Conservative estimates on my part gave a rough running time of HOD to be about 6-7 minutes.

The first cut is 14 minutes 23 seconds and that’s sticking exclusively to the script with no additional material thrown in for good measure.

Granted it’s a bit flabby at the end, but even so, if the final cut drops below 10 minutes I’ll be surprised.

Whoever said a page of screenplay equals a minute of screentime was blatantly lying!

Still, it seems to work. I’m a bit jaded at the moment, so I’ll reserve further comment until I’ve watched it all the way through with a fresh pair of eyes.

BTW, if anyone reading this knows what Fine Line, the subsidiary of New Line, are doing with Foucault’s Pendulum, I’d love to know. I’d give my right arm to have a crack at that screenplay (and just about anything to make it!).

I worked out a Dramatica storyform for it earlier this evening. It’s a complex book, but there’s a cracking film there waiting to get out.

Apprently Kubrick wanted to make it into a film, but Umberto Eco had reservations about giving the rights away after the hash they made of The Name of the Rose. Fine Line acquired the rights to it in 2000, but seem to have simply sat on it. I wonder if they’re struggling to find the right writer?

OI! I’M OVER HERE!

I just finished reading it again yesterday. I haven’t read it for about ten years, and hadn’t realised what a huge impact it has had on my life. SToA rose out of it, as did several other crackpot ideas I’ve had for web sites and films.

Awesome book.