Slipping through the crack, or Who is Johnny B. Fast?

I've been writing screenplays for over twelve years. I think I've written over fourteen of them, lost count along the way. Four years ago I decided to direct one of the scripts I'd written, just to make sure that it got out there: www.8milliondollars.com.

It was a great learning experience, but one in which I had to wear too many hats. Given the opportunity to do it again, I would only wear the directing hat.

I thought I would go on writing screenplay after screenplay, but then something happened in the fall of 2010. As far as I remember it I was just sitting there, minding my own business, when this strange character named Johnny B. Fast popped into my head. I definitely didn't invite him in, and I wasn't looking for him, so to this day I have no idea how he got there. All I know is that one moment he wasn't there, and the next he was. And before I could get rid of him he invited in a host of his friends: Nancy, Ackers, The Widow Black, Silence, Big Petey, Red, even his dad Henry, and his dad's boss Mr. Underling made the trip inside.
Before I could kick him out, the crack he had slipped through was so wide I no longer had the choice.

Like it or not, Johnny B. Fast was here to stay. And since I couldn't get rid of him, I decided to write about him, because sometimes writing things down helps you come to terms with them. But the more I wrote about Johnny, the bigger he got, prying that crack open even wider and introducing me to a host of gadgets and wonders that could only exist in his world.

I'm stuck with him now, that crack has become a highway of ideas, going way too fast for any speed limit I could impose. And truth be told, I can't even imagine which side of it I was on before the crack began.

Johnny B. Fast is here.

And in the coming weeks I'm going to introduce you to him.