Hang around a group of screenwriters long enough and, inevitably, all the horror stories begin to spill out: cruel tales of butchered scripts, mangled credits, vanquished visions and aborted masterpieces.
So, it came as some surprise to hear Vince Gilligan happily describe the long and halting yet ultimately satisfying journey he took with “Home Fries,” a nifty romance with just enough bile to include it among Hollywood’s recent crop of dark comedies. In fact, in some circles, his experience might be considered downright inspirational.
“I started writing it in 1988 for an NYU screenwriting class,” recalled Gilligan, sitting in his office on the Fox lot, where he writes and co-produces “The X-Files.” “It was the first feature-length script I had ever written. One of the female students in the class suggested naming it `Home Fries,’ although she couldn’t tell me why she thought it was a good title, and I couldn’t either . . . but, it stuck.”
A year later, the soft-spoken Virginian entered “Home Fries” in a screenwriting competition back home, where it caught the eye of Academy Award-winning producer Mark Johnson (“Diner,” “Rainman,” “Bugsy”), who was serving as a judge.
“Mark got the script optioned by Warner Bros. in 1990,” Gilligan said. “Since then, we’ve been through three or four option periods. Lorenzo Di Bonaventura liked the script very much when he was a lower-level executive at Warners, and he got Drew Barrymore interested in it when he became head of production.”
Barrymore — who seems to be everywhere these days — plays Sally, a pleasant small-town gal who works the drive-in window at a fast-food restaurant. She’s carrying the child of a philandering local businessman, Henry Lever, who can’t convince Sally that she should end the pregnancy.
When Henry’s wife (played with delightful menace by Catherine O’Hara) learns about the existence of a mistress, she conspires with her sons to scare their stepfather back into fidelity. They employ a borrowed Air National Guard helicopter to further their scheme, but miscalculate the strength of Henry’s heart.
During the execution of the prank, the victim suffers a fatal heart attack. Everything would have remained a mystery — including the identity of Henry’s girlfriend — if his stepsons’ radio transmissions hadn’t been picked up on the frequency used by the Burger-Matic workers’ headsets.
Angus (Jake Busey) and Dorian (Luke Wilson, from “Bottle Rocket”) then conspire to eliminate any possible witnesses and also discover the identity of their stepfather’s girlfriend. In the course of their investigation, Dorian falls for Sally and ultimately must take on his brother when he decides to kill her anyway.
Although this setup doesn’t sound particularly amusing, Gilligan’s script is sharply written and often quite hilarious. The many offbeat characters are well conceived, their movements are unpredictable and, on paper at least, this niche-y little picture is as inky black and quirky as any of Hollywood’s Class of ’98.
“When Drew Barrymore came on board, she lightened everything up,” said Gilligan, making a case for “Home Fries” as a romantic comedy. “It’s hard for a movie to be that dark when she’s in it. Without really changing a word of dialogue, the feel of the movie changed completely.”
This might explain Warner Bros.’ apparent difficulty in finding a way to market the film, which was directed by Dean Parisot in his feature-film debut. After all, it’s been in the can for more than a year, and already has had at least two postponements.
“This movie flew right under Warners’ radar, and they didn’t know what to do with it,” Gilligan said. “They had Drew Barrymore — who’s adorable and people love her — but they didn’t quite know how to sell this thing. At first, I was a little frustrated. But, to their credit, they moved the release date back to the Thanksgiving holiday . . . maybe because this is Drew’s biggest year yet.
” `Ever After’ has made $65 million, so, now, Warner Bros. looks like geniuses, because they waited. But that doesn’t always work in a studio’s favor.”
It helps that Barrymore is a tireless promoter of her projects, and a charming — if, by now, slightly overexposed — interview subject.
For his part, however, Gilligan’s ecstatic she’s out there campaigning. He’s perfectly happy keeping his nose to the grindstone back at the newly transplanted home of “The X-Files.”
And, strangely enough, with its black Cobra helicopters and other misterioso touches, “Home Fries” opens very much like an episode of the hit Fox drama.
“They screened the movie a couple of months ago at the Toronto festival, and it never occurred to me that people would think the helicopter — with the sound way down, you don’t know that’s what this hovering shape is — was a UFO or something else,” Gilligan said. “When I wrote the script 10 years ago, I just thought it would be a cool reveal for the helicopter: Henry would come around the corner and there would be this helicopter hovering there. Now, `X-Files’ puts a whole different spin on it.”
Gilligan’s been a fan of the TV series since the first night it appeared on the air, six years ago.
During the show’s second season, he explains, “I was still living in Virginia, and I mentioned to my agent that I loved the program, and she should watch it. She knew all about it because (executive producer and creator) Chris Carter was related to her by marriage. She arranged for me to meet him when I was in Los Angeles.
“Fortunately, he had read my script for `Wilder Napalm’ and liked the writing. He asked if I had any ideas for an `X-Files’ script, and I just spun some stuff I had thought of the night before about a killer shadow that comes to life.”
Carter bought the pitch and, after his episode ran, Gilligan was asked to join the writing staff. He was reluctant to leave Virginia, but soon agreed to the move west.
His contributions include “Soft Light,” “Pusher,” “Unruhe,” “Paper Hearts,” “Bad Blood” and “Small Potatoes,” which recently was selected by TV Guide as “One of Television’s 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.”
“We all kind of look forward to a Vince show, because there’s usually a lot of humor and humanity in it,” said David Duchovny. “The humor grows out of the humanity, which isn’t being grafted on superficially. His characters are usually funny, but in a way that’s unique to him.
“He also likes to make fun of my character. The Mulder in those episodes is a little different than the Mulder in other ones, and that’s fun for me.”
Duchovny adds that “Small Potatoes” and “Bad Blood” are two of his favorite episodes, because, “Mulder is somewhat buffoonish, but in a way that I enjoy doing him . . . especially since he’s so serious most of the time.”
Gilligan recently signed a development deal with 20th Century Fox Television. Johnson, the driving force behind “Home Fries,” is producing two of his other original screenplays, as well.
The writer says that he would like to do something “really different” after “The X-Files” is put to bed and he has the freedom to produce a new series. In the meantime, he’s excited about trying to maintain the show’s momentum in the wake of its move to L.A. from Vancouver, which has taken some getting used to — if only because there’s more sunshine.
“It’s a wonderful job and I’ve become a better writer because of it,” he observes. “Except for the humorous stories I do, I try to make each episode like something from the first season . . . with a really great monster, a great gimmick or thrill. After six years and, now, the movie, we do more character stuff, but sometimes I try to avoid it and just have a great monster show.”
