John August

Dead Projects

The Dead File

Dead Projects, Projects

While writing about the [non-existent Columbia thriller](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2004/whatever-happened-to) on my resume, I got to thinking about all the other scripts I’ve written that haven’t been produced. I thought it might be alarming comforting for aspiring screenwriters to see how much work never makes it to the screen.

This list is only projects for which I’ve written entire 120-page drafts. Pitches, treatments, rewrites and aborted attempts would be a much longer list.

HERE AND NOW
Unsold. My first script, a romantic tragedy set in Colorado. Under-plotted and over-written, but it got me an agent.

HOW TO EAT FRIED WORMS
Universal/Imagine. My first paid screenwriting assignment, an adaptation of [Thomas Rockwell’s book](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=johnaugustcom-20&path=tg%2Fdetail%2F-%2F0440445450%2Fqid%3D1099597776%2Fsr%3D8-1%2Fref%3Dpd_csp_1%3Fv%3Dglance%26s%3Dbooks%26n%3D507846).


A WRINKLE IN TIME
Miramax/Dimension. An adaptation of [Madeleine L’Engle’s book](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=johnaugustcom-20&path=tg%2Fdetail%2F-%2F0440498058%2Fqid%3D1099597867%2Fsr%3D1-1%2Fref%3Dsr_1_1%3Fv%3Dglance%26s%3Dbooks). Technically, it was made, as an ABC TV movie. But the draft they used pre-dated mine.

DEVIL’S CANYON
Unsold. Zombie western set in a Colorado mining town, circa 1859.

FENWICK’S SUIT
Fox 2000. Adaptation of [David Small’s book](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=johnaugustcom-20&path=tg%2Fdetail%2F-%2F0374322988%2Fqid%3D1099597947%2Fsr%3D1-1%2Fref%3Dsr_1_1%3Fv%3Dglance%26s%3Dbooks) about a man’s suit which comes to life.

DEMONOLOGY
Paramount. Two prep school girls have to save Manhattan from the Apocalypse.

FANTASY ISLAND
Columbia. Big-budget tentpole adaptation of the ABC TV show.

THIEF OF ALWAYS
Universal.
Adaptation of [Clive Barker’s novel](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=johnaugustcom-20&path=ASIN%2F0064409945%2Fqid%3D1099598005%2Fsr%3D2-1%2Fref%3Dpd_ka_b_2_1).

SCARED GUYS
Columbia. Page-one rewrite of comedy about phobic brothers.

BARBARELLA
Fox 2000/Warner Bros. Based on the comic book character, not the movie.

FURY
Unsold. Violent action thriller.

This, dear readers, is what sucks about being a screenwriter. Added up, this list represents five or more years of my writing career, but I don’t have a frame of celluloid to show for it.

Not one of these projects is “the best thing I’ve ever written,” I’m happy to report. Still, many of these scripts are near and dear to my heart. Demonology, for example, is the unholy spawn of my two favorite movies, Clueless and Aliens. Others, like Fantasy Island, I’m happy enough to forget. Even though I spent months on various drafts, it never connected for me or the studio.

When asked what kind of movies I prefer to write, I’ll sometimes glibly anwer: “Ones that get made.” I don’t think that’s cynical as much as it is pragmatic. I never think about writing a script. The goal is always to make a movie.

More D.C. stuff available in the Downloads section

Dead Projects, Projects

DC logoChris Landa of Salt Lake City, Utah, wrote in to say:

I just finished reading your scripts of D.C. Do you have a series
bible that you could put on your site? I’m trying to find examples of series
bibles and would love to find out what happens to the characters of D.C.

A series “bible” is a document that’s usually created at the start of a television series, which contains all the vital information about the characters, their history, and relationships. The idea is that you update it as you go along, so that in season four, you don’t have a character saying something that conflicts with something in season two.

Apparently, some showrunners go much further, and really do map out years ahead. [J. Michael Straczynski](http://imdb.com/name/nm0833089/) is said to have plotted out all of the seasons of Babylon 5 before even starting to shoot the pilot.

All this said, I’ve never even seen a real series bible. Perhaps that’s because I’ve never worked on a show that lasted more than three episodes.

But Chris’s question brought up a point I keep trying to make: a writer’s job doesn’t start and end at the script. Particularly in television, a writer needs to be able to write a lot of different kinds of documents, many of which are designed to get others to share his or her vision for the show.

I’ve added five examples of this from D.C. in the [Downloads](http://johnaugust.com/downloads) section. Included you’ll find:

  1. the initial pitch I made to the WB
  2. the outline for the pilot
  3. a template for a “normal” episode
  4. and an exercise in which I look at God from each character’s perspective.

Also included is the pilot presentation script. In order to save money, the WB asked all its drama pilots to shoot a 30-minute version of the show (called a “pilot presentation”), rather than the whole hour. To do this, I had to omit a bunch of scenes, and rewrite some others so that it would all make sense. If it sounds like a difficult task, it was. When we got ordered for series, the first thing we had to do was go back and shoot the missing scenes from the pilot.

Two scripts for “The Circle” now up

Dead Projects, Projects

alaska highwayAt some point when I have a few free days, I’ll go through and update the [Projects](http://johnaugust.com/projects/projects.html) section like I keep threatening to. In the meantime, I’ve added two additional television scripts for download.

Backstory: For the 2003 television pilot season, I created a show called [“The Circle”](http://imdb.com/title/tt0387816/) for Touchstone/ABC. It was a one-hour drama about law enforcement in Alaska. Unlike the movie [Insomnia](http://imdb.com/title/tt0278504/), which focused on a “small town” police department, the real Alaska doesn’t even have that level of law enforcement. It’s much more provincial, with state troopers and magistrates. Pretty much any murder in the state is investigated by a single team based out of Anchorage.

We shot a pilot in British Columbia, directed by the hugely talented [Kim Manners](http://imdb.com/name/nm0543129/) of X-Files fame. The regular cast included [Brad Johnson](http://imdb.com/name/nm0424635/), [Dahlia Salem](http://imdb.com/name/nm0757993/), [Michael Ironside](http://imdb.com/name/nm0000461/) and [Gary Farmer](http://imdb.com/name/nm0001200/).

The pilot turned out well, and the studio asked for two additional scripts — one of which I wrote, the other written by [Matt Pyken](http://imdb.com/name/nm0701487/) and [Michael Berns](http://imdb.com/name/nm0076965/), writers I’d worked with on my first TV show. The whole thing was a good experience. Alas, we didn’t get picked up. But on the whole, I’d rather have made a pilot I’m proud of than a series I’m not.

There are two scripts here to read. The first is the pilot, titled “My Three Sons.” The second is “Gravedigger,” which would would have been the second or third episode. (The show wasn’t very serialized.)

[imagesPilot](http://johnaugust.com/downloads)

[imagesGravedigger](http://johnaugust.com/downloads)

During production, ABC kept referring to the show as “Alaska,” so that’s ultimately what we ended up calling it. I still prefer “The Circle,” however.

The status of Barbarella

Dead Projects, Projects

Paul Wood from Essex, England writes:

I contribute to a Drew Barrymore fan site ([The Drew Barrymore Collective](http://www.drew-barrymore.org/)). I was looking for updates on Barbarella because that’s the film I want to see more than any other. Would you be so kind as to give us an update on how the script is coming along? I’d be interested to know how far along the line the production process is and if the film is still on the cards.

Alas, unfortunately, all of the cards have been played. The project is dormant, and quite possibly dead.

To briefly recap the tumultuous history of Barbarella:

1. Drew asked me to write Barbarella while I was working on the first Charlie’s Angels. Being a huge fan of Drew and the original Barbarella, I said yes immediately. This was in 2000.

2. The underlying rights have always been a mess. Ultimately, Fox 2000 and Warner Bros. agreed to pool their respective rights and develop the project together.

3. Based on the rights they owned, the studios could develop a movie featuring the Barbarella character, but not the plot of the first movie. This wasn’t really much a problem, though, because it’s not like the original movie had a masterful plot anyway.

4. I turned in my first draft in April 2001, and my second draft later that year.

5. I flew to France and met with Michel Gondry, who was Drew’s first choice to direct it. But he really wanted her for another movie (which hasn’t been made yet).

6. Everyone got busy. I did the second Charlie’s Angels with Drew. Laura Ziskin, the other producer on the movie, did Spider-Man.

7. In 2003, we got everyone back together to figure out what the next step was on Barbarella. Unfortunately, we learned that the rights situation had gotten much more complicated. Unless we could get the movie into production within the next nine months, everything would fall apart. We couldn’t, so…

8. Everything fell apart.

9. Now the script is in limbo. Unless someone budges, the movie can’t be made because it involves a character we no longer own. It would be a good writing sample for me, except that I have actual produced movies people can see.

So that’s the sad history of Barbarella. Hopefully, something will change and Barbarella will get her day in the sun.