From: jsnyder@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (J Snyder)
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks
Subject: Re: Robert Engels at the Mpls premiere of FWWM (a spoiler or two--nothing big)
Date: 6 Sep 92 05:11:14 GMT
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX

In article <la5eh7INNsam@news.bbn.com> hagstrop@oberon.mathcs.carleton.edu (Paul Hagstrom) writes:
|Interesting -- apparently nobody on this group was one of the people who was  
|fortunate enough to attend the screening in Mpls at which Robert Engels  
|(co-author of FWWM, for those who don't recognize the name, which I may have  
|misspelled, but I don't think so) spoke.  He did clear up a few things that  
|people have wondered about since our Internet connection went down, so I'll try  
|to fill y'all in on what he said:

No, I was only fortunate (this is my fortunate...day) enough to win free
tickets to the preview in our town...but...I did get two FWWM shirts and a
movie poster out of it...

|First, the movie was, in uncut form, about 3:40, in contrast to the measly 2:09  
|that it pulled in at in the theatres.  He said that they expect to distribute  
|the uncut version eventually on laserdisc, but the folks in charge wouldn't let  
|them get away with a movie that long, apparently.  Who the "folks in charge"  
|are, exactly, I'm not sure, but it wasn't Robert Engels, anwyay.  Apparently,  
|what got cut was mostly from the first half -- Keifer's part was, as the story  
|goes, hilarious.  There was a lot of funny stuff going on that just got  
|chopped.  It seems that he spent a lot of time going over what things must  
|cost, although we only got the tiniest glimpse of that (he mentioned once what  
|the police department must have cost).  He also was quite keen on looking into  
|every one of the casket-things in the morgue, but that was cut.  The scene at 3  
|(or 4) in the morning at the diner had some stuff in it that was cut too: all  
|of that flickering blue light came from people trying to torch open a safe, and  
|there were a few other obscurish jokes that were fully explained in the uncut  
|version, but left to speculation in the cut version.  Robert Engels had thought  
|that it wasn't possible to read the guy's button, but a lot of people in the  
|theater had managed to see it in the brief glimpse we got of it -- I assume  
|that it is made the object of more central focus in the uncut film.  Anyway,  
|all in all, I'm very much looking forward to seeing that 3:40 version.

Acutally, I recall a Terry Giliam quote to the effect of
	"American audiences can take length, but the theatres cannot."
meaning, they have to make money on each showing, the same reason why
you never hear of many double features in standard theathres anymore.

|Second, the movie seemed to be very much designed around the casting that they  
|had available.  Donna had to be substituted -- no way around that, in my view,  
|anyway, since they were supposed to be best friends.  Robert Engels did say,  
|though, that he thought that it was rather "sleazy" on the parts of a lot of  
|the actors involved (and I think we're talking about Donna & Audrey, but I  
|think this applies to quite a few) that they refused to make a movie with the  
|man who essentially created their careers.  I don't think he was happy with the  
|fact that they did not have the entire cast at their disposal at all.    
|Cooper's part, for example, was so brief because they only had Kyle for about  
|two weeks -- he had some other commitments -- so, they really didn't have much  
|that they could do with him.  Apparently, the movie was shot entirely in a  
|year.. not bad.  Anyway, a lot of other things, like David Bowie's character,  
|seemed to be "escape hatches" for the next movie.. 

Makes good sense to me.

|Third, in regard to my last comment, Robert Engels said that there will be  
|another movie and that it will be post-series -- ASSUMING that FWWM does well  
|enough.  He said that it has already pulled a profit in Japan (i.e. they no  
|longer have to worry about breaking even), but he hedged a little bit on saying  
|anything for certain (understandably).  He acknowledged that there were a lot  
|of loose ends still (which got a bit of a laugh from the audience), and he  
|speculated a little bit about the next movie.  Again, it sounded like it was  
|very much grounded in what cast members were available -- He said that they HAD  
|to try to get one of the four people who knew what was going on: Cooper,  
|Windham Earle (or however you spell his name), Major Briggs, or .. somebody  
|else.  Sorry, folks.. I've forgotten.  Anyway, the point is this: it really  
|matters more who has time to make a movie than what David Lynch WANTS to do.  

Yeah!  Yeah!  <said with a my fist approaching my abdomen, and missing>

|He hoped that they would be able to do something with David Bowie's character,  
|although the way he mentioned it, it sounded like it would be kind of a last  
|resort if all of the people that they want fall through.  It sounds like Cooper  
|will NOT be doing the sequel (which has an estimated time of commencement in a  
|couple of years -- Robert & David will be doing some other project next, and  
|they don't plan to thing about the next TP movie until that project is out of  
|the way).  What Robert Engels said was that Kyle did not want to become another  
|"James T. Kirk" -- which he quickly pointed out DIDN'T happen to every actor,  
|and gave another example which was lost in the recesses of my memory soon  
|afterwards, but it was convincing enough anyway.

Kyle, I knew James Kirk...

|In fact, point the Fourth, is that when Robert Engels was talking about writing  
|with David Lynch, he said that they didn't have at the forefront of their  
|thoughts to keep everything in line with what was going on in the TV series.   
|He did admit that there was a very definite "thing going on underneath" that he  
|and Lynch knew about and planned around, but he made it sound like he wouldn't  
|be surprised in the least if there are discrepancies between the series and  
|movie, and even more importantly, he wouldn't care.  He said that he and David  
|Lynch know what the meaning of the white mask that the little boy was wearing  
|was, but that it wasn't all that important what THEIR interpretations were --  
|that people were supposed to draw those conclusions for themselves, and perhaps  
|differently.  When the question "What did the white mask mean?" was posed to  
|him a little while later, Robert Engels laughed and said, "I can't tell you  
|that."
|
|What else of interest was there?  I think I hit most of the parts that seemed  
|relevant.  It was interesting to hear him talk about it, and he seems pretty  
|pleased with the end result.  Me, I just can't wait for the laserdisk and the  
|sequel.. not that I think we'll ever get a very clear idea of what David Lynch  
|himself thinks is going on.  I got the impression that there wasn't going to be  
|a third movie, but that may be just because the second movie is all the farther  
|they want to think at the moment.
|
|If I think of something else that he mentioned that I forgot, I'll follow this  
|up -- perhaps another posting will jog my memory, and perhaps somebody else was  
|there that just hasn't posted..
|--
|schmotsignature.
|Paul Hagstrom
|(hagstrop@carleton.edu)

Well, there's always hope.  Maybe hope can conquer all...

I remain,
-- 
---------------------------+- If we took the bones out, it wouldn't --
jsnyder@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu |  be crunchy, would it?  -  MPFC
---------------------------+  That is your reciept for your husband,
and this is my reciept for your reciept. - Brazil