GENE BREWER MINI-INTERVIEW
by Mike Philbin
Quick bio for those who don't know:
Gene Brewer is the author of the trilogy upon which the 2001 film K-PAX, starring Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges, is based. He's currently working on K-PAX V, and other books.
Mike Philbin: K-PAX IV the feature film. I'd love to see an older more-famous post-Oscar post-Tron:Legacy Jeff Bridges reprise his role as the bewildered psychiatrist confronting the new arrival from the constellation of Lyra 'fled'. What made you choose such an exotic 'foil' as fled to the earlier prot character?
Gene Brewer: Fled was first mentioned in K-PAX, where she was described as a “chimpanzee-like being.” For K-PAX IV I didn’t think readers would want another dremer to take up where prot had left off. So I brought fled, who has come to take 100,000 people back to K-PAX with her. She is also carrying a message from prot, but since no one paid any attention to his earlier warning that continuing our mindless reproduction would inevitably result in the destruction of our only home, no matter how much garbage we recycle, the message needed to be louder and clearer.
As for Jeff Bridges: I think he would love to revisit the character of the “bewildered” psychiatrist. But since Universal Pictures didn’t make enough money (they say) on K-PAX to produce a sequel, another studio will have to step up and make him an offer.
MP: Jeff Bridge's onscreen K-PAX psychiatrist, certainly compared to book IV, is a little less ANGERED than your written character in IV – why did you go for this 'mega-grumpy Dr Brewer'?
GB: In IV Dr. Brewer is “retired” from his psychiatric practice, so part of it has to do with his becoming older and less valued, and part from his frustration that we prefer to ignore the signs that our planet’s days are numbered. He has grandchildren, after all, and doesn’t want them to be part of the last generation to survive on Earth. He is also sickened by a device that fled has brought from K-PAX, one that allows him to look into the mental backgrounds of some of the patients at the Manhattan Psychiatric Hospital, which exposes human self-centeredness and cruelty in unmistakable terms. This theme takes an unexpected twist in K-PAX V, by the way.
MP: fled - I can't quite get in my head is she like a chimp that walks and talks (size and stature) or is she like a hairy woman (size and stature)? I see fled being REALLY DYNAMIC in the film version? Really acrobatic. Really PUNGENT as a character, very in your face, very insistent but EXTREMELY SO when interacting, sexually or confrontationally -- she gives me the idea that she's as powerful as the VAMPIRES in Vampire Diaries. Any thoughts?
GB: You’re on the right track, but bear in mind that there are neither Homo sapiens nor chimpanzees on K-PAX. Fled is neither, but is somewhere in-between. You might picture her as a human-sized chimp, hairy except for her pronounced (and inviting) genitals. The in-your-face part is correct, and she is indeed very powerful, though, like prot, she is a pacifist. (If she weren’t, her message, and prot’s, would be nonsense.)
MP: The other entities 'fled' carries around with here, like her 'travelling companion' Narada, could they be resident in a parallel dimension... at ninety degrees to fled's existence?
GB: If that’s how you want to see it, that’s fine. I prefer to leave it a mystery.
MP: There was mention of the 'evil?' Bullocks at the end of book IV. Are they to appear in Book V?
GB: Oh, yes. They come earlier than fled imagined, but they come with a bang, and they are unlike any other beings you’ve ever seen or thought of. And their message will be loud and clear: change our ways or be eliminated. That seems to be the only message human beings can understand. And the Bullocks are quite prepared to carry out this threat.
MP: One final comment, and as a fan of alternative physics ideas yourself, what do you think of the Neal Adams 'Growing Earth'?
GB: I am suspicious of any theory, no matter how reasonable, that comes without credible evidence. The suggestion that a growing Earth might explain (for example) the disappearance of the dinosaurs does not constitute evidence that it is growing. I could just as easily propose that the earth is shrinking. I know of no credible evidence either way. If he has any, I’m listening.
AND THAT'S A WRAP.
Additional from the conclusion of the K-PAX4 novel: A DECLARATION ON GREAT APES by Paola Cavalieri and Peter Singer,
The Great Ape Project is campaigning to have the United Nations endorse a Declaration on Great Apes. This would extend what the project calls the "community of equals" to chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans. The declaration seeks to extend to non-human great apes the protection of three basic interests: the right to life, the protection of individual liberty, and the prohibition of torture.
Right to life
The declaration states that members of the community of equals, which includes humans, may not be killed except in certain strictly defined circumstances such as self-defense or abortion.
Protection of individual liberty
The declaration states that members of the community of equals are not to be deprived of their liberty, and are entitled to immediate release where there has been no form of due process. Under the proposed declaration, the detention of great apes who have not been convicted of any crime or who are not criminally liable should be permitted only where it can be shown that the detention is in their own interests or is necessary to protect the public. The declaration says there must be a right of appeal, either directly or through an advocate, to a judicial tribunal.
Prohibition of torture
The declaration prohibits the torture, defined as the deliberate infliction of severe pain, on any great ape, whether wantonly or because of a perceived benefit to others. Under International Human Rights Law this is a jus cogens principle and under all major human rights documents it can not at any time be derogated by any State.
May 29th 2011 update: Gene Brewer informs me that he's just finished up on his new novel BECOMING HUMAN and he'll be getting back into his work on K-PAX V (the bad guys' arrival) in the Fall, that's Autumn to us Europeans.
Chimpanzee image courtesy of and copyright (c)Jill Greenberg Studio's MONKEY PORTRAITS gallery.
June 14 upate: looks like WETA Digital are doing the Apes for the forthcoming Planet of the Apes movie. I'm sure that, with 'fled's cinematic believability in mind, Gene Brewer'll be interested to see how succesful they are in that depiction of 'intelligent ape' (yeah, I know 'fled's not an ape) confronting humanity.