The latest on William Monahan's "Tripoli" and "The Essex" scripts

Collider.com really knows how to get a good interview out of scribe William Monahan. This is what they got out of him most recently about his The Essex and Tripoli scripts (I've done my own reporting on these scripts):

Excerpted from "Exclusive: William Monahan Talks LONDON BOULEVARD, THE DEPARTED Sequel, SIN CITY 2, THE GAMBLER, MOJAVE, TRIPOLI, More":

If you could make a period piece in any period that’s not the 12^thcentury, when would you choose?

Monahan: The era I love most is the Federal period, just after the Revolution and the formation of the United States. The birth of America as a nation coincided with the Romantic era and I’ve always been thoroughly into the Romantics and I’ve always been thoroughly into America, particularly at the time when it was a brand new idea, when it was something brand new in the world. It was a very exciting time in the world because of the birth of America. It’s also an interesting period in which to look at the United States because it’s a period in which the United States was an underdog. An underdog nation with no Navy, and of course that’s what Tripoli is about. Tripoli is set in 1804. The Essex, which would be a mammoth production, is set in the War of 1812.  Tripoli isn’t really an epic. Tripoli is a tragic drama enacted in the open air on the coast of North Africa. I don’t think there’s ever more than 100 people on screen at one time throughout the entire picture. It’s not quite the titanic picture one thinks. It could be done for 30. You can get epic effects without epic expenses. I think in Tripoli, the only possible CG thing would be the Constitution opening fire on Tripoli.

Who owns the rights right now?

Monahan: For one reason or another, Tripoli never officially went into turn-around at Fox because of some paperwork snafu. So we’re in a situation where the underlying rights,  which means the original script, reverted to me. Fox owns what are referred to as “sterile drafts,” which means they own these further development drafts but they’re not able to do anything with them. Sooner or later, it’s going to be an issue and we have to come to some sort of arrangement.

Where is William Monahan?

William Monahan is a "has been" at this point. I state that with some hope that he'll prove me wrong. Sadly, that's not going to happen. I personally feel that screenwriter William Monahan has already done his best work and everything going forward will be derivative. That's if there is anything going forward.

Time to look back on his career, starting with his epistolary series, Dining Late with Claude La Badarian. I recently had to go through the Internet's Wayback Machine to find these stories again. I'm proud of my work in bringing Dining Late back to life, restoring the portraits of Claude La Badarian that appeared in the original New York Press run, and my blog entries decrypting the autobiographical elements in it. With New York Press being terminally ill, the only way to reliably read the Dining Late series now is through the Wayback Machine or a visit to the New York Public Library.

Take a gander at my restoration of Dining Late with Claude La Badarian and write up your own comments on it.