The Bull Sheet #2: Take Me to Your Leader
Bi-weekly news and updates on what's going on at The Bull's Eye.
You know, being a film journalist wasn’t at the top of my career list. Back when I first set my sights on working in film, I actually wanted to go into special effects. Then, as it gradually dawned on me that I live in a country with very few special effects-heavy films, I thought: I’ll be a film director!
When that seemed… ambitious, I decided I’d try acting. That phase didn’t last long. So, as I learned to write (well into my adult years, mind you), I thought, Aha! Screenwriting!
I eventually found my way to film journalism through the social media site for film lovers, Letterboxd (you can find my profile here). It’s a habit—sometimes an obsession—to log and comment on every movie I watch, even rewatches (even though I haven’t watched a lot lately, more about the reason here.)
But that urge to write screenplays never really left. Now and again, I’ll start a new project, tinkering away at something that might someday be worth finishing. And in 2025, I’ve decided to start another one—a story that’s been buzzing around in my brain for most of 2024.
It’s a kind of science fiction satire called Take Me to Your Leader. Think E.T. meets Forrest Gump with a dash of Arrival. I’d intended to write it in Norwegian, as it was meant to be a savage but hilarious takedown of certain parts of Norwegian media and culture. But lately, I’ve been toying with the idea of doing it in English, since some of these themes would resonate wherever you are in our Western, media-obsessed society.
And I might even try out some ideas here on The Bull’s Eye, maybe as it’s own section (that’s Substack speech for a second newsletter).
Anyway, here’s the latest:
The Golden Globes
Another year, another Golden Globe Awards. This year marked my third time as a voter, and while I can’t reveal how I voted—even after the awards are handed out, as there are strict rules about these things—I can say that I’m quite happy with many of the results. I’ll even risk saying that a few of the titles I voted for reached all the way to the top.
If you browse around on The Bull’s Eye, you might get a sense of what kind of films and series I generally enjoy. Or you could skip straight to this article, where I go through my favorites of 2024. And while I do make a point to separate my personal preferences as a fan from my professional sensibilities as a film and TV journalist, there’s bound to be some overlap.
All in all, I’m quite pleased with the results this year. Oh, and if you haven’t read it yet, check out my article about my experiences as a voter in the Golden Globe Awards.
To Review, or Not Review
Another topic that’s been buzzing around in my mind since The Bull’s Eye started to gain some momentum in early December is this whole thing with film and TV reviews—or rather, whether I should even include them on the site at all.
In Norway, as in certain other Nordic countries, we use a 1-6 rating system for movies and television, often illustrated as a roll of a die—as if there’s something random about evaluating media.
I’ve never liked the die system. And while I did write for a Norwegian website that used the more familiar 1-5 stars, which is also the standard on the aforementioned Letterboxd, I’ve found that lately, I don’t really like rating things at all. There are two main reasons for this: first, it oversimplifies things, and second, readers tend to scroll straight to the score and skip the actual review.
So, the question is: should I even include reviews on The Bull’s Eye? Is it interesting?
To paraphrase Yoda, “Meditate on this, I will.”
Meanwhile, I do have some (non-rated) reviews here for you to check out.
Status on Articles
I’m always hard at work writing articles for The Bull’s Eye, so here’s the latest on what’s new and what’s coming up.
Last week saw the publication of my interview article with
about the making of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings. This was actually a heavily rewritten version of an older piece, and working on it really highlighted how my writing skills have evolved since I first started as a journalist.If you haven’t read it yet, you’ll find it here:
I also had a guest writer in this week.
wrote an article about Jordan Peele’s horror films. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you can do so here:
The next article to be published is an interview with film score composer Hans Zimmer, based on a Zoom call I and other journalists did with him in late November. In the interview, Zimmer talks about his score for Dune: Part Two and the World War II film Blitz on Apple TV. I’m currently waiting on final confirmation from his team to use certain photos in the article before publishing.
After the Hans Zimmer interview, I’ll start working on two more pieces: one with Jonathan Nolan and Walton Goggins about Amazon’s excellent Fallout series, and another featuring a hilarious interview with Hugh Grant about his role as the sinister Mr. Reed in the horror movie Heretic.
Subscription and Pricing
Before we wrap up, here’s a quick reminder about subscription pricing for The Bull’s Eye, as some changes are coming. As you know, The Bull’s Eye is a reader-supported publication, meaning that it’s the paying subscribers who makes this possible.
While you can enjoy The Bull’s Eye as a free subscriber, there are a few limits. All articles will automatically move behind the paywall one month after publication, and going forward, some exclusive articles will be paywalled right from the start. Everyone can join the chat, but paid subscribers get the added perk of starting new conversations in The Bull’s Eye chat.
As I mentioned at the start of the year, there’s currently a 25% discount on annual subscriptions (see below). But keep in mind that on February 1st, the monthly price will increase to $7. So if you want to lock in the annual subscription at not just the lower, but also discounted rate, now’s the time.
And That’s a Wrap!
Right, I hope everyone’s had a great start to the year. I’m looking forward to sharing my upcoming articles with you.
Until next time!