Sadly, I knew this day would come. MK2 will be releasing Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me on Blu-ray on November 3rd, 2010. As soon as I found out, I contacted MK2 to see if there were any details on the specs and whether this release would finally include the release of Deleted Scenes. A week went by and as you would guess, I got no response to my email. It is safe to assume that if they did have the Deleted Scenes present on this release, they would have definitely announced it in big bold print 100 feet tall. With this, I fear that this may likely be the last chance for these scenes to see the light of day outside of David Lynch himself putting it out through his own label. I only say this because with MK2 being the rightful owners of the film, the likeliness of another company investing in Deleted Scenes for a movie that they don’t own, at least in my opinion, is very slim.
One thing I can confirm, which I’ve been holding out on for quite some time is that MK2 is sitting on about 20 hours worth of interviews with the cast and crew that they had commissioned to be shot between September of 2004 and November of 2005, for what they were then planning to be a 2 Disc Special Edition complete with Deleted Scenes. What I have not told anyone up until today is that I know all this because I was the one hired to produce this footage.
The opportunity came to me by complete chance. An email chain between myself and MK2 trying to catch a scoop turned into a teleconference which later turned into a chance of a lifetime. Back in 2004, MK2 had gotten a lot of pressure to release FWWM on DVD with Deleted Scenes. This pressure caused them to re-evaluate their current bare bones release and a decision was made to go forward and do a proper release of the film that the fans have been desperately waiting for. This included getting David on board and working with him to complete the Deleted Scenes for this release. In parallel to their negotiations with Lynch, they gave me some basic guidelines and asked me to put a small crew together to start shooting interviews which would be compiled into a full length documentary that I suggested we title “World of Blue.” The first thing I did after signing the contracts was to contact David’s former assistant, Jay Aaseng. The most important thing to me was that I be very respectful of David and his film and check to see if there was anything specific I should stay away from or anyone in particular that I should try and track down for this project. A few days later, I received an email and couldn’t believe my eyes when I read that I had got the green light from David. Talk about the stars aligning. Although for the duration of the project, I never met David nor did I ever get to interview him for the project; however, it was just such a rush to know that I had his approval.
Over the course of the next 14 months, I contacted and interviewed 22 of the original cast and crew of the film. The original plan was to have an editor from MK2 fly to California to review the footage, my notes, and then work remotely with me on the documentary while he edited it back in France. The first interview for this project was with Grace Zabriskie. Being such a huge fan, I was in total awe being in her presence. I remember at one point our sound engineer, Scott, was sitting on the ground, monitoring the sound while Grace was getting into a great story about her wood carvings. While she was telling her story, Scott moved ever so slightly which on her wooden floor, made a high pitched creaking sound. Grace looked over at him and then continued. A few seconds later, he moved, the floor creaked again, and Grace shot him the evil eye. Then out of nowhere, in a very stern, larger than life voice, she said something to the effect of “Are you going to continue creaking over there?” Scott sat there absolutely stunned after which he moved ever so slightly and again, another creak to which Grace shot him another look and then burst into laughter.
The stories I was able to capture were very genuine, heartfelt, and for a true fan, absolutely amazing. Some stories were ones that we have heard or read about before, but a majority of the stories were ones I had never heard before. What I was slowly putting together was shaping up to finally be something that would cover every facet of Fire Walk With Me from inception to release but it would do so through stories of what it was like to be on the set of this beautiful and magical. This documentary would honor the film and the cast and crew and their amazing contributions. The one thing that was completely overpowering between the stories shared by each and every cast and crew member was the love they all had for David, the sheer admiration they have for him and how they were so willing to do anything for him then and even now. This was the story that I wanted to tell. This is what I wanted to world to know about Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. It was an absolute thrill and something I will always treasure. The interviews I did covered the following cast and crew.
Grace Zabriskie
Gary Bullock
Don Davis
Charlotte Stewart
Kimmy Robertson
Walter Olkewicz
Frances Bay
Sandra Kinder
James Marshall
Deepak Nayar
Victor Rivers
Ron Garcia
Robert Engels
Sheryl Lee
Kyle MacLachlan
Mike Malone
John Huck
Lorna MacMillian
David Slusser
Pheobe Augustine (filmed by Josh Eisenstadt)
Pamela Gidley
Carlton Russell
In October of 2005, things were winding down and MK2 had told me that they felt that there was more than enough footage for the documentary. I was distraught as I was still working on lining up some additional cast members and even had gotten Angelo Badalamenti to agree to do an interview for the project. I went back to MK2 and asked to get just three more interviews before I could call it completed. In this request I had also asked for some travel funding to fly to New Jersey to interview Angelo. We had set a date and to be honest, if they said no, I would have probably reached into my bank account and gone ahead anyway. Then came some news. Thee entire 2 Disc Project would be put on hold. I was to discontinue all interviews until further notice.
Over the next year, I would check back with my contacts at MK2 as well as David’s former assistant to see if there was any news on the project being resurrected. Both sides gave no information as to what happened or whether whatever did happen would ever get resolved. Over the years, I would check back rarely even getting a response. Perhaps the ship has sailed.
This experience was such a beautiful and touching experience, and yet I feel a deep sadness, not only for the possibility of not ever being able to see more of the world of Twin Peaks through the glimpses caught in the Deleted Scenes. Instead, I’m genuinely bummed to think that I came so close to giving the world my contribution of a proper tribute to what I feel is one of the greatest films of all time.
In any case, if you have any requests to make of MK2 regarding their upcoming Blu-ray release, you can try sending one on their online form.
