...and in other news
Nov. 1st, 2012 09:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakAs to matters non James Bond.
1.) So the Mouse bought Lucas Films and is going to make post Jedi Star Wars films. See, I'm a part of the minority who a) liked the prequels, b) doesn't hate George Lucas, and c) isn't actually interested in the story post Return of the Jedi, so emotionally, this doesn't mean anything to me. The reason why I'm not interested, btw, isn't lack of character sympathy, it's just that I thought the story of Luke, Leia and Han was carried to a good wrap up point, leaving the audience with a sense of completion on the one hand and on other other confident there are further adventures and life waiting for Our Heroes. I never felt I needed more than that for these three. Obviously not many other people felt this way, hence zillions of sold EU books (which btw look as if they're about to get decanonized, I take it?), and I'm sure the new film(s) will sell well, be loved and hated by many because such is the nature of fandom, and who knows, if I hear enough intriguing reports I might get interested. (Or not, if Trusted Sources deem them dull.) But basically what I wanted from the Star Wars franchise after having finished Return of the Jedi was the backstory, Anakin's story, and I got it years ago, so I'm content either way.
Now, if we're talking about which Disney aquisition really troubles me, then it's still the discovery I made a few years ago, decades after the fact, that Disney took a children's novel from my beloved Erich Kästner called Das doppelte Lottchen, americanized it (which included making a single mom/Munich career journalist into a Boston socialite), called it The Parent Trap and now millions of people think that form is the original of the story. See, Star Wars never was the big deal to me and my childhood/adolescence it was for others, though I'm exactly the right age. But Kästner was and is! Das doppelte Lottchen isn't even my favourite Kästner novel, but ERICH KÄSTNER IS SACRED and Disney retrospectively ruined my childhood, omg.
(Kidding, because I never can resist taking a cheap shot at the "George Lucas ruined my childhood by the Special Editions/Prequels/whatever" crowd, sorry.)
(Though I do love Erich Kästner and his novels, and discovering The Parent Trap's existence may have made me mutter "Yankee Cultural Imperialism Be Dammed" once or twice.)
2.) There will finally be a Brian Epstein biopic, and it will starr Benedict Cumberbatch. Good lord, as Giles would say. I'm not as enthralled by Mr. Cumberbatch as many an audience member, but there's no doubt he's an excellent actor, he has a good track record in choosing projects which gives me some confidence the script will be decent (i.e. not made-for-Lifetime tv bio pic style superficial), and a Brian biopic has the advantage that the scriptwriters don't have to feel encumbered by having some of their main characters still being alive (or their main characters' widows) which Beatles pio pics do, not to mention that it has a clear story with an actual ending. A sad ending, though, which means the scriptwriters will have to fight temptation to make this into a version of The Tragic Homosexual. Hopefully we'll see more of Brian than him popping pills, getting beat up by rough trade and pining after John - i.e. the drive and energy that made him succeed in the first place, the charm and charisma testified by virtually everyone who knew him.
On a more irreverent note, given that the casting of Cumberbatch-as-Smaug already singlehandedly created the pairing of Bilbo/Smaug before The Hobbit ever graced the screen, I wonder whether Cumberbatch-as-Brian Epstein will create a lot of time travelling fanfics in which BBC John Watson ends up in the 60s, gets paired with Brian and is at hand to save him from the fatal overdose. Though two people less alike than BBC!Sherlock and Brian Epstein I can't imagine, and BBC!John doesn't strike me as Brian's type at all, but there you go. (Additional possible casting in joke in fanfiction: Andrew Scott aka Jim Moriarty, who played Paul McCartney in all of the five seconds he pops up in Lennon Naked.)
1.) So the Mouse bought Lucas Films and is going to make post Jedi Star Wars films. See, I'm a part of the minority who a) liked the prequels, b) doesn't hate George Lucas, and c) isn't actually interested in the story post Return of the Jedi, so emotionally, this doesn't mean anything to me. The reason why I'm not interested, btw, isn't lack of character sympathy, it's just that I thought the story of Luke, Leia and Han was carried to a good wrap up point, leaving the audience with a sense of completion on the one hand and on other other confident there are further adventures and life waiting for Our Heroes. I never felt I needed more than that for these three. Obviously not many other people felt this way, hence zillions of sold EU books (which btw look as if they're about to get decanonized, I take it?), and I'm sure the new film(s) will sell well, be loved and hated by many because such is the nature of fandom, and who knows, if I hear enough intriguing reports I might get interested. (Or not, if Trusted Sources deem them dull.) But basically what I wanted from the Star Wars franchise after having finished Return of the Jedi was the backstory, Anakin's story, and I got it years ago, so I'm content either way.
Now, if we're talking about which Disney aquisition really troubles me, then it's still the discovery I made a few years ago, decades after the fact, that Disney took a children's novel from my beloved Erich Kästner called Das doppelte Lottchen, americanized it (which included making a single mom/Munich career journalist into a Boston socialite), called it The Parent Trap and now millions of people think that form is the original of the story. See, Star Wars never was the big deal to me and my childhood/adolescence it was for others, though I'm exactly the right age. But Kästner was and is! Das doppelte Lottchen isn't even my favourite Kästner novel, but ERICH KÄSTNER IS SACRED and Disney retrospectively ruined my childhood, omg.
(Kidding, because I never can resist taking a cheap shot at the "George Lucas ruined my childhood by the Special Editions/Prequels/whatever" crowd, sorry.)
(Though I do love Erich Kästner and his novels, and discovering The Parent Trap's existence may have made me mutter "Yankee Cultural Imperialism Be Dammed" once or twice.)
2.) There will finally be a Brian Epstein biopic, and it will starr Benedict Cumberbatch. Good lord, as Giles would say. I'm not as enthralled by Mr. Cumberbatch as many an audience member, but there's no doubt he's an excellent actor, he has a good track record in choosing projects which gives me some confidence the script will be decent (i.e. not made-for-Lifetime tv bio pic style superficial), and a Brian biopic has the advantage that the scriptwriters don't have to feel encumbered by having some of their main characters still being alive (or their main characters' widows) which Beatles pio pics do, not to mention that it has a clear story with an actual ending. A sad ending, though, which means the scriptwriters will have to fight temptation to make this into a version of The Tragic Homosexual. Hopefully we'll see more of Brian than him popping pills, getting beat up by rough trade and pining after John - i.e. the drive and energy that made him succeed in the first place, the charm and charisma testified by virtually everyone who knew him.
On a more irreverent note, given that the casting of Cumberbatch-as-Smaug already singlehandedly created the pairing of Bilbo/Smaug before The Hobbit ever graced the screen, I wonder whether Cumberbatch-as-Brian Epstein will create a lot of time travelling fanfics in which BBC John Watson ends up in the 60s, gets paired with Brian and is at hand to save him from the fatal overdose. Though two people less alike than BBC!Sherlock and Brian Epstein I can't imagine, and BBC!John doesn't strike me as Brian's type at all, but there you go. (Additional possible casting in joke in fanfiction: Andrew Scott aka Jim Moriarty, who played Paul McCartney in all of the five seconds he pops up in Lennon Naked.)
no subject
Date: 2012-11-01 08:53 am (UTC)Actually, Disney did it TWICE:
The Parent Trap (1961)
The Parent Trap (1998)
In the 1998 version, the twins' mother is a rich British designer of wedding gowns.
But I doubt if Disney is the only one who has altered the story on adapting it to film, as it looks like the novel has been adapted not twice, but SIXTEEN times--twice in the U.S., twice in Japan, five times in India, once in the U.K., once in Korea, once in Germany, once in Sweden, once in Lithuania and once in Iran. I guess everyone has had a crack at adapting this!
Oh, and I think I remember Erich Kästner from my own childhood. He wrote Emil and the Detectives, didn't he?
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Date: 2012-11-01 09:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-01 09:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-01 11:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-01 09:47 am (UTC)Liked his mum's aversion to "that Lennon".
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Date: 2012-11-01 01:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-01 02:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-01 02:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-01 03:32 pm (UTC)"Birth of the Beatles" (1978)
The only one shot when John was still alive. Boasts of Pete Best as technical advisor, which is an explanation as to why everyone from Brian to George Martin to Ringo says Pete is the superior drummer and can't understand why the band wants Ringo instead. The dialogue is pretty dreadful otherwise, too.
"The Ballad of John and Yoko"/"John and Yoko: A Love Story": boasts of the fastest recovery from heroin sequence in tv history. On the plus side, is the only version that renembers Yoko had a life before John and a family of her own, and focuses on the racism in the fannish hostility towards her. (Not surprisingly, since she was involved in the production.) On the minus side, whitewashes John to an embarassing degree (he's nicesness itself when telling his first wife, Cynthia, that he wants to marry Yoko, as opposed to the pretty famous way he told her in reality, i.e. letting her find them with Yoko in Cyn's bathrobe), Cynthia is a dull mouse who is there in only three scenes, two about the divorce anyway, there are no difficulties with John and Julian, May Pang doesn't exist, etc.
"Backbeat": is the Stuart Sutcliff/Astrid Kirchherr story, doesn't pretend to be anything else. On the plus side, is open about homoerotic subtext between Stu and John, boasts of Ian Hart as a really good young John Lennon. On the minus side, drives Beatles fans crazy by getting the musical side of things consistently wrong (John is presented as the sole lead singer and ends up singing all the songs Paul actually sang lead for, notably Long Tall Sally, which is why Mr. McCartney feels a particular ire towards this picture - I mean, if Little Richard had told you your performance of his song was his favourite, wouldn't you?), doesn't offer much in the ways of characterisation for the non-John Beatles, ignores admitted competition of Stu and Paul for John's attention in favour of inventing competition between John and Astrid for Stu (in reality, John was very enthusiastic about Astrid), and as I said, should not be regarded as the story of the Beatles in Hamburg, as opposed to being the story of Stu and Astrid.
"The Hour and the Times": The one about Brian Epstein holidaying with John in Barcelona in 1963. Essentially a two person chamber play, more theatre than film. Has Ian Hart as young John, too, being very good at it, and a good Brian, too, but as I said feels very much like a filmed play even though it was actually not. Boasts of one of the most deliberately awkward m/m make out scenes in film history, which lead some slash fans to complain it's not sexy. I'd say it's naturalistic.
"Lennon Naked": has Christopher Ecclestone being 25 years older than the John Lennon he plays, being intense but alas completely humourless and an unrelenting jerk to everyone but Yoko (who is a woman of mystery and no backstory or goal in life other than to safe John from himself), so that you don't understand what anyone ever saw in the guy. The other extreme to the whitewashed saint of "The Ballad of John and Yoko".
"Two of Us": boasts of having a director who actually directed the real Beatles as well, Michael Lindsay-Hogg. Is like the John and Brian pic very much a two people chamber play, about the April 1976 visit Paul paid John in New York. Sometimes a bit on the as you know, Bob, side with the exposition dialogue (because, well, they knew about each other's dead mothers because they'd kinda been there when it happened), but actually remembers these guys have a sense of humor and offers a good mixture of humor and post break-up angst. Also boasts of playful kiss in an elevator and unpunished by narrative smoking of pot.
"Nowhere Boy": you've seen that one, right? Mimi and Julia and young John centric. Takes considerable liberties, but wins for beign a film that's enjoyable even if you don't know the boy in it ends up being John Lennon, simply as a story of two sisters and a coming of age, aka They fuck you up, your mum and aunt, they may not mean to, but they do. The director wins for best visuals in a Beatles film, not surprisingly since she comes from painting, and for backstage diplomacy by being pals with Yoko and Paul both.
"The Linda McCartney Story": like "The Ballad of John and Yoko", only with Linda and Paul in the role of the lovers against the world. Has Juliet from "Lost" as Linda, the same Paul as "Backbeat" (who is also Richard Mayhew in "Neverwhere") and lots of good intentions, but absolutely cringe worthy dialogue (says Paul when relating his backstory to Linda, about his mother, "her name was Mary McCartney", I kid you not). Boasts of a John actor even older than Eccles in the role of not yet thirty years John. Oh, and the Mick Jagger is also a really bad impersonation.
In conclusion: if in doubt, watch A Hard Day's Night instead. :)
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Date: 2012-11-01 03:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-01 02:11 pm (UTC)