 "It's a miracle a good film gets made..." | 2008-08-24 |
| - Reviewed By wtdk |
It's a miracle that a good movie gets made. Having seen the machinery at work while at Dino De Laurentiis Productions, I can attest to the fact that when it comes to a movie whatever can go wrong will go wrong and that's BEFORE a single frame has been shot.
Author David Hughes has updated his book so we have the ongoing saga about why good films often don't result from good novels, comic books and original screenplays. Hughes covers the difficult birth of "Spider-Man" a project tied up in legal limbo for over a decade. He also brings to light the long ongoing saga of both Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End which the late writer-producer Phil DeGuere tried to mount for TV as a mini-series only to see cut down several times and how Alfred Bester's classic science fiction novel The Stars My Destination was derailed before it ever had a chance to have a final screenplay written. We also learn about projects that eventually did get produced but after a birth so difficult that the creative team should have been given an epideral to deal with the pain.
The movie business is crazy precisely because just when you think you've learned the rules, you learn there are no rules except that until the film is finally released it might not happen. It's a bizarre world where movie executives and "suits" often have no clue as to the history of a project (or even the history of film as an art and commerical form--when an executive wonders aloud who Alfred Hitchcock was or has never heard of "Citizen Kane" but has the clout to green light a project you know you've entered Porky's Wackyland)or even the history of the world (one executive suggested that the Mayan civilization somehow be featured in a "Star Trek" pitch by noted writer Harlan Ellison that was set before the Dawn of Man. The executive thought it would be cool because he had just read Erik Von Dankien's Chariots of the Gods not thinking about the fact that there were no Mayans nor any other humans for most of Earth's history)and yet influence the making of movies.
As I said it's a miracle when a good film is made because quite simply Hollywood will do absolutely everything it can to screw it up before you and I see it.
Highly recommended. |
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 "Research? Well...." | 2006-06-02 |
| - Reviewed By impossiblefunky |
After reading Chris Gore's disappointing and disheveled The 50 Greatest Movies Never Made (see CdC #10), I had nothing but high hopes that David Hughes would be able to overcome the hurdles which tripped up Gore's earlier work, especially by limiting his scope to one genre rather than all of cinema. Alas, while Hughes's work is head and shoulders above Gore's, it remains lacking.
Fans of Cashiers du Cinemart's articles such as "The Metamorphoses of ALIEN III" (CdC #12), or "They Tried and Failed" (CdC #13), might be tempted to pick up a copy of Hughes's book as he covers similar ground in two of his nineteen chapters. Too often, however, I found myself consternated by Hughes's muddled writing. Additionally, the more I read, the more I doubted the validity of Hughes's research.
Several devilish details stuck in my craw and wouldn't let me appreciate Hughes's work. In the first chapter Hughes states that the protagonist of Richard Stark's novels is Walker, not Parker, mixing up the Stark novels with the Boorman film, POINT BLANK. An innocent mistake, yes, but an easily avoidable one. Meanwhile, I'm no expert at science fiction but even I know that the title for the unproduced WATCH THE SKIES is a nod to Howard Howard Hawks's THE THING rather than Don Siegel's INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS.
Oddly, several of the films that Hughes covers have been made, albeit not in their original form. Perhaps the originals may have ranked among the "greatest" sci-fi films never made, I remain unconvinced. Too often Hughes merely reports on the back story to the production of films such as ALIEN III, ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU, SUPERNOVA, et cetera rather than demonstrating how great their initial incarnations might have been.
Here's hoping that the next project someone does about unmade movies will either focus on truly great works or that they'll rethink their title! |
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 "Another brilliant book by David Hughes" | 2004-01-15 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3CBWRZ3IDTMGQ |
Well, Hughes has done it again. He has written a book that appeals to students of science fiction (of all types, not just films), movies, history, economics, you name it - and has made it completely entertaining and utterly un-putdownable at the same time. Fans of his earlier book on David Lynch will appreciate the chapter on Lynch's two "lost" movies, Ronnie Rocket and One Saliva Bubble.
Also, even though this book is only a couple of years old, it is interesting to see what has happened with some of these projects. For instance, Spider Man and Terminator 3 have already been released, Thunderbirds and Alien vs Predator are being filmed right now (Jan 2004), and apparently I Am Legend and The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy are being cast and actually being made (for sure this time!). I think this proves how fascinating this book is - with any other writing the fact that you are reading about Terminator 3 as a "dead" or "possible future" product would ruin the reading experience. With this book, though, it is still just as fascinating to see why the projects took so long to come to fruition.
So if you have any interest in films, art history, behind the scenes Hollywood gossip, or just a fascinating read, pick up this book NOW. Then go on to read his David Lynch bio, and everything else this man has written. I GUARANTEE you won't be disappointed. |
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| "How Hollywood keeps on failing to make a good Sci - Fi movie" | 2002-09-19 |
| - Reviewed By prof_von_morgan |
| A must for all Sci-Fi and film fans (like myself!). I'd always wondered why some of the greatest Sci-Fi stories had never made it to the silver screen and why the one that had were often very disappointing; after reading this book, I now know why!!! Not only due to you get all the facts and figure regarding the featured "never made" movies, this book lets inside the hearts and mind of the people that tried their hardest to make these movies happen and the studio management idiots that stopped them! Like movies? Like Sci-Fi books? Want to know why your favourite stories never made it to celluloid? Read this book and find out! |
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 "This isn't a bad book, but..." | 2002-09-10 |
| - Reviewed By taed |
| This isn't a bad book, but it's namesake _The 50 Greatest Movies Never Made_ does a far better job at similar material. There is almost no overlap between the two books, despite the fact that the former book does cover a good deal of science fiction. Where I think this book fails most is its approach. It's spends a lot of time dealing with production notes on the movies that were made instead (for example, Alien3), instead of the movie that wasn't made (Aliens vs. Predator). Furthermore, it never gets to the key issue -- why would this particular unmade movie have been great? So, I'd recommend this book only as a follow-on if you've already read the "original". |
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