CaptainHowdy.com The #1 Exorcist Fansite Since 1999
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Any word if Beginning paperback will be worth anything down the road as a collector’s item? I got mine at Borders, which I believe only took on three copies…
I doubt it. I can find the ETB novel in pretty much every book store, and it is all over eBay.
Still prefer the Dominion novel over both prequels (movies) and ETB novel.
Justy, you prefer the novel over the film? 😛
I can see how both book and film are wonderful (each get better and better), but the book being better or preferred? Please explain yourself, my good man. I AM intrigued. 🙂
M.I.K.E.
Ps. Justy, our signed copies of the E:TB novel, THOSE may be worth something! 😉
Good point, but then tell me this — which in your mind is the better of the two:
The 1973 Friedkin film or the 1971 Blatty novel? TRICKY, huh! :p The novel? 😉
In the case the original ‘Exorcist’, for me, it’s a tie… Just as with Dominion here.
Like Piziks says above, to paraphrase, “I can’t pick a favorite”.
M.I.K.E.
Thanks, guys for your comments. I must be way out of the loop – I was unaware that there was a novelization of Dominion. Is this a standard paperback that was widely distributed…? I never saw it at Borders…
It was never released, but a copy did find its way onto eBay and then to a few select people 😛 The Dominion script (not the original draft) was also on eBay but it seems no one from here managed to get it.
You can email for “more info” if you like. pazuzuwithteeth[at]hotmail.com 😉
I remember that i won the filmtitle contest on Bloodynews.com with the name Desperately Seeking Satan and went under the name Cannibal. Never got the movies though.
This was posted several months before Paul Schrader’s film was resurrected, before it got the name “Dominion”, back when I went by “Deathrage”. 😛
BloodyNews: “BEWARE: SPOILERS MAY ABOUND, NEWSIES! Anyway, welcome to BloodyNews.com, Steven. Great to have you here today. It’s an honor, believe it or not.”
Steven Piziks: “Thanks!”
BN: “Well, let’s begin…Would you call yourself a horror fan, an ‘EXORCIST’ fan? You hail from a science fiction background, and I must say that when I first learned of this — your joining the E:TB phenomenon – I wondered what you’d turn in – especially when it happened that you’d be going back to the word-processor for a second stab at this story.”
SP: “I hadn’t seen the movie The Exorcist since I was . . . I must have been eleven or twelve years old, and it was probably on what would now be considered a very primitive VCR. I also can’t imagine my parents letting me watch it, so I must have seen it at a friend’s house. I do remember that it scared the bejabbers out of me. We had an attic just like they had in Regan’s house, and I was scared of it when I was little, so I identified there!
“I’m a much bigger fan of horror-through-suspense than horror-through-grossness, so The Exorcist fit what I liked. When I got the contract offer for the Exorcist: the Beginning, I went out and read the book, then rented the re-imaged movie. I enjoyed the movie, and there were a lot of things I had forgotten that I was glad to see again.”
BN: “When you’d initially read the Caleb Carr script for what became the “Schrader versionâ€, tell me, what ran through your mind, given your new, certainly daunting assignment – to novelize the script of the NEW Exorcist film – a prequel…? And then for the Alexi Hawley “Harlin†script – what were your thoughts, attitudes?”
SP: “It was daunting, all right! The original book and movie have become cultural icons. Everyone’s heard of The Exorcist, even if they haven’t seen the show or read the novel. Everyone knows about Regan’s head turning around and the vomiting. Everyone knows about the crucifix masturbation scene. It made me a little nervous, since there’d be a lot to live up to. I remember looking at the cover of the first screenplay and thinking, ‘Okay, here we go.’
“I also didn’t realize how many Exorcist fans were out there! When I started researching, I was amazed at the sheer numbers. I had no idea!”
BN: “Did you do any researching of the ‘Exorcist’ films or novels to get into and prepare yourself for this literary world first created by Blatty and Friedkin, now continued – PREQUELED – thanks to Carr & Schrader and Hawley & Harlin, respectively? Did you bother for either version? The content of Blatty’s ‘Exorcist’ work, in text or moving pictures, to me, are outstanding as narratives go, and I was really pleased with the imagination you leant to those two scripts.”
SP: “Writers live and die by research. I researched and researched and researched. Thank god for the Internet, or I never would have pulled it off. As I said, I read the novel and re-watched the film, then went back and re-re-watched and re-re-read the scenes with Father Merrin in them, since he’s the focus of the movie. And that was just the beginning . . .
“The movie and book are set in Kenya, Africa in 1947. I knew little about Kenya, period, let alone post-World War II Kenya. I had to find out what languages they spoke, the names of the tribes, some basic customs, living conditions, what the people ate, how they dressed, and more. And since one of the characters is a doctor, I had to research medical practices and 1940s medical technology. What was an IV tube made of in 1947, for example? Did they have vasodilators to treat shock victims with? If so, would a doctor in backwoods Africa have them? None of this stuff was in the screenplay—it’s the properties master’s job and the set decorator’s job to look these things up, not the screenwriter’s—which meant I had to find the information on my own. I worked a lot of Kenyan history into the plot of the novel because I liked it, and the producers at Morgan Creek said they loved what I put in. So that was cool.
“And after that, I had to research the Byzantine empire. How did magic work in their society? Who was the Emperor and how did he rule? What did the buildings look like? This last was key—there’s a Byzantine church in the movie, and I had to describe it. Lucky for me I had just finished reading—on my own, for fun—a book about the design and construction of ancient cathedrals. I also have a friend who’s a lay expert on Byzantine everything, and she was able to point me in the right direction.
“And after that I had to research pre-Byzantine pagan temples. What did they look like? How were they set up? How would you twist one to evil? Fortunately I have yet another friend with the biggest occult library this side of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and he helped quite a lot. I credited Karen and John at the beginning of the book, in fact.
“And after that I had to research exorcism. What’s the ritual? Who says what and when? The script had most of that laid out for me, but I had to expand some of it, and I wanted to make sure I got it right. Otherwise I’m sure I’d get mail from annoyed Catholics.
“So you could say I did some research.”
BN: “It’s been reported that Blatty himself has enjoyed the “Schraderâ€-version film very much. And you may not know the man personally, Steve, but would you care to comment? As you can imagine, it came as quite a surprise to his fans.”
SP: “I hadn’t heard this. That’s interesting.”
BN: “Which characters did you ultimately find more interesting in one version as opposed to the other version of this story? And Rachel MAY count as Sarah and vice versa, as far as I’m concerned, despite their differences.”
SP: “I didn’t think they were that different. Which was a plus for me. It would have been hard to re-imagine Merrin if they’d changed him from a conflicted priest into a party animal or something. There was actually a tiny kerfluffle with Sarah’s name. In the script she’s Sarah Novack. But the Polish spelling would be ‘Sara Nowak’ or ‘Sara Nowack.’ You never see her name in print in the movie, and there was a brief discussion about how to spell her name in the book. We settled on ‘Sarah Novack’ because most of the readers would be English speakers who wouldn’t look at ‘Nowak’ and think ‘Novack.’ “
BN: “You’ve retained whole passages – some several pages – and character concepts – from the Schrader version. How is this possible when Hawley was supposed to have rewritten EVERYTHING for Harlin to shoot, which he’s claimed to have done? “
SP: “The stuff that I retained from the first to the second book was material I had created. The scenes with the midwife’s apprentice, for example, were wholly my creation, so those stayed in with small alterations. The same with the expanded material about Sarah’s background. The re-writes on this book were hell, I have to tell you. When the new script finally arrived on my doorstep, I had less than six weeks to rewrite the book, and remember that I also have a full-time day job teaching high school.
“Movie guys are also used to being able to make changes right up until the day before the release—the magic of Federal Express can get newly-edited movies into the theaters mere minutes before opening time—and Morgan Creek wanted the book to match the movie despite last-minute alterations. The changes continued right up to the last minute. The day after I mailed the corrected galleys back to my editor, he called to say the producers were making a small change in the ending and they wanted it reflected in the book. My editor had to handwrite the changes into the galleys when they arrived because I had already sent them back.
“I don’t actually know what Hawley said about rewriting the screenplay (or what people say he said), so I’m not sure how to answer that one.
BN: “Did you consider backing out when you learned you’d have to scrap the book entirely, aside from those elements you ultimately retained/salvaged? And, if it had happened again, them deciding to remake the film from scratch (a second time), would you have been forced to do another version – would you have wanted to, in any case?”
SP: “I was startled when I heard about the new script, and we had to work out what it would mean for me, contract-wise. Fortunately I didn’t have anything else under deadline at the time, and even more fortunately I have a good relationship with my editor on the project. We worked it out after many, many phone calls. My poor agent deserves Godiva chocolates and a hot bath!”
BN: “Which book was more stimulating to write: the prosaic, ‘intelligent’ one, or the creepy ‘horror’ version? Which did you ENJOY more once it was a finished, written story/book?”
SP: “That’s like asking a parent, “Which child do you love more?†You love them both equally but in different ways.”
BN: “Have you seen either version’s film, and if so, which do you prefer? If not, then just going by the scripts, which one do you think is the stronger story?”
SP: “I haven’t seen either one yet. As for which story is stronger, that’s a “which child†question!”
BN: “Will the Schrader version ever see the light of day, since the DVD will get a release?”
SP: “You mean will it show in theaters? No idea! I keep hearing rumors it’ll be released on DVD, which would be nice. I want to see how the final product compares with the way I imagined it. It’s a real kick to go into the theater and see a script come to life. I mean, I have entire passages of dialogue stuck in my head, and I want to hear how the actors delivered them. Or, if you mean the book, hmmm . . . no one’s said anything about it within my hearing. If the DVD sells really well, Pocket Books would probably consider it.”
BN: “If you could change anything about either or both of the two versions – the characters and/or storyline – what would you do? Clearly you had a job to do, novelizing two screenplays. But as a writer and ‘Exorcist’ fan, I must ask you, was there anything that you would have altered, deleted, or whatnot, if you had the freedom to?”
SP: “I’m not a screenwriter, so that’s really hard to say. I think as a prose writer, and what works for prose won’t necessarily work on a movie screen. When writing the book, I do have to stick pretty close to the screenplay; I can add, for example, but not subtract. I got into trouble over this, actually.
“There’s a scene in the movie where Merrin explores an ancient church by himself, and this caused huge problems for me. In books, people want dialogue first, action second, and explanation/description third. But in a scene like this one—which works fine on the big screen—I would be writing page after page of description with only a little action thrown in and no dialogue at all. So I changed it. I had Father Francis show up and go into the church with Merrin. This would allow me to write about two characters interacting, and allow Merrin to explain the church Francis—and to the readers. But this turned out to be a no-no. I had to go back and re-do the scene without Francis. I finally hit on a way to do it that was more interesting and that didn’t violate the rules, but it was a challenge. Prose writing and screenwriting don’t always mix.
BN: “Similarly, were there moments – in either version – when you had trouble successfully translating the material to the page? Moments where it was too difficult, or character motivations felt false and you wished you could implement your OWN ideas?
SP: “Movies are an audio-visual medium and books are words on a page, and it’s always a challenge to translate them. Ask the people who worked on the Harry Potter movies! The hardest part is always transitions. In a movie, you can just blip to the next scene. Need to get from Cairo to Nairobi? No problem—just cut to the next scene and you’re there! Five seconds after that, you can be inside a general’s office. Three minutes later, you’re on a dusty road to Derati. Another neat movie trick is inter-cutting one scene with another. You know how it works—we’re inside a building watching a conversation between two people, then we cut to someone doing something outside, then we cut back inside the building, then back outside.
“Both of these tricks work fine on film. But if you do that in a book, the reader feels like a ping-pong ball. I ran into this when I novelized Identity, and learned how to solve it there, so I was able to handle it for Exorcist: the Beginning, too.
BN: “Did you read our reviews and if so, did you think they were fair and valid (good AND bad), or were there things in either review that you strongly (or even slightly) disagreed with? If something bothered you, let the anger flow. Criticism is cool.”
SP: “[Laughs] A review of a review! Not going there! The only people whose writing I critique are members of my writers group. Besides, as an English teacher, I always tell my students that their reactions to a piece of writing are perfectly valid, whether someone else has the same reaction or not. If you like it, you like it. If you don’t, you don’t.”
BN: “What is your favorite horror book or film? And speaking of such, what creative minds in those two mediums do you follow, if any?”
SP: “I’m going to be a terrible luddite here. People often expect authors to say something like, ‘I read Chaucer every week, and for a guilty pleasure, I re-read Lucius Q. Snigglebottom, who wrote two novels back in the early Victorian era.’ But the horror novels I remember most are by Stephen King. I particularly remember one scene from Salem’s Lot in which the priest and the main character are about to entire the vampire house. The priest douses the lock with holy water and smashes it with his crucifix while calling on the name of god. The padlock is destroyed. I loved that! In horror, we all-too-often see the evil guys get the power and the good guys have nothing but their own two hands. Even in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies (which aren’t horror but follow this rule), the bad guys have all the power—massive armies of orcs, a troop of oliphants, trolls, Ringwraiths, wyverns. What do the good guys have? A ring they can’t use and wizard who does almost no magic. King gave the good guys their own power, and I loved that.
“As for movies, does Jaws count as horror or adventure? I have a terrible phobia about sharks and, believe it or not, whales. I won’t enter the ocean, even to wade. Jaws didn’t start that, but it didn’t help. And M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs was a masterwork. Bad science fiction, but powerful horror and suspense.
“If you want stories that aren’t quite horror but make you shudder and go, ‘Oh my god!’, I really, really suggest picking up Octavia Butler’s books, especially her Patternmaster books. Wild Seed is one of the best books I’ve ever read. Technically it’s science fiction, but it’s set in Africa in the 1700s and reads more like dark fantasy.”
BN: “Okay, now’s your chance to plug whatever you may want to plug – NEW material by yourself of any kind – original work or freelance. [Note: Piziks has also authored the novelization for IDENTITY.]”
SP: “I also write the Silent Empire books under the name Steven Harper, and they get wonderful reviews. They’re science fiction, though Nightmare is also a serial killer/murder mystery. The latest one is called Offspring, and it’s coming out in November. There’s lots of info about them and my other books at my web site: http://www.sff.net/people/spiziks/ I keep a blog there, along with information for new writers about how to submit to editors and agents. Go take a look!”
BN: “Thank you for your granting us your time and insight, Steven. Please join our forums, and drop by when you can — don’t be a stranger.”
SP: “It was my pleasure!”
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