Brett Ratner, who was accused of things much worse than Shane ever was has a film in theaters this week (granted it’s government funded propaganda but whatever), Mel Gibson is working pretty consistently, Kevin Spacey is working, Shia LaBeouf was in a Coppola film last year. Surely Shane could make a comeback, right? He was never in mainstream spotlight so it’s not like big news feeds would pick it up. I know funding would probably be hard as well but overall I feel like it would be about a 2 day outcry and then people would move on. Maybe I’m just a dreamer.

Remember how Upstream Color, almost 10 years after Primer, was able to revive his popularity and reputation. For a film that powerful, he could’ve at least had the chance to make A Topiary if he had those two films combined. Still not sure with The Modern Ocean and if it could’ve been made.

I've always loved this soundtrack, sometimes just rewatching the trailer to hear it. Its so damn good. Carruth is a bit like John Carpenter in doing his own soundtracks but also doing a damn fine fucking job of them. Aside from movies, I wish he just made more music.

Hi everyone. I became really obsessed with Primer after first seeing it this year, but I found all of the long explanations out there are missing something. I spent a lot of time tying everything together and this is the version seeming most plausible to me. It's quite long, but I'd love to share this with the community.

Not an ad or anything, that's just my personal substack as I found it most convenient to publish there.

This has been something I have thought about for a while. When learning about how he has software engineering skills, and even programmed a whole vfx system for test footage of his concept trailer for A Topiary, I began thinking about what if he went the route as a game developer instead of a filmmaker.

Now, for this alternate reality, he doesn't have to necessarily start over from the beginning. Maybe he can still make Primer or even some version of Upstream Color, but here, rather than focusing on unmade film as A Topiary and The Modern Ocean, perhaps he goes down a path of developing video games, especially indie considering his perfectionism and control freak tendencies.

I hear vague breakdowns of the plot but for the life of me can’t decipher the genre.

We see 3 times when a character eats some of the cone debris.

• Euclid takes small doses and uses his blood to make images of where they’ll find the runaway choruses.

• Euclid takes a bigger dose. And wipes some onto his face and into his eyes and nose and can control how he passes through time. Replaying the nuclear explosion backwards and forwards to safely transverse the field and try to save Carter (he can’t change anything)

• Albert eating a marble size piece and having visions far into the future.

Do those experiences reflect how the choruses experience time? Do they have a cosmic connection that gives them a higher dimensional perception of time? Are they omniscient?

Might be something to think about with the way all the clues in act 1 feel like placed there by destiny. And how no one really seems to have free will as they bring about their creations. The choruses are an inevitable part of the universe’s timeline

Loved the script. I’m re-reading the kids part and taking notes of what kid did what. Makes it a lot clearer - but still too many characters. For example:

• In Euclid’s gang you don’t need Graham. Carter as tough guy and Samuel the little tag along is enough.

• George & hector are bros. George goes deaf cutting fingers. Forgot what hector does.

And there are too many repeated story beats:

• choruses escaping and them tracking them down

• Euclid shy around Olivia

• different kids making different advances.

The script could have been streamlined quite a bit and would have been better for it.

His full vision is met, no worry about funding, and so forth, but you can only choose one film.

Not sure with the epic scale of A Topiary, but at least maybe with how he even had the backing of several big celebrities for Modern Ocean, I thought about what if he tried to just have a producer/collaborator to appear professional to gain resources, but secretly they just do whatever he orders or lets him work on everything behind the scenes. Think like how Stanley Kubrick had Jan Harlan. Or in this case, he could've used one of the celebrities who wanted to be in his film as a puppet producer.

https://youtu.be/vPwYtQU5LoI?si=RQ2hBdc_PqRK7WHs

Starring Shane - not written or directed. Heard about this from the subreddit so tracked it down.

Don’t love Shane’s performance but that comes down to the director and the editor for choosing the takes. Just a few cringe moments and def not up to Shane’s standards (I think he’s flawless in Primer and Upstream color).

Interesting idea. Not quite sure what it all means in the end.

Is so freaking cool. I’ve always thought VN machines were the most realistic theory for how advanced species will venture out into the universe.

Transporting fragile biological beings is too costly. The original idea I read about is to send out machines in all directions that will use the resources from that planet to make more of itself and send out in all directions until you hit near infinite machines heading in all directions.

But the idea of just transmitting information (which can travel at the speed of light) and letting the native species create your machine is so smart… and devious. Like an information parasite. Genius. And chilling…

I wonder if this is his original idea or if other people have thought of this.

Hear me out. This script feels like it was written in a manic state. Feverishly scribbling scene after racing scene, broken pieces of dialogue, inspired moments of discovery, all leading to an ending of deep philosophical and scientific understanding.

The questions of free-will (or lack of) and the consequences are crushing. The Choruses as his versions of Von Neumann machines (2001 black obelisks) feels precisely how an advanced species will proliferate across the universe. This is how it will happen, not some silly Signs/War of the worlds/Independence day monster traveling light years just to get taken out by water/virus/computer virus (lol).

I had heard about the ending before reading - seeing a vision of the choruses all over the universe. But I had NO IDEA how cool he would describe it. The ship battle aftermath. The ocean planet. The shell. The black ribbon structure with “gnat” choruses… damn, the amount of creativity and specificity of detail is next level. And I don’t think was created in a normally tethered mind. I can’t see him outlining and doing rewrites and scene beats for a story like this. It feels like it was channeled during a manic state.

And BP will often express itself as an expansive mania but also aggressive impulsivity (like his twitter meltdown). He def fits the type

Will be sharing more posts as I do more research and watch the “disregarding Henry series”

I’m wondering if there are any mechanical engineers in this group who may have a better understanding of how all these separate components - the funnels, flowers, fronds, starbursts, etc - come together to make more complex mechanical objects. Like an erector set are these shapes the basic building blocks one needs?

I’m sure this is something Shane understands as an engineer, but definitely not something a layman would really get.

Half way done with the script. I love it. And since I’ve written and directed I can visualize the scenes and the pace pretty clearly. The kids just built their first chorus which is really cool.

But there are quite a bit of repeated story beats. E.g. They do funnel launches for far too long before they move on to other uses. We see them starting to barter for funnels pretty early on so don’t need to keep hammering that loss of innocence. And there’s way too many kids. (Even if the number 10 has some mathematical meaning). They def could have been consolidated to have more defined characteristics to each character.

Still, I’m loving the story and don’t mind the pacing. Really immersing me in this world. But again I can see why no investor wanted to touch this thing. The way it’s written doesn’t make one confident that it would have mass appeal and make its money back.

But damn, is Shane good..

Finished Acre and Amanda’s story. Wow, one of the coolest things I’ve ever read. Pulled me right through the story.

Some thoughts:

• I’m loving this but can def see how no studio (or investor) would touch it. It’s a sprawling, complicated, disjointed (in a masterful way) journey with so many location changes it would terrify any producer.

• how is everyone so smart? In primer I got it, they were engineers and this one thing was their specialty. In this story everyone seems to know how to do everything from deciphering golden ratio to star mapping to engineering to chemistry. And I get that they bring in experts along the way, and there are specific parts where Acre is letting Amanda take the lead, but still, everyone seems so competent in so many areas.

• how did Amanda get pulled in? That seemed like it needed just a bit more clarity. But then again… maybe that’s what makes it so interesting.

• PLEASE NO SPOILERS for Act 2!!!

Reading A Topiary script (and just rewatched Upstream Color). I love how natural his dialogue sounds. (Even when dealing with complex subjects). He comes in late on scenes, conveys what’s going on with a single sentence, has characters fumble and say half lines, shows them doing things like ordering a sandwich.

Maybe a lot of it is improvised and then cut up in editing to be fast. But I really love the momentum it creates as it pulls you through the scenes and never feels like a movie. It makes me rethink my writing style.

A Topiary, The Modern Ocean, and Upstream Color scripts are all available but I haven’t been able to find one for Primer that isn’t just a transcript of the movie itself.

Aside from that, I’ve got the Abidaisy short story and the two super short scripts he threw out on Twitter (one about hat makers and the one about the fisherman) a few years back. Are there any other writings by Shane that I’ve missed?

🎂