Crampton/X-Files Script

Ascrobius

Ascrobius

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THOMAS LIGOTTI & BRANDON TRENZ Crampton (X-Files vers.) - eBay (item 260723377404 end time Jan-23-11 15:15:15 PST)

Here's a little thingy I snatched up on Ebay last night. With all the various TL collectible's I own, this rates among the coolest, at least to me, since there are few of them floating around out there. Although of course I have Crampton, and I may have actually read a copy of this in digital format, this is cool in that the X-Files references are intact, versus the Crampton script, where they were removed. Not a big-ticket item by any means, but nifty none the less.
 
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I think Michigan Basement would have been cool as well, having read it. I'd be disappointed if the only Ligotti story every put to film was The Frolic, as it is among my least favorite, and in my opinion, least Ligottian stories in Tom's literary corpus. I don't dislike it, but to me it doesn't embody many of my favorite elements that draw me so powerfully to so much of his other work. It's about as conventional a story as Tom ever wrote, and like I said, it just never dazzled me. I always thought it was odd that TNF opened with that story, considering how it contrasts so starkly with most of the rest of the stories in the collection.
 
Hello Mssrs. I just came across a copy of this on eBay and purchased it post-haste. An interesting item, for sure! Can't wait until it arrives.
 
Ascrobius said:
I think Michigan Basement would have been cool as well, having read it. I'd be disappointed if the only Ligotti story every put to film was The Frolic, as it is among my least favorite, and in my opinion, least Ligottian stories in Tom's literary corpus. I don't dislike it, but to me it doesn't embody many of my favorite elements that draw me so powerfully to so much of his other work. It's about as conventional a story as Tom ever wrote, and like I said, it just never dazzled me. I always thought it was odd that TNF opened with that story, considering how it contrasts so starkly with most of the rest of the stories in the collection.
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I have to agree. I bought the Frolic Collectors DVD, but that was just to support Tom. It's not that it's poorly done, but it just has no atmosphere, none of the Ligotti-feel. It reminds me of some of the so-called Lovecraftian movies out there that were apparently written and directed by people who have never read Lovecraft. I like the story well-enough, but I have to agree...it's not a great representation of the overall corpus of work.

If I were to vote for what should get made into a movie, I'd say “The Last Feast of Harlequin” would work best, with my second choice being Teatro Grottesco. I haven't been able to get a copy of the Crampton screenplay...all the copies that show up on the net are too expensive for my resources.
 
my vote for big-screen ligotti adaptation would be "My Work Is Not Yet Done." I read on a different thread that this book began as a horror movie script, and I think it would be vastly entertaining on the big screen. second choice is "The Shadow, the Darkness" as they could put an actual copy of TCATHR in there.
 
Yeah...I've shared with Tom that I felt as though MWINYD would be an outstanding film should the story be translated into an appropriate screenplay and executed as such into the film medium. Aside from the fact that it seems particularly relevant when one examines the "state of things" in the world today. That's not to mention the fact that shooting it one of the more dilapidated areas of Detroit, if possible, may help supply the inordinate amount of dark atmosphere inherent in the story itself, should someone be brave enough to shoot film there. Lord know there are other things being shot there. ;)
 
Is the X-Files Crampton still available on the web for viewing? The photocopied version you mention is still on eBay, but the international postage is double the cost of the actual photocopy itself!
 
David Lynch's production company did option last feast for a bit so there was a chance of a lynch adaptation of that story coming to pass. Oh what could have been...
 
luciferfell said:
David Lynch's production company did option last feast for a bit so there was a chance of a lynch adaptation of that story coming to pass. Oh what could have been...
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I think Lynch is the only director that could do a Ligotti adaptation justice. There are great directors out there but every time I watch a Lynch film, I think "THAT'S what the atmosphere would look like". True, Oh what could have been
 
I've mentioned before that my pick for an ideal Ligotti film would be an anthology in the style of Creepshow or the Twilight Zone movie, since so much of his output functions best as a short glimpse of something unspeakable. I'd love to see some stop-motion animation incorporated, since it's an inherently Ligottian aesthetic (real objects moving in an unreal way). After Beyond The Black Rainbow, I think Panos Cosmatos would be an excellent choice to helm an anthology of Ligotti's corporate terror stories (but perhaps not MWINYD itself, since it needs someone who also has a strong grasp of plot and Cosmatos is more focused on tone and mood).
 
hi, ive got a copy of the x-files version of crampton on a word doc; i just cut and pasted it when it was available online. ive got no problem putting it up for anyone to have, but i dont want to step on anyones toes or breach anything. if someone with pure naked power (at least, as far as this site goes) can tell me 1) its ok to do it; and 2) how to do it, then no probs.
 
I'd love to be able to check out the Crampton screenplay.

BTW, recently...in re-reading "The Shadow, The Darkness" in Teatro Grottesco, I noticed that "Crampton" is also the name of the "dead town" in which the characters take their "physical-metaphysical excursion".

So I'm curious, is it the same town, and is there a continuity between the two pieces, or is Tom just using "Crampton" as a generic name for his quintessentially Ligottiesque locale?
 
In Edward Gorey's The Willowdale Handcar (which is in the collection Amphigorey), one of the captions reads:

They visited the ruins of the Crampton vinegar works, which had been destroyed by a mysterious explosion the preceding fall.

Aside from the name, I doubt that Ligotti's Crampton and Gorey's Crampton are the same place. If Ligotti deliberately took the name from the Gorey book (who knows?), this probably could be considered as similar to his naming a character Blecher and naming a story "The Red Tower" (also the title of a Giorgio de Chirico painting of a mysterious red tower). Someone could do an "Annotated Ligotti."
 
Finished the non-Xfiles version last night. I wish TL would write more screenplays. While I wish Id have gotten one with the X-Files references, it wasn't hard reading the dialogue with Mulder & Scully's voices in my head. 4/5 CHG
 
Would second tonalized's rec that Ligotti write more screenplays. I tended to like the standard Crampton version vs. the X Files Crampton but that is primarily because of the additional scenes in Crampton that would have had to be cut for a TV show. Both are great in my opinion and it would have been awesome to see Scully and Mulder in a Ligottian universe, if only for an episode.
 
Hello, I am very much interested in a copy of Crampton. It is not on eBay at the moment, and I'm assuming it would be very expensive. Does anyone have it in a Word file? Please delete this post if it is not appropriate.
 
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