POST 18

By Darrell J Banks

CR 2014

Writers think life can be simple if only we could create a character everyone will love.  I have fallen in love with some of my female characters. I loved Tina( protagonist) in  Muerte de Oya  and when I discovered  Aqua Quad ( antagonist) in episode two  of my screenplay trilogy, I had to bring her back from the dead before episode three.

Characters do not reflect a writer’s personality, maybe their subconscious, but rarely  do we share anything in common. After all that's why I write to experience a new life, reality and sometimes a new galaxy. We don’t like litigation and want to retain the small royalty checks and if lucky enough advance checks. So we don't use real people, places etc. So why was Saving Mr. Banks distributed by Disney and created by Columbia studios so close to reality.  Well they had audio tapes etc. 

Thus when Emma Thompson declines to sale her book to Tom Hanks in Saving Mr.  Banks I clearly understood her motivations.  She needed the money; she wanted to keep her house. But to save Mr. Banks (Mary Poppins the movie) she as a writer had violated rule one of writing. She had  invested so much of herself, her dad, mother and Aunt into the story that she could not  let go of the story/ rights without  divesting her soul in the creation of the screenplay and the classic movie Mary Poppins.

It would have been nice if Emma Thompson was nominated with Ms. Blanchet.  That would have been something dual Oscar winners. Good enough.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainment/2014/01/how-emma-thompson-responded-to-meryl-streeps-oscar-snub-email/