| Posted by: Steve Dufour at June 10, 2004, 7:17 am | | Topic: UK's GCHQ Whistle-blower case also impacts Greenpeace protes Forum: groupsrv | | Quote:from http://www.jewsweek.com From the same URL: Madonna, the Christian Jewsweek, Shrek's Orthodox writer, Wow! I didn't know Shrek was Jewish. Here is a link to the story from the Jerusalem Post. I believe them but don't feel like paying to read the whole thing. Opps forgot to post the link. Oh well here's the whole story from the Post: Quote:'Shrek' writer's story arc brings him back to Judaism by Hannah Brown Jerusalem Post Service It's hard to know what's more surprising about Shrek 2 screenwriter David Weiss, who visited Jerusalem earlier this month on his way to Cannes: that he describes himself as a "studio dog" or that he peppers his conversation with references to "Hashem." "I think everything -- except religion -- should have three things," he told an audience at Ma'ale, the Jerusalem film school with a religious orientation, as he began to describe a typical story arc, with a "beginning, middle and end" structure carefully into each of three acts. As he spoke, Weiss nearly wrote a new film before the group's eyes, that of his own life. Weiss visited Israel for the first time last Sukkot, and his road to Israel has been a long one, filled with the kind of twists and turns that would make for a screenplay in itself. A former writer for the popular children's TV series Rugrats, Weiss has had a successful career writing films for children. He co-wrote the two Rugrats movies with his writing partner, J. David Stem, and has written such hits as Clockstoppers (2002) and Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001). However, he came to screenwriting in an unusual way. Growing up in an American Jewish family loosely affiliated with the Reform movement, Weiss felt he lacked a spiritual anchor, and was drawn to Christianity in his late teens. He became a lay minister, and began producing films for his church that appealed to high schoolers. Having grown up as a "TV addict," he respected the power of movies and television, and felt that the church should invest more in entertainment. He and the church raised money to pay his tuition to the prestigious University of Southern California film school, where he was sent "on a mission to Hollywood." His final student film-- a movie that combined a Christian point of view with elements such as ogres and dragons, called The Man Who Loved Fat Dancing (a play on the 1973 Western The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing) -- won several awards and made the film-festival circuit. Its success won him an agent, and soon he had established himself as a dependable screenwriter, one who could take characters created by others and bring them to life in a fast-paced and funny story. However, while researching the Jewish roots of Christianity, he found himself becoming interested in Judaism again, and began taking part in the life of the Los Angeles Orthodox community. Gradually, Weiss became observant himself, and by the time he wrote The Rugrats Chanukah Special, he had abandoned Christianity for good. It's unusual to find someone so observant working in Hollywood, and perhaps even more unusual to find an American Jew who is close to apologetic about not living in Israel. "Keeping kosher was a big jump. At first we didn't think we could do it," he explained, and says he feels he is undergoing a similar process when it comes to moving to Israel. "We'd never been here before Sukkot, now we've been here twice in one year," he said. His children attend a Jewish school, and he says that he and his wife joke that in the future, "if we want to see our children, we'll have to move to Israel." But Weiss acknowledged that he first has to figure out how to make a living in Israel. As he gave the Ma'ale students tips on how to cope with criticism (the kind he has become adept at handling from Hollywood producers), it's clear that a good part of his work involves face-to-face contact with studio executives. Weiss has two projects in the works, one a comedy starring Ice Cube called Are We There Yet? and the other, the sequel to the Eddie Murphy hit Daddy Day Care, called Daddy Day Camp. Quote: and stop the presses: Britney Spears is keeping kosher. Seriously. Wigging out Untangling the true roots of a hair fallout. A look at the media coverage of the wig ban. by Rabbi Avi Shafran June 6, 2004 snip |
|
Shared Movies
Over 80 Million Movies and TV-Shows to choose from
Categories:
Adventure Movie Lord of the Ring Spoiler Movie Quote Romance Movie Rating TV Series Favourite Movie Anime Thriller Movie Harry Potter DVD Releases Movie Trailer Movie Theater Drama Movie Star Wars Tragedy Movie Movie Download Movie Review Best Movies
Links:
Forum Extractor
|