Shackleton For The Big Screen?

Mel Gibson play an English hero? - I don't think Mel is capable of seeing the English in an Human light. I'm surprised he didn't blame us for Jesus being crucified!

This talk about a Shackleton major motion picture is just talk and has been rumored for years- ever since Caroline Alexander's 1998 book The Endurance almost single-handedly restarted Shackleton-mania for this era. I keep an eye and ear out for most things involving Shackleton and I haven't heard a whimper about any of these purported projects coming to fruitation. A lot of the wind has died down since the peak of Shackleton-mania nearly a decade ago. I'm not saying a film won't be made someday but it doesn't look to be with the actors and directors frequently mentioned in the past including Crowe, Gibson and director Wolfgang Petersen of Das Boot and The Perfect Storm fame. I had heard a few years ago of at least one syndicate for sure launching a deepwater search a la the Titanic for the remains of The Endurance but news of that has been almost non-existent. Another team led by Robert Ballard had been interested but last I heard a few years ago they dropped out- Ballard may have had other commitments or the task was just too much. If any group does go ahead with it they won't have an easy time operating at the 2 mile-deep depths and ice-choked waters off Antarctica- and what they find might be not worth the effort. Some speculation is expedition photographer Hurley MAY not have destroyed all of his plate-glass negatives sealed in lead-lined cases and if found intact (not likely) would fetch a pretty penny or two at auction. In addition I would suspect any item identifiable as from a ship as famous as the Endurance would be priceless.

Anyway, as far as Branagh goes, he certainly looked the part in the British TV production and did well enough but I thought the film was pretty lacking in many ways. It was historically accurate but didn't elicit much excitement from me. A good workmanlike effort. The story deserves more time devoted to it- in a Band of Brothers type length for starters, higher production values than Channel 4 or BBC can give, and for god sakes don't waste the audience's time on so much back story showing Shackleton begging for financial backing from rich widows and/or in boardrooms- get out on the ship, ice and save all that for a very brief synopsis if at all. The crew members including important ones like Tom Crean and especially photographer Frank Hurley weren't devoted enough time to- which is one of the major limiting factors in a 2-4 hour film treatment of course. A very poor job was done in conveying how long the men were actually languishing on the ice on the trapped Endurance and after it had sunk, or sailing to Elephant Island on their two lifeboats. It was easily over a year+. This fantastic story deserves a fuller treatment, though I thought the Butler IMAX and PBS docs were very well done, and of course all the literature devoted to the epic adventure over the years fills an important niche. Any "Hollywood" production gives me the willies on how they will find ways to mess with the story- but if someone can put together something close to what Band of Brothers did to WW2 films I'd be quite happy!

Branagh was well-cast both in looks and acting ability as Shackleton in the BBC Channel 4 TV movie. The TV movie is decent enough but surely can't hold a candle to the documentaries (and books) done about the Endurance expedition over the years. Who brought up Denzel Washington playing Shack? OMG too funny. Nolan and Campbell are action directors and if one knows anything about what happened on polar expeditions they were anything BUT fast-moving Batman or Bond pictures. No to do this right it has to be much more of a drama and the long amount of time that these expeditions took place over should be emphasized, as that was a key ingredient- these men were ice-bound on a ship for months, spent days trudging on the snow and ice, marooned on a forbidding Antarctic island for months while some of the party sailed for almost 2 weeks 800 miles across open ocean seeking help etc etc.

I don't think short attention span-dominated current audiences could stomach or appreciate a long epic movie that this actual amazing event calls for, to be anywhere near faithful to it.