The Secret Garden of Caroline Thompson

Q: I never heard a writer say that about a movie, ever. Not ever. Writers always hate it.

A: It was a dream. Can you imagine? It was the first time anything like that had ever happened to me--and there I was seeing the topiary, seeing the people based on people I knew...

Q: We won't say which people you know.

A: Well, Edward was me and Tim and mostly my dog, Ariel. Ariel because she could almost speak, almost participate, almost understand... she could almost be there but she couldn't because she was a dog--and Edward couldn't because he wasn't human.

Q: How's your writing partner Larry doing? What's he up to?

A: Larry's doing well. I guess I should do a rundown of all the things we've got going on. We've still got the Michael Jackson project at Columbia, it's called Midknight and the basic set-up is--well, imagine that when The Elephant Man is trapped in the bathroom and people are talking at him, about him, imagine that the guy actually got to kick ass then and there. It's kind of a Hunchback of Notre Dame sort of story. Actually, it's a really great script and I would guess that it will get made. I mean, Anton Furst was the executive pro¬ducer and he also did a lot of the designs--so obviously his recent death puts a kind of yawning gap in the momentum of the thing--but we're getting back to it now. Also, Larry and I are doing The Geek together. It's at Disney now, we're looking for a director, and they've already started some special effects research and it's moving along. I hope it's in production pretty close to when this article comes out.

Q: The Geek's the story about the guy who imagines he's a chicken? I've been wondering, did that idea come from raising chickens around here, or did you get the chickens later?

A: Actually, it's all based on a chicken I met in Mexico. When I got back, I got three chickens, and started working on the script at the same time.

Q: You named those chickens Fried, Baked and Broiled.

A: Right. Broiled is still with me, but Fried and Baked died. They were scared of the blowers used by the gardeners, and died of heart attacks. So now there's Broiled, and a newer chicken, whose name is Christine Chickenhands.

Q: What else are you working on?

A: Larry and I are doing a musical project, which he initiated, called Mai the Psychic Girl. It's based on a Japanese cartoon and, umm, Tim's supposed to direct that. Those are the ones we're doing together.

Q: What are you doing on your own?

A: Besides The Secret Garden, I've got Rouge, which is a ghost love story.

Q: Now, that's from some Chinese movie?

A: It's based on a Chinese movie called Rouge, but loosely. I wanted to set something here in Hollywood, in the '20s, when I wanted to be here. I've always wanted to tell a story set between 1918 and 1923, when women shed eight pounds of underwear. So it's about taking off your underwear and being able to start dancing. It's really about lingerie. I just turned in the first draft, and I'm praying and hoping that it moves forward for me to direct.

Q: Why do you want to direct?

A: Everyone wants to direct, don't they? Don't you?

Q: [laughing] Is that what you told them at the studio?

A: No, I told the studio, "My qualification for directing is that people seem to want to help me." I hope it works. Another project I'm doing is an adaptation of an Anthony Burgess novel called One Hand Clapping, with Jennifer Jason Leigh and Johnny Depp, and we're talking to directors about that.

Q: What's that about?

A: It's hard to explain. Burgess set it in London in the '60s, but I've set it in Burbank. Jennifer will play this really naive girl, and Johnny will be her dark genius of a husband. She's got this simple, sweet view of the world, and he tries to see the world through her eyes, but he can't. He goes on a game show and because he's got a photographic memory, he makes millions, and he takes her around the world to try and show her that every place is the same. She just wants to go home and have sardines on toast. He's trying to prove the futility of staying alive and proposes that they commit double suicide. She's so mortified by the suggestion that she hits him over the head with a frying pan and kills him. So, as always, the simple view of the world wins. And then, let's see, I'm going to adapt Black Beauty at Warners to write and direct. That'll be great, 14 months of horses--that sounds like paradise to me.

Q: I hope you still like them when you're done.

A: I know. Me too. Oh yes, there's also The Incredible Journey, which is coming out this summer, and I've written the animal voice-over for that. I'm learning a lot about animals from that.

Q: Didn't that change in some way?

A: Well, yes... I wrote the script three years ago and they brought in Linda Woolverton, the woman who did Beauty and the Beast, to do a rewrite. Then they shot it, and then they came back to me to do a final voice-over. It's really been fun; it's like writing a musical score. I'm writing dialogue to the finished picture on screen.

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