For years I had the idea of a screenplay about the music industry in the 1970s and how things morphed starting in the 80’s into what we have today, as seen through the eyes of a female record exec. Then I learned about Donna Halper, who was a music director for a radio station in Cleveland and is now a music lecturer and historian. She is credited with breaking the band Rush into the market (which led to their first record deal) and worked with Alex Harvey for a long time before becoming one of the few female radio consultants. I think it would be interesting to see a film that tackles several topics - the changing music business, the role of women in the biz, and what it took to “break” a band then vs. now. Hmm…who could play Alex Harvey?
There’s a fairly short but interesting interview with her here. One interesting/scary quote: “I don’t think I could discover Rush today…few stations have the power to independently break a new artist.”
The film would start with the young Curtiss building a V8 motorcycle and setting a land speed record of 136 mph - in 1907. It would follow his work with other inventors like Alexander Graham Bell supplying engines for their airplanes, building the Junebug and winning the Scientific American prize for a plane taking off on it’s own power, flying more than a kilometer and safely landing before the public (the Wrights launched a powered glider with a catapult in secrecy). The “3rd act” would be the battle with the Wrights over patents (they claimed to have a patent on the airplane). The climax would be his flight from Albany to New York City along the Hudson, finally landing in Battery Park after circling the Statue of Liberty.
Pavlov’s House. A ruined apartment block manned by a dozen hard-assed Russian soldiers, holding off German attacks for three solid months. The fighting was so intense that the Russians had to go out during lulls in the battle so they could kick over the piles of bodies!
Done right, this would be an action movie for the ages. I have no idea why Hollywood hasn’t tried yet.
I’d watch a movie about Simo Hayha Finnish sniper and all around badass. I could see a movie made about his life, A*Team style.
What about a good old fashioned American rebellion in the 18th Century? An unreasonable tax foisted on the poor and working class, and they rise up against the tax collectors. The army is called in to quell the rebels.
While I didn’t like that movie (I thought Robby Benson was woefully miscast and Rod Steiger was in prime scenery chewing mode) I have to admit it was my first realization that not all Jews favored the founding of Israel.
Speaking of Israel: a movie version of bar Kokhba’s revoltwould be interesting. For a messianic figure who had an incomparably larger number of followers in his lifetime than Jesus, whose failure resulted in such a bloodbath and whose downfall was so important in the history of Judaism and of Israel, he’s amazingly unknown to most Christians.
I’m watching Tom Dowd & the Language of Music right now, and his life, if presented as fiction, would be rejected by every movie studio for being unbelievable. He’s like Zelig, at all these amazing moments of music. Look at the cast and crew list, and see all the listings for “himself” and “herself”. And the cast list is woefully incomplete.
The man worked on the Manhattan Project and Layla.
It would be worth it just to make the best soundtrack album ever.
There is a play about this called The Farnsworth Invention. The script was written by Aaron Sorkin who actually did try to get it made into a movie but no one would bite so instead he adapted it for the stage. It doesn’t really work well as a stageplay because it’s so talky but I would love to see it as a film