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Mulholland Drive (a little background)

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


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