What Makes a Book Cinematic?
Actually, his advice is to look BEYOND literature. The thing is, industry execs don't have a lot of time or imagination, so they really prefer comic books which show them exactly what the movie will be about, and which give them the thrill of intellectual apprehension of the subject matter without having to do any work or pay any money.
Comic books are really storyboards, you see: for movies!
Deneen is not just an idiot, he is also unpleasant. His goal is to create an agency that also produces, adding another layer of exploitation to the current gauntlet of bright shining dildoes that writers must run through in order to get money to live. Literary agents are now "producers" of "scripts," who can help shepherd projects to completion in order to protect the "material."
In many ways, I am glad that the film industry and comic book industry are merging together into a symbiotic Story Overlord that no longer needs words at all to make their "magic." This Creature of Two Coasts will probably become so powerful that it will no longer need to chew up actual writers anymore, and those who still believe in the power and worth of literature can hole up on some island while the new Dark Ages pass, building libraries and singing songs.
At the end of the interview, Deneen does some beat-boxing, just in case you aren't appalled enough. Maybe you want to bring your book to him to see if he will like it.
Maybe you want to take your newborn child to the marble altar on the outskirts of town and leave it there, gashes on the bottoms of its feet, squawling and humming as snot clots its terrified sinuses, wondering why it ever had to be born in the first place, all of its human misery compressed into a few hot hours of burning sun until the bliss of DEATH BY EXPOSURE.
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Posted by miracle on Sun, 07 Sep 2008 14:15:43 -0400 -- permanent link
