You know often times you hear the cry that there simply are not enough great scripts in HOLLYWOOD. But ya know... In actually there are plenty... problem is most of em just haven't found the right pair of eyes to get the project going yet.

In the current PREMIERE magazine, there's a list of a great 10 or so scripts that are not being made currently, like CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES (the problem? Finding some fat guy like me to play the guy)

But ya know, they covered them 10 something grand, so this is going to be the first article of many that I'm going to write on scripts that are not currently being made into a feature film that you... All of you would most likely love.

Script #1 is sitting over at Universal now. They aren't doing anything bad to it. In fact, the script hasn't even gone out to directors yet. However, take this as Harry's little note to you directors that love great challenging cool material!

WALLY AND PEPPER.

I managed to lay my hands on a copy of this baby (actually a couple of drafts) and folks... This is one doozy of a script.

Right off the bat, I'd love to see Joe Dante or Joe Johnston straddling this gorgeous beast. It's a shame that Zemeckis is going to be doing WHAT LIES BENEATH (pssst... this is a better project for ya Robert...) because quite frankly the mere thought of Zemeckis directing this film (with Hanks providing the voice for Wally) just sends goosepimples through my scalp.

WALLY AND PEPPER is the product of a 25 year old future (and currently unknown) genius, named Herbert Ratner, who's script was discovered by that fella that brought us PLEASANTVILLE. Gary Ross.

It's a script that spans fifty years of the Hollywood studio scene, and features those downcast character actors that we geeks adore, but that the elitest of this world look down upon. I am of course refering to... Robots.

You see, WALLY and PEPPER are the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers of the robot world. And beginning back in the thirties we find that these robots have put on fakey silver painted cardboard pieces and move stiff and slow. Tis a shame for sure.... you see cause they are capable of so much more.

Like WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT, these robots are every bit as real as the toons were in that film. However, unlike that film... the robots are vastly more textured with human emotions and feelings. They have the same ambitions, drives and desires... Along with the greed, pride and fear.

At it's heart the film is a story of suppressed artists working within and beneath a studio system that is hell bent to keep them (the robots) as their own secret slaves... upon threat of recycling.

The script mixes ideas and notions from Isaac Asimov with the playful notions of Roger Rabbit, and most importantly.. the final and the brilliant dash of hard reality.

Racism has always at it's heart dealt with the dehumanization of what ever race that we, as a society, have chosen to persecute. In the script there are the veiled rewards and the baby steps of progress, only to find the trapfalls of no-win scenarios around the corner of Studio B.

People often time talk of wanting to see very smart films on screen, and some say that the audience won't get it... But here, in this script lays a fantastic, entertaining screenplay that literally makes you laugh and cry and ponder.

Reading this script I found myself both loving and loathing the character of Wally. He's a robot that wants and wishes to succeed so much that it blinds him to the reality of his world. In a lot of ways this is a wicked evil flipside to Forrest Gump and Jerry Maguire... And it is every bit the better film.

Hopefully this script will land with the right directing fella soon. My short list would be Joe Johnston, Joe Dante, Robert Zemeckis, Frank Darabont and Henry Selick. Any of those guys could do amazing things with this script as their blueprint and bible.

It's a genre lover's dream. It incorporates all the robots we know and lover throughout the first 40 years of their existence. It's a jewel, and hopefully at some point we'll be able to say it's coming to a theater near you.