The "ABCs of BBM": Round 965! (Rules in first post)

[Ellemeno]

"I feared the landscape on which the story rests would be lost, that sentimentality would creep in, that explicit sexual content would be watered down. None of that happened. The film is huge and powerful. I may  be the first writer in America to have a piece of writing make its way to the screen whole and entire."                                       

Annie Proulx, Five O'clock Tea

If the screenplay had not been so faithful to the short story, Annie'd have gotten, if not her gun, certainly her scathing pen.

[southendmd]

Larry and Diana were faithful to Annie's writing, and their additions were consistent and believable.

[memento]

Larry and Diana were faithful to Annie's writing, and their additions and changes were consistent and believable.

=aside= Paul
Thanks.

[Fran]

From AfterElton.com:

Here, McMurtry and Ossana discuss the film's auspicious beginnings....

AfterElton.com:  What initially attracted you to Proulx's short story?
Ossana:  "It was the writing and the feelings it gave me.  I think Larry felt the same way."
McMurtry:  "It was a great story of the West that hadn't been written.  We wanted to be part of bringing it to a wide audience."

AE:  Tell me about the seven-year process of trying to get this movie made, with several unsuccessful attempts at casting and landing a director.
McMurtry:  "Diana is very tenacious.  Once she starts something, she doesn't let it go."
Ossana (laughing):  "It's a blessing and a curse!  When I first read that story back in '97, it was instantaneous, pretty much, my sense of how powerful it was, that this is a great story that should be out in the world in a major, major way.  It had the power to touch many people.  You know how when you read a great piece of literature or see a film that really moves you?  You want to tell people about it. You want them to see and feel the same things you felt.  That's pretty much what I felt.  I had to just demand that (Larry) read it.  He doesn't read short fiction because …"
McMurtry (interrupting):  "I don't write it.  I can't write it, so I never have learned to read it, either."
Ossana:  "He read it, and he thought it was wonderful.  We optioned it from Annie and wrote our script.  I knew it would be difficult, but we believed in it so strongly, and the material was terrific.  We felt very lucky to be a part of it.  I don't know.  I couldn't let it go.  I guess I maybe became a little bit obsessed with it.  It was a struggle.  There were moments when I felt some discouragement or frustration, but I never lost belief in the potential of this.  Never, never.  Not once did I doubt it.  Larry, at one point said to me, 'This is a great script.  It will find it's way, Diana.'  And it did.  Maybe I was a little naïve at first.  I thought somebody's going to see that these are really great parts for actors.  This is something that will stretch their talents and challenge them.  I think they all saw that, but Larry's belief is that their agents or representatives just dissuaded them."

AE:  The story and the film are incredibly similar, but there are several key differences in scenes and in character development.  How did those changes come about?
McMurtry: "They were suggested by the story.  We just amplified various small, subtle suggestions from Annie and made them much larger."
Ossana:  "It might have been a single sentence that triggered it.  We scripted the story first, and it was only about a third of what the final script ended up to be. Because Annie suggested things -- she just makes a quick reference to the waitress, Cassie -- we felt she was important.  Here's another woman that Ennis has disappointed.  All of those things just sort of felt natural and added up, in our minds, to a pretty darn good script."

[southendmd]

Larry and Diana were able to greatly expand on Annie's lovely words.

=aside= Annie Proulx

Happy Birthday!

[memento]

"McMurtry and Ossana drafted a literal scene-for-scene, phrase-for-phrase rendition of "Brokeback." The 60-page result was too thin for a feature film, where the script-to-screen ratio typically tracks at about a minute per page.

Proulx suggested they develop some domestic scenes not found in the story, fleshing out the protagonists' wives and home lives. The resulting script was shopped around amid industry speculation that a "gay cowboy film" would never fly. Actor Joaquin Phoenix was keenly interested, and so was director Gus Van Sant. But Lee wound up helming the film, which stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal."   

William Porter, The Denver Post

=aside= Annie

[Fran]

Joey Guerra interviewed BBM screenwriters Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana.  The interview may be found at AfterElton.com.

=aside= Annie Proulx
Happy Birthday!  Were it not for your short story,
none of us would be here.

[Ellemeno]

The writers of the screenplay, as well as the Birthday Girl of Honor, are humans.


=aside=  Birthday Girl of Honor

[memento]

Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana gave many interviews about their screenplay, some of which included Afterelton.Com and Five O'clock Tea.

[Fran]

"I’m a straight female from the Midwest.  I read that story and was so floored by it — all I could imagine was seeing it as a film," says St. Louis–born Ossana of reading the short story that would eventually become "the gay cowboy movie" (quote not Ossana’s) which has been enjoying end-of-the-year awards and orgasmic critical reception.  Despite this acclaim, there is still a small amount of resistance from the public regarding seeing the film, presumably because it sounds like an issue film that should be targeted primarily at the gay audience.  However, the film’s distributor, Focus Features, is marketing the film very strongly to middle America, no matter how Red State conservative we may seem to the coasts.  When I asked Ossana about this marketing strategy, she was in full support.  "People in the middle of this country are, by and large, much smarter than they are given credit for, and they are also a lot more compassionate…  The tag 'gay cowboy movie' should not dissuade them from going to see the film.  In our minds, it’s like calling Lonesome Dove  'the story of a cattle drive.'"

-- Pete Timmermann, Playback:stl