Tenspeed & Brownshoe

Monday, June 05, 2006



ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, I DECLARE A WRITER'S WAR!

If you've ever wondered if all screenwriters get along, the answer is a resounding "No". And it's never been more true concerning fellow screenwriter, Josh Olson. Josh is the Oscar nominated screenwriter of The History of Violence. Before that he was a straight-to-video guy who directed a film entitled, Infested, starring the Yellow Power Ranger. That's quite the leap and you gotta respect that. The ironic thing is that I actually spoke to Josh when I used to be an agent and he was in the middle of casting the female lead for Infested and he was genuinely upset about not being able to hire an actress I represented (the talented Emily Merryn) because the financiers wanted a star name like Kari Wuhrer. And no, I can't pronounce her name either. What I remember from that experience was that he was a nice and humble guy. That was, I think way back in 2000.

Enter the Josh Olson of today.

For those of you that peruse the world of the scribosphere, I'm sure most of you have seen the utter carnage between Josh and I over at Craig Mazin's blog (writer of Scary Movie 3 & 4), The Artful Writer. If you have 6 hours to kill you can see how it started here and how it's escalated here.

Prepare yourself, this is gonna read rather outrageous, but these are the type of things that have been said between us:

Excerpts from The Artful Writer:

"...Who are you trying to convince? You’re arguing about concepts that have literally been expressed in bold statements. If you go back and read some of your posts, it almost seems as if you’re arguing with yourself.
And just out of curiousity, are you able to express a point of view without being so painfully obnoxious? Even your good points are destroyed with that nasty attitude.
Tone it down. --Kevin Arbouet"

Here's Josh's reply...

"Kevin,


Nobody likes a politeness Nazi.


On top of that, nobody likes people who couch nasty attitudes in polite speech. The difference between how I write here and how some people write, is you never walk away from one of my posts wondering if you might have just been insulted.
I have enough respect for you to let you know, bitch.


Stop getting your panties in such a wad over how people express themselves and pay some attention to what they’re expressing. You’ll come off as less of a priss.


As for the statement in bold, you should take Joshua’s comments to heart. If that’s not the first time Craig’s expressed that particular sentiment here, it’s the second. Maybe the third. And I’d wager that the only other times have been when I’ve put his feet to the fire in the past to make that clear because - pay attention here, princess - it does not come through at ALL in his writings here.
What DOES come through is his irritation with writers who don’t think they need to do more than just write; with writers who think what we do is the most important aspect of filmmaking; with writers who think the big issues are more important than the small ones; with writers who think this is an art form and not a sausage factor; with writers who have the temerity to value real quality over fleeting commercial success.
I’m hardly the only working screenwriter who reads Craig’s stuff and rolls his eyes. I’m just one of the few who’s delusional enough to think that if I pound his head against a wall long enough, he’ll get it.
It’s almost cetainly a mental illness. But it sure does keep the peanut gallery entertained….--Josh Olson"

See what I mean?

Because it's gotten so out of hand and everyone else out there has been writing about it, I thought I should too since I'm smack dab in the middle of it. The posts over at The Artful Writer has sky rocketed past 400 posts and will probably reach 500 by the end of the day so you can see how insane it's gotten. There's a certain standard of decorum over at Craig's site and it would be rude of me not to try and follow them.

No such rules here.

The truth is, Josh is an asshole. That statement has nothing to do with his talent or his accolades. Most writers dream of being Oscar nominated and to achieve such a goal is an amazing feat. But that doesn't make you less of an asshole. I'm not going to recount all of the gory details but let's just say I'm not above throwing him threw a window. Personally, I don't know if he's always been an asshole, recently turned into an asshole, or maybe he's just a cyber internet asshole. I don't know.

So...I just realized that there's no point to this post. Other than to state Josh's assholeness. No moral of the story here today, folks. Sorry. It's all just juicy in fighting gossip and conjecture.

Enjoy!

--Tenspeed