I don’t know that there would be a market for a series of Aubrey/Maturin feature films in theaters.
I’d argue that they’d do MUCH better to adapt the books as a series of 3-4 hour miniseries (whether as 3-4 one hour shows, or 1-2 films, I don’t know), and show them on a streaming service. Maybe semi-intermittently as well- British style. Like we’d get “Master and Commander” and then maybe a year later, we’d get “Post Captain”, etc… And roll up some of the stories that are more or less conjoined into one series- like “Fortune of War” and “The Surgeon’s Mate”, for example.
I’d argue that CGI is probably near to the point where they wouldn’t actually need an actual sailing ship for exterior shots or battle scenes, and is cheap enough for a series as well.
‘A capital idea, my good man!’ You’re right, this is a far better idea. The whole late-18th century era was so rich in story-telling ideas, a miniseries might just work!
The Richard Sharpe novels by Bernard Cornwell were adapted in the form of a series of TV movies, of about 90-100 minutes in length. Similarly, the Horatio Hornblower novels by C. S. Forester were also made into a series of TV movies.
So yes, this sort of thing is feasible. (I’m not a big fan of this sort of thing, but the Master and Commander movie was really well-done and enjoyable.)
Titanic. But more of an aggressive editing rather than a full remake. Eliminate 90% of anything with Brock or that doofus assistant, keep old Rose. A little tweaking here and there, eliminate all of Cameron’s cameos, and voila a very good 2 1/2 hour movie,
Wikipedia says Stroker Ace was the turning point where Reynolds lost fans. I was never a fan of his necessarily but I would submit “Cannonball Run” missed the mark completely and put me off—so as in the NBA, the ref always sees the second foul?
“Cannonball” was inspired by a very interesting article from Car and Drive (or maybe Motor Trend) magazine, as I recall. A clandestine race across country? Which car would you pick, how would you avoid the police, etc.? Great premise. IIRC one of them had to run the heater to keep the Ferrari (?) engine from overheating, so they were miserable.
There were tradeoffs and it was imaginative.
But boy did they drop the ball when they made the movie.
I can’t say Stroker was worse because based on Cannonball Run’s (lack of) merits, I didn’t even consider wasting time or money to watch it.
While I enjoy Cannonball Run, I really can’t defend it as a good movie. This is what happens when you let stunt men screenwrite. The movie is rife with logic holes. But I love most of the characters.
If you never have seen them, check out Gumball Rally or Cannonball, two different takes on the same race. They both have problems, but they’re OK. And for something similar, try the original Death Race 2000.
The Hobbit (especially 2nd & 3rd), Puppet Masters & Starship Troopers. Just to cover books by my favorite authors where the movies underwhelmed, sucked or had little to do with the book and lacked the power armor.
I wouldn’t mind seeing a version of Mortal Engines which leaves in all the stuff Peter Jackson took out - namely, everything that made the book interesting.
The Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash. I remember reading the article, so it was in Car & Driver.
Yeah, really stupid movie. Especially since the whole ending involved a footrace to the check-in table for “Shortest Elapsed Time.” But they all checked out back at the beginning of the movie every 10 minutes! So the winner would be the drivers that left last, and they could just stroll to the table.
That was my go-to rag, back in the day, though I sometimes read others. They had some great writers. There was this exchange (more or less) in “Letters to the Editor” around the time of the Civil Disobedience, radar detectors.
Editors: Is it true that if you put wadded balls of aluminum foil in your hubcaps, they will bounce around and confuse police radar so they can’t get a reading?
Reader: Be sure to include several wadded up twenty dollar bills as well.
Kinda off topic, sorta. I just watched The Old Guard on Netflix on the recommendation from a podcast. They described it as “Highlander done right.” And… yup, nailed it.
Don’t get me wrong; I love Highlander, but Old Guard took some of the premises and ran with them.
I would love to see a Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers done in a cool Atompunk style, not “modern day”.
I take heat for this all the time, but Dario Argento’s Cemetery Man is my top pick. I’d love to see it in English, with better effects, and a bit more cohesive story. My second pick? The Matrix. I’d just like an update, and we could now put back in some elements that the Wachovskis had to take out in the original, like Switch being different genders inside the Matrix and out.
My go-to answer of The Running Man has already been posted.
I’d like to see another attempt at the Percy Jackson books, that actually, you know, follow the books. The first movie got so much wrong I didn’t bother with the second (and last).
I enjoy the Running Man but I agree on the Percy Jackson books. They were written in a way where making a movie of them shouldn’t have been that hard. Disney just totally bungled it. The movies don’t work well and don’t follow the book.
On that note, I would love to see the The Chronicles of Prydain done well. Black Cauldron is OK but this could be a good series of movies instead of one OK and largely forgotten movie.
I understand Disney reacquired the rights to the books and might try it again.
I’d like to see a remake of The Hunger Games directed by someone that’s heard of a tripod and a crane. Heck, keep the same cast and script, maybe pony up some extra money to improve the cheap-looking CGI monsters at the end, and reshoot it shot-for-shot, but keep the damn camera stable. The whole damn movie, even the quiet dialog scenes, was annoying shaky cam. I understand the whole gotta-keep-the-camera-moving-because-we-can’t-actually-show-the-book’s-level-of-violence-and-still-get-a-PG-13-rating, but surely there could have been some other way to imply the violence besides shaking the camera for two and a half hours.
