Full Disclosure

Screenwriter David Steinberg was invited last fall by a producer to pitch his idea for a rewrite of a "high-concept comedy" about an adult slacker for a major studio.

Steinberg figured he had a good shot at the assignment with credits like "American Pie 2" under his belt, even though he heard there were many other writers competing for the opening.

After an initial meeting, the producer asked him to prepare a more detailed proposal, known as a "beat sheet," outlining each scene and character. Steinberg reworked four drafts of his pitch and met with other producers, each one offering a different take while praising him for a "great job."

Normally, jumping through all those hoops signaled he had the job in the bag. Not this time. Steinberg was vacationing with his family in Aruba over the winter holiday when his agent e-mailed him that the studio picked another writer.

This ARTICLE is a bloody bummer.

It is a mild comfort that other screenwriters are suffering the same issues that I've been experiencing.

Ruffalo...

H U L K ! ! !
You won't like Ed Norton when he's angry...

I Need You Tonight...

Record Club: INXS "Need You Tonight" from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Taylor Lautner is NOT in "The Butcherhouse Chronicles"

All right, folks, I wasn't going to post anything about this, but I feel compelled to now that a reporter actually asked Lautner about it.

"The Butcherhouse Chronicles" is based on a stage play that I wrote. Paramount bought the rights and hired me to write the initial screenplay adaptation. They brought on the boys at Platinum Dunes and Stephen Susco ("The Grudge") did a rewrite this past year.

Frank "Buff" Borin was attached to direct a few years ago, but he's moved on.

IMDB is filled with inaccuracies, especially for movies that are still in "development", and I have no idea how Lautner or Glee's Lea Michele got added to the cast of this project. The character names listed are not characters in the script, either. (If they *were* attached to the movie, I would guess that Lautner would be playing the character of "Kurt" and Michele would be playing "Honey".)

I asked one of my managers about it the other week and he was pretty sure it was nonsense. It'd be great if he were, but it's not happening right now.