Nemo will be Fogg’s adversary, if Philip José Farmer had it right…
(CalMeacham: does the world of Verne look kindly on The Other Log of Phileas Fogg?)
I read Verne’s novel years ago and enjoyed it. I saw the 1956 movie once and found it rather dull. This version airing on PBS is not especially exciting at first glance but gets better as it goes along. I don’t much care if liberties are taken with a classic story as long as the basic premise is the same, that being the challenge of circumnavigating the globe in 80 days. David Tennant has never been a favorite of mine and in this he’s an insufferable prig, but the fellow playing Passepartout does nicely, and the young woman playing Miss Fix is rather fetching. I won’t remember anything about this a year from now but it’s a fairly enjoyable way to spend an hour on a Sunday evening.
Here’s what the writer said when I asked him. It does lack specifics, admittedly.
Doesn’t mean they have the rights, it very well mean the powers that be don’t want to do a 20,000 league series so close to Disney’s new version.
Brian
I’m only three episodes in, and I find it likeable enough.
But I noticed that much of the scoring is pretty much identical to the music heard in the BBC’s most recent Sherlock, the one with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. I’m not very musical, so it took me several days to work out why it seemed so familiar. I mean, it’s understandable for the same scoring composer to return to his bag of tricks—but this seems identical, with the occasional overlay of a ticking-watch leitmotif. And from my Googling, it looks like the music for the two shows was done by completely different folks (David Arnold and Michael Price for Sherlock and Hans Zimmer for 80 Days).
Very curious.
You seem to be, I mean, who knows what this is???
You rock!
I also noticed the musical resemblance.
I too didn’t know there was a new version. I’ve seen parts of the Niven version and it seemed to have a lot of parts not in the book. Especially the train wreck and the balloon.
If there’s a lady journalist in the new version I think I’ll hold off on watching, as it’s obvious such a character is inserted for plot twists not in the book. Verne movies have done this before, writing in a woman character when none was in the original story, such as Journey to the Center of the Earth, Mysterious Island, and others.
In the book Phileas Fogg was not really a dick, but he was single-minded and very, very driven. I’d call him more eccentric. At the rite of suttee in India he readied himself to rush the pyre, even though he knew it would be hopeless. Luckily the valet had already figured out how to effect the rescue.
The one thing in the story I could never understand was how a man as traveled and educated as Fogg could forget he was losing time as he journeyed eastward. I don;t know how scheduling for travel worked then, time zones and such, but still.
Weren’t time zones invented in the 1880s for train schedules or something like that?
We watched it with the kids - at first my attitude was very much @gdave’s - not very impressed, not that interested. But some elements of this household are a democracy, so we watched more and I kid of got into it.
The best thing about it for me was the introduction of genuine historical characters - e.g. Bass Reeves - because it’s always interesting to open up these little windows into the past. But it was a fun enough series of capers, and Fogg and Passpartout (and to a lesser extent Fix) had enough character development over the piece to become more likable than they originally were.
It was fine, is what I’m saying. Wouldn’t have watched it by myself, but good family viewing because we could all talk about the story and characters afterwards.
A lot of places kept local time for a while; Wikipedia says that GMT was used on almost all public clocks by 1855 in Britain, though some clocks kept two minute hands (the second for local time). GMT was made the legal time in 1880.
We can surmise that, as a resident of the British Isles and one who observed a very regular schedule, Fogg had never had to interact with time zones before, and they were probably new enough for many of Verne’s readers to be somewhat of an ‘aha!’ moment in reading.
I think they should remake it is modern day. None of this unrelatable Victorian era fluff. Colin Firth as Fogg and Vin Diesel as Passepartout. And make him a spy! And Fix is a spy…wait, a sexy Chinese spy. Now spelled XIf,
It SINGS!
I did enjoy Michael Palin’s modern Around the World in 80 days (no airplanes allowed). He went alone (well, with a film crew which IIRC did take a plane once)
Brian
That was awesome!
I watched the first three and then we decided to just watch the rest on the dvr after it finished. But I don’t know if we ever will. I have almost the same opinion as you. It’s obviously an expensive production, and I usually adore David Tennant, but it’s just boring and annoying in about equal measures.
On edit: Glad to hear some people like it! I think part of what I found annoying was the episodes just draaaaaaaaaaged, and the editing was clunky. I found myself checking the clock to see when it was going to be done, so I could move on to Vienna Blood or All Creatures Great and Small.
Oh my god. Just watched the ‘Hateful Eight’ episode. Jeez, did that suck!
Just watched the ‘Hateful Eight’ episode. Jeez, did that suck!
Was THAT what that was supposed to be? I agree with you totally. It was not only preachy, but worse than that, it was BORING!
Not just that the Hateful Eight episode was boring, it was so predictable. The Black characters get singled out for racist treatment in the Old West - what a surprise! Using a horse to barge into the saloon to save the day - what a surprise! The notice in England the Fogg and party were safe at the last minute - what a surprise!
More disturbing was that they portrayed the American Old West as so uncouth - what a bunch of yokels! Of course there were no signs of civilized society. Was the original book like this?
What I didn’t like about this adaptation is that so much happens off-screen or in limited sets. That may be a budget limitation and also a pandemic limitation. As it happens, I saw the 1956 movie over the weekend and it’s very much a travelogue, with scenes actually filmed in each country and a large cast, including lots and lots of animals. The western scene here might have issues, but in the movie, Passepartout was captured by a hostile Indian tribe and was to be burned at the stake, so perhaps the miniseries version was a little more enlightened?
No.
As I remarked before, they have massively changed the story. Here’s a synopsis from the Wikipedia page:
Nothing about racism (although, of course, Passepartout wasn’t black in the original book) or the KKK. American society was seen as rough, but the cavalry officers were gentlemen. The American Indians were portrayed as bloodthirsty savages, but, as I mentioned above, although Verne took his heroes from many cultures around the world, he persisted in portraying American and African natives as “savages”. I’m not surprised that they changed this for the TV series. Although they missed out on another opportunity to show Fogg and company’s resourcefulness with the wind-driven sledge. The 1956 Mike Todd movie with David Niven is more faithful to Verne’s book.