I'm with you Hardware, even though it does sounds bad, based on those two synopsis we have, i'd still like to read McElroy's script and judge it for myself, and i too just can't believe it was that bad. I read several of his (produced and unproduced) scripts and never had any problems with his writing, that's why before we found out more about his RE script, i thought it actually sounded pretty good. Even now i think what Constantin should have done is maybe try and have him working with Romero on the new script when he got involved. Maybe two of them working together would ended up with much better script.
I am pretty sure Bran's report and impressions are right - there must be a reason why McElroy was dropped after only two drafts, after all. I used to believe (hope?), like most fans, that his script was a basic horror movie (Aliens with zombies - which is what RE1 essentially is), and that the dumb producers didn't think it was good enough...but, unless his second draft will ever turn out to be a major improvement (like zombies instead of mad cannibals, no giant dogs, etc.), I reckon they just did the right thing. Maybe they wouldn't have liked a faithful adaptation anyway (I mean, they went for Anderson did they?), but...who knows?
He was a very kind person, and from speaking with those that worked with him on productions (I'm friends with quite a few) it was said that you were treated like family by him.
That's what everyone says about him. The only person I heard (well, read) talking ill about him was associate producer David Ball in the book "The Making of George A. Romero's Day of the Dead", who essentially labeled him as unprofessional and insecure - but in the same book Mr. Ball comes across as a bean counter (he more or less pictures himself that way), so I can see why he and Romero, who was used to do things the independent way, couldn't like each other. In the same book, it appears that Romero was also grudgy and insensitive towards his long-time cinematographer Michael Gornick...but, anyway, I don't see how him being a nice guy to most people he met\worked with has to do with this.
I honestly see Romero's script as a step in the right direction, but at the same time, it needed A LOT of editing\reworking and I am not sure he would've accepted that. The cast is overcrowded (some scenes have like a dozen characters on screen and only 2 or 3 of them do anything) and all his original characters were unnecessary and should've been dropped. There are too many set pieces and creatures to honestly make it work as a movie. The intro is way too long and even expensive (Wesker putting the city under quarantine and his storm of choppers alone would've been so costly). Above all, Chris and Jill's romance (although sort of hinted at in one of the game's endings) just gets in the way of the main story and I don't really see how it really defines them as characters: sure, it gives them an arch, but was it really needed in something like this? I am not talking about character arches in general, I am talking about the one revolving around their relationship.
Quite frankly, the more I think of it, the more I believe a much simpler approach to the same basic ideas (STARS gets trapped in the lab) would've been better. I can see why Chris was made into a civilian and I used to believe it was a good way to introduce non-gamers to the story, but, after giving much thought about it (and keeping in mind how nobody outside of the fandom really complained about Anderson's "liberal" approach), I see no reason to prevent him from being a STARS member. One of the things I liked about WTRC is that it doesn't really bother with what STARS is and it doesn't **** too much around with the reason why they have to go investigate.
I guess just showing the leads going into the woods either because they received a distress call or because they have to go in and secure the lab\rescue a scientist without much fanfare was more than enough. Then, when they are in, they discover that the place is way more dangerous than expected, that they are essentially guinea pigs in an experiment, and that Wesker even has his own agenda.
As for the dialogues, they don't really bother me: dialogues always suck in first drafts (unless the script is being written by someone whose main talent is churning out witty\funny lines), and from personal experience, I can say they are not set in stone until it comes to actually film them...and sometimes lines can be altered in post (as long as you don't see the actor's mouth and face, you can do miracles with ADR). Most script supervisors have a hard time accepting it, but who gives a damn about the script supervisor's opinion unless it is about continuity?
