My life in Paris are well behind me. My last visit was in 2001. Like New York I'm sure Paris has changed during my years in Thailand. Thanks to Facebook I have been able to reconnect with old friends and I was pleased to hear that the famed cartoonist Tanino Liberatore was alive. I had the pleasure of working with him on three projects; two cartoons and the adaptation of his classic tale of an android in love with a 12 year-old junkie RANXEROX.
The director was Jean Mondino. The script had been written by Pierre Grillet. They needed an English screenplay to attract Hollywood money. I wasn't a particularly good writer and my only friend lessons had been in 4th and 5th grades, but they were my friends and I had just finished EMMANUELLE 3 for Paramount-France.
Not better or worse I was the man for the job and I sat down for a week to type out 100 pages of a futuristic search for Elvis' lost master tapes. Lubna was addicted to a drug. Pierre had called it 'bleu'. I used the word 'heroin' in my adaptation. I gave the script back to Mondino and said read it before you give it to anyone.
He must ahve been under pressure for the producers, because he sent the screenplay untouched to Hollywood. Drugs were rampant in the film world, but the 80s were the time of Nancy Reagan's Just Say No. Those hypocrites read heroin and axed any financing for the project.
I was rightfully blamed for the disaster and my translation work dried up faster than split water on a Death Valley highway.
I remained friends with everyone, because failure isn't a fault in France.
Not for your friends.
Check out ranXerox the graphic novel.
Here are the images;
http://images.google.com/images?q=ranxerox&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=5y9oS-LXJIfk8QatmcCxBw&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CB4QsAQwAA
you are gay! all right!
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