Talkin' Movies

Awhile back James and I were introduced to a local movie producer through James' uncle. After we first met, we arranged a meeting with her because we thought we had some good ideas for an as-yet-unwritten movie her studio plans to make.

The meeting was in Ximending, which is like the Times Square of Taipei. I arrived thirty minutes early, so I found a bench and stared at all the movie billboards - and a six-story add for Coldstone's - while my stomach juices marinated.

James showed up, and shortly thereafter the producer. The first thing she mentioned was she'd just returned from something called "Khan."


Visions of Star Trek whirled through my head.

Thankfully, James caught on faster and asked if she had any favorite movies, what she'd seen, etc. etc. Then I realized they were talking about that one sorta kinda really important French film festival - the one I like to call "CANES."

We ate lunch in a Japanese pork chop shop, and after some small talk James and I launched into our pitch. After which the producer gently told us the movie had been shelved for the moment and certain decisions about location had already been made that rendered our pitch unfeasible. Uhhhhhh.

Then she asked if we wanted to get coffee.

"Do you want to go to Starbucks or I know this older place?" she asked.

We picked the older place. When the coffee arrived, the producer told us that this was the shop all the directors used to hang out at back when there were more movie theaters in Ximending.

They'd come to the coffee shop to watch the lines form outside the theaters - a sort of early indicator how there movie was going to fare, she said. Supposedly Ang Lee used to hang out there. As an added bonus, I drank the most delicious latte I've had in about 9 months. A lot of places you go here the coffee is all wrong.

But I digress: Next the producer told us about a couple projects her studio is currently working on. She said they're looking for writers to develop one of the ideas further and asked if we'd be interested in taking a crack at it.

So that's what we'll be working on for the next couple weeks. Of course, it's all very tenuous and intangible right now. Nevertheless I'm going to take it as license to toss around annoying terms like "development meeting" and "treatment," even if they only apply to activities taking place between James and I in our living room.

Move over Joe Eszterhas, here we come!