My Projects
WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:
"I was on a studio lot just last week talking with my good friend Tony Scott, who's thinking of directing this picture, and if these two got together and made 'The Lifted Veil' happen, it'll be a brilliant whiz-bang event movie you'll be happy bringing a date to!" - Gambol Gutenberg, Screenwriter/Life Coach
"It feels a little outdated to me. Perhaps change the ending and downplay the stock the story gives to phrenology. Other than that, aces." - Darwin Mayflower, Internet scriptreader
"It must have taken a lot to translate an obtuse story loaded with abstract concepts into a slick Hollywood narrative. Congrats, pal, you did it!" - Geoff Tambeau, Sony Pictures
"Brilliant wife death...Impressive psychological insight." - Michael Sean Conley, Screenwriter
"Take it off, please." - Skip Press, Screenwriter/Life Coach
"It's getting there, but it needs a polish." - Kenneth Gunther, Producer
"Fuckin' awesome, man." - Evan Kilgore, novelist
"The crimes and medical logic depicted in this play don't feel terribly realistic to me, but maybe they were in the 19th century." - Tony Vargas, Los Angeles District Attorney's Office
In late 2005, I was commissioned by Intellectual Properties Worldwide to write the 23rd draft of a remake of the classic film C.H.U.D.. I obliged, and although I was fired off the project, I feel my work was good and it is worthy of mentioning alongside my other works.
The screenplay follows the story of A.J. "The Reverend" Shepherd, leader of a private security team sent underground to investigate the mass murder of a construction team working to complete a secret vault under Wall Street. Once down there, this disparate but team-like group of individuals are faced with horrifying creatures--the Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers, a mutated civilization of homeless forced to evolve after being exiled underground generations ago. Will The Reverend lead his team to safety, or will it be too late? More importantly: when will businessmen recognize the folly of taming this island Earth?
Colby Witherspoon's first literary criticism since college, titled LET IT TAKE YOU WHERE IT MAY , is an analysis of both the songs and the videos that comprise Guns N' Roses's successful trilogy from 1991-93. Using interviews, biographical information, and a general knowledge of literature and history, he makes a compelling case for the meaning of each carefully selected visual symbol and lyric.
An abbreviated version of this analysis was originally made available for free on the Internet, but this was discontinued with Japanese publishers Handsome House (a subsidiary of Gentosha) published an expanded 213-page volume with full-color illustrations and more in-depth research. You can find it by following this link .
What the Critics Say:
"At its best ... the most in-depth look at Guns N' Roses ever."
-Tom Paine, author (The Cathode-Ray Lemonade Exam)
"This is something we haven't seen before. Ever."
-Glenn Poston, Illinois Entertainer
"What makes it all the more fascinating are the baffling trips into biographical data, as if disturbed childhood explains the visual and aural cacophony of these videos."
-Wilson Thorndale, Metal Mania
"Weird as hell, but brilliant."
-Tracii Guns, L.A. Guns (former Guns N' Roses member!)
"By far the best thing Japan and Minnesota have ever produced."
-Gunther Reynolds, Hardchord Magazine
"The social message of Guns N' Roses' music is this: if you can effect change in your own lives, you can change the world. How one sees himself is integral to the spirit of communal wealth, for one sees oneself as less than desirable, they will perhaps shy away from the group. Are we not all comrades?"
-Norm Ashenfelt, license-plate collector and editor of Socialist Party monthly The Appeal to Reason
"The obsession with familial ties and divorce makes me wish someone wrote an analysis of the analysis--about Colby Witherspoon!"
-Wilson Thorndale, Squadron of Deathsquad
"Who knew these videos and songs had such depth? I did."
-Eric Romano, editor of mygnr.com
"Colby Witherspoon has an interesting style of writing and does a decent job at making the videos seem bigger than they actually are."
-Gunther Reynolds, Hardchord Magazine
"Colby Witherspoon's propensity toward pretension and multisyllabic descriptors veritably predetermine an unpropitious estimation."
-Lem Drucker, U.S. World Perspective
"A William S. Burroughs novel after entirely too much acid."
-Pete Cleaver, Rageahol Tribune
"The writing is really good, actually he shows us that you really can do a lot even if your subject matter is weak."
-Kai Yoshioka, Sopporo Read Today
"An incredible, terrifying tale!"
-Publisher's Bi-Monthly
Coming soon!