...This one reminds us of the fabulous Monty Python poster proclaiming that The Holy
Grail 'makes Ben Hur look like an epic..!'. In the latest chapter of a long running
saga that's in danger of being a bigger fantasy epic than the original novel,
Showtime are apparently still behind the project. Barker has been
forthright in his praise for Showtime's involvement in getting Gods
And Monsters to the screen, so we can only hope that this one works as
well if it really ever happens...
A last minute decision on the location for principal photography
(favouring Australia over Ireland) was made ahead of planned pre-production in
September 2002, but we have no idea how that fitted earlier plans for
part of the action to be relocated from England with the auction for
the magical carpet taking place in New York instead. Subsequently, Fox came on board in support of Showtime's devotion for
the project...
Following input from (amongst others) Peter Lenkov (brought in to re-work elements of
Michael Marshall Smith's original script), the original producer, Robert Page (who was at University with Barker) and Russell
Mulcahy (Highlander and the US adaptation of Queer As Folk) a new screenplay by Showtime's own
Steve Molton brought the action back to Liverpool, where it belongs.
Latest news is that the project, after ten years there, is no longer with Showtime, and Clive is keen to find the right people with a
new enthusiasm for a project which stays true to Weaveworld's English roots...
"Everyone always asks what is happening with Weaveworld. Well, we are
going to shoot it but not as a theatrical release. It will be a mini
-series along the lines of Stephen King's The Stand. It'll run for
eight hours. I have certain reservations though, I think the show will
be a compromise, but at least it will bring the story to a whole new
audience. Hopefully they'll enjoy what they see and then read the
book."
Lord Of Illusion
By [ ],
Home Cinema Choice, September 1996
"It would be disastrous as a two-hour movie. It's a huge novel with
lots of layers and ideas, and this way we would have a good chance of
keeping the layers and the complexity intact. We would make a couple
of narrative changes which would bring in the American end, but nothing
that would violate the novel."
Monster Invasion
By Mark Salisbury,
Fangoria No 133, June 1994
[Re. outlook for Weaveworld following BBC Drama budget cut]"I had a
conversation with them this morning saying, 'What are we going to do
about this?' I don't know. Not all the money is coming from the Beeb,
by any means. Showtime is also in there, so I suppose there'll just be
some different carving up but I never now how those kind of monies
work. I think the other thing about the Beeb is that you don't know
how much their protesting and their howling is just because they're not
going to be able to work quite the way they want to, but you never
know when they're telling the truth. I'm not saying for one moment that
they're lying through their teeth but I am saying that one of the best
things the Beeb could do now is complain, really hard, about how
little money they have..."
World Weaver
By John M Farrell,
Hot Press, No 13951, 1995
"The BBC/Showtime 'Weaveworld'. A second set of paperwork has been
finished and the plan is to go before the camera before the end of the
year. I've been frustrated by plans and projections; it's going to be
happening this September, it's going to be happening this December, in
the spring. Things like this have been going on for a long time. I
am no longer able to, with any confidence, put my hand on my heart and
say well I think it's going to be X or it's going to be Y. I think
there's great will to make it happen and I have come to the point where
I say it will happen when it happens."
Confessions
By [Stephen Dressler and Cheryl Bentzen],
Lost Souls, Issue 4, [July] 1996
"I talked to people last week with Showtime and with Michael Marshall
Smith who's doing the adaptation. I know they want to get it before the
camera before April of next year so that means that M.M. Smith has to
do what he needs to do on the screenplay in the next 2 months or so. It
's a big screenplay - it's 8 hours of T.V. But it seems to be proceeding."
Confessions
By [Stephen Dressler and Cheryl Bentzen],
Lost Souls, Issue 5, October 1996
"We will get the first teleplays for the first three hours of six next
week. Hopefully we will proceed on that next year [1999]. After all
the many hopes and dashed hopes, we might finally get this thing in
front of the camera."
Confessions
By Stephen Dressler,
Lost Souls, Issue 12, January 1999
"We are in the early stages of a large scale 6 hour adaptation. It will
be a Showtime original. One of the partners in the project is Hallmark,
of Merlin fame. I have very high hopes for the project. It's been a
long time in development."
The Dominion
Transcript of an on-line session at The Dominion, website of the Sci-Fi
Channel, 8 March 1999
"[Weaveworld is] in good shape. We have a script. I think what we are
waiting for is to attach a director to it. That's one I should come
back to you on, because I'm not sure where we are. But I know the
script is done. And I know there is huge enthusiasm over at Showtime.
"It's an expensive one, but it's also one where I think the technology
has caught up I think with being able to do this. I think five years
ago you would not have been able to make Weaveworld properly. And I
think CGI can give us all kinds of things that we could never have
before."
Confessions
By [Craig Fohr],
Lost Souls Newsletter, September / December 2000 (note - interview took
place 25 August 2000)
"It's looking extremely good, finally. We're looking at probably
shooting it in Australia. Russell Mulcahy will shoot the first two
hours and, I hope, the entire thing. I've known him since his
Highlander days. He's just a great guy.
"Because it's a big book, preproduction will be enormous. There are
special effects up the gazoo - physical effects, [computer-animated]
effects, a whole world to create. I think it will be a marvelous
project, and I'm very pleased Russell's going to do it."
Weaveworld Near Production
By [ ],
Sci Fi Wire, www.scifi.com, 16 March 2001
"Weaveworld will go into pre-production in September and I don't think
there's any doubt about that. The only question now is whether we shoot
in Ireland or Australia; we're just looking at those two right now. It
would be so wonderful to have that sort of [Irish] landscape... But
pre-production will start in September and we'll start shooting in
January 2003."
Open Roads... What Price Wonderland?
By Phil and Sarah Stokes,
3 April 2002 (note - full text here)
"It's six hours of very heavy, special-effects-intensive material."
Saints Come Marching
By Kate O'Hare, Zap2it.com, 18 October 2002
"Here's an interesting one. The head of Showtime has just retired. I think retired is the word you'd use. I don't think he's going on to
another job. I was told just before I went off to Seattle, the new guy is a huge fan of the material, so my hope is we'll find it will
become the mini-series that we all hope it will. We have someone who wants to direct, a place to go shoot it, and it's been a long
journey. And we have a marvelous teleplay. Ah, teleplay is such an old fashioned word isn't it? Umm…script for television. I've always
said this was the way to do this particular book because you take a book, which many people are very fond of and it would be
reprehensible to cut it down into something that would be a reasonable two-hour entertainment. The only way to do this would be a
miniseries."
Confessions
By Craig Fohr, Lost Souls, 1 August 2003 (note - full text online at Lost Souls - see links page)
"[Weaveworld] is moving with real speed now - Fox have come on. Fox TV have come on to be the other half of the funding for the
thing. So my understanding is that we're really off to the races. The script is having a final pass made on it and then I think we're
going to go to a director and hopefully next year we'll actually make this thing! Next year it will have been in Showtime's hands ten
years! It's amazing: I'm sure there are projects that are longer in people's hands, but ten years... nations have lived and died in the
time!
"I'm optimistic because the people behind it have never really ever let it go and I like that. There seems to be an ongoing passion for
it and I think the fact that fantasy is now so huge, in the cinematic form at least... it might have finally found the moment when
people can see getting behind it with the sort of money it needs to have. So, fingers crossed...
"I get crazy because every three months I wake up, and for some reason my mental processes have stirred it up again in my brain
and I go, 'What the fuck's going on with Weaveworld?' And I call my agent and we get an update and the interesting thing is the
enthusiasm never dies down! But it's never in quite the right form or there's not quite enough money - sometimes it feels like real
Alice in Wonderland stuff, but I think we're almost there."
In Anticipation Of The Deluge : A Moment At The River's Edge
By Phil and Sarah Stokes,
1 and 12 July 2004 (note - full text here)
"A fellow called Bob Greenblatt has come in at Showtime and he’s a really smart guy who likes the project, so I have high hopes
that that’s going to happen."
Clive Barker’s Dark Plans
By Joe Nazzaro, www.fangoria.com, 2 December 2004
"And the best news of all is that I think Weaveworld is finally going to get made - can you believe that?
"It seems that finally a wonderful guy called Steve Molton has pulled a draft together that everybody likes - it's a very
cool draft, a very smart draft and very respectful of the book. There's great passion at Showtime to make it so I think
that we are presently chatting with folks over your side of the water because it takes place in England, it will be shot in
England... One of the first things we did... there was a huge change of regime at Showtime and when we went in to
talk to the new guy at Showtime, Bob, who is a very smart guy - I said, 'You know the thing I really think we should do
is just go back to the book and put this back in England where it's set'; it's an English book - and the sweat and effort
it's taken to Americanise something that never wanted to be American! So I gave Steve Molton, who has spent
some time in England, a huge pile of books - you know, all my AA guides to England, which I used when I was
writing Weaveworld because they are wonderful for little out-of-the-way details - they are fantastic as research tools
and they seem to be in principle the most unpromising of books but they're actually great. And so I gave all of those
to Steve along with several books of photographs; things that I really liked and he came back with just a wonderful,
moving draft that really reinstated the bitter-sweet, the yearning qualities that are in the book and it's very satisfying."
The Lazarus Muse: Nights Of Magic, Days Of Gore
By Phil and Sarah Stokes,
2 June 2005 (note:
full text here)
"Weaveworld, which is with Showtime, is finally going to be shot this year, six hours of it. On a scale of one to ten, I think it's
looking like somewhere between a seven and an eight, which is certainly better than it's been before. They've had it for ten years,
so that's certainly the highest number it's been so far."
Weird Fantasy
By Joe Nazzaro,
Starburst, Special No 76, July 2006
"We finally got it out of the hands of Showtime after ten years and we would love to find an English backer who would be interested
in taking on these scripts, which are superb, and doing these things the way they should be done - so this is a little APB..."
Sowing The Seeds Of The Story Tree
By Phil and Sarah Stokes,
28 August and 4 September 2006 (note - full text here)
Michael Marshall Smith :
"I'm trying to put in as much of Clive's stuff as possible, and even stuff of Clive's that isn't in the
book in some ways, which is to say that I'm trying to incorporate some of his core ideas and
core images. Obviously, the whole thing needs to be condensed for television from the original
text too. Weaveworld is so complex and multi-layered that even in eight hours you can't tell all of it.
"One of the good things about the production is that the client, Showtime in the States, have a
head guy called Jerry Offsay who has read the book and understands it and basically wants to go
hell for leather on it, so they've told me to put in all the sex and violence and swearing I want.
"Apart from that, there are certain specifics that come into it. For example, most of the action
takes place in the States, rather than England, though the early scenes will still be set in Liverpool.
Hobart is now an American FBI agent, rather than an English policeman, and even things
like who's going to play Shadwell come into it, because it makes an enormous difference to how
you write the character if he's going to be played by Bob Hoskins, say, rather than Rutger Hauer."
Touched By The Hand Of God
By Mark Morris,
SFX, No 11, April 1996
Michael Marshall Smith :
"In 1995 I did a first draft of an eight part mini series adaptation
of Clive Barker's Weaveworld. Then there was a hiatus while they
sorted out various things, because there were some personality clashes.
The original production company have now been lobbed off and it's just
writing directly for Showtime in LA. I'm just starting a second draft
for that now."
Michael Marshall Smith
By Graeme Hurry,
at FantasyCon XX, 5 October 1996 (note online at http://freespace.virgin.net/g.hurry/mms_int.htm )
Michael Marshall Smith :
"I did spend about a year doing a first draft for an eight-part
mini-series adaptation of Weaveworld, which was a trip. I was due to
start writing a second draft but then a series of dull, surreal and
bizarre wranglings in LA meant that it got delayed into the time I was
supposed to be starting a new book, and so I had to let it go. It's
something I'd like to get re-involved in, but I'm just too busy on
other things at the moment...
"Through the Weaveworld job I took the risk of going full-time as a
writer. It very nearly didn't work, I can tell you, and I still feel
the shadows gathering sometimes."
Michael Marshall Smith - Online Chat
By [ ],
Virgin Net, [ ] (note online at http://www.virgin.net/chat/celebrity/archive_39.htm )
Michael Marshall Smith :
"Unfortunately there were some very complex production issues involved,
a lot of personal acrimony at levels well above my head, and the end
result was that I ended up working like a dog for 18 months - much of
it without seeing any money - and ended up being, how shall I put this?
given what I regard as an object lesson in the level of trustworthiness
in some parts of the movie business, over the full payment of fees in
particular. There was then a long hiatus while the production was
realigned, partly to remove the producer in question.
"Unfortunately by the time this was sorted out I was already late
starting a novel I was contracted for, and I couldn't just drop
everything and get on with another draft - never mind the fact that
the project by that stage occupied a somewhat complex position in my
emotional landscape. There has been another delay since, but I heard
late last year that another writer has now been attached, and that the
project is proceeding. I hope so. It really deserves to get made, and
a lot of people have put a lot of effort into it. I would have loved
to have seen it through to the end, and would very much have valued
working further with Clive, but it just didn't work out that way."
The Trans-Genre Man: An Interview with Michael Marshall Smith
By David Mathew,
(i)The Third Alternative, 2001[?], (ii)SFsite.com, 2001
Michael Marshall Smith :
"[Writing Weaveworld] is one of the longest and most convoluted stories
I know. Basically - and I'm going to have to be circumspect here -
there was a long haitus last year while a number of personal
differences were resolved between the production companies involved.
The unfortunate upshot was that by the time came round to start the
second draft, I was pushing into the deadline for my next book.
"I have completed first drafts of all eight hours: whether I will be
doing the second draft depends on a number of factors outside my
control. Clive is obviously very keen that the project get back on
course as soon as possible, and so it's possible another writer my do
the next draft. I have the book to finish, and also a second draft of
a movie I wrote earlier in the year.
"As you can imagine, dramatising Weaveworld is a hell of an
undertaking. I hope it comes off - wouldn't it make a great
mini-series? The people at Showtime are very behind the project, and
show a real understanding of it."
Michael Marshall Smith on Spares
By Ed Bryant,
Omni Visions online chat, 3 July 1997 (note - online at www.omnimag.com)
Michael Marshall Smith :
"I was hired, in a somewhat haphazard fashion, to write the whole of
an 8-hour television miniseries version of the book. It was the first
screenwriting I had ever done, and I was utterly psyched to be working
on such a seminal story, and for the chance to work with someone who I
admired enormously.
"The actual process turned out to be rather wearing, partly because
there was a production company in England, the network in the US
(Showtime) and various other agencies (the BBC, and a Canadian company)
involved from time to time. It involved 18 months of drafts and
redrafts, each of which was scrutinized by up to nine people, some of
whom had only tangential relevance to the production. Eight hours is a
lot of script: think of it as four feature films back to back, all
based on the same original material. I wasn't paid for a very long
time, and when I was... well, let's put it this way: it provided an
object lesson in trust. I finally got a first draft finished that we
were all happy with, but then there was a long hiatus while the production
was realigned to remove one of the production partners - who'd managed
to royally piss off everyone else involved, including me. This
basically left me on hold for nine months, not knowing if I was still
on the project, or even if there still was a project.
"Finally Showtime came back to me and said 'Okay, let's go...' but by
that time I was late starting a novel I was contracted for (Spares)
and so I had to ask for more time than they felt able to give. So...
the project went quiet for a while, as they looked for other writers.
Then last year I heard from them that they'd found one, I handed over
the disks of my draft, and it's history. It's a shame, because I would
have liked to see it through to the next stage, but it just didn't
work out that way. Life moves on.
"It was a very, very useful introduction into the industry. I saw both
the worst of the Hollywood process (financial misdeeds, lies, endless
redrafts and waiting) and the best (working with Clive, working on
such a good book, working with Showtime, who were great to me and
really want to do the book justice). I think it helped give me the
beginnings of the kind of insight into the way the industry works
which can only come through experience."
A Conversation With Michael Marshall Smith
By Duane Swierczynski,
SFsite.com, July 1999
...This
second Barker project for Showtime looked close to a deal, having called on Rick Ramage (credited with Stigmata and
The Proposition) for writing duties. However, summer 2003 saw Barker suggesting that a resurrection of the
long-anticipated Vipex/Lord Of Illusions movie sequel (see Films Still To Come...) was the more likely option for the time
being...
"This afternoon I'm going to talk about the Lord of Illusions series,
the Harry D'Amour TV series which is going to come from MGM."
Nips And Tucks, Tits And Fucks
By Phil and Sarah Stokes,
10 July 2001 (note - full text here)
"We just got a very positive response from MGM and Showtime, so
hopefully we'll have that before the cameras before long. Ramage
turned in a fantastic script. Man, it blew me away."
Saints Come Marching
By Kate O'Hare, Zap2it.com, 18 October 2002
Joe Daley :
"We just handed in the pilot script to Showtime and MGM. The script is
by Rick Ramage, who wrote Stigmata. Clive and I are very excited about
it... We're taking Harry D'Amour in a very exciting direction."
Barker Preps Lord Of Illusions Series
By [ ], Fangoria.com, 27 September 2002
...Variety reports that NBC Studios have plans to work with Clive on a TV drama which hopes to combine scares and comedy in the
same breath. Written by Clive and Teddy Tannenbaum (credited on a recent episode of The Dead Zone), Demonologist
follows the lives of a couple who fight demons with ease but are thwarted by the trickier problems posed by raising their 15
year-old daughter...
Chris Conti (NBC) :
"We're all trying to find ways to do family shows with characters that just jump off the screen. The brass ring of all brass
rings is to do that comedic drama... It's a funny, spooky thriller in hopefully the good Hitchcockian tradition. If you can pull this off, you can scare the hell out of
people and make them laugh at the same time."
Peacock Picks Quirky Drama Pair
By Michael Schneider, Variety, 6 October 2003
...Back in the Eighties, Barker had plans for a TV adaptation of his
own Books of Blood stories which
came to nothing. Two decades on, the title - and maybe only the title
- looks to be resurrected by
Frank Darabont as a framing device for a TV horror anthology. Early
plans are for Darabont and Barker to collaborate in picking suitably
striking short stories from a variety of authors across the genre...
Frank Darabont :
"We really want to make the Books of Blood to be a story-driven,
writer-driven piece of work. There’s so many great stories to tell in
the genre and I thought, hell, if anybody knows these stories, it’s
gotta be Clive Barker. The idea is we would choose the stories,
whether it was Fritz Leiber, Stephen King, Edgar Allan Poe, or
something very cutting edge like David Schow - whatever story it is,
as long as it’s got a real quality of writing of writing going for it.
‘Cause I miss that, especially in anthologies. The one’s we’ve had
lately are kind of lacklustre. They seem to oddly be avoiding the fact
that there are thousands of great stories that have been written
through the years.
"Whatever the tonality is, what I don't want to do is proscribe what
kind of stories Books of Blood has to be. That's why anthologies
continue to be stale. Go for the throat! Go wherever the great stories
are! Hopefully, this'll be a series that'll scare the crap out of you
and we'll earn that."
2002 Screenwriting Expo
Moderated by Den Shewman, 17 November 2002 (note - reported online at www.creature-corner.com)
