How would a Twin Peaks movie in 1992 have fared if it was a direct sequel Instead of a prequel?

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Jonah
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How would a Twin Peaks movie in 1992 have fared if it was a direct sequel Instead of a prequel?

Post by Jonah »

Apparently, Mark Frost preferred the idea of doing a sequel. Would it have done better business? Would it have been better received? I imagine it would have opened with those two scenes from The Missing Pieces of Annie in the hospital and Coop at the mirror. Why did Lynch even shoot those? Was the plan to put them at the end of FWWM as a cliffhanger and then follow them up with another movie or just have them in the movie but not resolve the cliffhanger? A bit confused about why they were shot. Lynch even had Cooper's hotel room and bathroom recreated to continue on from the final scene, but it only continued on by about a minute. I wonder if he had planned more considering he had those sets recreated. Those two scenes that were shot do continue the story but only incrementally.

Overall, what do you think a movie that was a direct sequel to the series and continued the show would have looked like - and how do you think it would have fared both critically and financially?
Last edited by Jonah on Tue May 25, 2021 11:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: How would a Twin Peaks movie in 1992 have fared if it was a direct sequel Instead of a prequel?

Post by Dougie Cooper »

I do prefer sequels over prequels any day of the week.

I think FWWM is the only prequel I really like (love), though even then, I would have preferred a sequel instead (and who wouldn't after that tortuous cliff hanger at the end of season 2?).

I read somewhere once, if I remember correctly, that Lynch planned a trilogy of TP's films, but since FWWM bombed he gave up on it. If that's true it makes it twice as tragic: A great film dissed and two more great films never made as a result.
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Re: How would a Twin Peaks movie in 1992 have fared if it was a direct sequel Instead of a prequel?

Post by Jonah »

I would have loved if he'd had the budget to shoot both a prequel and a sequel back-to-back and released them both. I'm not sure what direction a movie sequel would have gone in, but I was saying on the other thread (about how ABC treated the show) that even a TV movie continuation would have been fun. Not sure a movie's runtime would have been enough - and also Kyle probably wouldn't have wanted to sign on for much shooting (he only did five days on FWWM), but it's still fun to speculate about.
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Re: How would a Twin Peaks movie in 1992 have fared if it was a direct sequel Instead of a prequel?

Post by LateReg »

Jonah wrote: Tue May 25, 2021 10:51 am Apparently, Mark Frost preferred the idea of doing a sequel. Would it have done better business? Would it have been better received? I imagine it would have opened with those two scenes from The Missing Pieces of Annie in the hospital and Coop at the mirror. Why did Lynch even shoot those? Was the plan to put them at the end of FWWM as a cliffhanger and then follow them up with another movie or just have them in the movie but not resolve the cliffhanger? A bit confused about why they were shot. Lynch even had Cooper's hotel room and bathroom recreated to continue on from the final scene, but it only continued on by about a minute. I wonder if he had planned more considering he had those sets recreated. Those two scenes that were shot do continue the story but only incrementally.

Overall, what do you think a movie that was a direct sequel to the series and continued the show would have looked like - and how do you think it would have fared both critically and financially?
As far as those scenes, I believe they were scripted and intended to be at the end of FWWM, full-stop, regardless of any other movie plans. FWWM is the rare prequel that is also a sequel, after all. The way it plays with time and chronology almost necessitates the inclusion of those scenes at the end, just to really drive home when everything you see is taking place and how the future is integrated into the past (the whole Annie with her bloody face in the dream is made clearer/tighter by the inclusion of the hospital sequence, but also obviously isn't necessary). They don't call them The Missing Pieces for nothing.

As per your central question, I believe it would have fared better both critically (at the time) and financially if it were a sequel.
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Re: How would a Twin Peaks movie in 1992 have fared if it was a direct sequel Instead of a prequel?

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I wonder if the rumours about a Twin Peaks trilogy are true (or if it was just a three-picture deal), but I do wonder if Lynch was planning to make more TP movies and if the next one would have continued the story from that point. I know it establishes the time of the series, as you said, but it seems odd to recreate those rooms specifically, almost like he was going to end FWWM with them as a (slight) extension of the Season 2 cliffhanger, promising viewers to tune in to the next movie to see the rest of the story unfurl - or what his ideas or plans were there. It seems like a very specific recreation yet (which leads me to think Lynch had a very specific reason or idea for recreating it or a plan to continue it more from that point in another movie) with little extension of the actual story as it's just Cooper falling and then saying he forgot the brush his teeth, and none of it really fits in with the red room stuff. The nurse and the ring seems pointedly setting up a continuing story, but that too may just be showing the continuing or circular nature of the ring. (What ever happened that nurse? Why wasn't she in The Return?)
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Re: How would a Twin Peaks movie in 1992 have fared if it was a direct sequel Instead of a prequel?

Post by Mr. Reindeer »

I think the fabled “TP movie trilogy” is a culprit of Bob Engels’s notoriously faulty memory, combined with people misinterpreting Lynch’s three-film deal with CIBY (which was not for three TP pictures, but rather for three movies overall...the first two were FWWM and Lost Highway, then he ended up suing his way out of the contract without making a third film). I don’t believe there were ever any firm plans to make further TP movies.
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Re: How would a Twin Peaks movie in 1992 have fared if it was a direct sequel Instead of a prequel?

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I agree that the trilogy thing is probably just based on that three-movie deal - but I do think Lynch planned to make more, hence the recreation of that cliffhanger from Season 2 (and it is essentially a recreation) and the bit with the nurse and Annie. I know some of it might have been showing time being circular and Annie appearing in Laura's bed, etc., but I have a feeling Lynch did want to continue beyond that point (and do doubt down various other rabbit holes in the story unrelated to that point) if FWWM had done better than it did.
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Re: How would a Twin Peaks movie in 1992 have fared if it was a direct sequel Instead of a prequel?

Post by Brad D »

while I loved the series in the nineties, I actually never saw FWWM until 1998 (also because I was 11 when the film was released). There just wasn't a sense of urgency, knowing that the story would not progress past ep 29. I'm guessing others shared that sentiment. I know Bob Engels has mentioned another movie was an idea, but it must have suffered a swift death after the box office response.
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Re: How would a Twin Peaks movie in 1992 have fared if it was a direct sequel Instead of a prequel?

Post by LateReg »

Jonah wrote: Tue May 25, 2021 11:49 am I wonder if the rumours about a Twin Peaks trilogy are true (or if it was just a three-picture deal), but I do wonder if Lynch was planning to make more TP movies and if the next one would have continued the story from that point. I know it establishes the time of the series, as you said, but it seems odd to recreate those rooms specifically, almost like he was going to end FWWM with them as a (slight) extension of the Season 2 cliffhanger, promising viewers to tune in to the next movie to see the rest of the story unfurl - or what his ideas or plans were there. It seems like a very specific recreation yet (which leads me to think Lynch had a very specific reason or idea for recreating it or a plan to continue it more from that point in another movie) with little extension of the actual story as it's just Cooper falling and then saying he forgot the brush his teeth, and none of it really fits in with the red room stuff. The nurse and the ring seems pointedly setting up a continuing story, but that too may just be showing the continuing or circular nature of the ring. (What ever happened that nurse? Why wasn't she in The Return?)
You could very well be right that they might have used that as a jumping off point for the cinematic universe. But the main reason I still think, as you say, its more about its circularity is because I think of Twin Peaks as being the most convoluted and difficult to fully comprehend of Lynch's works. Part of the reason is because some elements of its plot are indeed more literal and ready to be locked into place, thus activating certain portions of the analytical brain that is not easily turned off. So for me, the knowledge of that scene always helped me to understand the mind-bending way time works in the series. But again, you very well could be right about the sequences serving as a jumping off point rather than a mere indicator/reminder of time.

Interesting that Brad says that about FWWM. That's more or less what I was thinking about why it would have been more financially successful as a sequel. I talked to a friend a couple years back who was still stuck in the thinking that FWWM was not worth watching, and I'm sure that's mostly due to its (outdated) reputation as well as the fact that its status as a prequel is tied to that reputation.
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Re: How would a Twin Peaks movie in 1992 have fared if it was a direct sequel Instead of a prequel?

Post by Jonah »

I agree that a sequel would have been more successful financially, but I suppose you could argue a prequel movie to a television show (in general) would be more successful as it wouldn't require the viewers to have watched the whole show first, whereas a sequel would require viewers to be familiar with the show in more detail (of course, in this specific case that was probably necessary anyway, but I'm speaking generally), especially it's final episode/cliffhanger. I'm not sure which would be more successful in general terms for general audiences and now I've said the word general about a million times.
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Re: How would a Twin Peaks movie in 1992 have fared if it was a direct sequel Instead of a prequel?

Post by LateReg »

Jonah wrote: Tue May 25, 2021 12:26 pm I agree that a sequel would have been more successful financially, but I suppose you could argue a prequel movie to a television show (in general) would be more successful as it wouldn't require the viewers to have watched the whole show first, whereas a sequel would require viewers to be familiar with the show in more detail (of course, in this specific case that was probably necessary anyway, but I'm speaking generally), especially it's final episode/cliffhanger. I'm not sure which would be more successful in general terms for general audiences and now I've said the word general about a million times.
You're really tumbling down a rabbit hole with this one! Because the idea here is that there really was no general audience for this thing. Fans of the show were the core audience, and wanted to know what happened next, so the prequel failed. But, at the same time, casual or first-time viewers could not get into it because the prequel was so heavily filled with the series' lore and symbolism that a relatively straightforward story confused them, and it was an overall harrowing experience. Good point about the prequel potentially being more inviting to first timers, but I just don't think it applied here, especially after word of mouth spread.
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Re: How would a Twin Peaks movie in 1992 have fared if it was a direct sequel Instead of a prequel?

Post by JackwithOneEye »

I think a sequel of Bad Cooper out in the world in 1992 probably woulda been a bigger commercial dud than FWWM.

FWWM at least had the hook of exploring Laura Palmer alive, which capitalized on the main storyline when the show was actually popular. I remember Honeymoon in Vegas was out around that weekend, which is where audiences were flocking to. I dunno if Kyle Maclachlan double act would have lured normies into theaters, people woulda been more confused if it was dueling Coopers I think.

It's possible that some ideas Lynch had about Cooper's personality divided evolved into the Lou vs Mo split in Hotel Room: Tricks and then the Id/Ego/Superego dynamic with Mr Eddy/Mystery Man/ Fred Madison in Lost Highway.

(on a sidenote, I feel like showtime may have mis-marketed the Return in 2017. Bad Cooper finale from 1991 so largely forgotten by the public, Bad Cooper shoulda been more in the advertising , the regular good Cooper and Laura posters I don't think have a real indication of what the new show was about.)
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Re: How would a Twin Peaks movie in 1992 have fared if it was a direct sequel Instead of a prequel?

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JackwithOneEye wrote: Tue May 25, 2021 12:59 pm
(on a sidenote, I feel like showtime may have mis-marketed the Return in 2017. Bad Cooper finale from 1991 so largely forgotten by the public, Bad Cooper shoulda been more in the advertising , the regular good Cooper and Laura posters I don't think have a real indication of what the new show was about.)
They marketed it? LOL. I believe I am correcting in stating that the marketing was based on a secrecy campaign, possibly strongarmed into existence by Lynch/Frost. So whether they messed up or not is moot: the point of the marketing or lack thereof was to reveal as little as possible, and on that level it was a success. Putting Bad Coop out there would have defeated the intention. They DID NOT want viewers to know what the show was about. They didn't even show previews of next week's episodes.
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Re: How would a Twin Peaks movie in 1992 have fared if it was a direct sequel Instead of a prequel?

Post by Jonah »

Bad Coop is on the DVD cover of The Return, though. But I'm confused - if the 1991 cliffhanger was largely forgotten by general audiences, why would putting Bad Coop in the marketing help?
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Re: How would a Twin Peaks movie in 1992 have fared if it was a direct sequel Instead of a prequel?

Post by LateReg »

Jonah wrote: Tue May 25, 2021 1:14 pm Bad Coop is on the DVD cover of The Return, though. But I'm confused - if the 1991 cliffhanger was largely forgotten by general audiences, why would putting Bad Coop in the marketing help?
Good points. Great cover, btw. It's half Bad Coop, half Good Coop, and you pull them apart and get Dougie in between. That was really the first acknowledgment of Bad Coop in any official materials, so I was actually somewhat surprised at the cover, but it's a great idea all around.
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