QuoteOscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro adapts Mary Shelley's classic tale of Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but egotistical scientist who brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation

QuoteI'm sitting here in the Academy of Motion Pictures' Special Collections, going through Irvin Kershner's personal archives related to Eyes. I believe I've just made a major discovery about the film:

To the best of my knowledge, this information cannot be found anywhere online or in print: the final shooting script to Eyes Of Laura Mars was written by Julian Barry-- a pseudonym for Ernesto Gastaldi. Gastaldi is the screenwriter behind some of the greatest gialli ever made: Your Vice Is a Locked Room, Torso, All the Colors of the Dark... In fact, the PDF of the script circulating online—the one people often cite—is not David Zelag Goodman's draft. It's Gastaldi's.

So when people debate whether Eyes of Laura Mars was influenced by giallo, the answer is clear: the person who got this script over the finish line was THE giallo writer.

Here's the timeline of the film's development:

November 2, 1974
John Carpenter sells an original 11-page treatment to Columbia. It's a straightforward horror concept-- no murder mystery.

November 5, 1975
Carpenter turns in his only draft, following two extended treatments (86 pages, then 126 pages). This moves the setting to NYC, builds a romance, and constructs most of the major characters.

February 20, 1976
Mart Crowley (The Boys in the Band) submits his draft. He's a brilliant writer, but genre wasn't his strength. It's kind of a mess. I don't think any of his work made it into the final film.

April 4, 1977
David Zelag Goodman delivers his final revision (after delivering a few drafts prior). This version includes the thematic elements Kershner would later discuss in interviews-- particularly the glamorization of violence. It's far more clean and clear here. Here, Mars wrestles more explicitly with her conscience as the murders continue and she keeps shooting.

July 4, 1977
Joan Tewkesbury (Nashville) delivers a draft that deepens the character work to a remarkable degree. Mars' loneliness and edge are more pronounced, and the models are real, dimensional characters from the outset.

November 22, 1977
Finally, Ernesto Gastaldi delivers what becomes the shooting script. He introduces misleading red herrings (like the "her photos match the crime scenes" line, which goes nowhere) and structures the reveal of Tommy being an ex-con. How he didn't receive credit is honestly baffling.

Among the files, I found a handwritten note from Tommy Lee Jones, with suggested dialogue for the scene where Laura and Neville meet in his office. (It's been claimed that Tommy wrote the ending the night before—this is not true. The dialogue is Gastaldi's, and the scene is a variation of what Carpenter came up with years prior.) Jones is credited in the final film as "monologue writer," but that seems to refer to a minor polish on an otherwise forgettable scene.

There are countless pages and notes exploring different ways to start the movie. In my opinion, Tewkesbury's version, beginning at the art exhibit, was by far the strongest. It introduced the world and characters cleanly and efficiently. I think the current way the movie begins is one of its greatest weaknesses.

All in all, it's wild to see how Carpenter's original draft, which was tight and logical, morphed through this game of studio telephone. Every revision (aside from Crowley's) was a step forward, but almost always at the cost of clarity.

In the end, it feels criminal that David Zelag Goodman got sole credit. Tewkesbury and Gastaldi's contributions were far more significant to the final film. Logging this here because it honestly feels like I've just watched four different versions of the movie going thru all of these drafts.

Quote from: ebicon on May 20, 2025, 10:01:43 PMThis thread is a time capsule. You guys talking about the dvd when blu-rays weren't even invented and I'm here with the movie on 4K Dolby Vision paused to check info on this "camera bump."

You guys still alive? I feel like I'm from the future 😭