What makes you think I won't cut you?

Spent the last several days making cuts to the script. Trimming for space. For clarity. For budget. It's amazing how quickly you can get to the root of a scene, its reason for being, when you're told by your producing team: we can't afford to shoot that.

My trusted pal slash assistant, Daniel Crooke, walked with me through the story on Saturday afternoon, step by step. We scoured the words, the motivations of the characters, the actions, anything we could find that felt extraneous to the narrative. Daniel made some great suggestions (thanks again for the Giggles moment, Daniel).

I've been deliberately avoiding some of the more obvious sports comedies (Dodgeball, Caddyshack, Bad News Bears, etc), but now I think it's time to revisit them. Although I'm trying to think of TAN LINES (yes, it's official for now) as a more stylized comedy - more RUSHMORE, less SANDLER -- I think there is value in becoming acquainted with all of them.

Speaking of which, I just saw WIN WIN, a wonderful new comedy by Tom McCarthy, director and writer of one of my favorite films, THE VISITOR, as well as THE STATION AGENT. The cinematographer, Oliver Bokelberg, shot my film, LOGGERHEADS. His work is stunning. I loved WIN WIN so much. I found it moving and funny and real. Where did they find that blonde kid? Wow.