"Stars and Stripes Forever" Coverage Report

Today, I got my coverage report on my nautical tale "Stars and Stripes Forever."

The reader, a guy I think, gave me a ton of high marks across the board. Plot, dialogue, etc. are fine. And the concept of a real-life navy lieutenant struggling to destroy an American frigate captured by pirates is "compelling."

I just need to work on some character relationships and rearrange some scenes and sequences. I also have to deal with the situation that historical scripts are harder to sell than contemporary stories and it's on the water, making it harder and more expensive to film.

Ergo the script has to be virtually perfect.

Nice challenge.

It's "one great rewrite or two away from being something special" and "it's close, but not quite there yet."

For now, it's a "Pass."

I'll see about reworking it when I get the chance.

I expect it'll do well in contests, though. And I think I may want to write the novel before marketing the script, too. That would help sell the script if the book did well.

Anyhow, the wheels are in motion.

"Heaven's Mandate" Coverage

I'm a little late in reporting this...

On February 12, 2007, I got a ScriptShark Notes Plus coverage report on my Chinese Joan of Arc tale.

The script is good, but there's room for some character development, which I'll be happy to do. I just have to find the time...

The reader gave me a "Reluctant Pass." Even though it's not a "Consider" or "Recommend," it doesn't seem too bad. She? (something about the report's phrasing) pointed out that Hollywood isn't interested in Chinese period pieces in general, which I know. I was pretty much aiming for Hong Kong from the start. I will see what I can do to approach James Schmaus's "Rogue Film" company.

I wanna get Schmaus's "Crouching Tiger" collaborator, Ang Lee, to direct. :-)

Ronny Yu ("Fearless") strikes me as a good second choice.

I'm afraid that Zhang Yimou's films don't work for me: "Hero," "House of Flying Daggers," and "Curse of the Golden Flower."

I may still sub "Heaven's Mandate" as is (it won in the 2006 UCLA contest after all) to a few contests in 2007, but maybe not every one of 'em because it's not high on Hollywood's list of fave genres and most especially to save myself some money .

We'll see.

At least I've got ideas for making this opus even better.