By B&TF
Note: The interview excerpts are rough translations from French
so they are not the actual quotes.
Remember that little tweet that Ilene Chaiken posted while she
was in Monte Carlo, announcing that she began writing The L Word
the movie script? After the news came out, we promised to keep you
updated on its development.
Here’s what we know about the upcoming movie so far. It’s
not much but at least we know that the work on the movie had indeed
begun and now we have to wait for final results…at least,
those of us who are excited about the movie.
First time I heard about the idea of The L Word the movie was when
I went to LA Convention in 2007. Someone asked Kate Moennig and
Leisha Hailey if there was a chance for a movie and Leisha said
that Ilene had mentioned it to the cast but they weren’t sure
if the fans would want it. Of course the audience responded enthusiastically
but at the time everyone was more interested to know if we would
get season six.
Later, the movie was mentioned several times during interviews
and events and every time Ilene would reply that it was something
that she would consider when the time is right. Finally, in March
of this year, when Ilene Chaiken and Jennifer Beals were in New
York at Time Talks, the question about the movie was brought up
again and this time Ilene said that there was a big amount of interest
and support for the idea of the movie, including Showtime, and they
all would like to do it.
Jennifer Beals reminded Ilene that the movie has to be happy and
celebratory, a movie about friendship and love. Ilene has to abandon
her dark site or Jennifer won’t participate. Ilene basically
promised to all the fans in the audience that she will do a movie
about love, romance, and friendship.
I hope Ilene will follow through on her promise because if it’s
dark and Jennifer Beals won’t participate, the movie will
be a flop because there’s no TLW without Bette Porter.
And here we are now, a few months later with the news that Ilene
is actually writing the scripts for The L Word the movie. So what
do we know about it so far?
In her several interviews in Monte Carlo, Ilene answered a few
questions about the movie. She mentioned that it will pretty much
continue from the last season of the show. For Ilene, the essence
of The L Word was the stories about love and friendship, so she
announced that the movie will follow in the show’s footsteps
and is going to be about love and friendship, as well.
In one interview Ilene said that “the genre is romantic comedy
and that’s what it will be.” In another interview at
the same event Ilene also said that “it will be much more
a romantic comedy, and talk about life, as the series has done so
far.”
It sounds like Ilene is heeding to Jennifer Beals’ warning
that if the show is dark, she won’t be in it. But can Ilene
actually pull this off?
Ilene agrees that writing for the movie and for the TV show is
different. “In the series, life is episodic. Life continues,
it is evolving,” Ilene said in another interview. “A
film should revolve around a story, so the approach is very different
… and since this is a movie, the scope will be larger than
that of a TV series episode. But it will always be subject to the
same thing: the universal nature of love.”
What else can we expect from the movie? Ilene mentioned that she
had already talked to all the actors and they are in but along with
the old characters there will be a few new ones. The story will
be set a few years after the end of the series and we will find
out who killed Jenny, though it won’t be the main theme of
the movie.
Okay, let me ask you…after everything we’ve seen and
been subjected to, including the annoying interrogation tapes, who
still wants to know who killed Jenny? Who really cares about this
particular character that was turned into villain for everyone to
hate?
Well, I have to admit that I’m still curious because I personally
like to have a closure for the characters that I’ve been watching
for six years. I would like to know who killed Jenny, will Bette
and Tina marry, will Angelica have a little brother or sister, will
Alice and Tasha stay together, will Shane find someone special to
settle with, and what happened to poor Sounder II?
Maybe I’m one of the few fans who are actually excited to
find out how this movie will turn out, but honestly, just the idea
of seeing The L Word characters one more time on my TV screen is
very appealing. I only hope that the final result will be enjoyable
and will be exactly how Ilene had described it when she said, “In
this film, we talk about love, friendship, betrayal … but
above all love. In short, it’s about life.”
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