TO: John Derevlany (OTHER NAMES REMOVED)
CC: (PRODUCTION EXEC NAMES REMOVED)
FROM: (NAME AND NETWORK REMOVED)
RE: Notes on 2nd draft of “Eggs”
First, let us all here at the network reiterate how excited and enthusiastic we are for this project, and its ancillary market potential. Our research continues to demonstrate the strength of the Seuss name, as well as the shortened, more consumer-friendly title, “Eggs” (formerly “Green Eggs and Ham” – ugh!).
That said, we feel much progress has been made on the 2nd draft of the television adaptation of this book, but the writer has failed to address many of the script’s substantive issues discussed in our last notes and conference call. Primarily, Mister Derevlany has not significantly beefed up the "wish-fulfillment narrative," and ignored many of our comments about plussing the love interest and action-adventure components. As it is, the story just lays there – the main character doesn’t like eggs in the beginning, and then he likes them at the end. Big deal. That’s not going to move toys and happy meals. We need a huge finish – something like “The Island” meets “Austin Powers” meets “Finding Nemo." Is that do-able?
We still also find the characters a little “out of touch” with contemporary pop culture. Have they no sense of the world around them? The “timeless” fantasy elements are fine for awhile, but eventually our characters need to reference the world our viewers live in in order to make them more relatable. A few cracks about current films, music, and pop culture are sure to enhance the magic of this Seuss classic. We see a Chris Rock-type doing the voice of Sam, while the unnamed character who likes/doesn’t like the eggs will be played by one of those kid on “The O.C.”
Finally… didn’t we talk about giving Sam a sword or something? Consumer Products is willing to kick in some money if we can make the project more “toy-etic,” with more characters and props that can be easily turned into retail-friendly merchandise. They feel “Star Wars”-style light sabers are hot at the moment, and they want Sam to have a cool-looking sword he could wield (in a kid-friendly way of course). Perhaps it’s called the “Sam Saber,” or maybe even “Eggs-calibur” (of course, I'm not a writer, and I'm sure the writer will come up with something better than that). Maybe the sword also talks and makes smart-ass comments on the action while it’s happening. Kids think that kind of self-referential comedy is hysterical!
Along with the Sam Saber, I would suggest adding laser blasters as well, but we are already using them in our DVD adaptation of Margaret Wise Brown’s “Goodnight Moon.”
On
the production side, please note we’ve reviewed the numbers and it makes sense
to move the animation from the Flash facility in
With that in mind, we look forward to receiving a funner, hipper, and more-relatable 3rd draft of “Eggs.”
Sincerely,
NAME AND NETWORK REMOVED