Who Da Bad Guy?

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I should have thought longer and harder before writing that Akiva Goldsman most likely wasn't to blame for Hancock's horrendous third act. HE reader "Richardson" did a good job earlier today of persuading me to reconsider. As he put it, "I can't see how you can blame Will Smith for major script problems when Goldsman is the credited re-writer who defanged the script. Same as [he did on] I Am Legend. You can blame Smith for approving Goldsman as the writer, though, since he surely did that."

Only in the film industry have I seen people laugh so uproariously and so obsequiously as Akiva Goldsman seems to be doing here. When you get to this town you soon learn that the vast majority of funny things that movie stars say and do are often hugely funny, causing those in their presence to shriek and bust a gut.

I guess my judgment was clouded by the fact that I'm an admirer of Goldsman's scripts of A Beautiful Mind and Cinderella Man, but I sorta kinda woke up when I re-read Richardson's post late this afternoon and also after a veteran Los Angeles critic reminded me in an e-mail, "When in doubt, blame Akiva Goldsman!"

This same guy sent along me a copy of Vy Vincent Ngo's Tonight He Comes -- the original script that eventually morphed into Hancock. "I haven't had time to read this completely yet," he said, "but from what I can tell it looks interesting and might serve as some sort of object lesson about what happens to scripts when they get tailored for a big-star tentpole. It's worth checking out if you have a little time. I don't know who sent this to me, but it's obvious he doesn't care who sees it at this point."

The problem is that Ngo's 126-page script isn't dated, and it's missing page 125. In any case, if anyone wants to read it I'll send it along.

Here's the letter that accompanied the script: "It's always frustrating to read movie reviews in which the writing is slammed. Screenwriters are easy targets, but they're often innocent bystanders in the development process. If you want to know what Hancock looked like before all the cooks in the kitchen got their grubby paws on it, here's an earlier draft that shows the writer's true vision.

"If you take the time to read it you'll discover that it was once a very promising story before the bigwigs crapped it up. You can't blame the writer for that."

Anyway, here it is. It would be better, of course, if I could find a version that contains page 125. If anyone has a PDF with all the pages, please send along.

comment #1

The Winchester says ...

Top notch, Wells. Join the Goldsman Must Be Stopped Campaign. He's worse than Hillary.

(Thanks for the PDF, I've been looking for this for awhile.)

comment #2

Gabriel says ...

In this case, a picture is worth about a million words.

comment #3

Fien Print says ...

Dude, not to get all "Do you think Asians are all the same?" on you, but the writer of "Tonight, He Comes" is Vy Vincent *Ngo*. That probably means Vietnamese rather than Chinese...

comment #4

CinemaPhreek says ...

Well, I have offically retract all my negative comments about the film as I have now seen it and on a strictly good film/bad film, like it/not like it have to say that HANCOCK goes in the columns for the former.

It's not worth seeing in the theaters or rushing out to buy the DVD, but it's also a lot more interesting than I expected. I like that third act and usually films that veer from one genre to another like this one turn me off but that wasn't the case here. The movie worked for me.

I'd much rather sit through it than I AM LEGEND again, that's for sure.

comment #5

lipranzer says ...

I haven't seen HANCOCK yet, but I definitely am a member of the Goldsman Must Be Stopped campaign. How he won an Oscar for a screenplay that had one clever gimmick and otherwise explained it to you as if you were a six year old is beyond me.

comment #6

nemo says ...

I remember a long time ago (early 80s?) wondering why it was that so many crappy movies often had good actors and good cinematography.

I began to realize that what usually makes a crappy movie is a crappy script. And what helps make a crappy script is the fact that everybody -- the producer, the director, the star, and all the rewrite guys they hired -- has a chance to take a crap on the script before it ever reaches the screen.

It's hard to mess with things like the cinematography or an actor's performance. They get committed to film as soon as they're produced, and that's it, except for editing. But everybody sees the screenplay at the very beginning of the process, and everybody gets to take a whack at it. It's easy.

comment #7

symscovington says ...

Was speaking to someone that worked on developing I,Robot (again, in Australia) and as soon as Smith was attached he brought on 15 writers, this whole team of so called approved creatives, onto the project. Akiva is also co attached to this script, but not sure what in the final film resembles his input.

comment #8

Adviltablet says ...

Akiva wrote Batman & Robin. Nuff said.

comment #9

nola says ...

He also wrote the Da Vinci code

comment #10

Howlingman says ...

All hired gun jobs, and that generally means you're following orders more than actually writing. The producer and studio shapes the material -- your job is to make it work (even when it doesn't "work"). Then they bring in someone else. Then someone else. Then someone else.

comment #11

SaveFarris says ...

Thanks for the love, Jeff!!!

comment #12

Jean says ...

Finally saw Hancock last night. I liked it - yes, I felt that it started off as a great satire of comic book flicks then in the second half it started taking itself too seriously & aimed for a traditional superhero ending. It underachieved, but it didn't feel like a burn at all. On the other hand, I Am Legend completely jumped the shark. The ending to that film was a total cop-out. I saw it on dvd, not at a theater; if I had it would've only given me a worse feeling of being let down. I just can't understand why that film wasn't as critically trashed as much as Hancock is...

comment #13

Rain says ...

Seems he is a hooker. I've seen his profile on the wealthy dating club R I C H L O V I N G.C O M for hot singles to hook up for Hot Love and Sexy Dating. He seems to be hooking up with nice girls there. I've been there for day, it seems the girls are not hard to hook up.

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