Seems so unprofessional though. Why, if you're Showtime, would you make such a huge deal about it if you don't have the main man's signature on all of the pieces of paper already?

hey, maybe one of the key characters is wanting more than anticipated. i'd prefer they work through it to get the right people signed. i'm saying, it may not be lynch here.

Yeah, only rumor/conjecture that it's Lynch at this point. And shit, maybe he is in fact looking for one last big cash grab at the end of his career. Can't say I blame him.

It appears Lynch is indeed the holdup. And Showtime was caught off guard by his remarks. So yeah, one last cash grab it is. Those meditation centers don't fund themselves.
Highly stupid on Showtime's part not to lock him up first. Now he's pretty much got them in a position where they'll have to agree to most anything. They've already announced the series and signed Kyle. If they try to do it without Lynch people will cry foul. If they cancel it completely people will be pissed and they'll still have to pay Kyle something. Either way Showtime comes off as the badguy if it doesn't happen or a Lynchless Peaks happens.

Wouldn't be the first time Lynch's money-grabbing has derailed a project. Hopefully, like the deleted scenes, it'll work out eventually - although a less than twenty year wait would be nice!

Also, I'm not sure it's true that Showtime will look like the bad guys here if he bails for monetary reasons. I'm sure what Lynch is being offered will sound like a very large amount of money to most normal people, plus he hasn't had a hit (or directed anything resembling a real film) since 2001. It'd be pretty easy for Showtime to make him look like a mercenary lunatic if he really does fuck them over and walk away to direct more Duran Duran videos.

lol, wow. when you put it that way, it sounds ridiculous.

You underestimate the fan's desire for more Lynch made Peaks. The fact he hasn't had a hit in years matters little, everything is about nostalgia these days (thus the reason we get a billion tv and film reboots, remakes and sequels - hell, we're getting a sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird 55 years after the fact for fuck's sake). Lynch has become more of a brand name and cult figure than anything now. The forums and comments sections of these articles are already full of statements that Showtime should give Lynch whatever he wants. I guarantee you if it came out that Lynch was asking for a billion dollars and a virgin sacrifice every day on set and Showtime said no, they would be seen as the bad guys. They're the faceless evil giant corporation with gazillions of dollars blocking Lynch from making more Peaks is how this would play out.

I dunno, probably somewhere in the middle. What's undeniable is that Showtime, even with their fairly regular slate of minor league hits, still has nothing aside from Homeland (which jumped the shark long ago) to point to as truly 'prestige' programming, whereas big brother HBO can fart out a six episode documentary in February and become the lynchpin in a decades old high profile true crime case without giving it a second thought. They can drop an unheralded True Crime in January and basically start their own "Who Killed Laura Palmer" overnight. They can make some sword and sorcery fantasy book series, of which there are a million, into the most popular pay cable drama ever. In other words, this would easily be the highest profile thing Showtime's ever put out, so I'm sure they'll bend over backwards to get it done at this point. And while I'm certainly part of the Cult of Twin Peaks that's grown over the years, I don't see us as a billion-strong mob ready to shame a network into bankruptcy or anything. At the end of the day I suspect they'll work it out--Lynch probably still remembers how great that whole Inland Empire self finance/self distribute thing worked out.

I don't think Lynch regrets Inland Empire's self finance/self distribution at all. A lot of it was already paid for within the budget for the website so the film itself cost next to nothing to start with. He made good bank off dvd sales. Let's face it, that kind of film was not going to be a blockbuster and the odds of even getting a studio to release it in the U.S. were pretty slim. If it came out today it'd probably be VOD.
Not sure what any of that has to do with Twin Peaks though, which is owned by Corporation and thus Lynch can't do anything without Showtime (also owned by CBS). But yeah, I'm sure they'll come to an agreement. This is just a negotiation ploy.

Not true Mike, the whole IE thing very much went tits up. The intention was never to self distribute, Lynch had been paid a large advance by Studio Canal that included the US. But when US distributors refused to take the film on without cuts for length he opted to repay Studio Canal and go the self-distribution route. And if that had been successful, he would've done it again by now.

If it all falls apart and the disagreement can be shown to be about creative control in any way then, yes, Showtime will most likely look like the bad guys. But if it's just about money, I believe it's Lynch who will walk away the loser. Hell, look at all the shit that got heaped on Lynne Ramsay over Jane Got a Gun - and that was a creative control dispute.

The difference between Twin Peaks and Jane Got a Gun is that Twin Peaks is an existing property that is linked in everyone's minds to Lynch (much to Frost's chagrin - there's a reason WIP did a cover with Frost as the invisible man next to Lynch, who was on the cover of Time magazine solo at the time of Peaks). People, right or wrong, talk about how Peaks sucked in the second season after Lynch walked away and had no involvement. For a lot of people the idea of a Lynchless Twin Peaks is unthinkable and Showtime will get blamed for not giving in a few extra bucks to Lynch over dvd sales (which is what this is all about).
In the case of Ramsay a deal was already in place and she walked off literally a day before filming was to start, so a shit storm was understandable considering how much money that cost. Peaks is no where near that far along.

On the self distribution thing, even if it had been a large success I doubt he would have done it again, nor could. As I said, IE was a product of the website for the most part, with a budget paid for a lot out of that. It was an experiment and a product of it's time and likely to only happen once. There's a difference between self distributing something that's mostly paid for and half done and something that would be a full production from scratch. Plus I really get the feeling that Lynch just hasn't had much to say creatively these last few years. If he had a film in him he would have made it. He's too busy pushing TM these days.

does anyone know anyone that has tried or does practice TM? i know OF people, but have never met one.

I know one person, but honestly I've never asked them about it. They're into all that new age chakras and energy and such and I'm afraid if I open that can of worms with them they'll never shut up about it.

I'd be willing to try it but to be honest I'm not going to pay anyone a nickel to learn something like that. I'll look online or go to the fucking library and grab a book.

Something tells me it's as simple as just sitting still in the quiet, closing your eyes and letting your mind wander. If it's not, I suspect that would have the same effect.

I think you may be overvaluing the profits from the website. IE was mostly paid for by a large advance from Studio Canal (although Lynch ended up buying back the US, he retained their advance for worldwide rights). It's true that won't happen again as the film didn't perform very well and advances for indie films are in any case pitiful these days.

Strong rumors saying the showtime/TP deal is dead.

EDIT: Apparently Kimmy Robertson confirmed it, as well as Brad Dukes. And also the Twin Peaks Festival. They're all blaming Showtime. Fuck!

Told you Showtime would get the blame for this. Now who's seen my pitchfork and torch?

Update, not necessarily dead, but Lynchless so it might as well be.

David Lynch wrote:Dear Facebook Friends, Showtime did not pull the plug on Twin Peaks. After 1 year and 4 months of negotiations, I left because not enough money was offered to do the script the way I felt it needed to be done. This weekend I started to call actors to let them know I would not be directing. Twin Peaks may still be very much alive at Showtime. I love the world of Twin Peaks and wish things could have worked out differently.

And Showtime's response:

Showtime wrote:We were saddened to read David Lynch’s statement today since we believed we were working towards solutions with David and his reps on the few remaining deal points. SHOWTIME also loves the world of Twin Peaks and we continue to hold out hope that we can bring it back in all its glory with both of its extraordinary creators, David Lynch and Mark Frost, at its helm.