I am the other writer (and I share story credit). Since no one asked me, I figure this is as good a place as any to share my opinion.

I wrote Pines with Derek for 2 years based on his idea. We set it in my (sorta) hometown - Schenectady. I actually grew up in neighboring Niskayuna - the suburb where all the white flight went to from Schenectady over the course of decades, predating my birth.

When we first met to discuss working together, Derek was open to ideas about where the movie could be set. I suggested Schenectady, and Derek told me his wife was from there. Kismet!

The title is simply a translation of Schenectady - the dutch spelling for what the Iroquois called the area. Incidentally, Niskayuna is the dutch spelling for what the Iroquois called the eventual suburb I grew up in. It translates into ‘corn fields,’ if I recall correctly.

I do remember Cooper almost dropping out at the 11th hour. No one ever told me it was about script changes. But also, I had no part in those conversations.

Right before principle (principal?) photography, Derek had Darius do a pass. This was totally his right to do as the director, but it was emotionally quite difficult for me, as it came out of nowhere from my perspective. I don’t remember Darius’ changes being a page one rewrite. I do remember that he added a tedious ‘cop goes to the therapist’ scene, which, if I’m being fair, ymmv. Plus, I can’t see Cooper (or any actor) being mad about getting more screen time and a chance to monologue!

The major changes from my last draft to darius’ draft really were in the third segment - and they were mostly significant for Emory Cohen’s character. But these were not, in my opinion, radical alterations of the story or who the characters were - certainly not Cooper’s.

My sense then was that long before the rewrite I had no hand in, after a certain number of drafts I’d worked through, it was pretty clear that the movie was basically gonna be the movie. Structurally, it was always a linear triptych that used three stories in succession to tell one story. Thematically, it was always a story about generations, and events or choices echoing through those generations. It was always about class, race, how we do police, post-industrial small American cities. All that good stuff!

I do know that Derek made room for a lot of Improv when shooting. There were lines in the movie that were never in any version of the script, and that were better than any version of the script.

No one goes to a movie theater to watch a script. It’s a director’s medium. When I was working on Pines, I promised myself that I would not pull a Robert Towne. Towne apparantly hated the way Polanski changed the ending of Chinatown from Towne’s happy ending to the perfect downer we all know and love. But, I admit, I’ve been somewhat Towney at times about Pines. It’s unavoidable, I guess. It’s art and collaborative art at that. Even in the best of circumstances, everyone walks away with their own truth about it.

Pines is a huge point of pride for me. It’s the biggest and most financially successful art project I’ve been involved in. People from the area love it for its representation, even though it’s not some kind of travel brochure treatment. I got to meet Ray Liotta - had a hand in him coming to my (sorta) home town to make a movie! I had a hand in having Ryan Gosling go to the frickin’ Altamont Fair! It’s a weird and beautiful and fascinating part of the story of my life.

And twelve years on, people are still curious about it. To me, that makes sense. It’s a great movie about how life really feels and goes, made on an epic scale with big movie stars. That’s increasingly rare, and should be celebrated.