MirrorMask
Tuesday, 29 July, 2003
If you know me well, you'll know that one of my favourite movies in the whole world is The Labyrinth. So you probably won't be too surprised at how excited I am about MirrorMask (check out the poster artwork!):
This is the film that we wrote last year, in early February, in the Henson family house in Hampstead, which was a little like being in 1979, as the house hadn't been changed in any way since Jim died.
And while it grew out of talks about Labyrinth, it's not a sequel in any way, shape or form. (I would have loved to have done a Labyrinth Sequel, but the rights are held by Hensons and Lucasfilms, and it became apparent that that wasn't going to happen. So we did something else instead.) (And it looks like I'll get my wish to do a Brian Froud film in another way entirely.)
Dave and I cowrote the script last year, but it's very much his vision and my dialogue. (And sometimes his dialogue.)
The current plan is that it's going to be straight-to-video/DVD unless Hensons decide to release it theatrically, which will depend on how the finished film looks. The budget is miniscule, and about 70% of the film will be made by Dave using the techniques he explored in The Week Before and Neon, where he creates worlds inside the computer that people move about in as though they are real.
It has sphinxes in it, and travelling books, and floating giants, also circuses, a door of keys, and a swamp that isn't there any more.
(From Nail Gaiman's journal.)
Blinks:
A way of funding writing in the future: pitch and idea and get people to support it.
Place where you can hire play equipment for parties, etc.
How to recalibrate the home button on your iPhone.
Unsolicited manuscripts accepted by Pan Macmillan with certain conditions.
Thought Balloon is a group blog in which the writers tackle a new theme every week? month? with one-page scripts. This URL is for their Phonogram ones.
How to sew a zipper on a knitted garment.
Issues organised by tale.
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I’ve never seen the Labyrinth, but I think I’ve heard it mentioned before. Is Billy Idol in it or something…you know, someone really 80s era…and male…or maybe I’ve got it wrong. I really want to see it now!
What is it with ‘The Labyrinth’? It seems like everyone else has seen it but me (and, apparently, Elsie).
I do know that David Bowie is in it, not Billy Idol (but it’s a pretty close guess). Anyway, is there some special appeal to ‘The Labyrinth’? Please, someone explain it to me!
I like it because it plays on the whole girl-enters-fantasyland genre much like The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland as well as the whole quest motif of self-sacrifice for the good of someone else. I like how she gives up her “dreams” for the sake of her brother and in turn matures and becomes wiser as the result of her journey. Brian Froud’s design work is amazing. The movie is full of quirky and interesting characters and beautiful sets. I’ve always wanted a ball dress like Sarah’s (though maybe without the puffed sleeves). The scene where she confronts the Goblin King (David Bowie) has, for me, often brought to mind our confrontations with the devil; he seeks to gain power over us but we in turn say to him, just as Sarah did, “You have no power over me.”