Subject: Robert Engels at the Mpls premiere of FWWM (a spoiler or two--nothing big)
From: hagstrop@oberon.mathcs.carleton.edu (Paul Hagstrom)
Date: 1992-08-31, 17:32
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks
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:
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.
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..
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.
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.
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)
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