking loaves of bread hanging from it’s branches.

The door of the house opens and a young munchkin boy Ojo walks leasurely out side and picks one of the loaves of bread. He’s dressed in traditional munchkin attire. All in blue with a tall pointed hat and little points on his shoes with bells on them. Ojo’s clothes like his house are faded and worn. Some of his bells are missing.

Loaf in hand we follow Ojo back through the front door of his house. As we pass the front window we see looking out of it an old man Unc Nunkie. Inside the house there is nothing but an old chair a small table and a tiny bare kitchen.

Once inside Ojo goes quickly to the kitchen and starts digging through the cuppards. He find nothing and runs back to where Unk Nunkie is sitting.

Unk is an old munchkin man with a long bears and white hair. He wears the same style clothes as Ojo but his are much more worn.

Ojo
Where’s the butter Unc Nunkie?

Unc
Isn’t

Ojo
Isn’t any butter? That’s too bad Unc. Where’s the jam then?

Unc
Gone

Ojo
No jam either? And no cake, no jelly, no apples, nothing but bread.

Unc
All

Ojo sits down next to Unc Nunkie on a little stool. They both look out the window.

Ojo
Nothing grows in our yard but the bread tree and there’s only to loaves of left on that tree and there not ripe yet. Tell me Unc, why are we so poor?

Unc just looks at him

Unc
Not

Ojo
I think we are, what have got?

Unc
House.

Ojo
I know, but everyone in the land of OZ has a place to live. What else Unc?

Unc
Bread.

Ojo
I’m eating the last loaf that’s ripe.

Ojo begins to wrap up the rest of the ripe loaf in a blue handkerchief.

Ojo
Here I’ve put aside your shar, Unc. It’s on the table so you can eat it when you get hungry. But when that is gone what shall we eat?

Unc just shakes his head.

Ojo
Of coarse, no one starves in the land of OZ either. There is plenty for everyone. There is plenty for everyone you know, only if it isn’t where you happen to be you must go where it is.

Unc just starts to look a little disturbed.

Ojo
By tomorrow morning we must go where there is something to eat, or we shall grow very hungry and become very unhappy.

Unc
Where?

Ojo
Where shall we go? I don’t know, I’m sure, but you must know, Unc. You must have traveled in your time because your so old. All I’ve ever seen in the land of OZ, Unc Dear, is the view of the mountain to the south.

Ojo motions all around as the camera pan around to the huge mountain looming outside there back window.

Ojo
Where they say the Hammerheads live-who won’t let anyone go by then. And the mountain to the north.

Ojo motions again and we pan around to the Northern window with it’s mountain.
Ojo
Where they say no one lives.

Unc
One.

Ojo
Oh yes! One family lives there I’ve heard. That’s the crooked magician who is named Dr. Pipt and his wife Margolotte. One year you told me about them. I think it took you a whole year, Unc, to say as much as I’ve just said about the crooked magician and his wife. They live high up on the mountain and the good munchkin country where fruits and flowers grow just on the other side. It’s funny you and I should live here all alone, in the middle of the forest, isn’t it.

Unc
Yes.

Ojo
Then let’s go away and visit the Munchkin country and it’s jolly good natured people. I’d love to get the sight of something besides woods, Unc, Nunkie.

Unc
Too little

Ojo
Why I’m not so little as I used to be. Why I think I can walk as far and as fast through the woods as you can. And now that nothing grows in our woods that is good to eat we must go where the food is.
Insert:

A shot of the the withered weird forest outside the house.

Inside the house Unc is seen looking out the window at the woods. Looking dejected. Behind him we see Ojo biting his lip nervously then giggles and goes about his day.

Cut To:
Int: Later in the Day Inside the House
Unc is still sitting in the same place looking out the window. Behind him Ojo is seen lighting a fire in the fireplace.

After lighting the fire Ojo slowly walks up beside Unc and hands him a piece of bread.

Ojo
Eat your bread Unc and then we will go to bed.

Unc does not respond.

Cut To:

Int: Inside the house later that night
Unc. is still sitting in the exact same place looking out the window. Behind him we see Ojo asleep in his bed. Slowly we see a few streaks of light move across Ojo’s face signifying the beginning of dawn.

Unc reaches down and puts a hand lightly on Ojo’s shoulder. His eyes open slowly.

Unc
Come.

Ojo jumps up and starts franticly running around the room putting on his traditional munchkin clothes.

“blue silk stockings, blue knee pants with gold buckles, a blue ruffled waist and a jacket of bright blue braided with gold. His shoes were of blue leather and turned up at the toes, which were pointed. His hat had a peaked crown and a flat brim, and around the brim was a row of tiny golden bells that tinkled when he moved.”
Cut To:

Ext: Morning outside Unc and Ojo’s house
Long shot looking at the house as if from the forest.
Ojo and Unc emerge from the house and walk toward us Unc walks slowly and deliberately while Ojo runs ahead and back over and over like a cartoon dog.

We follow them as they walk along a path that leads them into the woods and finally to a fork in the road. One way leads along the flat ground, the other leads steeply up the hill. Ojo running a head instinctively follows the flatter road after a few yards though he looks back and notices Unc is not following. Unc points up the hill. Ojo runs back to him.

Unc motions for Ojo to sit on a log with him. They sit and Unc pulls out the small piece of bread they have left and rips off two small parts. He hands a small piece to Ojo. They eat it in silence.

Once they’ve eaten there morsels Unc raps them up in a handkerchief and points up this hill.

Unc
Up.

They begin to ascend the hill

Fade to Black

Scene 2 The Crooked Magicians House

Ext. Day a Clearing in a Forest
Ojo and Unc slowly emerge from the forest into a large clearing with a house in it. This is the crooked magicians house.

“a big house, round, as were all the Munchkin houses, and painted blue, which is the distinctive color of the Munchkin Country of Oz. There was a pretty garden around the house, where blue trees and blue flowers grew in abundance and in one place were beds of blue cabbages, blue carrots and blue lettuce, all of which were delicious to eat. In Dr. Pipt's garden grew bun-trees, cake-trees, cream-puff bushes, blue buttercups which yielded excellent blue butter and a row of chocolate-caramel plants. Paths of blue gravel divided the vegetable and flower beds and a wider path led up to the front door.”

Ojo and Unc take a few seconds to admire the house then walk up to the front door and knock.

The door opens and Dame Margolotte; a pleasant faced munchkin woman appears.

Ojo
Ah you must be Dame Margolotte., the good wife of Dr. Pipt.

Margot
I am my dear and all strangers are welcome to my home.

Ojo
May we see the famous magician Madam?

Margot
He is very busy just now, but come in and let me give you something to eat for you must have traveled far in order to get to our lonely place.

Ojo
We have. We have come from a far lonelier place than this.

Unc, Margotlotte and Ojo enter the house and close the door behind them.

Week #50 A New Movie Musical (Possibly The Mishap Movie) - Movie

So, because there’s something very wrong with me (or possibly very right depending on your perspective) I bought a collection of old movie musicals on DVD from half price books (hey it was only $10 for 50 movies, that’s like 20 cents a movie!)

After watching a few of these I realized that most of the plots seemed to contain the same basic few steps.

Step 1: Two young men who may or may not be brothers head out into the world to make a name for themselves (usually at least one of them is a songwriter allowing for an easy pretense to segue into musical numbers.)

Step 2: They meet a wholesome, pretty, likable, witty young woman whom they both develop feelings for.

Step 3: They get some sort of opportunity for a big break. While preparing for it they meet all sorts of quirky characters who help them on there way.

Step 4: They have a falling out over the girl.

Step 5: In some way the girl manages to bring them back together usually aiding them on there way to success at the same time. (i.e. planning a big concert and inviting a major talent scout then convincing both the friends/brothers to play the concert without them knowing that they’ll both be there until the last minute.)

I’ve always liked movie musicals but most of the recent ones have left me a little cold. None of them seem like really unique pieces of art in their own right. Most seem to be either new stories with music from an established pop band (i.e. Momma Mia, Across the Universe) or movie musicals based on stage musicals based on films that weren't musicals (The producers, hairspray).

What I’d like to do is a movie with an entirely original plot as well as songs. A revisiting of the old form as described above but in modern times with modern sensibilities.

I don’t write music or know how to make a movie so this one probably won’t progress much past an idea unless someone else wants help out.

It did occur to me while I was writing this that this could be the perfect format for the Mishap Rock and Roll Movie I wanted to make. We could have have James Call and Ryan Beebe be the two brothers coming to the big city to make it big. How could we go wrong?

Week #24 The Mishap Movie - Film

Having recently watched Rock & Roll High School again I got inspired to make a rock & roll movie. Films like Help, The Girl Can’t Help it, Tougher than Leather even Spice World have alway held a special place in my heart. Movies with flimsy plots and often just as flimsy acting. Films set up to highlight the music of whatever artist or artists it was made for. Movies that, although not the best craft wise, are always fun to watch because you can see the people making them are having so much fun.

I want to make one of these for Mishap Productions. My only real concrete idea of what I want it to be is that I’d like to have all the people even vaguely connected to Mishap both play a role and perform in some way.

A couple of ideas I came up with while talking to James Call about it over the past few days:

A classic film noir where all the Gomorran’s play gangsters and the Missing Teens play cops

A gangster story about a power struggle due to the death of the mob boss “God”

Shooting on both coasts but presenting them as one city so characters would get in the subway in NYC and get out in San Francisco.

Stealing overdramatic lines from other films to insert in at inappropriate times.

Most of these where just stuff we came up with while bullshitting. I’d really like to make one of these movies some time. We wouldn’t have to come up with much of a script just some basic ideas then start shooting. I have a camera. What I really need is a very patient editor.

Week #4 Inside the ACLU- a play,short story or movie

Not sure what exactly this would be. It’s just a concept I came up with the other day; sort of a world in which a story could take place.

The idea is that we would have a main character who is searching for someone or something that they really need to go on with there life. Whatever it is they are searching for it leads them in an unexpected way to the ACLU.

As the story continues as our main character’s journey takes them deeper and deeper into the inner workings of the ACLU. In this world the ACLU is a sort of Byzantine labyrinth of secret dealing, bizarre squabbling factions and strange rituals.

The reason why I want to use the ACLU for this, as apposed to say the Free Masons is that it’s so ridiculous and unexpected. They are such a well respected and pristine group among the artistic liberal world that suggesting anything clandestine or dark going on with them is almost sacrilegious.

I also really like the idea of taking an organization that exists in reality and making up a totally fictitious version of them; much like the version of the FBI that David Lynch created in the world of Twin Peaks.

The idea came to me while watching Nick Broomfield’s documentary Kurt & Courtney. At one point he goes to an ACLU dinner in L.A. where Courtney Love is speaking. The ludicrousness of her speech and the idea of her of all people speaking at an ACLU dinner made me wonder if it was something idiosyncratic of the LA branch. Then I started imagining all the other branches rolling there eyes. Then I started wondering what quarks other locations would have.

Anyways it’s just an idea, a starting point, if it sparks anyone’s imagination feel free to straight up steal if for part of something else or contact me and maybe we could brainstorm together.

Week #3-Patchwork Girl of OZ-Movie

I’ve always wanted to do a film adaptation of the book OZ book “Patchwork Girl of OZ” by L. Frank Baum. My idea would be to do the whole film using no CGI. We’d use puppets, models and real setting as well as costumes and make-up for the human shaped characters. I’d also like to keep the rather antiquated dialogue of the original script as much as possible.

I don’t want to describe the whole plot of this book, there’s a pretty good synopsis of it on Wikipedia. It’s got some great characters that, with the right people involved, we could make look awesome. It also takes place in the land of OZ we’re familiar with from the 1939 film version of Wizard of OZ we've all seen. Including the Tin Man, Dorothy and the Scarecrow (Who falls in love with the titular Patchwork Girl)

I want to shoot all the exteriors in the forests of Northern California. Get some real circus performers to play a bunch of the parts. Most importantly a gymnast for the Patchwork Girl

There have been a few film versions of this that have been done through the years mostly by super OZ fans. The most notable and the one I’ve actually seen is the silent version which is pretty awesome.

Not much else to say about it. This would be kind of a huge collaborative effort but with all the whining about how bad CGI looks I think there’s a whole generation of people who can build this kinda’ stuff out there.

I’ve written a couple of pages of the script already.