Just curious – I want to write a screenplay that doesn’t have to be compared to the earlier version. :rolleyes:
Fall of the Wall?
Invention of writing?
Invention of paper?
Norman Borlaug’s work on agriculture?
Aristotle. He’s been a character is various films about Alexander the Great, but I don’t believe there has ever been a film dedicated to his life and impact.
I think we’re overdue for a movie from Pontius Pilate’s point of view.
The Big Bang.
The origin of the Solar System.
The origin of life on Earth.
I would like an action movie about Simo “Simuna” Häyhä (aka, The White Death). He was a Finnish sniper who almost single-handedly kept the Russians at bay on the Russian-Finnish border for about 100 days during the Winter War in 1939 -1940.
When the Russians decided they wanted to invade, he simply replied ‘Ei!’ and broke out his trusty bolt-action rifle that didn’t even have a scope on it and started popping Russian soldiers like they were party balloons. He is officially credited with 505 kills in less than 100 days (still the record for a sniper by a long shot). The Russians became so alarmed at his very existence that they sent out many of their best counter-sniper teams to take him out. He killed all of them too. The Russians got desperate and started using heavy artillery strikes just to wipe out this terrifying phantom. They eventually got lucky and hit him with an exploding bullet blowing off half his face but of course he didn’t die and went on to make a full recovery except for the face part.
This guy makes Rambo look like a Hello Kitty doll. He would make an excellent real-life superhero as long as there is sufficient back story and historical context to go along with it.
There’s a pretty decent book, “The Gospel According to Pontius Pilate.” It could easily be made into a movie.
I’ve never seen a George Washington movie. I suppose there have got to be some, but I don’t know of any.
(Seems there was a 1984 TV mini-series, so I guess that counts.)
Has anyone done a drama of Burr/Hamilton? That could be damn fun!
(Ah, yes! 1984, “Duel.” I need to find this!)
Is there a good movie about the Spanish American War, specifically the naval battles of Havana and Manila? An “Admiral Dewey” movie?
(Apparently so…but it doesn’t quite count, I think…)
Forgive me; my Google skills are not very good.
The Star Trek (Next Generation) movie with Q, showing Picard the origin of life on earth, might count. It’s a quick little scene, but it is shown happening. Or…not happening.
Isaac Newton
Today’s her birthday, btw. I posted this thread about her several years ago.
She was probably the greatest pilot who has ever lived, and almost no one knows her name. She won the Bendix air race in 1938 on her second try. She was a test pilot who died of old age. Think about how rare that was for a pilot in the early days of aviation.
If you’ll forgive me for quoting my own thread: [She was] the first woman to break the sound barrier, being an instrumental figure in starting the WASPs, the first woman to fly a bomber, and the first woman to fly the Atlantic. She set a variety of speed records in several planes (including F-104s and F-84s), and at the time of her death in 1980 held more speed and distance records than any pilot in history, male or female, living or dead. [bolding added]
I think she’s way overdue for a movie, but I shudder to think how Hollywood would portray her. Maybe it’s best for the movie scum to leave her legacy alone.
That is a good one. The only problem is that she was best friends with Chuck Yeager who is much better known. He talks a whole lot about her in his autobiography. You certainly get the impression that she was a complete hell on wheels born into poor conditions and then married extremely rich so that she could fund her aviation interests or anything else she wanted. She is notorious for not caring much about proper protocol and would call anyone from the Pentagon to foreign heads of state to make a personal complaint against anyone if it suited her. Surprisingly, they took her calls and listened because almost everyone was afraid of her no matter how high up they were.
She was actually a much bigger deal in the early aviation world than Amelia Earhart but she had enough sense not to get herself killed so she is not that well known today. I could see her story being anything from a feminist biopic to an exciting period drama but there is indeed plenty of material to work with.
I don’t think they’ve done one about Bazalgette. He engineered London’s sewers, wiping out Cholera and Typhoid along with the unbearable stink.
The Russian novel The Master and Margarita has a recurring book within a book that’s told from Pontius Pilate’s point of view.
It’s been made into a film quite a few times (including a Polish production that was just the Pontius Pilate bits and shot on the location of Hitler’s Nuremberg rallies!) but I don’t think any of the adaptations are particularly well thought of.
I probably blocked it out, but has there been a film made about the WTC attacks from the perspective of someone who made it out alive? I do remember the movie about the plane
Do documentaries count? I haven’t looked yet but I’m guessing that some of the things listed above have been done in documentaries, even if they were just 1hr History channel things. Other than that, I can’t imagine a feature length movie on something like the invention of paper…Of course Helvetica was 80 minutes is called ‘feature length’ (and really good too, if you haven’t seen it).
Anyways, my suggestion was going to be Bill Gates. I don’t know of a movie (ala Jobs) about him yet.
Regarding the Fall of the Wall, I found this list. I didn’t click on the links so I don’t know how many of them are about it as opposed to just including it because it happened during their time line (like Hedwig) and it doesn’t play a huge role in the movie.
World Trade Center, with Nicholas Cage as a star
Aren’t all sniping records set by a long shot?
Alhazen and the invention of the Scientific Method?
The conquest of the Aztec Empire by Hernan Cortes and about 500 men.
The Destruction of the Native Americans by Disease (a major historical event for which there isn’t even a handy term, like the Black Plague or the Holocaust):
Pirates of Silicon Valley was a movie about the early days of Bill Gates & Steve Jobs and it’s very good.
Similar to Bill Gates, I don’t think there’s been a movie made about Warren Buffett where he wasn’t just a periphery character and I’m almost certain there hasn’t been a movie made about Carlos Slim Helu.
How about Benghazi? Of course, we need two totally different movies.