They say there are only three basic stories that can ever be told: Man (or Woman) vs. Man (or Woman), Man (or Woman) vs. Environment, and Man (or Woman) vs. Himself. Every story ever told falls under one of these three basic categories.

This was a post from the message board over at my home-site, ViewAskew.com…

That’s right, the “Amber Sunrise” premier is finally here!!!
You can see all kinds of crazy shit and laugh your ass off
as well if you come out and see this flick.
It’s fucking great, I’m telling you.

I am here to say to one and all that frequent these boards, send me an email and receive a free admission to my premier
of “Amber Sunrise” (check IMDB) on Saturday July 8th, 10am and 11pm, at Temeku Cinemas, 26463 Ynez Road in Temecula, Ca. 92591 (you may have to mapquest that).

If you live in Southern California, I strongly suggest and plead with you to make the trek out to Temecula (an hour north of San Diego and 2 hours out of L.A.) and check out my film.

Shit, I’ll even throw in free v.i.p. passes to the official after party, a wine and cheese (and beer) reception at 12 noon. email me at:

joevfilms@hotmail.com

and provide me with your name and those of any guests you plan to bring and your name will be placed on the exclusive V.I.P. list. Thanks for the support in advance.

p.s. I’d go see your shitty movie, and applaud my fucking ass off.

I peeped the YouTube trailer for the flick and one thought ran through my head…

“Wow… There goes ‘Name’, I guess.”

“Name” was a film that long-time View Askew board folks would remember as the flick that I was talking about making after “Chasing Amy”, circa ’97. And since this “Amber” picture shares some big similarities with what “Name” was gonna be, I figured my chances of ever making the flick were suddenly null and void. So I wrote a five paragraph synopsis of what the flick was gonna be to share with the folks at the ViewAskew.com board, and then, before hitting “submit”… I opted to erase it instead. I may not ever make the flick now, but it’d make a great comic book story, if I ever get around to it. So I opted to hold onto it instead, for the time being.

Regardless, this whole discovery is further proof that good ideas should be enacted on immediately – ‘lest someone else come up with the same good idea, somewhere down the road, and actually bring it to fruition. I’m in no way, shape, or form suggesting plagiarism on this dude’s behalf, mind you; indeed, you can’t plagiarize something that only existed in my head and never saw print. It’s just weird how people can have the same idea sometimes; albeit years apart, in this instance.

This is the second time I’ve had this feeling this year, though. Back in ’98, I’d pitched this superhero movie to Miramax (that Harvey loved), which was kind of a “Pulp Fiction” anthology flick about a Justice League-of-sorts that is forced to disband, due to a government decree (a’la “Watchmen”). The flick would then follow all the characters in different segments, and then bring them together again in the end, to take on a common threat (one of their own, gone rogue). The flick was darkly funny and a pretty straightforward take on the superhero mythos; not a tongue-in-cheek affair at all. The “Untitled Superhero Project” was a mainstay in my overall Miramax deal for years, though I never got around to writing it. In 2000, while in pre-production on “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back”, I pitched it as a show to HBO, and they “bought” it and told me to write a pilot… and, again, I never got around to writing it. Something else always came up.

Anyway, in the segment/chapter of the flick that followed the Wonder Woman-type character, she found out her husband was cheating on her decided to use her super-powers to do a brutal, “Extremities” kinda thing on the louse (picture the “Reservoir Dogs” ear-slicing scene at twenty minutes long, with super-powers and a lot more than an ear getting cut).

Opening, ironically, on the same day as “Clerks II” is a flick called “My Super Ex Girlfriend” – which seems to be a light-hearted treatment of similar material.

The moral of the story (which, if you’re keeping track, falls under the heading “Man vs. Himself”) is this: don’t wait. When you’ve got what you feel is a cool, original story to tell… fucking tell it quick. Because if you don’t, sooner or later, someone else will.

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