You think you know everything about something and inevitably you are proved wrong. I just came across this reading Steven C. Earley’s An Introduction to American Movies.

In 1933, Paramount released a film version of William Faulkner’s novel Sanctuary, a story of perversion and corruption. The picture was titled The Story of Temple Drake (1933), and although Paramount pretended to avoid all sexual abnormalities, civic groups were offended because the director had slanted his film to condone a murder. (54)

Now I don’t know if that is true or not, but it is very interesting. I thought the reason why the movie had come under attack was because of the raping of Temple Drake by the gangster Popeye. Earley’s claim, however, suggests otherwise. If Earley is correct, what adds irony to his assertion is that Faulkner’s publisher initially rejected Sanctuary on the grounds that if he published it, it would get them thrown in jail. Later however, Faulkner’s publisher had a change of mind and decided to go ahead and print the novel as it was. However, Faulkner had a change of mind too - and at his own expensive, decided to do an an extensive revision of the book anyway. The main difference between the two versions besides the fact that Faulkner placed more distance between themes and characters he’d explored previously in other novels, was that he added more violence.

As of this morning the first rough draft of the second Amieviathan script, The Green Machine, is done. This means that we are one step closer to the second phase of the project, in fact, closer than originally planned.

Life is fluid and there has been a change in plans. On the way to Thom’s the past weekend, Tim and I had a long discussion about this project and potential future projects. At Tim’s suggestion, I’ve decided to scrap the initial plan of writing three separate Amieviathan scripts.

Here’s the rationale. My original intention in writing the three scripts was to get practice more than anything. I knew from the start that the likelihood of getting any more than one of the scripts filmed was highly unlikely. Additionally, the real goal was to prepare for the writing of a feature length movie. The Ameviathan scripts were intended to be short, 20-30 minutes a piece in length. From a filming standpoint, Tim and I wanted to work on a more advanced technical level, and with outside actors. We figured a 20-30 minute movie was enough ambition without biting off the feature length film too. So the Ameviathan scripts were perfectly suited for our filming goals.

However, the three scripts weren’t suited for my writing goal, especially since I’ve achieved what I wanted to in writing-terms with the two short scripts. So at this stage, there isn’t really much point in practicing on another 20-30 minute script. The real practice would come in producing a feature length script.

So we are going to go ahead and begin the initial stages of pre-production as of this weekend. Tomorrow morning, I’ll run Tim a copy of the rough of the script. Then he’s going to read it along with the Boggy Boogieman and we’ll decide which one to develop. The choice of which one to develop is most likely going to be dictated by filming logistics, how many locals we need, how difficult FX will be and how many people we need. The easier of the two will probably be the one that gets shot.

Once we decided which one to develop, I’ll go back and redraft the script and we’ll begin with pre-production.

As for writing, I’ll continue with a new writing goal. Once the Ameviathan script we decide to shoot is redrafted, I’ll start drafting treatments for new feature length script. At this point I’ve got a number of ideas I want to investigate. But, more on them as they develop.

Last weekend, Tim (Bear), Brian (Dick) and myself went up to DJ Webb’s (Thom’s) house for a party. What a party it was! Of the many people I’ve known, none is a better party host than DJ Webb. His guests’ whims are catered to in every respect imaginable, from choice of beers, to food (which was in this case the Maryland favorite - crabs), to cigars. What’s more, DJ Webb’s house comes equipped with the perfect party-pad layout. On his sun porch, sits an original Contra Arcade game. In the den, there’s an HDTV hooked up to satellite. And who could forget THE POOL.

Driving up, Bear explained to me how when practicing with one of the bands he’d played with in high school, he and his band-mates had access to a pool one evening. It was in this pool that he said he and the band made a whirlpool. I’d never heard of anybody making a whirlpool in a swimming pool. I asked Bear to explain. He proceeded to tell me that all you needed were a couple of idiots who would run around the pool in a circle for a while, and presto, you had a whirlpool.

When we arrived, along with Dick and Robert, we made a whirlpool. It actually worked and it was awesome. I lay on my back and was sucked round and round staring in inebriated disbelief at glowing tiki-torches and that moronic owl.¹

I can’t wait until next year’s party.

¹ The owl, made of plastic, sits on the fence surrounding the pool. Thom “claims” to have found the owl in one of the bushes in his yard.