Tucked away in the Hollywood hills, an elite group of scientists from across the country and from a grab bag of disciplines - rocket science, nanotechnology, genetics, even veterinary medicine - has gathered this week to plot a solution to what officials call one of the nation's most vexing long-term national security problems.
Their work is being financed by the Air Force and the Army, but the Manhattan Project it ain't: the 15 scientists are being taught how to write and sell screenplays.
Damn. Don’t I, as an aspiring screenwriter, already have enough competition in trying to get my scripts noticed?
On the other hand:
Exactly how the national defense could be bolstered by setting a few more people loose in Los Angeles with screenplays to peddle may be a bit of a brainteaser. But officials at the Air Force Office of Scientific Research spell out a straightforward syllogism:
Fewer and fewer students are pursuing science and engineering. While immigrants are taking up the slack in many areas, defense laboratories and industries generally require American citizenship or permanent residency. So a crisis is looming, unless careers in science and engineering suddenly become hugely popular, said Robert J. Barker, an Air Force program manager who approved the grant. And what better way to get a lot of young people interested in science than by producing movies and television shows that depict scientists in flattering ways?
Making science cool is a good thing. I’m not sure that this is the way to go about doing it, or at least not the only way: there is an ingrained disdain for all things thinky in the United States that a few movies about cool scientists isn’t going to reverse.
On the third hand (three hands? I’m writing science fiction!):
Later, over meatloaf, the workshop participants batted around...
Meatloaf? These guys will never make it in Hollywood...
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