Scope and Contents First Draft Screenplay “Master Copy” “adm” Wizan Film Productions, 12022 San Vicente Blvd., Suite 350, Los Angeles, CA 90049. Page length 133. This draft was typed by John Landis’ assistant and believe it was the draft that was eventually sent out around town. Joe Wizan set up a company to produce films and this address was his new location. Jim and I went back into the screenplay and put some things that John Landis had cut out back into the screenplay. It stretched the length to 133. This...

Scope and Contents Revised draft screenplay, February 11, 1983—153 pages. It’s not often that a screenplay gets longer, but it appears this one did. Joe Wizan became head of production at 20th Century Fox for a short period of time and tried to get the movie made there. WE had a small office and I believe this draft has to do with notes given by director Barry Levinson, who Joe had a strong personal relationship with at the time. Barry had troubles with the screenplay because there were elements in it that...

Scope and Contents Second Draft Screenplay, September, 7, 1984—118 pages. This is the TORK DRAFT. We added another character, a friend for Turner to make it a little more crazy. Sort of a John Candy type of character to bring a little more humor to the screenplay. In addition, we changed the ending to the screenplay in this draft. People had continued problems with the “Maze” ending so I had an idea for another ending. The “Maze” ending was inspired by Orson Wells’ LADY FROM SHANGHI mirror sequence, which is...

Scope and Contents Third Draft—February 7, 1986—128 pages. Joe Wizan continued to shop this screenplay for years and each time he set it up as a producer, he got a big check. Joe made more money on this movie not getting it made, than he would have gotten if it had been made five years earlier! We received small re-write fees each time we did a revision, but not near the money that Joe Wizan made on it. It’s a less on why it’s important to control your material. Each time the movie was moved to a...

Scope and Contents TURNER AND HOOCH turned out to be a project that both Jim and I had a lot of fun working on. It came about in one very unusual way. Because I lived in L.A. producers would usually send me the projects first and then I would send them on to Jim if I felt it was something we would be interested in. Usually, I’d read the property and then talk to Jim about it. Most of the time he wouldn’t even look at the screenplays. This time I was in Hawaii with my family vacationing and they...

Scope and Contents I believe these notes were before Jim and I were actively involved in the project. They were probably notes that were addressed to everyone on the project and generated because we had just been brought in and Tom wanted to have some input. We were brought in during the last stages. The notes are interesting because they show what an actor is thinking about. It’s also interesting to note that although he had many good ideas, not all of them were included in the finished film. If all actors...

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This is a meeting Henry Winkler (HW), Ricardo Mestres (RM) who was the Disney executive on the project, and Jack Epps, Jr. (JE). This is a preliminary meeting trying to work out the direction of the rewrite. This document is a little more non-specific. We’re looking for solutions. Jim and I came up with the solution on Friday, December 10, and then pitched it to the executives, and then Tom Hanks in the following transcriptions.

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This is the actual tape that is transcribed below.

Scope and Contents (Hooch3.Doc) 1-1. This is a transcription of our first active meeting on the project. RM is Ricardo Mestres, TH is Tom Hanks and HW is Henry Winkler, the director. This is our first meeting with Tom Hanks after pitching our approach to a group of executives. Then next meeting was pitching our approach to the actors. This is a really interesting document that shows they way Jim and I would pitch material, and also the sense of collaboration with an actor. Tom has a lot of great ideas here and...

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2-1 in the upper right corner. This is a continuation of the meeting. It’s must the second half of the document or probably the start of the next tape.