Pirate of the Caribbean writers speak

The Writers Guild Foundation is presenting a series of talks with screenwriters, titled “Spring Storytellers.”

Tonight’s guests will be Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, whose PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD’S END begins screening this evening. They also worked on ALADDIN, SHREK, and the famous unfilmed screenplay for GODZILLA (most emphatically unlike the version that got made in 1998 by Sony Pictures).

The evening will be moderated by film critic F.X. Feeny, whom I interviewed years ago when he tried his hand at screen writing on ROGER CORMAN’S FRANKENSTEIN UNBOUND.

The event starts at 7:30pm. There will be a Q&A session, followed by a reception.

Advance tickets are no longer available, so the event is probably sold out, but you can always show up and hope a few seats become available due to no-shows.

Unfortunately, I cannot make the event tonight. Which is a major disappointment. I had wanted to ask Rossio if he really is responsible for the defensive, fan-boy style rants that somebody attributed to him in the comments to a post I did back when he gave an interview to Sci Fi Wire in which blamed the negative critical reaction to PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST not on the film itself but on the critics who chose to criticize it for being bloated, overlong, and poorly structured. Apparently, all of that was supposed to be outweighed by:

• “… the unique non-hero’s journey structure, intricately weaving three storylines into one (shades of Good, Bad & Ugly?); the exploration of the themes of existentionalism and what it means to be a good man in an evil world; the use of foreshadowing; the unique performances (especially Bill Nighy and Naomi Harris); the memorable visuals, especially the trademark rolling water wheel, rolling bone cages and Kraken attack (hey, spectacle is one of the Poetics); the creation of memorable secondary characters who possess real story relevance, again not seen much in summer movies; and the exquisite craftmanship of props, locations, costuming, and stuntwork, etc., where the top artists in their fields spent years carefully crafting each aspect of the film, with considerable invention. And the humor.”

Makes your head ache just reading this, doesn’t it?

Updated Note: Just to be clear, I do not believe that Rossio wrote the above comment. It sounds too much like a fan defending his idol.