Film traces Shrek and his origins
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Thu, 11/13/2014 - 10:33am Sharon Regional News
By Sam Rathbun
[email protected]
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Max Chaiet’s documentary film about his father’s fictional character, Telford, and his
resemblance to Steven Spielberg’s Shrek will be shown Nov. 16 at the Moviehouse. Image
Submitted
SHARON — Sharon Center School alumnus Max Chaiet, son of Carl Chaiet and
Lynn Kearcher of Sharon, will screen his new documentary film, “The Big Green,”
at the Moviehouse in Millerton on Sunday, Nov. 16, at 11 a.m.
The documentary was created by Chaiet and fellow SCS alumnus, good friend and
Executive Producer Tyler Forstmann (both are in their mid-20s) over the course
of several years, on a budget of roughly $2,000. It follows the two young men as
they travel to California to investigate the possibility that the Dreamworks movie
character Shrek was stolen from a character created and drawn by Chaiet’s father.
In 1998, Carl Chaiet created the story of Telford, a man who works as a word
creator, and his pet servant bird. Upon completion, Chaiet’s wife, Lynn Kearcher,
sent copies of the book to roughly 50 different publishing and movie companies,
trying to find someone interested in publishing the story.
Several years later, Carl Chaiet’s mother saw the movie, “Shrek.” She felt there
were notable physical similarities between Shrek and Telford, including three
identical wrinkles on the character’s foreheads, a similarly wide nose,
pronounced cheekbones, identical upper and lower lips and no necks. She quickly
phoned Chaiet to inform him of the similarities — which he just as quickly
dismissed.
Tracing Telford’s path
The following morning, Kearcher looked up which companies she had sent the
book to and discovered that she had sent a copy to Steven Spielberg at
Dreamworks and had received a letter back from his assistant assuring them
Spielberg had received the submission, but they were unable to proceed any
further due to legal issues.
Intrigued, the family began researching the creation of Shrek and came across a
book on Amazon entitled “Shrek, from Swamp to Screen,” which depicted the
original drawings of the character when the movie was first being developed. The
pictures in the book looked nothing like the final character as he appears in the
movies. The sketches depicted a mean, scary and ferocious-looking ogre with
warts and long hair.
It began to seem possible to the family that Dreamworks had, in fact, based the
look of Shrek on the drawings Chaiet had made of Telford. They began to
entertain the idea of suing Dreamworks. Kearcher contacted a friend, who is a
copyright lawyer. Although he agreed that there definitely was something there,
he informed the family that winning a suit against a company such as
Dreamworks or an individual such as Steven Spielberg would be nearly
impossible. The idea was temporarily laid to rest.
Uncovering the old sketches
Following graduation from Housatonic Valley Regional High School in the
summer of 2006, Max Chaiet and Forstmann decided to take a trip out to
California to investigate the issue and see what they could uncover. Following
weeks of fundraising, the two made their way to Portland, Ore., and then down to
San Francisco, where they went to one of the Dreamworks archives in Redwood
City, Calif., to look at the original sketches of the Shrek character more closely. The two gained access to the archives by telling the company they were creating a
student documentary on how Shrek was the most famous and recognizable
character of the 2000s, similar to what Superman and Mickey Mouse were in the
20th century.
After roughly a week in California, the two returned to Connecticut for the start of
Chaiet’s first year at Westfield State University and Forstmann’s senior year at
Housy.
In the spring of 2007, Chaiet left school and moved to California. He began
working in the film industry at 72nd Street Production as an assistant. Forstmann followed a year later, and the two began working on an actual
documentary, interviewing key “Shrek” personnel such as Art Director Douglas
Rogers, Head Illustrator Mary Locatell and Director Vickey Jenson. They also interviewed Barbara Chase Riboud, who had previously filed a lawsuit
against Spielberg, claiming he stole the idea for the movie “Amistad” from her;
and another man who sued Spielberg for allegedly stealing the screenplay for the
movie “Twister.” Chaiet and Forstmann also spent several years trying to track down Tim Hester,
the sculptor of the original Shrek character, for what they determined would be
the key interview in discovering exactly where the final design for the character
was created. They made several attempts to get to Hester, giving multiple aliases
and reasons for requesting the interview, but never succeeded.
They did, however, manage to get an on-camera interview with Sharon resident
and actor Kevin Bacon, who talked about the business of Hollywood. Justice enough
With the help of a professional film editor, Chaiet and Forstmann finished the
documentary this summer and began sending copies to film festivals around the
country. They were accepted to the Black Bear Film Festival in Milford, Pa. The
documentary premiered at the festival on Sunday, Oct. 19. It will be shown next
in Millerton at the Moviehouse. Tickets can be purchased online; they are almost
all sold out.
Chaiet said that although the documentary never produced a definitive answer on
whether the Shrek likeness was based on the family’s character, they have
decided not to pursue a lawsuit. The movie is justice enough.