Mulholland Drive (a little background) - Allan Songer

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Mulholland Drive (a little background)

Posted by Allan Songer (A) on September 6, 2001 at 06:36:52

In Reply to: Re: Recent David Lynch movies posted by Thom P on August 27, 2001 at 00:48:03:

Here's my David Lynch story:

I am in the "prop" business here in Hollywood and did quite a bit of business with this production. It was originally financed by Disney and ABC as a PILOT for a television series. It was one of the most expensive pilots ever produced--it cost something like 8 or 9 million dollars and was supposed to run in a two-hour time slot as a kick-off to the series.

Well, Disney and ABC got way more (and less) than they bargained for!
The final cut ran well over two hours and was so bizarre than Disney had no idea what to do with it ( for instance, one of the characters is played by a "little person" in a fake 6'3" body--just his little head sits on top of this hulking frame).

And the production went way over budget and took a few weeks longer to shoot than it was supposed to. I had rented a 1930's "moderne" suite of bedroom furniture to the production and it was due back on a Monday morning because I had the same suite booked for another production to be picked up on a Tuesday morning. I got a call from the Set Decorator on the Lynch project saying they wouldn't be finished in time to return on Monday. I freaked out and told her that I would be at the soundstage with my truck waiting for the scene to finish filming so that I could get my stuff back.

I arrived at Paramount Studios at about 8 PM and watched for 7 hours as Lynch tried to get this little scene filmed. He is a VERY strange man. He sits hunched over a 13" monitor chain-smoking. He whispers his directions to an assistant who then tells everyone what to do.
He never moves from the monitor or stops smoking for HOURS on end.

I'm there with my wife who agreed to accompany me and they are having trouble with a scene where a woman is walking down some stairs and down a hallway. Lynch doesn't like the look or the sound of the shoes and then notices my wife sitting in a chair and tells her--"those look like loud shoes--do you mind?" Within a minute or two, they're filming my wife's feet clomping down the stairs and hallway.
VERY STRANGE!

At 4 AM the scene was finished and I loaded the bedroom suite and headed for my prop house. I don't know if my wife's feet made it into the final version of the film, but I know I'll be paying my $8 to find out. It seems that the final product delivered by Lynch was so freaking STRANGE that they sat on it for 2 or 3 years and then finally decided to release it as a feature film.

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - Guess what Movie this is... - Bolt_Snypr 14:44:54 08/25/01 (15)

Re: Recent David Lynch movies - Thom P 00:48:03 08/27/01 (1)

Mulholland Drive (a little background) - Allan Songer 06:36:52 09/06/01 (0)

Mr. Deeds Goes to Washington (nt) - geoffkait 07:56:06 08/26/01 (0)

Blue Velvet /nt - Rich Jura 14:59:01 08/25/01 (11)

Re: Blue Velvet/David Lynch - Bolt_Snypr 15:17:47 08/25/01 (10)

Re: Blue Velvet/David Lynch - Victor Khomenko 17:02:54 08/26/01 (9)

catch Lost Highway if you like DL movies (nt) - geoffkait 04:51:35 08/27/01 (2)

Re: catch Lost Highway if you like DL movies (nt) - damonx 04:44:57 10/02/01 (0)

Wild at Heart is decent, too (nt) - brewthunda 12:40:36 08/28/01 (0)

Remind me... - Victor Khomenko 17:35:19 08/26/01 (5)

Try this link, Victor ... - Thom P 04:04:21 08/27/01 (3)

Didn't work for me either... - Victor Khomenko 06:16:09 08/27/01 (2)

I guess surrealism constitutes some alien kind of logic ... - Thom P 07:48:12 08/27/01 (1)

Re: I guess surrealism constitutes some alien kind of logic ... - Victor Khomenko 08:20:17 08/27/01 (0)

Follow Ups

Mulholland Drive (a little background) - Allan Songer 06:36:52 09/06/01 (0)

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