Department Of Movie Directors Looking For Their Next Project
“I worked for somebody that is probably borderline clinical psychopath. Definitely a narcissist,” said Tony Nissen, a former engineering director at OceanGate. “How do you manage a person like that who owns the company?”
( excerpt, , The New OceanGate Documentary Dives into the Depths of the Titan Submersible Tragedy. And it points a finger at CEO Stockton Rush.
Esquire, 6-11-25, by Eric Francisco )
Dateline: I’ve been getting reacquainted with last year’s riveting Netflix documentary, Titan: The OceanGate Submersible Disaster, ten to fifteen minutes at a time, while working out on the elliptical the past few mornings. [1] Monday circa 11-11:30 am, I get an AHA flash: This has to be done.
This being, making a theatrical movie based on the documentary.
Maybe it’s already on some producer’s proverbial drawing board; moiself thought it ( the first time I saw it, and even more so, as I’m rewatching it. The story – of the foreseeable and even inevitable implosion of a submersible designed and operated by the American company OceanGate during a 2023 expedition to view the wreck of the Titanic – is a Shakespearean fairy tale in scope, with its themes of ambition, ego, hubris, obstinance, punitive pettiness. OceanGate founder and CEO Stockton Rush was the emperor who wouldn’t listen to his dressers despite desperately needing new clothes for his submersible ride.
Perhaps Kathleen Kennedy, Steven Spielberg’s longtime production partner ( Amblin Entertainment ), and Lucasfilm director would consider coming out of her newly-announced-retirement to oversee this project?
Kathleen, call me. Let’s do lunch and discuss the details.
First things first, Kathleen ( do you prefer Kath, or Kathy? ): nail down the director. Who can handle the technical aspects of filming given the difficult set” (the deep ocean) without sacrificing the primacy of storyline and character; who has a proven record of maintaining that level of tension and interest while telling a “true” story, despite the audience already knowing the ending? Why, it’s your sister in K, Kathryn Bigelow.
I also have a few casting suggestions:
* Sign Josh Brolin for the lead role. With his hair dyed white, I can totally envision Brolin channeling Rush’s primal arrogance and aspirations to be a BSD ( “Big Swingin’ Dick” ) like the billionaires Rush admired ( read: Elon Musk; Jeff Bezos );
* Zoe Kazan would be heart-tuggingly excellent as Emily Hammermeister, OceanGate’s assistant to the lead engineer, whose growing concerns about the viability of the submersible were ignored and suppressed, leading to her resignation;
* Palestinian-American actor and standup comedian Mo Amer would nail it as Joseph Assi, a videographer hired by Rush to film OceanGate’s expeditions;
* either Simon Pegg or Chris Pine would bring different but equally compelling portrayals of Tony OceanGate engineer Tony Nissen, who was fired by Rush after questioning him about the submersible’s defects; [2]
* English actor Stephen Graham to play the Scottish engineer David Lochridge , OceanGate’s Director of Marine Operations submersible pilot, who was fired by Rush after warning questioning him about design and safety features.
Given the proven track record of both Ks, I’ll let them handle the rest.
“…and I owe these awards to Robyn Parnell, who insisted I take on this project and who refused to take screen writing credit despite her many helpful edits to the script….”
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Department Of About All Those Uncured Cancers – My Bad
Moiself recently reposted this on FB. I thought of prefacing it with,“Had I written this I would have added the modifier intercessory before prayer,” but you know how that goes (I went on to watch some dancing kitten reel).
Some FB friends thought I was being rather harsh, including one who wrote, “Prayer may not be for everyone but if a person thinks it help (sic) them, who am I to say ‘no.’ ” Moiself is not advocating that we all break into little old lady’s homes and take away their prayer shawls. As I assured my friend, moiself simply reminds folks that seemingly benign beliefs practices, such as intercessory prayer, have unintentional but harmful consequences.
“…had I written that, I would’ve modified prayers by adding intercessory. Prayers for one’s own personal… Enjoyment? Enhancement? Meditative purposes? Fine; whatever floats your boat. But for intercessory purposes, and public announcements of concern ( “I’m praying for the victims of the school, shooting” ), offering prayers is ineffective (and therefore insulting, IMO) and dangerous in that “praying for…” whatever fools people into believing constructive action has been taken when nothing of substance has been done.”
Confession: back in the day, I was asked to be on my church’s prayer chain. The workings of such vary from church to church, but in general, a prayer chain or group or committee is a group of people in a church who take prayers requests (via telephone or text, e.g. ) and share them with others in the group, starting with the primary contact who then shares the request with, creating an unbroken link (“chain”) chain” where each person in the supposedly prays for the request and then passes on the information in a prearranged ( Leader of the group passes on the info to person A, who contacts person B, who contacts….)
Moiself accepted the invitation, even as I told the person who invited me (the pastor of my very liberal UCC church, who knew I was a troublemaker freethinker/skeptic) that I viewed prayer chains as being, essentially, a neighborhood news site for religious folk, who can’t seem to justify action unless there’s some god connection (I left out that second part).
The prayer chain served as a bulletin board/clearing house for news & needs of members and friends of the congregation, from “Alex and Jenny have become first time grandparents!” to “Bill has just received a cancer diagnosis,” to “Mary’s had knee replacement surgery,” and all the “joys and sorrows.” in between.
I never – nope, not once – stopped to pray for the particular need shared when it was passed along to me. [3] [4] Before passing on the information to the next person on the chain I used the tidbit of information I‘d received to brainstorm whether or not there was something I, or someone I knew, could do to help:
* I’ll send a card to Alex & Jenny, or bring them a batch of their favorite cookies to celebrate their good news…
* MH and I can check and see if Bill is going to need a ride to and from his radiation therapy treatments, or if he’d like a friend to play cards with him in the waiting room, or have some meals brought in…
* Mary might need someone to take the cans out to the curb for her on recycling day, or do her grocery shopping while she recovers, or mow her lawn…
It is the knowledge of a situation, of a need, that spurs the reaction which is needed, which is action – not sitting on one’s arse (or groveling on one’s knees), beseeching a nonexistent at best ( or if existent, indifferent, as per all available evidence ), supernatural/sky wizard.
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Department Of Random Thoughts On Yet Another Reason Why
Not Only Prayer But Religious Belief Itself Is Not Benign
Some critics of religion (or even mildly religious folk themselves) say, What’s the harm in religion, as long as people keep it to themselves and don’t try to have their religious beliefs influence science education, or public policy or whatever?
“Hey, good point!”
The thing is, any belief in an omniscient/all-powerful deity carries an inherent, ineffective counter to despotism. After all, if you believe your god is all-powerful and ultimately in charge, the rising fascist in your government…well , he can reasonably claim to be part of your god’s plan…or at least, he is able to be “used” by your god for reasons that might not seem clear at the time. Throughout history, kings and tyrants have appealed to that reasoning: “I am here because your god wants (or at least allows) it. Therefore, to oppose me is to oppose your god.”
No; seriously. I’ve heard and read Christians using that “reasoning” to justify the Orange Turdfurher. They bolster their claim with biblical stories of supremely flawed kings; e.g.,
* King David, who arranged for the husband of a married woman he desired to be killed in battle after he summoned, bedded, and impregnated her [5]
* King Solomon, who along with his three hundred (300) concubines married seven hundred ( yep, 700 ) wives from the nations his god warned the Israelites never to enter into marriages with, lest they turn away their hearts after their gods (guess what? they did) , and who used forced labor to build the temple and his own palace, ad nauseum…. [6]
The justification goes, …”if god was able to use them, he is able to use #47.”
I so wish I was making this up.
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Department Of My Reactions Which Reveal To Moiself My Low Opinion Of Many Of My Fellow Earthlings
Dateline: last week watching an episode of Love On The Spectrum. LOTS, as per its Netflix description is about, “Young adults on the autism spectrum look for true love in this documentary series that ‘revels in the plain, beautiful truths of courtship.’ ” I’d seen LOTS a year or so ago, but didn’t remember all the details. Considering what was in the news I wanted a pick-me-up and I’ve found a series to be…sweet, and good hearted, in many ways.
There was a moment when a couple, both on the autism spectrum, were having a dinner date which was going well, and they decided to extend their time together by going for a walk along the waterfront. They were both being exuberant and happy and quirky, and overly loud, at least according to most neurodivergent folks’ standards… I began to get a fearful (but sadly realistic) feeling in the pit of my stomach, centered around the nasty reality of The World We Live In ®:
If those two cheerfully boisterous young people were out on their own, on this date, in public, without a camera crew to protect them, they could be a target for some cretinous person or persons who, for their own cretinous reasons, would the couples’ differences upsetting or offensive.
In plain speak: the autistic lovebirds would be at risk for assault.
And by persons, I mean, a man, or most likely, two or more men.
Think about the reports when something like this happens. It’s not a woman, or a group of women friends, who, while out for a stroll along the waterfront or downtown, see another single person or a couple and decide that they are somehow different or offensive or whatever and hassles and/or even beats them up.
And yeah, sorry guys: it’s not all men ®…but it’s always a man.
Some of the LOTS participants.
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Department Of How Do You Say The Orange Turdführer Venezuelan Spanish?
Haven’t written about this because there are no words.
Oh, wait, of course there are words. And Congress needs to enforce them unless they lose whatever remaining power they have.
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Freethinkers’ Thought Of The Week [7]
* * *
May you get out ASAP when you realize your boss is a psychopath;
May you examine whether or not your beliefs are benign;
May you encourage your congressfolk to use their words;
…and may the hijinks ensue.
Thanks for stopping by. Au Vendredi!
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[1] Trying to get my foot back in shape post-foot surgery.
[2] “I told him I’m not getting in it,” former OceanGate engineering director Tony Nissen said to a panel of Coast Guard investigators, referring to a 2018 conversation in which CEO Stockton Rush allegedly asked Nissen to act as a pilot in an upcoming expedition to the Titanic. ( ‘I Told Him I’m Not Getting in It’: Former Titan Submersible Engineer Testifies, Sep 16, 2024, Wired, Science section )
[3] I think I was third or fourth in the chain.
[4] So when bill succumbed to his tumor…yep, that was my fault.
[5] Found in 2 Samuel 11-12
[6] Stories found in 1 Kings 9:15-23, 11:1-10)
[7] “free-think-er n. A person who forms opinions about religion on the basis of reason, independently of tradition, authority, or established belief. Freethinkers include atheists, agnostics and rationalists. No one can be a freethinker who demands conformity to a bible, creed, or messiah. To the freethinker, revelation and faith are invalid, and orthodoxy is no guarantee of truth.” Definition courtesy of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, ffrf.org
