Fencewalker

[Libby]

Also: I'm sure he mentioned at one time that many years ago he wrote or had thoughts to write a script about conscription for the Vietnam War. Conscription ended in 1973 when CC was 17 or so, and I wonder how he and others felt about seeing youngsters not much older than him going off to fight a war nobody wanted. If he wanted to get political in this movie, he's got quite a lot from his own background to use.

[Guest Laurent.]

Very interesting Libby... do you remember when and where he mentionned this?

[Libby]

Very interesting Libby... do you remember when and where he mentionned this?

I actually managed to find the article! It was in the February 1997 Rolling Stone magazine. It was CC's first attempt at scriptwriting, encouraged by Dori:

It was called National Pastime, and it was about three kids going off to Vietnam, from my socioeconomic level, and the injustices of who goes and who doesn't. When I go back and read it today, I cringe, because I really didn't know my craft then like I do now. But there's still a story there to tell. Do you know how everybody out there wants to get an agent? I didn't -- I wasn't really pushing it at all. I wrote this thing and actually had the luxury of being able to hand it to someone -- an agent who was a cousin by marriage -- who had the ability then to put it out. She got some feedback, and basically ... nothing happened. So I had to write a second script, a big comedy, which was seen by Jeffrey Katzenberg [then the head of production at Disney]. And Jeffrey Katzenberg, for very little money -- what seemed like a lot of money to me -- gave me an office and a secretary. I don't think I ever made more than $18,000 a year at Surfing, and he gave me $40,000. So one day I was in the surf, and the next day I was driving to Burbank.

[Blackoil]

Libby, do you have a link to the full version of this interview? I guess I never read it and it looks quite interesting.

[Libby]

Libby, do you have a link to the full version of this interview? I guess I never read it and it looks quite interesting.

I can't find it online - I don't think Rolling Stone's archives go back that far. I'm thinking about putting the articles I have up on my web page, but I'll have to think about the best way of doing that - according to Windows Explorer there are over 600! I'll let you know when I've sorted something out.

[Blackoil]

OK, thanks! :)

[Blackoil]

I was googling for some Fencewalker cast pictures and found some pretty cool ones and I decided to share them. So this is how Fencewalker actors look like:

Natalie Dormer

Katie Cassidy

Alvin "Xzibit" Joiner

Derek Magyar

Mehcad Brooks (that initial The Hollywood Reporter article incorrectly listed him as "Meckah Brooks" and now all other movies sites spell his name wrong. How stupid of them. Poor Mehcad.)

I dunno why but Natalie Dormer's appearance kinda reminds me of Sarah Jane Redmond. I'm not saying that they're lookalikes but I find some likeness. Maybe it's just me.

And I have to say it became kind of hard to find those little tidbits and mentions about Fencewalker like we used to do -- all this "inside" information is dissolved in The Hollywood Reporter article's copies all over internet. Googling became hard lol.

[Orodromeus]

Hm the female cast has just rekindled my interest

@Libby: 600 articles?! If that's not too much to ask, yes I'd be interested! I didn't know about that Vietnam project either. Also, in the 1960-1970s there was much more racial tension than there is now, so that's an argument for placing Fencewalkers in that period. That being said, racial undertones still exist today.

[Blackoil]

Hm the female cast has just rekindled my interest

Yeah, they're hot.

[Libby]

Libby, do you have a link to the full version of this interview? I guess I never read it and it looks quite interesting.

@Libby: 600 articles?! If that's not too much to ask, yes I'd be interested! I didn't know about that Vietnam project either. Also, in the 1960-1970s there was much more racial tension than there is now, so that's an argument for placing Fencewalkers in that period. That being said, racial undertones still exist today.

I've put just this one article up on my website for now. I think it would make sense, in view of the number of articles I have, to rearrange them into season order rather than calendar order as I have now, so that will take a bit of time. However, you can access this article on my website but only by using the direct url:

www.chelonium.plus.com/txf/articles/1997-02-20%20Rolling%20Stone.html

This is one of the most interesting articles I've read - either the interviewer did a really good job or CC was in a mellow frame of mind! CC relates an anecdote about Lance that I've not seen anywhere else.