help with a character

[uncle_al]

Just because the Devil has been portrayed as a "smoothie" in the past doesn't necessarily mean that he has to be portrayed as such in YOUR script.

Indeed.  If I'm not mistaken, the Devil has also been portrayed as an incredibly smart but deliberately offensive blue-collar type, swilling cheap beer, belching, farting, being lewd, crude, and incredibly offensive.  Say, wasn't that Nicholson in The Witches of Eastwick?

If you do what you want to, then my major advice is this:  GO BIG, OR GO HOME.

Nobody remembers the quiet successes; the operatic failures, they never forget.

Al B.

[rnbrewer]

I have to agree with Don and Al on this. Still, I wouldn't abandon creativity in favor of convention. Just because the Devil has been portrayed as a "smoothie" in the past doesn't necessarily mean that he has to be portrayed as such in YOUR script. Be creative. If it's a strong enough character, and well developed, then you could probably get away with breaking the norm.

[sharry]

i have seen meet joe black and its my opinion and my own but i seriously don't like it... but as for the matter of the devil... i think that was death! i will see the other movie if i can find a copy. its very hard to find old movies here in Pakistan. but i'll try my best. sarcasm i have included but i have to put in some more elligible and lines that will give the devil a bit more character...

thank you all!

[ScriptNurse]

I'd recommend renting the OLD film, "ON BORROWED TIME" or "MEET JOE BLACK" as excellent examples of this.

[uncle_al]

Portraying the Devil (or a Devil, for that matter) as out and out, fire-breathing, scenery-chewing EVIL, sort of like the climax of Al Pacino's performance in that role, is verging on the trite.  Portraying that character as a cool, knowledgeable, sophisticated roué with flashes of a vicious, sadistic temper is more the thing.

Personally, I can see it; if you get American television, on Fox, I believe, is a show which features Ray Wise as the Devil, who supervises a Gen-Y slacker whose parents sold his soul to the Devil at birth.  The title escapes me at the moment.

Al B.

[sharry]

hey i wrote a short film of about 10 minutes. its a psycho-thriller which involves the devil. i asked a friend to read and he said that a devil as portrayed in literature and other movies is supoosedly to be polite. he should not abuse and be very patient. he should be portrayed as all knowledgeable fellow. what do you think about this? help me out? plz!