Terry Jones
Creating the Wonders of "Labyrinth"

The former Monty Python member now crafts charming children's stories
and finds a "forgotten rule" to revive "Gremlins."

by Kim Howard Johnson

Jones Terry Jones is a writer held captive by the Goblins of Labyrinth.
� � � From the heights of the Flying Circus to the depths of the Labyrinth, Monty Python's Terry Jones, writer/director/ performer, has made the transition with ease.
� � � This time, however, the leader of Hell's Grannies is concentrating his talents on the other side of the camera, as Jones has produced the screenplay for director Jim Henson's upcoming fantasy/adventure, a film executive produced by George Lucas.
� � � "Jim had the basic story for Labyrinth," Jones explains. "But I really agreed to do it on the basis of the characters. I wanted to have a fairly free hand at the episodes. I just started fresh, using the same characters.
� � � "In some ways, Labyrinth was Brian Froud's project - he's the man who does the conceptual designs and drawings on which the models are based. I think he had come up with the idea of doing something about a labyrinth. I had Jim's outline, and then I had piles and piles of Brian's drawings. I just sat down with his sketches - every time I came to a scene, I would flip through his pictures until I cane to one that I liked, and I would write that character in. I was collaborating in a funny way with Brian Froud [STARLOG #66]."
� � � With only two human actors (David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly) in the film, Jones found himself in a unique position. As screenwriter, he "chose" almost the entire cast. He notes that he loves the freedom offered by such fantasies, both in his Monty Python days (STARLOG #91, #93) and during more recent stints as a successful children's book author. Indeed, his involvement with Labyrinth resulted from penning Fairy Tales and The Saga of Erik the Viking.
� � � "I had been thinking about turning Erik the Viking into a film, and thought it was something Jim Henson might be interested in," Jones recalls. "I rang up his office, and they said, 'That's funny - he was trying to reach you yesterday.' So, Jim and I met up - he was setting up Labyrinth at that stage, and he wanted to know if I would like to write the screenplay. We chatted. Eventually, I agreed to have a go at it.
� � � "Jim's daughter, Lisa - who works for Warner Bros. now - had just read Erik the Viking and suggested that he try me as screenwriter - and that's how it came about! I hadn't really known Jim before our Labyrinth meeting. We had bumped into each other when the Pythons were first in the States. We were in the street, getting out of, cars, when he called out, 'Hi, I'm Jim Henson!' That was about 1975, but we hadn't met since then.
Jim Henson is "really smashing to work with," Jones notes,
whether he's directing Labyrinth's human stars
(like Jennifer Connelly) or planning the film fantasy. 		JC & JH

A Maze Story

� � � The story Henson gave to Jones to script centers on a girl whose baby brother is snatched by goblins, and her attempts to get him back. She must travel to the Land of the Goblins and enter a labyrinth to get into the Goblin City and find the Goblin King. Jones says he was able to concentrate on the characters and the adventurous episodes after getting Henson's outline.
� � � Although he doesn't know how much of his screenplay is being used in the completed film, the energetic Welshman says he will receive the screen credit. "Jim says he reckons it's my screenplay, basically," Jones explains. "I look at it and much of it seems to be changing - it seems to be very different from what I wrote, so I don't know... In the end, though, I felt 'It's Jim Henson's Labyrinth, so if he wants it to be about that, fine.'
� � � Jones has nothing but praise for Henson.
� � � "Jim is great, really smashing to work with - he's the kind of person one wants to do things for because he's so nice and so straight - even when we disagreed, about things. He's always open to other ideas.
� � � "The things I like most about Labyrinth are not necessarily things I contributed," the writer/performer smiles. "I had an idea to do this Shaft of Hands - she falls down this dark shaft with these hands sticking out, hands all talking to each other - and it actually works! They've realized it much better than I imagined it when I wrote it down as an idea. In a way, my best contribution was just starting off something that the puppet makers have made much better and improved. I just started the ball rolling, but I think it's the sequence that works best."
� � � The writing itself came easily. "I sat down with Jim's basic storyline and Brian's drawings, and I began writing. It wrote itself very quickly - the first draft came out in about three weeks - It happened so quickly because the characters were already there, as were Brian's sketches. Whenever I got to a situation where I wanted to invent a character, all I had to do was take Brian's creations and give them words. Brian and I weren't working together, but it was as if we were collaborating because I was springing off his drawings.
� � � "I'm doing the same sort of thing at the moment. We're producing a book called Goblins of the Labyrinth - I've got piles of Brian's drawings, and I'm writing little character studies about each drawing. So, we're 'collaborating' again!
� � � "It's similar to the writing of my other children's books, as opposed to scripting Python material, for example, as one is writing a fantasy-adventure, "Jones explains. "I've also just written another children's book which recently came out in England, Nicobobinus, and writing it was very similar, too." [Skip to end]

And "Gremlins," Too

� � � At an early stage, Jones was also involved with Gremlins II - The Forgotten Rule, a projected sequel to Joe Dante's Gremlins (STARLOG #85). "I wrote a story outline for them," Jones relates. "It was funny. I hadn't meant to get involved with it, but I talked with Steven Spielberg and Joe Dante. I told them I didn't think I was the right person to do it.
� � � "Then, I suddenly got an idea for Gremlins II. I wrote it down and gave them the outline. I don't know whether they're going to use it - I'm not sure what they're doing, actually. They might just use bits of it or none at all My outline all takes place in America, so didn't think I was necessarily the best person to actually write it down."
� � � Jones notes that his story involved a "forgotten rule," and used many of the characters from the first Gremlins, but the rest of the tale is hidden inside the Spielberg cone of silence. "I don't think I can say anymore, really," Jones laughs, "in case they're using something of mine."
� � � He has enough work this year without adding Gremlins II to the list. In addition to the Goblins book, Jones also has some screenplays - including a film version of Nicobobinus - and a directing assignment ahead.
� � � "I'm also in the middle of scripting Erik the Viking for Warner Bros. I wrote one that I wasn't very happy with - it wasn't different enough from the book to be worth making into a movie, so I never sent it to Warners. But, I'm now working with a chap called David Leland, and it's changing quite rapidly and getting quite interesting.
� � � "I'm collaborating with David on Personal Services. He scripted the film and I'm directing it this spring. It's about a lady in South London who ran a brothel. The girls were giving their favors in return for luncheon vouchers.
� � � "I like doing my own projects. This is the first film I've agreed to do that somebody else has written - it's a new experience for me. It's not something that I'm particularly anxious to do, but I thought this was such a good script that I would have a go at it," says Jones, who also directed Life of Brian and Meaning of Life, and co-directed Monty Python and the Holy Grail with fellow Python Terry Gilliam.
� � � Before the question is even asked, Jones can sense its approach, and smiles. "I would have to say 'Probably not.' I don't see any immediate likelihood of a Python reunion," he says, and reveals the activities of the other five Pythons.
� � � Terry Gilliam has Brazil (STARLOG #102) in release. He hopes to film his Adventures of Baron Munchhausen. John Cleese has starred as a British headmaster in Clockwise, to be released later this year, while Graham Chapman is preparing to shoot Ditto from a story by Cleese and himself. While trying to sell his science-fiction script, Eric Idle is developing a project about the Rutland Isles. Jones' most frequent Python collaborator, Michael Palin, has just completed one solo screenplay and starts another shortly.
� � � Steven Spielberg has announced that he would like the Monty Python group to do an episode of Amazing Stories, a report which surprises Jones. "I hadn't heard anything about that," he muses. "It sounds a bit like Ripping Yarns, really, the shows I wrote with Mike. Still, it is an interesting thought.

KIM HOWARD JOHNSON, veteran STARLOG correspondent, is the author of The Compleat Monty Python. He examined Brazil in issue #102.

STARLOG / May 1986 � 1986 by O'QUINN STUDIOS, INC.

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