OUT-OF-ORDER-PERCY (1982)

The first screenplay I was paid to write! For United Artists, the story of the British World War One deserter, who lead a mutiny in the ranks on the eve of Passchendale. UA decided not to commission a second draft: they said the script was "too English, too expensive, and too anti-war."

I didn't know it was possible to be too anti-war! The Percy Topliss story was later made into a TV film by the BBC, The Monacled Mutineer.

(acPDF11)

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THE HAPPY HOUR (1982)

Adrian Lyne was the British director of a successful American film, FOXES. He wanted his next film to be about the burning issue of the day: nuclear war, and the possibility that Reagan and Thatcher might be about to get us into one.

I went on a location scout of Seattle and Vancouver, and wrote the script out longhand on Amtrak and Via Rail trains - where it was stolen! I rewrote it from memory. But it might have been better to discard the whole thing and start afresh.

Adrian read it, and went off to direct FLASHDANCE, instead.

(acPDF12)

I wrote this script for Jonathan Wacks and Peter McCarthy. There were fourteen different drafts. It was originally about WMD/nuclear terrorism, ending with a Neutron Bomb either 1) blowing up in downtown LA or 2) being sold to rebels in Latin America. Near the end of the shoot, Wacks and Martin Turner, who was our stills photographer, invented an alternative, upbeat, like, spiritual ending.

Many of Harry Dean Stanton's dialogues came from the mouth of a real repo man, Mark Lewis. The characters of Otto and Duke, and the punk milieu, came from a script by Dick Rude and Brandt Reiter, Rubber Leathernecks.

79 pp. The .pdf version is accompanied by contemporary materials including a four-page cartoon featuring the characters of Otto, Bud, and the Rodriguez Brothers, and a copy of Edge City Productions' original REPO MAN investment portfolio - we were trying to get ten Marina Del Rey dentists to put up the budget, $70,000.

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MOPEDS TO MULEGE (1983)

Peter McCarthy and I met the head of New Line pictures, who told us exactly what he wanted in a picture: teenage boys, teenage girls, action, music, travel, etc - there were a number of specific requirements. Peter and I put our heads together and wrote this script about disaffected Downey youths, on mopeds, bound for adventure in the southern reaches of Baja California.

The script contained all the elements the New Line guy had said he wanted, in the order he had specified. Of course, they rejected it.

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WAR BABY (1984)

Mike Medavoy of Orion Pictures hired me to write and direct this. It's EASY RIDER set in 1984, as an antagonistic father-and-son-duo head south west out of Detroit, on massive motorbikes, to rescue mom from a Mexican jail.

I wanted Sy Richardson to play the dad, and Dick Rude to play the kid. Jon Davison was to produce it; Iggy Pop to do the score.

(acPDF15)

LOVE KILLS / SID & NANCY (1985)

Abbe Wool and I wrote this version of the Vicious/Spungen story, based on a series of interviews with their associates, in London and New York.

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MARS ATTACKS (1985)

As a boy I collected bubble gum cards depicting a particularly sadistic Martian invasion of Earth. The cards were banned, by order of the British parliament, but not before I had a set. In 1985 I proposed to Orion/Tristar a science-fiction feature based on the cards. I wrote three drafts over the next four years; then I was replaced by another writer, Martin Amis, after which the project was shelved.

Draft 1 is lost; Draft 2 has one page missing (pg 31 - it wasn't a good one), and is 86 pp; Draft 3 is 96 pp, and the .pdf also contains eight pages of notes from Orion's readers/excs, about that version.

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STRAIGHT TO HELL (1986)

Dick Rude and I wrote this at the Kensington Hotel, Santa Monica, CA, in four days. It was based on a Spaghetti Western we both admired, DJANGO KILL (SE SEI VIVO, SPARA), directed by Giulio Questi in 1967. All the characters were written for specific actors or musicians; the film had no casting director.

Also known as THE LEGEND OF PADDY GARCIA.

66pp, followed by long letter from Joe Strummer (written on one continuous piece of paper), detailing his doubts about the film and his proposal for re-shooting and restructuring it; the lyrics for his song "Dogtown," penned by Joe, and six snapshots of the film's protagonists - Joe, Courtney, Jennifer, Elvis, Cait, Sara. Happy days!

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ZERO TOLERANCE (1988, and later)

After WALKER, Rudy Wurlitzer and I collaborated on two screenplays, ZT and BODY PARTS. The scripts always changed enormously from draft to draft there were seven different drafts of ZT, an epic story about the Contra War, each with a different title. The alt. versions of ZT, are as follows:

ZT1. FEAR

aka COVERT ACTION, SEARCH & DESTROY, OUT OF CONTROL, EYE TO EYE, SAM GUNDY'S RANCH, and CONTRA BAND.

Written by Rudy and me in 1988, this was the first Tucson draft, with its hero Nick Cuzco, a cactus ranger, some mystery as to what is going on (the script assumes we know about the Nicaraguan situation & the Contras, and that rancher Sam Gundy is in the thick of it). Sam turns into a psychic floating pyramid at the end.

This is a pretty good script, though not a mainstream political thriller.

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ZT2. OUT OF CONTROL

Our first re-write, still starting in Tucson, which explains the war and propaganda aspects better, but has weaker relationships. Sam is killed, and Nick and Sam's wife Camilla escape with the big bucks on pg. 113.

ZT3. BONANZA!

Our second re-write, now a TREASURE OF SIERRA MADRE-style tale about emerald miners, set in South America. Sam Gundy, the Indian-murdering villain, makes miners Nick and Duke his slaves. Big House scenes with Mother Gundy are her best yet. More of Camila/Nick love story than before. Ends in the lost city of El Dorado on pg. 89.

ZT4. EASY STREET

Third re-write. More emerald minin'. Mother Gundy is much more prominent: "Murderin' and betrayal ain't the only ways to run a ranch!" Sam, in a red wig and sailor suit, eats chocs with mom on her bed. Camila plots Bigelow's murder with Sam, Sam's murder with Nick, and betrays Nick with the mercenary Briggs. Nick shoots Sam, is saved by Dolores and Duke, but loses the money. Defeated and cuckolded, on pg. 100, Duke finds "GOOOOLD!!!"

Around this time, Rudy and I hung a sign reading "Stay Out Of The Bunkhouse" above the old Remington Portable Typewriter. This was to warn us not to dwell on subsidiary characters, like Thornton, Ma Gundy, and Ames - the "Bunkhouse Brigade" as Rudy called them - and stick to the main story, which was still, at this stage, Sam vs. Nick, re. Camilla.

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ZT5. ZERO TOLERANCE (1988)

Fourth re-write. My favourite version! Camila Gundy and Nick Cuzco are no more. It moves fast (Sam rejects drug dealer Hector's overture on pg 8), and the political situation is clear. Sam, thoroughly deluded, reactionary and a slave to his dick, is a much more active and attractive hero than the colourless Nick was. He is kind to, and loved by, the Indians, while simultaneously wrecking their lives. His wedding scene - which turns into a negotiation with Ollie North/Steelhammer - is tremendous; his predicament - trying to balance cattle ranching and family with participation in the drug trade and the Contra war - is great.

In this draft - almost all Rudy's work! - Sam Gundy becomes a Real American Hero: without self-knowledge, defining himself through endless motion, committed to winning, hopelessly optimistic, triumphant in the end. Naturally, we offered the part to Dennis Hopper.

This is the second-longest draft, at 106 pp. It's followed with 12 pages of press material about US "ranchers" involved in the Contra War, including the sensational Hayes Affidavit (see ZT6, below).

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ZT6. ZERO TOLERANCE (1989)

Fifth re-write. After figuring out, in the previous draft, that Sam was the hero, Rudy and I suddenly lurch into a dual-protagonist narrative (we were trying to snag Richard Gere, who had read an earlier draft and thought the part of Bigelow was small). This version opens in West Berlin, before the Wall came down, with Bigelow foiling a terrorist kidnapping attempt. It's a not-buddy-movie: Sam and Bigelow rarely meet, dislike each other, and Sam kills Bigelow at the end. Gere decided not to do the film.

Sam goes to Washington, sees the White House in the midst of poverty, and repels an attack on his ranch. The new ending was inspired by the Christic Institute Affidavit of CIA and Mossad agent Robert M Hayes (12 May 1988). Hayes claimed that John Hull - one of our models for Sam Gundy - participated "in an aborted plot to bomb the US embassy in San Juan, Costa Rica, and to blame the bombing on agents of the Sandinista government" and - in the guise of "John Joseph Michaels" - asked Haynes to blow up the US consulate in Sao Paolo in 1976, so as to blame the Cubans.

This draft is 89pp, the last page consisting of the four words, "heading for the border." It's followed by 12 pages of additional material, including the Hayes

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ZT7. ZERO TOLERANCE (1993)

Sixth re-write. Fifteen pages of changes to the previous draft. The death of Worth Bigelow's father-in-law, the Admiral, sees him reassigned to Central America, with his wife, Connie. It's Bigelow, struggling to regain his desk job in Washington, DC, versus Sam Gundy in Costa Rica. This version calls the Sandinistas Sandinistas, and Nicaragua Nicaragua, for the first time; Rudy and I were after Danny Glover to play Sam, and some identikit movie star for Bigelow.

It too ends on pg 89, "heading for the border."

BACKTRACK (1989)

Co-written, with Tod Davies, based on various other scripts and a series of meetings with Dennis Hopper, the writers' favourite director! Dennis made some changes to the the script in production, including the addition of a scene where his character, a Mafia hit man, meets the ghost of D.H. Lawrence at a Hopi ceremony in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Lawrence's ghost is played by the co-author, Cox. Co-author Davies, who denies all responsibility for the scene, appears in the finished picture, as a Mafia hit woman. The film was re-cut and re-released as CATCHFIRE (minus the D.H. Lawrence episode!). Dennis' original version is still available, under the original title BACKTRACK.

Neither title has any relevance to the script.

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BODY PARTS (1989)

Co-written with Rudy. Tucson-based thriller about the town's last honest cop, Ditko, and his battle to bring down the powerful Col. Ames, whose celebrity-clean-up clinic hides a horrible secret: the trade in infant body parts for transplant purposes (the title gives it away).

This went into pre-production a couple of times, in offices based at the old Americana Motel. Lorenzo O'Brien was the producer, Rip Torn was to play Ditko; we were after Charlton Heston or Gregory Peck for Ames. But our American "partners" proved shakey , and after a couple of years the English cash went south as well.

The second draft is 106 pp, plus 12 pp of additional material, including the citations of some real Tucson DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) cops who were given a cash reward for importing 841 lbs of cocaine into the USA. Gary Webb presente!

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DR STRANGE (1989)

Co-written with Stan Lee, based on his Marvel Comics character. Doctor Strange was my favourite superhero, and his adversary Dormamu my preferred villain. Stan is a great writing partner. Starts in New York, goes to the Fourth Dimension, and ends on Easter Island, where Stan had always wanted a showdown.

Very old-fashioned. It was almost made by an LA company called Regency. But they distributed via Warner Bros, who were in a dispute with Marvel Comics over merchandising, and Warners nixed it. Probably too pagan to be made today.

94 pp.

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THE ASSHOLE (1990)

Co-written with Dick Rude. Sometimes known as MR NICE GUY. Faustian story of a malevolent pool hustler and his miserable world, which is transformed by his acquisition of a Magical Pool Cue. Dick in pre-pre-production, to direct.

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PAID IN FULL (1991)

Thriller about two hit men, hired to kill a human rights activist, in Almeria, Spain. I was about to send this out to actors, but Karl Braun read it and said, "Forget it; this one is shit." I respected his opinion.

GARBAGE (1991)

Science fiction comedy about waste disposal operatives in outer space, in the 25th century. How the hell was I going to get a superexpensive science fiction movie about rubbish made?

This went into the same drawer as PAID IN FULL.

BOUNTY JUMPERS (1991)

A Civil War drama, co-written with Dick Rude, because we were infuriated by a simple-minded, heroism-istic film called GLORY, released that year. We wanted to make an accurate story, set during the American Civil War, about "bounty jumpers" - criminals who enlisted in the Union Army and then deserted. Some people did this hundreds of times: it became such a problem that New Yorkers who enlisted were immediately put in chains, and marched to prison trains.

Paul Lewis was the producer, and our preferred cast was Sy Richardson as Ismael Goulding, Dick Rude as Wool, Ed Harris as Barger, and Willem Dafoe as Col. Belknap. But - as with OUT OF ORDER PERCY - there didn't seem to be a big market for anti-war films, especially in the style of Ambrose Bierce.

The script was re-written with a happier ending!

Draft 3 .pdf version is a writer's copy: scribbled with notes, with several maps of Civil War battles in the West, the route of the Overland Stage, etc. The script is 95 pp, and is accompanied by 34 pages of additional notes, synopses, etc.

Draft 5 .pdf is a clean copy of the final version, and with the happy ending. 107 pp, followed by two Western location snaps - one from Almeria, Spain, the other from La Joya, John Wayne's movie ranch in Durango, Mexico.

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DEATH & THE COMPASS (1992)

Based on the story by Borges. This script is a patch-together of two versions: the 55-minute one, which I shot for the BBC in 1991, and extra elements for the feature film, shot in 1992.

65 pp, plus 15 pp of notes, maps, memos, sketches and schedules.


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1963 1/2 (1992)

In 1992 Paul Mavrides was commissioned to illustrate a six-issue comic series depicting two competing sets of Alien Invaders, their involvement in the JFK assassination, and their battle for world dominance ever since.

Mavrides, Dick Rude and I wrote the script for the comic books (approx. 300 pages of text), and the feature script is based on them.

The protagonists are David Ferrie, the mysterious pilot, and a Japanese punkrocker, Yuki.

(the 300 page version still exists, but the 90 page executive summary is missing)

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THE ALEPH (1992)

The producers didn't have the rights, but, enthused, I wrote this feature version anyway. One of my better attempts! Perhaps one day my doppelganger will make it.

MAD LOVE (1993)

A version of the Frankenstein story, set in Chile, in Patagonia, and in the Antarctic. The Monster is the hero, wins the affections of Mrs Frankenstein, and kills the doctor.

RESTLESS (1994)

Co-written with Tod Davies. Bio-pic of Che Guevara, starting with the motorcycle ride though South America, and ending with the aftermath of his death. Intensely researched, but the French producers weren't happy. They wanted to see "the laughing Che". But all our research and interviews gave us this dour character.

Very like Richard Fleischer's film in its treatment of Castro!

99pp.

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MISSION TO MARS (1994)

Another science fiction script, co-written with Tod Davies for some very nice German producers. Not an inspired script. On the basis of GARBAGE and this, I would advise you not to hire me or Tod to write comic science fiction set in deep space. Unless you would like an adaptation of Harry Harrison's BILL THE GALACTIC HERO. That, I think we can manage.

WALDO'S HAWAIIAN HOLIDAY 1995

Earth-bound semi-sequal to REPO MAN, about a no-longer-young man who believes he has spent the last ten years on Mars.

The producers were Wacks and McCarthy, the cast included (briefly) Harry Dean Stanton, Emilio Estevez, Rebecca DeMornay, and Willem Dafoe. But, as is so often the case, the money was elusive.

To budget the film, I had to make a series of illustrations for the special effects department. These pictures - little paintings in acrylics - acccompany the script.

108 pp, followed by 12 pages of contemporary materials, and notes.


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FEAR & LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS (1996)

I was hired to write and direct this, by producers who were about to lose the rights to the book if they didn't immediately go into production.

Tod Davies wrote 98% of the adaptation while I was in Mexico City and Las Vegas - acting in PERDITA DURANGO. I was fired, and replaced by Terry Gilliam, who used our script. It took endless adjudications by the Writers Guild and interventions by the Directors Guild to get us credited and paid. Two submissions to the WGA, listing similarities between the shooting script and our adaptation, follow the screenplay, for those who enjoy a trip down masochism's memory lane.

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GOD HELPS THE BAD WHEN THEY OUTNUMBER THE GOOD (1997)

I wrote too many drafts of this - what was meant to be an action thriller about a tragic academic cast adrift in the Drug War in Northern Mexico, on the fringes of the Colosio assassination.

I wrote a version with a Japanese hero, for Masatoshe Nagase; and one for a English guy, to be played by Chris Eccleston. But it was too abstruse for either market and I called it a day with draft number seven.

GUILLOTINE SQUADRON (1998)

Mexican producers hired me to tranlsate Alejandro Lubeski's very funny script into English; then to write a new draft of it, also in English. It's the story of an anxious Spaniard, trying to avoid the draft and to sell a new, patented invention - the portable guillotine - to both sides, in the heat of the Mexican Revolution.

My adaptation of Alejandro's script matched the original at 130 pages, suggesting I am a better translator than I am an editor.

LIVERPOOL ROCKS (2000)

Romantic story set in the Pearl of the North, co-written by me and Tod Davies. We were trying to create a different picture of the city - a brighter, more colourful image, in the style of DO THE RIGHT THING.

Of course, there's the inevitable nuclear terrorism, kids forced to be chimney sweeps, and a rousing musical finale on the Mersey Ferry. But it would have been nice to see such a film get made, in a provincial city.

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KEITH MOON WAS HERE (2001)

Co-written by me and Tod for American and London-based producers. The life of Keith Moon, whose antagonist we decided should be Peter Sellers. Sellers first appears as a giant spider, then as himself, then as the gafe Harry Nillssen, in whose London apartment rock stars invariably die.

Supporting cast includes the other members of The Who, The Beatles, and Steve McQueen.

Of all the scripts the two of us wrote together, this is the best.

128 pp!


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HELLTOWN (2002)

CALLE X (2002)

Hay solo 90 minutos para salvar la vida de un bebe en manos satanicos. Y el heroe tiene mucho hambre...

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KAWASAKI KARAS TO GAKI (2003)

A retired superhero is forced to abandon his monastic life to save the kidnapped parents of a group of orphans. His ally is a studious kid, the Gaki. His adversary is the demonic Tuxton.

To star Tomorowo Taguchi (IRON MAN/TETSUO). The first part of the Tuxton Trilogy.

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ROPEWALK (2004)

THE WHITE DEVIL (2005)

Adapted from John Webster's play, for the Jacobeans project.

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SEARCHERS 2.0 (2006)

Two out-of-work actors, accompanied by a capable young woman, drive from Venice, CA, to Monument Valley, AZ, on an improbable quest for revenge.

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