Aricles Annex - Xena: Warrior Princess Magazine Articles

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Starlog #245

December 1997
pg. 26-29

Heroic Rennaissance

by Joe Nazzaro

Thousands of years after Homer first spun his tales of heroic adventure, mythology is back with a vengeance, thanks to syndicated TV's Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, and its equally successful spin-off, Xena: Warrior Princess. The two series helped rejuvenate the long-dead fantasy genre, while also inspiring numerous sword & sorcery knock-offs.

At the heart of this fantasy revival is Rob Tapert, whose company, Renaissance Pictures, produces both Hercules and Xena as well as the short-lived American Gothic and Spy Game. Tapert and longtime partner Sam Raimi have collaborated on a number of genre projects, including the  Evil Dead films and Darkman.

Heroic Fantasies

While many producers would be content to find a successful formula for their series and stick with it, Tapert isn't afraid to let his writers take chances on either Hercules or Xena. "The biggest difference between the two shows when we're working on scripts," he explains, "is on  Xena. We always look at what changes take place in Xena or Gabrielle, but we don't do that on Hercules. That's something I'm going to go to more this season. Xena is somebody who learns something on a weekly basis, and the episodes work best when the drama flows out of her and from the decisions she has made.

"Hercules, because of the nature of the show, is kind of an unchangeable hero. He's already a good guy, and very few times do we find a way to have drama flow from him. He usually comes into a situation and rectifies it so he acts more like a teacher. With Xena, there's less of a long-term arc and more of an episode-by-episode arc. That's more difficult with Hercules. But that will be one way we'll shake up the formula a bit: We'll lessen Hercules' godlike abililies and concentrate on his human taults."

With Hercules in its fourth season and Xena working on its third, the public's appetite for both characters seems unquenchable. To satisfy that demand, Tapert points to several spin-off projects, including a Young Hercules movie and the direct-to-video animated film Hercules & Xena: The Battle for Olympus, (now due out in January). "When we began working on Hercules four years ago, we heard within a month or so of starting that Disney was doing an animated Hercules for 1997, and we thought, 'Oh, we have a lifetime to get this to the screen! I think the reason our animated project got made was for identification, because it goes the other way as well.

"The animation is totally different from Disney's." he says, "and my hope is that the story is slightly more adult; it's about the death of Alcamene, but it still has a basic six-to 12-year-old appeal. It has three songs in it, one about being the wounded hero, the bad guy song and the standard animated fare for the kids. We have a different and really cool style of animation, and behind it, there's more of an adult story."

Meanwhile, Young Hercules, is a 90 minute direct-to-video feature starring youthful versions of Hercules, Iolaus and Jason. "It has turned out very well, and I'm trying to get it moved into an afternoon series. Because it's an unusual place to program for, people have been somewhat reluctant, but they do see the sense of doing counter-programming in the afernoon. The Young Hercules, feature is actually darker than the Hercules, series, so it's not a great template for what we want to do with a series, and we would have to make some tonal changes if we sold it. If Young Hercules, becomes an afernoon strip series, it would mean shooting 80 episodes in a year: that would be a full-time project. I also have not a spin-off but a companion piece to Young Hercules, if it goes well."

Returning his attention to the latest chapters in the Hercules, and Xena, sagas, Tapert hints at some interesting changes in the works. "This season on Xena, we're doing some tricky and questionable things, and to some extent, we're deconstructing our hero. There was nothing broke on Hercules, last season, but it plateaued. It's actually up two or three percent over the previous year [in ratings]. I don't attribute that to a loss of viewers, but unless you're constantly screwing around and reinventing yourself, that's going to happen.

What's in store for Xena (Lucy Lawless)? She'll make several "very wrong" decisions which will haunt her throughout the season.

"The upshot of that is on both Hercules, and Xena, but slightly earlier on Xena, and very deliberately - we're going to orchestrate our characters into making decisions that ultimately prove very wrong. I don't think we'll be doing it to the same degree on Hercules, but Xena will make a few wrong decisions, and she and Gabrielle will pay for them over the entire season. "

Tapert is more than happy to discuss some of the recent events regarding both shows until confronted with a difficult one: The strong bond between Xena and her companion, Gabrielle. The producer concedes that some viewers may be reading too much into the relationship, especially in light of episodes like "A Day in the Life," but what about the producer's view? A long pause, as Tapert considers his answer. Finally, "I'11 give you my stock answer: What works and is really nice about Xena, is there's a love story between two friends, and it's how those two friends relate, react and respond to one another. We have really done nothing to say there's anything sexual about this relationship, but everyone wants to jump to the conclusion that if two women are friends, they are automatically lesbian lovers. My answer is, it is a love relationship and what they do as characters in their own time when they're not in front of the camera has nothing to do with me. I'm certainly not going to say definitely either way what the characters do when they're not in front of the camera, but I know certainly that in front of the camera they're the best of friends.

"I was in Turkey last year, and [co-executive producer1 R.J. Stewart was in Moscow, and we both came back and said, 'What's interesting about other cultures is you always see women walking arm-and-arm down the road, or men walking arm-and-arm, and no way are you going to say that two Turkish men who have their arms around each other, walking down the street in Istanbul are gay!' Men kiss each other on the cheek, women kiss each other all over the world, in a nonsexual connotation. It just denotes friendship or closeness, so we put that in an episode, and were totally shocked at the reaction."

From controversy to ingenuity, Hercules, and Xena, both had to deal with the temporary loss of their main characters last season, resulting in some creative problem-solving. When Kevin Sorbo's shooting schedule overran on Kull the Conqueror, the writers on Hercules had to change several scripts.

"With regard to how Kull impacts on Kevin and Hercules, " says Tapert, "I actually had very mixed feelings about it. Personally, I would have preferred that Kevin do something outside the swords-and-sandals genre. But beyond that, I can only wish him all the luck in the world. Win, lose or draw, though, I don't think Kull will impact on Hercules."

Over on Xena, the writing staff had to think even more quickly when their warrior princess was unexpectedly sidelined affer a horseback riding injury. As Tapert recalls, "My first concern, and the same with the writing staff, was for Lucy Lawless - what were the extent of her injuries and is anything going to [result in] long-term disabilities? And then, oddly enough, within a few days, we were saying, 'OK, what if we do that, and let's go back and change the end of 'Destiny,' and let's do this.' We did some last-minute changing and shiffing, and lo and behold, it all worked out!"

In the end, those alterations must have been successful, judging from the number of Xena, fans on the Internet. "Let's see, we changed 'Ten Little Warlords,' which was the one shot without Lucy, then 'The Quest,' the continuation of 'Destiny.' We changed the end of 'Destiny' and made 'The Quest' and 'For Him the Bell Tolls,' which was an all Joxer episode."

Amazing Controversies

That brings up another tricky internet subject: The number of cyberspace cadets who have expressed their unreasoning dislike for Ted Raimi's bumbling warrior. "I don't go to the Internet anymore," says an annoyed Tapert. "I don't read what those people say and I don't care, because I've disagreed with many things I've read. Then, I heard the internet base hated 'For Him the Bell Tolls;' they just hated Joxer. It's very strange, and then I run into seven-year-old kids on my block, or the maid's daughter, who think that he's funny; these kinds of connections give you a much better idea of what people think. There's no real way to know what works."

When put on the hot seat and asked what worked last season, Tapert isn't afraid to list a few personal highlights, with the understanding that his opinions don't necessarily reflect those of the viewing majority. "What did I like this past year?" the producer muses. "On Xena, I really liked our February sweeps episodes - 'Destiny,' which I directed, 'The Quest,' our All of Me episode, which Bruce Campbell was in, and 'Necessary Evil,' which was a follow-up to 'The Quest,' with the Amazons and Callisto. I thought 'A Day in the Life' was really funny, and so was our all-Joxer episode. I also liked the beginning of the season with Callisto.

"There were some I wouldn't do again. We did a beauty pageant episode ["Here She Comes...Miss Amphipolis"], and I didn't care for that. There were some that were just middling, and there was certainly no reason to go back and mine anything there.

"On Hercules, I liked the three episodes we did of Hercules and the Golden Hind [Sam Jenkins], and I liked 'Mercenary,' the opener' that Michael Hurst directed I liked a bunch of ones we did that were lighter and had monsters in them, which is something I'm changing. We're going to do darker episodes this year."

"Hercules (Kevin Sorbo) is kind of an unchangeable hero, says Tapert. Discovering a problem, Hercules tends to fix it, acting 'more like a teacher.'"

Tapert's reference to "Mercenary" brings up an interesting subject: actors-turned-directors. The previous season of Hercules, saw Hurst put aside the role of Iolaus to sit in director's chair (Hurst also directed Xena's "Day in the Life"). Sorbo directed "War Bride" and Robert (Salmoneus) Trebor helmed "Rock and a Hard Place." "Michael and Kevin are great directors," Tapert insists. "And Trebor did a pretty good job with an atypical Hercules script, so I have no problem.

"Michael's going to direct a couple more this year, and I think he's a fine director. In fact, I'll tell you an interesting thing that very few people know; the entire fourth act in 'A Day in the Life,' where they battle the giant, was all footage left over from another episode, 'The Giant Killer,' our David and Goliath episode that didn't quite work. Well, the cut was so long on it that we said, 'Let's just chop off the entire fourth act and bank it for something else, and have this episode end with the death of Goliath rather than them going and getting the giant."

As if his duties as executive producer don't keep him busy enough, Tapert has also directed an episode of each series. "My plate is full enough, but there's a benefit to directing an episode once in a while. It allows me to see the entire process, because I generally work first and foremost on stories and scripts, and secondly on post-production. It's a great benefit to go down there and translate a script onto film as a director, because it really helps. It's great to see the entire process from beginning to end, and by directing you realize, 'Oh, I thought this was going to be easy, and it's very hard.' It's a tool that allows me to be a better producer, and in this particular case, it's a story I was interested in telling."

Favorite Adventures

Looking back at "Once a Hero," his directorial debut on Hercules, Tapert says the episode, which featured a reunion between Hercules, Jason and the Argonauts, didn't quite work. "I committed the cardinal error of having a rough cut that came out 15 minutes too long, and had to cut the story, and there were some story elements that I'm sorry I had to lose that would have made the relationships stronger. Such as who the bad guy was, and why he was doing what he was doing; of the Argonauts working as a team - lots of little character things. There's a lot of it that I like, although I got too action-heavy at the end. It was my story premise to do a reunion of the Argonauts, that they had to do something to redeem the man who was their hero. I also wish the FX guys had two more weeks to finish the skeleton fight up properly, to get the motion better, but all-in-all, I was pleased with the experience."

Tapert also directed the Xena, episode "Destiny," which explored the character's origins as well as her first encounter with Julius Caesar. "You're never satisfied, although I'm actually pleased that many things I tried worked out. We're bringing Julius Caesar back this season as a running foe of Xena's. We're going to play with outof-context events in Caesar's life and how Xena was affected by them."

If there's time, Tapert will direct again, but one area the producer-turned-directorturned-producer won't be pursuing is acting. Tapert enjoyed a brief cameo as himself in 'The Xena Scrolls," but it's probably his last foray into the acting arena. "That was my tribute to [writer/producer/actor] Stephen Cannell. I purposely told makeup, wardrobe and hair, 'Go get a picture of Stephen Cannell, and I want the turtleneck, little mustache and goatee.'That was, 'OK, Rob, we'll be ready to shoot in an hour, go to makeup and wardrobe and get ready.' I was ready in 30 minutes, and they shot it five feet from my office in New Zealand."

With Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, and Xena: Warrior Princess, now bona fide international successes, it seems likely that Robert Tapert will have his hands full, redefining the television fantasy genre for many years to come. That doesn't bother the producer; it's what he has prepared for his entire life. "It uses everything I've ever learned, and I find working with the various staffs an incredibly rewarding and creatively satisfying experience. Maybe I'll be tired of this in two or three years, but I have to say, thus far, with more than 53 episodes to Xena, and 62 of Hercules, we're just starting to nip the iceberg in terms of ideas."