Thursday, July 21, 2005

David Koepp apparently has been going around saying that War of the Worlds is a parable for the US invading Iraq, with the aliens playing the US, and Tom and Dakota playing Iraqis.

As Scooby Doo would say: "rrrr-rrr???"

This must be why they don't encourage screenwriters to come to the press junket. We say all sorts of crap to impress our friends. Personally I have trouble when I can think of two things to say, one of which is true, one of which sounds clever. But then, I don't write hundred million dollar movies. Most people who do have the sense to keep their damn mouths shut.

Especially when the movie is "about" big alien monsters attacking Earth with the intention of using human beings as fertilizer (or so I read).

Hmmm ... I wonder how well Scientology goes down in Falluja?

1:57 PM

2 Comments:

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

By  William, at 2:23 PM  

Hey Alex, yes sometimes it's smarter to keep our inner landscape well hidden and let the outer landscape speak for itself. In a film class I had ages ago, before I was a working screenwriter, I remember my teacher fielding conflicting analysis of a film scene from students, and saying they were both valid. After the class errupted in rightous indignation, he pointed out that regardless of the artist's intent, the work once finished had a life of it's own, and produced many different reactions in many different viewers. Many of these effects would be unintended from the creator's point of view, but for the viewer completely valid. Of course I thought he was full of crap and disagreed with him, until now, 15 years into a writing career with several films made, and I see that he was right. Do we need to know what inspired the writer? No. It works for us separate from that. Is it interesting? To a very select few, probably. (Like him and his family). Does it ruin it for the rest of us? No, thank God, the movie has a life of its own. Thanks for the interesting post! I put down my thoughts as well on my blog: www.screenwriterbones.blogspot.com Thanks!

By  Phil, at 2:52 PM  

Post a Comment

Back to Complications Ensue main blog page.