ARTIST'S STATEMENT
One hundred plus file boxes unmanageably squeezed into shelves in my garage, the drafts and notes and research materials under my keep from the 34 writing jobs I've had over the last 20 years. I needed to consolidate but could not start that process until I'd found a means to commemorate all that work. Those unlucky projects. The truly unworthy. (And the brilliant.) I briefly considered shredding everything by hand with a table saw and building a ceremonial fire. I kept imagining an un-produced script riddled with bullet holes, then bronzed like a baby shoe, for a shelf in my office. A decent memorial for jobs done. Memento Mori.
Then I fell on this title: "SHOT BY THE WRITER - Works on Paper: 1983-2004." All the works I did not own, did not control, could never have back. 22 motion picture screenplay writing assignments locked in at all the studios -- rewrites of the original work of others, adaptations of books, my own original scripts sold as pitches and written under contract. All shelved, encumbered by dropped rights, some rewritten repeatedly by others. I would cast the screenplays in bronze using the ancient lost wax method. The cover pages would be re-created on a letterpress. The owner of my gym, John MacLaren, a former Navy Seal, offered to teach me to shoot a gun. I found a firing range willing to allow me to provide my own targets.
As I "shot" the scripts for bronze casting, I was amazed by the dramatic effect of the bullets. It became clear to me that the actual "shot" scripts with their shredded, exploding words on the smashed, fibrous paper stock riding through the intense gashes of the exit wounds held their own striking visual power. Printmaker Lev Moross suggested to me that the paper scripts be photographed with a large format (8 x 10) camera to display this detail to its best advantage. Cinematographer Robert Elswit very kindly lent me his Zone VI view camera and gave me a lesson in its operation. I wanted to give my scripts glamour. I studied the lighting technique of Hollywood photographer George Hurrell. So the shreds of the typed pages and bullet-minced words might shine like the curls in Bette Davis's hair, ready for their close-up.
Instead of simply recording some kind of rite of passage for my abandoned work, I found myself drawing back in the original energy I had generously dispersed into this now-forgotten writing. I had reclaimed the words and the emotions behind them in their rawest form, pushing back to blank pages, taking back the letters and the words from before the sentences were formed, the dialogue and description written. My dead work lived on. Reborn.
PHOTOGRAPHIC WORKS BY TOM BENEDEK
PLOT HOLES #27: THE LONG, DARK TEA TIME OF THE SOUL
EDITION OF 3, 2005, 60" X 46" LIGHT JET PRINT
8X10 ZONE VI CAMERA, FUJICHROME VELVIA FILM
.500 SMITH AND WESSON MAGNUM REVOLVER
ULTRAMAX .500 S&W SPECIAL AMUNITION
FROM: THE LONG, DARK TEA TIME OF THE SOUL
SCREENPLAY ADAPTATION BY TOM BENEDEK
SUPERVISED BY RICHARD RUSH
ANDY VAJNA, PRODUCER
UNDERLYING RIGHTS OWNED BY CINERGI
PLOT HOLES #4: SHATTERED SILENCE
EDITION OF 10, 2005, 46" X 32" IRIS PRINT
8 X 10 ZONE VI CAMERA, FUJICHROME VELVIA FILM
SMITH AND WESSON MODEL 686 .357 PISTOL
FIOCCHI .45 ACP CARTRIDGES
FROM: SHATTERED SILENCE, SCREENPLAY ADAPTATION BY TOM BENEDEK
SUPERVISED BY MARTIN SCORSESE
RICHARD ZANUCK, DAVID BROWN, LILI ZANUCK, PRODUCERS
UNDERLYING RIGHTS OWNED BY WARNER BROTHERS
PLOT HOLES #11: HALFWAY HOME
EDITION OF 10, 2005, 46" X 32" IRIS PRINT
FUJICHROME VELVIA FILM
SMITH AND WESSON MODEL 686 .357 PISTOL
FIOCCHI .45 ACP CARTRIDGES
FROM: HALFWAY HOME
SCREENPLAY ADAPTATION BY TOM BENEDEK
SYDNEY POLLACK, MARK ROSENBERG, PRODUCERS
UNDERLYING RIGHTS OWNED BY UNIVERSAL PICTURES
PLOT HOLES #13: HONEY, WE ALL GOT SHRUNK
EDITION OF 7, 2005, 60" X 46" EPSON C-PRINT
8X10 ZONE VI CAMERA, FUJICHROME VELVIA FILM
.500 SMITH AND WESSON REVOLVER
ULTRAMAX .500 S&W SPECIAL AMUNITION
FROM: HONEY, WE ALL GOT SHRUNK
SEQUEL SCREENPLAY BY TOM BENEDEK
GREGG HOFFMAN, PRODUCER
UNDERLYING RIGHTS OWNED BY WALT DISNEY PICTURES
PLOT HOLES #3: BEYOND LOVE
EDITION OF 10, 2005, 46" X 32" IRIS PRINT
8X10 ZONE VI CAMERA
FUJICHROME VELVIA FILM
TAURUS 9MM AF PISTOL
AMERICAN EAGLE SHELLS
BY FEDERAL CARTRIDGE COMPANY
FROM: BEYOND LOVE
SCREENPLAY ADAPTATION BY TOM BENEDEK
UNDERLYING RIGHTS OWNED BY CANAL PLUS/BBC
PLOT HOLES #15: BOY SHAMAN
EDITION OF 5, 2005, 24" X 30" EPSON PRINT
8X10 ZONE VI CAMERA, FUJICHROME VELVIA FILM
.500 SMITH AND WESSON MAGNUM REVOLVER
MAGTECH .500 S&W MAG AMUNITION
FROM BOY SHAMAN
SCREENPLAY REWRITE BY TOM BENEDEK
SUPERVISED BY JOHN DOWNER
CHRIS BLACKWELL, LIZ HELLER, PRODUCERS
UNDERLYING RIGHTS OWNED BY PALM PICTURES
PLOT HOLES #23: KISS OF FIRE
EDITION OF 3, 2005, 30" x 40" DURATRANS
8X10 ZONE VI CAMERA, FUJICHROME VELVIA FILM
PIETRO BERETA COUGAR .45 FIOCCHI ACP CARTRIDGES
FROM: KISS OF FIRE,
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY BY TOM BENEDEK
SUPERVISED BY GEORGE COSMATOS
MARIO CASSAR, PRODUCER
UNDERLYING RIGHTS OWNED BY CAROLCO
PLOT HOLES #5: THE LONG, DARK TEA TIME OF THE SOUL
EDITION OF 3, 2005, 24" X 20" IRIS PRINT
8X10 ZONE VI CAMERA, FUJICHROME VELVIA FILM
SMITH AND WESSON MODEL 686 .357 PISTOL
FIOCCHI .45 ACP CARTRIDGES
FROM: THE LONG, DARK TEA TIME OF THE SOUL
SCREENPLAY ADAPTATION BY TOM BENEDEK
SUPERVISED BY RICHARD RUSH
ANDY VAJNA, PRODUCER
UNDERLYING RIGHTS OVNED BY CINERGI
PLOT HOLES #16: AN INNOCENT MILLIONAIRE/BOY SHAMAN
EDITION OF 10, 2005, 20" X 24" IRIS PRINT
8X10 ZONE VI CAMERA, FUJICHROME VELVIA FILM
.45 AUTO GLOCK / .45 AUTO PRECISION MADE CARTRIDGES
FROM AN INNOCENT MILLIONAIRE
SCREENPLAY ADAPTATION REWRITE BY TOM BENEDEK
JOHN AVNET, PRODUCER
UNDERLYING RIGHTS OWNED BY MGM/SONY
FROM BOY SHAMAN
SCREENPLAY REWRITE BY TOM BENEDEK
SUPERVISED BY JOHN DOWNER
CHRIS BLACKWELL, LIZ HELLER, PRODUCERS
UNDERLYING RIGHTS OWNED BY PALM PICTURES
VELVIA BOOK
MIRAGE BLUE
MUTATION 3VA