TIMOTHY LIEBE
Where do you live (City, State, or Country)?
Jersey City, NJ, USA Your script stood out among hundreds of others. What was the inspiration for your story and why did you write a script instead of a short story or a novel? I’m a lifelong “Sherlockian” (Sherlock Holmes fan)—I first read the Doyle Canon when I was 11 or 12. As I got older, I started identifying more with Dr. Watson, who’s not the genius Holmes is, but is an intelligent and methodical thinker who has the odd fortune to be close friends with a brilliant but eccentric, impatient, and arrogant man. I wanted to give the canonical Watson his due—not the bumbling fool Nigel Bruce popularized opposite Basil Rathbone, but a smart doctor who Holmes could explain things to, who goes on to teach Holmes’s methods to a younger generation of police detectives. How long did it take you to write your script...and what is your writing process? Do you outline...use index cards...white board...or just start with FADE IN? Funny story—the idea had been cooking in my head for years, but it wasn’t until my ex-wife’s niece had a TV Pilot screenwriting class she couldn’t attend with less than a month to go, and one which students needed a complete Pilot episode for. So, I took the class in her place, I started writing, and I finished a two-hour Pilot in a little over two weeks. Unfortunately, I got to class and found out pilots are all a half-hour or an hour these days! So, I split my Pilot in two, gave the first half a cliffhanger ending, and used that instead. What is your ultimate ambition as a writer? To write television series and movies that are fun to watch, engaging, and just a bit smart. Was your entry at The Wiki Screenplay Contest a full script or “the first ten pages”? Why did you make that choice? It was a full Pilot episode because there is a great deal of worldbuilding going on. During my Pilot class I was encouraged to go full Steampunk, which I did because that way I can have Southern Asian police constables, gay police sergeants, and female computer (“analytical engine”) scientists, along with steamcars, dirigibles, and other retro-futuristic gear. What’s your all-time favorite movie or television show...and why? My favorite movie is Akira Kurosawa’s SEVEN SAMURAI, with its blend of dynamic action and well-observed Samurai and villager characters, from Takashi Shimura’s Kambei to Kokuten Kôdô’s village greybeard Gisaku who sensibly suggests to the villagers “Get Hungry Samurai!” My favorite television series is PERSON OF INTEREST, which took the premise of a supercomputer that could predict crimes and turned the series into an intelligent look at the Surveillance State, The War on Terror, the kinds of people who would try to prosper from the erosion of civil liberties, and those few who would resist it, with their lives if need be—AND did it within the framework of a well-done, often-funny action show. What advice do you have for writers hoping to win a contest or place as a finalist as you have? The best advice, which I got from my former wife, bestselling fantasy novelist Tamora Pierce, is “Write. Just insert butt in chair and write—and keep writing.” What else are you working on that the world needs to know about? It’s an erotic thriller currently called KINKY KILLS, about the hunt for a serial killer preying on New York City’s BDSM Scene. The first 10 pages was a semi-finalist in this contest, which I’m very happy about! I sum it up as “FIFTY SHADES OF GREY Meets BASIC INSTINCT”. I’m also co-writing, with friends, a tongue-in-cheek horror film we call a “Reverse Hallmark Christmas Movie”. Happy Horridays! |
