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BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...

PoppaGator 07 Mar 05 - 05:53 PM
Don Firth 07 Mar 05 - 05:36 PM
John Hardly 07 Mar 05 - 05:20 PM
SharonA 07 Mar 05 - 04:45 PM
Little Hawk 07 Mar 05 - 03:37 PM
Stilly River Sage 07 Mar 05 - 03:05 PM
Mrs.Duck 07 Mar 05 - 02:12 PM
Don Firth 07 Mar 05 - 01:43 PM
Midchuck 07 Mar 05 - 12:00 PM
Little Hawk 07 Mar 05 - 10:05 AM
Dave the Gnome 07 Mar 05 - 09:19 AM
Peter T. 07 Mar 05 - 06:56 AM
Crystal 07 Mar 05 - 05:52 AM
GUEST,Tuesmith 06 Mar 05 - 04:33 PM
Little Hawk 06 Mar 05 - 10:38 AM
The Walrus 06 Mar 05 - 06:04 AM
Liz the Squeak 06 Mar 05 - 03:35 AM
GUEST,Sleepless Dad 05 Mar 05 - 11:25 PM
Bee-dubya-ell 05 Mar 05 - 10:11 PM
Bill D 05 Mar 05 - 06:43 PM
Little Hawk 05 Mar 05 - 06:20 PM
Peter T. 05 Mar 05 - 05:31 PM
Clinton Hammond 05 Mar 05 - 10:43 AM
Chris Green 05 Mar 05 - 07:52 AM
GUEST 04 Mar 05 - 11:23 PM
John on the Sunset Coast 04 Mar 05 - 10:57 PM
Don Firth 04 Mar 05 - 10:54 PM
Uncle_DaveO 04 Mar 05 - 08:39 PM
John O'L 04 Mar 05 - 07:58 PM
GUEST,leeneia 04 Mar 05 - 07:30 PM
Clinton Hammond 04 Mar 05 - 07:18 PM
Teresa 04 Mar 05 - 06:34 PM
Jim Dixon 04 Mar 05 - 06:16 PM
Wesley S 04 Mar 05 - 04:55 PM
GUEST,Chongo Chimp 04 Mar 05 - 04:47 PM
Bill D 04 Mar 05 - 04:47 PM
Wesley S 04 Mar 05 - 04:44 PM
Bill D 04 Mar 05 - 04:43 PM
SINSULL 04 Mar 05 - 04:33 PM
GUEST,Chongo Chimp 04 Mar 05 - 04:12 PM
Rapparee 04 Mar 05 - 04:05 PM
Little Hawk 04 Mar 05 - 03:59 PM
Clinton Hammond 04 Mar 05 - 03:47 PM
HuwG 04 Mar 05 - 03:34 PM
Bee-dubya-ell 04 Mar 05 - 03:08 PM
SINSULL 04 Mar 05 - 01:47 PM
John Hardly 04 Mar 05 - 01:27 PM
GUEST,Mrr 04 Mar 05 - 01:27 PM
Little Hawk 04 Mar 05 - 01:27 PM
GUEST,Bill Kennedy 04 Mar 05 - 01:14 PM

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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: PoppaGator
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 05:53 PM

I thought "The Shipping News" was an excellent film. Like any adaptation of any novel, it didn't include everything that had been in the book, but what it did, I thought it did well.

My favorite novel, whose movie rights have been sold and resold and sold again, and about which there have have many rumors about who would take the starring role, is "A Confederacy of Dunces." They still haven't even begun making a movie out of it. Maybe it's just as well; whatever Hollywood could do would probably, in the end, be a disappointment.

I believe that the current favorite to take on the daunting role of Ignatius J. Reilly is Philip Seymour Hoffman, who might well be better for the part than either John Belushi or John Goodman, or any of the many others mentioned over the years.


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: Don Firth
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 05:36 PM

Disney's got a lot to answer for. . . .

Don Firth


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: John Hardly
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 05:20 PM

I liked Steve Martin's Cyrano. Sometimes it pays to not try too hard.


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: SharonA
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 04:45 PM

I find Dodie Smith's book "The 101 Dalmations" very charming, and I dearly wish that it would be given the NON-DISNEY treatment it deserves. Maybe something similar in mood to the original "Babe" movie... but definitely something faithful to the author's vision and humor. I hate what's Disney has done to it. (One pet peeve: Pongo's mate is Missus, not Perdita, for Chrissake! Perdita and her puppies were rescued and adopted by Pongo's and Missus's owners!)


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: Little Hawk
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 03:37 PM

As movies about North American Indians go, though, DWW was pretty darned good in my opinion.

A mighty amusing and entertaining movie could be made from the book "Lame Deer - Seeker of Visions".


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 03:05 PM

James Welch's Fools Crow as a film (if the story is followed faithfully) would sure shake things up for folks who thought Dances With Wolves was a fair depiction of the intersection of American Indians and the colonizers in the 1800s. DWW was just more of the same ol' same ol' Western, wrapped up in a slightly more convincing cast.

SRS


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 02:12 PM

Tam Lin - was made in to a movie by Roddie McDowell as director but was a bit of a psychadelic drug fest. Ava Gardner wasa the evil enchantress and Ian McShane was Tom Lynn. I would really like to write the screen play for a version closer to the ballad. Maybe one day I will.


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: Don Firth
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 01:43 PM

One movie I think they did do well. Very well indeed.

I haven't seen the Depardieu version of Cyrano de Bergerac, but I did see the 1950 José Ferrer version. Absolutely superb!

Since it was in black-and-white, the production values may not have been up to the lavishness of the Depardieu version, but the total production was a genuine masterpiece. As portrayed by Ferrer, Cyrano's spiky exterior covering the tender soul of a poet deeply in love, but tragically afraid to express himself for fear of being laughed at because he thought the size of his nose made him "ugly," is positively heart-rending at times. Poor Christian, caught up in passions beyond his understanding, is also a tragic figure, and Roxanne's growth as a human being, from a young girl dazzled by a young man's beauty to a woman who eventually understands that there are things far more important than a handsome face, also makes her a tragic figure ("I have never loved but one man in my life, and I have lost him—twice. . . ."). With all that tragedy, why do I love this play so much?

Ferrer's portrayal of Cyrano was so impressive that for three days after I first saw that movie, for some reason, the faces of the people I saw around me seemed flat and featureless. I have a videotape of the movie, which I pull out and watch from time to time.

Don Firth


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: Midchuck
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 12:00 PM

Little Hawk - Haven't seen that in 15 years or so, but my wife will still say to me, or I to her, "You Have Our Permission to Bugger Off,"
at regular intervals.

Peter.


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: Little Hawk
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 10:05 AM

One short story by Kipling, "The Man Who Would Be King", was actually turned into a movie that was quite possibly better than the original story! How that happened I do not know. It may never happen again. :-)

Somebody should try doing "Bomba the Jungle Boy" as a movie, cos it could not possibly turn out worse than the books!


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 09:19 AM

Funny you should mention King Solomons Mines, LH. Last week I reread 'She' for the umpteenth time. But as it was the first time for about 20 years, I decided to get the DVD out this weekend. Apart from the names and a VERY loose connection with the plot did the people that made the film ever actualy read the book? I think not...

So that is top of my list simply because it is in the forefront of the old brain at the mo! I would agree with Clinton about Green Lantern. I also reckon Legend by David Gemmell would make a cracking film. Sean Connery as Druss?

Cheers

DtG


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: Peter T.
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 06:56 AM

I guess one of the real problems is that there are films of books that have one or two things right, and the rest is a mess -- what you really want is to keep or transport one or two people from one into another. For example, Sam Waterson in the Robert Redford Gatsby was absolutely perfect, but in the wrong version. Gary Cooper was terrific in For Whom The Bell Tolls, but the rest of the movie was ridiculous.

In the recent version of the Patrick O'Brian books, Master and Commander, everything was perfect except the two leads -- the Stephen was nothing like the brilliant dark quirky figure one wants. And where was Diana?

That is what drives one crazy -- millions of dollars spent, and one thing or two that screws it up. I refer to this as Mia Farrow syndrome (viz. the Great Gatsby).

yours,

Peter T.


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: Crystal
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 05:52 AM

The Sandman and Hellblazer. To fantastic, intelligent comics, one of which has apparently already been ruined by the hollywood morons!


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: GUEST,Tuesmith
Date: 06 Mar 05 - 04:33 PM

"Pride and Prejudice"! The 1940(?) version with Greer Garson and Lawrence Olivier was fun but Miss Garson was far too old, and they took a few silly liberties with the plot. The new version - due out shortly - will inevitably seem very "compressed" when compared to the BBC's marathon TV version.


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: Little Hawk
Date: 06 Mar 05 - 10:38 AM

Hear, hear! (for Lord Cochrane, England's greatest fighting sailor)


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: The Walrus
Date: 06 Mar 05 - 06:04 AM

Rapaire,

"...A film version of "The Canterbury Tales" and the "Decameron" and "Cyrano de Bergerac."..."

I muist say, I rather liked the Depardieu version of 'Cyrano de Bergerac' (the one with the Anthony Burgess translation in the sub-titles).


duellingbouzoukis,

They did make 'Royal Flash' as a film (with a script by Fraser himself) but I couldn't help feeling that the casting was wrong (the only decent one there was Ollie Reed as an OTT Younger Bismark).


I agree with others about a decent version of The Illiad/'Troy' that take more from Homer than just the names of the characters. I like the sound of a 'Victorian' version of War of the Worlds and I'd like to see an ACCURATE version of 'Mutiny on the Bounty' (rather than one based on Christian family propaganda) or perhaps an accurate biopic of William Bligh.
One story that would make a decent film would be a decent biopic of Captain Lord Cochrane. For those who've never heard of him, he's the real sailor upon whose exploits, Hornblower and the rest are based.

Regards

Walrus


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 06 Mar 05 - 03:35 AM

A decent version of 'the Day of the Triffids'.. that doesn't include an American hero, an ice cream van and a happy ending..

The BBC did a fantastic TV version of it about 25 years ago, not yet on DVD or Video... much to my disgust.... It starred John Duttine, and stuck very very closely to the book.

I really wish that either the BBC or someone like Peter Jackson/Steveh Spielberg would do 'The Dark is Rising' sequence by Susan Cooper... it would make a brillian series or 5 sequential films.

LTS


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: GUEST,Sleepless Dad
Date: 05 Mar 05 - 11:25 PM

Don Johnson was his name. I think Jason Robards was in it too. And Harlen Ellison did write A Boy and his Dog.


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 05 Mar 05 - 10:11 PM

Didn't Ellison write "A Boy and His Dog"? That was made into a movie starring a very young whats-his-name from Miami Vice in the '70s.


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Mar 05 - 06:43 PM

If I remember right, Harlan Ellison wouldn't let Hollywood anywhere near any of his books.


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: Little Hawk
Date: 05 Mar 05 - 06:20 PM

You are so right, Peter. On all counts...including Dracula! When I take over Canada, and create the ultimate socialist paradise here...driving Dougr and Fox TV into fits of apoplexy...I will appoint YOU Minister of Culture, because no one could possibly do the job better.


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: Peter T.
Date: 05 Mar 05 - 05:31 PM

Spielberg is currently finishing a version of War of the Worlds, unfortunately with Tom Cruise, which could mean dreadful (though Minority Report was great until the last 15 minutes, like a lot of Spielberg).

Oh, God, lists of films to do properly. Tender is the Night and the Great Gatsby.

Next on the list, a real version of Dracula, at the right length, seriously done. And then a real version of Frankenstein, which could be the most wonderful movie, if people didn't screw around with it.

THE ONES THAT NEED REALLY DOING ARE THE ONES SCREWED OVER BY DISNEY:

The Jungle Books (three versions done already, all crappy). Pinocchio.
And the worst travesty of them all: The Little Mermaid. Jesus. The Little Mermaid!!!


yours,

Peter T.


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 05 Mar 05 - 10:43 AM

"I always thought The Fisher King should have been a better movie than it was"

Bite your tongue!

LOL


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: Chris Green
Date: 05 Mar 05 - 07:52 AM

Any of the Flashman books.


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Mar 05 - 11:23 PM

The one with the tiny flying hawks that look like monkeys.

Didn't two, jealous, male monkeys almost kill a mated pair of senior citizen humans this week?


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 04 Mar 05 - 10:57 PM

The Cisco Kid! If it followed O. Henry's short story, The Caballero's Way, he would be portrayed as the meanest, conniving, cunning, SOB of an outlaw. Oh, and he'd be a Gringo! They'd need a lot of filler, or the movie would be 20 minutes long.---John Hindsill


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: Don Firth
Date: 04 Mar 05 - 10:54 PM

One of my favorite adventure novels when I was a teen-ager was Scaramouche, by Rafael Sabatini (for those not familiar with Sabatini, one of his more famous characters was Captain Blood—Errol Flynn's early career was made by playing [not all that well] Sabatini heroes).

Scaramouche was a tight, suspenseful historical novel set in the run-up to the French Revolution. The hero, André-Louis Moreau, a young country lawyer, tries to get justice when an aristocrat cold-bloodedly murders his best friend in a mock-duel because he has liberal ideas and "a dangerous gift of eloquence." But he is blown off by the King's Lieutenant. Deciding that he must assume his murdered friend's "dangerous gift of eloquence," he delivers an impassioned speech to a volatile crowd of students in the city square. Almost causing a riot, he becomes a wanted man and has to flee for his life. Serediptously, he runs into a group of traveling players. He joins them, and hides in plain sight—on stage, but behind make-up. Some time later, seeing an opportunity to wreak vengeance on his enemy, he uses that "dangerous gift" again, this time from the stage of a Paris theater, inciting a riot that almost results in the death of the aristocrat, who is in the audience. He has to flee again, and hides out by gaining employment as an assistant fencing master in a small Paris fencing school. He is pressed into politics by a student friend in the National Assembly, where the aristocrat is a representative of Privilege. His wry wit draws the wrath of the representatives of the Right. One thing leads to another, and he winds up facing his old enemy, the aristocrat, sword in hand, in a formal duel early one morning in a park outside of Paris.

Scaramouche is a stock character in the commedia dell'arte, similar to Figaro. His schtick is plotting and scheming, then scurrying away when his scheme hits the fan. This is the character that André-Louis plays in the theater company, and he wryly notes that, in his case, it's type-casting.

Sabatini wove his characters around actual, carefully researched historical events, then managed one helluva surprise toward the end of the story. I pull the book out and reread it every few years. Still a gripping story, even if I can recite parts of it from memory.

It was made into a movie in 1952, starring Stewart Granger, Janet Leigh, Mel Ferrer, and Eleanor Parker. Janet Leigh was fine as Aline, but the rest of the characters just weren't right. Stewart Granger was too old as André-Louis (where André-Louis is witty and sly, Granger is angry and blustering), Mel Ferrer was too young as the Marquis, and Eleanor Parker as the girl André-Louis met among the traveling players, was all wrong. And the plot was just plain silly compared to the deep-laid story in the novel. They borrowed (and screwed up) the basic plot twist, and some of the stage business (the company of traveling players, but they even made a spoof out of that). But in the novel, the hero learns to handle a sword, not in three lessons, but over a year of taking a daily lesson from the master, and fencing several hours every day, sparring with the master's pupils. He gradually develops into a skillful and formidable swordsman himself. In the movie, Stewart Granger takes on his enemy, not in the Bois de Boulogne in a formal duel complete with seconds, but up and down stairs and swinging on chandeliers in a Paris theater. And he doesn't fence with skill and precision, but with typical Hollywood-style hacking, slashing, and jumping over furniture. [Incidentally, Hollywood doesn't have to hoke up the sword fights just to make them exciting; in the 1940 version of The Mark of Zorro the duel in the alcalde's study between Diego and Esteban (Tyrone Power and Basil Rathbone—both actors were good fencers off-screen as well as on) was some damned fine swordplay, plenty exciting and suspenseful.]

To do justice to Scaramouche, you couldn't cram it into a two or three hour movie. It would take something like a Masterpiece Theatre miniseries.

He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.
                                       —opening line of Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini

Don Firth


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 04 Mar 05 - 08:39 PM

GUEST,leeneia said:

I would like to do the Wizard of Oz over and do it right. This would include actually setting it in Kansas and using a Dorothy is the right age - 10 or 11.

I'll buy that, Leeneia, IF they are willing to accept the reality of Oz, as in the books, instead of working that tired old "it was only a dream" cop-out at the end! Dumb! Dumb! Dumb!

Dave Oesterreich


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: John O'L
Date: 04 Mar 05 - 07:58 PM

I always thought The Fisher King should have been a better movie than it was. I still watch and enjoy it every time it comes on TV but I am always aware that it somehow doesn't work well as it should.

I agree with Bee-dubya-ell about One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. It was a huge disappointment that the film was not made from Chief Broom's perspective.
(The scene where the chief throws the water cooler through the window to Jack Nietzchke's music is one of my favourite bits of cinema.)


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 04 Mar 05 - 07:30 PM

I would like to do the Wizard of Oz over and do it right. This would include actually setting it in Kansas and using a Dorothy is the right age - 10 or 11.


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 04 Mar 05 - 07:18 PM

I didn't mind the movie of "The Postman"

Especially given what thin, but enjoyable gruel the book was...


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: Teresa
Date: 04 Mar 05 - 06:34 PM

Two of my favorite stories: The Shipping News by Annie Proulx and The Postman, by David brin. I was warned by people I trust to stay away from the movies, so I will do so.

Also, I loved African Queen, the novel, (I don't remember the author) but I really did *not* like Bogart in the lead role. It just wasn't a fit, IMO.

Teresa


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 04 Mar 05 - 06:16 PM

I don't think I've ever seen a proper version of "Huckleberry Finn."


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: Wesley S
Date: 04 Mar 05 - 04:55 PM

No - Sorry Bill - Project X was about Chimps.


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: GUEST,Chongo Chimp
Date: 04 Mar 05 - 04:47 PM

Great! I am gonna rent that one. Thanks!

- Chongo


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Mar 05 - 04:47 PM

It??? Rose?


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: Wesley S
Date: 04 Mar 05 - 04:44 PM

It was "Project X" also starring Hellen Hunt.


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Mar 05 - 04:43 PM

There is a novellette by Roger Zelazny, "A Rose for Ecclesiastes", that would make a wonderful movie. It wouldn't have to be cut much, and I shiver to imagine what a good art director could do with it. I always wondered if anyone ever tried.........

If you are a Sci-Fi fan, and haven't read it DO SO!


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: SINSULL
Date: 04 Mar 05 - 04:33 PM

Chongo, there was a movie in the 80s I about chimps being used for experiments. Matthew Broderick set them free and they are living in the Everglades. Can't remember the title. Sorry.


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: GUEST,Chongo Chimp
Date: 04 Mar 05 - 04:12 PM

There ain't been ONE really good movie done yet starring a chimp. Not one. The Gorillas had King Kong. It was a tragedy, but it still ranks as the greatest movie of all time in my opinion. Chimps have been embarrassed and dumped on by a long series of terrible Tarzan movies and other forgettable crap, most notably that Reagan fiasco with Bonzo. I know for a fact that Bonzo was feeding Reagan his lines all through, and saving him, but Reagan still got top billing! Ronnie Reagan couldn't act his way out of a cellophane phone booth, even if you supplied him with a blowtorch. The man was hopeless. Still, he went on to be president, and Bonzo disappeared into obscurity, finally being found dead in an alleyway, stewed to the gills on banana dacquiris.

There ain't no justice.

- Chongo


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: Rapparee
Date: 04 Mar 05 - 04:05 PM

There are many, many novels that would make great movies but which have never been made into such. Things like Dana Stabenow's "Breakup" or Heinlein's "Glory Road" or Asimov's "Murder at the ABA" or Garcia-Marquez's "Cien Annos de Soledad" (but I'm not sure how you'd do that one). A film version of "The Canterbury Tales" and the "Decameron" and "Cyrano de Bergerac."

I'm going to stop, because I'm depressing myself.


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Mar 05 - 03:59 PM

I would appreciate an accurate movie about Joan of Arc, but it would frankly take a 2 or 3 part full-length movie to do justice to the whole story. It would best be done by the French, I would think, as a 10-part film series. If they would portray Joan as her actual character (resolute, but forgiving...kind and gentle in her basic nature...fierce and utterly determined in battle, yet merciful to the defeated foe...one who carried no bitterness or desire for vengeance, but only an intense desire to serve her God, her Angelic guides, and her country.) Yes, IF they would do that, then they'd really have something.

If they would want to turn it instead into another "passion of the Christ" and emphasize her tortured suffering...then forget it. Joan was, above all, a triumphant and inspired figure. She stated in court that she had never actually killed anyone in battle with her own hand, but she always led from the front, and that was enough to inspire her troops to win victories that had been considered impossible prior to her assuming command of the demoralized French army.

I very much doubt Hollywood could get it right. They'd try and make her into another jaw-clenched "action" heroine with a modern feminist agenda of some kind worked into the plot...and that's just not it.


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 04 Mar 05 - 03:47 PM

Starship Troopers the movie was a LOT better than that POS book from dorkface-what's-his-name...

And well, I have yet to see a good Batman movie... It sounds like the new one will FINALLY get it right...

I WISH The Matrix sequels had HALF the story and depth of the first movie... Or of The Animatrix...

I wanna see a good version of a Green Lantern movie...

A GOOD movie about William Wallace would be nice...

A GOOD historical 'Viking' movie is dearly needed as well... (With a nod to "Eric The Viking!)

Willaim Gibsons Book "Neuromancer" needs to be a movie... even though it might be 10 years too late...

"American Gods" by Neil Gaiman would make a F#CKIN' GREAT movie, but I can't figure out who to cast as Shadow...

I have high hopes for Lions Of al-Rassan... book by Guy Kay... Movie to be directed by Edward Zwick


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: HuwG
Date: 04 Mar 05 - 03:34 PM

Mission Impossible.

The series from the 1960s and '70s was marvellously inventive and addictive viewing. The film was a shallow, cliche-ridden Tom Cruise wank-fest.


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 04 Mar 05 - 03:08 PM

Hollywood seems to have a hard time translating the works of authors known for their offbeat idiosyncratic humor. The film versions of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (Tom Robbins) and Striptease (Carl Hiaasen) both sucked horribly. The only off-beat book that has been made into a decent movie of late is "Fear and Loathing in La Vegas", and they only accomplished that by pretty much using the book verbatim as the script for the movie.

And, even though One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was made into an excellent movie, I'd really like to see a new treatment in which the story is told from Chief Broom's point of view as it is in the book. Ken Kesey considered the film-makers' demoting Chief Broom from narrator to minor character an act of pure trason. He went to his grave without ever having seen the movie.


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: SINSULL
Date: 04 Mar 05 - 01:47 PM

Atlas Shrugged. But I believe after the release of The Fountainhead Ayn Rand prohibited its filming. Would make for great drama and science fiction. Could spark some interesting social commentary if it were done well.


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: John Hardly
Date: 04 Mar 05 - 01:27 PM

"If a movie was good in it's original version, I have always wondered why Hollywood thought they could improve on it by doing a new version with different actors."

Any number of really good reasons, if you ask me.

1.the story's the thing Lots of good stories can use a fresh interpreation. I would completely re-do the Moses of Heston into a real person.

2. 'tain't the stage no more A good friend of mine and I discussed this one time --- Neither of us likes the actors who are the accepted "immortals" of Hollywood. They were stage actors, but that training almost necessarily made them, to my taste, almost unwatchably over-actors on the screen.

It is refreshing to see conversation that comes across as conversation -- not projected or accented, dahling.

3. The Speilberg Affect Special effects can profoundly change the nature and enjoyability of a movie. It's as profound a change as the change from the Academy (french and too far past in my art history training!) of David to the impressionist style of Monet.

As a piece of art, both are valid. The emphasis is changed.


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: GUEST,Mrr
Date: 04 Mar 05 - 01:27 PM

How about an un-Disney'ed version of The Little Mermaid? It did NOT have a happy ending in the fairy tale! I was really, really disappointed in the movie, that is one of my favorite sad stories.


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Mar 05 - 01:27 PM

War of the Worlds - Another incredible story that should be done exactly as H.G. Wells wrote it, including the time period: late Victorian era, because that allows for much more drama and heroism in the confrontation of Mars versus Earth technology and weapons.

The epic confrontation of the armoured ship "Thunder Child" with the Martian machines, for example, cannot possibly be matched by bringing the Martians into our modern era with our high tech weapons, and then simply making them invulnerable. Bo-ring! The "Thunder Child" and her crew, in a half-minute of incredible heroism, destroyed 2 Martian machines at the cost of their own destruction. That was a moment that deserves to be captured in film. Likewise, the stand of the English artillery, which succeeded in destroying one other Martian machine from ambush before being wiped out. That's drama. No movie has even come close to the original story in impact.

And if it was set in Victorian times, we would not have to suffer through characters saying idiotic modern things like, "Let's kick ass!" (groan...)


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Subject: RE: BS: Movies you WISH they would do well...
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy
Date: 04 Mar 05 - 01:14 PM

Songcatcher
Cold Mountain
Iliad (call it Troy if you must)

many others, just can't remember right now


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