|
Post by Esmé's meme is meh on Jan 4, 2019 9:54:21 GMT -5
Following our series of unfortunate interviews, we now have the chance to interview Mr. Joe Tracz (show's writer and story editor) and ask him those questions that are burning like a fire in our minds after watching season three. I decided to follow B.'s lead once again and assemble a list of questions for Joe to answer. Wondering how it was to work side by side with Daniel Handler? Curious about how much power of decision he had on all the plot changes? Asking yourself if there's much stuff he wrote but we didn't get to see on the show? Do you want to know if he was the one who chose the form of The Great Unknown? Go ahead and ask! Anyone who has an account here is welcome to submit as many questions as they wish. If they are too many, I will assemble a small team of trusted associates in choosing the best ones, and these will be sent to him. I'm giving you nine days to ask questions, so please try to have all your questions submitted either here or in a PM to me by January 13th (second aniversary of the show's airing ). Good luck!
|
|
|
Post by gliquey on Jan 4, 2019 11:13:35 GMT -5
That's amazing, Zortegus. Thanks for organising this. Here are a few questions from me (listed from what I think is most to least important, if you can't take all of them): - How much influence did Daniel Handler have on various characters' endings - particularly the Quagmires, Fernald and Fiona and Ishmael and the islanders?
- The series is much less ambiguous than the books are, such as who survives the Hotel Denouement fire, what happened at the opera and what's in the sugar bowl. Who or what was the driving force behind these changes?
- What was your favorite scene or line of dialogue that was cut?
- Of the scenes in the Netflix series which are not part of the books, which is your favorite?
- If time, money and actor availability had been no object on the third season, which storyline or scene would have been most different, and in what way?
- Were there any actors whose performances significantly differed from the way their characters were imagined in the writing process?
- Which scene in the third season went through the most rewrites?
|
|
|
Post by Mr. Dent on Jan 5, 2019 12:08:15 GMT -5
Firstly- Supplementary material, such as the lyrics to Cliffhanger and other parts of The Incomplete History of Secret Organizations, seem to imply that at one point Esme was going to break up with Olaf and not the other way around. Was that planned to happen at some point in time?
I'm glad to see Eleanora get her just desserts in the end, but saddened we never actually got to see her this season. I'm sure coordinating all the returning guest stars for The Penultimate Peril was difficult. How did you go about writing for an episode without knowing who could and could not return?
Finally, how dare you kill Larry? Who do you think you are?
|
|
|
Post by cwm on Jan 5, 2019 12:36:40 GMT -5
At the time The Carnivorous Carnival was produced, was it the intention to kill off the freaks in the first part of The Slippery Slope? If not, when did that decision come about?
Was it always the intention to combine Captain Widdershins and Fiona into one character in The Grim Grotto?
|
|
|
Post by Liam R. Findlay on Jan 5, 2019 12:38:50 GMT -5
Thanks for organising this I'd like to know a bit about the process of writing the behind-the-scenes book. Was it planned from the start of the series or later on, and did Joe interview all the people who are quoted within that time, or were there others involved in compiling information? Did he have to collaborate with book designers so the text was consistent with imagery? Who collected the imagery and designs? I wouldn't expect these questions to be answered one-by-one, but they are the sorts of details I'd be interested to find out about if Joe would care to offer a general response.
|
|
sir692
Bewildered Beginner
Posts: 1
Likes: 2
|
Post by sir692 on Jan 6, 2019 20:26:47 GMT -5
Maybe this has already been answered elsewhere, but I'm curious about Joe's experience with the books before writing the TV shows — whether he was a big fan and had done any theorizing while the books were being published, what his process was like for unpackint the books and choosing which specific dialogue/plot points to pull out, how he felt about the purposeful non-answering of questions in the books.
|
|
|
Post by bowisneski on Jan 7, 2019 13:45:32 GMT -5
Thanks for this opportunity! Created a new account just for this as I mostly lurk and forgot my original login email. - What was your favorite change that was made due to the necessity of the medium and your least favorite? - Should we take Ishmael at his word that he founded VFD? - Any chance we'll be able to purchase a pdf and/or book of the scripts? They seem like they'd make a wonderful read based on the excerpts in TIHoSO. - Were there any discussion about bringing on Stephin Merritt and/or Brett Helquist? - Did Netflix have any issue with esme's Daddy kink? - And, even if they never give us the much needed blu release, any chance of Netflix adding bonus material(especially commentaries)? Sorry to inundate with questions, I'm just full of them. Thanks again! EDIT: additional question - In the Unfortunate Associates podcast interview you spoke of reading Daniel Handler's draft for the sequel, could you provide a little more detail on it and what carried over and what didn't? And did you get to read/do you know what carried over from his original drafts of the first film? Based on a thread about the script, it looks like a decent amount of ideas did migrate asoue.proboards.com/thread/19908/original-script
|
|
|
Post by Mr. Dent on Jan 7, 2019 13:55:57 GMT -5
I would kill for special features and a home video release, but don't Netflix DVDs and such tend to be bare-bones?
I guess this isn't a question for Joe Tracz so I'm just wasting space here
|
|
|
Post by A comet crashing into Earth on Jan 10, 2019 10:51:04 GMT -5
This is a really nice opportunity. Thanks for arranging it! Most of what I initially thought to ask has already been posted here, but I'd like to express a strong wish to see the answers to these questions: - How much influence did Daniel Handler have on various characters' endings - particularly the Quagmires, Fernald and Fiona and Ishmael and the islanders?
- The series is much less ambiguous than the books are, such as who survives the Hotel Denouement fire, what happened at the opera and what's in the sugar bowl. Who or what was the driving force behind these changes?
Finally, how dare you kill Larry? Who do you think you are? At the time The Carnivorous Carnival was produced, was it the intention to kill off the freaks in the first part of The Slippery Slope? If not, when did that decision come about? Maybe this has already been answered elsewhere, but I'm curious about Joe's experience with the books before writing the TV shows — whether he was a big fan and had done any theorizing while the books were being published, what his process was like for unpackint the books and choosing which specific dialogue/plot points to pull out, how he felt about the purposeful non-answering of questions in the books. The only question I have to add myself - at least for now - is: What was the general attitude of the show's creator's to Helquist's illustrations?
|
|
|
Post by Liam R. Findlay on Jan 10, 2019 15:54:38 GMT -5
I too am enthusiastic to learn anything Helquist-related.
|
|
|
Post by bowisneski on Jan 10, 2019 18:26:42 GMT -5
One more question
- I was wondering how much you had to do with the changes to TMM/the end of TWW and what inspired them? I honestly think the TMM adaptation is better than the book and think you did an excellent job.
|
|
|
Post by Uncle Algernon on Jan 11, 2019 3:45:40 GMT -5
I approve of basically every question that's been asked so far. My additions:
• Was it always the plan to reveal Jacqueline as the Duchess of Winnipeg, or was that just a (very clever) fix when you had to axe her role in Season 3? (Also, what's the official spelling for Jacqueline's name, anyway? Is it Jacqueline or Jacquelyn? Both get a lot of traction.)
• Why was the title of the Baudelaire Parents' journal from TE changed?
• We always talk of disagreements between writing team and Daniel Handler, or between writing team and producers. But were they any intra-writer's-room disagreements?
• We all know Handler refused to give you his idea of the Sugar Bowl's contents. But was he consulted (and listened to) for any of the "lesser" mysteries? Alternatively, did he give any thoughts on your solutions?
• So, why did everyone run around wanting the Sugar Bowl and its mycellium-immunizing contents, even though the Medusoid Mycellium was believed to have all been destroyed?
• If Fernald was officially ousted from VFD for burning down Anwhistle Aquatics, as opposed to running away on his own, one would imagine he'd be pretty well-known in VFD circles. So why did Olaf never learn his name?
• Related to the question of whether Ishmael's account can be trusted, but — how long, roughly speaking, has VFD been around? Fifty years? More? Less?
• It's speculated by book-fans that Mr Poe was a VFD agent who remained neutral in the Schism, mostly because he's too dumb to tell the villains from the volunteers — and that his usefulness to the fire-starters on occasions is the reason the Sinister Duo declared him "off-limit" to their "students". Hence why Olaf always seems to work around Poe instead of murdering him as you'd think he would. This doesn't seem to be the case in the series, but we do still get the "stage name" line. Do you consider this theory plausible for the Netflix continuity still?
• In the tradition of Season 2's movie-buff easter eggs and other homages, some people saw a resemblance between the Stricken Stream sled-flight at the end of The Slippery Slope and the chase between James Bond and Ernst Blofeld at the end of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, with Quigley suffering a nonlethal version of Blofeld's defeat. Was this a genuine influence, or are we seeing things?
• What exactly was you (and other writers') working relationship with Jim Dooley? Particularly in Season 2, where the song numbers are woven into the narrative and are as much part of the script as anything else.
• General "any interesting deleted scenes?" question.
|
|
|
Post by veryferociousdrama on Jan 11, 2019 12:37:50 GMT -5
Hi Joe, here are my questions: Out of all of the books, TAA has the most returning characters - Remora and Bass in TCC, Bass in TSS, Carmelita in TSS-TPP, and Nero in TPP, yet some of the other books had no significant returning characters. Any particular reason why? Any reason why Bruce became Brucie? With Quigley and Fiona becoming "guardian" figures more than Bruce and Widdershins, for me it felt very reminiscent of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, with the YP doing it all. Was this the idea, as it certainly makes more sense when they leave Justice Strauss? Mr. Poe is obviously far more of a major character in the series than he is in the books. Was it hard to put him into episodes he didn't appear in that much (like TMM), and VFD-centered ones he wasn't in at all (like THH-TSS)? Any reason why Widdershins wasn't there? The death of the freaks and Larry were surprisingly more casual than other deaths in the show (so much so in both cases I didn't realize what had happened), why was this? Justice Strauss clearly survived in the show, when whilst reading the book I always thought she'd be the most likely to die. It obviously must have been a tough decision to confirm whether somebody lived or died in the fire, do you think it helped long-term fans to know a few things? Who sang "Not How the Story Goes" in TPP? I am really glad that Daniel Handler finally got to see his masterpiece on the big screen, a thread on here a while back had parts of the original 2004 film script which seemed very familiar to the show. Did you ever get to see his plans for the later films, and is it true they were going to cut TTM? And finally, do you ever regret working on the show and do you ever wish you'd just looked away? Thank you and apologies for all the questions!
|
|
|
Post by Esmé's meme is meh on Jan 11, 2019 13:47:10 GMT -5
Great questions everyone! Thanks for being so enthusiastic! Btw I'm surprised Dante hasn't submitted any questions yet.
|
|
|
Post by Violent BUN Fortuna on Jan 11, 2019 14:19:17 GMT -5
Wow, this is fantastic, Zortegus! Thank you for arranging this. The first question which sprang to my mind was very close to this one: - How much influence did Daniel Handler have on various characters' endings - particularly the Quagmires, Fernald and Fiona and Ishmael and the islanders?
But slightly more specific. I have been wondering in particular about the code in TIHOSO, and whether Daniel Handler was involved in that at all, and if so, how closely? Did he say 'this is what happened', or write the code himself, or did he simply approve it once someone else had written it -- or indeed, did he not have any involvement with it at all? And secondly, in a rather similar vein: we know that Handler didn't ever say whether the Netflix sugar bowl reveal was the solution he had in mind when writing the books or not, but did he leave it entirely up to others to decide on, or did he give his blessing, as it were, to this solution when it was presented to him? Essentially, how did the show come up with this solution and what did Handler have to say about it?
|
|