I’ve long thought there could be an amazing move made about the life of Harriet Tubman and her adventures on the Underground Railroad. I imagine a gritty, raw story that shows the horror of slavery and the courage of freedom. There’d be a poignant scene where a runaway slave gets really frightened and begs Miss Tubman to let him go back, and she threatens to shoot him with a gun if he doesn’t shut his yap and keep up. America needs this movie.
Another good pic would be a revisit of Christopher Columbus. A well done movie would pull no punches, so we’d see the horror of chopping off hands and clear allusions to brutalizing children. But we’d also see the excitement and danger of a long voyage, the zealous advocacy for a daring trip, and the elegance and pageantry of 15th century royalty. It’d be a hell of a flick.
Who else would make for a good movie subject? It can be a reboot, if you like, but you need to show it in a different light (Gandhi, the "pervy" uncle, anyone?)
I thought Spielberg’s Munich was a gripping revenge tale that showed the toll the killings took on the men who carried them out. Oh, and Spielberg had that other movie about the Holocaust too. He could probably put together an engrossing, morally complex movie about Itzkovitz. And if he passes on the project, someone else needs to make the movie.
Frank Zappa - childhood, his first run-in with the law (indeceny), the Mothers, the actual Montreux incident, the struggle of keeping a band together as a business venture, his eventual critical acclaim, his pioneering use of the Synclavier… all the way thru to his death from prostate cancer at just 52 years old. The man was a genius and a very high-achiever who’s influence on music is and will be felt for decades to come, but very few non-music people know much about him or his work, and I think a biopic could help rectify that.
I’d also really like to see a biopic for Sir Richard Francis Burton. He’s been a hero of mine since I was a kid; he had a very colorful and eventful life, yet almost no one has ever heard of him today.
Juan Pujol García. A quirky guy who wanted to spy on the Nazis, but was rejected multiple times. So he went rogue and became a double agent, ultimately causing misdirection at Normandy so that it was less defended than it should be. It would have comedic elements but not an outright comedy. Of course, I’m sure they’ll have to fictionalize it as the Spanish version of the pronunciation of his name usually ends up more dirty in English. It’s less weird in Catalan.
Archimedes. You’ve got one man singlehandedly holding off the most powerful military force of his day: That’s a strong base to build from. You’ve got all of his various engines of war, for spectacle (they’d probably include the death ray, too, even though he probably didn’t do it, but that’s Hollywood). You’ve got the adulterated crown and subsequent punishment of the jeweler, for a touch of crime drama, and of course the Eureka scene for prurient interest.
All I ask is that they don’t spell his name as “ARCHIMΣDΣS” in the promotional materials.
Canada Lee. Race horse jockey, pro boxer, Broadway star, nightclub owner, musician, and one of the first radio DJs. Had his career fall apart due to the Blacklist and, of course, his race. Ed Sullivan would be a great villainous role: they were close friends until the Blacklist when Sullivan turned on him. Also a close friend of Orson Welles (they met when Lee rescued Welles from a bunch of things). He also talked back to Alfred Hitchcock, insisting on toning down the sterotype in Lifesboat. Fascinating life, and plenty of drama.
In 1959, Martin Luther King Jr traveled to India to study non-violent resistance, and what he learned influenced the civil rights movement of the 1960s. I think that trip would make an interesting movie.
Ramesses the Great. Ignore the Israelite exodus - the Hyskos were expelled before his time. You’ve got intrigue, politics, battles (Kadesh being the big one), and so much more.
The explorer and scholar, of course, not the actor. He lead an interesting life, to put it mildly. They covered a bit of it in the movie Mountains of the Moon, but tat was only the part about traveling with Speke to find the sources of the Nile. There’s an awful lot more, including his making the Hajj and visiting Salt Lake City. Mark Twain – there have been two films called The Adventures of Mark Twain. I didn’t see the first, but the second was, although an excellent Claymation* film, not a biography. The TV movie of Life on the Mississippi was too short to even cover that book, let alone the rest of his life. Twain was a complex man, something of a petty tyrant at home, and a superb wit. If I knew him in real life I’d either love him or want to kill him, which seems like a good enough recommendation for a biopic. The Emperor Julian – called “Julian the Apostate” by his enemies in the Church because he tried to revive worship of the Roman gods after the rise of Christianity. The subject of a lengthy novel by Gore Vidal. A surprisingly even-handed agnostic whose writings have survived (and are very readable), but who gets too little time in the pop culture history of Rome because he doesn’t fit the narrative well. Died during an ill-advised military expedition to the East.
*The word used properly, for once, in its trademarked sense as describing the plasticine-based animation work of Will Vinton studios
I’ve long thought Guillermo del Toro could do a wonderful version of this story.
The story of Glenn Hammond Curtiss would make an incredible movie, but I don’t know if the US is ready for a film in which the Wright brothers are shown to be patent trolls. Start with his setting the world land speed record of 136.36 mph on a V8 motorcycle of his own design - in 1904! - and end with his 1910 flight from Albany to New York City along the Hudson. He landed on the northern tip of Manhattan, but wasn’t satisfied. He borrowed some oil and took off again, flying the length of the island, circling around the Statue of Liberty and landing on Governors Island.
I want to see a move about the life of Lee Harvey Oswald. It would show him to be the crazy loose cannon he always was, including a scene where he shoots himself to avoid being transferred while in the military. Of course, there’d be his travels to and from the Soviet Union. The killing of Keneedy would be played straight (i.e. no conspiracy; I like to imagine a scene where you see him in the depository firing the shots, but never actually see outside the building, or anybody depicting Kennedy), but would only be at the end of the film.
George McJunkin. Born a slave, became a cowboy in the old west. Had enough natural curiosity and intelligence that he recognized clues that resulted in a distinction between the two types of arrowheads, reversing the conventional theories about the origin of Indians.
