Sgt. Angle reporting for duty!

There are many things I want to talk to you about on this page in the days and weeks ahead, including the wonderful reunification of the creative team behind “Se7en.” But today I don’t have a lot of time, so let’s dive right into the topic at hand: Facebook and Twitter. How do these sites relate to the movie world? Why is it that a status update or a tweet can be the subject of a two-hour movie, but I can’t seem to pick the stall with the toilet paper when I go to the theatre?

Facebook, the founding of which is already the subject of a movie (The Social Network) written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher, has fast become the place to be for witty status updates, informing your online world of “friends” of your latest endeavors and wha’s happenin’ in your life. So it comes as no surprise that a particular former Spielberg groupie Dreamworks Executive (!) typed out an update deemed worthy of development.

“Lisa Hamilton Daly’s  Pomeranian raided Chinese takeout bag overnight, opened and ate a fortune cookie. Her fortune: You have strong spiritual powers, and you should develop them.”

There are enough layers to this story, though, to convince us that it’s not merely coincidence or circumstance that gave this woman the opportunity to sell a story to Hollywood. And, as you can see, it ain’t exactly Shakespeare. For starters, Facebook is huge, a billion dollar company, known worldwide. Second, Lisa Hamilton Daly’s former job and co-workers give her exclusive access to industry players. Her circle of “friends” on Facebook includes Christy Fletcher who runs a NY Lit Agency. The likes of Fletcher and UTA agent Howie Sanders are trying to spin Daly’s status into a “tween series about Charlotte, the Pomeranian, who uses her newfound superpowers to save her owner’s home after said owner loses her job and is forced to contemplate moving in with her folks.” These industry cats (see what I did there?) really do know how to spin even the most mundane activity of flossing one’s teeth into a 400 page epic of man vs. tooth (sorry, Dwayne Johnson, but that’s the tooth).

Thanks, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, for sparking unwarranted love on dogs who chat and can save their owners, if not the world, from utter self-destruction.

But the latest gem of an idea to leap from the internet to (small) screen comes to us from Twitter. Shitmydadsays is an account started by Justin Halpern in August of THIS YEAR. Halpern, 29, moved back in with his parents in San Diego and started up a Twitter account based on – you guessed it – the shit his dad says. Little gems and touching words, such as “Why the f**k would I want to live to 100? I’m 73 and shit’s starting to get boring. By the way, there’s no money left when I go, just fyi.” Shitmydadsays has over 700,000 followers. How much do you want to bet that none of them are in the age demographic of CBS, the network which bought the rights to the tweets?

Of course, Halpern also sold Shit My Dad Says to HarperCollins for a book deal last month, so it’s not like he’s new to selling shit that’s barely three months old.

Lastly, and briefly, another show in the works from Fox based on a website: http://www.textsfromlastnight.com/, which is pretty self-explanatory and right up Fox’s alley for quality entertainment aimed at that 18–24-year-old crowd of dudes. Can’t they just do webisodes, or is that too incestual for the beast?

In brief, here are reviews of the four films I saw over the weekend. A la Twitter:

@TheMenWhoStareAtGoats: Clooney with a stache not as funny as Jeff Bridges looking for ice cream.

@ThisIsIt: Michael Jackson is hands on, an approach his music director loves. And this was a great show.

@Precious: Not as depressing as it looks, and I never thought Mo’Nique would be invited to Oscars. This is it for her.

@TheFourthKind: You tried so hard to scare, but you’re not real. And I know it.

What do you think should be a hot internet site/twitter account/facebook status/graffiti on building wall/newspaper headline/ image of the Virgin Mary on a piece of toast to hit the big or small screen? Sound back with it in the comments below. You never know who might be reading…

At ease,

Sgt. Angle

Next on Sgt. Angle’s Cinegasm: Filmmaking teams we’re dying to see come together again.