The Variable Man with Gary Goldman and Angus Fletcher | Development Hell

Revisionist History

Pushkin Industries

Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 61.5K Ratings

🗓️ 29 February 2024

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Gary Goldman was a writer on “Total Recall”, a Philip K. Dick adaptation directed by Paul Verhoeven and starring Arnold Schwarzeneger. It was a big hit. So why do Gary and his writing partner, Angus Fletcher, have so much trouble selling another Philip K. Dick adaptation? They tell Malcolm that it all came down to a roller coaster ride of plot twists that even A-List action actors couldn’t stomach, and an early attempt at AI that was too dumb to pick a smart script.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Pushkin. Welcome to episode 2 of Development Hell, our revisionist history series based on the
0:20.6	radical notion of the best Hollywood stories are the ones that never got made into movies.
0:26.4	Last time we kicked out the series with the story of how my book, Blink,
0:29.7	failed to make it under the big screen.
0:31.8	If you haven't heard that one yet, you really
0:33.7	really should because it explains why failed stories have such meaning for me.
0:51.0	Anyway, this episode is a wildly convoluted tale full of big plot twists and huge moral questions, a story so much about right now, that's going to get a little uncomfortable.
0:57.0	Allow me to introduce guest number one, Angus Fletcher.
1:04.0	He's a screenwriter.
1:05.0	I'm not a screenwriter, and have never really wanted to be a screenwriter, have no aptitude in screenwriting.
1:11.0	Don't listen to Angus.
1:12.0	Angus is, in fact, a screenwriting. Angus is in fact a screenwriter as you'll hear.
1:16.0	He's also an author, researcher, and professor of story science at Ohio State and a long time friend of revision's history. Some of you will remember him as the person who provided
1:27.9	the intellectual scaffolding for our memorable revision of the Little mermaid. Remember this?
1:34.4	Oh, so you think we should be able to, we should fix her,
1:37.2	Silla? Well, I think we should just stop her from doing whatever she's doing.
1:41.2	We should have a conversation with her about maybe why this isn't helpful.
1:43.7	Do you, Prince Eric, take Ursula to have and to hold in sickness and in health for as long as you both shall live.
1:55.0	Eric looks deep into Ursula's eyes, hypnotized.
1:59.0	I do.
2:02.0	If you haven't heard that Little Mermaid series, listen to it. Anyway, back to today's story.
2:08.8	I'm just fascinated by this problem that Hollywood has that it keeps selling the same story over and over and over again.
	...

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