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What a week. First off the country I currently reside in celebrated it's imperial rule over the weekend. Yay. As I sat watching fireworks light up LA I couldn't help but picture the skies over Baghdad being similarly illuminated but for entirely different reasons. Mmmm.

Anywho...so after spending hours upon hours in pre-production for my second short film, securing locations, hiring crew members, casting actors etc., turns out I had to pull the plug on the entire thing at the very (and I do mean very) last minute, for reasons I'd rather not get into here. Not many feelings are as crushingly disappointing, however thankfully no money was spent so no harm done...to the wallet at least.

Still, the decidedly down-turn that experience offered was soon balanced out by the progress of my first feature film. I spent all week (at the behest of my producer) re-writing the script until I eventually think I have finally cracked it. The nature of writing for several hours a day though can send a man insane so in truth I've got nay fooking clue whether I've cracked it or not. It remains to be seen. Also, (warning extreme "LA speak" coming up) I had a meeting with another, pretty well established producer who literally taught me more useful information in an hour than I've received in probably the last five years. I think I realise exactly what is needed to get this bad boy off the ground now so onwards and upwards on that front.

I'm also, and the this is really sad how good this makes me feel, on a bit of a hot streak with ordering films off Netflix. One brilliant film after another. The streak can't last surely, but here is a list of films I've recently watched and were, for want of a better phrase, the tits:

* Glengarry Glen Ross - superb writing, even better acting. I didn't realise how good Jack Lemmon was. Also, Pacino calling Kevin Spacey a "Stupid fucking cunt" was rather genius.

* Being There - A brilliant piece of satire featuring the legend that is Peter Sellers. You can now also see where Forrest Gump came from.

* The Assassination of Jesse James... - Quality moody western film. How Casey Affleck didn't win an Oscar for this is beyond me.

* The Long Good Friday - Classic British Gangster flick. Great film, brilliantly directed and gives you the chance to see many now famous actors when they were young upstarts. Cue lots of "Oi! I know him" moments.

* Dog Day Afternoon - See this film immediately. Pacino is amazing. Hilarious stuff.

* Bruno - why didn't anyone tell me how funny this film was? "Bruno was Schwartz-listed" is one of the best lines ever.

I've just realised that no pictures accompany this post. So here is one of my girlfriend (Marion Cotillard) illustrating the size of my knob:

Peace and love,

John.