Andrew’s Version of Hook

[Dani1923]

Andrew,

Just read the part of you mentioning that you wrote your own version of the movie Hook before Spielberg made the film! Would love if you shared the script if you still have it and it’s legal to do so, or you could just share the summary of what the story of the movie was! A movie about Barrie becoming Captain Hook sounds very interesting, so I’m very interested to know the story and direction you came up with for that concept!

[andrew]

A misunderstanding, I never wrote any version of "Hook", in fact had nothing to do with it, other than visiting the set in LA.  Mine was more or less based on Peter Pan, with Barrie as a character who flits in and out.
The idea originated with Francis Coppola, who read my Barrie book (bizarrely, while editing "Apocalypse Now!") and wanted to base a film around it, without realising that we’d already made The Lost Boys.
We had a few meetings (I liked him a lot, and was a big fan of the first two Godfather films as well as Apocalypse) and between us came up with the idea of making Peter Pan but somehow interweaving it with the Barrie/Davies story.
To cut a long story short, Coppola’s studio Zoetrope went bust, so I took the idea to Paramount. I was having lunch in the canteen with Jeff Katzenburg when Michael Eisner (who was running the studio) came sauntering over. Katzenburg whispered “Here’s your chance to sell him the idea“ then introduced us.
“Why would we want to remake Peter Pan? What’s your pitch?“
Munching a few extra seconds on my hamburger to give me time to think, I re-giggled an Oscar Wilde line with Barrie's:
“All children grow up. That is their tragedy. Except one. That’s his.“
Eisner nodded. “You gotta deal.“
After he’d gone, Katzenburg patted me on the back. “Well, you’ve got your picture, but first I want you to write us mine.“
“What’s that?“
“The story of David.“
“David who?”
“The guy who killed Goliath.”
Groan - and another, even a longer story ensued ...

[Dani1923]

I’m sorry your Peter Pan film was never made Andrew! Sounds like it would have been a great and interesting film!

And since I’m also a big fan of Disney, I find it interesting to read that you interacted with Katzenberg and Eisner since they became bigwigs at the Disney Company later on. I could go on and on about the stuff they did there, but I won’t since that’s not what this forum is about, but their times at the studio were *ahem* INTERESTING to say the least!