Jenny and I went to an afternoon movie called Wanted on Wednesday since we could. We sat behind a couple who had brought their newborn, who slept through most of the movie and didn’t bother anyone. That could be us in a couple of months. Anyway, the movie was pretty good. I’m a sucker for hitman movies, which is probably horribly unChristian of me, but I can’t help what I like. My favorite is probably Leon: The Professional by Luc Besson. Wanted had some significant plot holes and too much gore for my taste, but the action sequences were thrilling, with Matrix-style slow-mo, curving bullets, car chases using a red Dodge Viper, the whole bit.

As always, I looked up the movie’s trivia page on IMBD.com, the world’s best movie site, and learned that the screenwriters were Baylor alums Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, who graduated from the writing program a year or two ahead of me. I never met them, but I took a couple of classes with Robert Darden, a successful writer who served as a mentor of sorts for them. They named the first assassination target after Darden, one of my favorite profs. I wonder what he thought about such a dubious honor. As you might know, I wrote a couple of unpublished screenplays myself while at Baylor and briefly considered pursuing it as a career before my desire for a steady paycheck convinced me otherwise. It’s nice to see products of the Baylor writing department enjoying success in Hollywood. Sic ’em, Bears!