Info Needed: "Blade" and "Dark Skies" (longish)
From: | J Matthew Pearson <pearson@...> |
Date: | Friday, January 19, 2001, 1:36 |
Hi guys,
I have a couple questions for all you conlang sleuths out there:
(1) Vampire language from "Blade"
As some of you may know, the 1998 vampire film "Blade", starring
Wesley Snipes, had a few snippets of subtitled vampire language
in it. This vampire language was created by the late Vicki
Fromkin, a professor of linguistics in my department at UCLA.
(Conlang trivia buffs may recognise Dr. Fromkin as the creator of
the Paku language from the TV show "Land of the Lost".)
Anyhow, the studio that produced "Blade" is now at work on a
sequel, and the script includes some more scenes featuring the
vampire language. Since Dr. Fromkin passed away last year, the
producers set out to find another UCLA linguist to work on the
sequel, and somehow they wound up with me. For the sake of
consistency, the director of the sequel would like me to
replicate as closely as possible the language Dr. Fromkin
created. Trouble is, all of her notes on that language have been
lost, so all we have to go on are the few lines of dialogue from
the original movie.
So here's my question: Do any of you know anything about this
vampire language? Are you aware of any information about the
language which may have been circulated or published by producers
or fans of "Blade"? Have any of you seen the movie yourselves,
and if so, do you have any impressions of what--if anything--the
language might be based on? I've been checking on the internet,
but so far with little success. I'm planning to watch the movie
tonight (fast-forwarding through all the gory bits, which make my
stomach turn) and listen carefully to the vampire dialogue and
see what I can figure out, but if any of you already know--or
have guessed--something about the language, I would be interested
in hearing from you.
(2) Hive language from "Dark Skies"
Speaking of lost conlangs: As many of you know, I was
responsible for creating the Hive language for the short-lived
and not-very-popular NBC show "Dark Skies" (now being rerun
irregularly on the SciFi channel). Unfortunately, I've never
actually seen an entire episode of the show, because I was living
outside the country at the time it was being aired.
Anyhow, I have a couple of requests related to this project:
First, did any of you save the emails or documents that I
distributed concerning the Hive language (a.k.a. Thhtmaa, or
Txt-tmaa)? If so, do you think you could forward them to me? I
had all of those materials saved on the hard-drive of my old
computer, but they were lost when that computer crashed.
Second, did anybody tape the episode of "Dark Skies" concerning
the Beatles' debut on the Ed Sullivan Show? (I think the episode
was called "Dark Day's Night".) Apparently there's a scene at
the beginning of the episode in which you can hear my voice,
speaking in the Hive language, coming through a shortwave radio.
If any of you happen to have this episode on tape, do you think
you could make a copy and send it to me? I would of course
reimburse you for the cost of the videotape and postage. I tried
to get a copy of the episode from the studio, but they never sent
it to me...
Thanks, and cheers!
Matt.