Vetere has written numerous teleplays, one of them titled The Marriage Fool starring Walter Matthau and Carol Burnett. He also wrote the teleplay adaptation of his stage play Hale The Hero! for The General Motors Playwrights Theater starring Elisabeth Shue. His published books of poetry include Memories of Human Hands, A Dream of Angels and The Other Colors In A Snow Storm. His short stories have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes. He has over twenty plays published by Dramatic Publishing, Smith & Kraus and Applause Books.
His well-known work is his novel titled The Third Miracle, which he also co-wrote the film adaptation along with John Romano. The film stars Ed Harris, Anne Heche, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Charles Haid, and Barbara Sukowa. Agnieska Holland directed the film while Francis Ford Coppola produced it.
So, take this time to read his thoughts on the anniversary of the film adaptation of The Third Miracle and his experience on the project.
When I got up to the set in Toronto, I remember coming up to Ed and introducing myself and the first thing he said "Hey, you're really lucky. I noticed the novel came out in 1998. And here it is, we're shooting the movie, you know, 1998." And I said, "Ed, it took me 10 years to get the novel published." And he smiled.
It was a fun shoot. I wasn't there all the time. It got really cold in Toronto. I'll never forget, I think it was December 17th. I've never been so cold. We were outside. But that's the last day that was the night they wrapped.
Ed Harris: I sat in the dailies with Ed. It was funny because Ed is not a funny guy, and every time there was a blooper in the one of the dailies, he tried to make a joke, and he turned to me in the dailies, and he said, "I'm not funny." That was true.
I also saw the film when we screened it at the Toronto Film Festival. I sat next to Ed and he was quite nervous. You know, when you think about it, there you are sitting in one of the biggest theaters in Toronto, one of the biggest screens, watching yourself. He (Ed Harris) was a bit nervous. But those were kind of my memories, watching the dailies with him, and being at the film festival.
2. How would you sum up your experience with the film premiere back in 1999?
The showing in Toronto was great fun. I just met the ambassador. One of the ambassadors of the arts from Canada at an event and Lincoln Center and I told him, "Toronto has the best parties at a film festival." The entire city, basically, celebrates the Toronto Film Festival for three days. We also had a terrific screening at the LA Film Festival. That was really fun. And then the movie was released. It was an art film. It was a budget of 7 million, that's all. So, we had Ed Harris and Heche. Anne was really lovely I met her on first day, on the set and found her really warm and really likable woman. Agnieska Holland is a genius director. I learned watching her when she placed the camera in each scene was really extraordinary for me. She put in places I never would have put it. Talking to her, she did a private screening for me when I was in Los Angeles on one of my trips, and I saw where the movie was going, what she was doing, she needed to do more cutting, that kind of thing. Those are the main things I remember about making the movie.
(On his film cameo): If you look really close, I have a cameo where I was on set and Agnieska turned to one of the PAs and said "Get him over here. Put him in a costume." And they put me in this leather jacket and I play a guy getting arrested in the police precinct. You'll see me walking this way and Anne and Ed walking right past me. So, I have a cameo in the film.
(Background on the genesis of the novel and how it was adapted into a film):
The process of the movie being made from a novel was pretty interesting. I got the idea for the film in 1985. And for those people that are much younger, the word 'miracle' was not used very much in 1985. Spirituality wasn't thought of a lot. I remember the Reagan years, the 80s. There was a lot of drugs, cocaine, and New York City was pulsating with discos. So, the idea of writing something like this was unusual. It came from a conversation, a very good friend of mine, Rudy Marinelli, who passed away now, we were talking about the lack of the use of miracle. I had no religious notion of pursuing this. It really was, "What is that? Why don't people talk about miracles? Why don't people talk about spirituality?" So I went to the library. I just looked up the index cards of books on miracles. The first book I got was a little thin, black book called the ordinary process of canonization. And I had no idea what it was, I picked it up and read the book. The book had a great opening line and it was "the Vatican will assign a priest, a postulator, who will investigate the set virtues of the heroic virtues of the set candidate to see if they are a saint. Miracles will be exploring." So I said, "Oh my gosh, this is a novel." So, the next day, I took the book home, read it again. The next morning, I started my novel. I wrote the first 100 pages in about a week. But I worked on the book for 10 years because the book was a 500 page mess. It had a great opening and a really terrific ending, but the chunk of the novel was a mess.
So, through those 10 years, my agent gets me an interview with a Paramount Executive. I walk into her office to pitch some stuff. And she says "before you pitch what you came here to pitch, tell me what you have home in your desk drawer that you didn't come here to talk about?" And of course, the first thing was, "well, I got this mess of a novel called "The Third Miracle." And we talked a little more and that was the end of the meeting. When I got back to my hotel, in Los Angeles, my agent (William Morris) called me, her name was Mary Manohar. And she said, "What is this novel, The Third Miracle?" Why had you never told me about it?" So I said, "Well, because it's a mess, and it's sitting there." So, when I got back to New York, I gave it to her and she started sending it to people. She sent it to Paramount, New Line, Francis Ford Coppola, Baldwin...So, we had this odd bidding war over a novel that wasn't published. When Coppola came aboard, I got hired to write the screenplay. So, I turned the novel into a three act structure screenplay. I cut 200 pages I did not need and I wrote the screenplay and then rewrote the novel. In a couple of months, the hardcover was sold to Carolyn Graf and a month later, Simon and Schuster and Scrivener has got the paperback edition. Then it was sold in several countries. The novel was published and it got really great reviews, Publishers Weekly Library Journal, Kirk, they were talking about how I sold a novel before the movie was made, but I sold the movie before the novel was published.... I get a call from my agents when I get back to the hotel. This is before cell phones. They tell me pick up Variety magazine. Go to the lobby, pick it up and on the front page, it said "Harris, Holland, Heche find miracle at CAA" So, what happened was CAA got the script, Morris got the script to Agnieska Holland who gave it to her friend Ed Harris. And then when he said he was in, they gave it that Agnieka Holland. Here's the funny part: They lost all the rights to it because they let the option run out. So, we were in the bird seat. We call them back up and they had to renegotiate my contract. And about a month later, in Toronto, Ed Harris said to me how lucky I was.
3. What was your favorite scene from “The Third Miracle” when you wrote the book? And what was your favorite part from the film adaptation?
One of my favorite scenes in the novel that did not make it in the film. Probably was the scene where a Father Shore and Roxanna take a walk on the overpass above the expressway at night and talk about they talk about themselves. And I really liked that scene. I did a stage adaptation of the novel. And that's one of my favorite scenes in the stage adaptation. And it did not make it to the screen but I also like the scene when Frank is out drinking and he's a priest, you know, and he's lonely. And he got and he's not in his Parish, and he's a visiting priest who's been assigned to be a postulator, and he gets drunk and he goes to rocks at his door and knocks on it. And that's not in the movie either.
My favorite scene that made the movie from the novel is when the statues crying tears of blood. And Frank Shore shows up in the rain, because the statue only cries tears of blood when it rains. When I wrote the novel, it's the only scene I thought to myself, "this would make a movie. This would make a good movie scene." And it is in the movie, which I'm really happy about. And Agnieska shot It from a high angle over, all the parishioners standing in the rain in the schoolyard as Frank goes up the ladder to touch the statue, and he touches the blood that's coming from as tears.
There are other scenes in the movie that I really like to come to think of it. There's the scene when little Maria cutouts in the beginning of the novel first is the first one to see the tears of blood from the statue and Agnieska shot that in this kind of eerie blue light as a flashback. That's pretty moving and dramatic actually, that I liked in the movie. I also missed the very last scene of the novel. When Frank goes to see Roxanna when she's praying at the statue at the end of the movie. I like it better in my stage adaptation. And it's not in the movie at all, but I like it a lot in the novel.
4. From your book, could you please leaf through the pages and point at a random place. What is the full sentence? And what is the page number?
(Hardcover of The Third Miracle, Page 57):
Father Moore! shouted Father Pollino from below. Frank saw him in the crowd below his window. The rain he smiled his face wet with it. Get under umbrella Alfred father Astacio that the direction freeze. Frank put on his pants shirt and collar and with his coat thrown over his back, raced down the stairs and onto the schoolyard. Everyone was facing the statute. At the front of the crowd was Father Kennedy, down on his knees with his head, bowed in prayer.
Frank looked at the statue and stood bathed in light from the dozen or more flashlights that heat people held up to it. With its arms outstretched and its face and glow from the light, It took on dramatic proportions in the rain. And then there was the blood. Brain could see the dark liquid flow freely from the base of the statue. He pushed his way through the crowd seeing another crowd parted when they saw his scholar. "Bless us. Bless us!" the old and young demanded alike is Frank walk closer to the statue. If the wave his hand and blessing is the pastor and when he reached father Kinley and father Pollino he looked up into the rain. Her tears father Pollino said his voice cracking with emotion as he stepped over to Frank. Frank quickly took his clean handkerchief from his pocket and held out his hand allowing the dark liquid to fall into the white cloth. It was thin and wet like the rainwater, and in the darkness didn't look like wine. Frank folded up the handkerchief and carefully placed it in his breast pocket. He then looked around and saw that many of the faithful, the sick, the dying and the healthy, had bottles cups and glasses, in their hands. Though the tears of blood was small. The people were still fighting their way to the statue to see if they can get a portion of the blessed blood to take home with them. The crowd solely edge forward.
Frank could feel the tenseness in their motions and movements. They all want it to be at the statute speed and collect the precious tiny drops of blood. Frank stepped back and looked up again at the statute. Nearly five foot high when I was right below a window. It was gray and tarnished and whether one Frank had a clear view of the statues each is in the glow from the flashlights and can see the soft lips, cheekbones and eyes. Long hair under the veil fell to both side of Mary's face and our long slender arms reach down as our arms open, palms up pointing to a small globe at her feet. Frank could see where the dark liquid was coming from. The best he could make out was that it was flowing with the rain from the statues from that point of its face, in round, ran down her breast and then divided into three streams to running down neurons one down her thighs and on to her feet, some red flow to a freely to the small globe. "Father Moore!" Frank heard, he turns to see father kinnaly Who was now standing. "I knew Helen wouldn't disappoint us," he said, smile...
5. On set, besides Ed Harris, Anne Heche and the director, did you meet the other cast members?
Yeah, I met Father Kinnaly, the man who played the pastor and I met two other actresses. One of them played Maria kudelski, the mother, we had a lot of fun. When I was at the Toronto we went to the after parties together. And then there's the other, Scorsese's her last name. She played Maria Kudelski as a teenager, now she's an actress doing very well. And for the life of me, I can't remember her first. I think it's Catherine Scorsese and we hung out on the set. We had lunch together a couple of days also. But those are two cast members, I know, I got to meet and hang out with and talk with.
6. Francis Ford Coppola produced the film. Did you meet him? Also, was he the person that discovered your book and wanted to adapt it?
I met Francis briefly at a screening, but he was in a kind of a temper because Agnieszka, I think the movie that she delivered, was about three hours long and they were having their big conversation.But, I got to meet Francis more over a silent film on Napoleon. Francis's father, Carmine, put the musical score to the silent film and he invited me to a big screening. He got a huge screen built in Napa Valley on his vineyard land, and he invited 1500 People black tie... I flew out there to Napa Valley, stayed overnight at the Silverado Country Club. I was writing a series in New York at the time but for CBS starring my friend Danny Aiello, so I got permission to take off for one day. It was on a weekend luckily. So, I went to the party and it was amazing. It was really an amazing five course dinner, five courses of wine. We all sat back watching the movie. I sat with the actor Danny DeVito and we had a lot of laughs. So, at the end of the night, I was no you know, Sophia Coppla was there. And Ty, who's in Rocky, she played Rocky's wife, was there. I went over to Francis and I asked him, "I got the program and I want you to autograph it." So he autograph the program for me. The Frank Melville library at the Stony Brook campus created my archives in 2005. It's called the roofing material collection. So I've kept that, I didn't give that to the archives. I also have a copy of the screenplay, signed by Agnieszka Holland and Harris and Heche. One of these days I'll give them to the archives. So, Francis is an intense guy and he's, you know, still making movies. So, that's my story with Francis.
7. How many hours a day do you write in general?
When I was a lot younger and starting out, I would do minimum of five hours a day and minimum of five days a week, sometimes seven. Now, I work when I want to, the good news is, this is what I do. I have the time, but I also want to put time into other things, which is, I swim, I do sprints and run. I also act, I'm acting more. So, I write almost every day if I'm not traveling, and I'm writing for me is this is not writing for hire. So now I could, I really don't know people ask me a lot. I certainly don't put five hours a day anymore. But, I could put at least two or three hours a day writing, but I don't feel the need to stress myself out. When you're a younger writer, you're trying to make a name for yourself. You're trying to make a living. So, you write and write and write. And so many things you write never get anywhere. Now, I spend a lot of time talking about what I've written. So that's one thing for sure. And I'm going I go to the theater a lot. I go to screenings with the Writers Guild, I'm a lifetime member that WGA east. I'm a playwright. So, I mean, rehearsals I have a little 10 minute play running in a big festival. Now, so I've been going to that, you know, plus rehearsals in person on Zoom. You know, there's a lot, it's always something going on.
8. Which novel/novella/short story/article have you read that you would like to see a film or TV series adaptation?
Well, I would love to see all of my novels into movies.Unfortunately, everyone who is in the business, said the movie business has changed drastically. I've been told this by people who have had made a lot of movies. I'm lucky I have about five movies and teleplays, but my movie My novel "The Writers Afterlife", I would love to see. It's getting it's really finding young critics and came out in 2014 with really great review from Publishers Weekly, but now young critics online, are really loving it and saying some wonderful things about it. I'd love to someone hire me to write The Writers Afterlife screen but but then there's "Champagne and Cocaine" about New York City in the 80s. That novel, my new novel just came out, "She's not there." I'm doing a book signing at City University in New York City on March 25th. On April 9th, I'm doing a talk at the new trauma bookshop in New York City for my place of water, which was published in 2019. And looking we're looking right now to get an Off Broadway production. I have attached Len Carew who won a Tony for Sweeney Todd and the actors my anyone who's from The Immigrant, so I'm trying to get that together and talking to people all the time about getting that done. So there you go. There's a lot of that takes up a lot of time when you can't write. I just love these novels, like the old fashioned guys like John Updike and Norman Mailer, and, you know, all the hours they poured over writing and writing. It's not easy, I believe you got to pace yourself. I just have my novels "She's not there" a couple of months ago. Never thought I get that final publisher and it did. And actually pretty quickly, but I had to rewrite it and have it sit there for three years before I can figure out how to fix it. And then one day I picked it up and read and said, "Oh my God, it's fixed." I don't remember going into it, sent it out. First publisher loved it and said, We want to publish so it's always full of surprises.
9. What advice would you give to someone that would like to see their short story or novel being made into a film or TV series? Do you think it’s easier for them to write a screenplay version and send it out or have someone in the industry to read the source material to determine whether the story will make a compelling film or not?
It's changed now. My movies, only one was an original screenplay. Of all the films I have, I was hired to write the had to go on a date with Queens. With Jason Alexander, someone saw my play running in LA then hired me to write a screenplay "Vigilante". Someone saw a play at the Actors Studio, a play called "Rockaway Boulevard", and they hired me to write Vigilante. The Third Miracle was a novel so I have written some screenplays on my own. In fact, my screenplay on Caravaggio won the Beverly Hills' Golden Palm for the best screenplays when he's when he won. My recommendation is there's no answer. But there are things you can think about. Number one, become a director. Learn how to direct it's not easy, because you really need to know the technical skills. And that's nothing like writing, or find a director who loves to direct, but doesn't write. Think about that. Most of the directors today write their own material. I would say even film festivals, I've won, and I could not get someone to make the film. So it's really difficult. Probably the best thing to do is write a good screenplay. Really good screenplay and show it to as many producers because they may not make your screenplay into a movie, but they may hire you to write one that they want to make into a movie. In other words, I think a good sample script can get you attention, whether for a TV series or a movie, because the craft of writing a screenplay is not easy. It's not an easy thing... Just write a really, really good screenplay. In other words, your first act, second act ,third act, terrific characters, understand story and plot, and somebody will hire you. I got hired to write a lot of stuff that was never made because of vigilante was made. It was flown to Paris where it was like, they put me up for three months writing movies. I was flown to Rome and live there all summer, writing movies. So, you can do this for a living, I have, if you write a good screenplay. The hard part is you may understand the craft, but are you going to come up with a story? Are you going to come up with a story and character people care about. That's the question and then find a director who you like, who likes your story that wants to make it or you collaborate on something else? It's a long, long journey. To me it was worth, but it's a long journey, but a lot of fun sometimes, and a lot of disappointment on the other hand.
10. If you had your own talk show, who would your first 3 guests be?
I probably go back a bit in history. I don't even think I could just pick three but, off the top of my head, William Shakespeare, because I have a lot of questions about playwriting and his life. Even though I've written a lot about Caravaggio, not sure if I would want to talk to him. They're all going to be British......probably poet Lord Byron, or John Keats... And maybe one of the Bronte sisters.
11. “The Third Miracle” was selected “The Book of the Month” in Spain and Poland, could you talk about how you first heard the news about your novel getting such a recognition?
It was really cool. What I enjoyed most was they all have very interesting book covers. The Polish cover, there's two, three, and one had the actors on it, and one was a beautiful design. And in this, the ones in Spain all three were really gorgeous. It was really nice to have your work translated, and to see that it was book of the month it was also Book of the Month Club in Greece and in Greek translated, but it didn't do as well in Greece as it did in Poland and Spain. I'm hoping to get a trip to Poland soon with a production of my play. And I want to see how the novel is there and see if I could do a reading so that was kind of fun. I know the movie is really held in high regard in Poland. And I have a feeling in Spain too, or I'm going to be soon there because they asked me to be on the screenwriting panels.
12. What are looking forward to this year in Spain?
Well, what I'm going to Spain is because I'm an actor in Jordi Turions' Third Week, I'm a supporting role, but I think it's going to be cool because for those of you out there as the writer, you can go to a film festival and nobody cares about the writers of the movies, but they always have are interested in the actors. And I'm already you know, I got so many interviews set up. They just sent me to schedule today. And I hope I have time to sleep. Because we landed in Barcelona, then I get on a screenwriting battle and then early morning, we are on a train going to Madrid for press and a screening of the movie there in Madrid. Back again and that's a two and a half hour train ride. And then the the big screening at the festival the following night, but I do believe there's press all day Friday and Saturday and I want to see some other movies. I want to go check out some of the other films. So the fun part about going there is that, you know.
I was the latino screenwriting mentor for the lady who, one of the producers of Pan's Labyrinth, Bertha and Navarro and she flew me and so Wahaca, Mexico and a handful of other screenwriters where we mentored Latino writers. My last time that we did that was I was in Ecuador. It's interesting because American screenwriters are really good at structure. Really good at structure for years. And I felt like the other film writers had wonderful movie ideas, wonderful scenes, but they always need mentoring on how to structure their screenplays and I had a great time doing that, plus you they really took care of you and I got to see some amazing things like Anwar haka. The pyramids was stunning and Ecuador is just beautiful. I was in Cuenca. And they took me up in the Andes, so it was pretty amazing. So being a screenwriter, you get to see the world, or at least I am, and Vigilante success really brought that and also The Third Miracle success. Not in America as much but in around the world that The Third Miracle got me a lot of attention. Were Vigilante they're still it's a cult following, you know, there are still screaming. They just had one at the National Theatre in Prospect Park in Brooklyn. And there's one in Williamsburg every year screening of Vigilante so Bill Lustig, the director, producer and myself will go there. Robert Forster, it stars Robert Forester. He passed away. So, where I think Andrew Garrone were the three still alive, you know, who talked about the movie that had you know, that were behind the scenes. So it's fun being a screenwriter. It's been a lot of fun. And now as an actor, it's really fun. Because, when I'm there, they always asked me questions about screening brevity.
13. (This interview was before Oscars Night): Last question, which film do you think would win Best Picture and Best Director at the Oscars?
I think this one for the first time for me is easy. I think it's Oppenheimer. And I think it's Christopher Nolan. I saw Oppenheimer twice. I went when Christopher Nolan gave a talk afterwards, his talk was not helpful at all. He didn't really have anything new to say except one thing that his screen directions on his scripts, and he called them stage directions. We'll all told him the first person. I was still confused by that. So it wasn't very helpful. I could not I shared that with my students who said I really can't help you.
I like Barbie. I thought it was fun. But I think Oppenheimer, it follows the rules of a good screenplay. Within the first 10 minutes of the movie, he's trying to get his his clearance back. And that's when the he's in the office, and then the entire he's being questioned, and the entire movie flashes forward and back to why he's going to get his clearance either denied or accepted. And we see that his life and what he deals with and who he is. So I thought Oppenheimer and Christopher Nolan directed it with such a strong metaphor. I can't write without a title. Because in the title is my metaphor of my story. So when I get lost in my story, I just remember what it's about, which is my metaphor. And I can see I tried to have a conceit in my story. So that I don't get lost. I don't believe in writer's block. I think writer's block is really a writer not doing their homework. I don't write a one sentence. I'm really sure what my story is about and what the metaphor for the story is. So, I think Oppenheimer is about Oppenheimer. It's about a man who makes the most dangerous weapon ever created, and his struggle with that. So I think that might win. And I think he's gonna win Christopher Nolan, because it's a totally unforced direct thing. It really is. I think.
But I just had dinner with some people and they say they have trouble finding titles. I love my titles. I gave a talk in an Author's Guild and one of the things someone spoke up and said," You have the best titles" and I said "Thanks." But I remember writing The Third Miracle after reading that book, and that week I wrote the first 100 pages. I got a piece of paper, and I started writing. I started the first chapter. And I knew at that time because it's been changed. You needed three miracles for someone to be considered a saint. So one of those 10 titles was The Third Miracle. And I said, That's my metaphor. That's my conceit. That's my story.