repairman Jack Movie News
Archives
JANUARY 2007
1/29: Email from Chris – he still hasn’t finished the Diesel script. Swears it will go in this week and then he can start of Jack.
1/12: Email from Chris Morgan saying he’s got the Vin Diesel script just about wrapped up and should be able to have a "Repairman Jack" draft on time.
DECEMBER 2006
12/1: Long phone conversation with Chris Morgan as we walk through the Repairman Jack script. Don’t expect much to happen this month.
NOVEMBER 2006
11/30: Email from Chris Morgan. We set up a time tomorrow night to walk ythrough the changes in the RJ script.
11/29: Barry Rosenbush calls to say that Beacon and Chris Morgan have reached agreement on his rewrite and that he’ll be getting started within the next week or two. They hope to have the final script by the end of the year or very soon after.
We’ll see.
11/21: Spoke to Beacon and they’ve hit a little glitch in getting the final changes into the screenplay. The writer, Chris Morgan, is contracted with another studio to do Vin Diesel’s next movie; the studio suddenly moved up the production date so he’s had to scramble to get it finished before the end of November. Which means he can’t work on the Repairman Jack script yet.
So we wait.
Some more.
Again.
OCTOBER 2006
10/27: Things seem to be progressing but have slowed due to negotiations with Chris’s agent about the rewrite.
10/13: A conference call with the same gang, plus screenwriter Chris Morgan who’s on board for the revisions. Reaction to my comments and changes has been generally positive all week (but that could mean they’re just being polite). They’re looking at Australia to do principle photography with a second unit to shoot exteriors in NYC. Barry says he’ll put together a list of Australian directors. They discuss the possibility of using Weta Digital for effects. We close with Chris saying he’ll go through the script, make notes, and get back to Army next week.
10/9: I spend the morning typing my revisions and additions into the Final Draft file of the script, then send it off to the Beacon gang.
10/8: On the flight home I pore over the script and scribble mucho notos.
10/6: The day of the powwow with Beacon. It's a long one and I'll skip the details.
I leave the meeting feeling pretty good. This is starting to look like it might happen at last. Barry, ever the realist, says, When we’re both sitting in a production test eating catered food and film is rolling and the checks have cleared, then you can believe it’s happening. He’s right, of course.
SEPTEMBER 2006
9/20: Barry Rosenbush calls to say that he’s set up a meeting between with the Beacon honchos for October 6 at 2:30. I’ll report on that next month.
AUGUST 2006
8/18: It’s official: The too-young, well-known actor, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named-Under-Pain-Of-Death, (HWMNBNUPOD to his friends) who wanted to play Jack and for whom the part was being retrofitted is now figuratively and literally out of the picture. I have been asked not to name him at this time and I will respect that request. But eventually you will know, I promise.
I received a call from Barry Rosenbush. They’ve started working on a budget for the film, which is a good sign. A certain someone at the studio still has "character issues" about the script. Sheesh. I definitely need a meeting with the studio honchos when I hit the Left Coast in October.
Despite the runaway success of "High School Musical" (he was executive producer) and his intense involvement in the sequel, Barry remains steadfastly committed to bringing Jack to the screen. He’s one of the good guys out there in LaLa Land.
JULY 2006
7/28: Using a 2003 script that’s very close to the novel, Barry Rosenbush has been working with my Hollywood agent to put together an actor-director package for the film. The agency supplied him with a list of their actors 25-30 years old and a list of their action-adventure directors. He had a sit-down with Beacon today. Army Bernstein’s going to take the script and the lists and get back to him in 7-10 days.
7/18: Some disturbing news: Disney / Touchstone (with whom Beacon has a distribution deal) is undergoing a major shakeup. In a decision to skew their output toward more "family-friendly" films, they’re reducing their edgier Touchstone releases to 2 or 3 a year, axing 650 jobs, including president Nina Jacobson. (This is the woman who told M. Night Shyamalan that his script for "Lady in the Water" needed an overhaul. The artiste left Disney in a huff. For those of you who don’t follow movie grosses, "Lady" tanked at the box office. This is one smart exec. Why are they letting her go?)
JUNE 2006
Late June: Well, studio head Army Bernstein seems to have rethought his very hands-on approach to the film and handed the reins back to Barry Rosenbush and Bill Borden. Barry retrieved an earlier, close-to-the-book script from 2003, had it spruced up, and sent it to me for a look. I like it a lot. I’d like to see Kusum a bit more conflicted, but otherwise it’s a non-stop action yarn with lots of crisp, clever dialogue. He’s talking to one of the major talent agencies about putting together a director-star package ASAP.
MAY 2006
5/29: Well, I can’t get a straight story yet, but I’m hearing rumbles that things are in flux at Beacon as far as the Repairman Jack movie goes. Does this mean the new script has been ditched? Does this mean that HWMNBNUPOD is stepping back? Stay tuned. When I hear, you’ll hear.
APRIL 2006
4/21: Joel Fields’s update on the movie (such as he knew) was that everyone seems happy with where the script is and that studio head Army Bernstein is going to meet with HWMNBNUPOD in person within the next two weeks to put the draft into his hands. Then...who knows how long before we get a decision?
MARCH 2006
Late March: Screenwriter Joel Fields delivered the "Repairman Jack" rewrite early – before the end of the month. Maybe we’ll hear something definitive in April. Most likely not.
3/1: I heard from the head of production and from Joel Fields, the screenwriter. Joel met with Army Bernstein, head of Beacon, earlier in the month to go over HWMNBNUPOD’s reaction to Joel’s draft of the script. Then on 2/28 he spent several hours with Army going over notes on the script. He feels they now have a direction for revisions. If all goes well the new version should be in Beacon’s hands in 4-6 weeks.
Joel thinks the script keeps getting better â€" which is not always the case (or even common) in the rewrite / revision process, and generally a good sign.
Or not. Remember, it’s Hollywood.
FEBRUARY 2006
2/1: Spoke to the head of production at Beacon who tells me that Beacon’s headman, Army Bernstein, met with HWMNBNUPOD and got his notes on the script. She was setting up a meeting between scripter Joel Fields and Army in early February to go over the notes. Joel's latest episode for Commander in Chief is filming sometime then and Army's got Firewall stuff going, so it may well be a little later.
Don’t need a crystal ball to see yet another rewrite in the works.
JANUARY 2006
1/4: Barry Rosenbush confirms that He Who Must Not Be Named Under Pain Of Death received the new script before the holidays, but no one knows when he’ll decide.
DECEMBER 2005
12/15: Barry Rosenbush wrote to tell me that Joel Fields has handed in the revised RJ script to Beacon and it’s now in Army Bernstein’s hands. From there it’s supposed to go to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named-Under-Pain-Of-Death. (Maybe a happy new year; maybe not.)
NOVEMBER 2005
11/21: Got an email from Joel Fields, apologizing for missing lunch. According to him he’ll have the rewrite done on time.
11/18: On my LA trip I was supposed to have lunch on the 18th with Barry Rosenbush and Joel Fields (respectively the producer and the latest scripter on the Repairman Jack film) but Joel is also a writer for Commander in Chief and had to beg off because of some last-minute script emergency.
So it was just Barry and I at Cafe del Rey by the marina. Gotta love Barry. He’s intelligent and well read and so unHollywood. He says Joel will deliver his rewrite within the next 2 weeks so that He Who Must Not Be Named Under Pain Of Death can read it over the Christmas holidays. I figure we’ll know sometime in January if we’ve got a star. Yoiks.
If he says yes, the movie is a go. If he says no, well . . . who knows? We’ll either be dead in the water or it’s back for another rewrite.
I hate this.
OCTOBER 2005
10/22: Joel Fields’s new script is in. Army Bernstein, head of Beacon, has already given him notes and Joel’s back at work on the tune up. This is startlingly fast for Beacon. I’m gathering that they’re toning down the rakoshi angle and beefing up the Kusum role as an evil man with extraordinary powers. I’m not happy with that, but after ten years I’ve seen so many "concepts" and "angles" come and go that I’ve become uncomfortably numb. I am curious to hear what He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named-Under-Pain-Of-Death will think of it when he sees it.
SEPTEMBER 2005
9/13: Heard from Joel Fields who says he’s chugging along on Act 3 (scripts typically have 3 acts) of the Repairman Jack script. Told me he really enjoys working with Jack. (So do I. That’s why I’ve finished #10 and will most likely do 4 more.) Let’s just hope the final product appeals to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named-Under-Pain-Of-Death. (Yeah, right, that’ll happen. After ten years of this I know there’s GOT to be a problem that requires another rewrite.)
JULY 2005
7/15: Army Bernstein, the head of Beacon Films, has approved Joel Fields’s much-rewritten treatment for the new screenplay. Which means that Joel is now off writing it. The script is being modified to accommodate He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named-Under-Pain-Of-Death. I’m told it’s "still very much in the spirit of the Jack we know and love." Figure 6 to 9 weeks for a draft.
7/6: Someone told me that Hollywood is a place where people have meetings to decide on when to have a meeting. And so, meetings continue between Beacon Films, screenwriter Joel Fields, and HWMNBNUPOD (He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named-Under-Pain-Of-Death). That’s all I can talk about now. The glacial progress continues.
MAY 2005
5/22: Everyone at Beacon seems to like Joel Fields’s treatment for his revision of the script. Now we need the head of the studio to sign off on the rewrite and we’re off to the races – again. Hope to have more for you next time.
APRIL 2005
4/14: Barry Rosenbush toldd me that Joel Fields has survived a number of meetings with the Beacon Films gang. Everyone is on the same page (for the moment) and Joel has gone off to write a full treatment of the aspects of the script he is to address – mostly character development.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m "very excited."
MARCH 2005
3/2: Barry Rosenbush informed me that Joel Fields has been hired to rewrite the "Repairman Jack" script.
Joel was in Manhattan in March and we got together on the 9th at a little place in the Flat Iron district. Mostly we talked character. That’s the main reason Joel’s been hired: To flesh out Jack’s character. He seems to have a firm grasp on Jack and I have a good feeling about the work he’ll do.
FEBRUARY 2005
2/2: Dare I say it? I sense . . . momentum.
The hot young star first mentioned earlier ("He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named-Under-Pain-Of-Death" -- or HWMNBNUPOD) remains interested in playing Repairman Jack. If fact, he's been spotted around LA wearing a Repairman Jack cap.
HWMNBNUPOD has been meeting with the producers. Beacon has decided (yet again) to find a new writer. Seems Chris Morgan, who did the latest round of revisions (#1,062 thru #1,075) has commitments that won't allow him to complete the script in the window Beacon is working with.
Co-producer Barry Rosenbush informs me that they've settled on a new screenwriter. After the lawyers and agents finish their thing, and after a round of meetings, he'll be able to start tapping the keyboard.
JANUARY 2005
Late January: The target date to start filming in Shanghai is this summer.
(Stop laughing. I don't believe it either.)
DECEMBER 2004
12/18: Nothing new. But then, not much gets done in Hollywood between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day.
The hot young star previously mentioned [who shall henceforth be referred to as "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named-Under-Pain-Of-Death" (or, for those close to him, HWMNBNUPOD)] remains interested in playing Repairman Jack.
Some of you might be concerned about a mid-late twenties actor playing Jack, who's in his mid thirties. Have no fear. This is Beacon Films we're talking about. By the time they get around to exposing some film, HWMNBNUPOD will be just the right age.
12/2: A new development: The Repairman Jack movie was languishing in the wake of the disappointing new script. Now it's building steam again after a young, big-name star has said he wants to be Repairman Jack. (Don't ask me who (if I tell you I'll be killed.) His youth (no, it's not Frankie Muniz - he's not that young) will necessitate some significant rewriting, but his involvement has lit a match under the project.
But this is Hollywood and I've ridden this roller coaster before. Best thing to do is put it on the back burner and not think about it until something happens.