Ray's new book Snake Moon?

[jym]

admin said:

jym said:

I think Ray's biggest problem with this book is that its not called by a Doors song name and does not mention Jim Morrison...........bad move on his part.

True, true, true!

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

jym said:

& Ray's conviction that his screenplay was only rejected because Cold Mountain crowded out the market? Hollywood loves a band wagon! Come on if it was any good, producers would be falling all over each other to push out a Cold Mountain knock-off.

Good point JC..... 'Dead Birds' which is also a Civil War ghost story managed to get made, see the inside of a cineama and end up as a DVD......but I guess it had an advantage.........it was not associated with Ray Manzarek
Ray will spout any old shit to make himself look the victim and his non talent as anything other than the ole-piano look like some conspiracy..........shit writer,shit film-maker and shit human being but used to be a bloody good keyboard player once............

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Ray Manzarek
RIDER ON THE STORM
Cris DeRose talks to Ray Manzarek


As one fourth of The Doors, keyboardist Ray Manzarek made his bones in the music industry in a thinking man’s band. The group, influenced by the free-form style of both poetry and jazz, was not afraid to be literate, so it should come as no surprise that Manzarek has since found his way into the world of the author, not only in non-fiction (his first work, Light My Fire, detailed his life with The Doors) but in fiction as well. His latest novel, Snake Moon, is a tale of the supernatural published by Night Shade Books.

Not one to rest on his laurels, Ray has also staked his ground in the world of film with Love Her Madly , and continues making music with Riders On the Storm, playing the music of The Doors with frontman Ian Astbury (formerly of The Cult) and Doors bandmate Robby Krieger. The Doors have also recently issued a second boxed set on Rhino/Elektra entitled Perception.

Speaking from his home in northern California, Ray was his usually affable self, quick to joke and share his thoughts about his written work, the Fortieth Anniversary of The Doors, and a vision of his late frontman, Jim Morrison.

Horror Garage: Snake Moon began as a screenplay with Rick Valentine. Can you talk a little about the background to how you came up with the story?

Ray Manzarek: We were both attracted to ghost stories and the Civil War, and we were talking over beer and wine as we often do, and we started talking about a family compound during that time where no news of war came. It was an idyllic existence, and peaceful. They were in love. And because of greed, madness, and lust for fame and strange adventures, the men pay a price for it. Actually, we worked on the story with Rick Schmidlin, who did the reconstruction on Orson Welles’ A Touch of Evil and Erich Von Stroheim’s Greed.

HG: What led to your novelizing the screenplay?

Ray Manzarek: That was Hollywood’s decision. We wanted a film, but when we had shopped it around, Cold Mountain had just come out and went flopsky, so Hollywood said, “No Civil War movies.” We said, “But it’s a small movie, no battle scenes, we can film it in Tennessee or Kentucky, won’t cost much.” Hollywood said, “No Civil War movies!” We said, “It’s an esoteric love story!” And Hollywood said, “No Civil War stories for the last time, Manzarek!”

But all three of us loved the story. I said, “This is too good, I’m going to write it as a novel.” I’d still like to see it as a movie, but I understand Crash was banging around Hollywood for something like nine years before it got made, and it won the Academy Award for Best Picture [2004]! But you’re typical moviegoer is a seventeen year-old on a date, so you’re going to have Pirates of the Carribean II type movies more than anything else.

HG: Spectacle over substance?

Ray Manzarek: Right. And it’s getting harder and harder for films like Crash to get made.

HG: Is that why the chapters in Snake Moon were short? To maintain the integrity and pacing of the screenplay?

Ray Manzarek: Yes, exactly. Scenes. I had a friend say, "This is a fast read." I said, "That’s what I was trying to do; write a fast-paced page turner." The way it was written, everything was said, everything was covered. But the publishers we sent it to all said, "It’s gotta be three-hundred pages to be considered a novel." I said, "But it’s two-hundred, it’s a good, fast read." I mean, gee, I wish there was more. But you know what Elvis said: "Always leave them wanting."

HG: Is that why you picked Night Shade as a publisher?

Ray Manzarek: Absolutely. They said "Fine, we like mysteries… strange tales." It was great fun writing it; I was there, standing behind a tree, observing these great characters, just watching what they were doing. I’d like to direct it, if it does become a movie, but I don’t think that’s going to happen [chuckle].

HG: Do you have a dream cast for the movie?

Ray Manzarek: Oh, man… I couldn’t begin… maybe John Malkovich at twenty-eight for Jebber…

HG: Would you prefer unknowns?

Ray Manzarek: Well, you cast unknowns, no theater will want it. You can say, "I thought I’d cast unknowns in it." Studios will say, "Go finance it." "Okay, we made it." "Who’s the star?" "No one. It’s a cast of unknowns." "Well, fuck it" [laughs]. Same thing happened when we made Love Her Madly . Who’s in that? Unknowns. I told them, "It’s a dark love story, it’s about obsession and darkness." They said, "Great, who’s in it?" "People you don’t know." "Sorry." And Sundance… I thought Sundance was supposed to be about small, independent films.

HG: Studios see an inroad to profit, and want a presence. Actors want the credibility and the flexibility to say that they've made the multi-million dollar action film, but also that small independent film.

Ray Manzarek: [laughs] Right. I don’t know… Maybe I could see studio films at Sundance that cost under a million to make…

HG: What authors do you like?

Ray Manzarek: I loved John Steinbeck’s first… To A God Unknown … [Ray’s first novel] The Poet In Exile is W. Somerset Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge …off he goes on his search, but before he can find what he’s looking for… it’s the same story, man. Danny Sugarman, a man who worked in the Doors office back in the sixties, worked his way up to become the Doors’ manager, died of lung cancer, fifty years old. [Doors producer] Paul Rothchild… I remember he was planning this big sixtieth birthday party. No matter what Paul was planning, it was gonna be great, man… he died two months before his birthday. I lost two good Doors friends… And Jim in that bathtub… or not [laughs]. That sealed coffin in the flat… 27 years old… so young, man. You should have more time to find yourself in.

HG: Speaking of the Doors, can you bring us up to speed on Riders On the Storm?

Ray Manzarek: We’re going out in 2007, celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the Doors, worldwide, but not consecutive like the Stones. I don’t know why Mick Jagger feels the need to do that… With us, it’ll be “Forty Cities/Forty Years”: ten in the Orient, ten in South America, ten in Europe, and ten in the U.S., concluding in New Orleans, where The Doors last played with Jim [in April ‘71].

HG: Will this be the last tour?

Ray Manzarek: This may be it, man. This may be it.

HG: Who’s playing drums for you guys?

Ray Manzarek: Ty Dennis. Phil Chen on bass. To go from the way we play "Touch Me" to "L.A. Woman." Ty just drives it [chuckles]. And then to go to Ty and Phil pushing "L.A. Woman"…

I had this vision of Jim when Riders last played Paris… I had my eyes closed, and I saw Jim’s grave, and out of it comes a hand, like in Carrie, only not scary at all. It was Jim. I could hear him say, "Don’t stop, Ray, keep going…" So yeah, this might be the last tour… like Cher… [laughs]...

HG: Or KISS…

Ray Manzarek: [laughs] Yeah, like KISS, or The Who… then we go in the studio in 2008. We have lyric contributions from Michael McClure, Michael C. Ford, Jim Carroll… I asked Warren Zevon to send me something, and he sent me two stanzas before he passed away: "River of madness/Running through L.A."

HG: Will Ian be contributing?

Ray Manzarek: He might. He’s a busy chap.

HG: Will you be performing "The Soft Parade" live?

Ray Manzarek: No.

HG: Any particular reason?

Ray Manzarek: It’s a bitch [laughs]. A lot of woodshedding to just sit down and learn it. Ian would have to learn it. It’s fatiguing. I’m getting lazy [laughs]. Robby will bring it up, and I’m saying "Oh, fuck…" "It’s easy, Ray. I’ll show you." It’s like Senior Wences; [affects Wences’ "Johnny" voice] "Easy for you, not easy for meeee." Robby’s mind is sharp. Has something to do with that IQ… 140… somewhere around there. My wife Dorothy has the same.

HG: What do you have planned for the future?

Ray Manzarek: A script for L.A. Woman , a story about a woman and two guys, one representative of darkness--like Dick Cheney--and another of the power of light. It follows her seeking refuge from “Dewey” Kim, the Cheney character. It takes place in Venice, California.

HG: Any plans to novelize it?

Ray Manzarek: I may have to! [laughs] There’s Riders On the Storm , a story about three guys from U.C.L.A. on a quest to find peyote, and come across a church of peyote takers and get mixed up in a murder committed by white supremacists. It’s based on people I knew at U.C.L.A. Rick Valentine and I are working on a script about a Native American Indian coming to L.A. to find the man, a trucker, who stole his polar bear skin… a Native American traveling across America. The trucker is going to the south side of Chicago to deliver Alaskan marijuana--the best [chuckles]… Going to the south side Bloods or Crips to deliver Alaskan Chronic… that’s a great title.

HG: Thanks a lot for taking the time, Ray.

Ray Manzarek: Hey, no problem, man. Anytime. X

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

HG: What do you have planned for the future?

Ray Manzarek: A script for L.A. Woman , a story about a woman and two guys, one representative of darkness--like Dick Cheney--and another of the power of light. It follows her seeking refuge from “Dewey” Kim, the Cheney character. It takes place in Venice, California.

Another Manzarek fantasy which will never see the kight of day as he has announced his 'retirement' from making movies due to him being really crap at it.
It's pitiful how all his schemes have a Doors/Morrison theme. Snake Moon is one of his more unusual offerings as it doesn't. Although he did not write it originally and it's just an extention of someone else's screenplay.


HG: Any plans to novelize it?

Ray Manzarek: I may have to! [laughs] There’s Riders On the Storm , a story about three guys from U.C.L.A. on a quest to find peyote, and come across a church of peyote takers and get mixed up in a murder committed by white supremacists. It’s based on people I knew at U.C.L.A.


That old chestnut ROTS. When asked about it he lied and said it was based around how him, Morrison and some other guy went into the desert to do peyote. Jim never went into any desert or anywhere else with Ray to do peyote.
Ray just swiped one of Jim's stories and slotted himself into it.