"Summer Project 2008"

Whenever Woody Allen makes a movie the title is usually kept under wraps. If there is an actual title, no one working on the film seems to know what it is. Call sheets, scripts - and the check I picked up at his dark and scary office in 1992 for my two days work as a production assistant on "Husbands and Wives - all say "Fall Project" (or "Summer Project", "Spring Project" etc.)

I doubt it's really a matter of secrecy, no one is really that curious about the specifics of what the Wood-man has up his sleeve. I don't mean that as an insult, its just that you have a pretty good range of ideas what to expect when you plunk your shekels for a Woody Allen flick.

My own "Summer Project" has been the subject of much speculation and rumor-mongering by all you haters on the digital inter-webs. The blogospehere and the shadowy clans of Penguin.com have all been conspiring to leak details of my forthcoming opus.

So I am officially lifting the veil of secrecy right now.

"The Adventures of Sam Rocket" will be shooting sometime in June. You can read a PDF script here if you are so inclined.

"Sam Rocket" is a teenage girl who delivers pizza on a jet board, it's sort-of like a snowboard with a jet engine on the back. It takes place somewhere between "Children of Men" and "Bladerunner" on the speculation timeline. It's a bit more dystopian than "I-Robot" but less than "1984." It's an adventure/action piece with tons of effects, animation and cute girls and rock and roll.


My aim is for something like an updated Republic Serial or Fleisher Bros. Superman shorts. With a dollop of anime and just plain eye-candy. I'm the guy who actually liked "Speed Racer." I had giant reservations about the story and dialogue but I dug the look and the technique.

'Sam' will be serialized on the web and we'll see what happens after that. I'm not against film festivals per se but I'm more interested in reaching an audience of people who arent making movies, at least at first. Is anyone out there NOT making a movie or writing a script?

It's both encouraging and defeating to know that the barriers to entry are non-existent anymore. Just because you CAN make a movie doesnt mean you SHOULD. It's arrogant of me to lament that and then decide to push ahead with my own vanity project.

But what the heck.

So download the script and let me know what you think. Please feel free to tell me it sucks, but more urgently, tell me WHY it sucks.

That is exactly what everyone doing this kind of thing needs...and seldom receives. Your friends will tell you it's great but what they are really telling you is: "I think it's great that you wrote a script - between shifts at Burger King." Encouragement and support from your homeboys is important and nice. But you really need someone to tell you that your protagonist would never stay in the haunted house after the first ghost ate his girlfriend.