I would totally watch that movie/mini-series/documentary.
There are a lot of ideas in this thread I would watch.
How about a realistic version of “Arsenic and Old Lace?” I am fascinated by stories of female serial killers.
As an airship geek I’d love to see some kind of film/TV movie/miniseries based on the Imperial Airship Scheme; the R100 actually made it all the way to Canada & back (just barely) and and more modest R102 was already being planned when the R101 crashed (killing the Air Minister) on a rushed flight to India.
Or a film about the Graf Zeppelin’s round-the-world flight. Or even another Hindenburg (yes I know about the 1975 film) film, but with a twist. It’d have the usually blending of real, fictional, & fictional characters based on real people. A Kripo detective is onboard due to a bomb threat. He needs to figure out which passenger is the a terrorist before they reach Lakehurst.
The twist is that he either catchs the terrorist in time, or the bomb threat turns out to be a hoax. Only in the closing moments of the film to we realize it’s only 1936; and the Hindenburg is on one of it’s succesful flights the year before it crashed (my great aunt flew that year).
Or maybe something on airships in World War I (didn’t work out so well; still, airships did carry out the first strategic aerial bombing campaigns in history).
A great- bloody- WW2 movie could be made about the 442nd Infantry, which like Glory in the Civil War would deal with units most people don’t know existed. The 442nd was composed of Japanese-Americans, most of whom had been imprisoned in the internment camps back in the U.S. and had family still there. There was question as to how loyal they would be, and they were only used in the European theater.
How loyal were they? From wiki (but completely accurate):
They also set a record for the number of Medal of Honor recipients- 21- and this during the height of U.S. hatred of the Japanese.
Several of its veterans went on to very distinguished careers in business, politics, and other areas. A few are still alive.
George Orwell is one of my personal heroes, and I think a biopic on him is long overdue. That would also cover the Spanish Civil War ground.
Go for Broke, 1951.
Howard Hughes’ Hell’s Angels. Stupid story, great cinematography.
I KNOW! I’M SO EXCITED! Actually to tell you the truth I already knew that when I posted. I’m such a nerd, that about a year ago I wrote to Anne Chambers and suggested that she write a screenplay. I got some response from one of her assistants saying that it was in the works.
My only concern is that it won’t get widely distributed in the US. Any news about that?
woah woah woah…I just re-read your post. It says 2009. It’s 2010. Let’s get rolling Miss Chambers!
You like arsenic? I’ll give you arsenic.
If we’re doing serial killers, how about H.H. Holmes? He had a hotel in Chicago purpose-built to be a death-trap. Comes under the heading of “you can’t make this shit up” (because if you did the audience would never buy it). The story is told in The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson.
There’s been talk of a Leonardo DiCaprio project on Holmes, but it’s apparently in permanent drydock. I’m surprised he (Holmes) isn’t much better known than he is considering how prolific a serial killer he was and the almost over-the-top manner of his crime (a plan of some of the secret rooms and trap doors in his mansion- there was also a crematorium- the guy made Sweeney Todd look like Floyd the Barber [though I always suspected Floyd of nefarious activities with Clara as his Mrs. Lovett- “bless you sir they was the worst pickles in Mayberry before you came…”).
The story of the 16th-Century Scottish cannibal Sawney Bean would make quite a movie . . . but it’s more legend than history.
How about the Jari Project? Reclusive American zillionare decides, as his last big score, to build a massive lumber project in the middle of the Amazon forest. He ends up sinking most of his fortune building an entire town from scratch. The project fights everything from malaria epidemics to mass crop failures to nationalists who claim it’s being run on slave labor. Why can’t Hollywood focus on amazing real life stories like this than just rebooting another failed comic book franchise?
Try the contemporary The Intruder, starring William Shatner. Producer Roger Corman, famous for “B” exploitation pictures, decided to try making a meaningful, dramatic movie for a change–and for the only time, lost money. But it was definitely a case of “The movie was a great success–unfortunately, people weren’t going to see it.” It tells a story of then-current racism without the gauzy filter of hindsight, and powerfully makes its points, all on a super-low budget.
Here ya go–this one goes under one of the several retitlings the pic was given to try to recoup the losses and get it into theaters:
I recently read about Dean Reed, the “Red Elvis”. He was an American rock singer who did a tour in South America, met Che Guevera, converted to Marxism, moved to East Germany, became a famous rock star in the Communist Bloc, and finally came back to the United States and died in mysterious circumstances.
“A great story for a movie,” I think. Then I find that Tom Hanks has optioned it. Curse you Hanks, first you stole my idea for a movie about a cop with a big ugly dog and now this!!!
Could be worse- you could have met him once & said “Tom, here’s a movie idea- it’s Rain Man meets Zelig.”
I suggested Joseph Smith earlier. Here’s another one- could this even be done & do the subject justice?..
Gilles deRais.
Hmmm… does history give us any idea of why they put up the money?
Edit: The Vanderbilt thing is a possible explanation, but what’s behind that “one exception” comment (that most of the people who put up the bond could shrug it off if Davis skedaddled)?
“Okay, Tom, picture this. You and your buddy are looking for an apartment in Manhattan. And you find this perfect place for a great rental. But it’s an apartment building for women only. So here’s what you guys do…”
Gilles de Rais! Doing his story justice would require a graceful combination of heroic battles scenes alongside Joan of Arc with graphic pedophilic torture porn!
Tom Hanks? I dunno. I’m seeing Gilles de Rais as more of an Adam Sandler project.