Interview: Hampton Fancher

AW: How did you feel about David Peoples's work on your script?

HF: I didn't know about it, you know; that was a secret, because I wasn't cooperating with Ridley. I think if Ridley would have said, "Listen asshole, if you don't cooperate, I'm going to bring somebody in who will." I don't know what I would have said; I probably would have hit him in the mouth and left. He probably knew that, so he didn't tell me.

"I stood up, holding my face because I didn't want to cry—I was so devastated—and I walked out."

And it was toward the end of pre-production, I think, that it happened. And because I wasn't cooperating, he did bring David in; I didn't know it. And when I did find out, I think it was Christmas, we were having a dinner, and Ridley wasn't there—it was another producer of the film. And I sat down to eat, and all of a sudden the script's in front of me. And I thought, "Maybe it's something he wants me to rewrite someday." I didn't know what it was, so I just opened it, and then I saw something I didn't understand. And then I turned another page, and I see something I did understand, because I wrote it. And then another page, and it's like, "What is this?" And he said, "I told you." And he had hinted to me before once. And I said, "What?!" And I stood up, holding my face because I didn't want to cry—I was so devastated—and I walked out. And I said, "Fuck everybody! I'm gone!" Whatever it was…and so I left.

And then I came back at the end because they called me; they needed something about the rooftop scene. And so they just had a couple of days to shoot, and they wanted me to look at rushes. And I came back, and I cooperated, and I wrote some stuff for them.

And then…you don't want the long story, do you?

AW: Absolutely.

HF: Okay. I saw a script during that...I still hadn't met David, the film wasn't finished being shot, but somebody sent me a script of David's that he'd done. And I felt sorry for him, because it was good. It was slash-up—part mine, part his—but there was a lot of him in this script. This one I read, it wasn't shot. It was, I guess, his first take on the whole thing. And it was really interesting. It was much more populist than mine, more accessible, I thought. But it was exciting, and he had a certain exciting way of writing. Not the way I write, you know, we write very differently. And I thought, "They're not going to do this either. This guy's worse off than I am!"

Then when I did finally go to see all the dailies, because they wanted me to write something for the end on the roof, I hated the dailies, and I thought, "They've sold this film down the tubes. It's not gonna to work; it's not anything that I want. I'm looking for a man who's trying to find his conscience, and all of a sudden we've got shootouts." I was furious.

"And then I called my agent, and said, 'I want my name off this film.' "

And then I called my agent, and said, "I want my name off this film." He said, "That's going to be hard." I called [Producer] Michael Deeley said, "I want my name off this film." I mean, I had a very small nose to begin with, and I was cutting every inch of it I could off my face. The whole reason I did this film was to get on the map a little bit, and now I want to get off the map. And I'm crying, I'm nauseated, I'm screaming, I'm threatening—it's hard to get your name off a film. Then the Writer's Guild calls, and they say, "We're thinking of taking your name off the film."

I said, "Good. Why? Because finally I got through, huh?"
"No, because we're arbitrating this."
"For what?"
"Well, we don't think you deserve a title."
"WHAT?! What do you mean 'deserve'—" And then I went exactly the opposite. I'm calling, "Please don't do this to me—this is my one chance!" And did I see an asshole? [meaning himself]

So I was fighting to get my name back on that film, "Please, I'll take second credit—whatever!" And this goes on for three or four days, but it seemed like a year. And then the Writer's Guild calls me. And they have a letter that David Peoples was privy to this. And what happened, the reason they were gong to arbitrate it, was because they saw me as a producer. David Peoples was writing, and I have this executive producer-ship, and they're very suspect of that; you know, producers trying to get writing credit. And they told me that, and I said, "I'm not a producer! I just did that to protect the writing! I'm a writer! I didn't do anything as a producer in the film! It was bullshit!" And that didn't make any difference to them, they're going to arbitrate.

"...one night we were drunk, and I said, 'Man, what's wrong with you? Why did you write that stupid shit?' "

So, David writes a letter to them saying—I won't say what he said, but it was so gracious. It gave it to me, and he was very humble about his contribution. And they read me this letter, and they said they apologized to me. Because they told me he wouldn't take the credit if I wasn't in. I learned something there, too, because I don't think I would have done that. (Now I'd have to, because I'd have to follow his footsteps and be ethical and fine.) But you know, "Okay, well the other writer doesn't want a credit—fine. Let me have the extra money, let me have the glory," whatever; but that's not David Peoples. And I hope it wouldn't be me in the future if it happened.

So then I said to a friend, "I've got to meet this guy." So then I met him, and we fell in love. We've been very close friends since then. In fact—I guess you know all the stories—it was pretty funny me thinking…I admire his work but I couldn't imagine how he was stupid enough to write those voiceovers; and he was imagining the same thing about me. After a year, one night we were drunk, and I said, "Man, what's wrong with you? Why did you write that stupid shit?" And he said, "I thought you did." I guess the book might say who really did.

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