As Hunter Thompson showed us this morning, there’s nothing wrong with writing candidly in a cover letter to a prospective employer.  Daryl here is an earnest and energetic leading man who just finished playing a rapist, and that’s fine.  The only problem I see is his child-like handwriting, which makes it look as if he scrawled this with a safety pencil during crafts time at the asylum.  My suggestion?  Next time, Daryl, don’t hand write the letter. You want this to look professional. Instead, try cutting the letters out of magazines and pasting them on the page.  It’s like owning a home printing press!  No charge for the free advice.  Good luck, Daryl!

[Awl]

It’s well known among people who’d know such things that Tom Cruise’s character in Tropic Thunder, Les Grossman, was based on studio head Harvey Weinstein, who’s infamous for being a bit of a tyrant.  Like most things related to Tom Cruise, the reality is more interesting than the movies.  GordonandtheWhale recently found (on lettersofnote) this 1988 letter from Weinstein to Thin Blue Line (a landmark documentary) director Errol Morris, who had accused Weinstein of not doing enough to promote his movie.  Apparently, the feeling was mutual.  The letter read, in part:

Heard your NPR interview and you were boring.
[...]
If you continue to be boring, I will hire an actor in New York to pretend that he’s Errol Morris.  If you have any casting suggestions, I’d appreciate that.

I actually don’t think Weinstein comes off that mean in this.  As my grandad taught me, promoting a documentary is war.  It’s not like finger banging Mary Jane Rotten Crotch through her purdy pink panties in the alley behind Chick Fil-A. Take it from Werner Herzog, who was once asked about Grizzly Man and responded by biting the head off a live turtle.  The man is a publicist’s dream.

The website LettersofNote publishes, er… letters of note, one of which I thought was of particular interest.  It’s from Hunter S. Thompson to Holly Sorensen, then Production Executive at indie film studio The Shooting Gallery.  It seems the Shooting Gallery was at some point in charge of the movie version of The Rum Diary.  They were dragging their feet, and Thompson was none too pleased about it.  And no one, NO ONE, could fire off an angry missive like the good doctor:

Okay, you lazy bitch, I’m getting tired of this waterhead f’ckaround that you’re doing with The Rum Diary.

We are not even spinning our wheels aggresivly. It’s like the whole Project got turned over to Zombies who live in cardboard boxes under the Hollywood Freeway… I seem to be the only person who’s doing anything about getting this movie Made. I have rounded up Depp, Benicio Del Toro, Brad Pitt, Nick Nolte [!] & a fine screenwriter from England, named Michael Thomas [no longer involved in the project], who is a very smart boy & has so far been a pleasure to talk to & conspire with…

So there’s yr. f’cking Script & all you have to do now is act like a Professional & Pay him. What the hell do you think Making a Movie is all about? Nobody needs to hear any more of that Gibberish about yr. New Mercedes & yr. Ski Trips & how Hopelessly Broke the Shooting Gallery is…. If you’re that f’cking Poor you should get out of the Movie Business. It is no place for Amateurs & Dilletants who don’t want to do anything but “take lunch” & Waste serious people’s Time.

F’ck this. We have a good writer, we have the main parts casted & we have a very marketable movie that will not even be hard to make….

And all you are is a g’ddamn Bystander, making stupid suggestions & jabbering now & then like some half-bright Kid with No Money & No Energy & no focus except on yr. own tits…. I’m sick of hearing about Cuba & Japs & yr. Yo-yo partners who want to change the story because the violence makes them Queasy.

Sh’t on them. I’d much rather deal with a Live asshole than a Dead worm with No Light in his Eyes…. If you people don’t want to Do Anything with this movie, just cough up the Option & I’ll talk to someone else. The only thing You’re going to get by quitting and curling up in a Fetal position is relentless Grief and Embarrassment. And the one thing you won’t have is Fun…

Wow, that got me hard.  It also says a lot about how the movie business works.  Letters of Note points out that The Shooting Gallery folded later that year, in 2001, but the name may sound familiar to FilmDrunk readers…

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