an actor on DNA's knack for missing his deadlines...

[acroyear]

"I envy the film cast having scripts in advance!" -- Susan Sheridan, Trillian in the original radio series.

Source: a collection of recollections and anecdotes from some of Douglas's personal friends and professional acquiantances.

The Graham Chapman entry alone is worth the read.

Comments

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

that's actually *extremely* common in hollywood. in the case of V: The Final Battle, the original author/director of the first miniseries had submitted a script and the idea, but was eventually kicked out as director AND producer AND his script went through 3 other authors before the show was made. he was still given an author credit and executive producer credit without spending a single day on the set nor having practically a single word plot of his original script make it to the final version...on top of that, between the filming of part 1 and part 2 of The Final Battle, they ended up changing directors and brought in a *4th* screenwriter to rewrite it all yet again.

mind you, one reason for that was the original script was rather "final", and the network, between making parts 1 and 2, decided to opt for a sequel series, so it had to have a "happy" ending.

it is always necessary to have "on-the-fly" screenwriters ready to take the existing work and update it to things the director sees and feels because the director, not the screenwriter, is still the final arbitor of what will and won't work on screen, regardless of whatever vision the author might have.

the subsequent writers have to remain open to the original screenwriter's vision but after a point HAVE to make decisions on their own regardless of what they've inherited. This is particularly the case when the director cuts something -- the current screenwriter has to work around that cut by coming up with text to relink the missing segment as if it was never "missing" in the first place.

and even then, no matter how much of DNA's original might have survived, just the editing room alone can change things beyond recognition, especially when you can have digital editing and color correction change the place and time of a scene well beyond its original filming. consider RotK Special Edition, where Pippen found Merry on the battlefield in the middle of the night -- in the theatrical release (and on the filming date) it was the middle of the afternoon.

and of course, Brazil is an incredible example of how the editing process can totally distort a movie to the point where the original screenplay becomes entirely irrelevant.