How to screw up a sure thing Hollywood Style
About 10 years ago when I first got my greedy adolescent hands on the internet you can easily imagine where my interests lay. After an exhaustive examination of cyberspace porn I digressed into my other two interests ie Gaming and Films. As you can well imagine I have never been much academically inclined. :-)
So I browsed through websites related to films until I hit the G spot of cinema so to speak. Scores of websites which had posted scripts of all my favorite films including Star Wars, Godfather, Transformers (Animated) etc. I ravenously devoured all the scripts alphabetically even eschewing to watching films until I had read the script. I read most of em and was happy in the knowledge that more scripts would be added each week so I could never run out of them.
There were two scripts however which rocked my world completely though I wouldn’t get to see the resultant films for a number of years for the simple reason that they hadn’t been made yet. The first script was “Gattaca” and the influence the film and script has had on my life is immeasurable. I can quote Gattaca backwards, forwards and in my sleep and if anybody asks me what is my all time favorite film I will to this day reply without hesitation “GATTACA”. Why is this film so dear for me is a topic for another day.
The other script was the Mark Protosevich written script for “I am Legend”. For those who are not familiar with Richard Matheson in general and “I am Legend” in particular let me just say that is the single most influential book in Science Fiction adaptations for the big screen. When I read the script I could visualize each and every character and understand their motivations. Keep in mind I was 16 at that time and had absolutely no filmmaking experience whatsoever. I didn’t even want to be filmmaker then. The script just blew me away and I could barely wait to see it’s big screen translation.
Coming back to the book, there have been scores of adaptations of the themes of the book both official and unofficial. When people like Stephen King and J Michael Straczynski name Matheson as their single biggest influence, you can imagine the impact he has had. The book is single handedly responsible for spawning the zombie genre of films and resulting subculture.
I did some research on the production and found that Ridley Scott was attached to direct and Mel Gibson was in talks to star. As you can imagine that was any fanboy’s wet dream. I was desperate to read the book and as you can imagine it wasn’t available in Delhi so I had to plead to a cousin of mine to bring it when he visited.
I read the book and I was even more stunned. Protosevich hadn’t made a literal adaptation of the book with the climax differing significantly from the source material yet it worked. The book and the script were two seperate entities yet both worked independent of each other. That was my first lesson on how not to be slavishly faithful when adapting from a literary source. The ending in the book was much bleaker and the script was a bit upbeat yet it no less powerful.
Unfortunately for me the film in that avtaar cause of budgetary issues and I though disappointed, nourished the ardent wish that the film would be resurrected again. And it was a few years later in the form of “28 Days Later” though it wasn’t acknowledged at such. There was no Neville and the focus of the film was somewhat different yet it remains in my opinion the best adaptation yet. “The Omega Man” is kinda cheesy and all the other zombie flicks don’t have the gravity of the themes the book has in abundance. Even “28 Days Later” doesn’t take note of the most compelling point made by the book.
So years go by and I get involved in filmmaking and in Fall of 2006 I end up in New York where the filming of “I am Legend” is happening in full swing. I couldn’t believe my luck and used to go watch the shooting after classes. The amount of equipment at their disposal was staggering and I was awed by the technical ability of the crew. They had goal posted with Washington Park with Musco Lights and Xenons. I asked an electric what the daily rental for the lights were and they were more than my entire year fees for film school. Kinda put where I stood in perspective. :-)
The only concern I had was with the director who had made a terrible adaptation of “Constantine” and whose commercial work was strictly adequate but I was sure that with Will Smith involved and the Protosevich script nothing could go wrong. I was also intrigued by the location change to New York.
However when “American Gangster” started shooting I abandoned “I am Legend” like a little gold-digger. I mean who would give up the chance to see Ridley Scott shoot. Add Harris Savides as the DP and Denzel / Crowe as actors , I used to roam around the sets with the cinematic equivalent of a perpetual hard on.
Why all this lengthy preamble and background ? Well cause I finally watched “I am Legend” and its an unmitigated piece of shit. I didn’t know that they butchered the script and turned the film into a vanity piece for Will Smith who by all standards is a damn good actor. Even the CG is pathetic and I could easily tell the difference between the green screen elements and live action. The script has holes so big battleships can easily pass through it and its basically a f@#$%ing mess. Take a bow Akiva Goldsman and Francis Lawrence. It’s not everyday that someone manages to break up something unbreakable. What could have been one of the finest movies ever is reduced to PG-13 twaddle.
The only good part to this sorry saga is that the definitive version of “I am Legend” is still up for grabs in which the true thematic and narrative thrust of the story will be embraced. I invite you to read the book and discover it yourself and if you have the time to read the original version of the script which fired up my imagination a decade ago.
Here is the link : http://www.horrorlair.com/scripts/legend.txt
Let me know what you think about the script and the film.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Just a small correction….back in I think 1999 Coming Attractions broke the news that Ridley Scott was attached with Arnold Schwarzenegger to act in that when the script was not butchered. Mel Gibson’s name was thrown around but he wasn’t too keen on it.
But you’re right, Akiva Goldsman is responsible for alot of crap namely Batman and Robin and the messed up shit that was The Da Vinci Code. And to think that guy teaches at Columbia University and his protege is Simon Kinberg who wrote Mr. And Mrs. Smith, the horrific schlockfest Elektra and the trainwreck that killed my most loved franchise X-Men: The Last Stand. Guess Ivy league film schools have a bad tatse. No wonder Jim Jarmusch didn’t bother going to film-school.
Loved the post…..would you mind giving more info on film-schools and hows it like there??:)
akiva is a worthless hack. every self respecting screenwriter knows that. he’s really good though at taking meetings, and smoking studio cock.
inspite of that, i picked up a screenwriting tool from him. i think he mentions it in a beautiful mind commentary or in some other tripe. can’t remember now.
@Saad
The thing about teaching is that some of the best teachers aren’t that great at their craft while most of the best craftsmen aren’t good teachers. Columbia grads are generally very well versed in their storytelling abilities but not that technically proficient as they aren’t really hands on with equipment. Best place to go to learn film theory and narrative structure though.
Film schools are great not just to learn your craft but to also find like minded people with whom you will collaborate for the rest of your life. If I had money I would get my MFA from AFI but alas. ;-(
As far as X-Men goes I think we can safely lay the blame at Rattner’s feet. He makes Michael Bay look as deep as Kieslowski.
@dabba
Smoke studio cock ??? I don’t think Ive heard that expression before. He should really just stick to producing and not write anymore. Only a real genius would put in herds of deer and packs of lions roaming in Manhattan and then talk about dwindling food supplies for the zombies.
As fas as learning from him everybody is right at least once in their lives. It’s a statistical probability but its funny how much we learn from watching junk and learning what not to do. It’s a form of negative mentoring but the catch is that after a while you can’t distinguish good from bad and are scarred forever. You just hang on to what’s cool and hip.
When I used to AD in Bombay I would come across tons of AD’s whose dream debut was to either do a “City of God” set in Dharavi or their take on “Dil Chahta Hain”. Out of 10 concepts I heard 8 were derived from a recent blockbuster. Hardly any original stuff.
mithun, might i suggest an alternative title for your post? i’d like to call it “joel schumaker” if you don’t mind.
@striker
Despite the amazing amount of turkeys he’s made he still has Falling Down, St Elmo’s Fire and Flatliners to his credit. Flatliners alone absolves him of a lot of his sins.
will have to check out flatliners.. it’s funny, i was just looking thru my rental q and falling down comes in this weekend. i’m gonna take that as a sign and put flatliners on my list… but for all that he’s done, anyone that can give batman nipples on his suit deserves the guillotine in my book.
Well you will be shocked to hear this but that was his way of paying tribute to the theory that Batman and Robin are in fact lovers. Ergo the nipple fetish.
That’s what I heard when I attended an impromptu passionate debate on the cinematic adaptation of Batman at Forbidden Planet.
“That was my first lesson on how not to be slavishly faithful when adapting from a literary source.”
U can have a look at our own Omkara and Maqbool ..
Hats off to Mr. Vishal Bhardwaj….^:)^
Indeed. Vishal is amazing. Just waiting for him to do his take on Titus.
great write-up. keep sharing more of your film experiences, Mithun.