True, I think that's probably why I find the original first season and Fire Walk With Me to be the best because they offer the whole Twin Peaks experience with very little time. Anyway, a mid 90s Twin Peaks sequel (let's say 1994) would be interesting.@Time Enough, I think there is at least one person who would prefer all of The Return condensed into a film that got released in the mid-90s. A lack of brevity has always been the enemy of Twin Peaks. It's interesting some different directions they might take it in with a lot of the cast still alive, would Don S. Davis have a major role as Major Briggs (geddit!) for instance.
By now the Twin Peaks pop culture impact would have been softened,X-Files is on TV now and so that would divert the attention a bit but still. Anyway it'd be interesting seeing who comes back and who doesn't. We would probably have Don S.Davis, Catherine Coulson, Sheryl Lee and Jack Nance making some form of appearance (and given how the Return had Don S. Davis have a major role it wouldn't surprise me). But also it wouldn't surprise me if folks like Lara Flynn Boyle don't bother coming back (maybe we get more of Moria Kelly as Donna?).
Also I wonder if it would be two films shot at the same time, like Kill Bill and then cut in half by a producer. Hmm, a lot to think about.
Yeah it would be a shame for no Denise (though it wouldn't surprise me if they would just replace Denise with another actor, it wouldn't surprise me).The fact The X-Files is on the air may preclude David Duchovny from appearing in the film, but given its truncated nature as compared with The Return may be no space for Denise anyway.
Yeah, given how getting a Twin Peaks sequel would probably require a successful Fire Walk With Me, I'm imagining that it manages to make a small profit (not impossible). So the sequels come out, and bomb bad (probably a similar editing/producer job to Fire Walk With Me occurs). So Lynch is probably out of the filmmaking game for a bit (a good reminder that the gap between FWWM and when Lost Highway begins filming is about three years). Also in terms of a Directors cut, given how David Lynch often makes four hour long films before cutting, it wouldn't surprise me if the Director Cut was about that much.More likely they butcher it and it subsequently bombs worse than Fire Walk With Me, maybe Lynch even goes Alan Smithee depending on how far they go. The director's cut DVD will fly off the shelves though when those become vogue... and the cycle begins again.
I love that idea! I wonder how that would leak down through popular culture, in particular. Would it influence our sayings, say in the way that Star Wars or Star Trek did--but as the equivalent of apotheosis for traditional animation?I had a thought a while back about a vignette where Richard Williams gets different funding and finally completes The Thief and the Cobbler in about 1999 with it ending up being viewed as a critical success, a cult classic and a sort of last hurrah for traditional animation even at the time of release.
I love that idea! I wonder how that would leak down through popular culture, in particular. Would it influence our sayings, say in the way that Star Wars or Star Trek did--but as the equivalent of apotheosis for traditional animation?
Speaking of Spielberg,it would have been interesting to see him accomplish making the live action adaption The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn that he wanted to make in the Eighties,with Jack Nicholson apparently being considered for Captain Haddock.What are some of your favourite films that were never made?
For me the one that always comes to mind is Steven Spielberg 's Night Skies. Was intended as his follow up to Close Encounters of the Third Kind but eventually he took a step back and would only produce. John Sayles, fresh of Piranha, was brought in to script with Tobe Hooper being touted as director. Rick Baker designed the alien villains of the piece at the same time he was working on An American Werewolf in London. Whilst filming Raiders of the Lost Ark Spielberg began to think it was too dark and he read it to screenwriter Melissa Mathison, who latched on to one particular aspect of the screenplay and soon Spielberg abandoned it to begin developing what became E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial with Mathison.
The reason I like this so much is some of the names already associated with it at the development stage but also how much elements of the planned film would go on to inform a lot of films I loved in the following years including Poltergeist (the terrorised family and Tobe Hooper directing*), Gremlins (with the one good member of a group of malicious creatures), and Critters, which may be the closest approximation of Night Skies we got.
What are some of your favourite films that were never made?
For me the one that always comes to mind is Steven Spielberg's Night Skies. Was intended as his follow up to Close Encounters of the Third Kind but eventually he took a step back and would only produce. John Sayles, fresh of Piranha, was brought in to script with Tobe Hooper being touted as director. Rick Baker designed the alien villains of the piece at the same time he was working on An American Werewolf in London. Whilst filming Raiders of the Lost Ark Spielberg began to think it was too dark and he read it to screenwriter Melissa Mathison, who latched on to one particular aspect of the screenplay and soon Spielberg abandoned it to begin developing what became E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial with Mathison.
The reason I like this so much is some of the names already associated with it at the development stage but also how much elements of the planned film would go on to inform a lot of films I loved in the following years including Poltergeist (the terrorised family and Tobe Hooper directing*), Gremlins (with the one good member of a group of malicious creatures), and Critters, which may be the closest approximation of Night Skies we got.
Was going to post these later near to WrestleMania weekend, but might as well post them now...
Grab Bag of US Pro Wrestling PODs
- WrestleMania a Flop? - Acknowledged years later as the biggest gamble he ever took, what if the event Vince McMahon had invested a good deal of his own fortune in had failed? There were talent problems - Mr. T drew a lot of heat backstage and might have no showed, Roddy Piper was also reluctant to sign a contract until the week before. It was dependent upon a lot of cross-promotions - MTV had run a few prior shows setting up the event and was quickly asking McMahon for money for a continued relationship, Hogan and T hosting SNL did a lot to drive up walk-in ticket sales. Then there's the possibility of the satellite feed going down, localised issues were see in cities like Pittsburgh and could have been a lot more widespread. What it failed to get off the ground or worse the WWF was forced to issue massive refunds? McMahon has perhaps exaggerated since just how much of his own money was at stake but it's certainly possible he takes enough of a black eye to sell it back to his fathers original partners, keeping it contained within New York and abandoning plans for nationwide expansion.
- Successful 80s Alternative to WWF? - What if any of the attempts to challenge the dominance of the WWF during the 1980s had been successful to any degree? A proposed merger between Verne Gagne's AWA in Minnesota, Jerry Jarrett/Jerry Lawler's Memphis based CWA, and the Von Erich run WCCW out of Texas failed due to acrimony between the promoters. Bill Watts tried to take Mid South national as the Universal Wrestling Federation (because the Universe is bigger than the World, geddit!) after already missing out on a deal with TBS but still wasn't able to cut it and sold the promotion to Jim Crockett. Crockett might have come closest with JCP, but after the WWF aired free programming opposite two of their PPVs threatening providers if they aired the competition they would miss out on WrestleMania he was forced to sell the promotion to Turner. Was their too much acrimony for the old territories to unify and present an alternative without a corporate backer like Turner? Perhaps, but what if as @neonduke proposed earlier Mid South gets the TBS slot and later buys out WCCW, JCP and perhaps even CWA and AWA?
The most interesting prospect to me is that either Verne doesn't make his ludicrous demands of Hogan and makes him the champ. Vince notoriously loathes the idea of anyone getting over outside WWE (why else does Sting get booked to lose his first ever Wrestlemania appearance?) and WWE takes loads of credit for making Hulkamania a thing, but Hogan was already doing it in Minnesota. He was getting huge pops for the AWA and he was actually pioneering modern wrestling merchandising by printing up T-shirts and selling them out of the boot of his car after matches. WWF was getting a ready-made star when they got him.
Let's suppose Hogan stays with the AWA in the 1980s and doesn't skip town with their title belt and show up with it on Vince's television show (which is one of the things Verne was afraid would happen if he put the belt on Hogan), and eventually hands over to Curt Hennig in 1987 or 1988. Where does that leave Vince? He still wants to go national but he needs a star to build his big push behind, someone who can be the invincible all-American superhero and inspiration to children. Who does he get? Well, there are two serious options, both of whom we know from other testimony Vince would have gone with if he couldn't get the Hulkster. One of them is someone who was already a big name and one who could only get bigger. Better yet, he was already a WWF stalwart.
"Superfly" Jimmy Snuka.
You can see the potential problem, I'm sure. If he still ends up implicated in the death of Nancy Argentino, that's a huge PR disaster for Vince, especially if he tries to cover it up as many have alleged happened in real life. Snuka's drug habit makes him unreliable anyway. So maybe Vince turns to his other choice.
Kerry Von Erich.
Now, I think Kerry is a better call than Snuka for this job. He's a handsome guy, proven hit with kids and women, respected athlete, good in the ring, massively over already in the south, which would be useful if Vince has to compete with the NWA. He's from a hugely respected wrestling family whose name is virtually synonymous with the sport in their part of the country. He's also got that wholesome, family-friendly, all-American Christian boy image. Seems like the total package. Unfortunately, Kerry is, if anything, an even bigger pill head than Snuka was. His own dad started him on steroids when he was 15 years old. He could deliver in the ring but it could be a challenge getting him to show up; all of the Von Erich boys were pretty fickle about appearing for spot shows they'd been booked for if they were high or didn't feel like it. Even when he did appear, he could be erratic. One of his matches with Flair had been planned out and then he admitted that he'd forgotten it just before they went out because he was so stoned and Flair had to improvise it for both of them. Then there's the way his family covered up for his brushes with the law; he was once caught trying to smuggle drugs over from Mexico and his dad and his brothers all claimed that they were planted by the Fabulous Freebirds! If he's the top guy at the WWF, with so much more money and so many more temptations, who knows what happens?
It makes for interesting speculation. The only other option I can see is André the Giant and there's no way André is going to be able to work a Hogan schedule in the 1980s.
Interesting ideas, I'll agree Kerry is the better call than Snuka but how does Junior pry him away from Daddy Fritz down South? When it come to Hogan and the AWA Vince just poached him and whatever talent he wanted, but I can't see Kerry departing WCCW in the same manner. Similarly I can't see Fritz agreeing to sell up for a cushy package. New York could actually get a lot of great talent if he had plundered Dallas as much as he did Minneapolis OTL, but the Von Erich boys might be forever beyond Vince's reach so long as Fritz wanted to remain independent. It's interesting to imagine though some of the scandals that would rock WCCW happening to WWF at the time of their national expansion and promotion of prayers and vitamins. In some ways Hogan was the only option.
The idea of Hogan staying in AWA is worthy of speculation itself, if Gagne's promotion is able to stay afloat it might do better at holding on to a lot of the talent that would go WWF throughout the 1980s including Wendi Richter and Jesse Ventura then later the future Razor Roman, Midnight Rockers, Vader and Alundra Blayze.
Still, it's interesting to speculate: if not Hogan, then who? Savage or Steamboat might be possibilities. Bret Hart is still too young.
Can easily imagine AWA lasting into the 2000s basically having Lesnar as champion for like a decade, because the AWA schedule - the way they did their shows on a seasonal basis - was basically the schedule Lesnar works for WWE in 2019/2020.
An interesting idea, it's always fun to speculate at how things might have gone if AWA or any of the Southern promotions were able to retain their independence until the 21st Century.