If you could make a film?
Discussion
I always wanted to make a film about Slaine from 200AD. About 3 hours long. "He killed 50 with a swing of his left and 50 with a swing of his right, he didn't think it too many"
Come to think of it there are loads of characters that would convert to film well from 2000AD, Judge Dredd not being one of them.
I often thought about making a film or writing a book about my life, all dark and moody like one of those french films with an enthasis on my darker madder moments. I don't think it would be well received though.
Come to think of it there are loads of characters that would convert to film well from 2000AD, Judge Dredd not being one of them.
I often thought about making a film or writing a book about my life, all dark and moody like one of those french films with an enthasis on my darker madder moments. I don't think it would be well received though.
I would like to make a film about some of the great dissapointments in classic cycle races over the last 30 or so years. To go back and interview the protagonists and runners-up, look at their preparation, old footage and try to discover what went wrong on the day (Not as in, I just didn't go fast enough, but what was going on in their heads).
I'd start with the 1989 World Road race in Chambery where Kelly lost in a gallup to Lemond. Kelly never recovered psychologically from this defeat. I suppose the same year saw Fignon lose to the American in spectacular circumstances, especially since his form that season was more incandescant than anyone's.
I suppose i'm quite often fascinated by the runners up having certainly not lived up to my potential when I was younger.
.
I'd start with the 1989 World Road race in Chambery where Kelly lost in a gallup to Lemond. Kelly never recovered psychologically from this defeat. I suppose the same year saw Fignon lose to the American in spectacular circumstances, especially since his form that season was more incandescant than anyone's.
I suppose i'm quite often fascinated by the runners up having certainly not lived up to my potential when I was younger.
.Gazboy said:
"The Apprentice"
I had pictures in my mind of "THE Apprentice" They don't do ratings strong enough!
Anyway, my film would be long, moody shots, minimal dialogue and tons of good music.
In fact the soundtrack version would have to come in a 20 CD boxset. But nobody would watch it anyway!
A _really good_ film of "The Crow Road" by Iain Banks. Or a film about Jim Clark, but you'd have to go back in time to make it. Or a film about how interesting and exciting chemistry is. Or a film of the "His Dark Materials" triology by phillip pullman (if you haven't read these books, stop everything now and go and do so).
Oh, you've got me started now - I have loads of ideas for films!
I write for pleasure, so I've got a fair few stories that could be worked into films of some sort.
The most prominent one that comes to mind is one I've done that I'm thinking of calling Belonging. It's about a very materialistic bloke, who was a stock-market whizzkid in the '80s, who lost all his money during a deal that went wrong during the '87 services crash. We catch up with him as a late-thirtysomething financial advisor in 1994, in a week around Valentine's Day when he's starting to have doubts about his entire life. Then, over the course of the week, his entire world seems to fall apart - his Alpine GTA is the subject of a hit & run, and he's plunged into a world of chavs, deprivation, depression, stale one-upmanship with colleagues, and drink. By the end, he gets mugged by Crack addicts - and that finally tips him over the edge.
It sounds depressing but it's a black comedy (everyone who's read it finds it nicely deadpan and ironic) about 'fitting in' or not, neatly lambasting Political Correctness on the way (there's one bit where he's sitting in a cafe looking out on a pedestrianised street full of chavs, thinking about how cool it would be to park a 911 turbo on the double yellows just to get a reaction). Basically, this guy just doesn't 'work' in the '90s, but the difference between this and the likes of other '90s writers is that it attacks the '90s as much as it does him, so neither come out on top.
Ideally, I'd put Hugh Grant in the lead role, simply because this guy isn't a Patrick Bateman-style psycho, but a snob who feels out of his depth and disgusted (in an 'English' way) by everything. Also, I think there'd be something terrifically ironic about such an icon of '90s 'Awfully Nice Bloke' films playing a red-braced, slick-haired, cynical '80s showoff out of his depth in a time Grant was such a part of.
I write for pleasure, so I've got a fair few stories that could be worked into films of some sort.
The most prominent one that comes to mind is one I've done that I'm thinking of calling Belonging. It's about a very materialistic bloke, who was a stock-market whizzkid in the '80s, who lost all his money during a deal that went wrong during the '87 services crash. We catch up with him as a late-thirtysomething financial advisor in 1994, in a week around Valentine's Day when he's starting to have doubts about his entire life. Then, over the course of the week, his entire world seems to fall apart - his Alpine GTA is the subject of a hit & run, and he's plunged into a world of chavs, deprivation, depression, stale one-upmanship with colleagues, and drink. By the end, he gets mugged by Crack addicts - and that finally tips him over the edge.
It sounds depressing but it's a black comedy (everyone who's read it finds it nicely deadpan and ironic) about 'fitting in' or not, neatly lambasting Political Correctness on the way (there's one bit where he's sitting in a cafe looking out on a pedestrianised street full of chavs, thinking about how cool it would be to park a 911 turbo on the double yellows just to get a reaction). Basically, this guy just doesn't 'work' in the '90s, but the difference between this and the likes of other '90s writers is that it attacks the '90s as much as it does him, so neither come out on top.
Ideally, I'd put Hugh Grant in the lead role, simply because this guy isn't a Patrick Bateman-style psycho, but a snob who feels out of his depth and disgusted (in an 'English' way) by everything. Also, I think there'd be something terrifically ironic about such an icon of '90s 'Awfully Nice Bloke' films playing a red-braced, slick-haired, cynical '80s showoff out of his depth in a time Grant was such a part of.
v8thunder said:
Oh, you've got me started now - I have loads of ideas for films!
I write for pleasure, so I've got a fair few stories that could be worked into films of some sort.
The most prominent one that comes to mind is one I've done that I'm thinking of calling Belonging. It's about a very materialistic bloke, who was a stock-market whizzkid in the '80s, who lost all his money during a deal that went wrong during the '87 services crash. We catch up with him as a late-thirtysomething financial advisor in 1994, in a week around Valentine's Day when he's starting to have doubts about his entire life. Then, over the course of the week, his entire world seems to fall apart - his Alpine GTA is the subject of a hit & run, and he's plunged into a world of chavs, deprivation, depression, stale one-upmanship with colleagues, and drink. By the end, he gets mugged by Crack addicts - and that finally tips him over the edge.
It sounds depressing but it's a black comedy (everyone who's read it finds it nicely deadpan and ironic) about 'fitting in' or not, neatly lambasting Political Correctness on the way (there's one bit where he's sitting in a cafe looking out on a pedestrianised street full of chavs, thinking about how cool it would be to park a 911 turbo on the double yellows just to get a reaction). Basically, this guy just doesn't 'work' in the '90s, but the difference between this and the likes of other '90s writers is that it attacks the '90s as much as it does him, so neither come out on top.
Ideally, I'd put Hugh Grant in the lead role, simply because this guy isn't a Patrick Bateman-style psycho, but a snob who feels out of his depth and disgusted (in an 'English' way) by everything. Also, I think there'd be something terrifically ironic about such an icon of '90s 'Awfully Nice Bloke' films playing a red-braced, slick-haired, cynical '80s showoff out of his depth in a time Grant was such a part of.
You have obviously thought about finding publishers for these stoies, any joy yet?
I think I'd like to do something really controversial, like an age where white men are oppressed by all others. Or maybe some genocide story of a crazed military leader who, one day, decides to exterminate all but the elite.
Something about civilisation I suppose but maybe following the tracks of one person.
Something about civilisation I suppose but maybe following the tracks of one person.
On a different note, I'd like to do a Scorsese-style gangster film (I've got a plot worked out and everything).
Or, the biopic of Ayrton Senna - an incredibly interesting and superstitious sportsman who makes Schumacher look like a cardboard cutout at press interviews. It would be, I suppose, a Chariots Of Fire-style affair with the inevitably sobering ending, and the end credits running over footage of his official day of mourning in Brazil. However, for me, the best bit of that film would be a tension-laden reconstruction of the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix, with lashing rain, high-speed crashes and a feeling of tension and panic throughout.
Another idea I had was for a sci-fi film (a Philip K. Dick-style 'human' story, not a spaceships 'n' aliens bonanza). How about this:
In the future, we have discovered the science of the fourth dimension - time. So much so that we can even see, through groundbreaking new technology, the 'other universes' created when a decision is made. It's not possible to see the future, but it's possible to see alternate versions of your life, just for the curiosity value. As a sort of future version of fortune-telling, it's become popular to go to these 'mental leisure centres' where it's possible to see what your life might have been like had you made a different decision.
However, these new centres create a new addiction - 'AR (Alternate Reality) addiction', where individuals become hooked so much on other versions of their lives that they don't want to return to their old ones. Action is taken to limit people's time on the machines and counsel those with addictions, but it's not all going to plan.
Then an independent scientist thinks he or she has found a way to transplant brainwaves across these realities and essentially 'swap' people round. The authorities are quick to clamp down on it before anyone finds out.
Then the technology is stolen, and all hell breaks loose.
At the centre of this story is, to all intents and purposes, a love story. For some reason one guy who made a dreadful mistake some time in the past (possibly causing his girlfriend's death - who knows?) sees an alternate future where they're married with children. He's the one who stole the machinery. In one reality, police find a dead body. In the other world, a woman finds her husband's suddenly changed - he seems to forget everything, and he doesn't seem so au fait with what she's like either. After a while it's evident that the different realities have grown apart - they are different people, but unfortunately, as he can't go back, he has to stay and make a new life in the new reality - a life that involves leaving his 'wife'. At the end of the film, he's taken to going to 'mental leisure centres' again, and slowly slipping back into AR addiction, back where he was in that other reality.
As with all the best sci-fi, the story is about people, not technology. The point here is that, if you spend all your time worrying about something you wish you were, the chances are that when you get there you'll only become unsatisfied and end up pushing others away.
Or, the biopic of Ayrton Senna - an incredibly interesting and superstitious sportsman who makes Schumacher look like a cardboard cutout at press interviews. It would be, I suppose, a Chariots Of Fire-style affair with the inevitably sobering ending, and the end credits running over footage of his official day of mourning in Brazil. However, for me, the best bit of that film would be a tension-laden reconstruction of the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix, with lashing rain, high-speed crashes and a feeling of tension and panic throughout.
Another idea I had was for a sci-fi film (a Philip K. Dick-style 'human' story, not a spaceships 'n' aliens bonanza). How about this:
In the future, we have discovered the science of the fourth dimension - time. So much so that we can even see, through groundbreaking new technology, the 'other universes' created when a decision is made. It's not possible to see the future, but it's possible to see alternate versions of your life, just for the curiosity value. As a sort of future version of fortune-telling, it's become popular to go to these 'mental leisure centres' where it's possible to see what your life might have been like had you made a different decision.
However, these new centres create a new addiction - 'AR (Alternate Reality) addiction', where individuals become hooked so much on other versions of their lives that they don't want to return to their old ones. Action is taken to limit people's time on the machines and counsel those with addictions, but it's not all going to plan.
Then an independent scientist thinks he or she has found a way to transplant brainwaves across these realities and essentially 'swap' people round. The authorities are quick to clamp down on it before anyone finds out.
Then the technology is stolen, and all hell breaks loose.
At the centre of this story is, to all intents and purposes, a love story. For some reason one guy who made a dreadful mistake some time in the past (possibly causing his girlfriend's death - who knows?) sees an alternate future where they're married with children. He's the one who stole the machinery. In one reality, police find a dead body. In the other world, a woman finds her husband's suddenly changed - he seems to forget everything, and he doesn't seem so au fait with what she's like either. After a while it's evident that the different realities have grown apart - they are different people, but unfortunately, as he can't go back, he has to stay and make a new life in the new reality - a life that involves leaving his 'wife'. At the end of the film, he's taken to going to 'mental leisure centres' again, and slowly slipping back into AR addiction, back where he was in that other reality.
As with all the best sci-fi, the story is about people, not technology. The point here is that, if you spend all your time worrying about something you wish you were, the chances are that when you get there you'll only become unsatisfied and end up pushing others away.
Mine would be some kind of gritty gangbased film - far more hardcore than the Layer Cake/Snatch/Lock Stock movies. Have put thought into elaborate gun fight scenes, hardmen, cars, the works... I have a vision of it every now and then and it seems good to me. It's purpose would not be to glorify crime, but to try and look into the characters that do it, and the challenges they face. It'd most likely be a drugdealer related movie, kind of a mix between Godfather, Snatch, Training Day and Kill Bill. By that I mean it would be a tale of gangsters, dealers, bent coppers and revenge
It would have to be a 3 hour long, 2 movie epic. First movie would lead up to the sale, which would inevitably go wrong - double crossing, bent coppers, "accidents", the works. Second movie would be the quest to discover who made the sale go wrong, the inevitable revenge and the bloody end of it all.
If only
It would have to be a 3 hour long, 2 movie epic. First movie would lead up to the sale, which would inevitably go wrong - double crossing, bent coppers, "accidents", the works. Second movie would be the quest to discover who made the sale go wrong, the inevitable revenge and the bloody end of it all.
If only
Gassing Station | The Pie & Piston Archive | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff