I think it's fair to say that this movie's not going to be made now. it's been too long in development hell [come to think of it, it doesn't seem to have been in development at all] and Jeff Wayne only seems interested in doing his stage shows.
I think the people who've been expecting this film have been strung along.
Journey To The Center of the Earth 3D is a complete insult to Jules Verne!
Seems a pity, but I suspect you're right.
Having just seen the DVD of the stage show, and seen all the animation and CGI'd live footage they used in that show, I wonder if he was thinking he'd recycle that footage into the film. As far as I'm aware, it was never going to be a live acted-out telling of the story anyway, but effectively just a long film-clip for the album, which is really what the stage show was. But correct me if I'm wrong.
I would imagine it's going to be a fair while now before there'll be room or interest for this story to be told anew, in any format. I'll stick with getting my "fix" by listening to the CD every now and then.
You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.
Seems a pity, but I suspect you're right.
Having just seen the DVD of the stage show, and seen all the animation and CGI'd live footage they used in that show, I wonder if he was thinking he'd recycle that footage into the film. As far as I'm aware, it was never going to be a live acted-out telling of the story anyway, but effectively just a long film-clip for the album, which is really what the stage show was. But correct me if I'm wrong.
I would imagine it's going to be a fair while now before there'll be room or interest for this story to be told anew, in any format. I'll stick with getting my "fix" by listening to the CD every now and then.
There was a rumour a while back that it was supposed to be a cgi film but it wasn't going to be a musical. they were supposed to be thinking of making the music as an orchestra type score which could have been a great idea. Unfortunately it seems that any talk of this film from Wayne and co isn't happening now and it's all gone very silent.
I'm not impressed by what's gone on and i wonder if there ever was going to be a film.
Journey To The Centre of the Earth 3D is a complete insult to Jules Verne!
After hearing the DVD recording of WOTW, I was inspired to go back and watch both film adaptations and then read the book. Being a film maker myself, I couldn't help but read it with an eye for its suitability to become a film script. By modern standards, Well wrote a really bad story! Any modern day film adaptation would have to make major changes to get sold as a script. That said, I'd love to see a film that is set in Victorian England
share" By modern standards, Well wrote a really bad story!"
The modern standards have it wrong.
Well's story is a literary classic. No update for film has ever worked. Both film versions have been *beep*
It's hilarious that a rock musical has been the most accurate to the book rendition done so far.
The story does not need to be set in modern times. It works perfectly fine in turn of the century, Victorian England.
The only people that would make major changes to such a classic film are idiot film producers like Stephen Spielberg who has proven time and again that he cannot be trusted to stick to bloody story.
I mean Jurassic Park, The Lost World, War of The Worlds, Catch Me If You Can were all far superior novels.
Flynn 24
This discussion is about why WOTW cannot work well as a film. You may disagree with the "modern standards" but the fact of the matter is they exist. No film gets funded that doesn't meet those basic standards. That's because films that don't fail at the box office. So, in order to make a film that stands half a chance of making money, you've got to change the story from what Wells wrote.
Wells' story is completely passive. The only character that could be considered a protagonist does nothing but wander around from one place to another, being affected by situations out of his control. Nobody wants to watch a film where the protagonist doesn't actually affect the outcome of the plot. In fact, I would argue that modern readers don't want to read a book like that, either.
If you disagree, please list a few successful books or films from the past 10 years where the main character had no direct involvement in the primary confrontation driving the story.
I would say off the bat that Blair Witch fits that profile. Not one of the characters had even the slightest effect in the outcome, or real involvement in the driving point of the whole shebang.
Seriously, they just wander about and swear a lot and get killed by a witch no one ever sees. Completely having no real effect, no matter how many times they find useful uses for the 'f' word.
All because it's told from the point of view of the video cameras they for some unrealistically bizarre reasons can't seem to stop filming with.
But seriously, you cannot be saying that WoTW has been improved by turning the Tripods into Flying Saucers, being set in 50's and 00's America and having Tom Cruise constantly trying outrun his gay side (this IS why he runs in all his movies, I'm assuming), whilst dealing with a WAY over the top Tim Robbins (about the only guy in the film who seems to know it's complete bullcrap and just rolls with it), and carrying around possibly the most ungreatful and lazy little twirp of a girl in cinematic history (played by a girl who's normally a very serviceable actor) for almost the entire film.
I'm only saying there is a reason the novel is still being read even today, and is still placed higher on the list of favourites than most other novels.
Seriously, the very fact that the musical version is as popular as it is, is a testament to the reachability of the original novel.
It's the same with almost every adaptation of The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Time Machine, Treasure Island.
The only film versions that have ever been as good as the books as far as Sci/Fi is concerned, whilst being changed considerably from their printed counter parts, are movie versions of Philip K. Dick stories.
Flynn 24
OK, "The Blair Witch Project" sort of fits. There's one. But one exception doesn't make a rule. Can you name four others?
And as to your statement "you cannot be saying that WoTW has been improved by turning Tripods into Flying Saucers" you are absolutely right. I'm not saying that. I think you're drifting off the topic of whether or not the WOTW story - as written by Wells - CAN make a good film, and into the topic of whether or not the past film adaptations are good films.
As far as novels go, I'd argue that WOTW was a good novel FOR ITS TIME. What I mean by that is that it was inventive and good science fiction because nobody had heard stories like that before. But you couldn't publish that novel today, because the protagonist is barely even present. It's more like a Disneyland ride than a real story.
You could publish that novel today. Easily. I mean, people STILL read it, even when they have read a hundred other sc/fi novels before it, that came AFTER it. And STILL consider it better than most of the drivel that comes out these days, the Harry Potter novels notwithstanding.
Just because you are so annoyingly modernised that you cannot fathom why anyone would enjoy a novel that essentially makes THEM the protagonist (people still play FPS and the MYST games right?).
I cannot believe you are insulting one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time because it's told in first person view.
Did you have trouble reading Bram Stokers Dracula as well?
I am completely ON topic here. I can drift off into whatever tangents I damn well feel like, and be damned if you like it or not.
There are indeed few films that have shown protagonists to be impactless on the story, because so few film-makers are brave enough to do it. But it has shown to work on the few attempts that it has been done.
It's a pity there aren't more films done in that way. It would be interesting to see how creative it makes a writer or director when they can't have Tom Cruise drop some grenades in some machine's a-hole. Though the POV aspect has been done quite well on a number of occasions (one of my favourites was that HOUSE episode where most of it takes place from inside the head of some paralyzed guy, and that episode of MASH that was done similarly).
Flynn 24
... if someone in Hollywood gets their act together then it could be done.
I think it would be really good. There will have to be more than just what we already know; narration, singing and music. It will have to be very different for it to find a good audience (apart from the original one). There will have to be an actual script and where there is music there should be music. It should be longer than the recording and show more. Richard Burton should be narrating over the top and someone should be playing The Journalist on screen. So basically it shoule be based on the novel as well as the musical, because if you think about it they can't have a film where they've just put the whole record over the top. It has to be bigger and has to be better, that's how Hollywood would find a good audience.
Bourne + Bond = Best Action Film Award
Hollywood wouldn't want anything to do with the musical version as they'd have no control. Wayne has complete control over HIS work, although it's based on Wells' novel, I believe it has the backing of the Wells family trust etc. (or something like that). I don't think Wayne would compromise on as much as Hollywood would like him to, his baby, his work, his idea. Hollywood doesn't like originality.
The musical version is based squarely on the novel, something Hollywood hasn't been able to manage in the two atempts it's had.
"Ooooh, far too 'English', no way Americans would go for that, let's base it in the states, bring it up to date, change the story completely and introduce characters that didn't exist in the first place. THEN we can sell it to the American public."
Doesn't it make you proud to know that your own movie industry underestimates you like that?
Only a fool learns from his mistakes;
The wise man learns from the mistakes of others
I also thought so but not anymore after seeing "Sucker Punch". Once I thought it was Baz Lhurman but Zack Snyder is actually the perfect man for this job.
shareHe might be able to direct it, but do you imagine the studios won't want to meddle too much...
Only a fool learns from his mistakes;
The wise man learns from the mistakes of others