Report on Neil Gaiman previews of Mirrormask
As requested by monkeygod, delayed by RL.
Event kicked off with... Neil being late (apparently, the restaurant he was dining at wanted photos). To compensate, we, the audience were enquired as to the possible presence of any under 16, and when that was confirmed to not be the case, a short film called... A short film about John Bolton, which was written by him. Funny, in a somewhat black way- the sort of humour one finds in watching a roomfull of blindfolded people groping about for something you can see clearly.
Once Neil actually entered, he, in his own words, 'burbled on' about what we were going to see, and Mirrormask in general. Entering the theatre not knowing much of it (I'd like to say that it was a deliberate thing, but I just never got around to hunting down info). Said that it was to be something in the same genre as Labyrinth or Time Bandits, but without David Bowie's bulge. Gave a little story about how he was approached, which ran something like this:
LISA HENSON (daughter of Jim Henson, of muppet fame): Neil, I have a problem
NEIL: Go on
LISA: Labyrinth and Dark Crystal, while considered bombs when they first came out, have been selling very well on DVD- Sony has noticed this. They thus would like us to make another fantasy film.
NEIL: That's nice.
LISA: The problem is that those two cost us about fourty million to make during the '80s... Sony is offering us four million to make this new one.
NEIL: That is a problem.
LISA: So, with a budget of four million, we're thinking of getting Dave Mckean to direct, as we've seen his short movies and he can film fantasy for almost nothing... but we can't afford to hire you to write a script, so we were hoping you could do a loose storyline and we could get someone much cheaper to take that and do their best Neil Gaiman impression and make it into a proper script.
NEIL: ...if you can get Dave to direct, I will write you a script, and there shall be no further discussion of money.
LISA: ... okay. (Neil notes that she was likely hoping for this)
Neil also digressed slightly with a short tale about him and Terry Pratchett going into a meeting to listen to the ideas for a Good Omens movie (apparently, Tom Cruise was to be Newt Pulsifer, Julia Roberts to be Anathema, Adam was to be 15-18 years old and have a crush on her...).
Dave McKean was discussed ("We can't have a scene in a school, that'll cost too much... but I can have the world crumple up like a piece of paper and bloom into a flower for nothing, how's that?"), how he'd hired animators straight out of art school for the project, so they'd have less to unlearn, and a little tale about how he'd watched with Neil, one day in Jim Henson's old house as a break from scriptwriting, a three and a half-hour unedited version of Labyrinth. Neil says that he and Dave were most impressed at how Jim Henson managed to cut and edit the full ten minute 'Black Magic' dance scene with David Bowie into something far shorter, not funny, and with much less of David Bowie's bulge.
Neil described what we were going to be seeing- the Electronic Press Kit for Mirrormask, consisting of three scenes from the movie, before-and-after comparison of a scene with and without blue screen, and some soundbites from an interview he'd done... in which he'd apparently told something of a bald-faced lie about David and was surprised that it was the one of the bits selected for the press kit.
With that out of the way, the press kit was watched, and a good time was had by all. The first scene was a nice little showcase of animation- the main character getting an explanation of some of the background of the world she's in accompanied by little animated puppets. The second was a creepy rags-to-gothic-princessy-thing transformation sequence facilitated by an unnerving set of musical boxes (Neil: As happens to all of us, from time to time). The last was a musical montage, haunting and with nice use of light and shadow.
The bit following that was nice, although Neil noted that "if you're going to try and show off the application of your clever special effects, you might do better not to choose one of the dimmest scenes in the movie".
And lastly, came the soundbites, in which we finally got to see Neil's little bit of lying... which turned out to be a tale on how, as a young lad, Dave McKean had been traumatised by a man leaping out of him wearing a mask and had been hospitalised, only to be revived by nurses wearing long-nosed Venetian masks coming in and making faces at him, this child of four years with a beard, and that is why masks are a common feature in his works. ^_^
The actual trailer for Mirrormask itself was not shown, to my surprise, but as Neil pointed out, you could easily get that off the web. The Q & A session following all this, produced some interesting results.
Neil on Tamlin: Dead. However the rights for everything to do with it that isn't the movie itself have reverted to him, so we may yet see it in book form.
Neil on Alan Moore: The only way he knows he influenced Alan, was that he was told that Promethea was "for Sandman fans with nothing else to buy". Neil however was heavily influenced by Alan, learning, if nothing else, how to do comic scripts from him, and his first few years being very Alan Moore-ish, his own voice breaking through at around Sandman #6. Alan, he says "has forgotten more about writing than anyone else will know... because of the drugs of course". As an example, Neil described himself describing to Alan an idea that had been mentioned several years back that he was curious what was being done with it, that of a woman marrying herself (and the accompanying row with herself over who would sit on the groom's side and who would sit on the bride's side, the honeymoon with her bouncing on the bed, and the final heartwrenching divorce from herself), and being told "Huh. That sounds like a good idea- must have been on a brain cell that went away."
Neil on Good Omens: The standard answer on whether there is to be a sequel, until a few months ago, was something along the lines of 'it will be a cold day in hell'. However, after a chat with Terry about what C & A would be doing nowadays, things are slightly different. Good Omens 2 '668, the neighbour of the beast', which he and Terry had originally thought of, which would feature the Second Coming of Christ, accompanied by angels with little earpieces herding him along and the Lamb of God wandering off to minister to the poor in Times Square, that book... will not be written. However, more C & A may yet come forth in the future.
... he also noted that whatever it would be, would be greeted by hordes of people writing C & A angel/demon slashfic saying "it's not as good as mine".
Neil on Death: Yes, there will indeed be a Death: High Cost of Living movie.. On the question of casting- "as in this day and age, all of you are one and a half minutes away from putting it up on aintitcoolnews... no comment".
Neil on known as that Sandman guy: Pointed out that it depended on which country he was in- apparently, for example, in Poland he's known more for his fantasy novels, and is asked by Poles about being a Post-modernist. He also noted that he didn't know what he'd be known for in the future, and was simply resolved to keep making art. He was resigned though, that news of his death "would be greeted by fan cartoons of a guy with floppy hair and a leather jacket being led off by a girl with a smile".
Neil on Terry Pratchett and writing Good Omens: The writing process itself was described as Neil, waking up in the early afternoon to a message on his machine saying "Get up you bastard, I've written another good bit", and the entire thing as "a mad dash to get to write the next good bit before the other guy". As for how he and Pratchett's styles had meshed during the working on Good Omens? "Brilliantly!"
He wrote to make Terry laugh, Terry wrote to make him laugh, and the only arguement they had during the entire thing was over Aziraphale's exorcism.
TERRY: People can't say 'fuck' in a Terry Pratchett novel.
NEIL: He's not. He's saying it in a Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett novel.
TERRY: All right, they can blame you.
So ends the report. There was undoubtedly stuff that isn't recorded here, either because I couldn't be arsed to try and remember it then, or because I can't be arsed to write it down now. The signing dragged on (there is a very humourous tale as to why I was near the back of the queue- however it will not be related on account of my looking a bit of a burke in it. This entire aside only real point is so that I can use the word 'burke' ^_^), and ended up being held in the local Comics Mart branch when the theatre closed.
Event kicked off with... Neil being late (apparently, the restaurant he was dining at wanted photos). To compensate, we, the audience were enquired as to the possible presence of any under 16, and when that was confirmed to not be the case, a short film called... A short film about John Bolton, which was written by him. Funny, in a somewhat black way- the sort of humour one finds in watching a roomfull of blindfolded people groping about for something you can see clearly.
Once Neil actually entered, he, in his own words, 'burbled on' about what we were going to see, and Mirrormask in general. Entering the theatre not knowing much of it (I'd like to say that it was a deliberate thing, but I just never got around to hunting down info). Said that it was to be something in the same genre as Labyrinth or Time Bandits, but without David Bowie's bulge. Gave a little story about how he was approached, which ran something like this:
LISA HENSON (daughter of Jim Henson, of muppet fame): Neil, I have a problem
NEIL: Go on
LISA: Labyrinth and Dark Crystal, while considered bombs when they first came out, have been selling very well on DVD- Sony has noticed this. They thus would like us to make another fantasy film.
NEIL: That's nice.
LISA: The problem is that those two cost us about fourty million to make during the '80s... Sony is offering us four million to make this new one.
NEIL: That is a problem.
LISA: So, with a budget of four million, we're thinking of getting Dave Mckean to direct, as we've seen his short movies and he can film fantasy for almost nothing... but we can't afford to hire you to write a script, so we were hoping you could do a loose storyline and we could get someone much cheaper to take that and do their best Neil Gaiman impression and make it into a proper script.
NEIL: ...if you can get Dave to direct, I will write you a script, and there shall be no further discussion of money.
LISA: ... okay. (Neil notes that she was likely hoping for this)
Neil also digressed slightly with a short tale about him and Terry Pratchett going into a meeting to listen to the ideas for a Good Omens movie (apparently, Tom Cruise was to be Newt Pulsifer, Julia Roberts to be Anathema, Adam was to be 15-18 years old and have a crush on her...).
Dave McKean was discussed ("We can't have a scene in a school, that'll cost too much... but I can have the world crumple up like a piece of paper and bloom into a flower for nothing, how's that?"), how he'd hired animators straight out of art school for the project, so they'd have less to unlearn, and a little tale about how he'd watched with Neil, one day in Jim Henson's old house as a break from scriptwriting, a three and a half-hour unedited version of Labyrinth. Neil says that he and Dave were most impressed at how Jim Henson managed to cut and edit the full ten minute 'Black Magic' dance scene with David Bowie into something far shorter, not funny, and with much less of David Bowie's bulge.
Neil described what we were going to be seeing- the Electronic Press Kit for Mirrormask, consisting of three scenes from the movie, before-and-after comparison of a scene with and without blue screen, and some soundbites from an interview he'd done... in which he'd apparently told something of a bald-faced lie about David and was surprised that it was the one of the bits selected for the press kit.
With that out of the way, the press kit was watched, and a good time was had by all. The first scene was a nice little showcase of animation- the main character getting an explanation of some of the background of the world she's in accompanied by little animated puppets. The second was a creepy rags-to-gothic-princessy-thing transformation sequence facilitated by an unnerving set of musical boxes (Neil: As happens to all of us, from time to time). The last was a musical montage, haunting and with nice use of light and shadow.
The bit following that was nice, although Neil noted that "if you're going to try and show off the application of your clever special effects, you might do better not to choose one of the dimmest scenes in the movie".
And lastly, came the soundbites, in which we finally got to see Neil's little bit of lying... which turned out to be a tale on how, as a young lad, Dave McKean had been traumatised by a man leaping out of him wearing a mask and had been hospitalised, only to be revived by nurses wearing long-nosed Venetian masks coming in and making faces at him, this child of four years with a beard, and that is why masks are a common feature in his works. ^_^
The actual trailer for Mirrormask itself was not shown, to my surprise, but as Neil pointed out, you could easily get that off the web. The Q & A session following all this, produced some interesting results.
Neil on Tamlin: Dead. However the rights for everything to do with it that isn't the movie itself have reverted to him, so we may yet see it in book form.
Neil on Alan Moore: The only way he knows he influenced Alan, was that he was told that Promethea was "for Sandman fans with nothing else to buy". Neil however was heavily influenced by Alan, learning, if nothing else, how to do comic scripts from him, and his first few years being very Alan Moore-ish, his own voice breaking through at around Sandman #6. Alan, he says "has forgotten more about writing than anyone else will know... because of the drugs of course". As an example, Neil described himself describing to Alan an idea that had been mentioned several years back that he was curious what was being done with it, that of a woman marrying herself (and the accompanying row with herself over who would sit on the groom's side and who would sit on the bride's side, the honeymoon with her bouncing on the bed, and the final heartwrenching divorce from herself), and being told "Huh. That sounds like a good idea- must have been on a brain cell that went away."
Neil on Good Omens: The standard answer on whether there is to be a sequel, until a few months ago, was something along the lines of 'it will be a cold day in hell'. However, after a chat with Terry about what C & A would be doing nowadays, things are slightly different. Good Omens 2 '668, the neighbour of the beast', which he and Terry had originally thought of, which would feature the Second Coming of Christ, accompanied by angels with little earpieces herding him along and the Lamb of God wandering off to minister to the poor in Times Square, that book... will not be written. However, more C & A may yet come forth in the future.
... he also noted that whatever it would be, would be greeted by hordes of people writing C & A angel/demon slashfic saying "it's not as good as mine".
Neil on Death: Yes, there will indeed be a Death: High Cost of Living movie.. On the question of casting- "as in this day and age, all of you are one and a half minutes away from putting it up on aintitcoolnews... no comment".
Neil on known as that Sandman guy: Pointed out that it depended on which country he was in- apparently, for example, in Poland he's known more for his fantasy novels, and is asked by Poles about being a Post-modernist. He also noted that he didn't know what he'd be known for in the future, and was simply resolved to keep making art. He was resigned though, that news of his death "would be greeted by fan cartoons of a guy with floppy hair and a leather jacket being led off by a girl with a smile".
Neil on Terry Pratchett and writing Good Omens: The writing process itself was described as Neil, waking up in the early afternoon to a message on his machine saying "Get up you bastard, I've written another good bit", and the entire thing as "a mad dash to get to write the next good bit before the other guy". As for how he and Pratchett's styles had meshed during the working on Good Omens? "Brilliantly!"
He wrote to make Terry laugh, Terry wrote to make him laugh, and the only arguement they had during the entire thing was over Aziraphale's exorcism.
TERRY: People can't say 'fuck' in a Terry Pratchett novel.
NEIL: He's not. He's saying it in a Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett novel.
TERRY: All right, they can blame you.
So ends the report. There was undoubtedly stuff that isn't recorded here, either because I couldn't be arsed to try and remember it then, or because I can't be arsed to write it down now. The signing dragged on (there is a very humourous tale as to why I was near the back of the queue- however it will not be related on account of my looking a bit of a burke in it. This entire aside only real point is so that I can use the word 'burke' ^_^), and ended up being held in the local Comics Mart branch when the theatre closed.