Hollywood Movie Ideas
With a three month old baby, it's no wonder that I haven't gone out and seen any movies lately. And to be sure there are some worth seeing. like Ray, The Aviator, and Million Dollar Baby. But there's also a lot of crap out there. And there's also a dearth of original story ideas - most of the big movies are just versions of printed material. Even Sin City is based off of a graphic novel.
So in the spirit of "if you can't beat them, join them", how about we look at history? Real history., as we all know, is far stranger - and more movie worthy - than fiction.
I'm reading "Collapse" by Jared Diamond now and several stories leap out:
Human Drama: what was going through the mind of the guy who felled the last tree on Easter Island. Was he saying "let's see how those damn liberal environmentalists like *that*!". Or perhaps he's thinking "with this tree I can make a canoe and make it to Marqueses at last! Let's see the wife try to find me now!" Or we can do a reminiscense like Death of a Salesman. "Back when I was a boy, there were trees a plenty. Now people just want to have flat land to raise more chickens. Too few trees to make a ladder to haul around those moari statues anyway, so they figure they'd rather cut down the last tree than have it be a reminder of better times..."
Adventure: the saga of Einar Sokkason. Seems Norse Greenland was a pretty bloody place a thousand years ago. So there's this guy by the name of Kolbein Thorljotsson. His buddy's relative uncle dies after his boat is shipwrecked on the Greenland coast. The man's bones - and his ship's cargo - is found by a Sigurd. Sigurd takes the stuff back to the town of Gardar and after the Biship takes possession of all the goods - gotta pay for mass somehow! - Ozur, the dead man's nephew is incensed. He appeals and loses (hey - who's gonna side against the Bishop?), and in anger vandalizes the ship - now belonging to the Bishop - which causes the Bishop to say that it's now OK that Ozur be killed. Which in fact happens, as the Bishop's assistant - probably tired of Ozur's bemoaning his fate - takes an axe to him during mass. Sound's pretty intense right? Now, you'd think that would teach you from messing with the Bishop, but no. Ozur's relative Simon rounds up his buddies - Kolbein included - to seek redress. Of course they kill each other (how poetic!) and a brawl ensues, where many men where killed. Kolbein is now no longer popular in Greenland, so he sets off to Norway with a polar bear as a present for the King. The King keeps the bear and gives poor Kolbein nothing, so Kolbein attacks and wounds the king. Now no longer popular in Norway either, he sets out to try this luck in Denmark but drowns enroute.
Or, there's the real life story of Eric the Red. Happy life in Norway. Kill some folk, get exiled to Iceland. Kill some more folk, get sent to other part of Iceland. Get into a quarrel yet again, exiled from the whole island this time. Go west yet again and find Greenland. Was Eric the Red really a bad person? Or was he just misunderstood. Oh, he had a temper and everyone knew it. So a few people died in quarrels - happens all the time these days (982 AD). But look what he gives to the world - the discovery of Greenland - of the west long before Columbus. And what was so great about Columbus anyway? He just hits a lattitude and goes west and when he lands thinks the Carribean is India. What kind of risk was that compared to what Eric did?
Personally I think the saga of Einar Sokkason has more chance of success. What do you think?
So in the spirit of "if you can't beat them, join them", how about we look at history? Real history., as we all know, is far stranger - and more movie worthy - than fiction.
I'm reading "Collapse" by Jared Diamond now and several stories leap out:
Human Drama: what was going through the mind of the guy who felled the last tree on Easter Island. Was he saying "let's see how those damn liberal environmentalists like *that*!". Or perhaps he's thinking "with this tree I can make a canoe and make it to Marqueses at last! Let's see the wife try to find me now!" Or we can do a reminiscense like Death of a Salesman. "Back when I was a boy, there were trees a plenty. Now people just want to have flat land to raise more chickens. Too few trees to make a ladder to haul around those moari statues anyway, so they figure they'd rather cut down the last tree than have it be a reminder of better times..."
Adventure: the saga of Einar Sokkason. Seems Norse Greenland was a pretty bloody place a thousand years ago. So there's this guy by the name of Kolbein Thorljotsson. His buddy's relative uncle dies after his boat is shipwrecked on the Greenland coast. The man's bones - and his ship's cargo - is found by a Sigurd. Sigurd takes the stuff back to the town of Gardar and after the Biship takes possession of all the goods - gotta pay for mass somehow! - Ozur, the dead man's nephew is incensed. He appeals and loses (hey - who's gonna side against the Bishop?), and in anger vandalizes the ship - now belonging to the Bishop - which causes the Bishop to say that it's now OK that Ozur be killed. Which in fact happens, as the Bishop's assistant - probably tired of Ozur's bemoaning his fate - takes an axe to him during mass. Sound's pretty intense right? Now, you'd think that would teach you from messing with the Bishop, but no. Ozur's relative Simon rounds up his buddies - Kolbein included - to seek redress. Of course they kill each other (how poetic!) and a brawl ensues, where many men where killed. Kolbein is now no longer popular in Greenland, so he sets off to Norway with a polar bear as a present for the King. The King keeps the bear and gives poor Kolbein nothing, so Kolbein attacks and wounds the king. Now no longer popular in Norway either, he sets out to try this luck in Denmark but drowns enroute.
Or, there's the real life story of Eric the Red. Happy life in Norway. Kill some folk, get exiled to Iceland. Kill some more folk, get sent to other part of Iceland. Get into a quarrel yet again, exiled from the whole island this time. Go west yet again and find Greenland. Was Eric the Red really a bad person? Or was he just misunderstood. Oh, he had a temper and everyone knew it. So a few people died in quarrels - happens all the time these days (982 AD). But look what he gives to the world - the discovery of Greenland - of the west long before Columbus. And what was so great about Columbus anyway? He just hits a lattitude and goes west and when he lands thinks the Carribean is India. What kind of risk was that compared to what Eric did?
Personally I think the saga of Einar Sokkason has more chance of success. What do you think?
posted by Daetrin at 3:10 PM
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