Genre: Fantasy/Adventure.
Studio:
Unknown.
Production Company:
Touchstone Pictures.
Project Phase: Development Hell.
Who's In It:
Unknown.
Who's Making It:
Dean Devlin (Screenwriter)?; Tom Jacobson (Producer);
Greg Weisman, Michael Reaves (Co-Producers); based upon the Disney
animated series Gargoyles.
Premise: A stone gargoyle awakens in the late twentieth century and confronts Mankind.
Release Date: Unknown.
Comments: Dean Devlin is hot in 1996. This makes it the fourth announced feature project for Devlin after his ID4 mega-success.
Rumors: Unknown.
Scoop Feedback:
July 9, 1996... Dean Devlin, the producer and co-writer of 1996's highest-grossing film Independence Day has agreed to write the script for a live-action version of the television cartoon series Gargoyles. Devlin's friend and co-writer of ID4, director Roland Emmerich, has first-refusal rights to direct the project. Devlin plans to hand in the first draft in October. Quoted in Daily Variety, Devlin said that the film will act as a sort of prequel, focusing upon one solitary gargoyle awakening after one hundred years of stone sleep in the midst of New York City's coldest winter ever. [Scoop reported by Cory.] December 16, 1996... This person tells us that the show is set to begin production next month with none other than Jean-Claude Van Damme in the lead role. The 'close personal friend' also reports that the film should be released about a year later, sometime in January 1998. [Scoop sent in by Michael Webster.]
January 12, 1997... While attending a Star Trek convention in November '96, the man who supplies one of the villains' voices for the cartoon series, Jonathan Frakes, said that Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner and himself are going to be in the live action Gargoyles in one form or another. Frakes didn't elaborate further. [Scoop supplied by April 16, 1997... Sent to us by one or perhaps many Gargoyles aficianados, this is a repost of a message from Greg Weisman, creator of the Gargoyles animated series and co-producer of the feature film. We'll let Mr. Weisman do the talking:
"I'm relatively new to the internet, but I've just been appalled by the way people clearly start rumors based on nothing with the explicit purpose, to my thinking, of misleading dedicated fans. Does this make them feel superior? Why aren't they ever called to account for it?
"For example, who started the Jean-Claude VanDamme rumor? Ask yourself where you first saw it. Track down who told you. Ask that person who told him or her. When you find the guy or gal who first stated that Mr. Van Damme was going to be in the GARGOYLES live-action movie, mark him down on some kind of list as untrustworthy."
(We're behind you 100% on this one Greg. That's why we're here. We post rumors under the rumors section. It's unclear as to whether or not the answer from Weisman was directly due to the J-CVD rumor posted on the CA page. If so, we'd like to point out for the record that it is under the rumor section. For those of you who aren't aware of the film pages layouts, anything above the 'Rumors' section can be taken as the truth (as it is known at the moment). Anything below 'Rumors' are preciesly just that. Anyway, whoever sent us the Van Damme rumor may be in the know - have you seen Double Team? He can act pretty stone-faced.)
"Anyway, here's what's going on with the Live-Action Feature, in development at Touchstone Pictures, as of 4-10-97.
"There are NO ACTORS attached. NONE. Not Jean-Claude. Not Jonathan Frakes or Marina Sirtis or anyone. Not one. It's way too soon.
"Tom Jacobson is the producer. Dean Devlin is the writer. They are the only two people currently attached to the project. The only ones. (Besides Michael and myself, in our minor roles as co-producers.)
"The script is supposed to come in from Dean by the end of this month. GOLIATH is the lead character. Other gargoyles will appear but this is basically Goliath's movie. Saying anything else before the first draft is even completed is folly. If someone claims to know more, and he or she isn't Dean Devlin, then I'd take the info with a boulder of salt."
Sounds like good advice. You should be able to check out the full response at 'http://the-edge.humberc.on.ca/~station8/gargoyles/askgreg/response.html'.
[Thanks to the 'amazar', 'leva', 'station8', 'Goliath' and the many (or one) anonymous letter writer(s) who took the time to submit this information. Sorry Jean-Claude...perhaps you could try out for the Scooby Doo movie?]
September 23, 1997... This scooper tells us Dean Devlin has been fired from the project and replaced with Scott Rosenberg (Con Air). They also report Goliath will be the central character and Elisa will also be in it. [Scooped by 'amazar'.]
November 22, 1998... Interested in hearing what this scooper thought of Dean Devlin's script of Gargoyles? Sure you are; why else are you surfing this page, right?
"I've followed this page from the get-go, and now I've finally decided to share my views on Devlin's script, which I read almost a year ago.
"Let's put it this way: I think both ID4 and Godzilla were execrable. The type of stuff that makes true movie-lover's bladders loosen and gives the likes of Woody Allen heart attacks.
"But Gargoyles, written in a sort of John-Hughes-meets-an-action-film mode, is much, much worse.
"This thing is so preposterous, so inane, so stupid... I wouldn't even know where to start. Even bad scripts have ONE good moment. This has NONE. Nothing. It's a total bore and a complete embarrassment. Someone here said Scott Rosenberg is rewriting it. I'm all for that. I'd like some of his Bad Moon Rising dialogue to permeate this script. And maybe he'd give it some BALLS, which this film is severely lacking... as well as a brain.
"The story -- for those who care -- is this: A grotesque granite gargoyle is brought to New York by a rich architect to sit atop a perch on his favorite building. Since the thing is lifted above the clouds, its spell -- placed there by a queen long, long ago -- is lifted. The gargoyle is then awakened, accidentally, by a young boy, and the gargoyle -- Goliath (so named by the kid -- after he thought better of 'Arnold') -- assumes him to be a prince and his mother a queen.
"The cliches run rampant here: We have a group of kids picking on our shy, loner young boy (only to be saved by the Gargoyle); we have a gang of thugs trying to mug our group of characters on a train -- though there's no reason in hell that they should even BE on this train (only to be saved by the gargoyle); we have the single mother who is not ready to date and the guy that keeps trying for a date (unsuccessfully) and the flashback scenes where we see that the husband was killed during a mugging.
"What's most bizarre is how this thing becomes something close to a Disney Christmas special in the end. You see... this is yet another script involving the millenium and how evil will take over the world when we reach 2000. The main bad guy in the film has shown Goliath that he's not needed in this world. So Goliath sits back as the 'evil spirits and zombie army' takes over the city. And what gets him back into the fight?
"Seeing people come out for the annual New Year's party at Time Square even though it was cancelled because of the weather (as if this would happen!).
"Dean COULDN'T have thought this worked. There's even long speeches about how the world is a really good place and that we can pull together.
"Watch those Italian loafers, I'm going to vomit.
"My friends and I keep this script around for when we need a good laugh. All we have to do is randomly pick a piece of dialogue and we're in stitches. I also suggest this script for any of the unproduced screenwriters out there. One look at this and you'll have a renewed confidence you didn't think imaginable."
OK, so the $64,000 question is: if there's just one gargoyle in Devlin's script, why is it called Gargoyles??
[It looks like 'anonymous' won't be getting their invote to Centropolis' Christmas party.]
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