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Post by Nalkarj on Mar 1, 2024 18:42:46 GMT
At the Mountains of Madness by Lovecraft is a movie I've always wanted made This is a great idea—it’s one of the few Lovecrafts that could work in a visual medium (compare with “The Call of Cthulhu,” which is far more about ideas than characters). Wikipedia says Guillermo del Toro planned an adaptation but that preproduction stopped because of the similarities to Prometheus (2012). Too bad, especially because I don’t think Prometheus works at all. |
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Post by bomtombadil on Mar 4, 2024 15:00:58 GMT
At the Mountains of Madness by Lovecraft is a movie I've always wanted made This is a great idea—it’s one of the few Lovecrafts that could work in a visual medium (compare with “The Call of Cthulhu,” which is far more about ideas than characters). Wikipedia says Guillermo del Toro planned an adaptation but that preproduction stopped because of the similarities to Prometheus (2012). Too bad, especially because I don’t think Prometheus works at all. I can also see people saying that it is too similar to The Thing and various other movies like that. |
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Post by Nalkarj on Apr 10, 2024 17:37:12 GMT
This obviously can’t be done now, but it just popped into my mind: a ’70s or ’80s adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Endless Night, directed by Brian De Palma, score by Bernard Herrmann. Even at the very least it would have been better than the real 1972 adaptation! There's also the one with Miss Marple from 2014. It had an appealing cast and handsome production values, but didn't really work (and not only because they included Marple). I watched it a few days ago and didn’t think it was that bad… It’s better than Poirot’s attempt to adapt Ackroyd’s trick, that’s for sure. I thought the lead was rather good and convincing—in fact, I thought the whole cast was good, with the weakest link being the actress playing Ellie (and not just because of her inability to do an American accent). Marple clearly doesn’t have any business being here, as even someone who doesn’t know the book could probably figure out from this adaptation—she keeps popping up wherever Mike and Ellie go, Jackie-de-Bellefort-style!—but I thought McKenzie’s performance was good, maybe her best as Marple. Writer Kevin Elyot was better at making Marple fit into Towards Zero, where she has even less business being. Bigger problems, for me, were the lack of spookiness (I never got a sense that Gipsy’s Acre is haunted/cursed) and the anticlimactic, rushed ending. But I didn’t hate it. I liked it more than the 1972 film or “Greenshaw’s Folly,” the other Marple episode I watched. “Folly” is based on a very short story that shouldn’t have been adapted into a 90-min. TV movie—and you can tell. Oh, how you can tell. By the way, did you see the making-of video on “Endless Night”? (It’s one of the special features on this DVD set I got from the library.) It’s hilarious—it might be even more entertaining than the episode itself, unintentionally. Glynis Barber, who also can’t do an American accent, has a tiny role in the episode (really, she has at absolute maximum 10 mins. of screen time—I think it’s actually quite a bit less—and is quickly written out), but she hijacks the making-of segment, talking all this silliness about how she analyzed her character’s motivations deeply, connects with the character, etc., etc. Some of the things she says are so grandiose, about such a small part that she obviously took for the paycheck, that they honestly had me laughing out loud. (On the other hand, McKenzie and Birgitte Hjort Sørensen have actually interesting things to say about the production and their characters.) Hilarious. |
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Post by theravenking on Apr 11, 2024 8:47:49 GMT
There's also the one with Miss Marple from 2014. It had an appealing cast and handsome production values, but didn't really work (and not only because they included Marple). I watched it a few days ago and didn’t think it was that bad… It’s better than Poirot’s attempt to adapt Ackroyd’s trick, that’s for sure. I thought the lead was rather good and convincing—in fact, I thought the whole cast was good, with the weakest link being the actress playing Ellie (and not just because of her inability to do an American accent). Marple clearly doesn’t have any business being here, as even someone who doesn’t know the book could probably figure out from this adaptation—she keeps popping up wherever Mike and Ellie go, Jackie-de-Bellefort-style!—but I thought McKenzie’s performance was good, maybe her best as Marple. Writer Kevin Elyot was better at making Marple fit into Towards Zero, where she has even less business being. Bigger problems, for me, were the lack of spookiness (I never got a sense that Gipsy’s Acre is haunted/cursed) and the anticlimactic, rushed ending. But I didn’t hate it. I liked it more than the 1972 film or “Greenshaw’s Folly,” the other Marple episode I watched. “Folly” is based on a very short story that shouldn’t have been adapted into a 90-min. TV movie—and you can tell. Oh, how you can tell. By the way, did you see the making-of video on “Endless Night”? (It’s one of the special features on this DVD set I got from the library.) It’s hilarious—it might be even more entertaining than the episode itself, unintentionally. Glynis Barber, who also can’t do an American accent, has a tiny role in the episode (really, she has at absolute maximum 10 mins. of screen time—I think it’s actually quite a bit less—and is quickly written out), but she hijacks the making-of segment, talking all this silliness about how she analyzed her character’s motivations deeply, connects with the character, etc., etc. Some of the things she says are so grandiose, about such a small part that she obviously took for the paycheck, that they honestly had me laughing out loud. (On the other hand, McKenzie and Birgitte Hjort Sørensen have actually interesting things to say about the production and their characters.) Hilarious. I didn't hate it either. I thought it was a halfway enjoyable episode. It's just as you wrote: it lacked the spookiness and dense atmosphere of the book and the tragic aspect of the story was also sort of lost.
Unfortunately I did not see the making-of. I watched these new Marples on a regular TV station which has been showing endless re-runs of the series for years.
"Greenshaw’s Folly" I found to be a completely unremarkable episode. Not terrible, just not very interesting either. I only remember, that there was something with a poisoned wallpaper and it had Kevin McNally playing an inspector.
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Post by Nalkarj on Apr 11, 2024 15:07:52 GMT
I didn't hate it either. I thought it was a halfway enjoyable episode. It's just as you wrote: it lacked the spookiness and dense atmosphere of the book and the tragic aspect of the story was also sort of lost.
Unfortunately I did not see the making-of. I watched these new Marples on a regular TV station which has been showing endless re-runs of the series for years.
"Greenshaw’s Folly" I found to be a completely unremarkable episode. Not terrible, just not very interesting either. I only remember, that there was something with a poisoned wallpaper and it had Kevin McNally playing an inspector.
Yep, agreed on all. I don’t think “Greenshaw’s Folly” was the poisoned wallpaper?—it’s Fiona Shaw getting shot with a crossbow. I think poisoned wallpaper was “The Blue Geranium”? I looked around and couldn’t find the making-of video online. Too bad, it is pretty darn entertaining. |
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Post by theravenking on Apr 12, 2024 9:16:55 GMT
I didn't hate it either. I thought it was a halfway enjoyable episode. It's just as you wrote: it lacked the spookiness and dense atmosphere of the book and the tragic aspect of the story was also sort of lost.
Unfortunately I did not see the making-of. I watched these new Marples on a regular TV station which has been showing endless re-runs of the series for years.
"Greenshaw’s Folly" I found to be a completely unremarkable episode. Not terrible, just not very interesting either. I only remember, that there was something with a poisoned wallpaper and it had Kevin McNally playing an inspector.
Yep, agreed on all. I don’t think “Greenshaw’s Folly” was the poisoned wallpaper?—it’s Fiona Shaw getting shot with a crossbow. I think poisoned wallpaper was “The Blue Geranium”? I looked around and couldn’t find the making-of video online. Too bad, it is pretty darn entertaining. You are right! I got these two confused, since both were based on short stories and I actually felt pretty similar about both episodes. |
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