Monte Cook, Hollywood Mogul

Okay, maybe not Hollywood. And maybe not mogul. But I kinda sorta got involved with a movie last week. Remember that movie I told you about, The Gamers? Well, the creators of that fine film, who call themselves the Dead Gentlemen, are creating a DVD version of the movie, loaded with extras. And they were kind enough to invite me to record a commentary track.

When they asked, I hesitated at first. For about 1 or 2 microseconds at least.

The opportunity to do a movie commentary is one of the highlights of my career. I love movie commentaries. It's great to hear insights into making a movie from the director, or the stars, or the special effects guy, or whomever. I'm a bit of a movie buff, and I love to know how they are put together.

Of course, I don't have any of that information to contribute to The Gamers. I didn't even know the movie existed until I saw it in that screening I told you about in the previous column, and it was well and done by then. What my new friends from the Dead Gentlemen wanted from me was sort of a real gamer's perspective in watching the movie. I discussed the various gamer stereotypes -- I mean archetypes -- that the movie portrays, and gave background on the classic gaming moments it illustrates, like the scene where the game-lawyer elf argues with the DM about whether his character would really be surprised or not.

I also got to point out places in the movie where the DM actually did a good job in handling a situation, and where he blundered. And I talked about the various scenes where the movie demonstrates, in humorous ways, how people can actually improve their own games.

The time flew by. I worried that I would have trouble finding something to say to fill all the time, but in fact there was no trouble at all. (You'll have to judge for yourself, when the DVD comes out in May, whether I actually managed to find interesting things to say to fill up that time.) They even recorded an on-camera interview with me.

It was really fun. And the guys were great. We talked about gaming, about movies, and even about the possibility of The Gamers II. I tossed out some ideas that I thought they might include, and they seemed to really like them.

Definitely a good way to spend an afternoon. I wonder when I'll get my star on Hollywood Boulevard...