try at working out chaotic things

Today is WWdN's fifth birthday. To celebrate, I break my self-imposed week-long silence and offer the following scene from my living room, last night:

Anne and I played Scene It? which is an insanely fun game in the style of Pictionary, Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture Edition, Cranium, etc.

One of the features in Scene It? is the DVD challenge, where you watch a scene from a movie, then answer a question about the scene you just watched. If you answer correctly, you take another turn, otherwise, your turn is over.

We were only a few turns into our second game, and I was about ten spaces ahead of Anne, mostly due to my awesome supernatural ability to identify the title of a movie after just one or two letters appear on the screen. On Golden Pond? Waiting to Exhale? I own you bitches.

Anyway, I got the DVD challenge thing, hit play, and Stand By Me came up.

"Dude!" Anne said, "That's such fucking bullshit! You get your own movie?!"

"I'd better get this right," I said, "or I'm automatically forfeiting the game."

I looked up at the TV. Jerry O'Connell and I ran across the train trestle, and I recalled how insanely scared I was when we filmed that scene -- not because the train was close to us (it wasn't) but Jerry and I were having a hard time acting scared. After several unacceptable takes,  Rob screamed at us, "Goddammit, you're ruining my movie! You guys better stop joking around and get scared, because if that train doesn't kill you, I will!"

Jerry and I instantly burst into tears, because Rob never raised his voice at us. My mom tells me that right after Rob saw us start to cry, he turned to the first AD and quietly said, "Roll camera."

We raced down the tracks, tears streaming down our faces, and right past the camera into Rob's arms where he hugged us and thanked us for a great take.

"Print that," he said. "Good job, you guys. I'm sorry I yelled at you."

The scene ended, and the question popped up on the screen: "Who Narrates This Movie?"

"Ha. I totally know this," I said. "Richard Dreyfuss."

"That is so unfair," Anne said.

"Yeah," I said. "It's totally rigged. Now give me the dice."

My moment of glory was short-lived. Though I won that game, Anne eventually defeated me 3-2.

And now, back to vacation . . .

Comments

[Amber J]

I love Scene It! Sadly when we last played it and I too got that question, I didn't get it right... I still won though. Yay for spending far too much time watching television, movies and listening to music to gain trivial knowledge that only comes in handy when playing bar trivia and games against friends and family!

[Tim]

Dammit Wil, you owe me a keyboard and monitor.

[Sean Weitner]

Wil: Since you're an Arbiter of Cool Things, I need to draw your attention to the upcoming game Cineplexity from Out of the Box Publishing. I'm one of the game's creators, so I'm biased, but when it comes out this November, I hope you give it a try, because we think it's a totally new, equally insanely fun kind of movie trivia game. Rather than answer somebody else's questions about movies (like "Who narrated Stand By Me?"), players look at two cards, each of which lists a feature common to many movies, and comes up with a movie common to both. So if the cards read:

"Male bonding" and "Teens in trouble"

...or...

"Contains a flashback" and "Features planes, trains or automobiles"

...or...

"Shares a title with a hit song" and "Adapted from a novel or short story"

... then "Stand By Me" could be an answer for any of those pairs. But if someone hadn't seen "Stand By Me" (perish the thought), they could answer with movies that they knew better ... maybe "The Breakfast Club," "The Fugitive" and "Shaft," respectively, or maybe "Lord of the Flies," "The Manchurian Candidate" and "Meet Me in St. Louis." Unlike trivia games where success depends on how well your moviewatching tastes align with the trivia master, everyone bring their own movie love to the table in Cineplexity -- arthouse snobs can compete with blockbuster fans, kids can play with their grandparents, dogs and cats living together ... it's a lot of fun, and hopefully you give it a swing and like it too.

Happy anniversary.

[Angela]

You know whats ironic about this post is I used to work for the man who financed Scene it (in Seattle) & he asked myself and another girl in the office if we liked it & we both told him it would tank. I guess that's why he's so effing rich.

[Almost Lucid (Brad)]

I love this story. Such a neat memory.

[sjistarr]

Your post reminds me of a story I heard in the news recently... this photographer getting small children to cry so she could take their picture. She explained that she was only using tactics that filmmakers have been using for years to get kids to perform on camera. Something in me isn't totally comfortable with it, but I guess you aren't horribly scarred by the experience so... (shrug)

[joy]

That is the best story ever! Hah!
And happy 5th bday to WWdN :)

[girl_from_mars]

so your exile from exile is going really well then...this blogging business is addictive...just TRY to keep me away from mine!!!
(girlfrommars72 @ lj)

many congrats on the anno!

[starshine_diva]

YEY! Happy Anniversary, WWDN! :P
Also, that story is my ultimate favorite, from all your stories... It's just so perfect!

[jhankins]

Happy Birthday, WWDN, even if you are in exile!

Wil, dude, you so owe me a new keyboard. Spit takes aren't cool.

:)

[CMD]

Screw playing Chess with Death. When I write my great screenplay, it shall feature playing Scene It! with Wil Wheaton.

[MattWallace]

"Dude!" Anne said, "That's such fucking bullshit! You get your own movie?!"

Priceless.

[DanInMelbourne]

Happy Birthday, WWdN. In honour of the occasion, maybe you could release a new board game: Blogged It. (Sample question: Wil's favourite monochromatic Irish alcoholic beverage is...?

[claire]

Congratulations on 5 years of WWdN, Wil! \m/

Way to come through on your Stand by Me question after raising the stakes! :)

[happicat]

I love it that Anne says "dude".

[jessiker]

Those are the anecdotes I love to hear, Wil! Have a great vaca!

[peanutbutter]

Happy Anniversary WWDN!

That's funny. I own the Ultra-Deluxe-Take-24-More-Of-My-Dollars edition of Stand By Me and I remember Rob Reiner mentioning that scene in the interviews. I would have cried too!

[ctriefus]

Hey Happy Anniversary WWDN and on my birthday too. I've been reading almost since the beginning and remember those early days not to mention the soap box. Thanks for a very entertaining 5 years Wil.
Claire

[Nadia]

Happy Anniversary WWdN!!!!!! :D :D :D

And that was a great scene. :)

[StarkRG]

My comment in 4 parts:

a) Reply to previous commentor: Anne may say dude, but more than likely Wil is recounting it semi-fictionally, using his own words as if everyone spoke like him. Then again, maybe his whole family DOES talk like him...

b) Wil, THIS type of post is the reason I come here. I realize that this is YOUR blog and you post whatever the hell you like, and that people actually do enjoy poker enough to read about someone else playing it (there's apparently an entire site about it, so I guess there must be). But it's your (at times) semi-fictional and (at times) hillarious anecdotes that make me return. So, do what you like, but if you want input I suggest more things like this. This is the kind of thing that made your books so awesome. I'm not here for your (arguably ex-) celebrity status, it's why I came, but it's not why I stayed.

c) I'm not sure you can count this as an anniversary when you've been in exile for almost a year now... I realize you're working on the other one, but really, it's been a while now, take off the cast and toss away the crutches.

d) Your new favicon at WWdN (lowercase 'd' as you seem to like it these days) looks a lot like the Lost logo.. Similar colors, too small to make much out... Ooh, you should make it animated, W-I-L-W-I-L over and over... (that way, when the L is showing it COULD be the Lost logo...)

[CarolP]

soooooooo rigged!

[Kill Unit]

dude, games are dope, yo. it sounds totally necro and shit, but let's break out the cards. I want to play asshole/president with you becaues I always win!

seems like you've found something worthwhile to fill your time with -- games, writing, appealing to industry types and taking the time to read my blog (hint hint) and shit, yo.

I AM THE TOTALITARIAN POWER

http://non-divine.blogspot.com/

[kaellinn18]

I knew where this was going right after I read the words "Scene It."

That was more rigged than online poker.

[napoleondynamitefan]

I remember when I read Just A Geek and you said that WWdN launched on what would have been River Phoenix's brithday. Yesterday, I went on IMdB and saw that yesterday was River's birthday. And I thought, "Hhhhhmmm . . . so is WWdN's birthday."

Anyway, my family and I own 'Harry Potter Scene It'. That is an awesome game. I love it. All of the other board games that we own are no longer fun for me anymore, but we all enjoy 'Harry Potter Scene It'. In fact, we just played it Sunday. My goal is to someday own the regular 'Scene It' game. Or 'Shout About Movies'. That's cool, too.

[morgan]

Yeah well it's all Rob Riener's fault I had a crush on you back then and all the way past Star Trek..The Next Generation. I just was so mad when you were killed off in Toy Soldiers.(not you the script) Thanks for the flash back though. I totally love the movie and it will always be one of my top 5 favorites. (it's actually number one in my most favorite top 5 movies. Goonies is number 2.) LOL. Hee hee hee. It's funny, cause Jerry said that when he was in college in NY that movie was actually played in class and nobody knew that he was Vern and in that movie until the credits ran and his name came up. LOL.