There Will Be Blood - now with child/partner forum we call H.W.

[Gamblour.]

Well if this script's story is different that Oil! then I wonder what the connection is between this draft and the news elsewhere that he's adapting the book.

[RegularKarate]

I think it's pretty obvious what's going on here.

The fake script.. the announcement.  This is all a clever ruse to sell copies of Sinclair's Oil.  P.T. has sold out.

look forward to anouncements of other adaptations of unsuccesful books, complete with "screenplay leaks" written to look like works of P.T.

[atticus jones]

 Daniel scoffs at this.  And then disaster strikes.  To whom, I will not reveal here, but it propells much of the story.

i've got goosebumps...

[atticus jones]

Okay.  So here's the deal:

'There Will Be Blood' is... a drama about a contempt for humanity (my favorite scene has Daniel explaining how he hates, well, everyone).  

who would have thought there was so much negativity in him?  he always seems so affable...

[UncleJoey]

 Daniel scoffs at this.  And then disaster strikes.  To whom, I will not reveal here, but it propells much of the story.

i've got goosebumps...

I knew it!!

[Pozer]

So what you're sayin' is that it pretty much has a Weak3rdAct...

[Sal]

pwned

[Ghostboy]

Anyone made any progress with the book yet? I'm about a quarter of the way through, after starting it last week - it's a good read, highly enjoyable, possibly subversive, although I haven't made it that far yet (although I anticipate it, knowing that Sinclair was a socialist).

Sinclair's depiction of revival preaching, and Bunny's dad's subtle lampooning of it, is hilarious.

[Ravi]

Looking forward to reading this.  I liked The Jungle.

[Ghostboy]

The latest update at Greg's site suggests that the new title may be There Was Blood.

Come on, Weak2ndAct, review the script!

[MacGuffin]

Come on, Weak2ndAct, review the script!

He did. It's back one page.

[Ghostboy]

Damn, how'd I manage to skip an entire page? Crazy.

Anyway...

The prospect is the young man's family homestead.  The family is fanatically religious and quite dim.  They sell the rights to drill to Daniel, and at first, things seem okay.  The land is fertile, and success seems eminent.  But troubles arise when the family's devotion to Christ gets in the way (which entails beating children).  The eldest son (who fanices himself a healer) wants to bless the drill bit.  And renovate the church.  Daniel scoffs at this.  And then disaster strikes.  To whom, I will not reveal here, but it propells much of the story.

That's exactly what happens in the novel.

Everything else he described, the character names and their relationships, sounds completely original. So I'd guess this is sort of like what Kubrick did with some of his adaptations - taking inspiration from some obscure novel and using it as a platform for a new story.

[Ultrahip]

But Weak2ndAct also said it wasn't very good, which is impossible. I mean, PTA wrote it.

[MacGuffin]

But Weak2ndAct also said it wasn't very good

He said only the ending wasn't very good:

For 130 pages, it's a great script.  Compelling and page-turning, there are graphic descriptions of how oil-drilling works and what happens when it goes awry (read: graphic deaths).  It reads like any PTA script, save for any curses or debauchery ('cept for one moment, where Daniel's sex life is brought up).  Everything is great... until the last 20 pages. We jump 15 years ahead... and it all fallls to shit. The narrative momentum has been derailed. The punch is not there.

[Pozer]

Love the title. So far, it all sounds good to me.
Weak 2nd, come on dude, transcribe the first few pages. Just for kicks.