Hey everyone!
So sorry for the radio silence the past couple weeks - work has been crazy busy!
I thought it might be fun to let everyone know some of the "behind the scenes" moments in the creation and writing of season one. A lot of things changed during the course of the writing that you may, or may not, I'll be real about it, be interested in knowing. :-)
WARNING: Do not read any further if you have not read all of season one. Some of the information below contains spoilers.
DID YOU KNOW?:
- That in the original outlines of the show, dru-maddoX.com was not only going to feature gay scenes, but lesbian and straight scenes as well. The latter two were scrapped simply because I thought it might be too much too soon. While there was a "straight" sex scene in episode 3, I wanted the focus of the show to be on the core characters and I feared adding the lesbian / straight scenes to the site would involve too many characters right off the bat. Who knows, maybe in future seasons I'll add the lesbian and straight scenes to the site.
- There were no plans to put Dru/Reese or Austin/Kyle together. The original outlines called for a 4-way love circle, so to speak. Each guy was going to like another guy, who really liked another guy and so forth. IE: Dru was in love with Reese, who was in love with Kyle, who was in love with Austin, who was in love with Dru. Complicated, right? I opted to do away with that shortly after writing the first episode. You can see the initial ground-work of this 4-way love circle in episode 1, then it slowly fades away after episode 2 and we start seeing the Dru/Reese and Kyle/Austin pairings begin to happen.
- Ian Andrews was never intended to become who he became. He was literally just going to be a catalyst to bring Austin and Kyle closer together. I never had planned on him essentially becoming a crazed/obsessed stalker for Austin. That just kind of started happening as I was writing episode 5. I liked it, so I ran with it. SEASON TWO SPOILER: We'll see Ian at least once in season two. Austin has unfinished business with him ;-)
- Oh Courtney. I absolutely adore her. No matter what wild and crazy thing I come up with for her to possibly say or do, it always just seems to work. The sky's the limit with her. I especially liked in episode 3 when she sorta became friends with April. Those were some fun scenes to write.
- Speaking of Courtney - you might be surprised to know that she and Reese were technically never planned on being "series regulars" as it would be said in the TV world. They were both planned on being recurring characters. That changed very quickly for Reese after the first episode when I absolutely fell in love with writing scenes for he and Dru. They just meshed so perfectly that I decided I had to keep Reese around the entire time. It wasn't decided on Courtney until episode 2. Man, I'll never be able to look at a wire coat hanger the same again!
- My absolute favorite scene of the entire first season? It might surprise you. It was in episode 4, act 3. The scene where Kyle first admits his feelings about Austin to April on the back patio in the swing. Mother like April giving a very childish Kyle advice on gay love. I adore that scene. I thought it really gave us a strong look at how April fits into this entire story as well. She is, like it or not, the mother figure to all these horny gay boys.
- The show was always planned on being set in San Diego, CA. There was a brief moment where I considered moving it to Los Angeles, Van Nuys in particular, but I scrapped that. I have another, currently untitled, gay drama/mystery series that I'm working on which would be set in West Hollywood, CA and I didn't want two shows set in the same place. SEASON TWO SPOILER: You'll get to explore this other potential gay drama/mystery series towards the end of season two with a special crossover episode that will feature Dru and Reese introducing us to this new series and at least two of it's main characters. If the audience likes it enough, I'll write more of it :-)
- Austin was always slated to be the second male lead of the show. Reese, coming out of nowhere, stole that spot. I didn't realize until I was about 20 pages into the first episode that I hadn't even brought Austin into the picture yet. Not a good sign for the planned second male lead. I also never had mapped out that Austin was going to be, for lack of a better word, an ass! I still to this day don't know why I just made you hate him in the first few episodes. It totally worked and I had fun writing it, but ya, even I can't explain that one.
- The "fuck-off" in episode 3 was always planned to be something huge. I tossed around so many different ideas on how/what that scene should be. It was the first sex scene between the biggest gay porn star out there and the hottest fresh piece of meat the gay porn world has seen in years. The plan from the beginning for was it to be a BDSM scene. I tossed around the idea of turning it into a orgy of sorts, or a 3-way with Dru. Yes, with Dru. But then decided to keep the original plan of Austin dominating Reese with Reese turning the tables on Austin and dominating him. Throwing in each of them thinking about the ones they loved (Dru and Kyle) having sex with them during the scene was a spur of the moment decision when I was writing it. I think it really worked. It also led to a cool scene with Austin / Reese afterwards. I also wrote that scene with the thought in the back of my head, if this show ever gets produced, that would be fucking hot as hell to watch! Guilty pleasures :-)
- Austin's house arrest was originally slated to end in episode 6. When I got to the writing of that episode, I opted to keep it going into season two. While creativity restricting in a lot of ways, keeping Austin trapped at the house makes sense with the current plans for season two. This was however a fun way to give Tony and RJ more to do. They became Austin's eyes and ears outside the house. I had a lot of fun writing their scenes in episode 4. Look for them to make some more appearances in season two.
- I truly enjoyed the April / May scenes in Episode 6. We got to see a different side of April, which I think made her stronger. I really hesitated with using May Flowers as her ex's name but the idea of April Showers and May Flowers was just to absurd not to use. SEASON TWO SPOILER: We certainly have not seen the last of May. There's complex arc planned over the first 4 episodes of season two that will feature her return, but not in a way you might expect.
- We have however, seen the last of Courtney's sister Kim. That just didn't play out the way I thought it would. Kim served her purpose in episode 5 but I currently don't see any need for her to return to the series. Who knows, maybe that will change, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
- Courtney was originally named Jessica.
- I'm big on picking a soundtrack to listen to on repeat when I'm writing something. I won't go into what my soundtrack was for this particular series, but the one song that got it all started was Ellie Goulding's "Anything Could Happen" - which is where the title of the pilot came from. I had the thought from the first time I heard the song that it would be an awesome theme song for a TV show. In my head, it's the theme song for dru-maddoX.com. Start around the 3:59 mark in the song and play it out :-)
- The original working title for the show was XXX. That was scrapped a) because of the movie franchise and b) it felt like it would be about nothing but porn, which is not what this show's about. I opted with dru-maddoX.com instead, capitalizing the X to keep the porn reference there, but making it less prominent. This idea is actually how Dru got his last name. It had to end with the X and there aren't a lot of options out there. It was between Maddox and Mattox - with Maddox winning out.
- One of the initial concepts had the characters all working together at either an office building or some type of restaurant or porn store. Those were all quickly dismissed.
LOOKING AHEAD TO SEASON TWO:
- We will meet Reese's mother for the first time. She's going to have some issues with her son being in porn.
- The "movie battle" between Austin/Dru and Reese/Kyle will be the primary focus of the season. One of the pairs' movies will feature the company's first 3-way. You might very be surprised as to who's in it! This battle will also put strain on our couples' relationships and possibly lead to the end of one.
- April gets an opportunity that could dramatically change her role with the site and her relationship with Dru.
- The boys will get their first taste of a yet-to-be-named porn awards. What happens following those awards however, will change absolutely everything and turn the site literally, upside down.
- Poor Kyle. This poor kid can't seem to catch a break. Life for him after turning 21 has been anything but ideal. Sadly for him, it's about to get worse. Something will happen that no one would've ever predicted.
- Jeremy will have his role expanded in season two. He'll also get a last name! He was featured all through-out season one with little back-story. He and Courtney will be teaming up to launch a new feature of interACTIVE called "the DL" that has the potential to be a lot of fun.
- We'll get to meet Dru's previously mentioned ex, Wes.
- The house will undergo some renovations between seasons one and two, which will take place approx 3 weeks following the final moments of season one. The backyard will be changing - adding two new shooting spaces and a hot tub. Expect these new shooting spaces to get a lot of use beginning in the second episode of season two.
There are a lot more exciting things planned, but if I tell you everything - there would be no point in reading season two ;-)
No comments:
Post a Comment