GO Rom Com Spotlight: @micky-r-c
The compelling @micky-r-c (also MickyRC on AO3) has claimed The Princess Bride to adapt for Good Omens in the Good Omens Rom Com Event.
For reference, here’s a little background about the source material!
About The Princess Bride: A kindly grandfather sits down with his ill grandson and reads him a story. The story is one that has been passed down from father to son for generations. As the grandfather reads the story, the action comes alive. The story is a classic tale of love and adventure as the beautiful Buttercup, engaged to the odious Prince Humperdinck, is kidnapped and held against her will in order to start a war, It is up to Westley (her childhood beau, now returned as the Dread Pirate Roberts) to save her. On the way he meets a thief and his hired helpers, an accomplished swordsman and a huge, super strong giant, both of whom become Westley's companions in his quest.
We spent some time chatting about how the adaptation is coming so far, as well as future plans for it! Now, get to know @micky-r-c a little better!
goromcom: You know how if you open a Tumblr chat with someone you haven't chatted to before, Tumblr tells you two things they post about? I wanted to tell you that yours reports that you post "about #good omens fanart and #holiday fic". Do especially enjoy holiday-themed fics?
micky-r-c: Wow, no I would not have expected that. I mean I love a good huddling for warmth or holiday decorating fic, but I don't go out of my way for them. But I did get really settled into writing Good Omens fic right around the end of November, and I thought, for some reason, that it would be a good idea to do not one, but two advent calendar series. Didn't finish either of them, but there was a solid two weeks in there where I had two posts a day tagged holiday fic, so I guess that's where that came from.
goromcom: Hey, anything that gets the creativity moving, right? So it’s great that the advent projects inspired you to put out that much content! But let’s look forward to some new content: your rom com! You chose to adapt The Princess Bride. Has this movie been a favorite of yours, or is there some other reason you chose it?
micky-r-c: Full disclosure here, I'm not a big romcom watcher. Romcom fic reader, absolutely, but I didn't know most of the movies on the list. So when I saw Princess Bride on there it was kind of a combination of "Oh! I know one!" and "Gasp, I could write a sword fight." And now here we are.
goromcom: What's your favorite moment of the movie, and are you looking forward to presenting it in your adaptation? Any loose plans for that scene that you can share?
micky-r-c: There most definitely is. I bounced between a few concepts for this adaptation, but the scene right at the beginning of Princess Bride when Buttercup realizes the meaning of "as you wish" has me by the heartstrings, and I am very excited to write my Good Omens version (spoiler alert: it happens in 1967).
goromcom: 1967 is such a gift for the GO fandom, how amazing of Neil to give that to us as new content for the mini-series. :) Other than adapting the “as you wish” realization, do you plan to stick very closely to the beats of the original story, or make bigger changes?
micky-r-c: Yeah, pretty close. I'm not doing an AU, so in weaving the two plots together I'm trying really hard not to lose too much of The Princess Bride, especially since it's such a classic. I want it to have that specific silly-yet-heartfelt feeling the movie has, which, to be fair, Good Omens lines up with pretty nicely.
goromcom: This movie definitely has a unique feel to it, and I can absolutely see not wanting to poke an alchemy like that too strongly! Given your resolution to preserve that silly/heartfelt tone of the movie, I’m sure you’ve had to make a lot of careful decisions thus far. Perhaps there’s a particularly interesting decision you've made in your planning so far--a notable casting decision, a changing of venue, that you can share with us?
micky-r-c: So I've actually changed the timeline maybe... 6 times so far? Yeah. It's been everywhere. But I finally landed on just overlapping with canon in the immediate lead up to the apocadon't, which I'm super happy with. It means I can have some serious fun with how things could have gone differently. Plus, I'll be honest, I am very excited to write the Princess Bride version of the wall slam. That one's gonna be A Lot.
goromcom: You can’t see me, but I’m gleefully rubbing my hands together thinking about it. However, I feel like we’re verging on giving too much away, so let’s move on to the wrap-up. I am blatantly stealing this last question from The Good Place: The Podcast, but here goes: Tell me something "good". It can be something big or small. It can be a charity you think is doing good work, or you can talk about how great your pet is.
micky-r-c: Ya know, every time I've seen a spotlight I've thought to myself, wow, I should really start thinking about my answer to that. Plot twist, I forgot to. But anyway, one thing that's been really unbelievably good for me recently has been the community I've found through Good Omens. I've been hanging around the edges of fandom for years, but within maybe a month of posting my first Good Omens fic I was talking to people, getting to beta read things, working up the nerve to leave long rambly comments on ao3... all the stuff I'd always wanted to be doing but never had the community support to build on. So that's been a literal dream come true, and things like this event have all been a big part of it, so thank you for running it and giving us all this wonderful gift!!!
goromcom: Aww, well, I agree about the GO fandom being amazing. It’s been so much fun so far and I hope we keep on with it for a long time to come. :)
And while we’re all basking in the amazingness that is the Good Omens fandom, don’t forget to keep an eye out for the GO adaptation of The Princess Bride, coming soon!