World of Blue

On a related note, how awesome would it be if Lynch and Frost allowed the original draft to be published (along with annotations) as a pseudo-third volume of the Secret History/Final dossier series? I know the chances are incredibly slim, given Lynch's reluctance to comment on his works, but it would be amazing to see the original choices they made, and how they had to evolve when casting obstacles presented themselves.

I'm also of the mind that 'The Return' might have worked better in its original nine-hour form before Showtime increased the budget and episode number, and it would be interesting to see which scenes were added/padded for run time.

How did the FWWM shooting script get out in the open? I could see the season 3 script getting released but not until much longer down the line, especially if Frost&Lynch have plans for season4 cooking now.

I don’t think the script to TP:TR will ever leak because the only people who had it were L/F, Nevins and presumably Lynch’s inner circle (Sabrina Sutherland, Cori Glazer). Even Kyle didn’t get to keep a copy. None of those people will ever leak it. It’s a totally different situation from the original show and FWWM.

Lynch did allow the Lost Highway script tp be published, but even if he authorized a release of the TP:TR script, it would almost certainly be a post-shooting draft assembled by him and Cori Glazer. I just don’t see us ever getting a copy of the early drafts while Lynch is alive.

Mr. Reindeer wrote:I don’t think the script to TP:TR will ever leak because the only people who had it were L/F, Nevins and presumably Lynch’s inner circle (Sabrina Sutherland, Cori Glazer). Even Kyle didn’t get to keep a copy. None of those people will ever leak it. It’s a totally different situation from the original show and FWWM.

Lynch did allow the Lost Highway script tp be published, but even if he authorized a release of the TP:TR script, it would almost certainly be a post-shooting draft assembled by him and Cori Glazer. I just don’t see us ever getting a copy of the early drafts while Lynch is alive.

Sigh, I fear that you are right. If it wasn't illegal I would suggest a few of us meet at Showtime headquarters and try something like this.

I’m in!

I’d be interested to even know how many drafts there were, how many copies of each exist, etc. We know there was at least one full script that Nevins and Kyle saw (which could technically be the 15th draft...we don’t know if L/F bothered to formally label drafts during their many years of writing, but I’m guessing it was a more organic process). It sounds like later “drafts” may just have been a Frankenstein’s monster of new scenes DKL continued to stick in throughout preproduction and filming, and I wonder how coherent that document would even be without it being cleaned up for public consumption.

BTW, how many different page counts have we been given? Southerland says the draft Nevins saw was 334 pages in Room to Dream. The EW cover says 400, but I’m guessing that was rounding based on a comment someone made. Didn’t Mark and/or Nevins give a number at some point, or am I misremembering?

The finished screenplay was said to be 525 pages. I'm not sure if that refers to the total pages of the script on the day Lynch started filming in Sept 2015, or if it's the final count of the final shooting screenplay (at the conclusion of filming in April 2016).

I'd be curious what the original script entailed for the characters of performers who didn't appear in The Return. I assume that Frank Truman got most of Harry Truman's lines/scenes (with a few of them going to Hawk). And I read somewhere that The Evolution of the Arm was always the plan, but just with Michael J. Anderson's head atop it... But what was Lara Flynn Boyle supposed to be doing in the original script? A lot of people have speculated that Alicia Witt's character was filling in for Donna, but I always felt like Beverly Paige started out as Donna, then just turned into something else when LFB declined.

Cappy wrote:I'd be curious what the original script entailed for the characters of performers who didn't appear in The Return. I assume that Frank Truman got most of Harry Truman's lines/scenes (with a few of them going to Hawk). And I read somewhere that The Evolution of the Arm was always the plan, but just with Michael J. Anderson's head atop it... But what was Lara Flynn Boyle supposed to be doing in the original script? A lot of people have speculated that Alicia Witt's character was filling in for Donna, but I always felt like Beverly Paige started out as Donna, then just turned into something else when LFB declined.

I have a hard time seeing Donna Hayward suddenly falling in love with Benjamin Horne AKA her father. I would also put "The evolution of the Arm with MJA's head on top of it" in the very much a rumour department.

Mr. Reindeer wrote:I don’t think the script to TP:TR will ever leak because the only people who had it were L/F, Nevins and presumably Lynch’s inner circle (Sabrina Sutherland, Cori Glazer). Even Kyle didn’t get to keep a copy. None of those people will ever leak it. It’s a totally different situation from the original show and FWWM.

Lynch did allow the Lost Highway script tp be published, but even if he authorized a release of the TP:TR script, it would almost certainly be a post-shooting draft assembled by him and Cori Glazer. I just don’t see us ever getting a copy of the early drafts while Lynch is alive.

so that shooting script was leaked? I could have sworn it was released on davidlynch.com like the music archive. memory is always unreliable.

dreamshake wrote:

Mr. Reindeer wrote:I don’t think the script to TP:TR will ever leak because the only people who had it were L/F, Nevins and presumably Lynch’s inner circle (Sabrina Sutherland, Cori Glazer). Even Kyle didn’t get to keep a copy. None of those people will ever leak it. It’s a totally different situation from the original show and FWWM.

Lynch did allow the Lost Highway script tp be published, but even if he authorized a release of the TP:TR script, it would almost certainly be a post-shooting draft assembled by him and Cori Glazer. I just don’t see us ever getting a copy of the early drafts while Lynch is alive.

so that shooting script was leaked? I could have sworn it was released on davidlynch.com like the music archive. memory is always unreliable.

I think the scripts to all DKL’s features (except Eraserhead and INLAND EMPIRE) as well as all the TP episodes have found their way online through fans who bought them at auction or from a seller and then transcribed them. The only version of FWWM I’ve ever seen online says it was “typed by” so and so.

I found a xeroxed copy at the link below. definitely could have come from an auction.

https://cinephiliabeyond.org/twin-peaks-fire-walk-lynch-walking-back-burning-process/

eyeboogers wrote:

Cappy wrote:I have a hard time seeing Donna Hayward suddenly falling in love with Benjamin Horne AKA her father. I would also put "The evolution of the Arm with MJA's head on top of it" in the very much a rumour department.

Same. I imagine the idea for the tensions between Ben and his assistant only came up after LFB declined to appear, and Beverly was created to fill Donna's role and give Ben somebody to interact with in that office of his. Or I hope so, anyway.

James' love interest at the Roadhouse could've easily been Donna as well. I'm okay with James and Donna not being together, but I find it hard to believe they wouldn't have any sort of entanglement or interaction if they were both in the same town.

Cappy wrote:Same. I imagine the idea for the tensions between Ben and his assistant only came up after LFB declined to appear, and Beverly was created to fill Donna's role and give Ben somebody to interact with in that office of his. Or I hope so, anyway.

I have a somewhat different thought on this -- the role of Beverly the assistant was beefed up to a romance with Ben to make up for Audrey's changed storyline.

My thinking is there was always a beautiful assistant named Beverly, but she was a minor character. Basically she was there for Jerry Horne to ogle and establish that he's still a scoundrel but that Ben has changed his ways and is respectful towards his assistant. But that's about all we'd have seen of Beverly.

I suspect after Audrey gets attacked by Richard (in the original script), she visits her father at the hotel to seek his help and advice. While she's there in his office, he mentions the humming noise and Audrey hears it too. Then Audrey notices the key, Ben says it's strange how it showed up in the mail, and it's Audrey who realizes, "Daddy, that was Agent Cooper's room." Doesn't seem all that reasonable Ben would actually remember that room number, but we know Audrey would never forget. (I also bet maybe Audrey says something here like, "I still sometimes have bad dreams about Agent Cooper" or something... perhaps the only reference there would have been by Audrey to her recollection of the rape).

After changing Audrey's scenes to Charlie-world, she's not going to be able to be there for the Great Northern scenes so I imagine that's when Lynch had this new idea for Beverly to be a larger character, and a romance, and then he wrote new stuff with Ashley Judd in mind.

I kind of suspect that Lynch and Frost always knew, deep down, that Lara Flynn Boyle would decline the return. I bet they may have even just brainstormed an idea for Donna just to present to LFB to write later incase she agreed to participate, but my gut tells me they wouldn't have even bothered scripting much knowing she'd decline. If they worked too hard on a Donna idea, they might just fall in love with it, and why bother if they basically know LFB is gonna say no? That's my two cents.

That's a good point - I don't think anyone seriously expected LFB to return for Season 3.

Cappy wrote:That's a good point - I don't think anyone seriously expected LFB to return for Season 3.

I thought it was possible, Sherilyn Fenn turned down FWWM as well, also conquered some life challenges and returned.