Out of sight, and thus out of mind, I kinda forgot about “Doctor Strange” entirely until the film popped back up in the conversation yesterday when it earned a deserved Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects (say what you will about the movie, but the VFX were certainly impressive). But one fact you might have forgotten in the run-up to the release of the film is that “Community” creator Dan Harmon was brought into the film at the very last minute to help out with the script. However, it turns out his contributions were largely left off the big screen.
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In an interview with Moviefone, director Scott Derrickson revealed that Harmon essentially brought a non-comic-reader’s outside perspective, but any jokes he wrote for the film pretty much went unused.
“… what he did was, he came in, saw a cut of the movie, and had a really striking analysis. Because he hadn’t read any of the scripts and didn’t know the Doctor Strange mythology and I’m not sure how much of a comic book fan he was. But he saw the movie, loved it, and had some breakdown things that were very helpful. That alone was probably his biggest contribution,” the director explained.
“There are some jokes that might have stayed in there, but for the most part, the scenes were a little too out in Dan Harmon-land, even for ‘Doctor Strange.’ But I really love the guy and I really think he made a significant contribution in the process,” he added. “He was the voice we needed to hear at the time, and I will always be thankful and watch anything he does. He’s a brilliant dude.”
By the sounds of it, “Doctor Strange” benefitted from having Harmon come in and give his unbiased two cents, and sometimes, that’s all the help you need.
“Doctor Strange” hits Digital HD on February 14th and home video on February 28th.
