Adapting one of my father's books for the screen.
Anyone have a "Dream Project"?
- Thread starter VictorSW1974
- Start date
#1 "dream project" is an adaptation of Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein.
Well that's kinda cryptic. Who's your father?
An author of some little note. He passed away last year and I now own all of his intellectual property. I'm working on a new cover for the paperback release of one of his novels. I'm also considering changing the title to something with a bit more punch.
Another dream idea of is a biopic of Edgar Allen Poe that also incoporates imagery from his stories and poems.
Digging your album, Josh. Listening to it while I read and post on this thread.
Since I'm just a wannabe, this really is dreaming, but...
I think the "biggest" stories running around in my head would require nine figure budgets and they'd "...pull inspiration from the likes of Spielberg, Shyamalan, Cameron, Abrams, Tarantino and even a little Bay [as well as others]! Yeah, I know that's a weird hodge-podge of inspirations, but I swear it'll work!..." too.
That's mostly how I think, and why, I suspect, I'm probably useless for writing small, affordable indie stories.
My most bankable, mainstream story, I think, is one that I've been dreaming about and "working on" for about two decades now. It'd be an ahistorical, fantasy set in ancient China. It'd be a costume and SFX extravaganza. But like my other "big" story ideas, I've let it go for so long now that it may have become too stale for me. Plus, when I started dreaming about it China wasn't "in" like it is nowadays. In a way, that "in-ness" dulls its luster for me even more.
Another one involves, how shall I put it, postmortem events (don't think zombies, or corpses or the like...). It would probably be way too out of the mainstream as well as too offensive to way too many people to find enough of an audience to justify anyone else providing me with a nine figure budget. But with the premise that I do have 100 million, well, I suppose I could make it, but I also suppose that since it may be too far out there, it'd amount to a "vanity project," and maybe few would see it, anyway. I don't know. I've kind of softened or changed or perhaps lost interested in bothering to say some of the things that I had wanted to say with this story. Still, there might be some entertainment value in it.
Another one I've been kicking around is a space opera. Definitely would need some hefty production value. Could work for TV. But I don't know if I'd be willing to water or tone it down enough for it to actually see the light of day anywhere. Maybe on Starz, or something like that.
I guess those are the top three still.
As far as book adaptations that would be dream projects (beyond merely being interesting) for me, I'm not sure. I still think Imagica. And Frank Miller's Ronin.
Yes. A good documentary film, anyway.
American Experience: The Donner Party.
Since I'm just a wannabe, this really is dreaming, but...
I think the "biggest" stories running around in my head would require nine figure budgets and they'd "...pull inspiration from the likes of Spielberg, Shyamalan, Cameron, Abrams, Tarantino and even a little Bay [as well as others]! Yeah, I know that's a weird hodge-podge of inspirations, but I swear it'll work!..." too.
That's mostly how I think, and why, I suspect, I'm probably useless for writing small, affordable indie stories.
My most bankable, mainstream story, I think, is one that I've been dreaming about and "working on" for about two decades now. It'd be an ahistorical, fantasy set in ancient China. It'd be a costume and SFX extravaganza. But like my other "big" story ideas, I've let it go for so long now that it may have become too stale for me. Plus, when I started dreaming about it China wasn't "in" like it is nowadays. In a way, that "in-ness" dulls its luster for me even more.
Another one involves, how shall I put it, postmortem events (don't think zombies, or corpses or the like...). It would probably be way too out of the mainstream as well as too offensive to way too many people to find enough of an audience to justify anyone else providing me with a nine figure budget. But with the premise that I do have 100 million, well, I suppose I could make it, but I also suppose that since it may be too far out there, it'd amount to a "vanity project," and maybe few would see it, anyway. I don't know. I've kind of softened or changed or perhaps lost interested in bothering to say some of the things that I had wanted to say with this story. Still, there might be some entertainment value in it.
Another one I've been kicking around is a space opera. Definitely would need some hefty production value. Could work for TV. But I don't know if I'd be willing to water or tone it down enough for it to actually see the light of day anywhere. Maybe on Starz, or something like that.
I guess those are the top three still.
As far as book adaptations that would be dream projects (beyond merely being interesting) for me, I'm not sure. I still think Imagica. And Frank Miller's Ronin.
Yes. A good documentary film, anyway.
American Experience: The Donner Party.
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Wouldn't that fall under the "Outdoor Cooking" genre?
If I had the budget I would like to option Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series. They have been kicking the idea of making a mini-series out of it but it has gone nowhere. In my opinion it would be best put on the screen as a weekly series like "The Walking Dead". In my version I would use animation like they used in "Polar Express" with actors doing voiceovers and their characters looking like them (Tom Hanks was the Conductor and the animated character looked like him). The DT series is set in a parallel universe and it would take a lot of computer generated scenery to make it real and keep down costs.
I'd like to remake older films like "A Trip to the Moon" or "Metropolis". I would also like to make a Great Gatsby film. I think Luhrmann did a horrible job of adapting the book.