Posted:
Eric Kripke Talks Supernatural and
Revolution
http://famousmonsters.com/archives/12574
Tuesday night at the NerdMelt
theater in Los Angeles, television
writer and creator Eric Kripke was on
hand for a panel called GENRE
SMASH! "a nonprofit event
sponsored by the Writer's Guild
Foundation that drew a packed
house into the back of Meltdown
Comics. Kripke is perhaps best
known as the creator of the
brothers-fighting-monsters series
SUPERNATURAL, now set to enter its
tenth season on the CW, but Kripke
also had a lot to say about his new
show REVOLUTION on NBC (with J.J.
Abrams), the screenwriting process,
and his early days on shows like the
WB's TARZAN (which became a
running joke throughout the evening
as the ultimate crappy starting point
""It sucked. It just sucked" ).
Throughout the panel, Kripke was
disarmingly funny, just as prepared
to deprecate himself as speak about
his successes. A thread of
spontanaiety accompanied most of
his writing advice, insisting that
several key factors in his shows'
successes came out in the moment
rather than as a result of careful
planning. He told a story about how
one of his producers who had worked
on THE X-FILES helped write the
storyline of Dana Scully having
cancer, but didn't even know she
would have cancer until they wrote
the closing of the episode. Many of
the most meta and ridiculous
SUPERNATURAL episodes came
together in pitch meetings (like "The
French Mistake", which was originally
conceived as a kind of TWILIGHT
ZONE story). He recommended that
writers find the one thing they refuse
to budge on, and then adapt the
story fluidly around that element.
"For SUPERNATURAL it was the
urban legends, the Americana, the
classic rock music. For REVOLUTION
it's also the Americana, and the
political commentary."
In describing the pitching process
and subsequent episode trek of
SUPERNATURAL, Kripke really struck
me with all of the classic genre
references he made, from Sci-Fi to
horror. He and the WGF host
mentioned STAR WARS multiple times
"Kripke insisted that his go-to
character archetype is Han Solo"
along with Atomic Age alien movies
like THEM! and the 70s classic
TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. The
SUPERNATURAL episode "Route 666"
was originally conceived to be a play
on DUEL, the Steven Spielberg film
based on a Richard Matheson short
story (now there's a lot of legends in
one sentence).
What may have surprised many in
the audience, and pleasantly
surprised me, were the influences
and threads of comic books that ran
throughout the evening. Concepts on
SUPERNATURAL were influenced by
his reading Vertigo's HELLBLAZER,
and his first television pitch following
his departure from that show was a
version of the DC Comics character
DEADMAN. While Kripke insisted that
SUPERNATURAL not introduce angels
as characters for his first three
seasons, picking up Garth Ennis's
and Steve Dillon's PREACHER (now
slated to become a television
adaptation for AMC) convinced him
that angels could be something other
than moral compasses. "Angels can
be d"ks!" he exclaimed triumphantly,
which led to the introduction of
Misha Collins' recurring character
Castiel in Season Four (later revealed
to be Kripke's personal favorite
season).
Ultimately, Kripke is a purveyor of
genre material"that is, horror, Sci-
Fi, and fantasy"as his favorite thing
because it allows for an exploration
of ideals. He "may not ever win an
Emmy," he said, but "Genre lets you
get away things. In SUPERNATURAL
we did a story where there is no
God. The big thing on REVOLUTION
right now is Don't trust America!'
We get away with it because it's Sci-
Fi."And Sci-Fi, as the evening
proved, is a wonderful thing.
Revolution
http://famousmonsters.com/archives/12574
Tuesday night at the NerdMelt
theater in Los Angeles, television
writer and creator Eric Kripke was on
hand for a panel called GENRE
SMASH! "a nonprofit event
sponsored by the Writer's Guild
Foundation that drew a packed
house into the back of Meltdown
Comics. Kripke is perhaps best
known as the creator of the
brothers-fighting-monsters series
SUPERNATURAL, now set to enter its
tenth season on the CW, but Kripke
also had a lot to say about his new
show REVOLUTION on NBC (with J.J.
Abrams), the screenwriting process,
and his early days on shows like the
WB's TARZAN (which became a
running joke throughout the evening
as the ultimate crappy starting point
""It sucked. It just sucked" ).
Throughout the panel, Kripke was
disarmingly funny, just as prepared
to deprecate himself as speak about
his successes. A thread of
spontanaiety accompanied most of
his writing advice, insisting that
several key factors in his shows'
successes came out in the moment
rather than as a result of careful
planning. He told a story about how
one of his producers who had worked
on THE X-FILES helped write the
storyline of Dana Scully having
cancer, but didn't even know she
would have cancer until they wrote
the closing of the episode. Many of
the most meta and ridiculous
SUPERNATURAL episodes came
together in pitch meetings (like "The
French Mistake", which was originally
conceived as a kind of TWILIGHT
ZONE story). He recommended that
writers find the one thing they refuse
to budge on, and then adapt the
story fluidly around that element.
"For SUPERNATURAL it was the
urban legends, the Americana, the
classic rock music. For REVOLUTION
it's also the Americana, and the
political commentary."
In describing the pitching process
and subsequent episode trek of
SUPERNATURAL, Kripke really struck
me with all of the classic genre
references he made, from Sci-Fi to
horror. He and the WGF host
mentioned STAR WARS multiple times
"Kripke insisted that his go-to
character archetype is Han Solo"
along with Atomic Age alien movies
like THEM! and the 70s classic
TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. The
SUPERNATURAL episode "Route 666"
was originally conceived to be a play
on DUEL, the Steven Spielberg film
based on a Richard Matheson short
story (now there's a lot of legends in
one sentence).
What may have surprised many in
the audience, and pleasantly
surprised me, were the influences
and threads of comic books that ran
throughout the evening. Concepts on
SUPERNATURAL were influenced by
his reading Vertigo's HELLBLAZER,
and his first television pitch following
his departure from that show was a
version of the DC Comics character
DEADMAN. While Kripke insisted that
SUPERNATURAL not introduce angels
as characters for his first three
seasons, picking up Garth Ennis's
and Steve Dillon's PREACHER (now
slated to become a television
adaptation for AMC) convinced him
that angels could be something other
than moral compasses. "Angels can
be d"ks!" he exclaimed triumphantly,
which led to the introduction of
Misha Collins' recurring character
Castiel in Season Four (later revealed
to be Kripke's personal favorite
season).
Ultimately, Kripke is a purveyor of
genre material"that is, horror, Sci-
Fi, and fantasy"as his favorite thing
because it allows for an exploration
of ideals. He "may not ever win an
Emmy," he said, but "Genre lets you
get away things. In SUPERNATURAL
we did a story where there is no
God. The big thing on REVOLUTION
right now is Don't trust America!'
We get away with it because it's Sci-
Fi."And Sci-Fi, as the evening
proved, is a wonderful thing.
Anupamaa
Kumkum Bhagya
