My choices: the life of Eleanor of Aquitaine would make a kickass miniseries. She had such a long life, with such historical scope. They’d almost need to have two actresses to play her, though. Maybe a mother and daughter duo? Man, I’d love to see that.
But my favorite miniseries idea will certainly never be made. It would be based on a historical novel set in San Francisco during the gold rush. The novel (one of my all-time, absolute favorites) is Calico Palace, by Gwen Bristow. It was written in the '50s and practically nobody but me has ever heard of it. But it would make a great miniseries.
Have them do Suetonius’ The Twelve Caesars, scandals and all.
One of my personal favorite historical characters – Sir Richard Francis Burton. There’s a lot that Mountains of the Moon didn’t even touch.
Roy Chapman Andrews, explorer, adventurer, palaeontologist, and arguably one of the real-life models for Indiana Jones (after Scrooge McDuck)
I’d like to see a good, accurate version of the end of the French monarchy. Maybe start with Louis XV, and end the first season with the marriage of his son to Marie Antoinette. Then a second season ending with the executions. It could even segue into a third season discussing the revolution and the rise of Napoleon.
Ooh! And I know just the novel that could be a basis for that series. The novel Sinuhe, based on an historical figure, follows an Egyptian physician who gets caught up in the affairs of the court, and from whose point of view the story is told. Narratively speaking he has a similar role as dr. Melfi in the Soprano’s and Verinus in Rome.
Why not a series about pirates in the early 18th century either during or after Queen Anne’s War? You’ve got a ship full of murderers, rapist, and thieves and, what the hell, maybe even a woman or two as members of the crew! (It’s got historical precedence.) It’s almost like Oz except it’s on a boat!
Action: They’re pirates so they’ll be doing all sorts of pirate stuff.
Sex: They’re pirates so they’ll be doing all sorts of pirate stuff.
Intrigue: Captains of pirate vessels don’t typically have absolute power. Charles Johnson in A General History of Pirates says something to the effect that “Crews select a captain that they can captain over.” So the captain has to build alliances and deal with the crew in such a way that he might remain captain. Tough job.
Oh wow, that would be awesome!! Just yesterday I was thinking that I haven’t read any Bristow in a couple of years and was trying to decide which one to read. Calico Palace is probably my second favorite, as I LOVE Celia Garth, but you are right that Palace would be just a great movie. There was a movie of Jubilee Trail, but I haven’t seen it since I was a little girl.
The travels of one of those early European explorers of the present-day US.
Like Hernando de Soto’s:
or Cabeza de Vaca:
or Coronado’s:
These guys remain little more than mentions in our history books, and we’re mever really told what they really did or why, and what really happened. Be interesting to se it dramatized.
Thomas Cochrane - the inspiration for Hornblower among others, he had a more than interesting life (became an admiral, alledgely bribed his way to a parlimentary seat, and was caught up in the stock exchange fraud, among other events).
There was a miniseries about Burton and Speke, titled Search for the Nile. It was quite a while ago, but you could search IMDB for it. It was the first time I’d heard of the duo.
See, right here is why this is a great message board. I have never, and I read my first Gwen Bristow book (Jubilee Trail, it was) in 1975, met another person who’s read one.
They would all make awesome movies or miniseries, if done right (I have heard that the movie of Jubilee Trail wasn’t).
Jubilee Trail is probably my favorite, BTW – although they are all wonderful. But I think Calico Palace would lend itself best to the miniseries form. She’s too old for the part now, but my first thought on seeing Unforgiven was that Frances Fisher would have made an awesome Marnie.
But that’s what Mountains of the Moon was about. I want something about the REST of Burton’s life, most of which had nothing to do with Spejke – his time in India, his pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, his trip to Salt Lake City, his government postings, and his founding the Kama Shastra Society and translating the Arabian Nights.
I remember that miniseries: it opened with Burton rampaging his carriage through the gardens at Oxford while everyone runs in terror, and ended with his snotty Catholic wife burning all his papers (something that would have been out of character for Fiona Shaw in The Mountains of the Moon, so they omitted it)
But both omitted a lot more, incuding how Burton had no choice but to kill his Arab guide to Mecca when he forgot to squat to pee like an Arab and gave himself away, or his exploration of homosexual brothels in India
(since some Dopers will recognize where I got those anecdotes, might as well suggest a miniseries based on Amy & Irving Wallaces 'Book of Lists" and “Intimate Sex Lives of Famous People.”)