This Savage Art

Last night I went to a new screenplay reading series in Manhattan called Raw Word Readings. It was at the JCC on Amsterdam and 76th Street and it featured a 10 -12 page reading with actors from three works-in-progress.

It seemed like the theme of the night was cars due to the fact that all three screenplays had scenes that took place in some vehicle. The first was from an up and comer Paul Travers’ Inside Out. It was a horror genre script in the same vein as, say, Cabin Fever (horror is big if you didn’t get that memo) but reminded me more of Wrong Turn, a mediocre horror film that actually did do some damage to me at 3:00 am while suffering from insomnia. Horror is a genre that gets little critical respect but I know it was one that made an impression on me at a young age. Travers made the reading fun with his manic Q&A afterwards.

Next one up was from Suzanne Weinert, a screenwriter who actually started out in development for Julia Roberts and Ron Howard. Ex-terminators is about three women who are thrown into a Rage Therapy Group and decide to use their anger to their advantage. It takes the Usual Suspects premise from a female POV and runs with it. The film from the screenplay is set to go into production in May 2007 in Austin Texas.

Mary Harron and her co-writer/husband John C. Walsh brought in an interesting pilot they are trying to sell to the cable networks, HBO seems to be in the crosshairs. Best American revolves around a Muslim limo driver as he balances family and job while living in Brooklyn. The writing stemmed from the relationship Harron and Walsh have with a neighboring family in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn. The writing was witty and funny, living in the everyday of this family and its struggles. Harron noted that HBO passed on it, thinking that maybe it’s not violent enough. HBO does have its quota ya know.

I would suggest anyone looking to get some exposure for their writing to check out the website and submit a sample. The series is sponsored by the WGA East and the IFP.