“brilliant and masterful”

Film In a thunderously readable piece for Slate, Stephen Harrigan describes his career writing generally made-for-tv movies. Some publisher should commission him to write a book length version. It could be another Adventures in the Screentrade. He was, for example, the writer on the film Robert Altman was working on when he died, essentially Touch the Truck: The Movie:

"I had more fun working with Altman than I’d ever had with anyone. I sent in the final draft on a November day in 2006 and got a call from him a few days later. I’d never heard him so revved up. The script, he said, was “brilliant and masterful”—which I knew meant he would take even more delight in completely ignoring it when the movie went into production. Among the actors who had agreed to play the people competing for the Nissan pick-up, he told me, were Meryl Steep, Hillary Swank, Billy Bob Thornton, Jack Black, Chris Rock, John C. Reilly, and Steve Buscemi. Filming would begin in three months."

Look at that cast. Look at what we lost.