Hello,

One of my favorite albums is Neil Young's "After the Goldrush" (1970). In the
liner notes, Neil declares "Most of these songs were inspired by the
Dean Stockwell--Herb Berman screenplay 'After the Goldrush'. Could you
please help me get more information about that screenplay? Here's what
I (ostensibly) know already:

-The movie was never made
-Dean Stockwell is an actor who was in the T.V. show "Quantum Leap",
the movies "Married to the Mob" and "Dune", and was also in Neil's
movie "Human Highway"

This is what I'd like to know:

-What was the screenplay about about (Setting/Plot/Characters)?
-Why was it never made?
-Who owns the rights to it?
-How can I get a copy/read it?
-Any other helpful information

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

From an interview with Neil

Mojo: Let's move on to After The Goldrush, then. Many of the songs
were inspired by a film screenplay written by the actor Dean
Stockwell. What was the film actually about?

Neil: It was all about the day of the great earthquake in Topanga
Canyon when a great wave of water flooded the place. It was a pretty
'off-the-wall' concept, they tried to get some money from Universal
Pictures. But that fell through because it was too much of an art
project. I think, had it been made it would stand as a contemporary to
Easy Rider and it would have had a similar effect. The script itself
was full of imagery, 'change' . . . It was very unique actually. I
really wish that movie had been made, because it could have really
defined an important moment in the culture.

From http://www.geocities.com/bakfan_uk/excerpts_from_Shakey.htm


In the wake of Easy Rider's success, Hopper had a deal at Universal
"where, if I put up twenty-five thousand dollars, they'd match it." 
Dean Stockwell had been in Peru with Hopper making The Last Movie and
took up his invitation to write a script.

"I was gonna write a movie that was personal, a Jungian self-discovery
of the gnosis," said Stockwell.  "It involved the Kabala, it involved
a lot of arcane stuff."  Though the After The Gold Rush script is
currently missing, Shannon Forbes recalls that it involved a huge
tidal wave coming to destroy Topanga.  "It was sort of an
end-of-the-world movie," she said.  "At the very end, the hero is
standing in the Corral parking lot watching this huge wave come in and
this house is surfing along, and as the house comes at him, he turns
the knob ? and that's the end of the movie."  Russ Tamblyn was to play
an over-the-hill rocker living in a castle; others vaguely recall some
scene of George Herms carrying a huge "tree of life" through the
canyon.

Young got ahold of the script and told Stockwell he was interested in
producing the soundtrack.  "Neil told me he had a writer's-block
thing, and Warner Bros. was after him to do something," said
Stockwell.  But it all came to naught once the studio executives paid
a visit to Topanga.  "These suits came out from Universal," recalls
Tamblyn.  "Dean was trying to show 'em around ? 'This is Janis Joplin,
she's gonna be in the movie.'  And the Universal guys were like 'Oh,
swell ? who are these jerks?  Neil who?"

None of this stopped Young ? even though there wasn't a movie, he went
ahead with the soundtrack (Despite what the back cover said, Young,
over twenty-five years later, could recall only two of After The Gold
Rush's cuts actually being inspired by the movie:  the title cut and
"Cripple Creek Ferry").

Thanks. That is pretty much all I needed to know.

Michael Eckblad