Ted Tally discusses ALEXANDER THE GREAT
October 4th, 2002
Ted Tally was interviewed by Fred Topel of About.Com and discussed ALEXANDER THE GREAT. Here's an excerpt:
On Alexander the Great, how closely does Baz Luhrmann work with you? We haven't really worked together yet. We've met and talked on the phone, but it's been so far more general. We haven't gotten down to nuts and bolts of the revisions yet.
What has he asked for told you? I think he's going to want more scenes of Alexander's childhood, but we haven't really gotten down to the details yet. He's agreed to do the movie and the studio greenlit it, but there's still script work to be done.
Are you the adaptation guy? I'm the adaptation guy now. I didn't used to be but I've sort of settled into that and I'm comfortable with that. I like to approach this as a craft and I'm happy with that. I find I can work more efficiently that way than if I'm trying to do original stuff. I can be more business-like. I have an assignment every day. I can finish a script in four months instead of tearing my hair out for a year. And I think adaptations tend to get made more often than original scripts.
Could you have done Alexander if there weren't books, and you just had to use history? Yes, I could have although it would have taken a year or two of research. I did the research anyway, but I had the template of this trilogy of novels to work from. Alexander is a story where there's enough there that I probably could have done that as an original. In a way, doing a historical subject is an adaptation. You've got the plot and the characters.
(To read the rest of the interview: http://actionadventure.about.com/library/weekly/2002/aa100302b.htm)
On Alexander the Great, how closely does Baz Luhrmann work with you? We haven't really worked together yet. We've met and talked on the phone, but it's been so far more general. We haven't gotten down to nuts and bolts of the revisions yet.
What has he asked for told you? I think he's going to want more scenes of Alexander's childhood, but we haven't really gotten down to the details yet. He's agreed to do the movie and the studio greenlit it, but there's still script work to be done.
Are you the adaptation guy? I'm the adaptation guy now. I didn't used to be but I've sort of settled into that and I'm comfortable with that. I like to approach this as a craft and I'm happy with that. I find I can work more efficiently that way than if I'm trying to do original stuff. I can be more business-like. I have an assignment every day. I can finish a script in four months instead of tearing my hair out for a year. And I think adaptations tend to get made more often than original scripts.
Could you have done Alexander if there weren't books, and you just had to use history? Yes, I could have although it would have taken a year or two of research. I did the research anyway, but I had the template of this trilogy of novels to work from. Alexander is a story where there's enough there that I probably could have done that as an original. In a way, doing a historical subject is an adaptation. You've got the plot and the characters.
(To read the rest of the interview: http://actionadventure.about.com/library/weekly/2002/aa100302b.htm)
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