Report from Scooby Set

As you can imagine, script secrecy is a major issue on all motion pictures. However, the lengths the studios go to protect their property should at least be in proportion to the interest factor. For example, Twentieth Century Fox was wise to protect the ending of the X-Files movie, printing the script on red paper, so it couldn't be copied in bulk. However, the producers of the big-screen cartoon adaptation are going a little crazy with the secrecy issue. Apparently, access to the script is given strictly on a need-to-know basis. Only a dozen or so folks have full copies of the script. The rest of the crew is only entrusted with the pages that apply to them. So the wardrobe people only have the pages that describe some kind of continuity issue, and the prop department only gets pages that mention specific items. What a counterproductive way to make a motion picture. It's difficult to be on top of things when the right hand doesn't know what the left is doing -- or how it fits into the big picture.

As best as our loyal mole can determine, the script follows the basic format of the Saturday morning cartoon. However, it does have a gimmick courtesy of screenwriter John August, who adapted Charlie's Angels for the big screen, as well as penning the indie hit Go. The need-to-know crew have pieced together some fragments, and it appears that Scooby-Doo will indeed have a Scooby-Doo ending -- or should we say a Go beginning? If you didn't see Go, it's a Quentin Tarantino-inspired plot that jumps around in time, showing the same scene from different points of view to reveal how all the characters got themselves in their various f*cked-up situations.

The main players (Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr as Daphne & Fred, plus Matthew Lillard and Linda Cardellini as Shaggy & Velma) have all arrived in Sydney and will start shooting in a couple of days. Until the principals show up on set, director Raja Gosnell and the rest of the crew are getting into full swing, by doing some second-unit shooting with the stunt players. For fans of the cartoon, the first scenes with the Scooby-Doo gang in them are pure Saturday morning fare, as the first location is an abandoned power station outside of the city.