Last Crusade (Indy Week #1 of 5)

The Ark of the Covenant and The Holy Grail: Indy Who You Trying to Fool?

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Genre: Action-Adventurev (with a strong touch of Nazi Chick Romance)

Premise: Indiana Jones sets out in search of his father, who has been kidnapped by the Nazis, and ends up on a quest for the Holy Grail.
About: (Disclaimer: I’ve been trying to decide for scripts that are feature movies, how much I should discuss what actually happened to the film. I’ve decided it’s sort of pointless because this script is more about the actual “writing of”. So, from now on, the “about” will just have details about the development process.) The script for Last Crusade went through several alterations, which eventually spawned some of the scripts I’ll be reviewing later in the week. At first, Diane Thomas (Romancing the Stone) wrote a “haunted house” film which was dropped. (I don’t have a script for this, but would absolutely love one if anybody has it.) Chris Columbus (Gremlins, Goonies, Adventures in Babysitting) then wrote an idea based around The Monkey King (which I remember from Nickelodeon’s Legends of The Hidden Temple). His script was crazy high in terms of productions costs and racist (we’ll get to this later). Menno Meyjes (The Color Purple, Empire of the Sun) came up with a very magic realist script (I don’t have it, but would love it) with Indy searching for his father and the Holy Grail so now there was a definite story. Spielberg suggested making Indiana a Boy Scout as he was one as a child. Jeffrey Boam was hired for the next draft and hyped up the characters. There were a few more touch-ups by Tom Stoppard (mostly dialogue rewrites) who worked under the name Barry Watson. Stoppard also came up with the “Panama Hat” character, who is a bad guy Indy meets as a kid and alter cops the man’s dressing style.

Writers: To recap: Diane Thomas (who died in a car accident in 1985 while working on Speilberg’s Always and Indy) replaced by Chris Columbus (Goonies, Adventures in Babysitting, Gremlins) was replaced by Menno Meyjes (Empire of the Sun, Color Purple) was replaced by Jeffrey Boam (Straight Time, Dead Zone, Lost Boys, Funny Farm) who was written by Tom Stoppard (who in addition to a ton of major theater work also wrote Brazil, Empire of the Sun, and Shakespeare in Love).

This film suckers you into loving it within the first ten pages. During a local boy scout trip, Indiana Jones ends up on a circus train chasing after the Cross of Coronado. It’s totally that old Spielberg trick of quickly taking something mundane and turning it into an extraordinary, jaw dropping experience. And, we inadvertently prepare ourselves for another Indy adventure. Plus, the character is developed: we learn how he got his name, what his home life was like, and how he eventually got the idea for his character. Plus for the first time (keep this in mind for later, because we’ll go revert back) the opening is not that tired, pot boiler, boulder roll, shoot out at a dance club, Area 51 escape sort of introduction. In fact, this is the only time in this entire script where we feel Indiana Jones is going somewhere new, and busting out of its old established structure.
There are definite repeats, and I remember being confused about this as a kid. Both times the Nazis are after him. In the first film, Indy is chasing The Ark of the Covenenant (it holds the Ten Commands) and now he’s chasing after The Holy Grail. Has Indy gone Christian? Is he a born again? I mean, all the legendary items you can pick and there have to be two pieces that are directly out of Christian mythology?

The thrust of this story is Indy’s relationship to his dad: at first castigated by his father, then following his dad’s work, then working on one of his father’s projects, then hooking up with his father’s old squeeze, then finding his father, then completing his father’s quest. But Indy’s dad is never really his dad. He’s more of a partner in crime. It’s that old adventure notion that whoever is on Indy’s quest stops being anything except a partner in adventure and somebody who can eventually survive until the end of the journey. While we’re on this, Indy’s main squeeze Isla in this film lacks the sarcastic banter of Kate Capshaw or the feistiness of Marion Ravenwood, instead she’s this bland sort of flavorless bitch who ends up double crossing him. She isn’t that memorable. And I think her character was written as an after thought. (She’s not much better in the film. But they didn’t really get a terrific actress from what I recall to punch it up).

This film recycles all the plot elements, comes up with some set pieces (a tank chase Columbus will use in his script, a catacombs thing we’ll also see better used in a later script, and a few other pieces). So, needless to say, the middle part of this script is nothing more than a tired retread of the Indy structure (a catacombs scene, an airplane scene, a chase with a tank) that we’ve seen in every other film. There isn’t anything edgy like in Temple of Doom. And Indy’s relationship to his father isn’t enough to carry the story. So the film ends up this tired, schlock. That is, except for the end.

The ending is awesome. Because I love the challenges Indy must faith (the leap of faith, the name of God, picking the true cup) and the interaction with the Knight Templar. This, and the circus train, are the only part of this film that are legitimately fascinating and keep me riveted to the page. It’s because for once, the action and the threats are tied in symbolically to what Indy is looking for which is ultimately tied into the idea of unification with the father. This stuff works wonder. And, if only the film had more of it, The Last Crusade could have ended up another wonderful Speilberg piece.

Scooby Doo (Complete Crap)
Atilla (Poor, Few Redeeming Qualities)
Wedding Crashers (Mediocre)
[X] - Hot Rod (Good)
Definitely Maybe (Pretty Darn Good)

Isla Prospects: Indy’s love interested is also named Isla. She’s also foreign. She’s also sleek. If Isla was about 15 years younger, she could have knocked this role out of the park. I’d love to have see her square of with Harrison Ford.

What I Learned: It is really hard to hook a reader into a film. (Perhaps even harder than hooking a viewer). One way to do it is show the character when they’re younger. As a result, the reader then plays this game of trying to compare and contrast the two characters and figure out just how much the person was influenced by the events that occurred in their youth. Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade performs this trick and it works like a charm. Brought me into the script eager to read and find out where the story was going. So if you can’t find a way to start your script, think about a sequence revealing how the character became the person they are.

Indiana Jones Week

My first exposure to Indiana Jones was a syndication sometime in the early nineties of Last Crusade. I don’t remember too much. Somebody turned into a skeleton. An ancient Knight. But that part that was really jarring and stuck with me long after the film had ended is the scene in which Isla falls down a pit. Where did this bottomless pit lead? For how long did she live during the plunge? And even more importantly, what thoughts went through one’s head when they were in a midst of a bottomless plunge?

Truth be told, I didn’t think about Indiana Jones or any of his adventures for another five years. By this time, I was into Spielberg in general and regaled by the glossy photos of the films special effects in a book I took out from the New Castle Public Library. Indy was never my favorite. It was always Star Wars, but I did watch the entire series as time went by and I held a special place for the film.

The thing about Indiana Jones is that ultimate he’s the icon for absurdist adventures. You can make this guy hunt after anything, and in any way you’d like possible. As long as its historical. For this reason, I was a huge fan of Temple of Doom and Last Crusade was definitely in the right vein. I actually think, I least enjoyed Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was a little too vanilla for me. Almost as if the film was asking “Can I get away with this little boulder run? How about this car chase?”

So I thought it’d be fun to do a little bit of studying the Indiana Jones series this week. I feel the Eszterhas reviews were really informative as to what made his film tick that hopefully I can come to the same sort of conclusions about Indy. I’m going to pay careful attention to the sequels, which in my mind start with Last Crusade, carry out to the fairly recent Indiana Jones 4, and also include the unproduced scripts about The Monkey King, The Martians, and City of the Gods. I’m going to skip over Temple of Doom, but I might review it at a later point. Child slavery, black magic, and human sacrifice with Kate Capshaw. I love it too much for a critical study. Plus it was written by the schlock-meister team of Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz (who’d finish out the 1980’s by working on Howard the Duck and Radioland Murders).

Hearts of Fire (Eszterhas #5 of 5)

Genre: Rock-and-Roll Drama (Literally)

Premise: Molly McGee, a young girl with hopes of being a musician, goes on tour with an aged, one time Rock Star. After meeting another famous star, Jack Colt, a love triangle is created between the three with Molly at the center. Also, it’s about music so every time a scene gets a little too intense we cut to a rock and roll number.

About: This film was re-written by Eszterhas, from a script by Scott Richardson. Lorimar, who was producing, felt that Richardson was too much of a baby writer. So they brought on Eszterhas. It’s worth noting this is the only Richardson script, and he later became a costumer/prop person on Lord of the Rings. In the end, Hearts of Fire essentially became a star-vehicle for Dylan, who if you aren’t up to date with music history was about two steps away from being a crazy old hobo in the mid 1980’s. The love triangle fell apart because Dylan liked rather than hated Rupert Everett, the other musician, and neither wanted to kiss Molly. Richard Marquand directed Return of the Jedi. Let’s all bow our heads. Because he’s more remembered for directing this piece of crap and passing away soon after.

Writers: Joe “My Scripts Are So Bad They Kill People” Eszterhas

The challenge to writing a Rock and Roll film is hardly ever the story in which the music is laid. Rather, it’s hard to make sure the music is good enough and highlights the emotional punch of the scenes. Now, Purple is a good example of that. I’ve never seen Hearts of Fire, but I’m sure that without any major acts attached, this film fell victim as a music movie about bad music. (And I have to add, a lot of the musicians in Hearts of Fire I do like, John Hiatt and Dylan, but these songs represent their weaker efforts. Dylan had been contracted to write a whole album of new material, but in actuality ended up only writing two new songs). So asides from this whole problematic thing that the script is suggesting music that I know full well blows, let’s talk about plot mechanics.

The beginning is very generic. Molly works at a toll booth and is an aspiring rock singer who performs with her band at a local bar. (This is exactly unforgettable in the way almost all cheesy 80’s movies open. In the Eszterhas style, the whole thing starts off with a robbery and then goes back to being slow). At the bar, Molly meets an English rock star, her idol, who lives in seclusion and offers to take her to England with him to place at an oldies concert. (The jaded and cynical love interest). She accepts, but soon grows pissed at how the Englishman handles his image and his music. So she seeks solace in Jack Colt, another British Rock Star. (Who is sort of a sex fiend, of course Eszterhas couldn’t get through a script without sex). Colt produces Molly’s first album. Molly and Colt start knocking booties, and tour America. (There’s one touch here I like about a blind woman who goes to see all of Colts shows and how she’s unpolluted by the music. It’s sad and sweet and my favorite part in the entire movie. I also like that Colt’s daughter discusses titties, but that’s a whole other tangent). Molly ends back on stage with her mentor. And in the end, Molly gives up both men for a shot at stardom. (The Eszterhas “Screw You World” sort of ending). I’d be interested to compare the Richardson draft to this to see which elements were entirely created by Eszterhas.

So ultimately, this film is about musicians (which we’ve seen before many, many times) and the love triangle (which never feels like it gets off the ground because in the script it feels like Molly is only sleeping or entangled with either of the men as a result to leverage her own career). So reading Hearts of Fire, it felt like there was a core missing. Now, add onto this some unconvincing acting and you have a film that flounders.

Scooby Doo (Complete Crap)
Atilla (Poor, Few Redeeming Qualities)
[X] - Wedding Crashers (Mediocre)
Hot Rod (Good)
Definitely Maybe (Pretty Darn Good)

Isla Prospects: There’s really only one female in the entire film, Molly. She’s an impressionable, young teen with aspirations of becoming a famous musician. Sadly, these days of youth have passed Isla Fisher by.

What I Learned: You only have what’s on the page. And as someone who is engaged in writing a rock film that features songs, that’s got to be nerve wracking. Ultimate rock films are only as good as their soundtrack and when you’re using two washed up Dylan songs, I don’t know how this thing could be anything but abysmal. Add on to the fact that there’s a weak structure, an unconvincing love triangle, and every few pages the script makes a weird associate leap that I don’t follow and you have something I’ve never seen but can almost single handedly assure is a piece of garbage.

Basic Instinct (Joe Eszterhas #4 of 5)

Genre: Sexual Thriller (A tad bit sexier, and a tab bit more violent than the other Eszterhas scripts, but overall it's in the same vein)

Premise: Detective Nick Curran investigates the murder of a famous rock star. A beautiful, crime writer Catherine Tramell could be involved, which of course means Curran has to become romantic linked with this woman.

About: In a blaze of glory reminiscient of Paul Schrader's marathon Taxi Driver writing sessions, Joe Eszterhas wrote and sold the script in 13 days for $3 million to Carolco Pictures (Cutthroat Island, Showgirls). The film was a blockbuster and spawned a crappy sequel.

Writers: Joe "Taxi Driver" Eszterhas

I'm gonna set this up in a bit of a different style today. But first of, even though I'm pretty ambivalent about this script (well written, not my cup of tea), it is truly amazing Joe Eszterhas wrote this thing that quickly. I'm tempted to think there's something else going on behind the scenes like he already knew the entire story or had the whole plot worked out because it's alarmign to think somebody could move at such a quick, and productive rated. Hell, most of Taxi Driver ended up using improved dialogue. For speed alone, Basic Instinct is impressive.

Now, here's what I wanted to do today. Eszterhas has a set formula he follows every time in his scripts, I saw it all this week and I'm almost to the point where I can define it. I want to apply Basic Instinct to this Eszterhas mold, and rate it accordingly.

Things I've Noticed In Every Eszterhas Script:

An opening that's slow and wordy (at a bar in Jade, a detective scene in Basic Instinct, a newspaper scene in Beat The Eagle)

A sharp, brutal inciting incident (an ice pick murder in Basic Instinct, a dead body, a burning building, something that's not all that weird or violent)

A protagonist whose profession makes them investigate (a detective a few times, a journalist, a person doing their taxes, Basic Instict uses the detective idea again)

A character with a tarnished reputation (a person having an affair, a detective screwing the woman he's investigating, a showgirl turned hooker, a disreputable reporter)

A character addicted to sex (a hooker, an erotic novelist, a showgirl)

A murder weapon that's an inanimate household object (a walking stick, an ice pick, etc.)

An ending where the character bucks the system ("Screw you Las Vegas", "Screw you newspaper", "Screw you world", "Screw you IRS")

The reliving of scenes from the past, no real present action scenes (via video tape in Jade, memory in Basic Instict, taxes in Beat the Eagle, the details of the event in Dieshot)

A protagonist involved with someone who may be a murderer (either sleeping, business or screwing)

I could go on, but ... hmmmm. Is it possible Eszterhas actually comes up with unique stories this quickly or has he possibly found one formula (Dieshot, Beat The Eagle, Jade, Basic Instict, Silver) to repeat over and over again. I'd very likely. Is it possible this system fell apart on him until he made one crappy film after another? Very likely.

Scooby Doo (Complete Crap)
[X] - Atilla (Poor, Few Redeeming Qualities)
Wedding Crashers (Mediocre)
Hot Rod (Good)
Definitely Maybe (Pretty Darn Good)

Isla Prospects: I can't see anybody but Sharon Stone in this role, so Isla is almost an impossible consideration.

What I Learned: Much like it is for pop artistis and popular novelists, the really great screenwriters can sometimes fall into the trap of writing the same story over and over again with slightly different twists. Having just finished my fourth Eszterhas script, I'm beginning to see this guy isn't so much a writer as a trained monkey who does the same trick over and over and over....he's like the energizer bunny of sexual thrillers.

Jade (Eszterhas #3 of 5)

Genre: I think it is safe to say this is a Thriller, with a lot of long conversations designed to titillate the reader

Premise: A young socialite, TRINA, married to a lawyer, poses as a prostitute named JADE, sleeps with other socialites, and then murders him.

About: In 1992, Joe Eszterhas sold a two page outline of Jade for $2.5 million dollars. I mean, really? William Friedkin directed the film, which was released in 1995 and promptly tanked. Eszterhas said Friedkin had changed the entire story. Could it possibly be that Eszterhas had written a brilliant script that was butchered in the rewrites? Well, I went to the horse’s mouth and found an early 1994 draft of Jade. And as you can see by my review, this film was not going to be brilliant any way you cut it.

Writers: Joe “Apparently I’m Such A Good Writer Now I Don’t Even Have to Write An Actual Story to Make Millions” Eszterhas

In a lot of ways, Jade represents the downfall of Eszterhas’s career better than any other film. He got paid a ton for it, wrote it about his conventional blend of sex and murder, and the script was filmed not as a lavish big budget production but rather a smaller movie in terms of budget and tone. It tanked as the box office, as did most of Eszterhas’s working during the 1990’s, and was universally panned by critics. Someone on the crew famously said the film failed because Eszterhas wrote like a dirty old man. But, really, I think that’s more of an attempt to downplay the film’s sexual elements, and there are a lot of them, but unlike so many films, the sexuality in Jade does not feel gratuitous. The film really explores the thrust towards, and effect on this sort of sexual behavior.

The film opens with the sort of slow, lugubrious conversation that inevitably will lead to some shocking act of violence. Matt is a lawyer, David is a government agent, and Tina is a psychiatrist married to Matt. Matt loves Tina, and so kind of does Dan. Next thing we know, Dan is stumbling onto a murder scene where a very rich man was killed and then hung up like a scarecrow. Thanks to a video camera, the police learn the man was killed in the midst of sex with a prostitute named Jade. Needless to say, I had a feeling one of the people I’d already met was Jade and it was. The script spends the next 80 pages coming to this conclusion as well. I mean, really, the next 80. First we have to diagnose the video of Jade, then we have to interview the neighbor, then we hear from Tina about her decision to become Jade, the whole thing morphs into an easily solved police methodology story.
I think much more than the sex, it’s disturbing how Eszterhas went from writing stories about small town journalists and cops to psychiatrists and District Attorneys. This thing, particularly after just reading Dieshot, reads like something from the mind of a person washed up in a very rich world. And as a result, a lot of these people become much less sympathetic and pretty remote from anything I know. Not to mention, Tina becomes evil, and the two men have pretty weak backbones so there isn’t really anybody I can actively side with. It’s almost like, to a certain group of people at a certain time this film would be very effective, but for me the film failed as a sexual thriller.

Eszterhas has a way of writing very similar scripts over and over again across genres: a slow reveal, a disturbing act, a few twists and turns to clarify what we’ve just seen. Jade’s not exactly a film you’d want to see a thousand times, because once you’ve seen it basically that’s all there is. You don’t read Esterhzas for cool moments or dialogue. It’s all about the twists. So I can definitely see how he sold Jade, but I have no idea whatsoever how he sold this thing for so much money. Also, there’s an accusation that Friedkin (who directed it) changed the script so much Esterhaz threatened to remove his name from the credits. While this, I read a version prior to the Friedkin retool and let me tell you, it may not have been as bad as the movie (which I didn’t see) but it wasn’t exactly Hollywood gold either.
Scooby Doo (Complete Crap)
[X] - Atilla (Poor, Few Redeeming Qualities)
Wedding Crashers (Mediocre)
Hot Rod (Good)
Definitely Maybe (Pretty Darn Good)

Isla Prospects: There’s a young, redheaded socialite nymphette who murders her clients. Enough said. If there was ever an Eszterhas I’d like to see Isla in, this would be it.

What I Learned: If I can solve your Thriller within the first ten pages then it really isn’t that Thrilling. With no doubt as to who the murderer was, Jade became a very gimmicky film. And for something that wasn’t even too high concept to begin with, gimmicky is not an enjoyable or good vein to hit.

Dieshot (Eszterhas #2 of 5)

Genre: That Eszterhas patented genre hybrid of Drama that always seems to lean on the edge of Action but never quite crosses over.

Premise: Caldwell, a small town journalist, investigates a series of buildings that have been burnt down throughout the town. What he discovers after the course of his investigation is a large, evil conglomerate and the “dieshot” who runs it. It’s the sort of generic, corporations are bad thing from among many detective stories, Chinatown.

About: After F.I.S.T. (which is actually not a bad script, if a bit expansive) failed at the box office, Eszterhas entered into a strange period of several years where he wrote a lot of scripts but didn’t get anything produced until Flashdance became a big hit. Or least, I think that’s how it went according to his memoir Hollywood Animal.

Writers: Joe “F.I.S.T Failed But Wait Until Flash Dance” Esterzhas

Dieshot is … not bad. It’s a simple story. And it reads like an article Esterzhas might have written for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. There really isn’t much in the way of story: there’s a generic love interest for Caldwell, he is at first assigned to write an article about a series of buildings that have mysteriously burnt down, discovers the name of an insurance company who owned most of the buildings, people try to kill Caldwell but he escapes, and eventually uncovers corruption city wide and decides to leave. I mean, this is a story we’ve seen many times before, and like most of the Eszterhas scripts it reads like a hybrid of dime store crime novels. And the thing is, he makes it enjoyable.

For some reason, I don't know if it's because I used to be one, but I love watching reporters get assigned news stories in films and go about trying to get the opening leads on their story. This made the first act pretty exciting, and made sure I watched with rapt attention. But then, when we realize it's just burning buildings Dieshot becomes dull. I mean, derelict burning buildings. What's to spark my interest about that? Isn't that like Mafioso 101? I don't think it was any more original in the early 80's. It's not like the material hasn't aged, it's just not necessarily very original dramatic stuff. That being said, though, the third act is pretty awesome because Caldwell after watching the Earth come crashing down around him is left with very little solace in the world so he shows up at the door of his love interest, Cory, which I felt was the perfect tone to offset it. Caldwell ends, talking about California, which Esterzhas sets off with such a cheerily optimistic tone it can only be meant sarcastically.

The whole thing just feels like a TV movie. And it feels like Eszterhas is breaking his chops in as a screenwriter. I know Paramount bought this, but from everything I’ve read I have no idea how close Joe got to getting the thing made. I’d expect not terribly far because at this point he didn’t seem to have a large amount of star power at the time, and the whole set up is a little bit week. But Dieshot is one its way to something, and its tone is a pretty good one. So it's a decent spec but it's definitely not something I'd ever want to see as a film.

Scooby Doo (Complete Crap)
Atilla (Poor, Few Redeeming Qualities)
[X] - Wedding Crashers (Mediocre)
Hot Rod (Good)
Definitely Maybe (Pretty Darn Good

Isla Prospects: Once again, there’s a love interest. But Isla is in no way, shape, or form ever supposed to or going to play an Eszterhas character. Just doesn’t work for me. Even though she played a pretty good Midwestern girl in Wedding Daze and The Lookout.

What I Learned: Dieshot pretty much sets up everything it’s going to use within the first ten pages, and then throughout the rest of the script, it becomes clear just what we’ve been presented with. This is the set up of good detective story, but if you can make it work, and here Eszterhas does then you’ve got a neat little structure going on.

Beat the Eagle (Eszterhas #1 of 5)

Don't Mess with the IRS


Genre: Drama (in places the script threatens to go off on a Dog Day Afternoon tangent, but this never quite happens)

Premise: A bartender is unjustly accused of $14,000 in back taxes by the IRS. Rather than comply, the bartender decides to fight back in a court of law. And that’s the main thrust of the entire story.

About: Beat the Eagle was sold to Paramount by Esztershas as a spec in the mid 1980’s. Originally, Sydney Poitier was attached to direct. But, Poitier weeks after Joe’s legendary class with CAA was afraid to betray the agency’s loyalty and dumped the project. Or, perhaps Poitier was exhausted from directing the staggering work of genius that is Ghost Dad.

Writers: Joe “I’ll Fight All of CAA Barehanded” Eszterhas

The IRS is scary. I mean, really how many of us have any idea what taxes we pay or how amounts are determined? They’re a huge, unstoppable force that does whatever they want. This also means that at any point, the IRS could totally snap and say you own X amount of dollars and turn your life into a Kafkaesque nightmare. That’s basically the whole point of Beat the Eagle. The difference is, though, where some would want to see this story slide off into the bartending protagonist fighting the IRS in an original way, this story makes it nothing more than a legal battle. And how exciting is that really? It’s a cool set up that doesn’t live past the original concept.

And the other thing about Eszterhas, which sort of defines my take on him as a writer as a whole is the guy knows execution. And has perfected down to a T. McKee would have a field analyzing this script because it has the perfect mid-point, set up, character developments, and third act conclusion. And it works really tightly as a film. But in terms of being original, or knocking your socks off with its story, Beat the Eagle chooses rather to use a conventional structure and a story-line that isn’t really high concept, or marketable or playable. As a result, it’s well-written but conventional structure approaches more the feeling one would get from a Movie of the Week than a Feature Film. I’d suspect Eszterhas after his clash with CAA, delayed getting this movie made for a few years. And then, once it became a worn-out property it didn’t lack anything original enough that a direct latched onto it and wanted to turn it into a film.

The nicest part about this whole script, and why despite my mediocre feeling about its plot, I have a good feeling about Beat The Eagle is Eszterhas is really creating his own tone here. This, and a few of his other unproduced specs, read like wizened tales from a man who used to work for a small town Midwestern newspaper. Eszterhas creates a nice tone for the yinzers of the world (residents of Eastern Ohio, Western Pennsylvania) and I can’t really think of another screenwriter who tackles these subjects in such a way. So that’s pretty cool.

Beat the Eagle isn’t an amazing script. Nor is it a horrible one. It’s a nice, small script with some good moments. And that to me is okay any way you cut it.

Scooby Doo (Complete Crap)
Atilla (Poor, Few Redeeming Qualities)
Wedding Crashers (Mediocre)
[X] - Hot Rod (Good)
Definitely Maybe (Pretty Darn Good

Isla Prospects: Not really. Not at all. Isla is not supposed to be playing girls from Eastern Ohio, not that there are even that many girls in this script. But that’s okay.

What I Learned: Eszterhas has written that perfect, edgy, chock to the brim with tone script. What he hasn’t written is something that’ll knock your socks off, and I doubt you could sell Beat The Eagle as a first spec script. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a fun read, or a nice quiet piece for an established writer.