I enjoyed the GQ article about Ben Affleck's work as a director. One project Affleck is currently considering is The Stand.
Affleck is also working on an adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand, struggling to condense its epic nature into a manageable form. "Right now we're having a very hard time," he says. "But I like the idea—it's like The Lord of the Rings in America. And it's about how we would reinvent ourselves as a society. If we started all over again, what would we do?" www.gq.comI like it that he sees the potential of an American Lord Of The Rings. I think that is very much what King was aiming at as well. Breaking it into 3 clean segments would be difficult. Movies are like mini-series that can build night after night. Each movie needs a clean beginning and ending. The Stand is deeply interwoven and would be difficult to take apart.
The idea of big screen treatment is great! Maybe that Lincoln tunnel scene could be. . . scary this time! And maybe Franny could be portrayed by someone else. Maybe. . .
Hans Lilja has brought the exact same quote up as proof that the Stand adaptation is "In Trouble." Well, it might be now that Lilja's said it. Word like that makes the rounds until it reaches the ears of Hollywood execs and then, there goes your ballgame.
ReplyDeleteIf there's any consolation, may I recommend for an Xmas gift the closest to definitive book on Tolkien I know, Author of the Century by Tom Shippey.
His claim is that Tolkien put a lot of his WWI experience into the book and that Tolkien salvaged traces and hints from Norse myth to create his story.
Really there's so much to talk about with the Shippey book it's hard to know where to begin. A good follow up book is Tolkien and the Great war by John Garth, however I maintain Shippey's conclusions are more correct than Garth.
ChrisC
I'm not sure what the point of this remake would be.
ReplyDeletePeople that don't read Steve would have seen the mini-series which is on a repeating loop on scifi. How much better can it be? How popular and successful in a monetary sense will it be? I think the mini series is not great by any means but it is serviceable. Remaking it with a better budget and acting would be cool but really, why?
I don't see the connection between LOR and re-building America.
-mike
Actually, it's the filming of ny of the Middle Earth books that I don't see the point to, really.
ReplyDeleteTolkien's own son summed it up best when he said the books have a quality which can't fundamentally be put on celluloid.
On lighter note, does Stephen Colbert have shot in the next movie?
http://www.salon.com/2012/10/22/stephen_colbert_to_appear_in_the_hobbit/
ChrisC