Baron Ungern Von Sternberg, the deranged Russian nobleman and mystic who took over Mongolia and ruled it for less than a year.
Nestor Makhno, the Russian revolutionary who founded an anarchist army and fought both the White and Red armies.
Simo Hayha the Finnish sniper who killed more than 500 Russians during the Winter War.
Ze’ev Jabotinsky the Zionist leader who formed Jewish defense groups in Russia and later went on to create the “Zion Mule Corps,” a Jewish legion of the British army.
And on the humanities side, J.G. Ballard, pioneer of dystopian fiction and neo-surrealist literature. He wrote Empire of the Sun. Christian Bale could play him again, which would be great.
What he did was amazing and beautiful. If you wanted to take a bit of a flight of fancy, Hollywood could “adapt” his story as a “lost” time traveller ver5y easily as he and his ideas were brilliant but ahead of their time.
Dr. H. H. Holmes (the 1890s serial killer [or mass murderer depending on your definition]). There have been several talked about projects with Dicaprio and Depp attached but nothing has surfaced so far.
Alexander the Great- I think he’d make for a great biopic. (I understand Oliver Stone considered making one, but it never happened.)
From the other thread- I’d love to see Gore Vidal’s Burr adapted as an HBO miniseries. While the title character’s the fulcrum of course, you’ll see famous Americans from Jonathan Edwards to Davy Crockett as well.
Recent obituaries have me convinced the life of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn would be great miniseries potential (particularly if they didn’t lionize him too much- he could be an ornery and very inconsistent person).
A movie about the William Desmond Taylor murder or perhaps the Fatty Arbuckle trial- something that really shines a light on the Silent era- could be good as well.
I’m kind of surprised that no one has done a decent Napoleon film. I guess the concept of the French as conquerors just blows some people’s tiny minds.
I’d like to see a movie about Otto Friedrich Gideon Sundback, the Swedish-American inventor who perfected the modern zipper. My version would be sort of like the movie Tucker: the Man and His Dream, where Sundback’s vision is threatened by the big American button manufacturers. So it probably wouldn’t hew too closely to strict historical accuracy. Sundback would also give all his rousing inspirational speeches in a pea soup-thick Swedish Chef accent.
Well, he was ancestrally Italian, so maybe with a Robert Deniro vehicle they’d buy it (especially if Scorcese directed with Sharon Stone as Josephine and Joe Pesci as Napoleon’s brothers).
I’ve just started reading a biography of Richard Francis Burton - one of the first European into Medina and Mecca (getting himself circumsized to complete his disguise!), first translated The Arabian Nights, The Perfumed Garden and the Kama Sutra, spied for the British in Afghanistan disguised as a Pashtun, discovered Lake Tanyanika, served in the Crimean War, was British consul to several places, could speak fluent Latin, Italian, Neapolitan, French, Persian (Farsi), Arabic, Romani, Hindustani, Gujarati, Siraiki and Marathi. At one point in Somalia he was impaled with a javelin, the point entering one cheek and exiting the other … and he was forced to make his escape with the weapon still transfixing his head. He was said to have fought in single combat more enemies than perhaps any other man of his time.
And if they had made a film about him 30 or so years ago, he could have been played by … Richard Burton.
Major Ridge. It’s astonishing that there has never been a major picture about the Cherokee Removal, and the events that led up to it. Major Ridge’s biography has all the elements of a great tragedy.
John Ross and Andrew Jackson would be twin villains in my movie, with Ridge navigating the ground between them.
The May 2008 issue of Smithsonian Air & Space had a fascinating article on an air exhibition team put together by the Wright Brothers that toured the country between June 1910 and November 1911. Made up of a mix of “showmen and thrill-seekers”, most of whom had been acquaintances or employees of the Wrights, the escapade long pre-dated the era of flying circuses, in machines that were far more dangerous and difficult to fly, and apparently was filled with drama and tragedy. Two of the aviators lost their lives in accidents, along with a spectator or two; the Wrights fought a running battle with Glenn Curtis for press and customer attention, and despite early success the enterprise eventually collapsed amid repeated crashes, Wilbur Wright’s death from typhoid, and the decreasing interest in the Wright’s designs versus Curtiss’ more advanced technology (and savvier marketing skills).
I think it would make a wonderful film, but of course the historical aspects and its downbeat ending lends a more British flavor than what most Americans seem to be looking for in a film these days.
Nah - Patrick Henry - the only Real Populist of the Founders. I would love the final act when he refuses to vote for the new Consitution, saying that it would lead to too much power and corruption at the Federal level. He would then repeatedly refuse positions in the new Federal government, keeping his honor.