Raoul Duke | Gonzo Film Assassin @RaoulDukeFilms

@HwoodScrptReadr How many times did you get YOUR logline changed. Be honest now. 😉

That’s what structure is for. Everyone gets stuck at some point. Keep it simple to start. 10 pages is not enough real estate. Double that. Go 20 page. Act 1, first 5 pages. Act 2, pages 5 to 15 with mid point at page 10. Act 3 last five pages. If you want to divide further, you can layer in Save the cat beats. Write it, then go back and cut the excess until bare minimum and you’ll get 10 pages.

It does. It tells you what deals have been made. Who just sold what. Who been attached to what. Who’s got a green light. There’s nothing your rep knows that’s not published. If it’s worth keeping it a secret, which it never is, then your rep wouldn’t know about it. Here’s one last freebie. If the project is complete and ready to go. And somehow by the grace of god every studio has something similar in the pipeline. Do a quick re-write, change the world / genre and keep the characters and plots. And here you go. You just went from Empire to Yellowstone in under a week. It’s been great talking to you. Thanks and good luck.

@MOVIETVWRITERX I research. Industry news outlets. I spend 30 minutes every morning reading through different websites like deadline, variety, THR… and the others.

Of course. Here’s a quick overview of my process. Come up with an idea. Decide if it’s worth pursuing by looking at what’s out there or in the pipes. And looking at what’s been cancelled and renewed. If it ‘s worth pursuing, develop the project as much as possible to make a producer’s life as easy as possible. I’m working on a TV Show right now and I wrote a 57 page Pilot ready to go along with a 73 page Series Bible ready for 3 seasons. 30 episodes fully mapped out, with about 15 characters’ biographies, and more. I’m at the last re-write of the Bible. #screenwriting #madefortv

You’re thinking like an artist. Which is fine to some degree. The rep’s job is to get his commission. The producer’s job is to make a profit. The writers job is to get the Rep his commission and to get the Producer is profit. I know a screenwriter who charges 100k a week for developing other people’s concept or one pager or unfinished scripts. Your job is to give your rep something he can take to a producer that has all the elements of a 3 season show with minimal investment in writers room to get it there. Whether Netflix has something similar to your idea in the pipeline is irrelevant. There are other studios who need competing shows. It’s actually a selling point. But you need something to sell that’s ready.

Ok. I’ll give you the first step. Is it a good idea, business wise. Does it have the potential to be profitable. Meaning is there a structural path to at least 3 seasons. Season 1 is never profitable. An idea might be good for one season or even just one episode. And not sustainable to get to the point of profitability. Two explanations for this. The idea is just not good. Or it’s a good start but under-developed. If the idea is good for profit, then we go to step 2. #screenwriting #madefortv

Let me get this straight. You expect someone to green light a show, invest millions, launch careers or take them to new heights because you wrote one page. That’s a hell of a reward for one page. Why not try this. Go from one page to fully completed pilot with a 60 page series Bible that covers everything a showrunner needs over 3 seasons. #screenwriting

@GoIntoTheStory Depends what you mean by Screenwriting rules. An engaging plot and a tight pacing rely on screenwriting's structural rules. #screenwriting

I was somewhere around the border when the yellow filters and slow-motion helicopters began to take hold. Sicario is the most overrated “serious” thriller of the last decade.Taylor Sheridan wrote a taut, stylish little death trip and everyone mistook it for profundity. Villeneuve draped it in dread and shadows, Benicio and Blunt did their best, but underneath it’s just another Hollywood morality play that pretends to stare into the abyss while never actually jumping. Beautiful, brutal, and ultimately empty. The American Dream didn’t die here — it just got a better cinematographer.

Na! It’s been pretty much the same story telling structure since Aristotle’s Poetics. Sure the first one to tweak it was Shakespeare, then a few others garnished it , but it’s the same. A story needs a certain defined structure to be told effectively. What you’re really after is creative originality, concept originality. Killing everyone on page 75 is not a structure departure. It’s an original way to use the older than Jesus structure.

We were somewhere between Rodeo Drive and a moral collapse when the sequel rumors began to take hold. They’ve gone back to dig up The Devil Wears Prada, a perfectly preserved relic of pre-apocalypse ambition, and now they want a second bite in an era where nobody even knows what fashion is anymore. Just vibes, algorithms, and interns with TikTok trauma. I staggered into the screening with a notebook, a head full of bad chemicals, and the creeping suspicion that this whole operation reeked of necromancy. And there she was again, Miranda Priestly, stalking through the wreckage like a high priestess of taste in a world that has completely lost its nerve. But something was off. The room didn’t fear her anymore. It studied her. Measured her. Fed her into the machine. This is the real horror of the sequel era: not that they bring things back… but that they bring them back into a world that no longer deserves them. The original worked because it understood power, quiet, surgical, devastating. This one feels like power filtered through ten layers of brand partnerships and social media strategy decks. Even the insults land like they’ve been legally reviewed. At some point I realized the film wasn’t about fashion at all. It’s about survival in a culture where taste has been democratized into meaninglessness. Everyone is Miranda now. Which means no one is. By the third act I was clutching the armrest like it was a life raft, watching legacy get sandblasted into “content.” No edge. No danger. No soul. Just immaculate outfits draped over a corpse. We came looking for couture. We found a ghost wearing sponsored grief. #FilmTwitter #MovieReview #GonzoCinema #TheDevilWearsPrada2

Some films age like fine whiskey. Taxi Driver ages like a bottle of ether left open in the sun, more potent, more dangerous, more relevant every year. Travis didn’t clean up the city. He just proved the whole rotten thing was beyond saving. One bloodshot eye wide open in recognition. Highly recommended if you enjoy staring into the abyss and hearing it honk back at you. Buy the ticket anyway. The meter’s still running.

Jodie Foster as the child prostitute, Harvey Keitel as the pimp in the fake afro, Bernard Herrmann’s saxophone score slithering through the night like a junkie’s heartbeat. This isn’t a movie. It’s a bad trip through the underbelly of a country that eats its own children and calls it freedom. Every frame drips with alienation and impending violence.

We were somewhere around the filthy streets of New York when the insomnia and mohawk began to take hold. I am Raoul Duke, and I just dragged myself through Taxi Driver again. This 1976 Scorsese fever dream that still smells like rotten garbage, cheap perfume, and the death rattle of the American Dream.

We were somewhere around the YouTube autoplay when the cartoon dynamite and corporate lawsuits began to take hold. I am Raoul Duke, and the first trailer for Coyote vs. ACME just detonated across the desert like an Acme rocket strapped to a Road Runner. Will Forte as the burned-out lawyer defending Wile E. Coyote in his glorious class-action war against the ultimate American villain: the faceless corporation that’s been selling him exploding anvils and faulty rocket skates for decades. John Cena as the slick Acme defense attorney? Lana Condor in the mix? Live-action Looney Tunes chaos with real stakes? It looks deranged in the best possible way, a hybrid fever dream that somehow survived Warner Bros. trying to bury it as a tax write-off. The underdog finally biting back at the machine. Pure American justice wrapped in cartoon violence and courtroom absurdity. This one might actually make an obscene amount of money come August 28. The kids will laugh, the degenerates will cheer, and somewhere in the desert a coyote is finally getting his day in court while the money men sweat. I hate to admit it… but I’m intrigued. This could be the first real bite Hollywood’s taken in months. Buy the ticket anyway, you beautiful degenerates. The Road Runner won’t save you when the anvil finally drops.

Rotten Tomatoes 🍅 @RottenTomatoes

5 months ago

First trailer for Coyote vs. ACME, starring John Cena, Lana Condor, and Will Forte. The Looney Tunes movie is in theaters on August 28.

10 104 514 59K 35

We were somewhere around the rehearsal dinner when the parlor game and buried secrets began to take hold. I am Raoul Duke, and The Drama — this A24 wedding-week fever dream with Pattinson and Zendaya — is what happens when Hollywood tries to sell us “dangerous” relationship trauma dressed up in prestige lighting. Pattinson and Zendaya chew the scenery like beautiful, broken animals confessing their worst sins to each other while the wedding party spirals into polite chaos. The shocks land. The tension coils. But underneath? Another slick, focus-grouped exercise in middle-class dread that never quite goes full abyss. Safe enough for the art-house crowd, edgy enough to trend on Letterboxd, toothless enough to leave the American Dream twitching but alive. They took a potentially vicious idea and wrapped it in tasteful A24 packaging. The desert laughs at these little games while the real monsters run the studio. Save your ether for something that actually draws blood. This one just whispers threats and serves canapés. Buy the ticket anyway… if you enjoy watching beautiful people destroy each other in 4K while pretending it’s profound.

Pop Base @PopBase

5 months ago

A24’s ‘THE DRAMA,’ starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, has surpassed $100M at the global box office. It cost $28M to produce.

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252 1K 34K 1.1M 653

We were somewhere around the red carpet when the white gloves and moonwalk began to take hold. I am Raoul Duke, and I just crawled out of the premiere of Michael — this shiny, estate-approved biopic about the King of Pop that somehow forgot to mention the bats in the belfry. Jaafar Jackson channels his uncle like a man possessed — the moves, the voice, the electric paranoia — while Antoine Fuqua directs it all like a polite music video with million-dollar production values. They hit every hit: Billie Jean, Thriller, the whole glittering circus. Colman Domingo as Joe Jackson brings the fear. But the dark heart? The Neverland shadows? The whole third act that was apparently reshot into oblivion? Vanished like a bad trip at dawn. This isn't a movie about Michael Jackson. It's a greatest-hits album with pretty lighting and zero teeth. Hollywood took one of the most twisted, brilliant, terrifying American dreams and turned it into safe, family-friendly spectacle. The money men and the estate won again — another corpse polished until it sparkles. The performances bite. The silence around the real story screams louder than any scream sample. Save your ether for something that actually bleeds. This one just moonwalks past the abyss and pretends it isn't there. Buy the ticket anyway… if you want to watch the American Dream do the moonwalk in white socks while the desert laughs. #Michael