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Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Must start reading Casanova.


GQ Editor's Blog:
"In Fraction's mind-altering comic book series Casanova, which recently returned from hiatus, the man in the suit is Casanova Quinn, a Bond-meets-Jagger rake with chiaroscuro cheekbones and a complicated job description. He's been plucked from his own dimension, where he's nominally a bad guy, and coerced into impersonating the Casanova Quinn of another dimension, who's ostensibly a good guy. It's part of an ongoing clash between rival spy agencies W.A.S.T.E. and E.M.P.I.R.E., and if those acronyms make you think of Thomas Pynchon spec-scripting The Man from U.N.C.L.E., you're starting to get the idea...

Look, spy shows should have tremendous, tremendous costume and wig budgets. That's the thing that Alias got right. Like, let's put the hot girl in the latex dress. Yes. The answer to that is always yes. On 24, there's no room for Mary-Lynn Rajskub to put on a dominatrix outfit. Also, Alias had the genius move of hiding all the secret hideouts inside of nightclubs. You're never gonna look in a nightclub for the death-laser! Jack Bauer's out stabbing guys in the kneecaps, but he should really be at the S&M nightclub, because that's where the real deal happens. That's where the space laser is. And that's what I want to see.

...One of my favorite, favorite, favorite pieces of storytelling advice came from Billy Wilder, who said "Don't talk down to your audience. Let them put two and two together, they'll love you forever." And he's absolutely right. I hate hand-holding. I hate when somebody thinks it's a good idea to stop the story and make sure the people in the slow seats got it. It compromises everything, and it insults the intelligence of the people who've followed you, and given you their time and attention. So I always try to make it a mission to make any audience I've been blessed with a co-conspirator. "Come along with me, let's see where this goes. And I believe you're smart enough to figure this out, 'cause I'm smart enough to write it, and surely you're brighter than me.""

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