If you'd dropped in from Mars and saw only those two films, you'd believe that this art form that the human race call 'movies' is totally unconcerned with having a main protagonist with a clearly defined goal that plays out along a nicely structured arc (why you would go straight to the cinema after dropping in from another planet, I don't know, but there it is.)

I would cite this view of screenplay structure as Syd Field's, but when I interviewed him for the podcast I discovered that he's really into non-linear, multi-strand treats like Magnolia, so it's unfair to lay it all at his door.

In 28 Weeks Later they never seem that bothered with establishing who the main character is or whose story it is (which also happened in 28 Days Later), and in Pirates there seem to be about 20 throughlines all squirming away at the same time rather like the tentacles on Bill Nighy's beard.

I sat there internally carping about the inconsistencies, but found that both films carried me through with the sheer exhileration of their chutzpah (unlike our arachnid friend).

Maybe they're both still trading off the good will of previous installments (like our arachnid friend) or maybe audiences will take any amount of bewildering nonsense just as long as they get to hang out in a universe they find thrilling or with characters they really love.

I know a lot of writers and film makers who dismiss movies like these out of hand, but if I'm honest, I don't give a monkey's dick what film buffs think about films. In my experience, film buffs generally talk utter shite about films.

But I do have a number of friends who have no connection to the film industry, and I pay careful attention to what it is that makes them commit to a movie.

They'll watch big dumb blockbusters alongside experimental arthouse fare. It's all the same to them. It's just another story being told; another world to spend some time in. And these two movies are two worlds they currently like the look of very much, whatever it says about how stories should be told.

Maybe the audiences are way ahead of us writers here. In our rush to learn the principles of structure we might have forgotten the spirit of Scheherezade. They can take the complexity and the breaking of all the rules as long as we let them wallow in a world that enthralls them.

New York-based screenwriter Joseph Sullivan put it nicely when he responded to my original editorial on the Shooters bulletin:

Maybe the problem is that the people who actually see movies like 28 Weeks Later and Pirates don't read the screenwriting books that tell you the 'rules' and what has to happen and when and how.

Maybe people love the idea of '20 throughlines' in Pirates because it challenges them and keeps them awake.

Maybe movies (finally) are becoming more like episodic television where complexity is king and the audience is treated like adults.

Maybe the way for writers (and filmmakers) to make money is to stop behaving like good little boys and girls.