go unions! choose unions! I'm just reacting to RR AND Miller being dissed.

How is the DG not a union?

I agree this rule sounds arbitrary, but I''m willing to believe there's a reason for it, even if it seems to be poorly-applied in this case.

Apparently pseuds are chosen on a case by case basis now, since some people broke Alan Smithee. This is why we can't have nice aliases anymore!

So how are you supposed to know if a director had his name taken off a movie now? I mean, I didn't know that about Supernova!

2. The director's guild, like, invented Alan Smithee, didn't they? You can't just lie and say it was Any Dumb Guy who directed your movie (Tony Kaye tried it, and they wouldn't let him); if you want your name off the movie it has to be Alan Smithee. Or had to be, because they retired the name, and I don't know what they're doing now.

Using the name Martin Brest?

So how are you supposed to know if a director had his name taken off a movie now? I mean, I didn't know that about Supernova!

Huh. And since one of the rules seems to be "you can't badmouth your own movie once your name's been removed from it", how are we eevr to know? It's not like it will be listed front and center in Entertainment Weekly.

I mean, I coulda told you Supernova needed an Alan Smithee-type credit, just from watching it while working on a sewing project and seeing Peter Facinelli grow fangs; but apparently I am not formally the arbiter of taste. Not that I am not bitter about that.

go unions! choose unions! I'm just reacting to RR AND Miller being dissed.

How is the DG not a union?

DG = union. That comment was just me not wanting to come off as a union basher.

On the Metro red line, on the way to New Carrollton, there is a mural painted on the side of a train-facing building. "Unions, the folks who brought you the weekend."

I just wonder about the legislation of creativity. Then again, if there weren't unions to look after the less-than-organized creative bunch, there would be no Actor's Home, or insurance or wage negotiations, etc.

My agita started with an admittedly irrational, "Hey, leave Robert Rodriguez alone or I'll have to kick you in the shins!" outburst.

Meaningless bureaucracy is not limited to the DGA - Terry Gilliam quit the Writers Guild after they gave Alex Cox and Todd Davies screenplay credit for Fear and Loathing. Gilliam and Grisoni tossed the original script after they were brought in, but the Writers Guild awarded Cox and Davies co-credit on the final film.

He may have joined back up, as he has a writing credit on Brothers Grimm. Of course it was not shot in America, so maybe not. They probably were offended when he burnt his membership card.

Rodriguez and Miller, not OK -- they've never teamed up before now, and Miller's never made a movie in his life.

So, how would you ever become a legitimate creative team, other than being born to the same parents? (Or married; maybe RR and Miller could get married?) If Miller gets a directing credit under his belt, would that make them eligible?

I'm really unhappy with the ending of The Manchurian Candidate. I was all applauding them smartening up the Janet Leigh character, but I guess that's where all the movie's smarts went. Also, the movie should have been called Big Heads. I really wanted to climb through time and back the focus off just a bit.

Under DGA guidelines, only one name can be listed under the Director banner.

That's fucking stupid.

I finally saw The Crow. And, surprisingly enough, it's something to crow about. Softly, at least. It's much more successful than Alex Proyas' next movie, Dark City. Because unlike that movie, it doesn't have a lot of pretensions of being deep and meaningful. Well, besides the "Love conquers all" voiceovers, which are fairly harmless. Basically, it's a revenge pic in which the instrument of vengeance is already dead, so he has nothing to lose. After the first twenty minutes or so, the movie really picks up and it wasn't until the point of Oh Wait I Need a Climax that I realized what a great job Proyas had done: he had sustained almost the entire movie with no narrative tension whatsoever. Eric is invulnerable; he dispatches his foes with relative ease. Yet, it's compelling, and there are some wonderful shots, especially the slow burn of gasoline as it forms the shape of the crow.

Of course, it's not perfect. People accept that this guy's back from the dead way too easily, and all Eric's flashbacks are generic They Were So Happy Together scenes. And while it's probably best they don't try to explain the mythology, a teensy bit more might have been nice. But all in all, it's nicely done, and it annoys me that there are so many rehash "sequels," the latest one starring David Boreanaz (and for some reason, ditching the Crow name).