The RDJ Project

Day 422

2011-05-04T09:54:00.000-07:00

HUGE UPDATE! So the original script that I started working on about 5 years ago has suddenly turned up. Well, the script and the manuscript. Woot! So I'll probably be able to get the book finished. At least I hope I will. We'll see how that goes. The script is only 8 pages so I doubt that'll be finished any time soon. BUT, at least I got the files back and can work on them now. Woot!

Day 392

2011-04-04T17:42:00.000-07:00

Just stopping in to say Happy Birthday to the wonderful Robert Downey Jr who is 46 today.

Day 360

2011-03-03T17:13:00.000-08:00

In five more days it will be one year since we started this whole thing and we're still nowhere near actually having a viable script. It's kind of strange, really. I thought by now we'd have at least two scripts completed but that hasn't happened at all.

Of course I've noticed that there are really only three people that read this thing, including myself. That's not much in the way of being a confidence builder. Still doesn't change the fact that I am going to keep trying to do something with one of these ideas I have in my head.

They're not all going to star the wonderful RDJ. I mean, that's the original idea. Writing a script for Robert to be the lead actor. Maybe even a script that will get him a much deserved and way past due Oscar. But that doesn't mean that every script has to be for him. As amazing as Robert Downey Jr is, he's not right for every single part that gets put in front of him. But then again, that's what his production company is for, right? Maybe he won't star in it but he could produce or direct it. That would still be pretty awesome.

Either way we're going to keep working and hopefully by the time this blog hits its second anniversary we'll have something that we can do something with.

We'll just have to wait and see.

Day 297

2010-12-29T16:17:00.000-08:00

I had to go through and change some of the days because I was a little off on the numbers, but I managed to get it all worked out. Thank you to timeanddate.com for the help with that. So that's all worked out.

I keep coming up with all kinds of ideas, some usable, some not. I don't want to redo anything that might already exist and claim it as my own. That would suck. So I'm trying to come up with some original stuff. Cliches are okay because they're not stealing ideas, they're stuff that happens in every romcom or romdram or dramedy or whatever combination you want to use.

So there's a lot of work that needs to be done. We're nowhere near finished on any of the scripts and considering that we were planning on being completely done with all of it by the end of June, it's safe to say we're WAY behind schedule.

All we can do is keep working and hope that we can come up with something that someone would be willing to buy and make into a movie. And that we have the money to copyright it before sending it to studios.

We'll have to just wait and see.

Day 262

2010-11-24T23:36:00.001-08:00

I know I said I was going to work on NaNoWriMo but that fell through rather quickly and to be quite honest, I'm not at all surprised. I got kind of bored with the story that I was working on. Oh well.

The good news is that I came up with an idea for the beginning of a random romcom that I think Cally and I can work on together and really turn into something awesome. We'll just have to wait and see about that.

The thing that's really getting to me is that the best way to write a script that is likely to sell is to do something schmoopy and cliche and I really hate to do that, but you gotta go with what sells in Hollywood.

I mean, of all the romcoms I've seen Katherine Heigl in, there's only one in which she doesn't despise the guy in the beginning of the movie only to end up falling in love with him by the end. It's cliche and over done and ridiculous. I mean, hell. Even George Lucas did it. But, you gotta go with what sells. Hopefully we can find a schmoopy cliche story that I don't feel like a total hooker for writing.

Only time will tell. :-)

Day 255

2010-11-17T00:19:00.001-08:00

While there hasn't been much progress on the scripts, I have been getting the writing bug lately, so that's a good sign. Gotta take what you can get, right? The ideas I'm getting are rather cliche and not really anything that I can use for a script that may or may not be starring the wonderful Robert Downey Jr, but at least I've gotten the interest in writing again.

So hopefully something will come along that will get me back into the ideas that we originally tried to go with. We can only wait and see.

Until then, totally random and unrelated, MATT SMITH IS TOTALLY ADORABLE!

And now I say goodnight.

Day 244

2010-11-06T22:43:00.001-07:00

Still absolutely no significant contributions to the scripts. I think it’s safe to say that it’s going to be a while before anything happens with them. Especially since work is kind of stressing me out and I am getting rare moments of creativity. There’s also the fact that I’m not very good at writing scripts. I’m much better at writing stories. Maybe I should try doing that and see if it can be translated into a script. I don’t know.

I signed up to do NaNoWriMo this year but I’ve already managed to fail at that, even with just editing and adding to an existing story that I had written a few years ago. I only needed to added about 15,000 words to an existing story and I can’t seem to get that done because inspiration has left me.

I really need to win the lottery because then I can devote my time to writing instead of working and trying to make enough money to get my bills paid. Unfortunately that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen any time soon.

As the great, and fictional, Professor Charles Eppes once said, if you buy 20 lottery tickets a week then you’ll actually hit the jackpot once every 40,000 years. And, of course, with my luck that jackpot winning hit would occur after my death.

I’m at a catch 22. I need to write the script so that I can sell it and get money so I don’t have to work but I need money so I can spend my time writing the script instead of working. It all comes down to the fact that I don’t have enough money to make lots of money.

That really sucks.

Day 213

2010-10-06T23:12:00.001-07:00

So I’ve decided to go back to working on the rom/com and see what I can come up with. I think I have a good idea of what I want to do but I’m not 100% certain. I know that I can work with something, though. I’ve already gotten a little bit started and hopefully I can go from there.

My fingers are seriously itching to write something and it’s frustrating me that my brain is not cooperating with them. I’ve been trying to come up with an idea for a book because I can write a lot more that way then I can while working on a screenplay but you have to go with the muses.

I seriously think my muses hate me right now because they are not giving me what I need. Ugh. Hopefully things will work out better soon. Here we were hoping to be completely done with one script by now and we haven’t even been able to come up with a whole one. Everything changed from my original idea and now I can’t get it working at all. I can’t even get it back into book form. I hate that I lost the transcript that I had originally. It’d be really nice if NaNoWriMo would keep track of those things for you but they only keep track of them for one month and then as soon as it’s over, the stuff is gone. Other wise I would have a copy of the original book that I started writing.

It’s all just really frustrating is what it comes down to. I hate it when I write and write and write and come up with like 20,000 words worth of material and then it all just disappears in the process of changing computers.

And once again I have gotten away from the original topic of this blog. The whole point of this is to write about the process of writing a script for Robert Downey Jr and all I’ve managed to do is complain about things that have nothing to do with that. I would like to say that it will never happen again but that, unfortunately, is something that I just can not promise. A lot of the stuff going on in my head that has nothing to do with Robert is part of the problem in getting the script out in the first place.

All I can do is keep trying and hope that whatever I end up with isn’t complete and utter shit. The finish product is supposed to be something that people actually want to make into a movie and I’m really afraid that it’s going to have to be schmoopy and cliché in order for that to happen. Maybe sending it to Robert would be a good idea because he’d be happy to produce/direct/star in a movie that isn’t completely cliché and schmoopy. Gotta have a finished product before I can send it to him, though. So I just have to keep working and see what happens.

Man this is a long one. I wasn’t expecting to have this much to say but apparently I do. And now that it’s a little after 1am here in the lovely state of Texas, I need to get some sleep before I have to deal with the manger that I like the least.

Day 209 part 2

2010-10-02T00:29:00.001-07:00

Alright, so I found out that this thing really does work pretty well. It’s a lot easier to edit the post before I make it in the Live Writer. I do end up having to visit the website to publish the post but everything can be done in Windows Live Writer except for publishing so I truly believe that I will be using this from now on.

Day 209

2010-10-02T00:20:00.001-07:00

This is really just a test to see if this thing works. There’s nothing new going on with any of the scripts. My brain is completely fried and I think that’s because of the fact that my hours have been cut to the point that I can’t even make my car payment in one paycheck like I used to be able to. Two weeks worth of pay isn’t adding up to $330. Pathetic, right? Hopefully I’ll be able to pick up more hours soon. Or at least get a second job. We’ll see what happens with that.

But this isn’t supposed to be about my personal life, this is supposed to be about the progress of writing the scripts for Robert to either star in or produce. Or maybe direct. Hopefully one of them.

I am giving a test to this thing called Windows Live Writer. Trying to decide if this is better than just going to the website and posting the entries directly through there. Let’s see how that goes.

I’m really hoping that I can come up with something soon regarding this script. Or these scripts I should say. I’m trying really hard to write something that might actually get bought. I still want to go with my remake of Philadelphia Story but I don’t know what all is involved in copyrighting something like that. I probably have to pay a fee to the people that wrote the original story. I don’t know for sure. I do know that I want to come up with something really original and that’s been hard to do. I’m editing the first script back to my original idea and so far I’ve managed to cut out half the pages. It’s not turning out to be as awesome as I thought it would be. And I’m still really stuck on the ending.

I’m not very good at writing scripts. I’m better at writing stories. Maybe I should just sit down and start writing a story and then get someone to turn it into a script later. Maybe get someone that has experience in script writing to do that for me. I would have final say on the screenplay, of course, but that would be a lot easier for me than trying to write it in script form. My brain doesn’t work in stage direction and so forth. All I can do is see what I can come up with and go from there.

I still completely plan on writing a book titled My Crazy Neighbors Have A Psychic Rooster. One of these days I’ll go about explaining what that means exactly. I think with a title like that it’s bound to sell, right?

Well, now it’s after 2am and I have been up for about 17 hours after only about 4 hours of sleep. I should have been in bed a long time ago and I have been on the verge of crash for the last several hours, but I had TV shows to catch up on. Sleep is imminent however.

Day 176

2010-08-30T14:53:00.000-07:00

So we're still kind of stuck on the scripts and I think it's because there's a general sense of ucky going on between both of us. I'm going to have to find a second job to get my bills paid and that's going to eat up even more of the little time I have at the moment to be creative. I have a couple of ideas, though. Something I might just run with. Although it's more of a book idea than a script idea, but books can be turned into scripts, right?

Hopefully one of these projects will take off. Only time will tell.

Day 154

2010-08-08T22:19:00.000-07:00

It really discourages me when I see stuff like the guy that got the book deal and TV show deal for Shit My Dad Says. Especially since it started as a twitter account and it's not even anything HE came up with. It's his dad doing all the work but HE'S making money off of it. What the hell? Why can't that ever happen to me?

Anyway. This post is about the scripts. It really is. There's still no progress and any future progress is going to be VERY slow because my parents are being douchebags and not handling their own finances which is requiring me to get a second job.

It'd be great if we could get one script finished and get it sold because then maybe I would be able to afford to get away from all of this bullshit. But, as I said I would say many times, we'll just have to wait and see.

Day 151

2010-08-05T17:55:00.000-07:00

Still no progress on the scripts. Cally and I both seem to be stuck. I'd really like to get these done before next year because I totally plan on going to Comic Con next year and it would be awesome if I could find some way to get the script or scripts to Robert.

And now I've been distracted by a fresh out of the oven chocolate chip cookie so I'm going to go enjoy that.

Day 129

2010-07-14T00:15:00.000-07:00

As you can probably guess we've kind of stalled out on all of the scripts. Everything that's been going on lately has given us very little time, or creativity, to work on anything. We're trying, though. That's for sure. Hopefully we're going to have something up and ready to go soon. Only time will tell.

Day 85

2010-05-31T16:40:00.000-07:00

So we got the script started. That's good. I wrote a little bit of it. Maybe 2 pages. But I think it's good so far. I've been watching Soapdish the last couple of days. Working on the 4th time watching it to be honest. I forgot how great this movie really is. It's great in that horrible soap opera way. And Mr Robert Downey Jr is so awesome and hilarious in this movie. The cast is fantastic. And getting to see a lot of quirky, adorable Robert inspired the bit of script that I did write. :-)

Day 79

2010-05-25T00:43:00.001-07:00

So we're getting the first Rom/Com script under way. We gotta get a time line and figure out what can be played out and what needs to be glanced over but I think it'll be good. And once we get this one figured out and fine tuned, then we can start on the next one.

There are some things that we have to do a "see what's available" before we can decide on what it should be. Which songs we can use in the movie, whether or not we can get hold of a certain car, that kind of thing. I think it'll work out, though. Even if we can't get the car we want, we can work with whatever we can get.

We're also planning on Indio playing a younger version of the character meant for Robert. And a little joke about the fact that Indio is so much taller than Robert. It should be funny. At least to us it is.

Day 76 Part 2

2010-05-22T20:17:00.000-07:00

So we've decided we're going to end up with three Rom/Com scripts. One is going to be a modernization of the movie A Philadelphia Story. I have to rewatch it and Cally's never seen it so that one's going to have to sit on the back burner for the time being. That's a movie that I would really like to modernize though. Although I doubt there will ever be a cast as brilliant as Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant and James Stewart. I love that movie, really.

I'm not sure if the Philadelphia Story modernization is going to be for Robert but I want to do it anyway. We've got two other Rom/Com ideas for Mr Downey Jr. I think they'll be good.

Day 76

2010-05-22T08:33:00.000-07:00

So we've decided to put "Side Effect" on the back burner for now. I need to do some reworking of it and so forth. The main problem is that I'm having desk top issues and my desk top is where the main copy of "Side Effect" is being kept, but that was not the deciding factor in putting it on the back burner. We're both still kind of stuck on where it needs to go next. So we're going to be working on a romantic comedy next. Or at least an attempt at one. I think I can be pretty funny at times but I don't know if what I think is funny would be funny to everybody. We'll just have to see what comes of it.

Day 65

2010-05-11T09:10:00.000-07:00

Work is sucking out my soul again. That's all for now.

Day 52

2010-04-28T22:08:00.000-07:00

So today I went to the screening of an Independent film and Adam Busch and Amber Benson were there. You may know them as Warren and Tara from Buffy the Vampire Slayer the TV series. I asked them if they would read a script that was sent to them and maybe help the person get it made. The answer was that they love to read scripts but the money isn't really out there. That's where I'm going with this. So, my wonderful Robert Downey Jr project could be edited and critiqued by none other than Adam Busch and Amber Benson. That's kind of epic if you ask me.

Day 48

2010-04-24T07:54:00.000-07:00

Wow, almost three weeks since the last time I updated. That's not awesome at all. We've kind of been dealing with the same snag on the script but I think we figured it out. Basically, we couldn't agree on how to write a certain character. We both made this person far more important than they actually are. A whole character as a plot device. I hate doing it. I hate it when other people do it. "The only reason that person is there is so this can happen." It's frustrating. But, it's absolutely necessary. So, now that we know what the snag is, maybe we can move on from there.

I've also been given another script idea for a romantic comedy, and that's actually the fault of Mrs Downey herself, or Little D as she is sometimes called. It's kind of cute because she's actually shorter than Robert. And he's kind of short for a guy.

Day 28

2010-04-04T00:20:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE WONDERFUL ROBERT DOWNEY JR! 45 and still as awesome as ever.

The project is going slow still. Gotta work out some kinks but it's all good. Trying to come up with a general plot outline but it's not going so well. We've got time to work things out though. :-)

Day 24

2010-03-31T01:00:00.000-07:00

We're still very stuck on the script. I can't sleep right now. It's weird. There's a very important scene that we just can't get to work properly and it doesn't feel right even having it in there. How can it not feel right having an important scene in there? This is kind of frustrating.

Thank you Papa John's (previous employer) for sucking out my soul and taking most of my creativity with it. YOU SUCK!

It's taken me a couple of years just to get the writing glimmer back because of the nonsense I had to deal with working for that company but that is not why you're reading this blog so let's move on. The script is stalled at the moment so we're obviously behind schedule. And I'm pretty sure it's my fault because I can't figure out exactly what I want to do with this.

Day 17.

2010-03-24T02:04:00.003-07:00

We've hit a bit of a snag. We're stuck on one of the scenes. I'm sure we'll work it out though.

DAY 15

2010-03-22T07:57:00.000-07:00

We've hit a little bit of a snag again but I think we'll get through it. One of the scenes is causing us some problems with how to go about it exactly. I'm betting once the awesomeness that is Robert Downey Jr gets a hold of this scene he'll have some genius ideas that'll make it one of the best scenes of the movie but right now it's just kind of bleh and we're both too tired to figure out what to do.

Oh if I only didn't have to work. And the way my schedule at work is going I might have to get a second job which will very much hinder my ability to write the script, but I'm thinking things will work themselves out.

We'll get this scene sorted out and everything will fall into place. It feels like we've written HOURS of script and it'll probably only come out to about 40 minutes if we're lucky right now. We'll have to see how things go. And even if Robert isn't in the movie, just getting it made would be fantastic.