Blade Runner 2049

I’ve returned from my travels and ready to do some more blogging! Today I’m going to review Blade Runner 2049 but I’m going to talk about the whole day I had dedicated to it. Yes, my friend and I decided to have a Blade Runner day and re-watch the original before going in to see its sequel.

The original Blade Runner is a weird film, it revolutionised the way films and culture in general envisioned the future but never actually did that well in the box office. It acquired a large cult following of fans with many heralding it as one of the greatest films ever made.

However, I don’t believe this to be the case. In fact, my first ever viewing of this film I thought it was quite boring, technically amazing but lacking in story and a compelling main character. Upon a re-watch, I found that I actually enjoyed it a lot more, I’ve matured in some of my tastes and developed an interest in philosophy within film but my initial gripes were still there. It’s a good film but maybe just a tad overrated. I originally wasn’t excited at the prospect of a sequel, well not until Denis Villeneuve and Ryan Gosling were attached as Director and main lead.

Villeneuve is one of the most interesting directors around at the moment, I’ve loved most of his films, especially Arrival, and teamed with his cinematographer Roger Deakins they are a cinematic force to be reckoned with. As shown again in 2049, which honestly might be one of the most beautiful looking films this year, if not the decade. Yes, I loved Blade Runner 2049. It amplified everything good about the original, took away everything bad and made an incredible sequel to a good film. I hope this film teaches Hollywood a lesson on how to make sequels.

There was so much depth to this film, the characters are three dimensional, compelling and you actually care for them. Gosling plays it down but the subtleties in his performance really take your breath away in the films more compassionate moments. Everybody in the cast is doing a great job and I was really taken aback by the performances of Ana de Armas and Sylvia Hoeks who were unknown to me before this film.

The story moves along a lot more swiftly, still slow but a lot more engaging that you barely notice the two hour forty run time. The philosophical musings are still present and are the emotional core of the film, better articulated than the original and they branch off into a lot more territories. The main themes of the original are explored further and it really creates some great questions about what life is.

The world of Blade Runner is a place that is great to watch on the big screen, the dystopian smoky cities looming large, explored more this time as well as taking trips to more remote areas of this well envisioned universe. The cinematography of these places looks gorgeous and the loud and lingering score elevates this images to new heights, you really need to see this film on the big screen.

It’s really difficult to review this film without giving away spoilers, even the plot itself is better left unknown as it kicks off pretty fast and takes you on a wild ride of twists and turns. Just go see this film, if you like Sci-Fi that is taken seriously then this is one for you, it’s just a bonus that its presented to you by some of the best people working in the industry. I’m giving Blade Runner 2049 a 5/5. A serious contender for best film of the year. 

What did you think? Masterpiece or slow and boring? Let me know in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!

The Pursuit in the Finals

If you follow me on Twitter you may have seen that one of my scripts The Pursuit made it to the finals of the Stage 32 Sci-Fi & Fantasy Screenwriting Contest. The winners were announced last night and although I didn't make the top two, I was extremely happy to have made it this far.

The Pursuit was a script I wrote for my final production assignment at Falmouth University back in 2015. Since then it has gone through a few tweaks and changes, placing in the ScreenCraft Sci-fi contest semi-finals that same year and even getting read by a couple of producers. Over the past couple years I've made the odd change here and there but have been mostly working on newer and (hopefully) better scripts. However, earlier this year I saw that Stage 32, a great site for creative minded people, had an opening for submissions for their Sci-Fi & Fantasy Contest, and with a Sci-Fi script under my belt, I thought why not. So now here we are, the furthest I've placed in a competition yet and I am extremely grateful to have gotten so far. The Pursuit needs a few more action scenes and less talking to spice things up but apart from that it seems to be going down nicely with its readers.

So I thought today I would share the first five pages of The Pursuit with you (something I thought I had already done but apparently not!). The logline goes like this:

'Born onto a mission to explore the stars, Lily only dreams of going home to Earth. What was once an impossible dream becomes suddenly more achievable when the ship regains a lost connection with Earth, and Lily becomes friends with a lonely technician named Bry on the other end.'

And the first five pages go like this: 

So there you have it, the first five pages of The Pursuit, the first feature script I wrote. I'm pretty happy with how it's evolved and with it placing so highly in this recent competition makes me think that it could do with some extra attention in the near future with the hope that one day it might win a competition. Wouldn't that be something. 

Congratulations to the winner of the competition Ben Gross with his script The Ladies' Guide to Hacking. You can check out his logline as well as the loglines from all the finalists here. 

If you're a producer/director reading this and want to see more, drop me a message!

Thanks for reading!

Screenwriting: ARK

Writing is weird. You have to keep doing it in order to get better at it but sometimes it feels as if things aren't going your way. This is something I have had a bit of a problem with recently, I'm getting all these ideas but none of them are looking good on the page. It's easy to give up but you have to keep at it. I've been meaning to post this for a while and now that I've finally come round to it my writing routine has gotten better and a spark of inspiration has set a new script in motion. Over the summer however, I started writing the one I'm going to show you today, under the temporary title of 'ARK'. It's easy to let this blog turn into one that churns out review after review but being a screenwriter I wanted to share some more of my work with you guys, mainly to show you what I'm up to and also to gain some feedback as to how this work connects with audiences. Now, I've done a bit of this in the past and wanted to carry it on (hopefully) a bit more frequently by sharing the first five pages of one of my scripts. As I mentioned, today's one is from yet another sci-fi film I've half written; 'ARK'. Let's get into it, here's the working logline:

'A young farmer’s son must make it to Earth’s ‘life boat’, the Ark, in order to be with the love of his life, as the planet is to be engulfed by its exploding sun.'

This is a script I have actually written a lot of but have struggled with how to end it. It's a bit of an action love story set in space that is very fast paced and pushes it's main two characters to new depths in order for them to survive together. I really wanted to get the story moving and have a nice fight to start the film off, in order to give audiences a taste of what is to come in terms of pace and action. That fight is mostly shown in the opening five pages. Now, I would love some feedback, what do you think of this opening, does it work? Does this sound like something you would like to see? Did the writing grab your attention and make you want to read on? Let me know in the comments below or contact me over Twitter or email. Read the first five pages below and then get back to me and let me know!

Thanks for reading!

Update On My Work

So after (nearly) three years of studying, today I handed in my final pieces of work, concluding my time at Falmouth University. It's a pretty big day, but I thought I would update you guys on what I'm hoping is going to happen next!

So after studying all this time, I have realised that screenwriting is the route for me. One of my final projects was a feature length screenplay, and that is what I will now be looking to sell. Obviously, that is just one screenplay, so I'm going to need to write some more! I have my house in Falmouth for the next couple months, so I will be doing a lot of writing work during my break, before looking for a part time job, so I can begin to have some income and pay off the annoyingly high student debt, as well as use the money to submit to festivals, competitions and what not.

So yeah, lots of screenwriting is about to begin, or has begun, because I have already developed another idea which I am about to write a first draft for!

The screenplay I have already written, and gone through a number of drafts with, is titled The Pursuit. And if any producers/agents/directors/managers out there are reading, then let me tell you, it is a Young Adult Sci-Fi film, which I would pitch as a cross between The Hunger Games and Moon.

The logline goes like this:

Born onto a mission to explore the stars, Lily only dreams of going home to Earth. What was once an impossible dream becomes suddenly more achievable when the ship regains a lost connection with Earth, and Lily becomes friends with a lonely technician named Bry on the other end. 

Sound like some something you might want to read/pursue further? Get in contact!! (alex-moppy@hotmail.com) 

Other shameless plugs on this post include; an article I wrote recently on Jay and Mark Duplass's TV show Togetherness  for Steam TV. You can read that one here.

Don't worry though, I'm not giving up the blog just yet! In fact I'm celebrating my hand in with a screening of Mad Max: Fury Road, because that's just what film students do. Keep an eye out for a review of that in the next few days!

Thanks for reading!