Slagg Brothers win a commission.

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The Slagg Brothers would like to thank everyone for the massive support recieved in an online video competition over the Christmas period.

The Slagg Brothers were placed second and won a commission for a series of sketches to be filmed for ComedyBox. ComedyBox is the new online presence of Time Warner and is fronted by John Lloyd, the producer of great shows such as QI, Not the Nine O'Clock News, and Black Adder.

If you want to see the sketch, please visit: http://www.comedybox.tv/topview-10640

Will have more interesting news to report from the comedy duo soon.

Slagg Brothers' Film Noir

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The Slagg Brothers' script for a comedy Film Noir has been accepted and filming will begin at the turn of the year in London. The process from approach by the company to acceptance of the script took five weeks. A fortnight to work out what the client was looking for, a week to plan, a week to write, and a week of redrafts. The keywords for the project were: poetic, erotic, dark, menacing. When we met up with the producers, we were pleased to find that they thought we'd delivered the script on time and fulfilling their expectations.

At present the actors are being cast. Frank Harper (Lock, Stock ... and Football Factory) is to play the lead role and we're hoping that Beth Winslet (Sister of Kate) will play the lead female role.

Will keep you informed of further progress.

Exciting times on Planet Slagg

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An update on my occasional writing pardners, The Slagg Brothers. They've told me that they've made the shortlist for a very prestigious award (more details to follow) and they're currently writing the treatment for a cinema release Film Noir, due out in 2008.

Will let you know at what exact moment everything goes bosoms up for them.

Slaggs placed in Liverpool Comedy Festival.

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Slagg Brothers, my occasional writing partners have been busy the last few months.

Recently securing an agent, they came second in the Liverpool Comedy Festival with a ten-second short called Angry Chaplin. The brief was a silent comedy in less than ten seconds, so the Slaggs wondered how Charlie Chaplin would have dealt with the pesky 1920s paparazzi, and this was the result. You can see it here: Angry Chaplin

There are (hopefully) big moves in the USA for this duo with a large film company expressing interest in one of their screenplays. More on that, later.

Irates of the Caribbean - At my Wits' End

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Yep, irate and at my wits' end with this film. I have several gripes.

Firing a monkey from a cannon isn't that clever, even in comedy. In real life, the poor creature's ass would pass through its head before it left the barrel.

"Ah, it's only a film," cry its defenders. But those same cannons were firing cannonballs through wooden beams, a moment before. Create a fantasy world, by all means, but at least make the rules within that world constant. Consistency please, cannons either hurt or they don't. They aren't phasers that you can set to 'stun.'

Friggin' in the riggin' - How many times did the characters hang from a rope and swoop in beautifully-timed and graceful arcs without once encountering any of the other countless pieces of rigging on a sailship? The only frigging in that rigging was with the truth.

The Kiera speech - flat and tedious writing, totally predictable. If I was a 'irate' on that boat, I'd have been swmming to shore rather than listen to that hogwash any longer. The main problem was that the speech turned the morality of the film and the historical world on its head.

Her speech about 'fighting for our freedom' and 'dying as free men' works when it comes from the President in Independence Day because the people are ordinary folk fighting for their freedom against an alien threat. But Kiera delivers this speech to a bunch of psycopathic, murderous, foul creatures whose career paths are based on depriving other people of their property, their freedom, and their lives.

It should have been more apt for the captain of the Royal Navy to deliver that speech, at least then it would be a case of free men defending the rights of others against barbarians.

Best part for me was the surreal sequence where Johnny Depp was going insane, alone on the Black Pearl. I knew the feeling by that stage of the film.

Got to say it was better than the second but let's face it, that wasn't hard.