From: jgp@zodmate.Rational.COM (Jim Pellmann)
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks,rec.arts.tv,rec.arts.movies
Subject: TP: Film Threat articles
Date: 12 Aug 92 22:05:34 GMT
Followup-To: alt.tv.twin-peaks

As has been reported here, the October issue of Film Threat magazine has a
series of cover stories on "Fire Walk With Me".  Although there is really
nothing new in these articles, it still represents the most thorough coverage
of both the series and movie yet seen in print.  A must for all Peaks Freaks.

Here are the articles that appear in the issue, along with a few tidbits I
thought interesting or amusing.

* Main article: The Lynch Mob Strikes Again

  A long (9-page) description of the series and movie, including the genesis of
  the movie right after the cancellation of the series, discussion about the
  different directors used in the series, summary of the shooting script for
  the movie, the effect TP has had on Sheryl Lee, and the effect TP has had on
  TV.
  
  Has about half a dozen pictures of scenes from the movie.
  
  Points of interest:
  
  - "Many familiar faces are NOT returning [to the film], although they
    were in the original script.  [Co-screenwriter Robert] Engels acknowledges
    that several scenes were trimmed to get the film down to a still-overlong
    135 minutes.  'We had to shape the story towards Laura Palmer,' he 
    explains.  'Obviously, a number of the actors [who were cut] are
    disappointed.'  Adds Catherine Coulson, who's reprising her role as
    the Log Lady: 'It must be really devastating for some of them.  But
    the spirit of ALL of the characters is in the film.'
    
    "A few who had the opportunity to renew their 'Peaks' citizenship simply
    did not or could not.  Lara Flynn Boyle, whose Donna Hayward became a
    major part in the movie, flat-out refused to re-up (her replacement is
    Moira Kelly, last seen in the ice-skating drama 'The Cutting Edge').
    'I could say something catty and self-serving,' says Engels.  'But I
    don't know why Lara didn't want to do it.  If anything, she should have
    taken it out of gratefulness for what the series did for her.'  And sadly,
    due to Sherilyn Fenn's prior acting commitments ('Diary of a Hitman',
    'Ruby'), the saddle-shoed seductress Audrey Horne sashays no more."
    
  - "The $9.5 million budget for "Fire Walk With Me" was anteed [sic] up by
    CIBY Pictures, a French film company where Lynch has a four-flick/five-year
    deal.  'With this picture's money-making potential, we could have gone
    anywhere,' says Engels.  'Even though our last show was ranked 72nd,
    it was still seen by 10 million people.  And if those 10 million people
    go to the movie, it's a hit.'"
  
  - "Some viewers resented the series myriad plot tangents.  'A lot of times
    we got creamed because people thought, "Those assholes!  What's THAT now?"'
    Engels says.  'But we were never trying to goof anybody up.  I mean,
    every time we showed the wind blowing through the trees, then cut to a
    shot of the stoplight, somebody would start another doctrine.'"
    
  - On ABC's treatment of the show: "Engels says, 'We got shoved around a
    little.  But we didn't listen to the network as much as we should have,
    either.  We got off-track in the storytelling, and by the time we put
    in Windom Earle and got going again, it was too late.'"

  - "[Director Tina] Rathborne, according to a production assistant, had a
    zest for multiple takes--which, for the outrageous funeral scene in the
    fourth episode, reportedly numbered close to a dozen: 'Ray [Wise] had
    to ride Laura's casket up and down and up and down repeatedly as Grace
    Zabriskie [playing Sarah Palmer] wailed, "Leland, don't ruin this too!"'
    Wise himself says the experience was 'not something I'd want to do again.
    It was like a mechanical bull going insane.  I had to surpress the urge
    to giggle.'"
    
  - On Lynch's behavior on the set: "Not so amusing to some is Lynch's
    penchant for using a megaphone on the set--regardless of his distance
    from the person he's addressing.  Recalls the anonymous production 
    assistant:  'One time he used it while I was standing right next to
    him.  I jumped three feet.'"  
    
    (I can't help but think that this was the impetus for the megaphone
    gags in "On the Air".)
    
  - "According to Engels, he and Lynch wasted little time [after the series
    was canceled] devising an outline for the movie.  'We liked these people
    and liked being in that place,' he says.  'We just sort of got caught up
    in it.'  Once the series was officially dead at ABC, and potential deals
    to revive on a cable channel ('not enough money could be raised to cover
    the $1.2 million-per-episode budget') and Fox Television (studio chieftain
    Barry Diller 'always felt that "Twin Peaks" was the series THEY should
    have done') fell through, the pair quickly tapped out the screenplay.
    
    "Why did they go with a 'prequel' instead of a sequel?  'This may sound
    like bullshit, but there really wasn't a conscious decision about which
    was the coolest story,' says Engels.  'It was just kind of what we
    arrived at.  The challenge was that everyone already knows how it ends.
    We had to turn that into a STRENGTH--as opposed to people sitting there
    thinking, "This is kind of dumb."  It gave us more freedom to create
    suspense than you'd initially think."
    
  - "Engels says moviegoers 'should be able to enjoy the film without having
    seen the series.'  To ensure that the screenplay stood firmly on its own
    while remaining true to 'Twin Peaks,' the script was flagged by several
    nonviewers as well as die-hard fans.  In addition, a researcher was hired
    to check the storyline's consistency with "The Secret Diary of Laura
    Palmer," "Diane ... The Twin Peaks Tapes of Agent Cooper," and other
    literary spinoffs.
    
    "Luckily for the writers, there were few logistical problems.  'The pilot
    was so loaded with stuff, so marvelously ambiguous, that we could always
    find a place to get around things,' says Engels.  'We were helped by the
    fact that Cooper wasn't on the Teresa Banks case [referenced several times
    in the series], and that he said he wanted Albert [Rosenfeld, played by
    Miguel Ferrer]--not Sam Stanley--when he drove toward Twin Peaks in the
    pilot.  That allowed us to open up the Banks story."
    
  - "'Twin Peaks' fashionably rustic lodge, the Great Northern, was barely
    shuttered when CBS' 'Northern Exposure'--another hour-long drama peopled
    with offbeat characters and filmed in the wilds of Washington State--became
    the new darling of media critics.  Although the two series are quite
    different--'Exposure' favors frothy, message-filled storylines, whereas
    'Peaks' preferred a murkier, more cynical tone--some have pointed out their
    surface similarities.  Bob Engels, for one, finds 'Exposure's' claims to
    originality offensive.  'I like [the people behind the show], and I don't
    mean to say they're copycats.  But to think that 'Northern Exposure' would
    exist at all without us is preposterous.  I mean, they have a waitress
    named Shelly--they've had a couple of things in there that were a little
    out of line, that they shouldn't have done.  But the real tragedy is that
    there aren't more shows like these on TV.'"

* Side article: Cherry Pie in the Sky

  A half-page article on the things fans did when TP was canceled.  Covers
  the creation of COOP and the Twin Peaks Gazette.
  
* Side article: The Smokin' "Twin Peaks" TV Episode Log

  A two-page listing of all TV episodes, giving titles, airdates, writer and
  director credits, short plot summaries, new characters, and other trivia.
  
  Although it has more than a few errors, and the writer clearly dislikes
  most of the post-Leland episodes, the titles he has thought up are clever,
  and it could be handy in looking up scenes on tape.
  
  Points of interest:
  
  - "Peak Freak Tidbit: On Rick Dee's short-lived TV loser 'Into the Night,'
    Madchen Amick--not Fenn--actually performed the amazing cherry stem trick."
  
* Side article: Lynch's Hall of Freaks

  A one-page chart showing the "cinematic anomalies" from Lynch's works,
  listing their "traits, talents, and fate".  Includes:
  
  - Henry's Baby from "Eraserhead"
  - Radiator Lady from "Eraserhead"
  - John Merrick from "The Elephan Man"
  - Sandworms from "Dune"
  - Baron Harkonnen from "Dune"
  - Ben, the Suave One from "Blue Velvet"
  - Nadine Hurley from "Twin Peaks"
  - Dr. Jacoby from "Twin Peaks"
  - Bobby Peru from "Wild At Heart"
  
* Side article: Into the Wood

  A one-page article about Catherine Coulson, who plays the Log Lady.
  
  Points of interest:
  
  - The Log Lady was a former ballroom dance instructor.
  
  - "'The first log brought to David [Lynch] was hollowed out, and he didn't
    like it at all.' says Coulson.  Lynch wanted Ponderosa Pine--a type of
    wood on which his father, a former research scientist for the U.S. Forest
    Service, did his Ph.D. thesis.  He settled on a solid, sap-oozing
    50-pounder from the Northwest; the log had to last, as Lynch decided there
    would be no stump doubles.  ('One time, on "Donahue," they used another
    log--but it was very offensive,' Coulson says.)"
  
* Side article: Id's Showtime!

  A one-page interview with Frank Silva, who plays Killer Bob.
  
  Points of interest:
  
  - "Silva believes the name 'Bob' is Lynch's nod to his own well-documented
    weakness for Bob's Big Boy restaurants.  It's hard to fathom how a
    freckle-faced fast-food icon with a fat ass could inspire such a sinister
    character.  But then, Lynch finds evil in the unlikeliest of places."
    
  - "Q: Have you received other acting offers?
  
     A: Not really.  But I did a stag party for a guy in Santa Monica.  His
        friends thought it would be great if Bob could be there, because this
        guy was so terrified of him.  I agreed to do it for SAG minimum.  So
        I went over to the house just as the stripper was finishing her
        striptease, and before I went in they had the guy blindfolded and
        handcuffed to a chair.  I hid behind the sofa and they took the
        blindfold off.  They played a tape of 'Twin Peaks' clips that were
        all horrific scenes with Bob; the guy was freaking out.  When the tape
        ended, I sprang out from the sofa.  I crawled up to him and started
        speaking backwards.  His wife-to-be was named Sheryl, so I screamed in
        his face, 'Beware!  Sheryl is my SISTER!'  He just totally flipped
        out."
  
* Side article: Little Fop of Horrors

  Two-page article on Michael Anderson, the little person who plays the 
  Man From Another Place.
  
  Points of interest:
  
  - Has a picture of Cooper and Man From Another Place in the Red Room.
    MFAP is examining a ring.  (Presumably a scene from the movie?)
    
  - Picture has caption written backwards.  You must hold it up to a mirror
    to read it.
  
* Side article: Ire Walk With Me

  Half-page article on the real-life town of Snoqualmie Falls, and the crass
  commercialism there the series has inspired.

As I said, it is quite a comprehensive look at TP, well worth hunting down:

Film Threat (The Other Movie Magazine)
October 1992 (Issue No. 6, Volume 2)
ISSN 0896-6389
Single copies can be ordered for $5.00 each from:
             Film Threat Back Issues Dept. 
             9171 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 300
             Beverly Hills, CA  90210

--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I lived in my head mostly."                | Jim Pellmann (jgp@rational.com)
"That's not a bad neighborhood."            | RATIONAL
"There were some pretty strange neighbors." | Santa Clara, California
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks