Posts Tagged ‘The Road’

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zoe Deschanel in director Marc Webb's "500 Days of Summer," written by Scott Neustadler and Michael H. Weber

The Writer’s Guild of America has announced its nominees for the year’s  Best Original and Best Adapted Screenplays. The nominees for Best Original include the following:

500 Days of Summer (Scott Neustadler and Michael H. Weber), Avatar (James Cameron), The Hangover (Jon Lucas and Scott Moore), The Hurt Locker (Mark Boal), and A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen).

The nominees for Best Adapted include the following:

Crazy Heart (Scott Cooper – based on novel by Thomas Cobb), Julie and Julia (Nora Ephron – based on separate books by Julie Powell and Julia Child), Precious (Geoffrey Fletcher – based on the novel Push by Sapphire), Star Trek (Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman – based on Star Trek as created by Gene Roddenberry), and Up in the Air (Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner – based on novel by Walter Kirn).

Notable films that were not eligible for the WGA awards because they were not written under the guild’s jurisdiction were: District 9, Inglourious Basterds, The Road, A Single Man, and Up.

Source: Variety

The world may have gone to hell, but at least you'll have something in common with Mel Gibson

With Viggo Mortensen’s The Road being released, IGN.com recently posted a post-apocalypse survival guide based on various films that take place during this futuristic time period.  Though it could have been far more in-depth, what with how many movies that take place in one post-apocalyptic world or another, the guide bases itself on Doomsday, the Mad Max films, and the videogame Fallout 3.

The guide stresses the correct clothes will make surviving A) more possible, and B) far easier. And who’s to argue. The correct shoes and all-weather duds should be picked to suit your environment, and one should have no gripes about stealing such items (that fit) from discarded corpses. When it comes to such basic essentials, be prepared to do what you have to do.

Also, choose your weapon of choice carefully, and do so by knowing well who your enemies are and what they want. “The Zombie Survival Guide” claims that a crowbar is one of the best weapon choices because of its functionality, but when dealing with humans guns and blades are your best bet. If cars are functional in your world, guns are better, but if not then you’d better be ready for some hand-to-hand combat.

The guide also goes over things such as what you should (or should not) eat and the idea that there is no grand destination that exists for you to make a pilgrimage towards. Don’t believe the stories you may hear. So, wandering aimlessly in search for bare essentials seems to be your permanent future.

The concept of this guide is very intriguing, especially for those who enjoy post-apocalyptic movies, but again it could have been far more thorough. In its defense, however, a thorough guide could possibly extend across several books let alone a single feature article. It’s definitely an interesting read.

Quick Thought: I can’t help but be intrigued by one post-apocalyptic trend that the guide leaves out. More than a fair share of such movies (or particularly comics) give the main male character a canine companion, and I didn’t understand why until now. Being on your own is indeed the best option, as you don’t have to worry about other people being a burden or threat to your survival. But being alone can get very depressing after a while, so what better companion to have than one that isn’t likely to kill you, eats less than you, is self-sufficient, and can be trained to help you in fights? An excellent example of such a relationship is between Don Johnson and his dog Blood in the post-apocalyptic A Boy and His Dog.