I'm already cringing
 

Gryphon
SciFi Channel
January 27th 9pm

I'm considering these my early "paying the dues" flicks, like John Sayles' Roger Coman flicks or James Gunn's Troma days.:o

Whatever you say Rod...whatever you say:p

http://home.att.net/~johnwaf/octopus.gif

it's the LAST of my SciFI Trilogy

won't be doing this kind of work again... unless I'm broke again

yeah you gotta make money...but needing money dosent produce art

yeah, that'll be evident - no art here...barely even any commerce

I, for one, will be watching this.

Sounds like a good time at Rod's expense. I'll give my report on it after watching it. :p

lol.....but people still gotta live and someone out there might enjoy it....so dont feel too bad bout it

I would definatly be watching it if I had Sci-Fi...waiting for the DVD I guess:p

I'll be laughing all the way through it, I promise:D

I work Saturdays, but hopefully I'll get home in time to see it.

http://www.scifi.com/gryphon/


I'll have to set my DVR.

did you see the cast?

Willow's Girlfriend (Amber Benson), Dr Giggles (Larry Drake) Ursa from Superman 2 (Sarah Douglas) and one of the upcoming 300 Spartans (Andrew Pleavin)

Reminds me of Lisa Simpson's nightmare about being 2nd fiddle

Announcer: And now, Avis Rent-A-Car is proud to present the second best band in America. Will you welcome Garfunkel, Messina, Oates, and Lisa singing their number two hit, "Born to Runner-up". [Audience boos]

Lisa: Why would they come to our concert just to boo us?

ahhh a trilogy ..

so will this eventually be available in a box set with Squid bookends ? :D

See what I can do for ya:)

abailable ??

all of a sudden i'm one of the Fat Albert Kids...

Rod...did ya ever consider writting something truly horrendous and fucked-up and selling it to Sci-Fi?
Then, you have nothing to get butchered and hammered by the jackals, but still get a nice fat paycheck:D

Unfortunately it doesn't work like that. I've never sold anything to SciFi Channel. They decide what they want a movie to be about (whatever creature effect the designers think they can render) and they hire writers to make it. They don't "buy" scripts, they commission them.

For the SciFi Channel gigs I'm a contractor working with a very specific formula. Actually a repeating 12 page formula in which the monster must be shown and someone has to die every 12 pages.

And the paycheck ain't exactly fat. They hire exclusively non-union writers to do the work for less than scale. I made bupkiss, but I now have produced credits, which are far more valuable than the cash I was paid.

How does one get into said loop? I have plenty of old ideas that they would probably eat up.

I fell into it. A friend had directed 2 SciFi Channel flicks and had landed a gig writing one for them (Gryphon.) He was completely blocked and against a deadline so he asked me to help. I wrote it with him in 4 days.

He continued to employ me as ghost writer for the other gigs as well. Fially the network decided to give me credit...and as fate would have it - sole credit on Gryphon.

If you want to get in with these guys, I'd go to the individual production companies that sub-contract the jobs from SciFi. UFO Films, Active Entertainment, Pliny Minor and a handful of others do the lion's share of these movies.

Great, thanks! :)

Anything to get my foot in the door. When you did those scripts, did you write as if someone of say, Ridley Scott caliber was going to read it, even though you knew it was going to get ripped apart and made into amudpie by some hack? Basically, always pour yourself into it, or did you just treat it as a paycheck?

Unlike normal screenwriting - the first draft on these were always the best draft, then the dumbfuck producers come along and rip the guts out.

The first Gryphon draft had the heroes pinched between an army of zombies, (AoD anyone) a giant Basilisk and its hundred writhing offspring and the aerial attack of the Gryphon.

We had air battles and eyes being gouged out and such...then the producers say "we can't do that for $900,000" so it gets trimmed and trimmed. Then they rip the best dialogue bits out and ask it to be replaced with "something more heroic" meaning "shitty".

And god forbid you try to inject any comedy into the piece - the Network hates that. Still don't know how we copnvinced them to let us do Mammoth as an out-and-out comedy.

By the end of the process you want to shoot everyone.

You know I was actually in a good mood until I started reliving that process - thanks a ton Vod;)

If it makes you feel any better, i may be walking headlong into that some day, on purpose.

I'm afraid that this one was mostly me.:o

the drinking game!!!!
 

Just found this and thought it might enhance your viewing pleasure

* The Sci-Fi Original Movie Drinking Game

Take a drink when one of the following happens:
o A female character falls down.
o Someone spews out a sentence that uses "science words" but that makes absolutely no fucking sense at all.
Example: "We're going to need to stabilize the magnetic pulsar fields to get an accurate quantum readout."
o A person is eaten by the monster.
o One of the characters speak the words "prophesy", "conspiracy" or "legend".
o A character mentions that they "just need more time".
o Someone shoots at the monster but either doesn't hit it or doesn't kill it.
o You or one of your friends makes up the monster's new theme song and sings it when it appears on screen.
o You eat a big piece of pizza and want to take a sip of a refreshing beverage to wash it down with.
o The Main Guy looks off into the distance at nothing in particular.


Chug the whole beer when one of these happens:
o The opening credits. Trust me, you're going to want to get started early.
o The Main Guy punches the monster in the face and/or calls it a "bitch".
o The Weasley Traitor dies a horrific death.
o The monster is killed.
o Someone's head falls off.
o The President of Earth (or the United States) appears as a character in the film.
o The monster is actually a robot hamburger.
o The Main Guy and Girl 1 get busy.
o The heroes' ship crashes.
o The monster lays eggs.

Hah- too funny!

i will be discussing this with ny wife.... :D

Holy shit. This made my day.

The "Whole Beer" situations are hysterical.

geez, better get a bigger crate of beer :eek:

It will be a SciFi Channel movie - lame effects, a forulaic plot and hopefully a strong sense of B-Movie fun to it.

c'mon, They really are NOT that bad.....or maybe I just have very low standards:D

I've been meaning to say something to you about that:D

i am already cringing at the thought of rod making a film lol;) (that was a joke rod i'll see if i have the time to watch it)