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July 20, 2005

ALWAYS GO WITH THE WRITING

Rumor has it that TEV has no TV—but here at Chez Palmer, we are HBO fiends.* We’re addicted to everything: The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Deadwood, The Wire, Da Ali G Show, Real Time with Bill Maher. Okay, George Clooney’s K Street sucked, and the last two seasons of Oz were mind-bogglingly bad, but really, once you’re seen this stuff, there’s no going back to the networks.

Lately, we’ve been following the adventures of the guys on Entourage. This show about a budding movie star and his mooching NY homeboys is all flash—but it’s clever flash. In this past Sunday’s episode, Vince had to choose between signing on to film Aquaman, a potential blockbuster, with James Cameron, or Tapping the Source with Harvey Weingard (played by producer Harvey Weinstein—don’t know why the name change, since Cameron plays himself). Vince went with Cameron.

Bad move. Tapping the Source is a Kem Nunn novel. Kem Nunn is a real writer. Always go with the writing. Dude.

*It is a fantasy of mine that some executive at HBO will read Border Dogs and fall in love with it and turn it into a series. I’d email Lee Goldberg for advice about how to make this happen, but then I’d wind up on his blog as one of those posts.

Posted by Karen Palmer at 12:43 AM |

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Comments

Tod Goldberg

The problem with this scenario is that Tapping The Source was already made into a movie...except a few things were changed along the way...Keanu was hired...Swayze came on board...murderers became bank robbers...and it became Point Break. I don't think the credits even make mention of this, but its a fairly widely known, and truly odd, thing. When I spoke with Kem at the book festival I asked him about it and all I can say was that he was, uh, taciturn on the subject.
Great book, though.

Posted by: Tod Goldberg | July 20, 2005 at 01:07 AM

mmmm

That was NOT Harvey Weinstein, but actor Maury Chaykin portraying the obvious Weinstein clone Harvey Weingard.

Posted by: mmmm | July 20, 2005 at 01:34 AM

Karen

Tod -- Widely known doesn't mean I know it. I never saw Point Break, but it sounds awful.

mmmm -- Well, that explains the name change, doesn't it?

Live and learn.

Posted by: Karen | July 20, 2005 at 07:34 AM

TEV

Now you know why we have no TV ... ;)

Posted by: TEV | July 20, 2005 at 10:21 AM

Tod Goldberg

Never saw Point Break??? And I consider you a friend. I forgot to mention that Gary Busey is also in the film playing his second greatest role (Buddy Holly being number 1)

Posted by: Tod Goldberg | July 20, 2005 at 11:53 AM

Patrick Giles

Yes, but the supreme HBO project remains SEX AND THE CITY. This was the first improvement on screwball comedy since ... well, ever. Week after week, that series reached heights in writing, directing, and acting that none of the other HBO shows (SOPRANOS included) have matched. And it did it with less time, money, and a lot less pretension.

Posted by: Patrick Giles | July 20, 2005 at 12:03 PM

Lee Goldberg

I have one word for you, Patrick:

DEADWOOD.

Posted by: Lee Goldberg | July 21, 2005 at 12:41 AM

Karen

So guess what was one of the Encore channels last night? Point Break. Too weird. And guess who executive produced that film? James Cameron. So the whole thing on Entourage was yet another of their in-jokes.

Posted by: Karen | July 21, 2005 at 08:48 AM

Steven Mathis

Just so y'all know. I worked on Entourage and was stunned that "Tapping the Source" popped up in the Sundance episode. I asked the writer (we were standing on the street in Park City outside one of the swag booths freezing while the boys threw snowballs in a shot) why he chose that book. It was no "in joke" from Cameron (who worked one day on that episode and not in Utah) but instead just a book someone TOLD the writer was good. He'd never read it. And how about that I heard this in Utah and Keanu Reeves name in Point Break is Utah. Go fucking figure.

Posted by: Steven Mathis | May 19, 2006 at 11:36 PM

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