CHAPTER 2: Okay, I know Chapter 2 was supposed to be London, and I apologize for
the fake out, but I recall some stuff that means we stay in Melbourne
for a bit longer. It pertains to my attempts to become a successful
writer, which (despite having embarked on a long relationship with doing
odd jobs, photocopying and filing after I left home to chase my dreams)
was one of the two reasons I wanted a career in the film industry to
begin with (the other being to direct). As a kid growing up in
Australia, I never had any interest whatsoever in seeing any Australian
films. To me, they were all just boring costume dramas with pretentious
aspirations to greatness. I know the Aussie film industry has turned out
some gems, but they still seem to make mostly crap with pretentious
aspirations to greatness. It’s sad. Australia has great actors and
directors who, once the opportunity arises, get their asses to Hollywood
as fast as they can so they can become superstars. But the movie
business in Australia (at least for making Australian films) has no real
financing to speak of and so filmmakers have to rely on organizations
such as Film Victoria, who from what I’ve read lately, spend more money
wining and dining their friends and fat cat politicians than they give
to any filmmakers. So it’s no wonder the Aussie film biz doesn’t turn
out an original Australian superhero movie or real big action/adventure.
So anyway, when Mad Max came out I naturally thought oh here’s another
crap Aussie movie – and with a really dumb title no less. So I didn’t
see it when it first came out. I also had no interest in seeing Mad Max 2
for the same reasons, but my sisters kept telling me “no, it’s nothing
like what you expect from an Aussie movie” so I relented and went to see
it. And I was blown away. It was amazing and at first I couldn’t quite
believe it had been made by Aussies. In fact I was so blown away that I
immediately sat down and wrote a 5 page synopsis for Mad Max 3 called
“The Steel Prince”. Then I researched everything there was to know about
the filmmakers and after reading an interview with the film’s producer,
Byron Kennedy, in which he mentioned all the reasons why he and George
Miller made an Aussie movie that was, well, essentially NOT an Aussie
movie in the typical sense, I thought I have to get my synopsis to Byron
Kennedy. I had no idea how to do that so I started with the basics,
writing him a letter introducing myself and my synopsis and telling him
how awesome I thought Mad Max 2 was (I left out that part about not
seeing the first one) and how badly I wanted to join his production
company and be a writer. I sent it to Kennedy/Miller Productions in
Sydney and thought, well; maybe I’ll get a reply. A week or so later the
phone rang one evening at our house and my dad answered. I was in the
living room and not paying attention, but my dad walked in and said:
“Rob, there’s a feller named Byron Kennedy on the phone for you.” I
thought yeah sure, it’s just one of my friends (who all knew about my
synopsis and the letter I’d sent to him) playing a joke. But when I
picked up the phone and said hello and heard this really deep, really
serious voice on the other end, I knew right away that it was Byron
Kennedy on the frikkin line! I couldn’t believe it! He told me he was
intrigued by my synopsis and wanted me to flesh it out into a 60 page
treatment and send it off to him. I was like sure Byron no worries I can
do that and I’ll get it to you in two weeks. I had no idea what a
treatment was or how I was going to flesh out my 5 page synopsis (I’d
only just found out what one of those was) to sixty pages. But I’d just
talked to the creator/producer of the Mad Max films and told him I’d
have a treatment to him in two weeks and by God I was going to keep my
word. I read some books my mom and dad had given me on screenwriting and
discovered that a treatment was just a story written in present tense
that basically laid out the plot structure and beats of an idea in a
form similar to what you might see in a book. That was a relief. It was
just writing. And I knew I could do that. I sat down and pounded out a
treatment on the typewriter my parents had bought me (God bless them
they completely supported my crazy aspirations of being a writer and
never doubted me). I don’t remember if I got exactly sixty pages but I
know it was pretty long. I don’t even remember where all the ideas came
from – they just sort of started flowing when I started typing. Never
mind that it was mostly crap. There was some pretty awesome stuff in
“Mad Max 3: The Steel Prince” by Robert Shaw. I sent it off and got a
call a couple days later from Byron’s secretary telling me he’d received
my treatment and would be getting in touch with me once he got back
from a trip he was on. And I thought this is it, I’m on my way to
success. So I waited. And then a few weeks later one of my friends (I
think it was Phill Dimitroff or his brother Martin) told me Byron
Kennedy was dead. He’d been killed in a helicopter crash while away on
some trip. I didn’t believe him. But why would someone joke about
something that awful. It was no joke of course and I was devastated. I
mean, never mind the fact that it was bloody terrible that the guy had
been killed – that really was an awful tragedy – but I’d be lying if I
didn’t also think well frak, what about my story treatment? (Selfish
right? I know. I was young and I apologize for it). I waited a while and
then called Kennedy/Miller Productions and asked what was going to
happen to my treatment. The girl I spoke to didn’t know what I was
talking about and of course I couldn’t get in touch with Byron’s
secretary – the one who’d called to say he’d received my treatment – I
didn’t remember her name and when I asked to speak to his secretary they
told me she wasn’t there anymore. A few months went by and I went to
Sydney to try and shed some light on the subject but was not warmly
received by anyone at Kennedy/Miller so that was the end of that. I
refused to see Mad Max 3 when it came out but a few of my friends that
had read my treatment swore it had scenes out of my treatment in it. I
had Max captured by an enemy camp and forced to fight in a pit against a
huge half-man/half-machine opponent named Sordak, who was clad in metal
and a mask. The pit was surrounded by cheering/jeering enemy members of
the camp; Thunder Dome had the fights in the Thunder Dome cage. I had
Max discover a tribe of friendly people and kids in a sort of hidden
oasis base; Thunder Dome had the kids in the desert oasis. Did they rip
off some ideas from my treatment and adapt them for their own use?
Maybe. But it was decades ago and I’d never be able to prove it. Anyway,
I decided to write a script from my treatment and just take out all the
Mad Max stuff – which was easy. I ended up with a script called The
Steel Prince, which was a sort of Sword & Sorcery/ground based Star
Wars hybrid that I thought (at the time) really rocked. Then I read
about an Aussie director named Russell Mulcahy who had just made a movie
called Razorback – which turned out to be a great Aussie film and the
first of its kind in Australian cinema. I read that he was editing the
movie up in Sydney at the offices of McElroy & McElroy, the company
that produced the movie, so I called to ask if he’d be interested in
reading my script. Man, in retrospect it seemed way easy to get in touch
with movie producers and directors back then because when I got put
through to the cutting room Mulcahy actually took my call. After a brief
discussion he agreed to meet with me and read my script if I brought it
up to Sydney. So I hopped on a plane. When I got there I called him and
he said to swing by his condo the next morning around 10am. Luckily I
went early because when I arrived I bumped into him as he was heading
out to have breakfast. He’d forgotten all about me. Anyway, I handed
him the script and he said “Oh, is this it?” I guess it didn’t look too
impressive. Anyway, he said he’d read it and would let me know. So I
hopped a train back to Melbourne and followed up with another call about
a month later. When I talked to him again he told me he wasn’t
interested in doing Sword & Sorcery. I guess he was as impressed by
the reading of my script as he had been by the receiving of it from me.
Oh well, looking back I realize my script was crap anyway. Mulcahy’s
next movie was Highlander so I guess he became interested in doing Sword
& Sorcery after all. And Highlander was a way better script that
mine!
Buy Robert Shaw's books on Amazon: http://amzn.to/Tlf0F7
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