Frequently Asked Questions

Movies, Television, Multimedia, and Plays

Are there any movies based on F. Paul Wilson’s work?

The Keep
Midnight Mass
Others (includes short films on FPW's stories: Foet, Traps, and Lipidleggin’)
Pelts
Repairman Jack

Yes, so far there have been five movies made based on the work of F. Paul Wilson. Plus, Paul keeps renewing options on other books of his to different studios. There’s no telling when a book might get picked up to be made into a film. On this note, the next movie based on an F. Paul novel looks likely to be THE TOMB. This will feature his most popular creation: Repairman Jack. If this film does well, you can bet that we'll be seeing a lot more movies based on his books.

Please visit our WORKS page-TV & Movies section for the latest information and shopping links.

The Keep

The Keep was released in 1983. It was written/directed by Michael Mann and starring the likes of Ian McKellen, Gabriel Byrne, and Scott Glenn. The general consensus is that Mann failed to fully capture the essence of the source material. There are some fans of the film out there, and a lot of Tangerine Dream fans who love its soundtrack.

What does F. Paul Wilson think of the movie version of The Keep? He dislikes it. Actually, “dislike” may be too mild a word, although his feelings towards the Michael Mann made film have mellowed ever so slightly over the years. Here was his response to what he thought of the film in 1992:

AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Here is what he had to say in 2001 (in reference to a Keep DVD release):

Let Mann do a director's commentary, and I'll do an author's commentary, pointing out what he should have done here and here . . . and there and there . . . and here and here . . .

In March 2004, F. Paul Wilson, Douglas Winter and David Schow got together to do exactly that.“The Keep Chronicle (or, Dude, Where's My Book?)” was completed yesterday in one take. I haven't heard a playback, yet, but I think it came out very well. I think Winter, Schow, and I were fair but we pulled no punches. I've got the manufacturing end pretty well worked out. Now to figure out marketing...

The commentary will eventually be released simultaneously with the DVD version on 2 CDs. It should be able to go along with the laserdisc, VHS, a forthcoming DVD release.

There is a great parody of The Keep at: http://www.ghosts.org/rj/keep.html For an excellent resource on the movie, check out Stephane Piter’s site: http://www.the-keep.ath.cx

It contains everything you could ever want to know about the movie, including scenes that were deleted; board and role-playing game tie-ins; interviews with cast and crew (plus F. Paul Wilson!), and a whole lot more.

Midnight Mass

F. Paul Wilson’s MIDNIGHT MASS novel was turned into a film by director Tony Mandile, with writing credits going to Mandile and F. Paul Wilson. It was released direct-to-video through Lions Gate July 8, 2003. F. Paul Wilson did a “10-minute or so interview for the extras” on the DVD.

The credits on the IMDB page show F. Paul Wilson as playing a character named Noah Randall. This is what he had to say about that:

It's in the opening sequence -- a brilliant series of slam cuts that give the background of the vampires' takeover in a minute or two (this is not selfcongratulation; Tony wrote that part). I'm some sort of scientist arguing with a reporter and debunking all the bogus explanations of the strange events in Europe. And I ain't bad. (A helluva lot better than I was as Dr. F. Paulson, xenobiologist, on FTL.)

Others

Over the years I've let young filmmakers adapt some of my stories into short films. I don't charge them for the rights and they're not allowed to use the films for commercial purposes. Think of them more as calling cards they can show at festivals to demonstrate their talents. Earlier this year I agreed to let three of them collect their films on a single DVD and make a few bucks. Here's another review.

The 3 shorts in Others:

“Foet” (12 min.) Pro Lifer Denise falls in love with Manhattan’s latest fashion trend: handbags made out of fetal skin.
“Traps” (18 min.) Hank begins a game of cat and mouse when his attic is overrun with what he believes to be mice.
“Lipidleggin’” (9 min.) In a near future where government controls what we eat, one man makes a stand for freedom of choice. The nice profit is a bonus.

More information and links to buy Others.

Repairman Jack

(Will be based on the novel: THE TOMB)

As of February 2005, from F. Paul Wilson’s news section:

Dare I say it? I sense . . . momentum.

The hot young star first mentioned earlier (“He-Who-Must-Not-Be- Named-Under-Pain-Of-Death” -- or HWMNBNUPOD) remains interested in playing Repairman Jack. If fact, he’s been spotted around LA wearing a Repairman Jack cap.

HWMNBNUPOD has been meeting with the producers. Beacon has decided (yet again) to find a new writer. Seems Chris Morgan, who did the latest round of revisions (#1,062 thru #1,075) has commitments that won’t allow him to complete the script in the window Beacon is working with.

Co-producer Barry Rosenbush informs me that they’ve settled on a new screenwriter. After the lawyers and agents finish their thing, and after a round of meetings, he’ll be able to start tapping the keyboard.

Last word (late Jan.): The target date to start filming in Shanghai is this summer. (Stop laughing. I don’t believe it either.) There is also talk of a video game tie-in with the movie. More information on that can be found at question #3 below.

Are there any F. Paul Wilson penned Television shows?

“Glim-Glim” (published in The Barrens and Others) is an original 30-minute teleplay that was used for the syndicated television series “Monsters”. It first aired February 4th, 1989 during the first season of the show. The Sci-Fi channel later picked up this show and broadcast it on a daily basis, but it has since gone off the air.

“Menage a Trois” (published in Soft and Others) was optioned and adapted for the show “The Hunger” which aired on Showtime in 1994. The show was later released to VHS and DVD. You can find it in the title “The Hunger: Wicked Dreams”, which you might be able to find for rent at your local video store. It’s also still available for purchase through most online retailers.

“Pelts” (published in Soft and Others) was shown on Showtime as part of their Masters of Horror series in 2006. “Pelts” was directed by Dario Argento and was adapted by Matt Venne. It has since been released on DVD.

F. Paul Wilson stated in March 2006:

I just read the Argento-ized script. Most the events from the story are there, but a load of sex has been added, the tone darkened, and all the characters have become sleazeballs. Not that my characters were in any way virtuous, but superficially they were regular people who happened to be involved in a heinous industry. The end has been changed, destroying the symmetry and thus the point of the story. The rewrite is much more typical of MoH fare.

F. Paul was able to visit the set and documented it in two posts to the message board.

Also, from F. Paul Wilson’s Bibliography:

FTL Newsfeed (with Matt Costello)
bible & story arcs: 1992-94 for the Sci-Fi Channel cable network
(work began 8/92; first aired 9/24/92)

FTL Newsfeed (with Matt Costello)
story and script: 9/26/94 to 12/23/96
daily one-minute interstitial bits for the Sci-Fi Channel cable network

How about multimedia/games?

Paul teamed up with Matthew Costello for some Interactive titles which are listed under“Interactive” in the Bibliography.

There have also been talks of a video game to be released in conjunction with the Repairman Jack film. None other than Hideo Kojima (creator of Metal Gear Solid) is supposed to be working on the game. This is what F. Paul Wilson had to say back in March 2004:

On Friday I lunched with Hideo Kojima along with his interpreter and three folks from Beacon in Santa Monica.

For those of you who don’t know, Kojima-san is the Stephen King and Stephen Spielberg of videogames.

He’s much younger than I expected—somewhere in his thirties. It was difficult to get a sense of him speaking through an interpreter, but I have the impression he’s someone I’d like to know better. We managed to discuss a little game theory and such. I learned that both he and his interpreter are big fans of Repairman Jack.

Afterward we went back to the Beacon office to see a couple of tapes. One was a demo of the engine he’s considering using on the Repairman Jack game; the other was a trailer for the new Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. I’m not exaggerating when I say this man is a genius. MGS3 is awe inspiring -- amazingly immersive and will set a new highwater mark for videogames.

We were all in accordance that the RJ game should kick ass. He’ll be sent the new (and hopefully final) script to see if he can adapt that, or he’ll set the game post-Nightworld. (So for you who’ve wanted to know what Jack’s up to after Nightworld, this will be the only place to find out.) I think the latter scenario will give him the most latitude, but whatever he decides I know Jack will be well treated. He has tremendous respect for the character and I have tremendous respect for him.

They’re supposed to start working on the deal his week. Beacon wants him to do the game. Kojima-san wants to do the game. And since Konami wants what Kojima-san wants, this looks very, very good.

Are there any plays written or based on work by F. Paul Wilson?

Yes, there have been two plays: “Syzygy” and “Pelts”. F. Paul Wilson also mentioned this one:

Well...just for the hell of it I did a musical comedy called =Wordplay!= with a local musician. Couldn't give it away.

Syzygy

“Syzygy” was written by F. Paul Wilson and Matthew Costello. The St. Augustine Community Theater at the Ponce De Leon Mall in St. Augustine, Florida first performed it back in March of 2000. Paul had this to say March 9, 2003:

A syzygy is an alignment of planets. =Syzygy= the play started out as an episodic show Matt Costello and I were developing for MSN's entertainment channel. That went belly up so we turned it into a stage play. It was mostly an excuse for us to write the kind of play we'd love to see--sort of like James Whale's =The Old Dark House=. It's a lighthearted horror story involving a fresh twist on a host of cliches: a lockedroom murder (always wanted to do one of those), a mysterious scientific breakthough, strange lights in the sky, bottomless holes in the earth (love those bottomless holes), aliens, a weirdo gardener, a tipsy dipsy maid, etc. Hardly anyone in the play turns out to be who they seem to be. Lots of fun to write and the audiences in St. Augustine seemed to love it.

Pelts

There have been multiple versions of this story. It is a novelette, a stage play, and it was turned into a graphic story based on the stage play. Both the story and stage play are available in the anthology The Barrens and Others. It was commissioned for an Off- Broadway production in 1991, but was later canceled. So far no performances of this story have ever taken place.