Wednesday, May 18, 2011

ABSOLUTE WORST LITERARY EXPERIENCE

Yeah, I have one. It was the horrific (in a bad way, not a fun way) experience of one of my short stories being turned into a film. Now some may think…cool! My story made into a movie! Yeah, I thought so too.

Yeah, well, cool if the story WAS made into a movie. It wasn’t. Far from it. It was a disaster. I had advertised a short story that I had rewritten into a two act, 25 minute short. It garnered interest, a fledgling (should have known then) produced, director, and jack of all trades. He asked if I could expand it. I did. Made it into a five act short to run about 50 minutes.

I liked the story. Nice idea. A couple of dudes pursued by a succubus, a ghost trying to warn them… Even changed the names of all the principle characters. Then things took a dive.

The so-called producer-director-jack of all trades decided to change the direction of the film, got a second writer, rewrote the script, changed the title. When all was said and done (and I was pissed), little of my original story remained, just the original character names that I had changed in the 2nd version and a rewritten barroom scene at a pool table from my original storyline.

Ended up being a two hour film, and (as far as I was concerned) a total disaster. Would have been much better if it had been left the way I had originally written it.

There are a couple of positives to come out of this… 1st, the finished disaster is so different from my original storyline that I can still push MY story without conflict; 2nd, nowhere on the net (such as in the imdb) or in printed industry material is my name associated with it of which I’m eternally grateful (however, if the film is viewed, my name still appears in the credits as co-writer).

Anyway, a bad experience, and I don’t want my name associated with it. In fact, I’m not even going to dignify the film by voicing its name. You want to see that disaster? Don’t waste your time.

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