This from Daniel Wallace, a photo of two guys who have apparently caught Edward from BIG FISH.
Like Mulder from X-Files, I Want to Believe, but in the age of Photoshop, pretty much anything can be faked. But I welcome your opinions. Maybe this really is the biggest catfish in the Ashton river.
I’ve moved all of the .pdfs from the old site into one handy repository: the new [Downloads](http://johnaugust.com/library) section, which is available on the right-side menu.
All of the scripts and outlines from Go, Big Fish and The Circle are there. You’ll also find the scripts for my first ill-fated TV show, D.C., which staggered through a few episodes on the WB back in 2000. Or was it 2001? The mind has a wonderful way of dulling painful experiences.
I first met [Daniel Wallace](http://danielwallace.org), the author of BIG FISH, on October 26, 1998. We met at an IHOP in Richmond, Virginia, and talked about his book and the prospect of making a movie from it.
I had this interview up at the old site, but it was kind of buried. So here it is, reformatted and reader-friendly.
John: What was your original intention with Big Fish? Did you sit down thinking, “I’m going to make a novel about this,” or was it pieces that came together?
Daniel: It started with bits and pieces. Originally, the very beginning was my interest in myth. I’ve always thought of myth as being a way to explain things that we can’t understand otherwise.
John: Like, why there’s thunder.
Daniel: That’s exactly right. It’s always easier to have some sort of explanation, even when you may know it’s not quite accurate or not quite real. It satisfies something. Anything’s better than not understanding. Even untruth sometimes is better than not knowing anything.
John: Did you write it from beginning to end, or did you write in bits and pieces?
[Read more…] about Transcript of my first meeting with Daniel Wallace
At 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.)
[
Pilot](http://johnaugust.com/downloads)
[Gravedigger](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.