Paul Mason lays out
some advice for budding scriptwriters:
...the revolt that brought Trump to power represents an ideological break with any situation the US’s myth-makers have known. From now on, even in the most inconsequential domestic drama, every character’s ethnicity matters. If they’re a black male, are they one of the 13% who voted for the Ku Klux Klan’s man, or against him. For any actor building a character in a drama set in the present, the question becomes: what does my character think about Trump, Brexit, the collapse of liberal norms in public life?
Wow! That's going to lead to some
awesome films in the 2017-18 season! I bet you just can't wait, reader!
So, it is time we demand that the storytelling industry addresses the truth. A man takes charge of the US on a wave of racial and misogynist hate; he screws up the world order so badly it spirals into chaos. Down these mean streets, as Raymond Chandler put it, a man or woman must go “who is not mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid”.
Hollywood producers everywhere are looking up the percentage they'll get of straight-to-DVD sales...
