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The Report Committee for Wayne Poh Kiat Cheong Certifies that this is the approved version of the following master report: Finding Your Inner Villain: The Evolution of Muhahaha APPROVED BY SUPERVISING COMMITTEE: Supervisor: _____________________________ Richard Lewis _____________________________ Andrew Garrison Finding Your Inner Villain: The Evolution of Muhahaha By Wayne Poh Kiat Cheong, B.A. Report Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Fine Arts The University of Texas at Austin December 2009 1 Finding Your Inner Villain: The Evolution of Muhahaha By Wayne Poh Kiat Cheong, MFA The University of Texas at Austin, 2009 SUPERVISOR: Richard Lewis In this thesis report traces I detail the process from the conception of the idea through the arduous development and finally the final product of Wayne Poh Kiat Cheong’s narrative screenplay. Also included are the numerous revisions that have resulted from his involvement in this project. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Introduction………………………………………………………1 Chapter 2: Where Do You Get Your Ideas?..............................3 Chapter 3: The Process..…………...…………....….………..…………..7 Research……………………………………………………………..10 Characters…………………………………………………………..12 Revision, Revision, Revision….…………………………….17 Chapter 4: The UT Experience………………………………..………….35 Chapter 5: Personal History…………………...……………..………....38 Chapter 6: What Now?..............................................................41 Bibliography…………………………...…………………….………...…….....43 Vita…………………………………..….……………………………….…………..45 iv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION “Now, this is a story all about how, my life got flipped- turned upside down. And I like to take a minute. Just sit right there I’ll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel-Air.” William Smith There’s something about the art of storytelling that I’m attracted to. A writer, whose name I’ve forgotten, once remarked that the currency of the world was stories. Our ancestors would trade tales around the fire. It was an oral tradition, verbal history passed from elders to the next generation, a remembrance of the past preserved in words. I remembered my father reading to me The Wind In The Willows when I was a child and ever so often I would ask him questions like what is whitewash or what does “marsh” mean? Some of these words and ideas were foreign to my father that he provided more hemming and hawing than explanations. In the end, he feigned exhaustion and cut short our story. That was the first and last time he ever read to me. So, I took it upon myself to read and that habit carried throughout my life. I am a voracious reader and there was little doubt that I would eventually settle into some aspect of writing. But I didn’t think I could be a writer. There was always the underlying fear that I could never be as great as the 1 authors whose work I read. So, I chose the next best alternative - I graduated with a Mass Communication degree with an interest in copywriting. My mother wasn’t surprised. She once told me that when I was a wee lad, no taller than her knee, I would often pay more attention to the commercials than the actual programming itself. But I was interested in copywriting because it’s another form of storytelling. The ads that I’m often drawn to are the ones that had a beginning, middle and end so not only does the ad have to persuade the consumer to buy the product, it also had to tell a story within a 30-second spot. Eventually, I landed up at the University of Texas at Austin’s film program. I wanted to be a director but the only resources available to me within budget were a pirated copy of Final Draft, scrap paper and a pen. Screenwriting was a cheaper option. And that eventually lead to writing Muhahaha. 2 CHAPTER 2: WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR IDEAS? “You want ideas? You want dreams? You want stories? Then ideas you will have. Ideas in abundance.” Dream from The Sandman, Calliope D.C. comics have an adult imprint called Vertigo and it was geared towards the mature readers who tire from muscled superheroes beating up the bad guys and long for a more sophisticate reading fare. One of Vertigo’s more popular series was Sandman written by Neil Gaiman. There was a story arc about Murdoc, a writer, who captured Calliope, one of the seven Muses, to inspire him. After writing several bestsellers, Murdoc is visited by Morpheus, a dream deity, who was also Calliope’s ex-lover. Because of certain rules, Morpheus is unable to free Calliope; she has to be release at Murdoc’s whim. Murdoc tells Morpheus that he cannot do so because he needs the ideas. Morpeheus, who ruled the Dreamscapes and all the imaginings within, grants him his wish and ideas come at him in torrents. It got so bad that when Murdoc ran out of ink to record his ideas, he used his own blood. In the end, the flow of ideas renders him an insomniac and Murdoc became a shell of a human being. I’m intrigued as to how writers come up with their own ideas for books. I used to maintain a blog where I ask writers this one simple question – where do you get your ideas? 3 Answers ranged from scholarly essays to simple tongue- in-cheek quips. But basically what I gathered from all the responses is that ideas can be found anywhere. It’s that simple. Interact with the world long enough and you start to see a story in the random pattern of things. I have a Moleskine that I record every idea for a story to write. This habit formed after an episode when I woke up with an idea but put off writing it. Morning arrived and when I tried to jot down the idea, I could not remember it. To this day, I have no recollection of what it was and it still bugs me to this day. One of the biggest wellsprings I drink from for inspiration is the Internet. I surf the Internet a lot. I tell people it’s for research purposes but I usually spend hours trolling for LOL cats and torrents. Needless to say, my productivity has been found wanting at best. Then one day, during one of my surfing session, I came across this Craig’s List gem. Here is a transcription. I’ve been trying to think of ways to spice up my life. I’m 35 years old, happily married with two kids and I have a good job in insurance. But somethings [sic] missing. I feel like I’m old before my time. I need to inject some excitement into my daily routine through my arm before its too late. I need a challenge, something to get the adrenaline pumping again. An addiction would be nice, but, in short, I need a nemesis. I’m willing to pay $350 up front and $350 after six months for you [sic] 4 services as an arch enemy. Nothing crazy. Steal my parking space, knock my coffee over, trip me when Im [sic] running to catch the Go train and occasionaly [sic] whisper in my ear, “Ahha, we meet again”. That kind of thing. Just keep me on my toes. Complacency will be the death of me. You need to have an evil streak and be blessed with innate guile and cunning. You should also be adept at inconsicuous [sic] pursuit. Evil laugh preferred. Send me a photo and a brief explanation why you would be a good nemesis. British accent preferred. This struck me as an amusing Internet distraction and I didn’t think any more of it but a month later, during Richard Lewis’ Writing For Film & Electronic Media class, we were supposed to come up with several premises for the script we’re to write. During my term in grad school, I made it a point to try and write films of different genres and for Richard’s class; I wanted to write something that’s commercial, something that I can sell. I fielded several ideas that would make good commercial movies and settled on a premise of a serial killer who kills other serial killer. It didn’t dawn on me that the concept was similar to the TV series, Dexter. After two weeks of trying to mold the idea into something I can work with, I gave up. The story wasn’t 5 working and I panicked. I didn’t want to write something for the next three month that I don’t have my heart set on. And out of the blue, the Craig’s List ad came to the rescue. It was very unusual in the fact that this was a rare moment where the idea already had a shape to it. I knew what needed to be in there; the idea immediately opened all sorts of possibilities and I was able to tap into my inner comic book geek into shaping the story. And I wasn’t the only one to think that this idea could be worth a price of a movie admission ticket – the rest of the workshop agreed. It was high-concept and the premise was fertile ground for humor. What could possibly hinder me? 6 CHAPTER 3: THE PROCESS “Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die.” Mel Brooks I’ve never written a comedy. I’ve done stand-up back in my college days in Oklahoma City University but writing a 90- minute punchline wasn’t going to cut it.

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