'Plaint of the Playwright

'Plaint of the Playwright

[ Tuesday, March 24, 2009 ]

Hi, I'm Buckwheat. Uh-member me?

Yeah, it's kind of been a while since I updated this--mother of GOD! TWO YEARS?!?!

Seriously?!?

So, yeah, it's time to start again, seeing as I've got a TON of stuff going on.

Since I posted last, I've made a few short films as well as trailers for other theatre companies, had a short play produced in Chicago, been in three more episodes of Chad Vader (two of which I co-wrote), was in the best play I've ever been in, hosted the Blitz Plays, had a novel written about one of my characters, and now, I'm self-publishing Knock Knock. After Emily Mills self-published The Fix-Up, I just figured it was incredibly stupid to have written three novels and not to do anything with them. So, here it is:



It's up for sale. Right damn now.

And, yes, I'll be doing the others, too.

Also, I may put up the scripts of some of my shows, too. Quite a few students actors who have found my monologues in the Smith And Kraus monologue books have been sending me emails, looking for more of my work, so I figured I should probably give them something to find.

But back to Emily Mills for a second.

"The Fix-Up" is the prequel to a series of movies I made with Antlion Films, about a drug dealer named Chapel.
Chapel, who was more or less supposed to be prison-bound at the end of the first one, just kept a-comin' back, and we just finished the third one.

Here they all are, for your convenience:

"Complicated," the first one, was my first attempt to do a 48-hour films (to date, all of the Chapels have been 48-hour films). And, yeah, it was as complicated as the title implies.

Best bit: The encyclopedia.




Then came "Distracted." (also called "Distraction." When I cleaned it up a bit, I changed the title to fit the last one.)

"Distracted" came about when Sam Lawson and Josh Klessig of RASHfilms invited Emily and I to join them on a trip to Louisville, Kentucky for the Kino Louisville Kabaret.

I figured, we got Emily, we got a hotel room, why not do a story that brings back Chapel, with her on the run?

We got Whitney Bishop, director of Kino Louisville to be in it, who was very cool.

Best bit: When Chapel first enters the house.




And now, here's "Extremed," which I think of as the "Goldfinger" of the group. Like, the first James Bond movies were good, but it was "Goldfinger" that defined the formula and the series became what it was to become.

This one is more cold-blooded, mean-spirited, and, well, funnier than the others. I'm very proud of this one.

Best bit: Everything after Kelly Maxwell yells "Shut. The fuck. UP!!!"




There's talk of doing others (there's always been talk of doing others, but this one showed us all what we could accomplish if we just sat down and did it)...and Will Gartside (director of "MASSACRE (the musical)") and I are planning...something for when we have a budget. Shhh.

Oh, and speaking of Will, we just finished principal photography for "High School Sweethearts."

This isn't a comedy like "MASSACRE" was--the story (written by Will with some additional material by myself) starts out as a high school love story, and then it...really isn't...and then it REALLY isn't...and then...well, let's just say it contains possibly the most horrifying thing I've ever been a part of filming. And keep in mind who's telling you that.

What you might not know, is that "High School Sweethearts" is the first half of a longer film, called "Wasted Youth."



And yup, that's right, the second half is written and directed by me, and it's called "The Girls."
Here's the teaser trailer for that one:




"The Girls," which we're just doing preproduction on now, is a revenge drama--and yes, it's a rewritten version of my long dreamt-of, never-realized series "Death And The City."

Recently, Will and I did an interview on the Film101 podcast where we explain how this happened. Listen here.

Oh, and one last thing: I'm working on a comic book adaption of "Wasted Youth." But more on that as it happens...



posted by Rob on 9:36 PM | link
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