|
Post by gothicarchiesfan on Jan 4, 2024 5:19:50 GMT -5
Here's some concept art done by John Davis, of this scene. Though from what must've been a slightly different later draft.
|
|
|
Post by gothicarchiesfan on Jan 4, 2024 5:17:33 GMT -5
I know I'm not technically a new member, but I've been gone for a good long while on here. Hope everyone had a nice time over the holidays and a hearty hello to all the new members who've joined us. Work has been kind of insanely tough and hunting down people and archives takes lots of time. The search for sequel scripts has been especially tough as nobody seems to have them even though plenty were written and sent out. However, as a thank you for putting up with my constant disappearances, have a few pages from a draft of Daniel Handler's screenplay for the original film. (Sadly, I still have not yet gotten permission to post the whole thing).
|
|
|
Post by gothicarchiesfan on Jan 15, 2023 23:14:10 GMT -5
Congratulations!!!
|
|
|
Post by gothicarchiesfan on Jan 1, 2023 1:58:30 GMT -5
Get some more free time and work on scanning more rare Snicket-related files.
|
|
|
Post by gothicarchiesfan on Dec 25, 2022 14:14:19 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by gothicarchiesfan on Dec 25, 2022 4:12:29 GMT -5
Hello everyone. I hope all of you are doing well and enjoying the festive season. Please accept this small gift of script excerpts from one of the shooting drafts for the 2004 movie, which detail a deleted subplot where it's Uncle Monty who saves the kids from the train, small traces of which can still be seen in the finished film. Presented here are the three sections of the film where it has been cut out, followed by the script excerpts and proof that some variation on them was likely shot. This is how the scene appears in the finished film.
KLAUS Nice shot Violet!
VIOLET PULL!
The three kids PULL on the rope. Sunny grips the rope in her teeth, tugging along with Klaus and Violet.
OUT THE WINDOW
THE TRAIN COMES RIGHT TOWARD US. THE WHISTLE BLARES. ITS so CLOSE WE CAN SEE THE PANICKED FACE OF THE ENGINEER AS HE PULLS THE WHISTLE.
ON THE RUSTED TRACK SWITCH-It starts to move slightly.
POV FROM UP THE ROAD
A FIGURE moves toward the tracks with a SPYGLASS attached to his belt.(A shot kept in the finished film which would have likely echoed the one described here.)
IN THE CAR - the kids put their feet against the door for leverage and give a mighty HEAVE HO. But still NOTHING.
THE KIDS PULL... THE RUSTED SWITCH POLE continues CREAKING forward.THE TRACK SWITCH - Starts to MOVE, switching the rails...
ALL THREE CHILDREN It's working! It's almost there! Just a little bit---
SNAP! The piping BREAKS. The kids fall backwards as the Elf head FALLS into the mechanism of the switcher, grinning upward.
ON THE PANICKED FACES OF THE CHILDREN AS THEY LOOK UP TO SEE
THE TRAIN FILLING THEIR VIEW!
Violet puts her hands over Sunny's eyes as they CRINGE, waiting for the impact!
A QUICK FLASH OF A HAND
Pulling on the switcher handle
INT. GROCERY STORE Olaf closes his eyes too, in anticipation. A string of drool drips from the corner of his mouth.
THE TRAIN RUSHING BY THE WINDOW
He cocks his head.. Hmmm. No sound of collision, he moves back to the window as...
THE CHILDREN
Open their eyes to see the train rushing by alongside them on the alternate tracks! Then they look forward to see:
THE LITTLEST ELF HEAD.
It's now tied back onto the switcher handle, swinging delicately back and forth.
As the train wipes past. the kids turn back to see:
The mysterious man is now a receding figure heading up the road opposite them, spyglass catching the light.(In the movie this shot takes place after Mr Poe honks his car horn, but I find it fairly likely it was repurposed from this earlier cut moment, in the editing room.) (Notice how in this shot from before Mr Poe shows up, Violet and Klaus' heads are already turned and looking out of the back window.) THE GROCERY STORE:
Olaf opens his eyes, disappointed to see the kids safe and sound.
He looks out the window
OLAF'S CAR
The kids breathe a sigh of relief when suddenly MR POE pulls up alongside them. He's positioned right between Olaf and the kids in the car. He turns to look at the kids in the car (Sunny in the drivers' seat) and frowns, displeased. Then he turns to see Olaf in the store window. He glares at Count Olaf, a disappointed look on his face.
EXT. GROCERY STORE - LATER Mr. Poe leads the children to his car.
COUNT OLAF Perhaps we could talk about this, Mr. Poe... Mr. Poe puts the kids in the car and closes the door.
This is how the scene appears in the finished film.
COUNT OLAF Take them Mr. Poe, before I lose my strength!
As the car drives away...
LEMONY SNICKET (0.S.) There is an expression "out of the frying pan and into the fire." If you are a fish being cooked, you might try to escape your frying pan, just to find yourself in an even less pleasant situation.
EXT. LOUSY LANE - DAY
Mr. Poe's car makes its way through the dreary landscape on the outskirts of the City, where marshland and unregulated industry collide.
O.S we hear a saccharine NARRATOR continuing the saga of "THE LITTLEST ELF."
NARRATOR (O.S.) And so the Littlest Elf skipped through Bumbleshire Forest, over Gumdrop creek. "Isn't life wonderful?", he said. "Why look, it's my bestest friend, Rascally Snail!..."
KLAUS (hushed to Violet) Violet, what just happened?
VIOLET Our relative just tried to kill us?
KLAUS No... Who tried to save us?
MR. POE Children, please, this is very important, I'm trying to tell you about your new guardian, Dr. Montgomery...
(Promotional Still. As you can see, the VFX backgrounds have been completed, which suggests it was cut fairly late into post-production.)
VIOLET (slightly annoyed) Okay... How is he related to us again?
MR. POE (hacks, then) Dr. Montgomery is -- let me see your late father's cousins wife' brother. I think that's right. Either that, or your uncle.
(under his breath to Violet) Violet gives Klaus a shrug.
MR. POE (oblivious) He's a scientist! Now you should call him Dr. Montgomery, unless he tells you to call him Montgomery. Both his first and last names are Montgomery.
His name is Montgomery Montgomery?
MR. POE Yes, and I'm sure he's very sensitive about that, so don't ridicule him.
MR. POE (cont'd) (coughs) Ridicule means 'tease'.
KLAUS (sighs) We know what ridicule means.
MR. POE Well, here we are!
(In an article from CINEFEX Magazine, the VFX artists talk about how there were 10 shots of Mr Poe's car driving down Lousy Lane, as well as 2D paintings of Uncle Monty's house exterior in the distance. Note how, in the finished edit, it cuts abruptly to Mr Poe pulling up the drive.)
EXT. UNCLE MONTY'S HOUSE DAY
As they approach up the walk- VIOLET Do you know what sort of scientist he is?
MR. POE No, I don't -- I was too busy making arrangements for you three, and I didn't have time for chit-chat.
This is how the scene appears in the finished film.
VIOLET Uncle Monty, why are we going to Peru?
UNCLE MONTY Well just this morning as I was wondering how we were all going to get out of town together, I remembered that Spring is mating season for the Peruvian swamp crawler, so I though, no time like the present, so-
VIOLET Wait. Why were you wondering how to get us out of town? Uncle Monty's countenance turns serious.
UNCLE MONTY Violet, did you know that snakes are generally more frightened of you than you are of them?
Violet shakes her head no.
UNCLE MONTY Few people do, but it's true. (quiet) When threatened, all a snake truly wants is to retreat to a place that is quiet and safe and remote. A sanctuary where it will be away from danger.
Monty removes his lab coat revealing a familiar BRASS SPYGLASS. Violet and Klaus' eyes light up in recognition.
VIOLET It was you. At the train... You saved us!
(Notice how both children react to the spyglass, even though in the finished cut, it's only Klaus who has seen one. Also, if you look closely, you can see that it's Violet who begins to open her mouth, and yet, it cuts away and Klaus' voice is heard.)
UNCLE MONTY Oh, we're going to have such a wonderful time in Peru. (to Klaus) A spectacular reader like you will be indispensable in reading maps and navigating Peruvian terrain. I'll need your notes, (turns to Violet) And I could certainly use a skilled inventor along to help me design a new snake trap. The ones I have all pinch their tales! Have at it will you? (to Sunny) And I'm in desperate need of small, neatly cut sections of rope, Sunny?
SUNNY Nuu. ("I'd be delighted.") The kids are astonished at how well Uncle Monty seems to know them. There is a DING from the kitchen.
UNCLE MONTY And afterwards - how about coconut cake. Let's get after it, shall we?
INT. REPTILE ROOM - DAY Montage:
Klaus measures distances on a map with a compass and ruler, and, consulting a book called "PERUVIAN TERRAIN FEATURES" calculates a safe route through Machu Picchu. Monty looks over his shoulder, nodding, impressed.
Violet finishes a prototype of her snake cage invention: A small garden snake winds its way in, and before the trap door closes, a small wooden arm reaches out and gently tucks the snake's tail safely inside. Monty applauds, delighted.
(From the deleted scenes section on the DVD.) Sunny works away on sectioning the rope, with Monty feeding her rope like ammunition into a machine gun...
INT. UNCLE MONTY'S HOUSE LIVING ROOM NIGHT
The kids sit on the floor of the living room, finishing up their coconut cake, and absorbed with their preparations for Peru. A fire roars in the background. Klaus flips through atlases of Peru, and Sunny bites rope into little pieces. Uncle Monty strums a guitar, singing a pretty, soulful little tune as a black and white snake coils around and around his forearm. We linger a beat after the last chord disappears into the air...
UNCLE MONTY (to Sunny) What on earth is wrong with you, child? No coconut cake?
KLAUS She prefers something harder to chew on.
VIOLET I know that song...I think my parents used to sing it to us.
UNCLE MONTY They did...as I did to mine. (to snake wrapped around his arm) Now Petunia I thought we'd talked about this! (to kids) Little beast thinks I'm a tree.
|
|
|
Post by gothicarchiesfan on Jul 15, 2022 17:24:44 GMT -5
Yup, all of this is basically true.
Though again, it's worth remembering that the movie had a bigger budget and schedule than all 3 seasons of the show.
|
|
|
Post by gothicarchiesfan on Jul 1, 2022 17:15:46 GMT -5
IDK, The show having some colourful locations never bothered me. Just because the 2004 movie came out first doesn't mean everything that comes after it should have a similar look. Plus, I don't personally the colour of the show would really make the jokes that much funnier.
TAA is perhaps the darkest, most grey, bleak-looking set of episodes but it still has the not-that-great slapstick sequence with the unravelling turban, and it being done in mostly underlit gray conditions didn't really make it funnier or "grimmer".
In fact, while the show IS overall brighter and more saturated than the movie, a ton of the locations aren't actually that colourful? Not just the TAA episodes but also most of the overall locations seen in an episode, barring exceptions like TRR, TPP, and TE. And compared to a lot of other tv shows, it's actually much less colourful and bright?
For me the show is something I really treat as its own thing because it's clearly got made by people who have their own ideas about how they think the story ought to be told (and I do the same for the movie) that's not to say one has to like it even with that viewpoint (again, just like the movie.)
But I do feel that I sometimes see an attitude expressed both consciously and unconsciously on here (not calling anyone out specifically) that the creatives involved with the show and the movie misunderstood the books, which I do think is wrong.
Like, the show's version of TE IS a pretty weak adaptation of the book that wrapped up the story of the previous 12 volumes, but as an ending to the show's previous 24 episodes, I think it works exceptionally well.
I feel that the show will go down the same path as the movie where the flaws and differences from this source material that stand out now will be seen in a more forgiving and accepting light when the people who got introduced to Snicket via it, become large parts of the fandom.
|
|
|
Post by gothicarchiesfan on Jun 26, 2022 22:40:02 GMT -5
Honestly, and maybe this is controversial, I think they should double down on what the Netflix show did and actively restructure the story even more.
I love the books but Handler very clearly had different ideas for what he wanted them to be like for each volume.
The weird half-measures that a lot of the show's earlier episodes make, where they're trying to do new things but also faithfully keep to the books but also not try to copy what the movie did means that the pacing can kind of feel really off to me, at times.
That's honestly why I really like the episodes that depart more from the books.
The pacing just feels so much more natural and tight for those stories because it's not afraid to rewrite the story to make it flow better. Instead of kind of taking the original narrative and then just slapping on new scenes on top.
|
|
|
Post by gothicarchiesfan on Jun 26, 2022 22:21:58 GMT -5
I think the Baudelaires have very little personality in the books. other than their individual skills, they’re just three twerps united in righteous frustration. It’s a lot easier to ignore this in book form, especially when the personality of lemony the narrator is so present throughout. but in the movie and book, they had to put actual human children (🤢) in front of a camera, and have them carry the story to some degree. This, I feel, is what makes both adaptations fail. Yes. That's why I've always felt that the only real way to adapt this into a movie or tv show would be to have it animated. That way you could get older and more epxerienced actors to voice the kids and have the buffer of their physical acting all being drawn or rendered. And it might also mean that they hire a fun character actor to play Count Olaf instead of getting an A-list leading man (movie and tv respectively) and then slathering him in tons of makeup* to make him look like Willem Dafoe/Richard E. Grant.-type. Plus, it might also mean the the three children could actually interact on screen instead of Violet and Klaus having to place Sunny somewhere off camera until she has a line. * Not that it's bad makeup for either one, but covering a star in tons of plastic every day instead of just hiring an interesting looking character actor, is a little silly.
|
|
|
Post by gothicarchiesfan on Jun 26, 2022 17:41:26 GMT -5
Yes, I think both the movie and the show have different strengths and weaknesses, most of them related to the inherent nature of making movies and television shows. Albeit big budget ones.
|
|
|
Post by gothicarchiesfan on Jun 26, 2022 16:52:50 GMT -5
Kept trying to join but it wouldn't let me in.
Trying again, now.
It's still not letting me in.
|
|
|
Post by gothicarchiesfan on May 15, 2022 0:57:00 GMT -5
I was able to get in contact with concept artist John Davis, who worked on the Sonnenfeld iteration of the film. Here is some concept are he had and was kind enough to scan and send to me.
|
|
|
Post by gothicarchiesfan on May 15, 2022 0:46:31 GMT -5
Thank you all so much for what you've done. I'm sorry for not responding sooner but my health issues flared up again. I can't think you all enough for how incredibly helpful and understanding you have been.
|
|
|
Post by gothicarchiesfan on Apr 5, 2022 6:06:08 GMT -5
Once again my health issues have reared their ugly head so I have massive backlog of things to get two. By way of making this up to you, here is another excerpt from that script draft. The deleted elements have been bolded.
Thanks again one and all for your patience.
COUNT OLAFI realize that my humble home isn't as fancy as the Baudelaire mansion but I'm coming into a great deal of money soon...
(rubs hands together, giggles, orgasmic)
...and I think it will be quite charming when it's finished. Shall we take a look?
They take two steps. He STOPS them immediately, makes a dramatic sweeping gesture.
COUNT OLAF This is the living room, in bygone days it was witness to some of the greatest gatherings of the somewhat talented near celebrities of the time. When stripping the floors, be sure to open the windows. We wouldn't want you to suffocate before you reupholster the couch, which by the way will be off limits to the monkey.
SUNNY Darwinia! ("I'M NOT A MONKEY!")
(B-Roll from an official promo video/Promotional Still)
INT. KITCHEN
Dirty dishes and rusty utensils everywhere.
COUNT OLAF The kitchen I know what you're thinking. It could use a little TLC. I trust you've had your tetanus shots...
The kids see a rat waddle across the room to a food bowl marked - . (Promotional Stills) COUNT OLAF Polio. Smallpox. Typhoid. Malaria...
INT. "ENTERTAINMENT" ROOM
An absolute hell hole of disrepair, with vast portions of the ceiling missing -- and somewhere lost in the mess of molting couches and broken theatrical props, a nine-inch television.
COUNT OLAF The entertainment room. I'm told that ceiling can be brought up to code in no time. You re not afraid of heights are you? Ha ha! A monkey afraid of heights imagine it!
They move around a wall..
COUNT OLAF Come with me. Don't wander...
(Behind the wall)
COUNT OLAF (O.S.) Stay close to me children, this place is a labyrynth.
And immediately appear right back where they started.
INT. BACK PORCH ENTRANCE
Olaf opens the door which reveals the wilds of his backyard, an overgrown jungle of twisting tree shapes and dead plants. In the distance -- an atrium in serious disrepair which vaguely approximates a proscenium.
COUNT OLAF My theater. Home to such cutting edge production as Grease 2 and Hamlet The College Years. We are presently in rehearsal for the great Al Funcoot's riveting nine act dramady "The Marvelous Carriage." It's the epic tail of an extremely handsome Count who traipses around the countryside in a carriage, stealing from the rich and ignoring the poor. It's a morality play, with a shocking twist, a fancy flip and a couple of dispsy doodles.
(Promotional Stills)
INT. TOP OF STAIRCASE
As he leads then up nodding toward --
KLAUS What's that up there?
COUNT OLAF The tower.
He stops, and turns back over his shoulder slowly. As he looks back he fights off a smile.
COUNT OLAF Which you are never to enter under any circumstances.
|
|