John August

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The Nines, U.K.

Projects, The Nines

I spent the morning doing phone interviews for The Nines, which gets its theatrical release in the U.K. this Friday. We’re playing at three locations in London…

…plus other screens throughout the country. It’s a bit frustrating that in this age of Google, it’s so difficult to come up with a master list. (Part of this is my difficulty with U.K. postcodes, which are more specific than their U.S. equivalents.) So far, I’ve been able to find listings (but not showtimes) for Glasgow and Edinburgh, but if readers discover other locations, by all means share.

The British site for the movie, lookforthenines.co.uk, is better than the American one. (Update March 2011: The UK site is no longer active.) We’ll be re-doing ours in the next few weeks in anticipation of the DVD release (January 29th).

Should I change my name?

Film Industry, QandA

questionmarkI’m Italian (and living in Italy). I’ve written my two first screenplays in Italian, basically ’cause they were college assignments, but my true goal is to have a career in the U.S.

My English is pretty good, so that’s not the problem. According to my teacher, the problem is gonna be my name. My name is Pierluigi Bellini. He says that with my way-too-Italian-to-be-understood name there’s no way someone’s gonna read my screenplays outside Italy (or Europe).

Is that really that important? Should I change my real name for a nickname? He suggests that if I wanna get my scripts read in US I should at least sign them as “written by PJ Bellini.” It sounds really stupid to me to change my name ’cause of that, but he says that it’s a pretty common thing for foreign writers. What do you think ’bout that?

— Pierluigi Bellini
Rome, Italy

As a writer who legally changed his difficult-to-pronounce German name to the calendrical moniker August, I gotta say your teacher is right.

(I can’t just throw out that bombshell without answering the obvious question: my family name is “Meise.” In German, you’d pronounce it MY-zuh. My family pronounced it MY-zee. But for my entire life, every stranger, every restaurant hostess, every telephone salesperson has pronounced it Meez (or occasionally, MEE-see). And I can’t blame them. It’s a name that doesn’t particularly announce its ethnicity, or give you any clue what to do with it. I didn’t envy another 70 years of correcting how people pronounced my name — it’s a terrible first 15 seconds of conversation — so I legally swapped it for my father’s middle name before moving to Los Angeles. The last time I heard myself called “John Meez” was when the court clerk called my case before the judge.)

You’re in a much better spot, my Italian friend. There’s no need for you to legally change your name. If I were you, I’d just trim off the “luigi” part when you write professionally. “Pier Bellini” is an awesome writer’s name. It sounds like an apéritif you’d be offered on a yacht in Cannes.

Five years from now, when you have a movie in theaters, we’ll see your name and remember you wrote in to the site. That’s the mark of a cool name.

In other news

Education

Hugh Hefner is giving $2 million to the USC School of Cinematic Arts, funding an exhibition area in the new complex currently under construction, along with an archive. I’m on the alumni board for the school, so I’ve had a chance to see a lot of the plans for much-improved facility, and take a hard-hat tour.

Between you and me, I’m sick with jealousy for the students who get the new building. Not only is it finally big enough, but it manages to capture the feeling of a studio lot, with all the California Mediterranean details and great attention to the hidden infrastructure — physical and digital.

Strike, day five

Strike

fox plazaYesterday was the big rally at Fox Plaza, drawing 4,000 protesters to Century City for speeches in front of the Die Hard building.

Zack de la Rocha and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine kicked it off with a set, followed by remarks from…

  • Jesse Jackson
  • WGA president Patric Verrone
  • WGA negotiating committee chairman RobJohn Bowman
  • WGA executive director David Young
  • SAG president Alan Rosenberg
  • Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, and
  • Norman Lear

I’m listing the speakers because unless you were standing pretty close, you’d have had no idea who was talking. Between the picket signs, the helicopters, and an under-powered amplifier, probably half the gathered crowd only cheered because they heard others cheering.

Still, the mood was quite celebratory. It was amazing to see that many writers in one place. I bumped into many people I forgot I knew. Probably my biggest happiness was introducing myself to Jane Espenson, whose blog on TV spec writing is so generous I feel the entire town owes her dinner.

Jane shared with me the plight of young writers caught in the prestigious Disney Fellows program. Disney is requiring these non-WGA writers to keep showing up to write their specs — crossing the picket line and jeopardizing their hopes of ever joining the WGA. (If you’re one of these fellows, please write in, anonymously if you need to. This is bullshit apparently getting resolved. See the update.)

I forgot to get a picture with Jane, but remembered in time for a few other snapshots, which I put up on Flickr.

Update: Jane wrote in with encouraging news:

Hi. My current understanding is that the Guild and Disney and their Fellows are all working together on some kind of solution as we speak. This Fellowship gave me my start and I believe in it and the people who run in. As I think about it now, I’m certain that the right thing will be done and no one will be required to either cross the line or to resign their fellowship. There are only three months left in the term of the fellowship anyway — certainly they will let the kids collect the small amount of pay and benefits owed to them and not give up any chance of ever working again. I have faith in the people involved in this extraordinary program. I’d suggest that we stay cool on this issue while they work out the details.

There’s a lot of talk about “cooler heads prevailing,” but it’s great to hear an example of this actually happening. Thanks for the update.