I do not know whether to meticulously, walk to my garage, pull out my gargantuan 25 foot ladder, place it on the side of my house, climb to the top of my house, gulp back a slug or two of water from my camelback, clear my throat a few times, and with great arching of back, scream at the sky for joy…or huddle up in my basement, stooped over, in a mass, a puddle, sopping with tears, crying til I cry myself to sleep. And what’s really bad about this, terrible really, is that I’m a not exaggerating. Shane Carruth, the creator of Primer and Upstream color – two of the greatest movies of all time – seems to either be throwing in the towel, OR, trolling all of us into action. The towel scenario is the one in which I crying myself to sleep with my knees pull up to my chest, sobbing and heaving until oblivion. Now the trolling possibility – now THAT is a scenario that has me getting out my ladder and screaming til my neighborhood Karen calls the police. But for now, Go Away, I’m Reading Shane Carruth’s – A Modern Ocean screenplay.
Wait. You haven’t heard?
https://t.co/x0tJTRN4qn
— Upstream Color (@UpstreamColor) June 17, 2020
That’s the script for The Modern Ocean. I kept it quiet for a long time because…I don’t like scripts because they are not movies and movies are not film and I just didn’t want to be embarrassed. But now I think it might be fun. It’s all good, now.
Yeah, Carruth has released his A Modern Ocean screenplay. For quite a while now, we have had the screenplay for his A Topiary. And it is mesmeric. Glorious. But just last night, he let fly into the wind his A Modern Ocean screenplay – and I really have to admit, I am kind of angry with you for making me sit here and type instead of letting me just go read it. What is that about anyway? Geeze.
The other day – when Carruth released his mini-sizzle reel for A Topiary, I quasi wondered allowed, why don’t we just throw a pile of money at this guy? Literally, why don’t we? This literally has me in tears. Is that too much? To want more beauty in the world from genre-breaking creators like Shane Carruth?
I’m serious about crowd sourcing this thing into creation. Screw the big name actors, and A list stars. But if we could honestly come together to literally hand Shane $100,000,000 – why wouldn’t we? I’ve got a grand or two sitting around in a paypal account I would be more than happy to throw at this. Why? Because the world would be a better place after it is made.
So yeah, while I’m excited to be reading this amazing script (and that it is, I’ve literally only just started it, but I’m already transfixed.) I am just so torn by this release. Just please don’t tell me that we are at another A Topiary.
And with that, I’m going dark for a week or so. If you need me, you know where to find me. But I just don’t think I can watch another movie right now. I can’t write another post. I can’t. So seriously – I’ll be over there on my couch, reading, and then rereading this A Modern Ocean script. That and thinking about how to crowdsource a massive pile of cash for this guy. (Not that he needs it.) I really hope that he’s trolling us all into action – although he is literally saying that he isn’t. I’m just super hopeful that a reverse, double reverse play, worthy of a moment straight out of Primer. Because I really need us all to come together to make this film happen.
Edited by: CY