Bye, Mystery Man

People on the Internet don't die. WTF?

Mystery Man, you can't not be here. I mean, you had such a young energy. Always giggling. Wearing those shiny shoes. I really liked your shoes.

We're mourning a man we don't really know, but we know him. He was the first high profile blogger to say, no, I did not enjoy BALLS OUT and I do not think it's clever. He was the first to bring us a play-by-play of the difference between Indiana Jones drafts and what could have been with The Crystal Skull. He knew how to start a great discussion. And how many pro writers give notes on Triggerstreet? He's been working on a free screenwriting book so we can all have his advice out there where anyone can get it. He didn't need to do any of this - he did it because he likes to help. What more do you need to know about somebody?

It would be nice to think this is a hoax and whoever Mystery Man really was has just decided he's tired of his Internet persona, but the truth is that we all know he's not that kind of guy. He left emails unanswered and his book unpublished. He didn't say anything like a goodbye. This is the kind of guy who would have said goodbye if he could have.

I hope that when I'm a pro screenwriter I have the energy to give back the way he did. He was a cool dude with cool shoes, something we should all aspire to be.

A Conversation with Mystery Man: Part 2

Here's the next and final chapter of this year's blog talk.

I'm responding to Mystery Man's post where he discusses this year's highlights.

Highlights of the year, eh?

This year I felt calm. My personal life has been a big old mess for some time, but I finally figured out this zen existence around June. So now I've been able to focus on writing instead of figuring out who the hell I am as a person. So yeah, this year was good for me. As a result I finally wrote a script I feel is worthy. It needs a bit more work, but it's got the goods.

Obviously In Bruges was a highlight for me, and I've mentioned about thirty thousand times how much I enjoyed reading Tonight, He Comes. Those were the two film experiences that genuinely blew my mind this year.

I also spent a good portion of the year putting together my own personal film school type dealy. I bought a couple of books on film history and went through the movies mentioned in the books so I could learn as much as possible. First, I read Action Speaks Louder and watched a bunch of old action films. Then I read Dark City and accompanied it up with a series of noir films. I learned a ton from doing that, so now I'm trying to figure out which genre to go after next.

I still haven't read that Darabont script, although I have it along with about 300 other scripts on my hard drive, and I'm reading Inglorious Basterds right now. I really need to read that Darabont script because that episode of South Park where Indy kept getting raped? Yeah I could relate to that episode. I need to go read that script so I don't feel so hopeless about the whole thing. It's kind of like after I saw The Highlander 2. It hurts so much. So very, very much.

This year I read a lot of spec scripts. I love having scripts available. Any time I watch something and say to myself how did they write that up? I go to my computer and find the script and there it is. So there's something new. This time last year I didn't have nearly this many scripts available to me. My favorites were The Wackness and Burn After Reading, which I find especially interesting since I felt like No Country for Old Men was not a terribly good script. The Coens like to keep you on your toes.

This year I also nursed one hell of a zombie jones. Know what? I don't think there's a book on zombie movies. Somebody should write that.

So to sum up this year: Zen, Zombies, In Bruges, lots of screenplay PDFs.

See you next year!

And good luck with your short thing. I thought Paris, Je T'aime was terrific so I'm all in favor of more of that.