Annie Marie Burdeos's Lounge Discussions

My husband and I listened to that audiobook on a road trip last year, Suzanne Bronson! It made us laugh a lot. We really enjoyed it!

Last book I read was The Book of Elsewhere a one off by China Mieville who played in the sandbox of Keanu Reeves' imagination. The novel crosses multiple genres among them science fiction, military thriller, fantasical elements, differing points of view, existentialism . I'd describe it as being absurdist science fiction. This was my first exposure to Mieville's fiction and while his prose can be dense, it can serve as an introduction to his other tales . He is not to everyone's liking.

While Mieville physically put pen to paper, Reeves created the character B, an 80, 000 year old warrior who questions what it means to die. B is immortal who lives a blood soaked existence.

But Reeves has larger concerns in mind and strives to answer the questions Who are we? Why are we here? Does this Life have meaning? And as Queen so eloquently sang Who Wants To Live Forever? And while most of us would answer a resounding yes! Would we really? And how you respond says more about you than the ultraviolent B. (The violence did not bother me but for some it can be upsetting)

That sounds awesome, Annie Marie Burdeos! I've never read China Mieville's work before. I'll have to check it out!

Will be adding as well Annie :) I'm intrigued!

Screenplays! Just read Godzilla (2014), so now:

- Godzilla (1998)

- Nobody (2021)

- Hitman (2007)

- Deadpool (2016)

Bang-bang-boom. Going through an action-phase but oddly enough I'm currently writing a drama. And when I was wrtiting action last year, I read "When Harry Met Sally" yet I found that WHMS's pacing informed by action script.

Mike Childress To be fair, action is the most translatable genre in the world. And the first on was, by far, the best one IMO.

Annie Marie Burdeos It always struck me as odd that people within the industry always say that nobody knows what the consumer wants, but when someone tries to pitch them a project they are instantaneously tuned in to the minds of every consumer in the world.

Jason Mirch That's understandable. Everyone's jockeying for position while trying not to lose their jobs in the process. But I would think that, in an effort to find new blood, if an executive has 4-5 chances to get a hit, maybe they would save that last chance for a wild card pick. Just a thought.

Mike Childress Yeah, I think the last time I saw a movie in theaters was Joker. I kind of wish I would've seen Dune in theaters, but I brushed it off as another reboot at the time.

Tom Lapke Yeah, the original Crow was amazing in every way. The cinematography, the story, the acting. The soundtrack will never be beat, and some of the lines are absolute diamonds.

"'God' is the word for 'mother' on the lips of all children."

"Is that gas I smell?"

"I say I'm dead, and I move."

Perfection. I just wish Brandon Lee would've survived it.

Ok, so a director's statement is kinda like a writer's statement, Laura Ackermann. Thanks for explaining.

Submitting to managers. Yes, that is what I plan, if I fail to find a buyer myself. I mean, most production companies refuse to read screenplay from us who have no literary agent.

Thanks Laura, appreciate it.

Thank you so much for your time Laura

Laura Ackermann thank you Laura for taking the time to support the Stage32 community. I have a couple of questions, if I may.

1) When should a filmmaker/production company employ the services of a Publicist; in the development phase or should they wait till pre-production?

2) When thinking of the film ‘The Zone of Interest’, they had a specialty distribution programme for the Education Institutions - Universities - around North America. What should the aforementioned production company be expecting from the Publicist, by way of packaging and presenting the film to those institutions, because this is not for the ‘normal’ cinema goer?