Hey folks... Harry here and Christ is this something to be excited about! DEMON WITH A GLASS HAND has more intrinsic narrative in the teleplay for the old OUTER LIMITS episode than 95% of the feature films we see today. David Twohy is a genre director to watch.... his next is PROTEUS, which he's adapting from that wiley Requiem director. Would this be the post-PROTEUS project for Twohy? We'll have to watch and see! Here ya go....
According to Ellison Webderland, the official Harlan Ellison website, Dimension Films has contracted Ellison to adapt his teleplay "Demon with a Glass Hand" into a screenplay to be directed by David Twohy. The deadline for the screenplay is June 2001.
The story concerns a man who awakens in a building with no apparent exits. He does not know how he arrived there nor does he know the details of his past. He does, however, have a feeling that he is being pursued. Complicating his situation further is the fact that one of his hands is made of glass (or a glass-like substance) and can communicate with him. The hand informs him that it cannot provide him with the answers he seeks as it is missing digits vital to its proper functioning.
The story originally aired on the second season of The Outer Limits in 1964. Controversy, which is synonymous with Ellison, has followed the story ever since. First, there was _The Terminator_ lawsuit in which Ellison sued James Cameron for plagiarizing this and several of his other works including another Outer Limits teleplay "Soldier" and the short story "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream." In addition to a financial settlement, Ellison is now acknowledged in the credits of _The Terminator_.
More recently Joseph Stefano, the creator of The Outer Limits, would not attend the March 2000 Outer Limits Festival if "Demon with a Glass Hand" were shown. Apparently, much like Gene Roddenberry and the furor over "The City on the Edge of Forever," Stefano resents the acclaim Ellison receives for his work on the series. Admittedly though, Ellison is not the easiest person to get along with. Due to the demands of Stefano, Ellison and the principle of "Demon with a Glass Hand" Robert Culp did not attend the Festival.
Given Ellison's near-peerless writing credentials in Literature of the Fantastic and Twohy's excellent screenwriting (many would argue that his abilities as a screenwriter far outshine his directorial skills) we should be given something memorable to say the least. And something monumental would not be beyond their collective abilities. Let us hope that the powers that be finally allow another Ellison film-project to manifest.
Additionally, there are other Ellison film projects in the works: _T3_ which could be considered marginally Ellison; Sony Pictures has David Goyer rescripting Ellison's teleplay "Phoenix without Ashes;" and then, if not already dead, there is _Mefisto in Onyx_ the Samuel L. Jackson vehicle. Based on the excellent novella that originally appeared in Omni the script is half-Ellison, he quit in disgust after the usual studio interference, and half-Gregory Widen. When the project was last active Widen was also set to direct, but as to its current status who knows . . . Harry?
-Cloudhurler-
