Caffeinated Clint
The “Jason X” and “Messengers” scribe
“Jason X”. “The Messengers”. “Psychopath”. Just three of writer/director Todd Farmer’s contributions to the world of horror. In our latest ASK A CELEB feature, you asked what’s next.
From John : Todd, big fan of “Jason X”. Honestly though, which “Friday the 13th” film do you think is the best one?
Todd Says : I think part II is the scariest. Jason Lives is the funniest. Jason takes Manhattan was the best idea. And New Blood is the best verses. But you asked best one…best overall. I’d say it’s a toss up between Jason Lives and Jason X. I wouldn’t have said that even a year ago. But oddly enough I’ve learned to love Jason X the more time passes. I also love Good Eats on the Food Network so clearly I’m on crack.
From The Fourth Musketeer : I think they’re going to remake “Friday the 13th” soon. Would you be interested in doing it?
Todd Says : I’m still a bit overwhelmed by all the remakes. And that’s tough when you write original ideas. But the boneheads in charge are only interested in novels, comics, video games and remakes. Original ideas are considered risky. But, we all gotta eat. And if you can’t beat them (and believe me, you can’t) you sell your soul. Or at least you put it up for auction.
Over the years I’ve gone up for several remake gigs. Texas Chainsaw Massacre, House of Wax…even The Hitcher. Why are we being flooded with remakes? Easy. Brand name recognition. Studio figures more people will go see The Hitcher than will go see The Unknown Scary Movie. And in most cases they are right. We’re a simple race of being. Feed us, make sex with us and give us an environment we recognize and we’re pretty happy.
But if you are going to remake a movie then please, remake it. I’ve seen the original, probably own it. Dazzle me. Bend me over the see-saw and give me something different. I would have never thought Halloween needed a remake…until I heard Zombie was behind the wheel. Suddenly I know I’m going to get something different. If you want to remake Friday the 13th and give us something different, then call me. Let’s talk. If you simply want to Hitcherize it. I’m not interested. In any case, I’m not so sure a Friday the 13th remake will ever happen. If you ask me there are too many businessmen with their fingers and peckers in the pie.
From Brenna : If you could have one superpower, what would it be? Would you use your power for good or for awesome?
Todd Says : I would choose Superman’s powers. And I would certainly use those powers for awesome. First thing I’d do is snatch Mark Burnett and we’d crash CBS to pitch a new reality TV show. This would all be a formality, as passing on my pitch would result in severe nipple tweaking and toe mushing. Then while Burnett and CBS were setting up camera crews on a secluded island I would fly around gathering all current members of the Cabinet, Senate and House of Representatives. I would not be politically racist. Both Democrats and Republicans would be collected. Then every Thursday night at 8:00 we’d watch our government scramble for cocoanuts and complain about who’s the most annoying. As for the people, we’d elect a brand new group of leaders from a pool of college students. Good grades will certainly be a bonus. I figure it will take ten or so years for the new leadership to go corrupt and when that happens the process will start all over again.
From Jim : What would you do differently with “Jason X” now, if you had the chance to go back?
Todd Says : I would have fought more than I did. I would have fought to protect the direction and tone of the original script. I would have dimmed the lights. Muted the colors. Grittier, grainier. Jason Voorhees on the set of Alien rather than Star Trek. I would have hired Harry to tweak his original trademark score but hired a different composer to score the rest of the film. I would have made Uber Jason dirtier. No chrome. No black rubber. His metal limbs should have looked painful, crude, horrific. And I would have demanded secrecy. No Uber Jason on the posters or in the trailer. That was supposed to be a surprise. That was the penis in the Crying Game. That was every twist in every M. Night movie. You don’t put that stuff on the poster!
Finally I would have made sure Betsy Palmer was hired to play Jason’s mother. She should have returned to face her newly rebuilt son. And he should have killed her.
The sad thing is, none of this is new. We had all of these ideas and plans during development and production. But for whatever reason they didn’t happen. And that’s why I would have fought more.
From FridayFan93 : The guys in the forum want to know what your take is on Kane Hodder being snubbed for the role of Jason in “Freddy Vs.Jason”. Do you think it’s unfair? Do you think he should have retained the role?
Todd Says : I’m still disgusted by it. I never understood the thought process or decisions made concerning Freddy vs Jason. This was always an event movie. It was King Kong vs Godzilla and it was simply one of those slam dunks that rarely come along in the movie biz. But rest assured there are a string of morons at New Line who are convinced their feeble decisions led the movie to a 100 million. Pfft. It was going to make 100 million no matter who’s script got made or who played Jason. And that’s why not hiring Kane was such a travesty. Kane Hodder kept the franchise alive during the 47 years the think-tank kept FvsJ in development. Kane hit the conventions, he met with the fans, he WAS and will always be Jason.
From CoreyFeldman’s Dog : Yo, have you pitched another ‘Jason’ movie to NewLine since “X”?
Todd Says : I have not. No one at New Line was jumping for joy over Jason X’s release. If anything they were concerned JX’s poor box office would hurt FvsJ. Thus if Jason is discussed at NL I doubt I even come up on radar.
I did speak with DC/Wildstorm comics about writing a limited series storyline for the Friday the 13th comic. Thought it would be fracking fun to return to the world again. But they were set with writers thru ’08. So depending on what’s up a year from now we may talk again.
And I have pitched New Line non-Jason projects. I pitched what I thought was a great take on the Mask II years ago. But they passed. Clearly it was no Son of Mask. And Bob Kosberg and I pitched a horror there called Shrunk. About a group of college graduates who get caught up in the black-market South American shrunken head trade. But they passed. And there have probably been others.
But although we haven’t worked together since, I like New Line. Well, this whole Hobbit fiasco caused me to frown upon them but I like several of the executives there. Jeff Katz comes to mind. He’s one of the good ones and there are so few good ones left out there these days.
From Roger : I’m a screenwriter. Horror films. Trying to break into the industry. How did you manage to get in? Wasn’t “Jason X” your first film?
Todd Says : I had met Dean Lorey (Jason Goes to Hell) through a friend of a friend and he optioned a couple scripts from me. He basically told me if I wanted to write movies I needed to move to LA. So I moved out a month later. This was back in ’96. And although I didn’t realize it then, I’ve been stupidly lucky since. Dean introduced me to Cunningham who locked me in his maid’s room and hired me to write. I was making two grand a month writing whatever turned his little blue crank. Mostly dramas which never got made. Two and a half years later we started working on Jason X. After JX wrapped it sat in a can for over a year. My contract with Cunningham had ended so I was unemployed and quickly approaching a return to driving nails to pay the bills.
So I wrote a thriller. By this time I’d made some good writer friends in the business so asked if they’d read the script and if they liked it, perhaps they’d pass it to their agents. Although I had a movie in the can I was yet to get an agent. So, my successful, working writer friends, were kind enough to read the script. Those who liked it forwarded it to their agents. I not only ended up with an agent but the script sold with Jonathan Hensleigh (Armageddon) attached to direct.
I used to say I broke into the business twice. Not true. You break into the business over and over again. Until you have that brand name you are sort of starting from scratch every time you finish a gig and enter unemployment.
Currently I’m starting all over again by entering the world of comic books. Granted, I love comics, but Hollywood loves to make them into movies. So I wrote Alien Pig Farm 3000 (www.alienpigfarm.com) with actor Thomas Jane (The Mist) and writer Steve Niles (30 Days of Night). And I’m not the only one branching out. My buddy, Dean, who introduced me to the biz is now writing novels. He wrote Nightmare Academy, which sold first to Universal as a movie then to HarperCollins as book one in a three book series of novels.
The best advice is to keep writing. Keep running the trenches. Make friends and try to enjoy the ride. Sadly, talent alone won’t do it. Because the writer is just the first step in an overwhelmingly long process. Your script may be amazing but your success is dependant on a hundred other people doing the right thing and making the right decisions. It just takes one to kill a deal. Make peace with that knowledge, smile and keep writing.
From Christopher Hen : You wrote “The Messengers”? Was the film the same as the script?
Todd Says : I was the first writer. When I was involved it was called Scarecrow and was a much different story. It was a thriller about a family living on a dying farm. After my first draft, Patrick Lussier was hired to direct and the story took on some supernatural elements for the rewrite. Then Stuart Beattie was hired to rewrite me. After Stuart, Revolution decided to put it into turnaround. Never a good sign. But Sam Raimi picked it up in turnaround and the Pang Brothers were hired to direct. I believe they rewrote their own version. Then Mark Wheaton was brought in. By the time it was over there were eight sets of writers on the film. Needless to say, after so many, very little of what I wrote remains.
From Willow : How involved were with you with “The Messengers”? Or did they just simply buy the script from you and that was the end of your part?
Todd Says : I was involved while it was still at Revolution. They had the idea of making The Shining on a farm. If memory serves they’d gone through barrels of writers looking for an idea they liked. By the time they got to me I think they were just going through the motions and about to dump the idea and move on. But I pitched them something they liked and they were good looking enough to give me the job. I actually enjoyed working with them.
After I turned in my last draft, my wife and I went to the premier of Darkness Falls. At the after party all the producers kept coming up to me praising the script. It really was a wonderful feeling. I felt so good. All the sacrifices we’d made. I felt like I’d finally made it. I’d finally gotten over that hump.
The next week my agent called having spoken with an exec at Revolution who said there were some big problems with the script. There were? But everyone was praising it. Sigh I was replaced and that was my last involvement. I would hear rumours Stuart Beatie…oh, no, it’s gone into turnaround…oh good, Raimi bought it…yay, the Pangs are directing…Mark Wheaton was hired, isn’t that Smiling Jack Ruby?…and on and on, but my involvement was over.
Oddly enough I met Rob Tapert at Ghost House a couple of weeks ago for the first time. He hadn’t read my original draft until recently and said some very nice things about it. In fact, I think he was a little shocked at how good it was. So, make no mistake, this is a pretty odd business.
From Quentin Risp : What is “Psychopath” and is it true that John Carpenter is directing?
Todd Says : Psychopath simply won’t die. It’s been around for a couple years. Originally the plan was to set it up as a video game. Since video games take a couple of years to create, John and I would write the screenplay as the video game was approaching the finish line. Carpenter, Brad Foxhoven (Titan Productions), David Wohl (co-creator of Witchblade and Titan Productions) and myself met with several game developers and game publishers. We joined forces with several over the years but for one reason or another the cogs never fell into place. Why make a game first? Simple really. We wanted to own the property. So now we’re going the comic book route. Release the comic, make the movie. That’s the plan. And when we dive into the movie, Carpenter is attached to direct. Although the project has seen its ups and downs I’m still very excited about it. Psychopath is classic Carpenter along the lines of Halloween and Escape from New York with the heart of Starman.
Tom Says : Daniel Craig as James Bond. Yay or Nay?
Todd Says :Yay.
Theodora Says : Can you talk about co-writing. I believe you’re currently writing something with Jake Wade Wall – – what are the advantages of two people writing at once?
Todd Says : You are referring to Clock Tower and actually Jake rewrote me. I was the first writer on the project and Jake came in after I was finished.
I have co-written with writers in the past though. I’ve approached co-writing two ways. Sitting in a room together. One writer paces while the other bangs the keyboard. That’s fun and you get some immediate feedback. You are able to bounce ideas quickly and to great effect. But I’ve also worked with partners where we take turns at a draft. We will sit in the same room bantering ideas but once the actual writing starts you crawl into your dungeon and turn off all the lights. Sometimes you will come up with great ideas when you are alone with no distractions letting the muse lead you. Then you hand off to your partner and he/she rinses and repeats. I appreciate both approaches.
