November 1, 2006
The popular monthly series of Prescription Services newsletters, "Dispense This," is now being considered by a major motion picture company for a possible release around Christmas 2008, according to industry sources.
"We're really excited about this," State Administration of Human Services and Health Related Stuff Exalted Commander Roger Farctate said, after sending out an email to the Prescription Services Unit. "This is a great way to show others the in-and-outs of working here and all the drama it entails."
No actors have been lined up though a script has been in the works since mid-2002. A number of writers have been associated with the project thus far, including Spiderman's David Koepp, Elaine May and Paul Abramson.
Of all the main writers to come and go, only part-time scribe Kelvin Lee has been connected with the script from day one. "There have been a few problems, trying to get the right person to put together a proper telling of 'Dispense This.' I mean, there are a number of fans of the original texts and I want to keep as much of that in any end-result but at the same time, one has to realize that some of what goes on just cannot get transferred to a visual medium."
Lee will not go into major details but does hint that all the thrills, chills, love, and hate makes it way into what is being written as a comedy-drama. "All the characters we all have come to love – Megan, Faye, Joby, lovable-but-daft Leon and even feisty stab-your-back redhead Felicity Sloan-Danvers – will defiantly be there. As well, I hope all the problems that arise from overbearing bosses and clueless staff to unsympathetic pharmacies and bureaucratic nightmares will get some sort of treatment in the film."
Upon hearing the news, members of the Prescription Services staff responded with lukewarm reaction.
"Yeah," said Albert Walker, Sr.
Others were more optimistic, like employee Joy Jones, who contributed to the newsletter a few times during her twelve-year tenure. "It's amazing something as uninteresting as a jargon-filled waste of paper would ever make it to a movie. But it might make it big. Personally, I would have gone for an HBO show like Sex in the City or Six Feet Under. That would have been cool."
The real-life Megan Van Dyke is "absolutely psyched" by the prospect of her life being translated into a live-action motion picture. "I mean, really, this is the most spectacular thing that could happen in my career. I mean, like, really –I've worked in pharmacies across the state and here on the Help Desk but never knew that what I did and how I did it would be something a nation of film-goers would ever be interested in."
Van Dyke is already promoting herself as part of the film, posting what little production news there is on her website (http://www.geocities.com/vandykecuddles/dispnsnws.html) and coordinating efforts to get time off when filming begins. "I don't care where they film this show, I'm going to be there," Van Dyke said in between calls. "I was an extra in both Happy Women and Six Times Four, two locally-produced and extremely under-looked independent films a few years back so I'm already a regular on the set and know what goes on. I'm a natural at that sort of thing, walking back and forth aimlessly and able to do it countless times on command. It's going to be so cool to be an extra in my own story."
Lee cautiously points out no one of the so-called "nation of film-goers" is interested yet because there is no movie for them to view, causally adding the movie would be about all the people who work in the Prescription Services office, but he shares the enthusiasm as Van Dyke and other SAHSHRS employees.
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