The Goonies 2, Co-Writing, and Timothy Olyphant vs. Johnny Depp.

'The Goonies 2' is written, and my involvement is officially through, unless I'm asked to hope promote it or something, which I would gladly do. I've heard rumors that Matt Kubrick might direct it, but don't take that as any sort of official word. Director of the original 'Goonies' Richard Donner is probably a little old and burnt out to be working with a bunch of kids (he is 80 years old, after all). The process pretty much went like this: Harry asked me if I'd like to co-write the script with Joey. And even though I've never liked 'The Goonies', I agreed and came up with the concept which Stark then expanded upon, then it came back to me and I punched it up, added scenes, and deleted scenes. I imagine it is probably on the fast track to production and will see the light of day before many other projects I wrote prior.

Speaking of co-writing, I just finished another pitch, this time with Chad Taylor. He shot me a message saying that he had a vague idea and a title, but hadn't figured out how to write it. I took his concept and ran with it. Even though I did all the writing, the credit will read that the movie is written by D.R. Cobb & Chad Taylor, because I never would've written any of it with him asking me to and giving me the concept. In Hollywood, the credit would probably be something more along the lines of: Story by Chad Taylor & D.R. Cobb, Screenplay by D.R. Cobb, but things are a little more simple at CMP. As for the plot, I'm not going to give anything away other than the genre: Thriller/Science Fiction.

Stark has rebuffed my desire to drop Johnny Depp from the lead role in one of my movies. I'm okay with it, but I really wanted to give the role to someone less overexposed, namely: Timothy Olyphant. I've always been a fan of Olyphant, and I wanted to give a lead role in a big movie, turn him in the movie star he should be. But I guess Stark had already begun work on the poster, or at least had a really good idea for the poster. In the same movie, I had also tried to recast the female lead, but January Jones will be busy acting in 'Woman' for director Sofia Coppola, which is a bummer. I ended up giving the role back to the actress I had originally cast opposite Depp, before all the changes. I had also wished for a change of setting, but after the Depp decision I am unsure if my requests will be met.