Apple.com - May, 2003
Harris and Dougherty: Mac-Scribed Mutants Unite
by Joe Cellini

For screenwriters Dan Harris and Mike Dougherty, writing a successful sequel to the inordinately successful July 2000 film "X-men" ($300 million worldwide gross) was frequently less about mutations than permutations. "There were 26 official studio drafts," says Harris, "and several hundred between us and director Bryan Singer."

When screenwriter David Hayter, who'd written the script for the original film and several drafts for the sequel, couldn't continue with "X2: X-Men United" Singer took a chance on a pair of as yet unproduced writers. "The script was still in need of a lot of development," says Dougherty, "so that's why Bryan brought us on.

Singer had seen enough in spec scripts written by Harris, 23, and Dougherty, 28, and in their co-written development script for "Urban Legends 3," to ask them onto the project. And judging from the pre-release buzz for "X2," his instincts proved out. Both writers credit their success to an unusually close year-long collaboration with the director channeled exclusively through two traveling writing stations < PowerBook G4s, tethered by ubiquitous AirPort connections, running Final Draft 6.

Drive, He Said
Singer's gamble was thoroughly calculated. Though young, his new writers had quickly established industry cred. Dougherty, an illustrator and animator who graduated from NYU Film School, has created short films for television and his screenplay "Trick or Treat" is in development. Harris, who began making shorts at Columbia University, directed a short film, "The Killing of Candice Klein," that turned heads at Sundance. Together, they co-wrote the sequel "Urban Legends 3," now scheduled for production at Phoenix Pictures.

But nothing in either writer's work history in any way compared to "X2." Not only were they suddenly working on one of the most anticipated movies of the year, following a blockbuster movie launched from an incredibly successful series of comic books, but they were given complete creative freedom in re-shaping the story. "They told us to make the decisions right away about what we liked and what we didn't like," says Harris, "and that we'd see where we were when we turned in the material."

Extreme Scripting
The partners moved quickly to ensure that the "job to kill for" would not do them in. Although "X-Men" had established back story for the 10 original mutant protagonists, new mutant and human characters required significant exposition that needed to stay out of the way of the plot line. And because the sequel shoves some of the legacy mutants out of their mansion sanctuary to interact with humans, managing the character arcs was like tracking a rack of pool balls after the break.

The writers ratcheted up the challenge by suggesting radical changes that deleted some characters and added others < including Lady Deathstrike and Nightcrawler < as well as re-plumbing the entire third act.

They were challenged as well by the intensely collaborative style of director Singer, who, beginning in January 2002, worked with Harris and Dougherty onsite every day < sometimes most of the day < pushing his contention that a scene can always be better. "We came in and we did a draft and started working with Bryan and basically things just stuck and we kept doing more and more work," says Harris.

Late in preproduction, collaborative interaction peaked as the writers and director engaged in daily read-throughs of material with Fox executives, spawning dozens of new notions.

Apple.com - May, 2003
Harris and Dougherty: Mac-Scribed Mutants Unite
by Joe Cellini

Plastic Drafts
Their real-time writing method essentially replaced the idea of scheduled official drafts with the notion of one infinitely revisable iterated draft, subject to immediate change whenever change was required. After working every day at Fox from February to April of 2002, they continued rewrites though various production drafts, many during a 115-day Canadian shoot in the deep Rockies, frequently changing the script to fit the location or the cadence of a particular actor.

"It was tremendously stressful," says Harris. "The opportunity was great, but the pitfalls were huge. We really had to deliver. So we turned a draft in at a time and just kind of stuck it out for a year and a half."

Along with the pressure, they felt their confidence rise as they survived the cycles of incessant feedback until, says Dougherty, it became clear that "expectations would be met."

X-Factor
It helped significantly that the writers knew the X-Men back story cold, having bolstered their already considerable knowledge by reading back through 40 years of X-history.

"We were big fans of X-Men and of the first movie," says Dougherty. "I grew up with the comic books and was a fan/geek of that stuff. Dan had picked it up through the animated series and video games. So there was never any awkward stage like 'What's the blue chick do again?' We knew the names and abilities. And the first film had already set the rules."

Mac Advantage
Besides research, the writers exploited technology to efficiently produce the enormous number of iterated drafts, as well as to collaborate on location. "Our Macs went on every location scout in the rain, every actor's reading, every audition, every studio executive meeting, every night shoot and they were there to follow the delivery of every line of dialog, action and special effect in the film," says Harris.

Key pieces of the technology puzzle were AirPort, which allowed drafts and other important files to teleport as quickly and cleanly as Nightcrawler, the new mutant played by actor Alan Cumming, and the new Mac OS X-native version of Final Draft. "Our PowerBooks became mobile writing stations because AirPort lets us communicate really easily," says Harris. "And the new features in Final Draft let us constantly share revisions back and forth over the network."

On the set, their AirPort network regularly swelled to include the PowerBooks carried by the core creative crew. "It would be us, the visual effects supervisor and the director of photography, all with Titanium PowerBooks," says Harris, "dropping QuickTime movies of visual effects and animatics or lines of dialog over our wireless network." In a movie that features over 800 effects, the advantage of leveraging realtime FX previews into as-needed script revisions was immeasurable.

Harris and Dougherty each upgraded their writing stations with iPods, for obvious and not so obvious reasons. "Stress relief, for one," says Dougherty. But Harris quickly points to a more utilitarian use. "I've got every draft of X-Men on mine. I use it as a back up. I keep a gig to the side and put all the scripts on that."

Apple.com - May, 2003
Harris and Dougherty: Mac-Scribed Mutants Unite
by Joe Cellini

Creative Mutations
Probably every Mac user will be stirred by the film's tag line: "Those who are different will stand united." And Harris, who describes mutants as individuals who use special powers in creative ways, posits that the Mac has spawned its own special class of creative mutants.

"It's kind of like Apple's fostered this set of multi-creative people," he says, pointing out that both he and Dougherty took up writing to further other creative goals. And each writer attributes his potent media reach to early infusions of Mac DNA (Harris has owned nine Macs, Dougherty 10) irradiated over multiple exposures to new creative opportunities enabled by the platform's easy cross-media pliancy.

"I got started using Macs because I was doing a lot of After Effects and Photoshop work," says Dougherty. "But I realized I wasn't happy unless I was writing the stuff that I was animating. And because multitasking on a Mac is so easy, I learned Final Cut Pro to cut my own DVD demo reel."

"I've been addicted and obsessed," adds Harris, expanding the theme. "For me, it was a graphic design thing, then a web thing before it was about filmmaking and the video editing thing. Macs are fully adaptable to all that stuff, so it pushes your creative edges." Harris credits Final Cut Pro and After Effects with giving him a real-world advantage coming out of college, where nearly everybody edited on flatbeds and connected VCRs.

Cooking Books
Dougherty's graphic talents found expression during production when he distributed some of his art to cast and crew. "My favorite new thing is passing out hardbound iPhoto books with my art work. It was funny because I gave one to Bryan Singer and other people started asking, including producer Laura Shuler Donner. They make great gifts." Dougherty also gave a book to actor Alan Cumming.

And Dougherty's gifts, as well as their on-set deployments, convinced several cast and crew members to go Mac. "We were like preachers," he says. "We converted people to the way."

In Development
Currently the two are focusing on "X2" publicity calls, after which they intend to work together again writing another movie. Individually, Dougherty is anticipating a production start on his horror genre script "Trick or Treat." Harris is scheduled to make his feature directing debut with a coming-of-age film he wrote called "Imaginary Heroes," starring Sigourney Weaver.

Common plans also include imminent, engineered mutations that will grow their mobile writing stations into two-page displays. "Our friend just bought a 17-inch PowerBook yesterday," says Dougherty. "He brought it over and we just went 'Whoa.'"