This was originally published on August 12,1995.

I have no idea why or how this interview happened, and I don't even really remember doing it. Michael Part is still kicking around and in the middle of writing a sequel to the movie. The movie is actually very well done.

Just in case you haven't seen the movie A KID IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT, rush out and buy a ticket today!

Our interviewee is the person responsible for bringing you this movie from Disney! Michael Part is his name and writing is his game! Our interview highlights what it takes to get the movie from birth to screeening! Enjoy!

PG: Tell us a little bit about your movie that is now appearing across the country . . .

MP: Well, two years ago Tapestry Films called me into their offices and said they wanted to do a new update on A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT with a kid going back this time.  They had read some of my earlier scripts and believed I was a good writing match for what they had in mind.  I agreed to do it and went to work.

A month later, I turned in a very rough draft of A KID IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT and both Tapestry Films and Trimark Pictures read it and agreed to make a film based on it.

Twenty-five drafts later I found myself in Budapest Hungary sitting around a table with Thomas Ian Nicholas (Calvin), Joss Ackland (King Arthur), and Paloma Baeza (Princess Katey), reading the script and making it better!

A KID IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT is a true international production.  We shot most of it in Budapest, Hungary.  We shot the baseball sequences in London, England and Sherman Oaks, California.  We shot a bunch of the exterior castle shots in Wales.  We scored the music in Prague, Chech Republic, and did the final sound mix in Melbourne, Australia.

Also, what most newspapers and magazines do not know...  it was a real low budget production.  After we were finished, the film only cost $2.3 million dollars!

After we were done shooting, we put together a 20-minute promo film. Walt Disney Pictures saw this reel and immediately offered to distribute our film in the US, Canada, England, Australia, and Germany!

We were thrilled!  Our little film we made for our kids was going to be a Disney movie!

Six months later, two years to the month after I was originally hired to write A KID IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT, our movie opened, and is doing great in the theaters.  The best thing about A KID IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT is that the audiences like it.  We made this movie to entertain children and adults and so far we have succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.

PG: Do the words Pearl Jam mean anything to you? What type of music are you in to?                                                             ³

MP: I have probably heard everything recorded by Pearl Jam and tried very hard to get their music into our movie, actually!  Unfortunately, none of the newer bands wanted to make a deal with us at the time... remember, this was before Disney came aboard... We also tried to get Crash Test Dummies too.  And, I remember, Thomas turning us on to Offspring... we wanted Offspring for the rock-and-roll sequence in King Arthur's Court.  Unfortunately, they were just coming off doing a bit for BATMAN III and wanted almost as much money as our movie cost, so obviously, we passed.

However, I like to listen to all music.  I surf the radio channels constantly switching between 60s and 70s oldies stations, the alternative rock station out here, KROQ, and a classical music station.

Most of my music at home is classical, but when I was on the road making A KID IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT, I spent a lot of time in London and got to buy some great CDs... I even bought a Junglistic CD!

PG: Were you actually involved in the shooting of the movie? If not, why not? If so, describe the experience.

MP: I was involved in all aspects of production of A KID IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT.  As I said, I wrote the script for Tapestry as a labor of love. In other words, I didn't make a whole lot of money doing it.  In exchange for this, and the fact that Tapestry was very happy with the results, they brought me aboard to help make the entire film!

I spent a month in Budapest, Hungary, rewriting the script up until and during the shooting.  I was there for the 1st week of shooting, then I had to return to the States to fulfill another writing committment.

After Budapest, I went to London and spent a month there writing ADR lines for the actors.  ADR stands for Automatic Dialogue Replacement. Basically, we assembled our film and then filled in the story gaps with new gags and story points.

Also in London we shot the Merlin sequences with the wonderful actor Ron Moody (Oliver!).

After London we all flew to Prague in the Chech Republic where J.A.C. Redford conducted the score he wrote for our film.

On the way back from Prague, we stopped in London for VE-Day and re-recorded some stuff with Ron Moody.

Then we flew to Melbourne, Australia where we mixed the movie.  Our mixer was Roger Savage, who also mixed THE ROAD WARRIOR, RETURN OF THE JEDI, and BABE.

PG: Ok. Just like everyone asks a car reviewer or mechanic what kind of car they drive, what is the configuration and type of your primary PC?

MP: My writing PC is a dx2-80 486 (AMD cpu) nestled in a 3-volt motherboard with 16mb of RAM, an ATI Graphics Pro Turbo video card (2 mb vram), a Promise EIDE 2300+ enhanced ide controller, a Maxtor 1.26gig hard drive, a Soundblaster 16 sound card, a Conner 420mb tape backup and a Mitsumi Quad CD-ROM.  I run the whole thing in Windows 95 and have been for the last 10 months.

I plan on upgrading to a 133MHz Pentium when the prices drop.

I also have a Gateway Colorbook DX4-75 notebook computer, which I take on the road with me.

I also run a writers BBS called The Wicked Scherzo, which I have done for the last 9 years.  The BBS is connected to my other computers via Windows 95 and NE2000 compatible ethernet cards.

PG: With this soon to be success all over the place, has your door been knocking with other offers? What is on the horizin for you?

MP: Ever since I wrote A KID IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT, Tapestry Films has kept me busy with various other projects.  Right now my partner, Robert L. Levy, is on the road in Tunisia and Morocco scouting locations for the sequel... A KID IN THE ARABIAN NIGHTS, which will be out next Summer.  I am currently writing a Christmas movie which will start shooting in January and February.

PG: Describe your perfect vacation . . .

MP: My perfect vacation would be in London with my family and my computer. (grin).

PG: What is the neatest computer program you have used in the last month? Why?

MP: Well, not to make this an infomercial for Microsoft, but I would say Windows 95.  I have it installed on all my computers and it works great. Some programs that weren't stable before, like my dos-based BBS software, is now running beautifully in the background with no problems whatsoever.  I am also very happy with the new 32-bit Microsoft Word 7.0, which runs in Windows 95.  It is a whole lot quicker than Word 6.0x and makes my writing job a lot easier.

PG: Do you have a home office you work out of? If so, what are the challenges you face? If not, why not?

MP: I have a guest house in my backyard and that is my home office.  I have 5 computers out here, a bathroom, TV, and a yellow-naped Amazon parrot named Burrita.  It is also situated right next to the swing set, so my two children, Elizabeth and Nicholas, are frequently at my office door wanting to use the bathroom.

PG: What toppings do you like on your pizza? For that matter what type of pizza is your favorite?

MP: My favorite pizza is the Garbage Special from Del-Cor on the beach in Venice, California.  When I can't have that I'll take a thin-crusted pizza with mushroom and sausage.
 

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