Screenwriter Mike Werb has some impressive film credits on resume—at least from a male perspective. He shares responsibility for the bullet-spraying, complete disregard for public safety Face/Off. He should be praised for writing an Angelina Jolie shower scene in Tomb Raider. He helped solidify Jim Carrey’s rise to stardom in The Mask. His latest work is a script for the upcoming Tekken video game adaptation (before the WGA strike of course).
Originally conceived as a sci-fi prison movie, that story eventually evolved into Face/Off. Even though some themes and elements survived in the final story, was it hard to see the original story develop into something almost entirely different?
It’s true the original spec we sold to Warner Bros. was much heavier sci-fi—but I still have the scene cards from our very first dirty draft—and the actual structure remained fairly intact. The initial development notes tended to focus on sci-fi and action elements. We spent a lot of time (way too much) defending plot points like Castor having sex with (really raping) Joan Allen’s character Eve. They didn’t want it. We had to have it because if the bad guy doesn’t fool the wife for a period of time, the emotional core of the film is broken. The hero hits bottom (locked in a prison where no one knows his true identity) at the exact moment the villain hits his zenith (boning the naïve wife and taking over the family).
When the script resold to Paramount, the equivocation ended. Our first meetings with the new producers (David Permut, Steve Reuther, and Michael Douglas) were all about deepening that core. Douglas was particularly interested in why we wrote this particular story and we spent a long time discussing thematics with him. With his crucial encouragement, we rewrote it as a psychological thriller. Once Woo came aboard, the same shocking thing occurred. All he wanted to do was talk about the characters. This was a new experience for us. No one wanted to discuss action beats—or cutting out important plot elements. It was all about the emotional landscape of the world and these characters.
This was really inspiring—and incredibly educational. Michael Douglas wanted great actors to star in the film; as an actor he understood the appeal it might have beyond action stars. As he explained to us—unless they’re playing good/evil twins or in a Jekyll/Hyde situation, actors never get a chance to play both the protagonist and antagonist.
He’s a really, really intelligent guy. At least Michael Colleary (my writing partner) and I were smart enough to realize he was right. So to finally answer your question: no. We didn’t mind seeing the script morph. Because it was maturing, it was getting better, and they weren’t hiring someone else to do it.
Special effects appear in almost every film nowadays. In 1994 when you wrote the screenplay to The Mask, how conscious were you of special effects and how integral they would be, given the story?
Well, I love summer popcorn films and those generally involve VFX in some form or another. Raiders of the Lost Ark was the film that made me want to get into the business. But while writing The Mask, I was less concerned with writing an “effects” film than making sure this (simple) story stood on its own. As opposed to Face/Off which took untold drafts and six years from original idea to production, I wrote my first draft of The Mask in less than six weeks. And less than two months later it was green-lit. Of course, that film is based on the great Dark Horse comix—so it wasn’t like I was starting from scratch (although, if you are familiar, there are huge differences in the leap from book to screen).
Article comments
1 - Phillip Winn
Now I might have to re-watch Face/Off, a movie I hated. The marketing was all about the actors, neither of which I care for. I'll have to follow the writing more closely.
2 - Mary K. Williams
Nice work Tan, what a great opportunity you had here.