Based On True Events

[mothman]

The Glider Pilot Regiment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glider_Pilot_Regiment

They'd fly these outsize wooden gliders, either loaded with troops, or even light tanks ffs, through flak into uncertain landing zones - and then once there they'd just become grunts, fighting alongside and embedding into whatever units they happened to be with.

[mojo filters]

Oliver Stone's Obama

Although it's probably a bit too near the original events, I'd be fascinated to see how Oliver Stone would create an original take on the Obama presidency.

I wouldn't want a virtual biopic like W. Rather I'd like to see something dark and quirky, starting from and dealing with less obvious subject matter than he did in Nixon, and also a more realistic portrayal if Obama is the main protagonist - more Frank Langella than Anthony Hopkins.

Preferably not quite so obscurely leftfield as JFK though, especially in the area of overall historical accuracy.

I suspect my rather specific notions would not be well received by Stone himself, as it sounds like I'm trying to write the damn movie myself!

However I honestly believe there's some subject matter from Obama's tenure that would allow careful treatment which manages to tell a compelling and complex story, whilst neither overtly lionising nor creating a villainous character.

Personally I'd like to either focus on, or at least jump off from some of the run ins that administration had with Fox News, in the early years. It would seem especially pertinent in an era where that channel has turned into State TV.

I know Dan Pfieffer (WH Comms Director) has fascinating stories and regrets about both his and the administration's early interactions and battles with that network, several that are worthy of telling - even more so now, in the current polarised media climate.

I don't think I'd want any actual Trump content, or even much focus on obvious and dumb stuff like birtherism.

A cleverly constructed Obama story could subtly and sinisterly foreshadow the wider dark scope of the current era, whilst exploring an interesting lessor known aspect of both him and his presidency.

I suspect this would be really hard to pull off successfully, though should be better suited to making a proper film, as opposed to some dumb regular big box office blockbuster shite!

[popcorn]

A film based on the life of Roy Sullivan, who was struck by lightning seven times and finally shot himself over an unrequited love.

Although he never was a fearful man, after the fourth strike he began to believe that some force was trying to destroy him and he acquired a fear of death. For months, whenever he was caught in a storm while driving his truck, he would pull over and lie down on the front seat until the storm passed. He also began to believe that he would somehow attract lightning even if he stood in a crowd of people, and carried a can of water with him in case his hair was set on fire.

Strike number seven:

On Saturday morning, June 25, 1977, Sullivan was struck while fishing in a freshwater pool. The lightning hit the top of his head, set his hair on fire, traveled down, and burnt his chest and stomach. Sullivan turned to his car when something unexpected occurred — a bear approached the pond and tried to steal trout from his fishing line. Sullivan had the strength and courage to strike the bear with a tree branch. He claimed that this was the twenty-second time he hit a bear with a stick in his lifetime.

Smells like a Coen Brothers joint to me.

[SteveDave]

Holy shit! That's a thing of beauty right there.

[Brundle-Fly]

A film about the making of The Prisoner, in which one of the biggest stars on TV torches his career and alienates all his collaborators in pursuit of a grand artistic and political vision, the result being such a disaster he's forced to leave the country.

I had some professional writer friends who wrote up an excellent treatment of this very thing but they couldn't get it away. One commissioning editor said they wanted to move away from sixties biopics about the entertainment industry/performers. Since that meeting, typically there have been many biopics about the entertainment industry/ performers: ie Doctor Who, Dad's Army, Cilla, Babs Windsor, Tommy Cooper, Eddie Braben, etc

[Icehaven]

I don't think I'd want any actual Trump content, or even much focus on obvious and dumb stuff like birtherism.

I predict that once it's over there's going to be more films about the Trump presidency than of all the other presidents put together.

[mojo filters]

I predict that once it's over there's going to be more films about the Trump presidency than of all the other presidents put together.

You are probably right. I pity the filmmaker looking to cast someone in a leading role as Trump himself though. I've always thought Alec Baldwin's take misses the mark, whilst the Our Cartoon President actor doesn't quite capture him either.

Trump as a character is going to be hard to put in a quality film. I think taking a more oblique approach would illuminate the subject as well, if not better than any straight biopic.

My Oliver Stone-esque approach would be to cover some or all the years of his presidency from the perspective of Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, Kevin McCarthy etc - all attempting phenomenal intellectual gymnastics, subjegating their principles and so forth, to put Trump into any kind of coherent party policy context.

For those tired of WH palace intrigue books, I heartily recommend Politico's Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer's recent publication "The Hill To Die On" - which provides candid insights into congressional machinations and struggles within GOP leadership on the Hill, to adapt to working with the most popular person in their party who was still a registered Democrat a decade ago!

I also think you could tell a Trump presidential biopic story through the prism of Fox News, framing the machinations and underhand dealings exposed by Jane Mayer in her fantastic New Yorker article. That way real news footage of Trump would suffice, avoiding the difficulty in casting him as a leading character.

The latter approach allows either a big, expansive ensemble cast involving several meaty parts, or it could be a kind of star vehicle for one great actor - perhaps Ainsley Earhardt (Fox and Friends' obligatory airbrushed and headed dumb blonde host) played by a young Meryl Street, coming to terms with not only Roger Ailes' editorial diktats - but more troublingly her own place in discovering her ability to influence national policy from the couch every morning.

It could be framed as a retrospective tale, with Earhardt many years older, more self assured and unsure how complicit she was, a bit like Gretchen Carlson or Abby Huntsman in their post-Fox introspection.