Sam Esmail interviews Mark Frost

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AgentEcho
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Sam Esmail interviews Mark Frost

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Sam Esmail, the creator and director of Mr. Robot, interviews Mark Frost:

https://soundcloud.com/thetalkhouse/esmail-frost-320

This is as interesting as it sounds, well worth a listen. Frost is surprisingly forthcoming, he drops a lot of details about the creative process behind the return. Or at least I thought so.

Warning: they gush all over each other, but being a fan of both I don't mind.
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AgentEcho
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Re: Sam Esmail interviews Mark Frost

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I particularly liked the tidbit about Frost seeing 2001 and writing a 15 page letter to Kubrick which he never got a response to. I have a feeling some Twin Peaks fans can relate.
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Mr. Reindeer
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Re: Sam Esmail interviews Mark Frost

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Some good stuff:

They originally wrote the script with “chapter headings” that they knew might or might not line up with actual series hours, but DKL wanted to take the chapter headings out for the later drafts (like the one Showtime saw).

DKL wrote the “This is the water” speech himself on set. The script had the Woodsman speaking a mechanical clicking language (I believe TFD references this, and I found it rather odd. Wonder why Mark didn’t change this given that TFD was written after shooting ended?)

Mark at one point wanted to call the show “Twin Peaks: Dead Man’s Passage” (but with the subtitle in Spanish, named after a particular stretch of desert).

Mark seems to be under the impression that the only fan photos were from the TMZ article/“telescope” video. Shhh, no one tell him.
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AgentEcho
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Re: Sam Esmail interviews Mark Frost

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I'm guessing the stretch of desert is Jornada Del Muerto (Dead Man's Journey): https://www.desertusa.com/desert-trails ... uerto.html
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Panapaok
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Re: Sam Esmail interviews Mark Frost

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Great stuff.
This is - excuse me - a damn fine cup of coffee.
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Mr. Reindeer
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Re: Sam Esmail interviews Mark Frost

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AgentEcho wrote:I'm guessing the stretch of desert is Jornada Del Muerto (Dead Man's Journey): https://www.desertusa.com/desert-trails ... uerto.html
Good catch! Mark couldn’t remember the Spanish phrase. Jornada del Muerte is where Parsons and Hubbard conducted the Thelema ritual that is implied to have brought about the Roswell incident in TSHoTP.
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Re: Sam Esmail interviews Mark Frost

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My one complaint is that Mark hard-dodges Esmail’s question about the initial “way back in” idea he pitched to DKL that convinced them it was right to return to this world. Mark has been notoriously tight-lipped on this, despite bringing it up constantly.
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Re: Sam Esmail interviews Mark Frost

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Outstanding interview with some really great snippets.
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Re: Sam Esmail interviews Mark Frost

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Mr. Reindeer wrote:My one complaint is that Mark hard-dodges Esmail’s question about the initial “way back in” idea he pitched to DKL that convinced them it was right to return to this world. Mark has been notoriously tight-lipped on this, despite bringing it up constantly.
I'd guess his initial pitch reveals a lil too much? Kinda feels this is the case, which makes it all the more juicy.
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AgentEcho
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Re: Sam Esmail interviews Mark Frost

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Mr. Reindeer wrote:
AgentEcho wrote:I'm guessing the stretch of desert is Jornada Del Muerto (Dead Man's Journey): https://www.desertusa.com/desert-trails ... uerto.html
Good catch! Mark couldn’t remember the Spanish phrase. Jornada del Muerte is where Parsons and Hubbard conducted the Thelema ritual that is implied to have brought about the Roswell incident in TSHoTP.
Yeah when he mentioned it I definitely vaguely remembered something similar from TSHoTP, thanks for finding the specific reference.

I also tend to agree with SpookyDollhouse the "way back in" idea would be too much for Frost to reveal. Frost isn't quite as coy as Lynch when it comes to talking about the creative process, as this interview proves, but he can still be pretty elusive about these kinds of things. I was genuinely surprised he revealed as much as he did in this interview.
Last edited by AgentEcho on Sat Nov 18, 2017 6:15 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Sam Esmail interviews Mark Frost

Post by kitty666cats »

I suppose "I'll see you again in 25 years" is too obvious to be this "Way back in". Wonder what it could be. Judy? Though Frost wasn't involved in FWWM. Evil Cooper cliffhanger? Well that was already a given anyway... HMM
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Re: Sam Esmail interviews Mark Frost

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kitty666cats wrote:I suppose "I'll see you again in 25 years" is too obvious to be this "Way back in". Wonder what it could be. Judy? Though Frost wasn't involved in FWWM. Evil Cooper cliffhanger? Well that was already a given anyway... HMM
Yeh Frost has said that the doppel cliffhanger was a given, and both said they didn’t remember the “25 years” line until after they started tentatively thinking about doing the show and watched Episode 29 together...so it wasn’t that.
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Re: Sam Esmail interviews Mark Frost

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If I had to guess about the "way back in" based on some other things he's said, I'd guess he was interested in Cooper's Homerian journey back home and what he finds when he gets there (discovering that things have changed beyond recognition). I felt, though they've never said anything indicating this, that the audience was taken on a journey that echoed Cooper's.
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Re: Sam Esmail interviews Mark Frost

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Mr. Reindeer wrote:Some good stuff:

They originally wrote the script with “chapter headings” that they knew might or might not line up with actual series hours, but DKL wanted to take the chapter headings out for the later drafts (like the one Showtime saw).

DKL wrote the “This is the water” speech himself on set. The script had the Woodsman speaking a mechanical clicking language (I believe TFD references this, and I found it rather odd. Wonder why Mark didn’t change this given that TFD was written after shooting ended?)

Mark at one point wanted to call the show “Twin Peaks: Dead Man’s Passage” (but with the subtitle in Spanish, named after a particular stretch of desert).

Mark seems to be under the impression that the only fan photos were from the TMZ article/“telescope” video. Shhh, no one tell him.
I can't listen to it yet because I haven't read "Final Dossier". It's interesting that Lynch came up with the Woodsman's poem; I wondered whose work that was.
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AgentEcho
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Re: Sam Esmail interviews Mark Frost

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IcedOver wrote: I can't listen to it yet because I haven't read "Final Dossier". It's interesting that Lynch came up with the Woodsman's poem; I wondered whose work that was.
They don't talk about the book. I'd bet Sam Esmail hasn't read it.
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