Screenplays

Last night I was watching The Simpsons Movie, directed by David Silverman, and based on the hugely popular TV show. In the movie Homer Simpson (voiced by Dan Castellaneta) gets a new pet pig, and accidentally causes an environmental disaster (by dumping a silo full of pig crap into the town's already polluted lake) which threatens to destroy the town of Springfield. On it's relelase the film was criticised for basically being an extended episode of the series, which it does feel like, but it works well, and most importantly it is very funny.

I also watched Omen IV: The Awakening, a 1991 TV movie directed by Jorge Montesi and Dominique Othenin-Girard. The film revolves around a young couple who adopt a baby girl. As the husband pursues his political ambitions, his wife becomes increasingly concerned about the strange and violent events that seem to surround the child as she gets older. Basically it's a virtual re-make of the original Omen except with a girl. Also, because it was made for television, there are very few real scares. A ludicrous highlight comes when the private detective hired to track down the girl's real parents is pursued down an alley by a choir of demons (who basically look like zombies from a heavy metal video) who scare him by singing the Omen theme tune to him.

I went to my parent's house today for lunch. The latest issue of Sight and Sound had arrived during the week and so had a selection of five free movie screenplays that my mum had ordered for me from The Times. The scripts were: The Queen by Peter Morgan, Billy Elliot by Lee Hall, Shakespeare in Love by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, Trainspotting by John Hodge and The Hours by David Hare. So that was really good!