Early drafts of FWWM

[LostInTheMovies]

Consider this an all-purpose thread, but to start w/, has anyone here read early drafts of the screenplay? I stumbled across this thread recently: http://www.twinpeaksgazette.com/communi ... 2.cfm.html

About halfway down, they talk about Cooper appearing in bed with Laura rather than Annie, and then having sex with her (Laura)! I wonder if MacLachlan read that version of the screenplay when he declined to play a role...

While it's hard for me to imagine that working (the Cooper/Annie sex scene in the show is awkward enough), Laura's line is intriguing: "Why did you take so long to save me?"

Can anyone confirm if this was actually in an early draft?

[Frketson]

Consider this an all-purpose thread, but to start w/, has anyone here read early drafts of the screenplay? I stumbled across this thread recently: http://www.twinpeaksgazette.com/communi ... 2.cfm.html

About halfway down, they talk about Cooper appearing in bed with Laura rather than Annie, and then having sex with her (Laura)! I wonder if MacLachlan read that version of the screenplay when he declined to play a role...

While it's hard for me to imagine that working (the Cooper/Annie sex scene in the show is awkward enough), Laura's line is intriguing: "Why did you take so long to save me?"

Can anyone confirm if this was actually in an early draft?

Thanks for posting this! Really interesting read.

I really like the line "Why did you take so long to save me?". Wish it was included somehow.

I always enjoy reading about early drafts for FWWM. Some of the ideas are so, so bizarre (like the Mike and Bob backstory). You've probably already seen this but its an excerpt from an interview with Robert Engels

What’s the story behind the creamed corn planet where BOB and Mike want to return? Who came up with that, and why the creamed corn, why Garmonbozia? The Gamonbozia kind of seemed like coffee to those creatures.

(Laughs) Yes, I bet it is. That’s David’s idea, it might be David and Mark, I shouldn’t say just David, but I found out that the planet covered with creamed corn was David. I think in the original, original draft, there was this whole thing from 1954. I’d have to go look it up to be sure, but there was this whole thing that took place, the inauguration night of [President] Eisenhower. There were insects on this kitchen table, and somehow the Garmonbozia was there (chuckles), or the corn was there. If my memory serves me correctly, we got that idea because I think it’s Eisenhower’s inauguration, they actually stop the inauguration ball for a half hour, because it was the same night that on I Love Lucy where she had her baby. That was the episode, so everything stopped, so the world stopped. So maybe that’s what we were thinking (laughs), there’s a journey. But the Gamonbozia, David explained that to me. It did have something to do with, the only way you could get there was going backwards. Because that’s why Mike talks backwards, I thought that, I’m not sure if that’s true or not. I can’t remember if this was for an episode or maybe the movie, but we planned this long tracking shot of Sheriff Truman driving backwards, because that’s how you could get to the planet, or the area, which we never did.

[LostInTheMovies]

Yeah, that's one thing I am quite happy did not make it into the final film! Although I suppose Lynch could do something interesting with the planetary imagery, ala Eraserhead. I generally prefer the Lodge creatures as ambiguous emissaries from the spirit realm, as much inner as otherworldly. Interestingly, in the other interviews I read I always got the impression it was something Lynch & Engels came up with for FWWM but here he says it may have been Lynch & Frost and implies it was just told to him.

Anyway, I find Engels' anecdotes entertaining and sometimes exasperating - he always seems to talk about what doesn't make it into the film, but seldom what does! There's a lot of unusual choices in the finished film I'd like to know more about.

This sort of relates to what we're discussing on another thread, but I would love to have a Reflections-type book that got real in-depth with the participants about the process of creating that film. But in a way it's probably impossible. Engels' memory is kind of unreliable (he seems to contradict himself interview-to-interview, like on whether or not there were sequels planned), Lynch of course is notoriously reticent, and Mary Sweeney - whom I suspect played a hugely under-recognized role in shaping the final film - is also apparently mum on the what/when/why of the editing room. (Interesting tidbit: I believe her first gig as chief editor was the killer's reveal on episode 14.)

In a way, an oral history of FWWM would end up being just as surreal as the film itself haha... Then again, the doc Moving Through Time (produced/directed, not sure, by our host here) was really insightful so who knows.