"You might not have the talent you need. Success may no longer be available to you. Time will bury everything you care about."

January 5, 2013 8:54 PM

Movie critic Matthew Dessem (previously) considers Edward Ford to be the greatest unproduced screenplay in Hollywood.
posted by Rustic Etruscan (11 comments total)

It is well worth reading all the way through to the end of this one.
posted by brennen at 9:20 PM on January 5, 2013

Previously.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 10:16 PM on January 5, 2013

He's not alone. Here's a very long interview with Mr. Dobbs that I believe I found on Mefi before.
posted by dobbs at 12:07 AM on January 6, 2013

Oops. Obviously, I *did* find it on Mefi as that's what I linked to. Ignore me. I'm drunk. And am a huge LD fan.
posted by dobbs at 12:10 AM on January 6, 2013

I've never heard of the Edward Ford screenplay, but Dessem's description of it makes me really want to see it produced properly.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:45 AM on January 6, 2013

“I don't think he knows. He doesn't know. About the road getting narrower ... as you go.”

Reading that line, in an empty office on the morning of my 42nd birthday, sent chills down my spine. I was handling this fine (42! Life, The Universe & Everything! Towels) until that little ray of sunshine came along.

T'anks. T'anks fer nuttin'.
posted by KingEdRa at 5:58 AM on January 6, 2013 [2 favorites]

Quite a script. Great character and theme, but I would imagine a modern production would have to humanize the women and transsexuals who come in for cruel treatment, like in an Axl Rose song about Hollywood.

Dobbs (who was just 19) invites us to be grossed out by his description of one ugly woman after another populating the underbelly of Hollywood, as well as by gay hustlers, but I don't remember being invited to identify with any of them the way we are with the guys. Also, compare Dobbs's freak-show treatment of Ed Wood's gender-bending friends to Bill Murray's warm performance in "Ed Wood." Based on Dobbs's outspoken conservative crankiness, this stuff doesn't seem empathetic...
posted by steinsaltz at 6:48 AM on January 6, 2013

I've read Edward Ford and it is as good as everyone says it is. Getting Michael Shannon would be an AMAZING piece of casting.
posted by alby at 9:00 AM on January 6, 2013

I couldn't help but think of Ed Wood (the film) the whole time I was reading it... a depressing Ed Wood full of horrible people.
posted by Huck500 at 9:21 AM on January 6, 2013 [1 favorite]

Even more horrible than the people in "Art School Confidential."
posted by steinsaltz at 2:19 PM on January 6, 2013

Still thinking about Edward Ford. Something about it (the robberies and gigolo themes as things get worse and worse?) reminds me a lot of Boogie Nights.
posted by steinsaltz at 8:05 PM on January 6, 2013