A couple of weeks ago I was sitting a place called Green Mango on Yonge and Bloor… at least I think it was called Green Mango… with Rumiko and Kana, two of the lovely ladies from Ashita’s story Cream Puff Explosion. And we were discussing acting and Ashita of course. I was thrilled to hear from both of them that they were excited to see the finished film and Rumiko quickly mentioned that if I were doing another film, that she would love to act for me again—I took that as the ultimate compliment.
The topic of the next film often comes up in my conversations with people working on this movie, again, their eagerness to want to work with me again is taken as the highest of all compliments. But, thankfully, I am not a big movie studio that churns out movies once a year… and I most certainly do not plan sequels while still in production of the first movie. Though, Ashita (the Japanese word for tomorrow) could easily have follow ups titles Today and Yesterday, but I do not work like that.
For me, writing is an escape from this crazy world we live in. The thought of being alone in a room with music, coffee and my imagination is refreshing. Sitting there creating a world, where I can be as violent or as peaceful as I want. I can hate, I can love, I can be happy, sad, angry… I can be or make whatever I want with this world. And usually I write when I have something to say, I don’t just write because I have to make another movie.
As a writer, Ashita has been the most interesting of all my projects, it’s the only film where I’ve had to remove an entire part of the story and replace with a new one. I guess this is either perfectionist or total insanity. But some people think that writing is simply writing about what happened to you. It’s more than that, its much, much more—it’s about bringing out all the moments in your life and all the feelings in your heart. Writing is less about documenting your experiences and more about what you retained from them. To be honest, I don’t think I’ll every stop writing, as to whether it will be a movie or not, I don’t know. I have often debated writing a novel. Recently, I wrote my very first manga (comic book) which was a lot of fun. My first film The Meatball Story, was never intended to be a made as a film. I wrote it as a play and was fully preparing to produce it as a play when the harsh realities of theatre (sometimes harsher than the realities of movies) came crashing into me like Optimus Prime at an Energon cube party (geek alert, geek alert).
Interestingly, today, I saw 8 people reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows a book released only 3 days ago and the last of Harry Potter global phenomenon series. For all you would be writers out there, lets take J.K. Rowling as an example—as in my previous entries, I make references to what literary muggles would refer to as obscure personalities. J.K. Rowling, from what I understand, was a single mother and unemployed at the time she wrote the first Harry Potter book. Based on my earlier statement of writing about how your life is affected by your experiences. Here is a lady, who had very little money, writing about a boy wizard, who will grow up to save the world and be the greatest wizard in history. Now, I highly doubt that Rowling was foreshadowing her future as the most successful authors ever and as the richest woman on the planet. Or did she? I will conclude with a quote by the great Neil Simon who once said: “If you can go through life without experiencing pain you probably haven't been born yet.” This coming from a man who wrote some of the greatest comedies of contemporary theatre. Interesting, n’est pas?
The topic of the next film often comes up in my conversations with people working on this movie, again, their eagerness to want to work with me again is taken as the highest of all compliments. But, thankfully, I am not a big movie studio that churns out movies once a year… and I most certainly do not plan sequels while still in production of the first movie. Though, Ashita (the Japanese word for tomorrow) could easily have follow ups titles Today and Yesterday, but I do not work like that.
For me, writing is an escape from this crazy world we live in. The thought of being alone in a room with music, coffee and my imagination is refreshing. Sitting there creating a world, where I can be as violent or as peaceful as I want. I can hate, I can love, I can be happy, sad, angry… I can be or make whatever I want with this world. And usually I write when I have something to say, I don’t just write because I have to make another movie.
As a writer, Ashita has been the most interesting of all my projects, it’s the only film where I’ve had to remove an entire part of the story and replace with a new one. I guess this is either perfectionist or total insanity. But some people think that writing is simply writing about what happened to you. It’s more than that, its much, much more—it’s about bringing out all the moments in your life and all the feelings in your heart. Writing is less about documenting your experiences and more about what you retained from them. To be honest, I don’t think I’ll every stop writing, as to whether it will be a movie or not, I don’t know. I have often debated writing a novel. Recently, I wrote my very first manga (comic book) which was a lot of fun. My first film The Meatball Story, was never intended to be a made as a film. I wrote it as a play and was fully preparing to produce it as a play when the harsh realities of theatre (sometimes harsher than the realities of movies) came crashing into me like Optimus Prime at an Energon cube party (geek alert, geek alert).
Interestingly, today, I saw 8 people reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows a book released only 3 days ago and the last of Harry Potter global phenomenon series. For all you would be writers out there, lets take J.K. Rowling as an example—as in my previous entries, I make references to what literary muggles would refer to as obscure personalities. J.K. Rowling, from what I understand, was a single mother and unemployed at the time she wrote the first Harry Potter book. Based on my earlier statement of writing about how your life is affected by your experiences. Here is a lady, who had very little money, writing about a boy wizard, who will grow up to save the world and be the greatest wizard in history. Now, I highly doubt that Rowling was foreshadowing her future as the most successful authors ever and as the richest woman on the planet. Or did she? I will conclude with a quote by the great Neil Simon who once said: “If you can go through life without experiencing pain you probably haven't been born yet.” This coming from a man who wrote some of the greatest comedies of contemporary theatre. Interesting, n’est pas?
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