I’d like to see a movie about Bass Reeves. He was an African American U.S. Deputy Marshal who worked the Oklahoma territory following the Civil War. The dude was Shaft before there was a Shaft.
Although it’s not a story from my region, there could be Oscars aplenty for a tragic character study of the Collyer Brothers, compulsive hoarders and hermits who died in their boobytrapped Manhattan house in 1947: Collyer brothers - Wikipedia
I’d love to film the story of Xhore (“Coree of Saldania”), a Khoekhoen tribal leader who was kidnapped to London in 1613, lived with the Governer of the English East India Company, eventually was returned home after much begging, and traded with the English from then until the Dutch killed him in 1627 for refusing to trade with them.
Hell, it’d be stretching history a little (she arrived just as he left, as far as I can tell), but you could include a cameo by Pocahontas in there.
Having lived in Gelderland for years, and now living in Utrecht, I’d love to see a mini series about the centuries-spanning warring between the Dukes of Guelders and the Bishops of Utrecht.
In a related theme, I think the story leading up to the Union of Utrecht could make an interesting drama.
I’m thinking of the Bear Flag Revolt and the California Republic. There’s also the Port Chicago Mutiny.
I’d like to see a film about the legend and true story of Starved Rock.
StarvedRock
With the caveat that it must be filmed at the actual rock/state park. An animated feature would be ok, too.
James Michener wrote a book on it that I thought was good, titled Kent State: What Happened and Why. Seemed to me to be a non-biased, well researched work. MIchener seemed to have done a lot of background work, and interviewed hundreds of people.
One bit of non relevant trivia. There is a house in the area that looked so “spooky” that it was copied for use as the Bates home in Psycho.
There was a TV movie in 1981, but it could probably be done better.
Or with the Roanoke Colony. Since nobody knows what happened to it, there’s plenty of creative freedom built into the project.
There was once a Republic of West Florida – it lasted 90 days, in 1810, and included what are now southeastern Louisiana and southern Mississippi and Alabama (but none of what is now Florida). Its “Bonny Blue Flag” inspired the Civil War song of that name. There’s gotta be a movie in there somewhere.
Those Apaches are supposed to be so stoic, but you wouldn’t believe how easy their tells are.
The development of Walt Disney World near Orlando might make a good movie. To avoid driving up the price of the land they needed to acquire for the project, the Disney corporation in 1963 started buying up land through dummy corporations. At some point the Orlando Sentinel figured out what was going on – but when they contacted Disney about it, it became clear that printing the story might scuttle the project and all it meant for the future of Orlando (only a medium-sized town, then). In one of the most ethically dubious decisions in the history of journalism, they agreed to sit on the story until Disney was ready to announce it, provided one of their reporters was allowed to ask the first relevant question at an unrelated Disney press conference: “And is Disney planning any projects in Florida?” “So glad you asked . . .” All the other reporters in the room looked at the Sentinel reporter – WTF?!
A movie about Disney World might also show us Walt Disney’s dark, control-freak, union-busting side, his insistence on de facto political independence for his Magic Police State (see Reedy Creek Improvement District, a/k/a “the Vatican with mouse ears”), and his original plans for EPCOT as a “community” as thoroughly planned and controlled as an unroofed arcology. I’ve never seen any of that touched on, on the big screen. Hmmm, maybe Disney would be interested in that project? 
I went to Kent State and had an English professor that HATED Michener’s book (which I haven’t read). The prof said that Michener said that there’s a famous haunted house in Kent, which the prof vehemently denied and said indicated Michener’s book was unreliable. According to that same prof, a key part of the shooting which Michener ignored was that the Guard troops were not fresh, having just come from a nasty union strike, were not trained for riot duty, and shouldn’t have been issued live ammo. Whether Michener discusses that in his book or not, I don’t know.
This is one of the many reasons why I like this board. I learned a new word!
Agreed. There was a 1999 TV movie about it, but I didn’t see it: Mutiny (TV Movie 1999) - IMDb
Here’s one example: One of the Ravens who flew in Laos returned after the war and snuck his lady love out of the country. He did this by strapping her to his back and swimming across the Mekong River to Thailand. Sadly, real life not being Hollywood, they eventually divorced. But the product of their union was Ananda Evringham, an extremely popular actor here in Thailand. I’ve been told the story actually was made into a TV movie in the US maybe in the 1980s and starred Lisa Marie Presley of all people as the Lao woman, but I cannot find corroboration of this.
Another Raven set up a travel agency in northern Thailand after the war that was really just a front for his personal one-man forays into Laos to sneak out Hmong. He was incensed at the US abandonment of the Hmong, who fought heroically for the CIA during the war and are still mistreated today in that country.
And these are just since the war ended.
Mosby’s raids. The guy was frickin’ hilarious.
Mosby captures General Stoughton
go to page 121
Gee, I wonder if any of the Orlando Sentinel’s management made money on land near Kissimmee during that period?
Another one from New Mexico (although I suppose Indiana could also claim him)
Lew Wallace.
He had three claims to fame:
3. Major general in the Union army during the Civil War.
2. Governor of the New Mexico Territory during the Lincoln County War. (He actually traded correspondence with Billy the Kid.)
- Author of Ben-Hur.
Good one.
Wallace lost the 1864 Battle of Monocacy, but in so doing delayed Gen. Jubal Early’s Confederate army long enough that Washington, D.C. could be adequately defended. U.S. Grant later credited him with saving the capital.
The story goes that President Hayes later appointed Wallace minister (ambassador) to the Ottoman Empire in hopes that he’d soak up enough of the local atmosphere to write another historical novel like Ben-Hur, which Hayes loved.