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Soldiering On
Screenwriter Eric Axel Weiss on adaptations and Evian bottles
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| Eric Axel Weiss |
Plenty of screenplays have instigated debates. A few have incited riots. But only Eric Axel Weiss can lay claim to writing a script that prompted a Sundance audience member to launch an Evian bottle across a crowded room—and almost hitting Oscar-winning actress Anna Paquin. It’s one of those stories that will go down in Sundance legend, but it’s exactly what happened when Weiss’ Buffalo Soldiers screened in Park City this year.
Based on Robert O’Connor’s darkly humorous novel, Buffalo Soldiers (starring Joaquin Phoenix, Ed Harris and Anna Paquin) tells the story of a group of restless American soldiers in West Germany at the end of the Cold War. Bored with their military “day jobs,” they find a way to infiltrate the local black market network and go on a criminal spree of drugs and thievery that leads them to their ultimate score: a truckload of highly sophisticated weaponry that could make them millions.
But the Sundance incident is only the latest in a string of setbacks for Buffalo Soldiers. After making its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in 2001, the film was purchased by Miramax on September 10, 2001. But following the events of September 11th, the film’s release date was postponed due to its controversial depiction of the U.S. Army. With a release date set finally set for May, Eric Axel Weiss spoke with MM about the controversy surrounding the film.
Jennifer Wood (MM): How did you first get involved with writing the script for Buffalo Soldiers?
Eric Weiss (EW): Rainer Grupe and Ariane Moody, the producers who hired me, saw another adaptation of mine, Bongwater, at Cannes. They told me I was an attractive option because a) Buffalo Soldiers, like Bongwater, involved drugs and many characters, and b) I was affordable.
MM: Were you the first one to attempt it, or had other drafts been written?
EW: There are several different drafts out there of Buffalo Soldiers written by several other writers. The novel was published in 1992 and went through the hands of several producers before Rainer and Ariane acquired the option. They then spent two years working with three different writers before they hired me.
MM: How do you go about writing an adaptation? How do you identify the "cinematic" parts of the book?
EW: I find that one thing that I love when reading a novel—whether it’s the character, tone, setting, etc.—and that is what I always want to somehow preserve in my script. In the case of Buffalo Soldiers, I loved the black comic tone, so I wanted to keep it. For me, that was the spirit of the book. And I also loved the big heroin cook-off at the climax of the novel. Gotta have a great ending! Everything else was up for grabs.
First, I read the novel several times over, noting bits of dialogue I liked or set pieces that would be cool to put in the script. There was a lot of stuff that I liked but if it couldn’t serve my story, then it was out.
MM: Was it lacking certain aspects that you knew would have to be filled in at some point? How did you go about filling in these holes?
EW: A novel, especially a good one like Buffalo Soldiers, takes full advantage of its medium and tells a story very differently than a narrative feature film. When you're reading Buffalo Soldiers the novel, you get this feeling of momentum. It's a real page-turner. But when I outlined the action of the book, it just seemed like reflection, observation and episodic events. So, using the same characters and general situation of the novel, I created a new through-line for the movie. Elwood (the lead, played by Joaquin Phoenix) stealing the weapons, selling them to the Turk, trying to get out of the weapons deal after his buddy dies and then forced to go through with it—none of that is in the novel. [It was] created by me, inspired by the novel.
MM: Did you have any idea of the controversy that would surround the film? Did you ever imagine the reactions that people have had to it, like the infamous water bottle incident?
EW: Who knew? The film was written and produced pre-9/11. I remember getting a phone call from the producers shortly after the film premiered in Toronto. They were tremendously excited because they just sold the movie to Miramax. That was September 10, 2001. When 9/11 happened, I was surprised Buffalo Soldiers was deemed controversial. While it does deal with the idea that war will always be with us, I don't see it as anti-military, and it's not like it's a comedy about hijacking. But I guess some see it as "unpatriotic."
MM: So many people look at the writing of a script as the hard work, but from what I know of the research that went into your writing Buffalo Soldiers, was that more difficult for you?
EW: No, writing the script is the hard part. Talking to people, finding out stuff, traveling to Germany—that’s the fun part. And while it helps you when you sit down to write the script, it also delays you from having to sit down to write the script.
MM: Did you ever get the urge to "cheat" a bit in your research? To rely more heavily on the novel or previous research on the topic, rather than conduct it all yourself?
EW: The novel is so stylized—it's written in the second-person singular—and there's almost no pop culture references, so it wasn’t even clear to me exactly when these events took place. I couldn't tell how much it was based on fact, and it was also a subject I knew little about, and I wanted to know. That's what drove me to research as much as I did.
MM: Can you talk a bit about your current project, FUBAR? I know that it revisits a military theme. Were you able to take any of the research you did for Buffalo Soldiers to this project?
EW: FUBAR is a television pilot I'm writing for the F/X network. Whereas Buffalo Soldiers dealt with U.S. serviceman in Germany during the 1980s, FUBAR is a present day drama about life on a military base in the United States. Perhaps there will be some similarity in tone, but it's a completely different time, culture and locale. So there's still more research to be done. In fact, next week, I’m going to Camp Pendelton.
MM: What’s up next for you?
EW: I'm deep in FUBAR right now. After that, who knows? Barring getting hired on something else, I'll go back and finish that spec I was working on pre-FUBAR.
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