11/17/22
Newletter161
The Crack of Dawn
In 1999 (man, did we party) I had a very nice agent who, like the seven agents before him, never got me a job. But at least this guy was nice, if ineffectual. I had recently written a script entitled, Devil Dogs: The Battle of Belleau Wood, about the first battle the Americans fought in WWI, which all took place in a mile-square hunting preserve. It was an incredibly important battle to the U.S. Marine Corps, and I just hoped that I had written accurately enough so that marines wouldn’t scorn me.
So, my nice agent called me and said that he represented a director named Jonathan Mostow, who had just moved up to A-pictures (he would hit the apex of his career three years later with Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines), and he was looking for a WWI script. What a wonderful coincidence. Then the agent added, “And it’s got dogfights in it, right?” He meant airplane battles, but he proved by asking the question that he hadn’t read my script. I said, “No, there are no dogfights. It all takes place in a hunting preserve.” There was a lengthy silence. I added, “But it’s a really good WWI script, why don’t you get him to read it.” The agent said, “But you could add dogfights into it.” I said, “No, I can’t. It’s an extremely important battle, particularly to the Marine Corps, and I can’t change it.” He didn’t understand, “Why not?” I said, “Because it’s a true story.” He said, “So what? Jonathan has a very good chance of getting a war picture made with an A-budget and a name cast. Just add some dogfights.” I said, “Why does it have to have dogfights?” “That’s what Jonathan wants, so that’s what it has to have. Will you add them in?” I said, “Sorry, I can’t do it. I’d be more than happy to write him a dogfight script.” The agent said, “There isn’t time, I need it now.” I said, “Oh well.” The agent absolutely couldn’t understand what I was talking about and was severely disappointed in me.
Jonathan Mostow did in fact make a war film that year, U-571 (2000). He was so clearly insistent that it be a WWI dogfight movie, that my agent wouldn’t even give him my script. Well, U-571 is not in WWI, it’s in WWII; and it’s not in airplanes, it’s in a submarine. Obviously, whatever Jonathan wanted, he didn’t get. It does have a terrific cast – Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel, Jon Bon Jovi, and David Keith, who is particularly good. It’s a perfectly OK, severely cliched, WWII submarine movie – but my agent, who was also the hot director’s agent, wouldn’t even give him my script to read, which he might possibly have liked. The agent might have known that had he actually read my script, but he hadn’t. And a much better, more interesting movie might have been made, but it wasn’t. And that’s how it goes. As they say in Billy Wilder’s great movie, The Apartment (1960), “That’s how it crumbles, cookie-wise.”
Have a lovely day.
The Crack of Dawn
Well, thanks, I really would have liked to make that movie. Of course I saw "1917," it used the "Running Time" schtick of real time and all-in-one shot. In all humbleness -- bullshit -- "1917" got it totally wrong. Since they didn't take the time to get me to give a shit about the kid, and I can't stand that dopey, sour-faced actor, and I didn't care where he was going, and it went on WAY too long, I hated it. It was really miserable.
Not to rub salt in old wounds, but I read the Devil Dogs script that you posted on your site. I would have absolutely paid cash money to see a film made out of it, and I respect the research and storytelling skill that went into the writing. It’s a damn shame that the capriciousness of someone fixated on dog fights stymied the project. Speaking of WWI movies, have you seen “1917”?