Hollywood executives at work

A brilliantly quotable Neil Gaiman interview where he talks about making Mirrormask and adapting comics (or graphic novels) for cinema.

'Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio, who wrote "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Shrek" and
some lovely movies, were brought in by Jon Peters to write the first draft of the Sandman movie. He hadn't actually read any "Sandman" because he had people to do that kind of stuff for him, but he had figured out that what the movie needed to be successful was a giant mechanical spider. He wanted a giant mechanical spider because that would make any film a hit. Elliot and Rossio, who had read "Sandman," who went in with their pitch and looking forward to it and going, "But there's no room for a giant mechanical spider."

"I know it, I'm Jon Peters, and I want my giant mechanical spider!"

I was thrilled on going to see "Wild Wild West" to see that he had finally put this giant mechanical spider that I'd been hearing about from Elliot and Rossio for five years into a film with no ideas of any kind." '

Mirrormask looks fantastic! Not sure why it hasn't been given a release date here in the UK yet. Maybe they're holding back on announcing it until it's been screened at the London Film Festival. I would love to see it there but they do make it really hard to book tickets - you have to fill out a paper form and post it to them along with a blank (well, maximum amount specified)cheque that they can fill in when they've allocated you some tickets. Or you can fill in your bank card details and post it to them. Hah! my card details through Royal Mail? I don't think so.

Anyway, The Aristocrats got a nationwide release - I would be extremely unimpressed if Mirrormask didn't. It's a real film! The Aristocrats is a well-marketed but rather dull documentary of comedians describing a joke, occasionally deconstructing it, blaming the audience for looking at it the wrong way if they didn't think it was funny and failing to miss the point that this so-called brilliant joke is only really great for the guy who gets to tell it. The film could have been (and perhaps wanted to be) a fantastic showcase of the different styles of each featured comedian but instead, the few who actually tell the joke in its entirety usually do so in a self-conscious I'm-only-doing-this-coz-you're-making-me sort of way, which pretty much kills any joke. The film has its few moments but it's really not worth more than 2 out of 5.