Hacks Anyway

Welcome to The Demise of Film, a website in which a washed up filmmaker vents about problems plaguing cinemas near you.

The Writer's Strike. Does anyone care about it? Look, I cared back in 2007 when the writer's strike affected my boy Pushing Daisies, but do you know what? Even when that strike ended, I didn't get more Pushing Daisies. Look, I know I'm a callous asshole, but I really couldn't care less about a bunch of hack writers not getting what they believe they deserve.

Whilst I disagree with his politics, I think Dalton Trumbo was a fantastic writer. I've seen his films and even read his book Johnny Got His Gun. If these people wrote like Dalton Trumbo, maybe I would concede that they need to be paid more. However, they write garbage that is littered with plot holes and is less well constructed than my popsicle stick skyscraper. I don't think I'm a fantastic writer, but I can at least say that I write things because I enjoy telling a story. I don't write because I want to be a famous writer.

Even if they were only writing to make ends meet, do you know what? L. Ron Hubbard could tell a better story than half the "writers" in Hollywood. These people don't seem to care about telling a good story and are more concerned with pushing political ideology onto the masses. It sure doesn't appear to be working any more either.

I think writers should have to prove themselves as writers. I think they should have to cut their teeth writing for magazines and newspapers like Ellison, Wells, Burroughs, and Hubbard had to do. They should have to prove they are decent writers. Those guys didn't die rich (well Hubbard did but for unrelated reasons), but they were gifted storytellers. I think that's what is missing from modern cinema.