Troubled authors...
The Last Unicorn remains one of my best-loved books, since a favorite English teacher in high school gave me a copy. By turns, touching, tragic and humorous (how could it not be, with a clumsy wizard named Schmendrick), I loved the language and all the little cultural references for the time it was written the author tossed in - which I wonder if younger readers today even catch. I don't think I've seen the movie since it was in the theaters; it stuck to the book's plot pretty well. However, I had a different picture in my head for the characters, it took itself far more seriously than the book, and the animation of the unicorn's movement seemed awkward (I remember thinking, hadn't the animators gone and watched some horses, deer, or goats, even?), so I wasn't quite satisfied with it. I wasn't quite as forgiving of differences between movie and book then as I am now.
I'm on a mailing list for Brobdingnagian Bards, a Celtic music group that plays primarily in Texas. Never actually seen/heard them in person, but they give out free bumper stickers that say Real Men Wear Kilts and mp3s of their work with their newsletters, so I'm on their list. I swear I will actually by some of their CDs at some point, I promise. However, I was kind of surprised to see something about one of my favorite authors in their newsletter.
SPECIAL MESSAGE ABOUT PETER S. BEAGLE
Andrew and I are huge fans of Peter S. Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn. "None But A Harper" from our latest CD Brobdingnagian Fairy Tales comes from the last page of this book. Consequently, we were distressed to find that Peter in financial trouble. So we want to help. Here's a message from his personal manager:
My name is Connor Cochran. I work with Peter S. Beagle, the man who wrote THE LAST UNICORN, A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE, the "Sarek" episode of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION, and the screenplay to the original animated LORD OF THE RINGS (not to mention a whole lot of other classic genre works).
Right now Peter needs help -- BIG help. Which is why I'm sounding as loud a rallying cry as I can.
You will find all the details up on the web at http://www.conlanpress.com/youcanhelp.
Just for now, here's the short form:
1) Despite having millions of readers and fans, Peter (who is 66) now lives barely above the poverty line. Why? Because all his life he has been cheated by publishing companies and film studios.
2) He is also fighting desperately to earn enough money to take care of his 100 year-old mother.
3) The English company that controls the animated feature-film version of his best-known book, THE LAST UNICORN, has sold more than 600,000 LAST UNICORN DVDs and videotapes within the last two years...but despite Peter's contract, they haven't paid him ANYTHING from those sales. In violation of that contract they've also refused to supply a proper accounting of any kind, despite repeated requests.
4) When Peter wrote THE LORD OF THE RINGS screenplay, years ago, he was paid only $5,000 for his work. He agreed to this ridiculously low fee because the producer said there wasn't any more money in the budget, and promised to make it up to Peter in big-money contracts for other scripting jobs. The producer didn't keep any of his promises, of course -- and his company is STILL refusing to make things right, even though they have earned more than $200 million thanks to the work Peter did.
With the help of the public, though, we can make things better.
Peter has hired an attorney to press his legal claims. But that's not enough, by itself, to win the day. Now he needs public backup by way of fundraising, publicity, and a *serious* letterwriting campaign.
If you loved something he's written, or if you believe that creators shouldn't be victimized by big corporations...then please join our cause and help him.
LEARN THE TRUTH: Go to http://www.conlanpress.com/youcanhelp and read all about it.
DONATE: This is vital. Peter needs contributions to his support fund, to pay for the legal and accounting work that must be done. Can you spare $5? $15? $50? Anything at all? If so, please contribute to the fund. You can do it through PayPal. Or, if you prefer, you can write a check to The Peter S. Beagle Fund and send it to Peter c/o Connor Cochran Inc., 2565 3rd Street, Suite 306, San Francisco, CA 94107.
Raising money is crucial. The companies Peter is challenging are huge. They have deep pockets, and they believe no author could ever raise enough money to beat them. But they don't understand the power of an aroused public. We have numbers on our side, and numbers are power. *If everyone receiving this message contributed just $5, Peter would (a) scare the heck out of them, and (b) have enough to launch this fight and actually file the suit.* That's how strong you all are, collectively.
WRITE LETTERS: Up on the website we've got contact information for all the executives at the companies who are hurting Peter. Phone calls, emails, letters, faxes...a flood of serious and dedicated voices can make a company rethink its position.
SPREAD THE WORD: Tell everyone you can. The more people that get behind Peter, the more strength he'll be dealing from and the faster this will be over.
Thanks for listening,
-- Connor Cochran
(Business Manager for Peter S. Beagle, publisher of Conlan Press, and fellow Bards fan.)
What Mr. Beagle is going through sounds about par for the course for writers, especially of animated shows. A friend of mine used to write for several cartoons and children's shows. He told me that the screenwriter for Disney's Tarzan movie did not even qualify for medical insurance that most other workers on movies get; many of them write on a freelance basis, and are not covered by the writer's union. During the last writer's strike, one of the demands was that writers for animated shows would be allowed to join the union, and get the same coverage; however, I don't remember if that happened or not. Writing for television or movies is a feast or famine kind of an occupation.
That Beagle got stiffed by Ralph Bakshi and Co. (the animated Lord of the Rings) also doesn't surprise me. I always got the impression those people were kind of slimy, and I didn't know he'd worked for them on that. Those came out when I was in high school; my whole science fiction club had highly anticipated them, and were very disappointed at all the animations shortcuts taken - rotoscoping (tracing from a filmed image) and entire scenes that were very obviously colored black and white film and not animation at all (a bunch of nerdy purists we were then). I also didn't know he'd written that particular Trek episode, which was a good one if I remember correctly.
I hope this Cochran guy wasn't his business manager all along, as those seem to be some pretty poor business decisions. Another blog writing about the situation (which I can now no longer find - should have bookmarked it, dammit) tut-tuts the above as being an emotional appeal rather than something supported by facts, although Cochrane replies that he's since revised the website to include more of them. One hears about artists getting ripped off all the time by the industry, so I hope Beagle gets at least something out of it.
I've been hearing for several years about a live-action movie of The Last Unicorn; however, it doesn't seem much progress is being made on it, and Beagle doesn't seem to have anything to do with it, other than they are using the same script.
Apparently all of this is old news, as searches on the topic turn up stuff as early as last September; knowing the pace of legal processes, though, I suppose it's still relevant.
I'm on a mailing list for Brobdingnagian Bards, a Celtic music group that plays primarily in Texas. Never actually seen/heard them in person, but they give out free bumper stickers that say Real Men Wear Kilts and mp3s of their work with their newsletters, so I'm on their list. I swear I will actually by some of their CDs at some point, I promise. However, I was kind of surprised to see something about one of my favorite authors in their newsletter.
SPECIAL MESSAGE ABOUT PETER S. BEAGLE
Andrew and I are huge fans of Peter S. Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn. "None But A Harper" from our latest CD Brobdingnagian Fairy Tales comes from the last page of this book. Consequently, we were distressed to find that Peter in financial trouble. So we want to help. Here's a message from his personal manager:
My name is Connor Cochran. I work with Peter S. Beagle, the man who wrote THE LAST UNICORN, A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE, the "Sarek" episode of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION, and the screenplay to the original animated LORD OF THE RINGS (not to mention a whole lot of other classic genre works).
Right now Peter needs help -- BIG help. Which is why I'm sounding as loud a rallying cry as I can.
You will find all the details up on the web at http://www.conlanpress.com/youcanhelp.
Just for now, here's the short form:
1) Despite having millions of readers and fans, Peter (who is 66) now lives barely above the poverty line. Why? Because all his life he has been cheated by publishing companies and film studios.
2) He is also fighting desperately to earn enough money to take care of his 100 year-old mother.
3) The English company that controls the animated feature-film version of his best-known book, THE LAST UNICORN, has sold more than 600,000 LAST UNICORN DVDs and videotapes within the last two years...but despite Peter's contract, they haven't paid him ANYTHING from those sales. In violation of that contract they've also refused to supply a proper accounting of any kind, despite repeated requests.
4) When Peter wrote THE LORD OF THE RINGS screenplay, years ago, he was paid only $5,000 for his work. He agreed to this ridiculously low fee because the producer said there wasn't any more money in the budget, and promised to make it up to Peter in big-money contracts for other scripting jobs. The producer didn't keep any of his promises, of course -- and his company is STILL refusing to make things right, even though they have earned more than $200 million thanks to the work Peter did.
With the help of the public, though, we can make things better.
Peter has hired an attorney to press his legal claims. But that's not enough, by itself, to win the day. Now he needs public backup by way of fundraising, publicity, and a *serious* letterwriting campaign.
If you loved something he's written, or if you believe that creators shouldn't be victimized by big corporations...then please join our cause and help him.
LEARN THE TRUTH: Go to http://www.conlanpress.com/youcanhelp and read all about it.
DONATE: This is vital. Peter needs contributions to his support fund, to pay for the legal and accounting work that must be done. Can you spare $5? $15? $50? Anything at all? If so, please contribute to the fund. You can do it through PayPal. Or, if you prefer, you can write a check to The Peter S. Beagle Fund and send it to Peter c/o Connor Cochran Inc., 2565 3rd Street, Suite 306, San Francisco, CA 94107.
Raising money is crucial. The companies Peter is challenging are huge. They have deep pockets, and they believe no author could ever raise enough money to beat them. But they don't understand the power of an aroused public. We have numbers on our side, and numbers are power. *If everyone receiving this message contributed just $5, Peter would (a) scare the heck out of them, and (b) have enough to launch this fight and actually file the suit.* That's how strong you all are, collectively.
WRITE LETTERS: Up on the website we've got contact information for all the executives at the companies who are hurting Peter. Phone calls, emails, letters, faxes...a flood of serious and dedicated voices can make a company rethink its position.
SPREAD THE WORD: Tell everyone you can. The more people that get behind Peter, the more strength he'll be dealing from and the faster this will be over.
Thanks for listening,
-- Connor Cochran
(Business Manager for Peter S. Beagle, publisher of Conlan Press, and fellow Bards fan.)
What Mr. Beagle is going through sounds about par for the course for writers, especially of animated shows. A friend of mine used to write for several cartoons and children's shows. He told me that the screenwriter for Disney's Tarzan movie did not even qualify for medical insurance that most other workers on movies get; many of them write on a freelance basis, and are not covered by the writer's union. During the last writer's strike, one of the demands was that writers for animated shows would be allowed to join the union, and get the same coverage; however, I don't remember if that happened or not. Writing for television or movies is a feast or famine kind of an occupation.
That Beagle got stiffed by Ralph Bakshi and Co. (the animated Lord of the Rings) also doesn't surprise me. I always got the impression those people were kind of slimy, and I didn't know he'd worked for them on that. Those came out when I was in high school; my whole science fiction club had highly anticipated them, and were very disappointed at all the animations shortcuts taken - rotoscoping (tracing from a filmed image) and entire scenes that were very obviously colored black and white film and not animation at all (a bunch of nerdy purists we were then). I also didn't know he'd written that particular Trek episode, which was a good one if I remember correctly.
I hope this Cochran guy wasn't his business manager all along, as those seem to be some pretty poor business decisions. Another blog writing about the situation (which I can now no longer find - should have bookmarked it, dammit) tut-tuts the above as being an emotional appeal rather than something supported by facts, although Cochrane replies that he's since revised the website to include more of them. One hears about artists getting ripped off all the time by the industry, so I hope Beagle gets at least something out of it.
I've been hearing for several years about a live-action movie of The Last Unicorn; however, it doesn't seem much progress is being made on it, and Beagle doesn't seem to have anything to do with it, other than they are using the same script.
Apparently all of this is old news, as searches on the topic turn up stuff as early as last September; knowing the pace of legal processes, though, I suppose it's still relevant.