Great good news from the Webb household. The brain of the aforementioned head of said household is writing again. Who knows, maybe one day I might produce an entire piece of work, share it with someone, and maybe get paid to write stuff. How cool is that?
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I decided to give a jump start to my writer’s block, going on close to a year now, by writing a screenplay adapting a work in the public domain. There’s a long history of writer’s using stealing the hard work of previous authors to write a screenplay. At its worst, it’s outright cheating. At best, it can result in something akin to one of Trix’s all link diaries. Every once in a while, a writer just needs a jump start.
And, as for Hollywood, the history of film adaptations is long and storied. The Holy Grail of a studio is a story that doesn’t cost anything. Sometimes it even comes with its own buzz that can add to the lucre of the project. O Brother, Where Art Though comes to mind as do about 50 Disney titles.
Then there are adaptations that they say just can’t be made. Don Quixote has flummoxed directors for seemingly as long as there have been directors. The project damn near killed Terry Gilliam but did result in an excellent documentary about the attempt to make the movie. Come to think of it, I wouldn’t put it past Gilliam to have pretended to produce Don Quixote just to get a film as interested as Lost in La Mancha.
They also said that Tristram Shandy couldn’t be turned into film. Steve Coogan did an excellent job of turning it into a story about the making of the movie as much as about the story itself. There are a few self referential takes where actors do things like talk about how the novel is unfilmable.
Your turn?
- What is your favorite adaptation to film?
- What is the worst film adaptation?
- Which adaptation can never be done?
My answers:
- Ian McKellan’s Richard III
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- Hah, not falling for that one — see Charlie Kaufman’s Adaptation
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TOP COMMENTS
from your humble diarist:
A musical comment and a political wish from Rambler797.
from joniworx:
This one from Dunvegan. It is the perfect response to the coming national spam call from #45 this week.
from 2thanks:
Captain Frogbert here. From Tell FEMA "no I do not want Trump to have the non-negotiable ability to send 'alerts' to my phone".
TOP MOJO
Top Mojo for yesterday, September 15, 2018, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on FAQing Top Mojo.
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