Anyone have a "Dream Project"?

V

VictorSW1974

You know.....that special (and highly improbable) idea above all others that you wish you could have 100 million to make exactly the way you want to make?

Mine is a new adaptation of Frank Herbert's sci-fi masterpiece DUNE. And a definitive adaption to boot. Both film versions produced so far---Lynch's feature film and SyFi Channel's miniseries---had their individual strengths, but also serious flaws as well. Lynch's film was chopped to a brief 2 hours 15 minutes, destroying any sense of story pace, and the SyFi version had a script rhat went too far off the book at times and very dubious production design (ridiculous costumes and painted "desert" backdrops).

A few years ago, I wrote a 44-page treatment/outline/scriptment that not only got as much of the novel in as could be feasible, I actually expanded the story with Duncan Idaho, Princess Irulan, and the Spacing Guild having more presence in events. For instsnce, I have a scene of Duncan being personal bodyguard for Paul on the final Atredies ship to leave Caladan: they see the citizens weeping at the permanent leaving of House Atreidies. Paul talks about the loyalty people show his father, Duke Leto, and Duncan tells Paul of how he escaped from being a Harkonnenn slave to enlist with Duke Leto.

I just wanted to do the DUNE story and make it even deeper and dramatically strong by adding that kind of character detail. I wound up laying it out as three 2-hour films---6 hours is enough time for the expanded concept I had, with even more scenes added to a Bluray "Extended Version"..

There is my dream project: to write the defintive movie of DUNE.

I'd also like to adapt HP Lovecrafts SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH.
 
Deep down I secretly would have loved to do a Star Wars reboot. Fat chance of that happening now. I was this close to saving up enough scratch to buy it from Lucas too ;)
 
Dune is a good pick. It'd be nice to have a really good adaptation. Lynch's film definitely had some good things going for it (cast, effects for the time), but some weaknesses (score, what they did with the weirding way). Oddly, it's the longer cut that Lynch had his name removed from...if you watch it, it's pretty obvious why. The intro narration is pretty cool, as is Patrick Stewart playing a Chapman Stick, but all the other cut scenes were cut for a reason! The TV Dune was hampered by some pretty terrible acting and an occasionally cringe-worthy script, but it's still fun to watch (and closer to the book in some places, but further in others). That said, the Children of Dune adaptation is fantastic (though Ghanima definitely gets the short end of the stick while they focus on Leto II). The Cleansing of the House sequence (with the song sung in Fremen) is absolutely chilling. I'd love to see the series get as far as God Emperor or Chapterhouse.

Anyway, in my arrogance, most of my dream projects are all my own (unless Ridley Scott wants to do a sequel to Legend). One of which, that I've had on the back-burner for over 10 years, I'm starting to work on now and have an artist and a good video editor to work on with me. Can't talk about it yet, but be sure I won't shut up about it when the time is right!

The other one I will probably never get to and wouldn't be of widespread interest if I ever did. Long story: I recorded and self-released an album in 2002 called "Fever Dreams" (you can hear it or download it for free at http://pancreaticaardvarks.bandcamp.com/album/fever-dreams) At the time, I tried to make a primitively animated film to tell the story of the album, albeit in equally abstract terms as the album. I didn't get very far because I'm not a very good visual artist at all. The album is about a person who gets in an accident, and the dreams he has as his subconscious tries to decide to fight and recover, or to let himself die. The music, while I enjoy it for what it was at the time, is pretty dated in terms of my composition and recording techniques. I'm worlds better now, but I can hear some good ideas in there that I've since developed further. I would like to, one day, re-write/arrange/record the album and work with a filmmaker and/or animator (and/or several of each) to make the film. Of course, the end result will be very abstract art film, so not something very many people would want to watch. An even more abstract version of Jacob's Ladder. But I love it, and one day, I will do it right.

Oh, and if anyone ever does a TV series/movie/combo of the two based on Charles de Lint's Newford stories, I want to do the music.
 
Lynch did not like chopping DUNE down. I dont know where his preferred "directors cut" would have been at in terms of length, but his first rough assembly was 5 hours WITHOUT any effects shots put in. Frank Herbert and Dino Delaurentinis were strongly for restoring it to a 4-hour cut that could play as a 2--night miniseries on TV. But Lynch loses interest in his completed work pretty quickly , and moved on to new projects, so Universal slapped that shitty extended version together without his supervision.

Several of the restored scenes in the Extended DUNE arent even actual scenes; they took unused shots and test footage and cobbled them together to make fake transitional scenes. Like the scene that is supposed to depict the.Reverend Mother traveling to Caladan to see Jessica and Paul: they took a shot of a spaceship from the climax, cut it with a duped shot of the two Harkonnenn guards taking Paul and Jessica to the desert, and cut it with a unused shot of the Rev Mother. It is not often that you can dupe shots from other scenes and cut them to make new ones and it works.....Ridley Scott did it for Rutger Hauers first scene in BLADE RUNNER by using a shot from the climax of his dying hand cut with the closeup of him smiling at Tyrell before killing him, and that was ok.

The Extended DUNE was a popular bootleg tape (from a Japanese laserdisc) before getting a legit DVD release.
 
I think it's very healthy to have big dreams, and it shouldn't be any kind of guilty admission to talk about them. There have been similar threads before, so I'm not particularly in the mood for repeating the specifics of my dream projects, but I've got about twenty of them, and the way I envision them in my head, they'll pull inspiration from the likes of Spielberg, Shyamalan, Cameron, Abrams, Tarantino and even a little Bay! Yeah, I know that's a weird hodge-podge of inspirations, but I swear it'll work! :D

Good luck to all of you in chasing your dreams!
 
VictorSW1974 said:
You know.....that special (and highly improbable) idea above all others that you wish you could have 100 million to make exactly the way you want to make?
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I have at least a hundred of those.

I like the one that involves liquid chocolate and twenty hot female models the best.
 
I've always wanted to make the mysterious cities of gold. I think that's my epic dream! but seen as I haven't even made anything yet that dreams a long way off! haha
 
welsh_gambit said:
I've always wanted to make the mysterious cities of gold. I think that's my epic dream! but seen as I haven't even made anything yet that dreams a long way off! haha
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Do you mean the cartoon series with the flying golden condor?

'cause... that would be awesome and you would be my hero if that were the case.
 
welsh_gambit said:
Yep it certainly would be!! That's been my all time favourite show since I was 6!
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Ok, if you know that TV series then you might also know the series called, "Monkey Magic". It's known as "Journey to the West" in some parts of the world.

If you do know what I'm talking about and watched it as a kid then there are two things I'd like to say:

1) DO NOT WATCH IT AS AN ADULT. It's seriously awful :D

2) I would so love to turn that into an epic movie that is well-made. I've been thinking about writing a script for it for ages. Although the TV series was as corny as hell and so cheesy your cholesterol levels rise just by watching it, the story behind it is based on real myths and legends and if made with a more serious bent, I think could be really damn good.

That's my dream project I think. I mean, I have others that I'd like to do more but they're all based on my own stories rather than co-opting and reworking an existing one and I think the trend in this thread is to do that so this is the one I'm choosing for this thread.
 
hahahaha. good old monkey magic! for reminding me of this program, you sir, are a legend! Another dream of mine is to make a mega man movie but I think people will just moan that its a rip off of iron man
 
I'd love to make an installment of a big horror franchise, preferably "Friday the 13th".

Then, of course, there's the "Gears of War" movie...
 
I'd take that $100M and divide it between several historical pieces.


http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=47829


The voyage and first winter of the Mayflower landing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayflower#Voyage


Small Pox blankets to American Indians: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native...#Disease_as_a_weapon_against_Native_Americans


The history of the Nowell Codex: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nowell_Codex


And has a really decent film been made of 'The Donner Party'? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donner_Party
 
I also want to adapt my favorite book to the screen. It'd be a hell of a peplum. I also think I'd be perfect for this adaptation since I share so much with the main guy.

Kindda of Lawrence of Arabia but better.

And maybe it's possible in a few years. No one is working on it...
 
I'd have love to have made something to do with Lord Of The Rings, but Peter Jackson beat me to it with the Hobbit :P
 
If I couldn't do one of my own scripts...

Quality Science-Fiction is HOT in 2013... AND these stories come with a ready, major following ...

Stranger In A Strange Land (Robert A. Heinlein)
Foundation Series (Isaac Asimov)
They Walked Like Men (Clifford D. SimaK)
The War of the Rull (A. E. Van Vogt)
The Mote In God's Eye (Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle)
 
I kind of wanted to do a remake of First Blood for a while. It would be more epic and dramatic, not only remaking the movie, but also adding a lot more ingredients from the book as well, while setting it in modern times, putting a whole new spin on politics and technology into the story. Not just another Rambo movie, but an epic war thriller and drama as well.
 
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