Letters From a Screenwriter in Trouble

Dear Gato, Not only is the Silk Road down and out, so is Atlantis, and so are the majority of illegal cyber-markets upon which the bad and the badder have depended for decades. The world below the surface is changing as fast as it is above it. The only remaining illegal Internet supermarkets ...

Letters From a Screenwriter in Trouble

Dear Gato, “It’s officially over,” commented one party animal. The drug supply chain suffered a (this time) devastating blow as the FBI seized and shut down the Silk Road, the best-brand illegal drugs and services cybermarket. Party’s over (for a few days). The moment may ...

Letters From a Screenwriter in Trouble

Dear Gato, It's late, and I"€™m half-watching Hobo With a Shotgun on the widescreen while I write. The feeling is, it's getting late. My working hours are 11PM-5AM. My waking hours are also late"€”noon and onwards. We, the international community, are late to react to chemical weapons in ...

Vladimir Putin

Letters From a Screenwriter in Trouble

Dear Gato, What a week. To my surprise, World War III was averted, and I have some insider information as to why. My source in Texas, where you"€™ll find a surprisingly strong intelligence community (a lot of former operatives retire to Texas), especially in and around Austin"€”my source tells ...

Letters From a Screenwriter in Trouble

Dear Gato, I didn’t tell you what happened to Mickey after he was finally evicted from the movie trailer because I didn’t know. I tried calling him for a while; no answer. So I lost track of Mickey until one day when the phone rang. I knew before I picked it up that it would be ...

Letters From a Screenwriter in Trouble

Dear Gato, I was watching the video for the Pet Shop Boys"€™ dance single "€œVocal"€ and it took me back to a happy time"€”the UK summer of "€™91, seen? We used to say "€œseen"€ as in, "€œthat track is gonna be massive, seen?"€ I think the word is borrowed from ...

Pablo Acosta

Letters From a Screenwriter in Trouble

Dear Gato, When Felipe Calderón took office as the president of Mexico in 2006, he pledged to turn up the heat on the War on Drugs. He delivered on his promise. By 2012, over 70,000 people had been murdered in the war against narco-trafficking. Costing more casualties than any war since ...

Letters From a Screenwriter in Trouble

Dear Gato, The silly season is over and the dog days are about to set in. Come stai? I"€™m writing from the Tuscan hill country, where I fled after the São Paulo trip ended with a prolonged visit to the police station, where Luis RR"€”AKA "€œThe Wizard"€"€”had taken me before I ...

Letters From a Screenwriter in Trouble

Dear Gato, This time last week I fell asleep and woke up in an MRI machine asking myself, "€œWhere am I? And how did I get here?"€ I was lying inside the industrial-size white doughnut that is an MRI scanner, the machine emitting its hideous churning noise, a noise I can only describe as an ...

Letters From a Screenwriter in Trouble

Dear Gato, I told you I’d relate the details of Mickey’s latest fiasco. I’m a man of my word. Here we go. My friend Doe Kazu is shooting a sci-fi action movie in Torrance. She has time to kill, she tells me. Those FX clones she fights in the set pieces, her scripted ...