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ON MovieTome: Did INDY 4 "Nuke the Fridge"?

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Part 2:
Page 5: Clock Strikes Eleven

Cognizant of the fact that The 7th Guest was generating a good buzz, Trilobyte was already thinking of a sequel by October of 1992. "I just wanted to tell a new story and fix a few of the shortcomings we knew were going to be in The 7th Guest, such as the poor video production," explains Rob Landeros. Nevertheless, the company also had other projects in mind, including a William Gibson-esque

By October of 1992, Trilobyte was considering a sequel to The 7th Guest, The 11th Hour.

cyberpunk strategy game named CyberNet, as well as a tale of time travel and old mysteries set in Egypt.

While Graeme Devine worked on the last-minute technical issues for The 7th Guest, Matt Costello was once again commissioned to write a script for the second game, set 70 years after the first. Using the Stauf Files - a book included with The 7th Guest - as a foundation, Costello drafted a script that included a cast of zany characters living in Harley on the Hudson, no doubt in homage to Twin Peaks.

David Wheeler was brought on to direct the full motion video for The 11th Hour.

Unsatisfied with the video production for The 7th Guest, Trilobyte was eager to up the production values for the sequel, although they didn't have deep coffers, in part because The 7th Guest was still months away from shipping. The solution to their budgetary concerns came in the form of David Wheeler, a television and commercial director nearly the same age as Landeros who had just moved up to the Oregon area. Wheeler happened to introduce himself to Devine and Landeros at a local Film Association conference and expressed interest in working with Trilobyte on a future project. Little did Wheeler know that Devine and Landeros were in a bind; the bids they had recently received on The 11th Hour's video shoot clocked in at $500,000. (Unfortunately, Trilobyte could only afford to spend $135,000 at most). After learning of the project, Wheeler, eager to make his mark in the interactive genre, thought he could make the movie within Trilobyte budget, even though he would have to take a significantly reduced director's fee.

However, "Costello's script was just too large," admits Landeros. So, to work within the limits of the financing, the script had to be pared down, and Landeros worked with Wheeler on further developing the story of a television reporter named Robin Morales who goes missing in the Stauf mansion. The player would assume the role of Robin's producer, Carl Denning, who ventures into the decrepit mansion in search of his ace reporter. Eventually, the rewrite of Costello's script was returned to the original author, and Costello was none-too-pleased with the results. "David changed the nature of the characters, upped the nature of the violence, and pushed the sexuality," says Costello. Devine remembers that Costello called him up one day in early 1993 and said, point-blank, 'Who put the stockings and horns on Stauf?'" (For the record, both Wheeler and Landeros deny they dramatically changed the nature of the script. Costello did not respond to our repeated requests for direct evidence of the changes to his work.)

Graeme seemed disconnected from [The 11th Hour], and I had to plow ahead."
- Rob Landeros

Regardless of the particulars, the shooting script was approved by Trilobyte, and the ten days of principal photography on The 11th Hour were scheduled for March of 1993. With Devine still finishing The 7th Guest in early 1993, he had to defer to Landeros to prepare 11th Hour for shooting. "Graeme seemed disconnected from the project," explains Landeros, "and I had to plow ahead." Still, Devine maintains that, "I respected and trusted Rob with the design of The 11th Hour, and I was confident we were going to create a great product to follow up The 7th Guest."

Next: A Question of Content