Early Childhood
The original typed Labor Days document was a pitch I threw together in the days after our initial brain storm session, without Rick's knowledge. I was genuinely intrigued by this idea of a mysterious tape and I started to pull together a number of sources of inspiration in the hopes of stumbling on a story that would be fun to do.
It gave an initial form to Benton Bagswell ( though his original name was Bertrand). It gave him a job ("Chores for Hire"). It gave the story a structure (12 labors). It gave Bags a personality (skeptical-sarcastic-loser).
It also added a number of new characters to the mix. Among these were the marxists, Bags's ex-girlfriend, and Rick Stryker (much more on him soon).
The one thing it didn't add was a title. It would be at least 6 or 7 months before the words "Labor Days" became associated with the work at all.
I don't know quite what Rick thought about the pitch upon first receiving it.
But I do know the first thing he said to me was "It's good but we need to change Bertrand's name... how about his name is Benton Bagswell and his friends call him 'Bags'?"
And after a brief discussion, it was agreed that I would write a script and we'd go from there.
Oh and then we got gun-swords, rented hyper-armor, fled the space castle and stormed the fiery ramparts of Mega-Fortress Void.
Next installment? the horrors of a first script.
It gave an initial form to Benton Bagswell ( though his original name was Bertrand). It gave him a job ("Chores for Hire"). It gave the story a structure (12 labors). It gave Bags a personality (skeptical-sarcastic-loser).
It also added a number of new characters to the mix. Among these were the marxists, Bags's ex-girlfriend, and Rick Stryker (much more on him soon).
The one thing it didn't add was a title. It would be at least 6 or 7 months before the words "Labor Days" became associated with the work at all.
I don't know quite what Rick thought about the pitch upon first receiving it.
But I do know the first thing he said to me was "It's good but we need to change Bertrand's name... how about his name is Benton Bagswell and his friends call him 'Bags'?"
And after a brief discussion, it was agreed that I would write a script and we'd go from there.
Oh and then we got gun-swords, rented hyper-armor, fled the space castle and stormed the fiery ramparts of Mega-Fortress Void.
Next installment? the horrors of a first script.
