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Essays
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8/18/03
The Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made - by David Hughes, Foreword by H.R. Giger
An excellent book that both will leave you amazed and at the same
time leave you scratching your head at the stupidity of it all. This book could
also have been called "Development Hell: Writing for The Big Screen. Author
David Hughes does a great job on covering a lot of ground and giving you insight
to the nightmare writers go through in writing for Hollywood. He covers from
ideas to concept to actual scripts just to be shut down all together at the
11th hour. Star Trek anybody? What got me on this is that the very people who
create with their heart and soul and imagination are the very ones who are treated
the most poorly in the industry. "Thanks for the writing, now get lost"
attitude is through out this book. After reading this whether your a movie fan
or a writer, you just feel like running over a headless suit. Who the hell make
these guys in charge anyways. And their not the only ones. Producers, Directors
and even Actors with poor egos demand changes on scripts that you don't even
recognize after so many rewrites. Covering 19 chapters I'll give you some of
the highlights and wet your appetite good enough for all of you to add this
book to your collection. To the beginner writer you just might want to quit
after reading and ask yourself why would I put myself through this? Then again
you see the courage all these writers have gone through and you say to yourself
"That's Right, I'll Never Quit!"
So here are some of the highlights: Note: Synopsis are from the book, sarcastic
end remarks are mine so you'll know.
-Star Trek: Planet of the Titans. Spock versus Toshiro Mifune who's a klingon?
Philip Kaufman (The Right Stuff) writer and director spent 8 months getting
ready to give this to Paramount studios when at the 11th hour they pulled the
plug cause they felt it still can only exist on television. 3 weeks later Star
Wars came out. DOOOHHHH! And this was from Producer Jeffrey Karzenberg who has
then build Dreamworks with Speilberg. Go figure.
-How James Cameron couldn't get Spiderman, T3 and Avatar off the ground. Avatar
was ahead of it's time of having major characters CG in the real world but it
being to expensive at the time. After Lord of the Rings and other modern day
films now he would be to late in bringing it to the screen. What a Shame.
-What really went wrong with Alien 3 and its multiple rewrites and revisions.
And the total contradictions in doing Aliens 4 for Sigorney Weaver while killing
Alien vs. Predator. Speaking of which Robert Rodriguez actually handed in a
script for Predator 3 but no go. Damn, imagine the body count.
-Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke which in turn had some of the special effect
designs wind up in the t.v. show "V" which in turn became Independence
Day. Gee and you thought that Emmerich and Devlin were the most original guys
around. Godzilla anyone? Hint: Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.
-Spielberg's Night Skies went sour when he got into a run in with Rick Baker
on the evil alien designs. The idea got split in two. E.T. was sent to Columbia
just to turn it down, OUUCCH, then going over to Universal while Poltergeist
was the second idea turning the evil aliens into ghosts from an idea from Tobe
Hooper! Add insult to injury Speilberg was running the set with Hooper on the
side. Jan Le Bont said something of "The Haunted" like "he's
always on my back".
-How the Fantastic Four movie was actually made just to be shelved so the producer
can hold on to the rights so he could take it to 20th Century Fox with Chris
Columbus directing and having Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan as Fantastic Four! This
is one we all should be glad it didn't get made! As far as the producer goes,
what a back stabbing son of a.....This chapter has to be read to be believe.
Yes the original movie is out there somewhere.
-Six Million Dollar Man as a comedy with Chris Rock and inflation calling it
the 6 Billion Dollar Man. Executive Producer Richard Anderson is actually okay
with this! Remember him? He was the actor who played Oscar Goldman. Talk about
betraying your own show.
-Supernova having 5 screenwriters, at least 3 directors, different endings,
different ratings and multiple edits where even having Francis Ford Coppola
to come in for a final edit that couldn't even help the film. See what $65 million
can get you?
-The Tourist Trap. A film that your never ever going to see considering this
is one script that's been around for years including it's different concepts.
Talk about hiring and firing the same writer after all these years. And it's
influences on other pictures like Men in Black and Blade Runner. Talk abut borrowing
ideas.
-Superman oh poor Superman. At the time of the book's printing this mess already
had a over $30 million tag on it without a single frame shot. What's even more
scary that now the movie is still not made and it's up to over $60 million.
It's great when directors and writers get paid mucho and nada gets done.
This chapter alone is worth the book and the soap opera is still going. When
is this studio going to get it straight?
And there's still chapters on Silver Surfer, Island of Dr. Moreau, Thunderbirds,
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and so much more! More than I can cover here.
It's amazing that nowadays pictures get made in the first place and all for
the wrong reasons. Merchandise anyone? And on top of that your left wondering
why some of these had the blessings of getting made anyways with sequels and
remakes. Did we really ask for these in the first place? After this lousy year
is it going to get worse? Remember these classic words about Hollywood from
William Goldman, Oscar Winning Screenwriter. "NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING !"
Next month I will review two great books on the Hollywood system from William
Goldman, Academy Award winning screenwriter. He's credits include 'Butch Cassidy
and the Sundance Kid, Marathon Man, Ghost in the Darkness, Princess Bride'.
He is currently working on 'Shazam'. Now you might ask what is he doing with
Shazam. He was one of the original writers hired for Superman with Christopher
Reeve before passing on the project. On that one some of the actors considered
were Burt Reynolds and Warren Beatty. Remember this was back in the 1970's.
Other tales? Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were not the originals writers on "Good
Will Hunting." Guess who was? Want to know more? For the Superman trivia
that book is called "Adventures in the Screen Trade" first published
in 1980 and for that Affleck and Damon controversy that book is called "Which
Lie Did I Tell?" first published in 2000. He packs no punches on the Hollywood
system and its backward mentality. This is recommended for up and coming writers.
Tune in next month.