Two historical figures that come to my mind have both been done before, but ain’t no reason why they can’t be done again and better. It’s time to give them both the modern big-budget widescreen treatment, except with a good script. Interestingly, each character is better known by his nom de guerre than by his actual name:
The Red Baron. The movie would focus on his career, but also encompass the lives of the general community of flying aces, characters like Boelcke and Immelmann, the various members of his Flying Circus (his brother Lothar, Goebbels, etc.), and possibly also flyers from the “other side” like Ball and Mannock. These days it’s finally possible for visual effects to convincingly recreate the massive aerial dogfights that would sell the film in the trailers.
Blackbeard. Since hardly anything is actually known about the guy’s past, this would have to be more of a “historical fiction” type of film to fill in the gaps. What motivated him? Was he truly a murderous fiend, or a canny survivor of an unjust and corrupt colonial system, or just a big jerk with out-of-control facial hair? We’d follow the career of Edward Teach (or Thatch, or whatever) as a young man in Bristol, who enlists as a privateer and gradually manufactures his own larger-than-life identity as the notorious pirate. This film could depict an historical cross-section of the institution of piracy in the West Indies and colonial America. The last part of the film would contrast the lives of Teach and his nemesis, Lt. Maynard, right up to their climactic battle at Okacroke Inlet.
Eh, he may have actually been crazy (he was certainly weird), but I think the motivations behind having him declared insane were almost purely political. And no matter how nuts the poor guy might have been, the methods used to diagnose him were questionable even for the time. At this point I think it would be difficult, if not impossible, to determine the cause or extent of Ludwig’s mental problems. But that little mystery leaves plenty of room for fiction.
Oh, and I’ll second your call for a biopic about Vlad the Impaler!
An account of the retreat from the Chosin Reservoir by the 1st Marine Division and Army 7th Infantry Division during the Korean War. Thirteen days and ninety miles of continuous running battle through eight Chinese divisions in the middle of a terrible Korean winter.
I agree-in those days, people who were sane were declared mad-and those who were mad were often seen as sane! I feel sorry for poor King Ludwig-he was obviously an artistic genius, and his childhood leaves a lot to be desired. I have a picture of Neuschwanstein as my desktop wallpaper right now-I was inspired to put it up after this thread.
But I’m highjacking this thread. Carry on!
Oh, and another interesting historical invent-the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustlaf. Forget Titanic, this was without a doubt the worst maritime disaster in history! 8,000 went down with her! Titanic only lost 1500.
How about the conquisidors (sorry about the spelling)? I would definitely watch a film about the Pizarro brothers and Cortes (imagine the action scenes!).
Bumping this thread to say that, in one of my bizarre trips through the Web the other day, I ran across a site mentioning the possibility of an upcoming Hollywood film about Empress Elisabeth. It also said Angelina Jolie has been tapped for the lead role. Seems like a rather odd casting choice, although admittedly Empress Elisabeth was beautiful, a little crazy, and had a tattoo.
