Fire Walk With Me early drafts

[LostInTheMovies]

Are there actually rare copies in circulation? I've seen people on old threads (particularly on Twin Peaks Gazette) talk about early deleted scenes - most notoriously the one in which Cooper comes in through Laura's window and has sex with her (!) and she says, "Why didn't you save me in time?" or something like that, but also maybe some stuff with Cooper investigating Deer Meadow. (I don't think I've heard reports of a draft that actually included the planet of creamed corn though, which always seems to be an idea discussed but never written down.) Are these just internet hoaxers or have early drafts been glimpsed from time to time? I'd be curious to hear anyone summarize the differences. Which I realize is an open invitation to pull my leg, but hey, April Fool's Day is over now...

[Odnetnin]

I am weirdly fascinated by the scene where Laura has sex with a pig's head that Sheryl Lee refused to shoot. Doubt that was in any draft of the script, though; sounds like one of Lynch's sui generis on-set ideas.

[fearltd]

Amidst all the excitement going on these days, I have always been incredibly interested in reading any early drafts. Especially with the 50's prologue Bob Engels has mentioned in a few interviews. I've also always wondered if characters like Audrey and Catharine were included early on. And of course it would be interesting to read how much of Desmond's dialogue and actions Cooper originally had.

I'm not sure if these were widely circulated or if anyone on here might have had or read a copy. I think I saw someone on a forum who said they read Richard Beymer's personal copy, if I recall correctly.

[dugpa]

I recall in an issue of Wrapped in Plastic they did a full breakdown of an early draft. Can't remember which one though. From memory it was a version with all of Chet's lines given to Cooper, Laura sees Cooper in her bed, much like Annie, and there was a scene with Catherine. No Audrey and no 50's prologue in the draft which was reviewed.

[LostInTheMovies]

Oh wow, cool - thanks! I wonder if John Thorne has any memories of reading the draft at this late date. And I really do need to invest in that backlog as soon as I'm able...

I'm guessing the creamed corn planet & 50s prologue stuff was maybe discussed but never written? Engels' memories of that time are so vague/slippery that it seems hard to tell.

[dugpa]

Correct. No planet of corn outside interviews with Engels.


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[OK,Bob]

Amidst all the excitement going on these days, I have always been incredibly interested in reading any early drafts. Especially with the 50's prologue Bob Engels has mentioned in a few interviews.

This is the first I'd heard of the 50's prologue. Calls to mind Mike's comment to Cooper that Bob had been among them "for nearly forty years." Curious...

[LostInTheMovies]

Amidst all the excitement going on these days, I have always been incredibly interested in reading any early drafts. Especially with the 50's prologue Bob Engels has mentioned in a few interviews.

This is the first I'd head of the 50's prologue. Calls to mind Mike's comment to Cooper that Bob had been among them "for nearly forty years." Curious...

Engels has talked about a prologue with the Eisenhower inauguration and everyone turning it off to watch I Love Lucy while bugs crawl under the formica table and somehow leads to Bob & Mike appearing under there or something (someone in one of these threads posted a wiki entry about formica, and how it's actually produced by insects apparently). For a long time, I thought this meant we would begin Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me with Eisenhower in Washington, D.C. stopping the celebrations to watch I Love Lucy in the White House. But then it occurred to me a more likely scenario would be that the family in Leland's house (perhaps the house up by Pearl Lakes) would be watching the inauguration on TV while little Leland wandered off and discovered the spirits under the table. Who the hell knows haha.

I'm guessing it & the creamed corn were discussed laughingly over some morning coffee for a few minutes one morning and we've been hearing about it ever since...

[MasterMastermind]

Actually that idea happening at Pearl Lakes sounds terrifying. Vintage Lynch.

[LostInTheMovies]

Actually that idea happening at Pearl Lakes sounds terrifying. Vintage Lynch.

Yeah, it does have a very Blue Velvet feel to it. Like instead of the toddler wandering over to where the dad is having a heart attack and then going under the grass to see all the bugs, the bugs swarm on little Leland or whatever and "possess" him. Yikes.

Of course, that would put the kibosh on the idea of Bob entering Leland because he was molested by a man named Robertson. Frankly, I've always wondered what Lynch thought of Leland's ambiguous backstory as shared in ep. 16. Or really anything that's said in that episode. He told Ray Wise about his death scene but that was because he had to be the bearer of bad news rather than Frost (since he was the more frequent director and, well, David Lynch whom all actors apparently adore as seen in the previous week's events). Did he play any part in the writing process after Maddy's death? I wonder, I wonder, I wonder...and will probably never know.

[MasterMastermind]

I imagine he at least spoke with Mark Frost about it, personally.

[MysteryMan]

I have all the issues of Wrapped In Plastic, and I quickly flipped through them this weekend to see if I could find the article with the comparison of the FWWM scripts... Sadly, I could not find it. If anyone knows and could tell me which issue it is I would be really grateful!

[BlackMoonLilith]

Of course, that would put the kibosh on the idea of Bob entering Leland because he was molested by a man named Robertson. Frankly, I've always wondered what Lynch thought of Leland's ambiguous backstory as shared in ep. 16.

I've never liked it to be honest. At its best, the series used supernatural elements as a metaphor for the all too real truth of what happened to people like Laura, but in this case Leland meeting BOB when he was young is a clear metaphor for being abused when one's a child and then becoming an abuser themselves. And that's... really problematic. It's an incredibly COMMON idea in fiction, but it's largely a disproved notion that this happens. I mean, I'm sure it does in most cases, but what we know now that we didn't in the 1990s is that most people who are molested don't become molesters and most people who molest weren't molested themselves, similar to how fiction often shows the mentally ill committing violence against the sane when most violence associated with the mentally ill in real life is violence being done TO them by the sane.

There's a great comic I recommend named Something Terrible by Dean Trippe. http://www.tencentticker.com/somethingterrible/ It's written and drawn by a man who was sexually abused when he was a child, and throughout the comic he's shown with a phantom gun to his head symbolizing that if he ever started to have sexually feelings towards his own son, he would kill himself before that would happen. He eventually learns what I just said, that it ISN'T a common occurrence. And it's TV shows constantly repeating this myth ("Cycle of abuse!") that harmed him psychologically and made him assume that since someone touched him, he must one day turn into a monster.

So yeah, personally, the idea that Leland was molested as a child is one of my least favorite aspects of it and IMO dates the show pretty clearly. Luckily, it is pretty ambiguous and never outright connected to Leland's own sexual abuse of his daughter.

[FauxOwl]

Interesting food for thought, BlackMoonLilith. The series opened up a can of worms that the writing staff was not prepared to handle with the Father-Daughter rape scenario that FWWM went some ways to rectify, but not without lingering issues. Without delving into the implications of the "cycle of abuse" myth that you've deconstructed here, I'd been thinking of the possibility that "Robertson" was a man who looked like Frank Silva in the 1950's and BOB took his form... this purely out of the narrative necessity of BOB taking on a new form since Silva passed, with the form of Leland being a seemingly fitting candidate. This would be a nice fit from a purely mythological perspective, as BOB continually takes the form of his prior host (we'll have to ignore that it wasn't Leland staring back at Cooper in the cracked mirror). BOB as a possessing spirit makes for a good story, but when you throw in the sexual abuse, it treads dangerously close to absolving the abuser of culpability unless viewed strictly as a metaphor for the evil within. Whatever the case may be, I hope if Frost and Lynch plan to delve deeper into this part of the BOB mythology, they are better prepared to handle it than the writing staff in season 2.

[N. Needleman]

I liked the Robertson myth. And I like not knowing what was real and what wasn't. It's fodder for so much imagination. But I do believe Leland was also molested. I believe his version of the story is at least semi-true, and somewhat addled by BOB. I don't know that I think Mr. Robertson (or whoever he was - BOB may have made that name up and had Leland use it for the actual abuser) looked anything like BOB, though. I think suggesting BOB assumed an actual person's visage demeans his evil.