Writer Neil Gaiman got the scripting call

By Betsy Sherman, Globe Correspondent, 10/24/99

Neil Gaiman spent much of last year painstakingly composing an English-language dialogue script for the Japanese smash hit animated feature "Princess Mononoke." But when asked what his favorite part of the movie is, Gaiman unhesitatingly chooses a passage that doesn't involve words at all.

"The moment where you're looking at a rock, and then a raindrop hits the rock. Then another raindop hits the rock. Then another raindrop hits the rock. Then the rock is slick with rain, then we pull back and it's raining.

"I love that scene because it's so un-Disney, un-American. It's a beautiful scene that could have come from any great Japanese movie. Except that this movie happens to have been painted. Every time I watch the film I wind up in awe of that magical little scene. And you're talking to somebody who must have seen it now a thousand times."

The "Princess Mononoke" adaptation is an icebreaker into feature films for the 38-year-old British writer who became a cult hero in the comic book world with his hugely successful "Sandman" series (made in collaboration with illustrator Dave McKean).

Probably the first original Gaiman work to reach the screen will be an adaptation of his novel "Neverwhere," which presents the London Underground as gateway to a medieval-style alternate universe. The tale, which began life as a BBC miniseries, will be filmed by Jim Henson Productions. Gaiman is in the midst of adapting his novel "Stardust" for Miramax/Dimension Films. He adapted "Beowulf" for director Roger Avary (it has yet to be filmed). And although Gaiman wouldn't be directly involved, there is occasional talk of a film based on his Gothic take on Sandman - a DC Comics character that Gaiman transformed from its 1930s roots as a superhero into a supernatural presence who enters people's dreams. But since the film rights to Sandman are owned by famously obtuse producer Jon Peters, Gaiman personally hopes the project sinks into a permanent big sleep.

On a September morning, a rumpled Gaiman evinces a sunny disposition that's the direct opposite of his Lou Reed's-little-brother black attire and dark glasses. Over breakfast at a Cambridge hotel, he discusses his multimedia activities.

The day before, at the Brattle Theatre, he hosted the US premiere screening of the BBC "Neverwhere" and did a reading and question-and-answer session before a rapt audience. These activities were part of Gaiman's Guardian Angel Tour, the proceeds of which benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, the Northampton-based nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the First Amendment rights of the comics community. Gaiman reckons that each of his occasional mini-tours brings in about half of what it costs the CBLDF to fund a court case (which average around $30,000).

Gaiman's association with "Princess Mononoke," a fantastical fable made by venerated animator Hayao Miyazaki, began with a phone call he got in March 1998 from Miramax honcho Harvey Weinstein. After Miramax acquired "Princess Mononoke," Weinstein's immediate instinct had been to ask his shining star Quentin Tarantino to write an English script for a dubbed version. Gaiman quotes Weinstein as saying, "Quentin said it's not his thing. Quentin says I want you."

His interest piqued, Gaiman asked for a preview tape of the film. Weinstein said no, that he would have to go to Los Angeles to see the film on a movie screen. Gaiman, who lives in Minnesota with his wife and three children, flew to LA, saw the movie on the big screen, and fell in love with it.

Set in 15th-to-16th-century Japan, the film follows young Prince Ashitaka after he is wounded by a boar who turns out to be a protector-god of the forest. Ashitaka sets out in search of the secret of the god's curse. When he comes upon Iron Town, an industrial fortress run by the dashing and pragmatic Lady Eboshi, he learns of the battle between humans and the animal gods angered by the destruction of the forest. He tries to mediate between Eboshi and San (also known as Princess Mononoke), a human who was raised by wolves. Meanwhile, a duplicitous monk named Jigo leads a band of hunters who hope to profit from the death of the Great God of the Forest.

In the English-language "Mononoke," Billy Crudup is the voice of Ashitaka, Claire Danes plays San, Minnie Driver plays Lady Eboshi, Gillian Anderson plays Moro the wolf-goddess, and Billy Bob Thornton plays Jigo.

"What I love about the film is there's no good and evil," says Gaiman. "You look at what Lady Eboshi is doing and why. She's taken a dying town and rescued it. She's offering a home to the lepers, the untouchables, and the former prostitutes, whose contracts she's bought up from the brothels. All of this is laudable. And if they aren't mining the iron sand from underneath the forest, all these people will starve. So her motives are not to be dismissed."

Shades of gray

And while an environmentalist message is an overt and subliminal part of the film, "one of the best things about it is it's not 'FernGully.' It's not some easy, pat film where 'We represent the evil industrialists,' 'We represent the nice animals of the forest. Oh look! The industrialists are poisoning our rivers!' It's not that. It's complicated in so many interesting ways."

Once he took on the assignment, folklore enthusiast Gaiman delved further into Japanese fairy tales and researched Japanese history. He was given a literal translation of the Japanese script from which to work. He didn't have direct contact with Miyazaki, who doesn't speak English, but word came back to Gaiman that the creator was happy with the adaptation.

Each scene brought a wealth of challenges. "A lot of the time the film is predicated on things that you would know if you were Japanese," Gaiman explains. "I didn't want to alter these things, I wanted to translate them. I wanted to give an American audience watching it as much of a chance of getting it as a Japanese audience."

For example, early in the film, when Ashitaka slices off his topknot and renounces his warrior status, "what that symbolizes in Japan is that he's joined the dead. So I snuck that information in - an old man says, now our prince must cut his hair and join the dance of the dead and leave us, never to return.

"Similarly, when Jigo the monk is introduced, he's eating soup. In the Japanese version, he says, 'This tastes like water,' which shows that he's crude and ill-bred. But for an American audience, that's hardly an insult. So we wound up having him say 'Is this soup or donkey piss?' When you hear that line, you immediately know who Jigo is."

Gaiman grins. "I read a criticism of Billy Bob Thornton's performance. They said he came across like a Texan used-car salesman. Jigo is a used-car salesman, in every possible way!"

Even after "Mononoke" was written and recorded, Japan stayed in Gaiman's system. He has resurrected "Sandman" - which he had laid to rest in 1996 after the 75th comic - with the new graphic novel "The Dream Hunters." Its tapestry of stories, based on Japanese lore, are illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano. Gaiman's next major novel will be "American Gods."

"The thing about Hollywood that I find fascinating and irritating and sometimes gratifying," he muses, "is that it subsidizes everything else. I can spend three weeks on a short story for which I will be paid $150, because I can spend another month writing a script for a movie that no one may ever see, but it pays me an amount of money that is embarrassing and obscene. Initially, I found this upsetting and noxious and weird. These days, I figure it's a trade-off. Every now and then I get something like 'Princess Mononoke,' that's up there on the screen and it's lovely."