Topic: The wankest film idea ever conceived? Danny Boyle's Ed Sheeran Beatles thing

[greenman]

The original script actually started with Phil already in the time loop robbing the bank security guys didn't it? I'm guessing the second draft was the more hollywoodised that ontop of showing us the start of the process also added an explanation.

[Mister Six]

I bet Stephanie would have had red hair. Be played by Glenne Headly or Joan Cusack or one of the other go-to comedy nutjob actresses of the 1990s.

Definitely Joan Cusack.

[Mister Six]

Vaguely connected - it looks like we might be getting a few time-loop-immersive-exploration-detective-sim computer games soon. Outer Wilds is lovely. The Forgotten City being remade as a full game. Feels like the sort of mechanic that will be fashionable for a while.

(Edit: Majora's Mask (2000) deserves a mention of course.)

Plus the Groundhog Day game: https://youtu.be/LNOCVSkc0Eg

[SteveDave]

The original script actually started with Phil already in the time loop robbing the bank security guys didn't it?

With a freeze frame as he's robbing and a voice-over "This is me...I bet you're wondering how I ended up here. Well...it's a long story"

OPENING CREDITS!

[mothman]

Definitely Joan Cusack.

I like Joan Cusack though. I think she might have been too assertive, I’d not have seen Phil going for her to begin with, it’d have to be somebody more drippy.

[olliebean]

the Beatles influenced pretty much everything. Yesterday concentrates solely on the music, but their social and political impact extended well beyond that. “If you took them out of the equation, the ripple effect would be enormous. We’d probably be living in this massive dystopian universe. It would take a novel to track just how much everything changed.”

I reckon he's wrong about that. The Beatles were a catalyst (one amongst many) for various things that were in the air at the time. Without The Beatles, a lot of those things might have taken a bit longer to come about, or more likely would have been catalysed by other things. Of course everything wouldn't be exactly the same, there'd be loads of small changes and probably some big ones as well, but I don't think The Beatles were of such uniquely monumental importance in themselves that the entire socio-political shape of the world would have changed without them.

[mothman]

Was there another band of similar vintage who might have been in a position to capitalise on their nonexistence? I mean there must have been other rock’n’roll bands around, they can’t all have formed five minutes after Please Please Me came out. Sure every other label went out hunting for the next/their own Beatles, but there must have been extant bands they seized on (and promptly retooled using the Beatles model).

So, any band that existed pre-1963. Manfred Mann? The Dave Clark Five? The Rolling Stones - I’d guess they’d be the most likely as, unlike many of the imitators, they outlasted not just that initial flurry of Beatlemania but even the Beatles themselves. Or perhaps somebody even more bluesy? John Mayall with what eventually became the Bluesbreakers?

[greenman]

Was there another band of similar vintage who might have been in a position to capitalise on their nonexistence? I mean there must have been other rock’n’roll bands around, they can’t all have formed five minutes after Please Please Me came out. Sure every other label went out hunting for the next/their own Beatles, but there must have been extant bands they seized on (and promptly retooled using the Beatles model).

So, any band that existed pre-1963. Manfred Mann? The Dave Clark Five? The Rolling Stones - I’d guess they’d be the most likely as, unlike many of the imitators, they outlasted not just that initial flurry of Beatlemania but even the Beatles themselves. Or perhaps somebody even more bluesy? John Mayall with what eventually became the Bluesbreakers?

A smarter film would probably play up Brian Wilson as the defining figure of the mid 60's and Smile released replacing Pepper as the defining album.

[mothman]

So no British Invasion at all? Plausible.

[bgmnts]

Its the kind of shit premise all of us would think up.

[FerriswheelBueller]

Was there another band of similar vintage who might have been in a position to capitalise on their nonexistence? I mean there must have been other rock’n’roll bands around, they can’t all have formed five minutes after Please Please Me came out. Sure every other label went out hunting for the next/their own Beatles, but there must have been extant bands they seized on (and promptly retooled using the Beatles model).

So, any band that existed pre-1963. Manfred Mann? The Dave Clark Five? The Rolling Stones - I’d guess they’d be the most likely as, unlike many of the imitators, they outlasted not just that initial flurry of Beatlemania but even the Beatles themselves. Or perhaps somebody even more bluesy? John Mayall with what eventually became the Bluesbreakers?

The Kinks? Small Faces maybe? I’m thinking Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake replaces sergeant pepper. I’m not going to devote anymore thought to this though

[Replies From View]

What are we crediting as the Beatles' social and political impact?  Commodification of the arts?
 Reagan, Thatcher, neoliberalism?

[BlodwynPig]

The Kinks? Small Faces maybe? I’m thinking Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake replaces sergeant pepper. I’m not going to devote anymore thought to this though

Bulldog Breed - Made in England

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Bulldog Breed - Made in England

A lost classic by a band who shoulda been contenders.

[BlodwynPig]

A lost classic by a band who shoulda been contenders.

More common ground, lovin’ it.

[chveik]

What are we crediting as the Beatles' social and political impact?  Commodification of the arts?
 Reagan, Thatcher, neoliberalism?

the heat death of the planet

[Monsieur Verdoux]

What are we crediting as the Beatles' social and political impact?  Commodification of the arts?
 Reagan, Thatcher, neoliberalism?

No Beatles --> No Paul McCartney solo career --> No 'Ebony and Ivory' --> Nelson Mandela dies in jail

[mothman]

[tag]the Special AKA leave thread feeling like they’ve wasted their lives[/tag]

[Sebastian Cobb]

So no British Invasion at all? Plausible.

This would've been an interesting premise. Without the brits parroting blues and soul to White America would they have ever noticed it existed? You probably wouldn't have had your Hendrixes and PP Arnolds coming over to the UK either.

[Mister Six]

I like Joan Cusack though. I think she might have been too assertive, I’d not have seen Phil going for her to begin with, it’d have to be somebody more drippy.

Joan Cusack is great. Didn't mean to imply otherwise.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

More common ground, lovin’ it.

Very much 'my sort of thing'. Late '60s kitchen sink British psych with a strong whiff of yer Kinks, Creation and Pretty Things.

Not a patch on Made in England by Elton, mind.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

This would've been an interesting premise. Without the brits parroting blues and soul to White America would they have ever noticed it existed? You probably wouldn't have had your Hendrixes and PP Arnolds coming over to the UK either.

Freddie & The Dreamers would've filled the void.

[BlodwynPig]

Very much 'my sort of thing'. Late '60s kitchen sink British psych with a strong whiff of yer Kinks, Creation and Pretty Things.

Not a patch on Made in England by Elton, mind.

*sighs*

OK, recommend me some Bulldog Breed - I have the Legend of the Mind (a bit more 70s territory) and Perfumed Garden boxed sets, but probably haven't heard all the British psychedelic albums of that period

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Legend-Of-A-Mind-The-Underground-Anthology/release/2194660

[greenman]

This would've been an interesting premise. Without the brits parroting blues and soul to White America would they have ever noticed it existed? You probably wouldn't have had your Hendrixes and PP Arnolds coming over to the UK either.

I suspect you might have gotten the reverse, the Stones become more prominent and as a result bluesy rock becomes dominant in the mid 60's rather than the years of psychedelic pop happening first.

[mothman]

Joan Cusack is great. Didn't mean to imply otherwise.

I think she’d be too likeable. I guess I’m not sure now: should this character be worse than Phil Connors, or much nicer and naive and therefore not deserving to suffer a shit like him?

[greenman]

Room for her in the sequel were the Beatles do exist but their all women?

[SteveDave]

I've found a shitty cam of this and to celebrate 10 years of me living in London I intend to watch it this evening.

I fast-forwarded to the Franco Lennon bit and at first it looks great! And then it looks like he's melting.

[Replies From View]

A sly reference to the song “Mean Mr Melted” no doubt.  Crafty fuckers aren’t they!

[beanheadmcginty]

Saw this earlier in a moment of madness. Didn't realise both Sheeran and Corden were going to be in it. The whole thing was akin to having AIDS directly injected into my eyes and ears. Only redeeming feature was Kate McKinnon was quite funny whenever she said something cunty. Worst film of the year hands down. Far too many shit bits to list, but one moment stands out as particularly nonsensical and sloppy writing: a flashback scene clearly shows that the lead girl first fell in love with the lead bloke when she saw him singing Wonderwall in a school concert when they were kids. However, in this new Beatles-free universe it is clearly stated that Oasis don't exist. Now I assumed that this was a key plot point - maybe this would create a paradox that would return everything back to normal in the end when the two of them get together. But no, there is no acknowledgement of this at all. I don't think Curtis even noticed that he'd put these two contradictory things together in the same script. Sorry, none of this will make sense to any of you who haven't seen it, but let me assure you that it's fucking infuriating.

[Monsieur Verdoux]

came up with a pitch: it's this film except nobody remembers Alan Vega's 'Jukebox Babe' except the lead guy, who regularly performs it to massive indifference and sometimes outright hostility