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Film and TV
MGM chief operating officer Rick Sands revealed the plans this past weekend during a trade show in Orlando, Florida, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
That’ll make Peter happy, if true. (And a lot of the rest of us…)
[tags]Hobbit, movie, film, Hollywood Reporter, New Line, Tolkien[/tags]
I just want to take a moment to link to this, in which the excellent Wil Wheaton gives us an in-depth analysis of the episode.
While reading it I had to stop several times to clean the tea off the keyboard, and (since Peter is still snoozing upstairs, having had a late writing night) restrain myself from yelling “How goddam true!” about fifty times. You go, Wil!
(Absolutely, what an utter arsewipe Kosinski was! — which wasn’t the way we wrote him originally, alas. And yes, the Traveler was a desperate case! But then he wasn’t our idea. Neither was sticking the poor guy in pajamas. The targ wasn’t our idea either, though I kind of wish it had been.)
Some one of these days I’ll blog much more fully about the writing of that episode. Update: see below. A long story. (Short in real time, long in fallout.) If it had a moral, it would be: “Never pitch to a production team which is in the middle of a serious political struggle with itself.” …Not that you can always choose not to do this, of course.
Yet…a lot of good things came of it. And you can’t argue the buzz of seeing your name on a prime-time property for the first time, regardless of how terribly you got rewritten. And the episode was pretty. And writing it taught both Michael and me a lot about the challenges inherent in writing for a series so new that no one knows what most of the primary characters even look like. (We wrote the script some weeks before Patrick Stewart had been cast as Picard.)
Ah, memories.
***
So herewith — because I forgot I already had at least some of it written down — a bit more of the story from the writer’s point of view.
Like (it seemed) everybody else in Los Angeles, when the word came out in early 1987 that there was about to be another series of Star Trek, my old friend Michael Reaves and I both got to work on ideas to pitch. At first, the ideas were very different: and I knew from the start that Michael had a much better chance of ever getting inside the front door at TNG than I did, for the simple reason that, at that point, Michael had live-action TV credit and was a member of the Writer’s Guild. At that point, those were basic prerequisites for pitching to Trek, and I had a lot of animation, but no live action, and no Guild membership.However, after about a week’s work, Michael told me that he thought he had a good idea…and he wasn’t sure it hadn’t been influenced by my ST novel The Wounded Sky. He asked if I wanted to collaborate with him, and pitch jointly.
This was wild generosity (and utterly in character for Michael). I was happy to oblige. We started work on Michael’s basic idea, and as usual, working on it together, it changed nature again: but we were both quite happy with it. (I would upload that initial document, but unfortunately it was preserved only in Michael’s computer, which suffered a disastrous disk crash some years back and destroyed various of our original files — along with the original first-draft script.)
David Gerrold, who was still in the TNG offices at that point, listened to our pitch and then had us come in to pitch to Gene Roddenberry. We came better equipped than one needs to for a pitch — with what was ostensibly a premise, but was more nearly the equivalent of an outline, in hand. Gene liked the basic story a great deal, and suggested some changes. We went home and made them: and the result, a second-draft premise, is here for your perusal. (This is my version of it: after this, the file went to Michael for his input and formatting. You’ll see some of my notes to him in this draft.)
At that point we were told to go to outline. The first-draft outline is lost: but there were, as always, “notes” (the euphemism for changes that the producer or story editor wants made), and the second-draft outline shows the result of those changes.
Memory tells me that there were notes on the second-draft outline as well, but they were not incredibly extensive, and the first-draft script which we turned in resembles the second-draft outline pretty closely. The alert reader will note some interesting oddities. Tasha’s name had become Macha at that point (or had relapsed to Macha — there were several back-and-forth swings of this kind): children on board wore “bracelets” which functioned the way the communicator badges do now, as locators: and so forth. Bear in mind that we were working at a very early stage in TNG’s development: our episode was only the sixth one shot, and a lot of things were in a state of flux. As I remember, Patrick Stewart had not yet even been cast when we were writing: we had no idea what Picard was going to look like.
At any rate, we turned in the first-draft script and waited a couple of weeks for the notes — heard nothing, called the TNG office, and discovered that we had been “cut off” at first draft, and the script given to someone else for rewrite. This happens sometimes in TV, but rarely when everybody in the office is so enthusiastic about the story in its earlier stages.
We were unclear about the reasons for this particular cutoff for a long, long time — nearly ten years. The excuse originally given us was “time considerations” — meaning that the production office was under enough time pressure that it was felt easier and quicker to fix the script in-house rather than giving it back to us. But ten years later we found out that this hadn’t really been the issue: instead, we’d unwittingly become caught up in interoffice politics. One member of production staff got up another one’s nose, and as a result was chucked out — and (though they weren’t told what was going on) so were all the writers associated with that production staffer. Our script was then handed to another person for rewrite (and it became a source of considerable amusement to us when it turned out that a script which took us two weeks to write, took the replacement “writer” six weeks to rewrite…and the job he did was considered to be so slow and poor that it was later cited as a reason that he should be fired.)
At any rate, after the rewrite, in the shooting script for the episode, only two elements of our original (besides the general idea) remain: the scene with Picard and his mother (which was Michael’s), and the shot of Picard almost falling out of the turbolift into open space (which was mine: other alert readers will probably have recognized an idiom from the “Door” books there — in this case, Picard having an intimate and scary run-in with the Door into Starlight).
When Michael and I did see the shooting script, while our families were vacationing together in England in the late summer of ’87, our reactions were, uh, mixed. We thought we’d had a pretty fair story without the addition of aliens in pajamas and genius children. (Also, please note that neither of us had anything against the Wesley Crusher character.) However, at that point both of us had enough TV work under our belts, of one kind or another, to (after the initial reaction) sigh, shrug, say “Oh well, they paid us…”, and move on. Michael got busy with other projects (many of you will now have seen or heard of his work on BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES, GARGOYLES, and various movies-for-TV: I went on to live-action on the European side, for the BBC among others, and just had a miniseries come out.
Nonetheless, I think Michael and I still wonder sometimes: what would it have looked like if they’d shot what we wrote?…
(A few more thoughts about behind-the-scenes events during that first season, and a discussion of what else the word “notes” means to a TV writer, are here.)
For those of you who’ve been asking: here’s what I’m doing at LACon. (For Peter’s schedule, you should go check his LiveJournal later today: he’ll be putting his details up there. He’s a lot more lightly scheduled than I am, though, by his own request.) (Oh, and the master schedule for the con is here.)
“(M)” means that person is moderating.
Panel 1: Thu 8/24 10:00 AM, 60-90 minutes.
Title: DEVELOPING YOUR PROPERTY FOR THE MEDIA
Participants: Diane Duane, Dave Smeds, M. Christine Valada, Esq.(M), Doselle Young
Precis: Okay, you’ve written a novel, created a comic book, or done
a series of dynamite drawings. How can you get your
“intellectual property” from where its at to the tv and
movie screen?
—————————————-
Panel 2: Thu 8/24 1:00 PM, 60-90 minutes.
Title: L. A. CONFIDENTIAL
Participants: Amy Sterling Casil, Michael Cassutt, Diane Duane, Richard Foss, Mike Glyer(M)
Precis: So many science fiction and fantasy stories are set in Los
Angeles. What makes Los Angeles such a great place to write
about?
—————————————-
Panel 3: Thu 8/24 2:30 PM, 60-90 minutes.
Title: GUERILLA MARKETING FOR THE NEO-PRO
Participants: Tobias S. Buckell, Diane Duane(M), Robert B Hole, Jr., Vera Nazarian, Don Sakers
Precis: You don’t have the money to take out ads in “Publishers
Weekly” or “Time Magazine”. What do you do to build “brand
value”? How do you promote yourself without turning off
your audience? How do you get more sales? How can you
connect with your fledgling fan base?
—————————————-
Panel 4: Fri 8/25 10:00 AM, 60-90 minutes.
Title: WRITING FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS
Participants: Diane Duane(M), Ellen Klages, Rebecca Moesta, Garth Nix, William F. Wu
Precis: Does it take special training or knowledge to write books
and stories for children and young adults? Are they
different from adult works in any way, other than
vocabulary? How do you break in? And if you write for kids,
is it hard to also write for adults?
—————————————-
Panel 5: Sat 8/26 12 Noon, 60 minutes.
Title: READING: DIANE DUANE
Participants: Diane Duane
(I’ll be reading from A Wizard of Mars, if anyone’s interested.)
And probably my favorite:
—————————————-
Panel 6: Sat 8/26 1:00 PM, 60-90 minutes.
Title: THE FIRST STAR TREK CONVENTIONS
Participants: Linda Deneroff, Diane Duane, Devra Langsam, Bjo Trimble, Ben Yalow(M)
Precis: What were they like? Who could have guessed so many
thousands would show up? What’s different between the Star
Trek conventions of today and the ones of the earliest
days? And how do the “Creation Cons” fit into the mix?
—————————————-
Panel 7: Sun 8/27 11:00 AM, 60 minutes.
Title: KAFFEKLATSCH: DIANE DUANE
Participants: Diane Duane
Precis: Kaffee. Klatsch. You do the math.
***
So there we are. During much of the rest of the convention — when friends’ panels or meetings with various people aren’t otherwise on the schedule — I have a feeling that P. and I will be operating under normal UK con rules, which more or less stipulate that if one is not to be found in/on programming, the bar is the next best bet (and for this occasion add, “fan room”).
For those of you who want to have things signed, since as far as I can tell I don’t have a per se signing scheduled, probably the best place to catch me is after the reading: we’ll decamp somewhere else and get it done.
[tags]LACon IV, Worldcon, World Science Fiction Convention, Peter Morwood, Diane Duane[/tags]
…is The Dark Knight. (Variety confirms the Hollywood Reporter story.)
Heath Ledger has been signed to play the Joker.
[tags]Batman, The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger, Jonah Nolan, Christopher Nolan, Christian Bale, Michael Uslan[/tags]
Update: This one’s silly too.
[tags]Battlestar Galactica, wiki, Sci-Fi Channel, Ronald D. Moore, David Eick[/tags]
Not completely destroyed, it seems…but it’s going to take a while to get it back into shape, I’m sure. It was one of the world’s largest sound stages, after all. (Not sure if it was the largest.)
The fire in the corrugated metal warehouse-like stage wiped out three different sets that had been transformed into Venice for several final scenes in the new Bond film Casino Royale.
One of them was a house that tilted into the water with the help of a complicated hydraulics system, which used four specially-made valves of which there are only eight in the world.
The valves had been flown into England under armed guard from America and production bosses were yesterday waiting to get the all clear to get onto the set to see if they had survived the fierce fire that took two hours to get under control.
The Beeb, I suppose unavoidably, can’t resist adding at the end of the article:
No-one would say if they had seen a short, bald man with a scar running down the right side of his face and carrying a white cat running from the scene on Sunday.
Update: it’s going to have to be demolished and rebuilt.
[tags]Pinewood, 007, Casino Royale, Daniel Craig, 007 sound stage[/tags]
Now I’m happy.
Geeks the world over have reason to celebrate today – George Lucas has finally listened to their pleas and is releasing the original versions of the ‘Star Wars’ trilogy on DVD.
On September 11, two-disc sets of ‘Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope’, ‘Episode V The Empire Strikes Back’ and ‘Episode VI Return of the Jedi’ will hit the streets, featuring the digitally restored and re-mastered versions of the movies.
And as bonus material, they will also include the holy grail for true ‘Star Wars’ fans – the original theatrical versions of the films.
And the article’s writer says something that Peter has said about eight thousand times:
As a fan of the originals, I’ve avoided buying the updated versions of the films in the hope that Lucas would one day listen to sense and release them in an untainted form.
Can’t wait…!
[tags] Star Wars, original films, George Lucas, Lucasfilms[/tags]
I am not normally of a litigious turn of mind. But if the incision of the gentleman in this story fails to heal properly, and if I were he, by God would I hunt down someone at Paramount to sue.
Whose idea was this inane stunt…?!
(Full story about the promotional campaign and its other backfires here.)
[tags]Mission Impossible III[/tags]
Aww, I can’t resist.
Dark Kingdom. Based on this old Norse/Germanic tale about the Ring of the Nibelung. It was pretty nifty. The Queen of Iceland was awesome.
So true.
So I just finished watching Dark Kingdom on sci-fi, that lovely mini series and I really liked it, especially Brunhild, the amazingly beautiful, ass kicking, double-bladed axe wielding valkyrie. Yea……she is great, the whole package really. Nonetheless, in the second part of the series, her lovely new husband, whats-his-name, who is in total: a overweight, rapidly aging, greedy and immoral, sterile fool who had tricked his good friend, the true love of Brunhild, amnesiac Siegfried into taking her belt of power and letting her fatty husband have his way with her, while she was tricked! Tricked I say!
Yep, I’d say that just about sums it up.
Dear Sword Wielding Super Hotties,
I wanna marry you. Stop killing yourselves, there really is a guy for you. He’s me, and I got Valhalla in my bedroom.
You don’t need to break the cycle of hate, nor slay yourself at some punk’s funeral.
Just come on over and get horizontal.
Erm. (backs away slowly)
The second part was definitely a lot better than the first part. Probably because Siegfried died.
Brunhild (Kristanna Loken / Queen of Iceland) kicked a lot of ass. I wish she had kicked more ass, but she did cut off the evil adviser’s head and it doesn’t get much better than that.
No argument there.
Dark Kingdom = Saga of the Volsungs (or the German version, anyway). Was pretty cool. Brunhild kicked so much ass. That chick rules.
And I missed Boston Legal!
(sigh) So did I.
Dude, I was so looking forward to Dark Kingdom with Samuel West and Alicia Witt. Even after like ten gazillion name changes that kept delaying it’s appearance, I still waited. And waited. Was I disappointed? I some ways, yeah, but it was so teh funny, eh? It was like the laughfests I have with Christopher Lambert movies. Then again, what was Slutbunny, er, Sam doing in it? Ah, all’s chaos and confusion!
The name changes. Don’t get us started about the name changes. (two heads meet many, many times with two desks, more or less in unison)
…dear God, did Siegfried REALLY speak with that unspeakable accent?
(And there was this… moment… when he stands up to the two roaring Saxon kings and utters the immortal words: “You killed my father!” At which point both [info]rdeck and I sat up and said in unison, “My name is Inigo Montoya… prepare to die!”)
So did we. Often.
So just finished watching my show, “Dark Kingdom,” on the Sci-fi channel. Robert was in it That’s the only reason I watched it. It was actually kinda cheesy. But Rob made it all worth while. Speaking of Robert, like my new icon? Isn’t he beautiful? Wouldn’t we make beautiful babies? Wow, if Orlando falls through I’ll gladly take Robert.
See, now, there’s the spirit. Always have a plan. 🙂
Well, so it’s finished airing…and SciFi is very pleased. From our producers this morning:
The premiere of Dark Kingdom averaged a 1.8 HH rating and 2.109 million total viewers (P2+).
This is the most-watched Monday program ever for Sci Fi in any second quarter.
Dark Kingdom delivered 1.181 million P25-54s, the #8 cable program for the day on Monday on this measure.
…Over on the BBs at SciFi there’s a certain amount of approbation, a lot of confusion about where the story came from, and some indignation at the ending, along the lines of “How dare this not have a happy ending, it’s a fairy tale, right, a fantasy, where’s our happy ending?”
Ah well. We have ours. 🙂 On to the next miniseries!
(The funniest remarks over there so far: (1) “There should be a sequel!” (Whoops, sorry, we seem to have killed everybody but Kriemhild. (2) “We want a series!” (Argh! But now that you mention it… NAAAH.) 😉