Episode 61 – 'To the White Sea' Screenplays: Peoples v. Coen Brothers

Phi Phenomenon

Deliverance author James Dickey’s final novel, an intense and primal WWII story about a crashed Air Force gunner trying to make his way through the Tokyo firebombing north to Alaska, was published in 1993 and promptly given to top shelf screenplay attempts at this nearly dialogue-free story. The first was in 1996 by David and Janet Peoples, fresh off the critical and commercial hit 12 Monkeys, with David himself having solo won a Best Original Screenplay Oscar (Unforgiven) the year of the novel’s publication. The second was in a soon-to-be legendary adaptation from 1998 by the Coen Brothers, set to star Brad Pitt, follow up The Big Lebowski, and be their (then) most expensive film. On this episode, I’m joined again by writer/director Tyler Savage, as we discuss:

- the legendary status of the Coen Brothers’ version for its dialogue-free silence;
- how the Peoples’ version accomplishes the same non-verbal silent cinema;
- the Peoples’ uses of the intrinsically cinematic storytelling technique of the reversal;
- if either team felt trapped by their past of writing overt violence;
- how many of the elements of this elemental, task-oriented novel ended up in the Coens’ other literary adaptation, Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men.
- and if this movie will ever be made.

Also:

- the difference between how an accomplished screenwriter (team) who won’t direct writes versus
- how a writer/director team who might eventually direct writes;
- how to write visuals for a visual medium where the blueprints are in textblocks;
- if the screenplay format is really designed for making a good film or simply pleasing agents and gatekeepers;
- and my problems with the format (spoiler: the “play” part of the word screenplay).

Tyler Savage’s second directed-feature, Stalker, which he also co-wrote, will be released by Vertical Entertainment in the United Kingdom on May 21 and in the United States on June 18. He also wrote and directed Inheritance, along with associate producer credits on Song to Song, Knight of Cups, and Voyage of Time.

Both screenplay drafts are available to find with some judicious Googling. An adaptation of the book is still in development from Vertigo Entertainment. Dickey’s original novel is itself still in print and available everywhere.