It’s insane for me to wrap my head around this idea that Bioware is closing down.

I think of their success… like Neverwinter Nights… Star Wars: The Old Republic… Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic… and those are the old games… then you have Dragon Age which literally helped define a genre of where choices matter… and Mass Effect (OK, Mass Effect: Andromeda wasn’t good, but not sure Bioware can be blamed there)…

But Bioware was such a big part of my life in the early 2000’s. When my friend Adam and I had seen Red vs Blue, we thought we’d take a stab at our own machinima – everyone under the sun was trying to copy RvB exactly by using HALO – we went with Neverwinter Nights because we were huge D&D nerds, so writing a fantasy comedy was going to come way easier…

If you look at our About page… you can see how we owe Bioware so much for the love they gave us back then.

So we began filming Episode 01. The first episode was filmed using a Video Capture Card. If you have gone to our video page and watched the first episode – you can see it’s pretty rough. The video size itself is pretty small. The quality is down right horrible. The inside of the tavern looks pretty bleak. The writing, the acting, the sound and video quality are all pretty bad.

Not satisfied with the idea of “The Chicken Cam” (as much fun as it was to call it that), and disliking being limited to always just zooming out of the main character, I turned to the extremely help Neverwinter Nights Community on the Bioware forum and asked about trying to at least mimic first person mode or make a character invisible. Sure enough, Netriak gave us the answer we needed!

Filming Episode 02, we moved away from the video capture card as well as moving away from trying to make it appear in “wide screen” format. We moved to using Fraps for the video capture which improved the quality, considerably. We were still using cheap $9.99 mics that we picked up at some random computer store for the audio. But I was now using Goldwave for the audio editing.

By episode five, we had moved to – get this – my karaoke machine for the audio. It actually sounded much better, running my karaoke machine through my computer to record the audio.

To my surprise, PC GAMER UK had contacted me on our website and asked if they could put the first five episodes on one of their DVDs that ships with their magazine. I was skeptical at first that it was even legit – but what did I have to lose? Adam and I threw together a quick intro episode, made specially for PC GAMER UK and sent it on the way. Sure enough, it turned out to be quite legit – and NeN appeared on the Jan 2005 Cover Disc – as well as having a small writing up about the series within the magazine itself! It was incredible to see our material in print! (You can view the NeN PC Gamer UK Thread on their website). NOTE: The link no longer works; they were bought out by another company and it redirects to their site. It can be found on Archive.org.

Absolutely floored that PC GAMER UK had even heard of us (though I was, admittedly, promoting us pretty hard around the web) – I figured I’d try to kick it one level higher. It was time to get a hold of BIOWARE and say, “Hey! Look at what we’re doing!”

Grabbing a few email address I found for folks who worked at Bioware, I let them know about us and that we had been picked in PC GAMER UK in Jan 2005. Much to my surprise, I was contacted by Jay Watamaniuk, who was one of the Community Leaders of Bioware. Jay mentioned being interested in finding out more about NeN – and I answered all every question tossed my way. Eventually we landed an interview with Jay in March of 2005, which appeared on the Bioware forum, including some pictures sent to Bioware, as well as the infamous “map” of the series. (Bioware has since redesigned their site, so the original link does not work but here it is on Archive.org.  I also captured it back in the day and here is a screenshot, should anything ever happen to Archive.org).

That was an absolutely amazing thing to happen! We were floored by the kindness and willingness to show support for what the Bioware fans and community were doing with their games! Not just Bioware staff – but the entire community!  NOTE: Due to Bioware redesigning their site, the original link does not work, but like most other things I’ve referenced, can be seen on Archive.org.

We knew at this point, that we really had to sit down and write out the other episodes and plan things out – so we got together and brain stormed the rest of the season which we planned to be 21 episode.

Around Episode 10 or so, Adam built a home made studio within his garage and we purchased a pair of rather expensive SHURE mics, as well as an audio/digital converter that helped with the audio. Episode 10 is where we had really found our groove.

In August of 2005, Jay Watamaniuk interviewed Hugh Hancock who worked on Machinima.com, as well as his own company called Strange Company which was working on an epic sized NWN Machinima Movie entitled Bloodspell. We were quite surprised when Jay asked Hugh what he had thought of our machinima during the interview! We had both assumed they had interviewed us and forgotten us! Not so! That was quite flattering! And Hugh had some nice comments about us! As you might guess – NOTE: Due to Bioware changing their site, the original interview with Hugh can be found on Archive.org.

Surprisingly, Neverending Nights was also nominated for the 2005 Machinima Film Festival at the Museum of the Moving Image. Realizing this was a once in a life time chance, both Adam and myself flew ourselves to New York City to be there. We got to meet a number of our peers, and other Machinima folks, including the folks who make FRAPS, the folks who run Machinima.com, the folks of RedvsBlue, Purple Hearts/Silver Stars, and many, many more! It was such an incredible time and such a fun experience to be a part of! While NeN, in the end, did not win for Best New Comedy or anything – it was still something I will cherish forever! NOTE: I am beginning to feel really old, because here’s another one where the site is no longer up, but can be seen on Archive.org about the Machinima Festival.

In April of 2006, Maverick Shane, the Community Manager of the soon to be release Neverwinter Nights 2, by the folks at Obsidian Entertainment got a hold of me and inquired if Adam and I would be interested in creating a NWN2 based machinima to promote the release of NWN2. To say that we were floored to be officially contacted by the folks of Obsidian Entertainment and Atari would have been a severe understatement. Naturally, we agreed in a heartbeat.

Shane informed me that some of the corporate big wigs and creative folks from ATARI would like to meet Adam and I in person – at E3. So under ATARI’s badge, Adam and I were invited to E3. With our badges, we gained “backstage” access to ATARI’s booth area – which had this incredible tropical theme, with free food, drinks, the works. Meeting the ATARI folks was quite an experience. We shared some ideas that we had wanted to do with the NWN2 Machinima, and they seemed pretty impressed by what we had to offer.

After some discussion, Adam and I went to the offices of Obsidian Entertainment to see NWN2 in development – by the programers themselves! They let Adam and I tinker around with the NWN2 toolset to see how it worked and showed us the amazing things that it could do that the original toolset in NWN1 could not. The landscapes were breath taking. You could resize any object to make it impossibly small to giant sized! The possibilities were rather endless! We were sent home with BETA copies of NWN2 to begin using and piecing together Machinima ideas. In October of 2006 the new series, Neverending Daze was released. (NOTE: Yes, once again – another one that’s on Archive.org due to Bioware redesigning their site). It proved to be quite an experience working with the BETA copies of the game. While we would try to do certain things, or build things, we were naturally stumbling across bugs within the game. But it was incredible working directly with Obsidian because as soon as we found something – they were fixing it and sending us a new patched version of the BETA disc! To say Obsidian Entertainment was fun to work with during this whole process would not be doing them justice! There is a handful of them that I couldn’t even begin to thank enough! Neverending Daze, which featured brand new characters with a difference from Neverending Nights – NeN, each episode tied into the next to make an ongoing story. With NeD we wanted each episode to stand on it’s own – yet feature the same characters. We wanted to go more with a whole “Bugs Bunny” kind of thing – where characters could die one episode, and be alive and fine the next!

On March 16th, 2007 I made an official Neverending Nights Youtube Channel, and within two weeks we ranked as the 4th most subscribed comedy channel! On September 4th, 2007, Hugh Hancock informed me that we had a mention within the Machinima for Dummies book he had co-written. Also in 2007, we did an interview with the folks from The Movies On Air Radio Show. You can listen to Part 1 and Part 2. We also did a video version of those interviews.

In October of 2009, I was interviewed by Neverwinter Connections which can be found here. NOTE: You probably know what I am about to say right? The site’s gone, but you can find it here on Archive.org. Roughly around the same time, both Travis Richards and I were interviewed on NWNPodCast Episode 117. (And yes, here it is on Archive.org). Their site is gone, but I have it available on our site. In November, Travis Richards was called back to interview with the folks of NWNPodCast for Episode 119 (and here’s that on Archive.org) to talk about the music he’s created, not only for Neverending Nights, but for the Neverwinter Nights Community. Their site is gone but I have the MP3 available on our site.

On March 5, 2010 – the first Episode of Season 3 was launched after nearly two years of a hiatus!

In March 2010 – I brought on the incredible talent of Lindsay Archer who has done some work for Margaret Weis Productions, including art for the Supernatural and Serenity RPG (as well as some Dragonlance, among others!) Keeping up with the special guest stars in Season 3, July 20, 2010 I saw none other than Al Lowe, the creator of the Leisure Suit Larry series, honored us with agreeing to do a voice. Al Lowe appears in Neverending Nights – Episode 55: All Time ‘Lowe.’ Having Al Lowe do a voice and be a part of Neverending Nights, highlights one of the greatest landmarks of the series – but it didn’t stop there! I also got Greg Johnson of Toejam & Earl fame to lend a voice for us! Another amazing highlight for Neverending Nights’ expanding history!

Tawmis was recently interviewed and briefly appears in the Pioneers in Machinima: The Grass Roots of Virtual Production.

On Jan 17, 2013 – I finished the final Episode of Season 3 (Episode 65) and wrapped up the Neverending Nights storyline.

Beginning in February 2016, I decided I would revisit the series and re-film the entire series in 1080p HD, re-releasing each episode every Saturday; available as a download, Youtube, and Facebook. On March 15, 2021 – Episode 65 (in 1080p) was released, completing my remake of the entire series.

It’s hard to believe – this all originally started in 2004, and it took until 2013 to finish 65 episodes. In 2015, I got it in my head that I would redo the series in 1080p (because when we originally started this in 2004, episodes were in 800×600 then 1024×786, and it was all over the map; a free video editor, horrible video quality) – the series has always been near and dear to me – so getting it done in proper 1080p was something I wanted to do. In 2021, six years later, I finally finished Episode 65 in 1080p. In total, I’ve spent over 15 years on this series. And I absolutely have zero regrets.

Thank you Bioware for all the love you gave us, the memories, and the incredible games.

Awhile back, I posted those D&D Comic Strips that appeared in comics back in the 80s…

I decided to revisit, edit, enhance, and in some cases, recreate some of it…

I was cleaning out the garage and found a bin full of DVD back ups of data… some of it labeled “Documents”, “Stuff” and “Junk” that I had no idea what was on them… so I threw them into a DVD player to see and found a mess of old Neverending Nights related videos that were in the old days of 640×480 – so I reskinned a 1920×1080 skin to play the video within that and not make it look crazy pixelated (there’s not much I can do about crappy 640×480 that was previously saved in Windows Movie Maker…) But thought it’d be fun to reupload some of those in this “skin” with the video playing inside…

I was cleaning out the garage and found a bin full of DVD back ups of data… some of it labeled “Documents”, “Stuff” and “Junk” that I had no idea what was on them… so I threw them into a DVD player to see and found a mess of old Neverending Nights related videos that were in the old days of 640×480 – so I reskinned a 1920×1080 skin to play the video within that and not make it look crazy pixelated (there’s not much I can do about crappy 640×480 that was previously saved in Windows Movie Maker…) But thought it’d be fun to reupload some of those in this “skin” with the video playing inside…

If you know anything about me, you know how much I love The Hobbit, and Neverending Nights has several references to it. As always, I am always pleased to discover something new… and that happened today. I stumbled upon this video… the “first” animated The Hobbit movie that… I… well, I will let you watch.

Digging in more, I came across this too, while digging into it – https://genedeitchcredits.com/roll-the-credits/40-william-l-snyder/

I would normally ask if I could copy and paste before posting, but sadly, Deitch passed away in 2020. So here it is…

40. William L. Snyder

Unhappy Ending

Extravagantly optimistic: “Snyder & Deitch will rule the world!”
Supremely self-assured: “I never catch colds. I refuse to believe in colds!”
Openly narcissistic: “I am a beautiful man!”

This unfazeable, unstoppable, unreasonable, endlessly resourceful man came finally to an end none could have imagined for him. He fell victim to Alzheimer’s syndrome and died in his sleep on June 4^th, 1998 at the mere age of 80, though he seemed to me to have enough steam to reach 100. He once told me matter-of-factly that neither of us could expect to live more than another 20 years, so we had to “make it now!” That was 50 years ago.

Of the two persons who had the greatest effect on my “second life”, William L. Snyder and Morton Schindel, it was Snyder who was full of gigantic dreams and giga-projects, with his famous slogan, “Snyder and Deitch will rule the world!”  But it all fell to earth like fizzled fireworks. One of Bill Snyder’s Havana cigar smoke-dreams was that he would make me so rich that any Social Security pension would be a joke. The joke was that while I was working hard on his projects which never got anywhere, and was also busy pursuing my love affair with Zdenka, and earnestly sidestepping the Czechoslovak communist regime, I did not notice that Snyder was not paying into my Social Security fund. The result is that I now get only half the pension I should be getting. Snyder put a 25% percent of net profits into all my contracts. (Tranlation: ZERO.) Somehow I’ve survived. It was exciting as well as exasperating with Snyder, and a great learning process.

Snyder evoked so many mixed reactions from people, that he is impossible to summarize.  My two oldest sons thought he was a con man. The women in the Prague film organizations loved him. They giggled at his outrageous remarks.

He reveled in the outrageous, and loved to show his bravery by uttering politically taboo remarks while in communist Prague. The women loved him especially because he always brought them rare presents from the West.

I have the greatest problem in measuring him. He discovered the possibility of producing animation films in Prague. He had excellent taste. He chose great books to adapt. But he came on too strong for me. He was a show off. He was exasperating. He didn’t hesitate to embarrass.

Once, we were sitting in a luncheonette, I trying to have a serious discussion with him, when the waitress arrived. Snyder stopped in middle of his answer to my urgent question, grasped the waitress’s hand, and plowed right in:

“Darling, you are a nice looking girl, but you are really wearing too much makeup!” He called all younger women, “darling.” At such moments – and there were many such moments – I wished I could fall through the floor.

He was insufferable in many ways. Whenever we were outside he was constantly hacking and spitting, and there was that omnipresent cigar. Cigar smoke makes me nauseous.

When we walked along together, to ensure he had my full attention he insisted on stopping when he had a point to make. I had to stand stock still to listen to him.

He was extremely critical of my character, as contrasted to his own, and he missed few opportunities to lecture me.

Yet he revelled in his personal saucy tales. True? What is true is that he was a world-class charmer. I couldn’t match his escapades.

We were different, that’s all. Bill Snyder evokes such a mix of emotions in me that I can hardly make a sum of the man. He changed my life. He brought me to Zdenka, (albeit unwittingly).  He also brought me to colly-wobbled anxiety and economic distress.

I could never prevail in a confrontation with him. He was a master of attack-as-defense.  Once I went to his office in New York, determined to get a settlement of money he owed me. Before I could open my mouth, and without a word of greeting, he leaned forward in lecture mode: “Gene, there are three things I can never forgive you for!” and launched into a litany of nonsense, forcing me into long rebuttals, smothering any chance of my getting to my own points. He had a sixth sense.

I didn’t have the wit to point out to him at that moment, that there might be something I couldn’t forgive him for; just for one thing, his 1971 letter to Henry White, of Saggitarius Films, effectively sabotaging my Charlotte’s Web project. (See Credit 30. E.B.White), and only by a millimeter did he miss spoiling my relationship with Mort Schindel and Weston Woods. (About that in “Credit 51.”)

In 1961, when my film of Jules Feiffer’s story, MUNRO, won the Oscar, I was working in Prague.  Bill picked up the statuette at the Hollywood ceremony, announcing to the world, “Thanks to Gene and Jules and Al!”  Who?  So William Snyder’s name is on the Oscar for a film on which he had zero creative input.  I had contracted with Jules Feiffer for the film rights, and with voice actor Howard Morris, and I personally directed all creative aspects of Munro’sproduction. Bill contracted for the Prague studio production facilities. Period. According to the Academy rules, an Oscar for a short film goes to “the individual most directly responsible for the concept and creative execution of the film.” In 1960, the rule was unclearly stated, but the intention was the same. The MUNRO Oscar was not won by Bill Snyder, who had no role at all in its creative execution.

(See page 40 of the official Academy Awards Rule Book.)

However, Bill Snyder did give me great creative latitude, During the decade of our association, from 1959 to 1969, my productions for him won four more Oscar nominations, and I had many chances to try new things. I created Nudnik during that period, and my personal favorite “Self-Help” Series: SELF-DEFENSE FOR COWARDS, HOW TO LIVE WITH A NEUROTIC DOG, HOW TO WIN ON THE THRUWAY, HOW TO AVOID FRIENDSHIP, and THE GIRL-WATCHERS’ GUIDE.  I had great fun with those films, having ”movie butler” Arthur Treacher do the narration.

THE HOBBIT!!! The long-awaited Peter Jackson film finally came out in 2012. I can nowI tell you the zaniest Bill Snyder story of all, and announce to the world that the very first film adaption of Tolkien’s THE HOBBIT was made by us, and actually played publically in New York in 1966!  It was my “impossible” assignment.  Here is the true story:

Snyder came up with some amazing projects for me. In 1964, before anyone but some obscure Brit kids ever heard of it, Bill handed me a worn little 1937 children’s book named, The Hobbit. He recognized it was a great story, and he obtained the film rights to it and the other works by a fusty old English philologist, named John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. Snyder’s rights extended to June 30, 1966. Just enough time. He set me to the task of making The Hobbit into a feature-length animated movie.

After reading the book, I caught the fever, and intensively began working up a screenplay. My dear old friend Bill Bernal, the same man who led me to UPA, and who later joined me at The Jam Handy Organization, flew to Prague to collaborate. The great sweep of the adventure, the fabled landscapes, and the treasury of fantasy characters, made the story a natural for animation. Although the first book of the later trilogy, The Lord of The Rings, was published in 1954, we did yet not know of it. The Tolkien craze was still a few years in the future. Snyder had happened onto something of major value, and he had gotten the rights for peanuts!

We were well into the Hobbit screenplay when The Lord of The Rings came out in paperback editions. I had assumed there was only The Hobbit to contend with, and following Snyder’s wish, I had taken some liberties with the story that a few years later would have been grounds for burning me at the stake. For example, I had introduced a series of songs, changed some of the characters’ names, played loosely with the plot, and even created a girl character, a Princess no less, to go along on the quest, and to eventually overcome Bilbo Baggins’ bachelorhood! I could Hollywoodize as well as the next guy…

When I did manage to get and read “THE LORD OF THE RINGS,” I realized I was dealing with something far more magnificent than what appeared in THE HOBBIT alone, and I then back-spaced elements from The Lord into my script so as to logically allow for a sequel. First Bill Bernal, and then I worked on the script for most of a year.

In January, 1966 Snyder asked Zdenka and me to come to America to do a presentation to 20th Century-Fox. It would be Zdenka’s first trip to America, and I wanted her to get the feel of the distance, so I decided we should go by ship. The six-day crossing would also give me time to do the last-minute rewrites. There were only typewriters in those days, but I did achieve a sort of high-tech breakthrough: The rocking of the ship gave me automatic carriage returns on almost every line!

Before the time of CGI, I had proposed a retro visual effect, combining cel-animated figures over elaborate 3D model backgrounds. I know that Max Fleisher had once tried something like it, but I intended to take the idea to greater heights and atmosphere. I even attached a special name to the technique: “ImagiMation!” I was thinking big!

By the time we arrived in New York, however, Snyder had already blown the deal by asking 20th for too much money. Tolkien’s name hadn’t yet reached them either. I had a fat script, but no other film companies were then interested. It was crushing. Even today, when I flip through my screenplay, and can almost see the fabulous scenes I had imagined, I feel a heavy regret.

But the worst was yet to come. Months later, when I was back in Prague working on some other filler projects, Snyder managed to get a phone call through to Zdenka’s office. (Phoning to Prague in those days was like trying to contact Uranus.) He had a preposterous order for me: Make a one-reel, 12-minute, (1 35mm reel), version of THE HOBBIT, and bring it to New York within 30 days! I thought he had been smoking something wilder than his contraband Cuban cigars. Not possible!

What had happened was that in the meantime, the Tolkien craze had exploded, and the value of the film rights reached outer space. Suddenly Bill had the possibility of getting a hefty profit without having to finance or produce anything!

Snyder thought, “Why invest money, plus a year-and-a-half of work, when you can make money without all that sweat?” Not only had the Tolkien estate lawyers given Snyder the rights for peanuts, but in their ignorance of film terminology, they had left a million-dollar-loop-hole in the contract: It merely stated that in order to hold his option for THE LORD OF THE RINGS, Snyder had to “produce a full-color motion picture version” of THE HOBBIT by June 30th 1966. Please note: It did not say it had to be an animated movie, and it did not say how long the film had to be!

The Tolkien estate had now been offered a fabulous sum for the rights, and Snyder’s rights would expire in one month. They were already rubbing their hands together. But Snyder played his ace: to fulfill just the letter of the contract – to deliver a “full-color film” of THE HOBBIT by June 30th. All he had to do was to order me to destroy my own screenplay – all my previous year’s work, and hoke up a super-condensed scenario on the order of a movie preview, (but still tell the entire basic story from beginning to end), and all within 12 minutes running time – one 35mm reel of film. Cheap. I had to get the artwork done, record voice and music, shoot it, edit it, and get it to a New York projection room on or before June 30th, 1966!  I suppose I should have told him to shove it, but I was basically his slave at the time. It suddenly became an insane challenge.

I knew my screen storyline by heart, so I just had to put it through a mind-shredder, and write a sort of synopsis, with a few key lines of dialog scattered throughout. I called on close friend, brilliant Czech illustrator, Adolf Born, well known even then, and now the premier book illustrator in the Czech Republic. We managed to work out a simple storyboard. Adolf came up with a paper cutout scheme, and I worked out some multiple-exposure visual effects and scene continuity. We worked directly under the camera to shoot it. I got an American friend here, Herb Lass, who worked as a broadcaster for the Czechoslovak Radio’s English language transmissions, to come up to our apartment and record the narration. I borrowed a tape of dramatic movie music from a composer friend, Václav Lidl, which I quickly extracted and cut together, also at home. It was no problem with music rights, as I could assure him that the film would never actually be distributed, but would be – sadly – a mere decoy.

I love to see my name as director on the screen credits of my films, but I I did not want my name to be on such a chopped down version of my script, even though, thanks to Born, the film looked amazingly good. Now, nearly 45 years later, I’ve finally put my name back onto it. With the new Peter Jackson mega-version coming out, I can at least make an immodest shout that I made the very first ever film version of THE HOBBIT!

Now here, for the first time, I will show you two rediscovered typewritten letters from the daily stream of updates to Bill Snyder in New York that show, better than I could recall today, just what we went through to get this pre-shrunk movie made and sent a New York screening room in 1966:

We actually managed to get it shot and out of the lab in time, (without bribes, but with Zdenka’s usual brand of irresistable-object techniques), and I arranged for my New York air ticket. I arrived with the rough answer print on June 29th. Snyder had already booked a small projection room in midtown Manhattan. After a quick test screening – and Snyder was duly impressed – I ran downstairs and stopped people on the sidewalk, asking them if they would like to see a preview of a new animated film, for only 10¢ admission. I handed each willing customer a dime, which they handed back. After the screening, the few, puzzled audience members were asked to sign a paper stating that on this day of June 31, 1966, they had paid admission to see the full-color animated film, “THE HOBBIT!”

March 4, 1967

We have about 90% of THE HOBBIT into camera, and we have already more than 60% finished and cut into the reel. I can tell you, that in spite of the impossibility of this particular story condensation, it will still be a visually stunning piece! If nothing else, it has inspired Adolf Born and me to talk about doing something serious in this technique. We are thinking about a French erotic story. For you, I think that perhaps this HOBBIT film could have a great value beyond its immediate purpose, showing it as a sample of this economic technique which could be very effective for mystery stories, horror tales (Edgar Allen Poe), science fiction, in color television.

Since you left, and Born returned, we have both been working night and day. We lost a week when he had to be in Germany, which has been impossible to recover. On top of that, cameraman Zdenka Hajdová was home sick for two days. Even so, I have been barely able to keep ahead of her in preparing the technical planning and timing.

Worse, we are running dangerously low on Eastmancolor film rawstock. You told me, when you were here, that you had shipped another two boxes, but they have not as yet arrived. The scenes in this film are very long; reshoots will kill us.

Also, the MPAA numbers for this film, or for NUDNIK’S NUDNICKEL have not arrived, and we’ve had to fake the numbers on both films!

Another worry: Only just today, we got the answer print of NUDNIK ON A SHOESTRING from the Barrandov lab! We put it into the lab a week before you arrived, but they are giving priority to anything for the Montreal fair. It’s impossible to get anything through fast. It this will happen to us on THE HOBBIT……..!!!

I suggest that you may want us to ship you the negative, and let you produce the print there. I know that would cost you more…. But I can’t tell you now how long it will take to get you a print from here. If the last batch of shooting is OK, we will be sending the material to the for answer print on Friday, March 10th. If there are serious shooting errors, or if we are physically unable to get everything finished and shot this coming Monday the 6th, we will then miss another week, and won’t be able be able to send the finished film to the lab until the 17th! If you allow two weeks for a print, plus a week for shipping the print to you, you get the idea of just where we stand. Now, maybe we we can get a print in one week. But the example of NUDNIK says no. So that means that the soonest we could get a print here would be about March 20th. But it could be as late as mid-April!

Please cable instructions.

Best, Gene

Thus Snyder’s film rights to the entire J.R.R. Tolkien library were legally extended, and he was immediately able to sell them back for nearly $100,000. (Remember, this was 1966). My share of this weazled boodle was – you guessed it – zip.

The final blow came some years later, when an animated feature version of THE HOBBIT appeared, starring the timid voice of Orson Bean. That film to my mind in no way approached the magnificence I had originally envisioned . I had obtained the greatest Czech artist, illustrator, painter, sculptor, and director of the most famous Czech puppet films of all time, Ji?í Trnka, to be the designer of my projected full-length version. Sadly, we never got beyond his model sketches. I will present them to you in the upcoming Credit 43.

My meager 12-minute film itself has just magically resurfaced thanks to Adam Snyder, who rediscovered the long forgotten single existing 35mm print, deep in the Rembrandt Films basement archives!  It’s a genuine miracle, because I had assumed that this little film had totally vanished. So now you can see it right here, and judge it for yourself, in the light of what I have written about the time, place, and reasons of its origin. I repeat: it’s the very first film adaptation of THE HOBBIT, made 45 years ago in 1966!

There is much to remember about Bill Snyder. He did change my life for the better, and I do not forget that.  And I also cannot forget the great fun we had together, and the marvelous creative burn as we both raced through the early days of our productions.  He exuded confidence and optimism; he projected the image of a winner, and yet he lost; he never made his millions.  He was a person no one could forget, and no one could cope with.  We neither can cope with his inexplicable end.

Only Fate was able to defeat Bill Snyder, and I get no joy in making my points now.  For Zdenka and me, there is much to think about, and much to remember. Zdenka still loves him.

And there is the wonder of Bill’s family, with whom I’ve nothing but wonderfully friendly and fruitful relations: His widow, Peggy, son Adam, daughters Trinka and Dana, Adam’s wife Patti, and their bright progeny, Lilli and Kasey. They are all among my favourite people.  None of them are temperamental echoes of Bombastic Bill.  Why this is, could only be explained in a very long story…

In retrospect, I can imagine how it all happened:

In his effort to lure me to his service, Snyder never referred to his animation facilitities as being in “Czechoslovakia.”  Czech-o-slo-va-ki-a was a distant country with an extremely foreign, 6-syllable name, difficult for Americans to pronounce.  But its capital city, “Prague,” had a 1-syllable name, spelled and pronounced exactly as the French and British spell and pronounce it, thus having a vaguely romantic and less sinister ring to it.

Snyder caught me at a vulnerable moment, after the loss of my greatest job, creative director of CBS-Terrytoons, and under the heavy economic burden of my own studio, and the tension and insecurity it was having on my home life.

Yet it all played out in a way that changed my life for the better!