May
17Rich Writers, Poor Material
When critiquing a film, it’s customary to single out the director for praise or blame, but I’d like to spotlight the two screen writers responsible for “Angels & Demons,” this weekends big prequel. David Koepp and Akiva Goldsman are the two highest paid screen writers in the history of the movie business, and their over-priced script of the new Tom Hanks film is a complete mess.“Angels & Demons,” doubtless will do substantial business around the world, but may not come close to the $750 million worldwide gross of its predecessor, “The Da Vinci Code.” In tackling their script, Koepp and Goldsman were again handicapped by what Todd McCarthy rightly calls the “laborious, connect-the-dots” plotting of novelist Dan Brown. Both films were also directed by Ron Howard and produced by Brian Grazer and John Calley, who clearly have a fealty to the Dan Brown goldmine.
Still, give the audience a break, guys. The actors in “Angels & Demons” spout a steady stream of on-the-nose expository dialogue. “Oh, good, the symbologist has arrived,” says the commander of the Swiss Guards, and that’s actually a witty line by comparison. As Joe Morgenstern observes in the Wall Street Journal, the audience is “Benumbed by info overload.”
And it’s dopey info – all about the “illuminati” (they’re bad) and the “Preferiti” (they’re good), with Tom Hanks racing around looking agitated as he tries to prevent antimatter from blowing up the world.
There was concern from the studio (Sony) that Catholics might be offended by the Vatican intrigues, but, as A.O. Scott declares in the New York Times, “The only people to be offended by “Angels & Demons” are those who persist in their adherence to the fading dogma that popular entertainment should earn its acclaim through excellence and originality.”
Again, Koepp and Goldsman were stuck with the basic material, but they were also handed a few million bucks to give it some “excellence and originality.” Goldsman earned his paycheck by writing the scripts for “A Beautiful Mind” and “I am Legend.” Koepp was responsible for projects like “War of the Worlds” and “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” (he also struck out with “Ghost Town,” an oddly leaden film he both wrote and directed).
Between them, their films have surely grossed billions and their paychecks have far surpassed a hundred million. It’s great to see writers benefit richly from the system, but it also would be gratifying to see their skills on display.
They could start by writing a role for Tom Hanks; he doesn’t have one in “Angels & Demons.”
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Posted by: buyusedcars | 9/14/2009 8:18:18 AM
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Posted by: furious d | 5/17/2009 4:10:25 PM
Are they the highest paid? From what I hear, Zaillian makes just as much - if not more. He just doesn''''t go around publicizing it.
Posted by: Devin A | 5/17/2009 3:55:25 PM