A Starved Hollywood Decides to Pillage Film Classics

John Fusco, the screenwriter behind such immortal films as Young Guns, Young Guns II and Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron has been hired to write a remake of The Seven Samurai. There is no doubt in my mind that the man who gave us such profound dialogue as “P.S. I changed my mind. Kiss my ass.” and “You’re ambitious, Earl, but you’d be better off selling lady’s undergarments in Hampstead” will apply his clear wit and perspicacity to improving upon* one of the great film classics. (Thanks, DT!)

* — Or perhaps we should replace those two words with the verb “reimagining,” a secret Hollywood buzz word that describes both devising a remake and creating an abomination.

The Bat Segundo Show #46

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Guests: Eric Reynolds, Mark Binelli, Matt Cheney, Jeremy Lassen, David Axe and George Scithers.

Condition of Mr. Segundo: Revealing himself to be a closet poet.

Subjects Discussed: Peanuts, Dennis the Menace, Popeye, Fascist Italy, eerie historical similarities, classic comedy teams, journalism vs. novel-writing, free lunches, on being frightened by Bat Segundo, zoot suits, how to crash parties, motivations behind 40 minute soliloquies, on being an embedded journalist, war fever, having a good time in Iraq, the origins of the second Weird Tales incarnation, H.P. Lovecraft, the current state of literary magazines, the influence of MFA workshops on speculative fiction, Strunk & White, on writing for money, and the benefits of writing groups.

Uwe Boll is a Disturbed Man

Ain’t It Cool News: “As a guest of Uwe Boll they will be given the chance to be an extra/stand-in in Postal and have the opportunity to put on boxing gloves and enter a BOXING RING to fight Uwe Boll. Each critic will have the opportunity to bring down Uwe in a 10-bout match.”

ALS0: Dinner with Uwe Boll. He couldn’t even get into film school, so he attended, in his words, “as a guest.” Part 2.

(via Defamer)

Roundtable Redux

For those who enjoyed the Black Swan Green roundtable with Megan and me, I’m pleased to report that there’s another roundtable discussion in the works for another very interesting author. This time, however, we’ve upped the ante and added three more to our roster. Here are the participants: Megan Sullivan, Scott Esposito, Gwenda Bond, Dan Wickett and me.

Expect more here in a few weeks, when I will reveal the name of the author and some of the discussion will begin.