Hercules?” I Wrote the Format Category “Long Form,” Has Reached and Watson Respectively
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
TM The Network Television Mini-Series and the creation and making of by Kate McCallum ver the years the television mini- The Hound of The Baskervilles and Hands of scr(i)pt: Were you hired to do the treatment? series has been hailed as one of a Murderer. CP: No, I did it on my own because I just the great vehicles for deeper Prior to writing, Pogue spent many years wanted to do it. It was a very good calling storytelling. Classics such as as a stage actor in such plays as Cyrano De card and got floated around a lot. Nothing Roots, The Thorn Birds and Lonesome Dove, Bergerac, Duchess of Malfi, The Rainmaker, ever came of it, unfortunately. Then a Oall highly regarded and well-received “event Hay Fever, Angel Street, Flea in Her Ear and, few years ago, my friend, David Madden, programming,” have garnered numerous oddly enough, in a Sherlock Holmes play, who is the head of Fox TV, e-mailed me: awards and high ratings for the networks The Crucifer of Blood which starred Charlton “Do you think there’s an idea in doing a who aired them. The mini, which falls under Heston and the late Jeremy Brett as Holmes mythologically serious Hercules?” I wrote the format category “long form,” has reached and Watson respectively. him back: “Yes, and I’m the guy to do it.” a new level of pedigree in the broadcast A member of WGA, SAG, AFTRA, We sat down and had a quick exploratory marketplace with the cable channels jump- Actors’ Equity and The Dramatists Guild, meeting about how to approach the idea. I ing in with such content as HBO’s Angels Pogue is also a popular guest speaker and has didn’t want to do a Ray Harryhausen ver- in America or A&E’s Horatio Hornblower. lectured on film and screenwriting at UCLA, sion, like the gods are up in the heavens Hallmark Entertainment has been one of USC and universities across the country, as playing chess with all the mortals, because the most prolific providers of the mini- well as for the Writers Guild at film festivals that immediately deflates the heroism of series content recently. They have produced in Cannes, Beaune, Brazil and Seattle. He the piece. To me, a hero has to make his such titles as The 10th Kingdom, Children of recently finished a screenplay adaptation of own decisions versus just being manipu- Dune, Dead Man’s Walk, Dinotopia and now H. Rider Haggard’s immortal classic She and lated by the gods. I wanted the gods to NBC’s Hercules. I was fortunate to interview is currently writing a personal film project be a very wide presence in the minds of screenwriter Charles Pogue about his experi- and another novel. the people, but I didn’t want to see any ence penning this Herculean task. manifestations of gods. My approach was Charles Edward Pogue launched his career scr(i)pt: What inspired the idea to bring going to be I, Claudius meets The Lord of with a pair of scary classics, Psycho III and The Hercules to the screen? The Rings. I told David, “Don’t worry, we’ll Fly. Shifting from horror to fantasy, Pogue CHARLES POGUE: Mythology is an area have plenty of blood and thunder, CGI penned the swashbuckling epic, Dragonheart, that I’ve always liked, particularly the Greek and technology; but there’s going to be a with Sean Connery as the voice of Draco, the mythologies. I study it a lot; and eons ago, brain in this. I want to really get into the computer-animated dragon. His film noir when I was first starting out as a writer, I nitty-gritty seriousness of it as well.” He mystery, D.O.A., starred Dennis Quaid and wrote a 176-page bible for a 10-hour mini- asked what I needed; and I said, “Give me Meg Ryan. In addition, he has written three series about the Trojan War. It was a very a few months; I’ve got to do some read- Sherlock Holmes mysteries: The Sign of Four, detailed, scene-for-scene treatment. ing,” because I’m a very rigid researcher. 32 s c r ( i ) p t scriptmag.com ( the great idea ) scr(i)pt: To whom at Hallmark did you goddess/god conflict, realizing that humans pitch? need to embrace the finest aspects of both CP: Lynn Holtz, with whom I’d worked the god and the goddess to find the true bal- before on another project that never came ance of life. So he slowly breaks the chains quite to fruition. She is very much into of religion and leads the masses toward a mythology and ancient culture, as well, so monotheistic ideal that’s not about capri- she really got it. cious divinities imposing a bunch of arcane kindergarten rules upon humanity. Religion scr(i)pt: How about at NBC? should be uplifting and freeing; not stifling CP: Stephen Bulka was our executive at and punishing. Hercules strives to live his NBC, and he also got it. They really liked life with honor and honesty, dignity and the resonance of the piece, though there decency, and proclaims that that’s pretty were some notes and concerns because of much all any god can expect. the tone. I had to take into consideration But, in the meantime, we’ve still got lots that there was another audience demograph- of blood and thunder and also Hercules ic we were trying to reach as well. The first initially thinking he’s the son of a god. He thing we addressed was that after Hercules starts with a certain amount of arrogance, Screenwriter Charles Pogue goes through all the labours, he really can’t then is humbled and finds his divinity be killed off. So, the two things I had to when he discovers his humanity. Those I immersed myself in all sorts of mythol- find most in the story were ... that dreaded became the themes of the piece and gave ogy, read tons of novels in this whole arena word ... character arc or ... me a trajectory. The other challenge was and very quickly found out that I wanted to dealing with all the disparate labours and deal with the mother worship, which actu- scr(i)pt: The plot throughline? making them interesting—exploring again ally preceded all the panoply of gods. The CP: Yes, the throughline—and thematic the myth behind the myth. I knew I story is basically about Hera’s having it in structure—what the story was really about, couldn’t do all 12 labours simply because for Hercules because he’s the son of Zeus. and taking all these incidences and creat- there were some that were just repetitive If you go back far enough into the myths, ing a storyline that had a real trajectory—a and impossible to conjure into something you find out that the Greeks were great beginning, middle and end. Then, I went interesting. I think we finally ended up worshippers of the goddess before Zeus. So back through some of the myths again to with six. The goal was to find a twist on the story became about the conflict of the find their origins; and what I found was that each one and make it not what you expect- mother/father worship cults. I then pitched the story was basically about the tyranny of ed it was going to be. Then, [the labour] David a rough idea and he liked it. religion—pretty much kind of what we’re had to inform the lessons Hercules had to After a few months, I came back with going through today ... learn and the whole thematic structure and a very detailed cradle-to-grave treatment the direction he was going. of Hercules with everything I wanted it to scr(i)pt: Absolutely, that eternal myth— For example, one task ultimately got be in terms of the seriousness of the tone. and how very relevant. It’s quite remarkable, cut for budgetary reasons. It was the This wasn’t your Steve Reeves Hercules isn’t it? famous one about Hercules’ cleaning out or a Kevin Sorbo Hercules. This wasn’t CP: Not only in the Middle East but also the Aegean stables. You think, geez, who L.A. flip. It was very dark. David and here with the extremists’ viewpoints and fun- wants to see Hercules with a broom, shov- I pitched it a few places, and nobody damentalists’ viewpoints—this whole idea eling a bunch of horse poop? That’s not would bite. Later that summer we heard that people are restricted and stifled because going to be too dramatic. But, somewhere Robert Halmi of Hallmark Entertainment they think God wants them to do something. in the research I read that this was actu- and NBC were looking to do Hercules. Sometimes it’s something they don’t even ally a cavalry charge of some kind; and David, who is one of the few true gentle- understand, like a dumb, empty ritual piece I thought suddenly, now that’s interest- men I’ve actually met in this business, of mummery that’s come down through the ing. What the scene then becomes is that, said, “I haven’t been able to set this up. ages and nobody understands why it was at some point, Zeus arouses the ire of It’s your outline. It’s your work, so take done in the first place. It’s probably been this king who sends his cavalry to attack.