When someone wants a novelist to write a screenplay about growing pot, illegal get rich quick schemes and beached whales, the first person you think of wont be Douglas Coupland. But as you get deeper into the film Everythings Gone Green and find that the protagonist, Ryan [played by Paulo Costanzo] has a family where ever member is nuts in their own unique way, you discover that movie is truly Coupland-esque. His parents grow marijuana and his brother just drives him insane. Ryan has just left his job and is now searching for his new place in the world.
Check out the website for Everythings Gone Green
Daniel Robert Epstein: I read an article where you said that a producer asked you for a screenplay and this was one of a few you had.
Douglas Coupland: This was the only one I had. What happened was, in 1999 this friend of mine Michelle, who is a lawyer had a client who defaulted. She got 50 percent possession of this company that makes Grade Z slasher quickies, the absolute bottom of the barrel. She said, Why dont you write a movie that we can make for nothing in Vancouver? I was like, Okay. I did it and then Michelle tells me, Oh, I sold that company a month ago. [laughs] Thanks for telling me after I worked on it. So I put it in the kitchen drawer and then years later Radke Films phoned me up and said, Do you have a screenplay? I told them yes and they said, Lets do it. Then it took another four years after that because this is their first movie. It was their learning curve and I think they realized just how hard it is to get a fucking movie made. I cant believe anything gets made. Then I realized if youre smart enough to be making a million bucks in movies, youre smart enough to be making $100 million in hedge funds or something. People say, Oh that person is in the movies for the money. I think if youre in movies for the money youre not in movies. I became un-cynical about movies actually.
DRE: David Mamet, of course, has been working in movies a lot longer than you and even in the movies he doesnt direct he has a lot of control. It doesnt sound like you had that much control, like you really were just the writer.
DC: Yeah, I think so many people have had so many bad experiences in movies that there is a cynicism about the culture, which I didnt encounter. I think it was because it was their first production and they actually consulted me on a few things, as a courtesy I think more than anything else.
DRE: Well, it wouldnt be any good to make you upset either.
DC: I decided that since Im not a director nor do I want to be one, I have to trust these people or I would go crazy. Its like getting a book translated, I dont speak Norwegian, so we look at a list of books the translators has done and go, Hell probably get me too. Otherwise you turn into a control monster, which I think if youve been doing this for a long time you can see how people can become that.
DRE: Did you like the process of writing the screenplay?
DC: Well Im not supposed to say this, but I dont remember writing it.
DRE: [laughs] But you definitely wrote it.
DC: Yeah I did [laughs]. Since then, were doing a TV series now based on JPod. It is going to broadcast in January 2008. Its 13 hour long episodes and it got picked up so it is real. Were on episode six now. One hour shows are in this weird netherworld between half hour and features. You break an episode, that takes two afternoons and then I always get first draft and then I go to another city like Portland or Calgary or something and I lock myself into a hotel with room service coffee and just work during the day. It takes two to two and a half days to do that first pass and then after that theres notes and everything else. But the scripts themselves are just people talking with a few art direction cues thrown in. I think if I over thought it too much Id be like a millipede that was unable to walk.
Ive taken a year off writing books. Then this TV thing came up after that so it was a happy coincidence. Everyone else goes up to an office and goes to meetings and I just stay at home. It was starting to make me crazy. I wanted to have something social going on.
DRE: How did you like seeing actors saying your words?
DC: Ive seen the movie four times.
DRE: Did you see a rough cut early on?
DC: Actually no, they havent and still wont send me a DVD. Theyre so worried about YouTube and all that shit.
DRE: They think youre going to put it up on YouTube? [laughs]
DC: I promised I wouldnt put it up on YouTube. Theyre like, No.
But back to your question, the first time you see it its just like completely disembodying. The second time you see it youre more objective, Okay that was a bit slow, that was good, that was whatever. The third time, I was like, Ive seen this already. The fourth time is like, Oh I cant watch this anymore. Itll probably be another year or two before I look at it again.
DRE: Are actors like Paulo [Costanzo] and Steph [Song], what you envisioned the characters would look like?
DC: Yeah, pretty much. In a lot of the scenes, like the whale scene, they just nailed it. I never learned about actors making choices. When youre casting they will say stuff like So and so is good but they make bad choices. So theyre out. I didnt know what that meant and then I saw the actors making good choices and I was like, Okay, I can see how it could go horribly wrong. Theres this one scene under the tree when Granny [played by Chiu-Lin Tam] falls asleep. It was a really romantic scene and fortunately Paul and Steph had chemistry. I realize now thats just luck. You can put two stars together and its just like blah. So the chemistry was good, I lucked out.
DRE: This is one of your more normal fractured families. All the characters seemed to get along for the most part.
DC: This story isnt really that family-centric. Whereas JPod really is about this is a catastrophically fucked up family, but in a really entertaining way. There are lots of screwed up families that come down the pipe. Dont worry about that.
DRE: What was your intention when you first wrote the screenplay?
DC: My intention was to write a movie that could film in Vancouver for nothing. That was guiding principle number one because they had no money.
DRE: Vancouvers big thing is pot and whales.
DC: Right and also 52 percent of people in Vancouver speak Chinese at home. It is also post-industrial, we dont make anything there anymore.
DRE: You make American movies, for the most part.
DC: Pretty much. In a weird, accidental way the future of North American civic culture is that if you dont make anything anymore, what do you do with your free time? I get The New York Times everyday in Canada and I read stuff everyday like, In Gary Indiana, they closed the old Jiffy Pop Oven factory or in Virginia the last coal mine was shut down and yet Charlottesburg or whatever is making a go of it. Usually its call centers and if you dont have call centers then they have a meth problem. Its a happy coincidence that Im from Vancouver and the movie had to be set there because there is something about the city which is strange and weird and worth writing about.
DRE: I dont think theres one bit of pot smoked in this movie.
DC: No one smokes pot in Vancouver. Youd have to be a loser to smoke pot. Back in 1997 I was downtown and these punk rock kids had a book of mine and they were like, Hey, can you sign this, Doug? Then they gave me three little pot seeds. So I took them home and I put them in the planter on the back deck and watered them. But they werent thriving. A friend of mine stayed over at my house and said, We should put them with these other plants. Pot plants like to be with other plants. So I put them down by this maple tree and I came back and the plants were like Cousin It. They were massive and dripping with THC. It was like, Holy shit. I cut them down and I knew enough to hang them upside down in the garage. Then I thought, Who do I know who smokes pot? So I found a friend Jamie but he said, Oh I stopped like last year. It was ten pounds of killer bud! I couldnt find one person so I went to my parents place and burned it in the fireplace.
DRE: [laughs] Just a fun experiment then.
DC: [laughs] I think down in the States pot is a bigger deal than it is in Canada. Theres no immorality or giggles, its just like growing carrots. Its the biggest industry in BC. Especially in my parents neighborhood where half the houses are grow ops. My mom didnt believe me when I told her that so we took her for a walk through the neighborhood and said, That one and that one and that one. Shes like, This explains why we dont get trick-or-treaters anymore.
DRE: It seems like you still relate to people that are 15 or 20 years younger than you.
DC: Oh no, I only like people my own age. How old are you?
DRE: [laughs] Im 32.
DC: Oh, I got to go.
Let me tell you this, Im always very careful in my own head now to make distinctions between observations that are universal and things that are idiosyncratic to Doug. When I start looking at things as universal, well, do you remember growing up with little insert cards in magazine that ask your age like 9-15 and 16-21. I always thought those were arbitrary but theyre not. Theres a reason they have that age and not another age because youre programmed like an odometer to go through specific changes in your life at certain ages regardless of who you are or where you are or what your situation is. Your 20s are almost universally horrible and if youre 30-35 youre very lucky, its the best five years of your life so enjoy it. Then at 36 its like some other evil thing kicks in and youre going to go through God knows what. Again, its universal. Im interested in 29 to 30 because everyone went through it and thats the age where your choices stick. You dont get a get out of jail free card anymore. If you take a job youre probably going to have it for a long time. At 25 you know youre not going to be a rock star. Its a universal because if youve been there, everyone knows what its about because theyve been there too.
DRE: I know plenty of people who are into these kinds of get rich quick type schemes that are in the movie. Do you feel like this is a comment on those types of things?
DC: Do you remember growing up when you were told, like, In your career youll have five or six mini-careers. I think that people looked at that and thought, Oh God I dont want five careers, just give me a million dollars now. Thats maybe part of it because I think that everybody just gets future fatigue. I graduated from art school in 1984. The people I knew then who are happy now dont make much money but they are doing something interesting. Youre 32 and youre writing which I suspect means you like writing. I dont know whats going to happen in your future. No one knows, but youre probably going to enjoy it more than someone who you went to school with, who is doing something that makes a lot of money but isnt doing what they enjoy doing.
DRE: Youre not poor or even close to it.
DC: Wish I was richer [laughs].
DRE: But is it tough to come from a place of honesty when youre doing so well?
DC: Anyone who is creative who reads their press, good or bad, get caught in this weird Courtney Love downward spiral of self-awareness and they stop doing work. I honestly wonder about people who write one book and never write another book again. Theres a lot of that. What tripped them up? What did they do that scared them away or made them dissatisfied or unable to do another one?
DRE: If you had just done Generation X you could have rested on that for a good long time but you didnt, thank God.
DC: Well thank you. Everyone has what ifs in their lives. One of the things that is programmed into us, send me a postcard when it happens to you, is that around 39 or 40 there are regrets. Right now its just another word but youll look back on your life about that phone call you shouldnt have made or that party you should have gone to or whatever. It goes from something small to something nasty that will haunt you for the rest of your life like some old southern gothic movie. Ive got a few. Some are haunting, but all in all I think the reason Im able to do what I do on a continual basis is that Im pretty honest about whats interesting to me. I never do it because it sounds like a good idea as opposed to being something that I really feel.
DRE: I read that the selling of the movie rights for All Families are Psychotic might not have been a pleasant experience.
DC: All Families are Psychotic was optioned by Noam Murro and Biscuit Filmworks. I think Noam is still working on it. Hes doing it, I dont think I could ever adapt something of my own because it would be too much like going back in time, says he who is doing a TV series based on JPod .
DRE: Do you have any desire to direct films?
DC: God no. You have to get up early. You have to be able to give directions and Im the worlds most impatient person when it comes to things like that. Like, Do your fucking job. Act! Within five minutes Id have the whole production shut down. A friend of mine was pregnant so I filled in teaching for her at the art school for half a semester. Now I have this whole new appreciation for teachers. The only time students really raise their hand is to say stuff like, Will we be graded on attendance? and Im like Ugh! Once a week I have to sit there and keep 22 little brats preoccupied. Finally near the end of it, I felt like if I could put a name to their face or a face to their name, they got a B. If they were there for the whole semester and I couldnt picture their name or face then they have not been involved enough.
DRE: You mentioned JPod as a TV series, is that different from the TV series listed on the IMDB, Extinction Event?
DC: That was a series that we had the idea for two summers ago. But things just moved on.
DRE: Where is JPod going to air?
DC: Theyre bidding right now.
DRE: Is it something that could go on a niche station like the SciFi Channel?
DC: I think all channels are niche now. It would be fine for the SciFi Channel. I think it would be a good fit for Showtime.
DRE: Even though youre taking time off from books, do you know what you write next?
DC: Oh absolutely. Its already all in my head now. I dont talk about the book until its done. Thats hubris and Im very superstitious about that. I noticed people dont like taking holidays, because it implies you have something to take a holiday from. Im only two months in and Im enjoying it.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Check out the website for Everythings Gone Green
Daniel Robert Epstein: I read an article where you said that a producer asked you for a screenplay and this was one of a few you had.
Douglas Coupland: This was the only one I had. What happened was, in 1999 this friend of mine Michelle, who is a lawyer had a client who defaulted. She got 50 percent possession of this company that makes Grade Z slasher quickies, the absolute bottom of the barrel. She said, Why dont you write a movie that we can make for nothing in Vancouver? I was like, Okay. I did it and then Michelle tells me, Oh, I sold that company a month ago. [laughs] Thanks for telling me after I worked on it. So I put it in the kitchen drawer and then years later Radke Films phoned me up and said, Do you have a screenplay? I told them yes and they said, Lets do it. Then it took another four years after that because this is their first movie. It was their learning curve and I think they realized just how hard it is to get a fucking movie made. I cant believe anything gets made. Then I realized if youre smart enough to be making a million bucks in movies, youre smart enough to be making $100 million in hedge funds or something. People say, Oh that person is in the movies for the money. I think if youre in movies for the money youre not in movies. I became un-cynical about movies actually.
DRE: David Mamet, of course, has been working in movies a lot longer than you and even in the movies he doesnt direct he has a lot of control. It doesnt sound like you had that much control, like you really were just the writer.
DC: Yeah, I think so many people have had so many bad experiences in movies that there is a cynicism about the culture, which I didnt encounter. I think it was because it was their first production and they actually consulted me on a few things, as a courtesy I think more than anything else.
DRE: Well, it wouldnt be any good to make you upset either.
DC: I decided that since Im not a director nor do I want to be one, I have to trust these people or I would go crazy. Its like getting a book translated, I dont speak Norwegian, so we look at a list of books the translators has done and go, Hell probably get me too. Otherwise you turn into a control monster, which I think if youve been doing this for a long time you can see how people can become that.
DRE: Did you like the process of writing the screenplay?
DC: Well Im not supposed to say this, but I dont remember writing it.
DRE: [laughs] But you definitely wrote it.
DC: Yeah I did [laughs]. Since then, were doing a TV series now based on JPod. It is going to broadcast in January 2008. Its 13 hour long episodes and it got picked up so it is real. Were on episode six now. One hour shows are in this weird netherworld between half hour and features. You break an episode, that takes two afternoons and then I always get first draft and then I go to another city like Portland or Calgary or something and I lock myself into a hotel with room service coffee and just work during the day. It takes two to two and a half days to do that first pass and then after that theres notes and everything else. But the scripts themselves are just people talking with a few art direction cues thrown in. I think if I over thought it too much Id be like a millipede that was unable to walk.
Ive taken a year off writing books. Then this TV thing came up after that so it was a happy coincidence. Everyone else goes up to an office and goes to meetings and I just stay at home. It was starting to make me crazy. I wanted to have something social going on.
DRE: How did you like seeing actors saying your words?
DC: Ive seen the movie four times.
DRE: Did you see a rough cut early on?
DC: Actually no, they havent and still wont send me a DVD. Theyre so worried about YouTube and all that shit.
DRE: They think youre going to put it up on YouTube? [laughs]
DC: I promised I wouldnt put it up on YouTube. Theyre like, No.
But back to your question, the first time you see it its just like completely disembodying. The second time you see it youre more objective, Okay that was a bit slow, that was good, that was whatever. The third time, I was like, Ive seen this already. The fourth time is like, Oh I cant watch this anymore. Itll probably be another year or two before I look at it again.
DRE: Are actors like Paulo [Costanzo] and Steph [Song], what you envisioned the characters would look like?
DC: Yeah, pretty much. In a lot of the scenes, like the whale scene, they just nailed it. I never learned about actors making choices. When youre casting they will say stuff like So and so is good but they make bad choices. So theyre out. I didnt know what that meant and then I saw the actors making good choices and I was like, Okay, I can see how it could go horribly wrong. Theres this one scene under the tree when Granny [played by Chiu-Lin Tam] falls asleep. It was a really romantic scene and fortunately Paul and Steph had chemistry. I realize now thats just luck. You can put two stars together and its just like blah. So the chemistry was good, I lucked out.
DRE: This is one of your more normal fractured families. All the characters seemed to get along for the most part.
DC: This story isnt really that family-centric. Whereas JPod really is about this is a catastrophically fucked up family, but in a really entertaining way. There are lots of screwed up families that come down the pipe. Dont worry about that.
DRE: What was your intention when you first wrote the screenplay?
DC: My intention was to write a movie that could film in Vancouver for nothing. That was guiding principle number one because they had no money.
DRE: Vancouvers big thing is pot and whales.
DC: Right and also 52 percent of people in Vancouver speak Chinese at home. It is also post-industrial, we dont make anything there anymore.
DRE: You make American movies, for the most part.
DC: Pretty much. In a weird, accidental way the future of North American civic culture is that if you dont make anything anymore, what do you do with your free time? I get The New York Times everyday in Canada and I read stuff everyday like, In Gary Indiana, they closed the old Jiffy Pop Oven factory or in Virginia the last coal mine was shut down and yet Charlottesburg or whatever is making a go of it. Usually its call centers and if you dont have call centers then they have a meth problem. Its a happy coincidence that Im from Vancouver and the movie had to be set there because there is something about the city which is strange and weird and worth writing about.
DRE: I dont think theres one bit of pot smoked in this movie.
DC: No one smokes pot in Vancouver. Youd have to be a loser to smoke pot. Back in 1997 I was downtown and these punk rock kids had a book of mine and they were like, Hey, can you sign this, Doug? Then they gave me three little pot seeds. So I took them home and I put them in the planter on the back deck and watered them. But they werent thriving. A friend of mine stayed over at my house and said, We should put them with these other plants. Pot plants like to be with other plants. So I put them down by this maple tree and I came back and the plants were like Cousin It. They were massive and dripping with THC. It was like, Holy shit. I cut them down and I knew enough to hang them upside down in the garage. Then I thought, Who do I know who smokes pot? So I found a friend Jamie but he said, Oh I stopped like last year. It was ten pounds of killer bud! I couldnt find one person so I went to my parents place and burned it in the fireplace.
DRE: [laughs] Just a fun experiment then.
DC: [laughs] I think down in the States pot is a bigger deal than it is in Canada. Theres no immorality or giggles, its just like growing carrots. Its the biggest industry in BC. Especially in my parents neighborhood where half the houses are grow ops. My mom didnt believe me when I told her that so we took her for a walk through the neighborhood and said, That one and that one and that one. Shes like, This explains why we dont get trick-or-treaters anymore.
DRE: It seems like you still relate to people that are 15 or 20 years younger than you.
DC: Oh no, I only like people my own age. How old are you?
DRE: [laughs] Im 32.
DC: Oh, I got to go.
Let me tell you this, Im always very careful in my own head now to make distinctions between observations that are universal and things that are idiosyncratic to Doug. When I start looking at things as universal, well, do you remember growing up with little insert cards in magazine that ask your age like 9-15 and 16-21. I always thought those were arbitrary but theyre not. Theres a reason they have that age and not another age because youre programmed like an odometer to go through specific changes in your life at certain ages regardless of who you are or where you are or what your situation is. Your 20s are almost universally horrible and if youre 30-35 youre very lucky, its the best five years of your life so enjoy it. Then at 36 its like some other evil thing kicks in and youre going to go through God knows what. Again, its universal. Im interested in 29 to 30 because everyone went through it and thats the age where your choices stick. You dont get a get out of jail free card anymore. If you take a job youre probably going to have it for a long time. At 25 you know youre not going to be a rock star. Its a universal because if youve been there, everyone knows what its about because theyve been there too.
DRE: I know plenty of people who are into these kinds of get rich quick type schemes that are in the movie. Do you feel like this is a comment on those types of things?
DC: Do you remember growing up when you were told, like, In your career youll have five or six mini-careers. I think that people looked at that and thought, Oh God I dont want five careers, just give me a million dollars now. Thats maybe part of it because I think that everybody just gets future fatigue. I graduated from art school in 1984. The people I knew then who are happy now dont make much money but they are doing something interesting. Youre 32 and youre writing which I suspect means you like writing. I dont know whats going to happen in your future. No one knows, but youre probably going to enjoy it more than someone who you went to school with, who is doing something that makes a lot of money but isnt doing what they enjoy doing.
DRE: Youre not poor or even close to it.
DC: Wish I was richer [laughs].
DRE: But is it tough to come from a place of honesty when youre doing so well?
DC: Anyone who is creative who reads their press, good or bad, get caught in this weird Courtney Love downward spiral of self-awareness and they stop doing work. I honestly wonder about people who write one book and never write another book again. Theres a lot of that. What tripped them up? What did they do that scared them away or made them dissatisfied or unable to do another one?
DRE: If you had just done Generation X you could have rested on that for a good long time but you didnt, thank God.
DC: Well thank you. Everyone has what ifs in their lives. One of the things that is programmed into us, send me a postcard when it happens to you, is that around 39 or 40 there are regrets. Right now its just another word but youll look back on your life about that phone call you shouldnt have made or that party you should have gone to or whatever. It goes from something small to something nasty that will haunt you for the rest of your life like some old southern gothic movie. Ive got a few. Some are haunting, but all in all I think the reason Im able to do what I do on a continual basis is that Im pretty honest about whats interesting to me. I never do it because it sounds like a good idea as opposed to being something that I really feel.
DRE: I read that the selling of the movie rights for All Families are Psychotic might not have been a pleasant experience.
DC: All Families are Psychotic was optioned by Noam Murro and Biscuit Filmworks. I think Noam is still working on it. Hes doing it, I dont think I could ever adapt something of my own because it would be too much like going back in time, says he who is doing a TV series based on JPod .
DRE: Do you have any desire to direct films?
DC: God no. You have to get up early. You have to be able to give directions and Im the worlds most impatient person when it comes to things like that. Like, Do your fucking job. Act! Within five minutes Id have the whole production shut down. A friend of mine was pregnant so I filled in teaching for her at the art school for half a semester. Now I have this whole new appreciation for teachers. The only time students really raise their hand is to say stuff like, Will we be graded on attendance? and Im like Ugh! Once a week I have to sit there and keep 22 little brats preoccupied. Finally near the end of it, I felt like if I could put a name to their face or a face to their name, they got a B. If they were there for the whole semester and I couldnt picture their name or face then they have not been involved enough.
DRE: You mentioned JPod as a TV series, is that different from the TV series listed on the IMDB, Extinction Event?
DC: That was a series that we had the idea for two summers ago. But things just moved on.
DRE: Where is JPod going to air?
DC: Theyre bidding right now.
DRE: Is it something that could go on a niche station like the SciFi Channel?
DC: I think all channels are niche now. It would be fine for the SciFi Channel. I think it would be a good fit for Showtime.
DRE: Even though youre taking time off from books, do you know what you write next?
DC: Oh absolutely. Its already all in my head now. I dont talk about the book until its done. Thats hubris and Im very superstitious about that. I noticed people dont like taking holidays, because it implies you have something to take a holiday from. Im only two months in and Im enjoying it.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 7 of 7 COMMENTS
maevel:
if it's as ridiculous as all families are psychotic, it may be a good film
oleo:
oh this guy ... my first book of him was ..Life without a God ... it had the words I wanted to read all my life. 