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  1. #1
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    Why haven't they...

    ...made a movie about Mad Jack Churchill yet?

    Really, there's no need to invent a fictional character when there's a perfectly good story that needs to be told. They wouldn't even have to embellish it, it's already pretty amazing!

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Churchill

  2. #2
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    There have been a couple of attempts to make a film about "Mad Jack" (and "Mad Mitch" and the Argylls), but generally the studios shy away from glamorizing real war heroes. This is, partly, due to cost (a big budget war film these days will knock the spots off $150 million) and partly due to the fact that the motion picture industry is two or three generations removed from WWII. To your average 30-something studio executive WWII is about as remote as the War Between the States, and they just don't "get it".

    Look for Fast and Furious 4 hitting the silver screen before we see a big bux war flick about "Mad Jack Churchill".
    Last edited by MacMillan of Rathdown; 25th May 09 at 09:24 PM.

  3. #3
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    Good question. I'd watch it. How'd you happen across this?

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Streetcar View Post
    Good question. I'd watch it. How'd you happen across this?
    I marched in a parade today, and afterward popped in "Instrument of War" (a documentary on bagpipes). In it, they interview Churchill's widow and I thought his story would make a great film.

  5. #5
    thanmuwa is offline Oops, it seems this member needs to update their email address
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    Quote Originally Posted by MacMillan of Rathdown View Post
    There have been a couple of attempts to make a film about "Mad Jack" (and "Mad Mitch" and the Argylls), but generally the studios shy away from glamorizing real war heroes. This is, partly, due to cost (a big budget war film these days will knock the spots off $150 million) and partly due to the fact that the motion picture industry is two or three generations removed from WWII. To your average 30-something studio executive WWII is about as remote as the War Between the States, and they just don't "get it".

    Look for Fast and Furious 4 hitting the silver screen before we see a big bux war flick about "Mad Jack Churchill".
    On the other hand, Saving Private Ryan wasn't made that long ago, and if they don't get WWII, how did anyone manage to convince the studios to make the likes of Braveheart, an era long before WWII? I am sure the right screenplay to the right director would soon have it as a film.

  6. #6
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    Sounds like his life would make an interesting movie.... I would pay to see it..
    “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.”
    – Robert Louis Stevenson

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by MacMillan of Rathdown View Post
    Look for Fast and Furious 4 hitting the silver screen before we see a big bux war flick about "Mad Jack Churchill".
    I bet that is true....

    The Fast and the Furious (2001)
    2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
    The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)
    Fast & Furious (2009)

    In fact, #4 came out back in March, on an average of a 3 year cycle...
    Unless you mean the 7th movie in the series, which would be hard to predict, for a myriad of reasons.

  8. #8
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    Thanks for this post. I had never heard of this gentleman, but he sounds like he was one tough person. It would be great to have a movie on his life like Audie Murphy did when he returned from war, "To H*** and Back" is still one of my favorite movies of the era.
    "A veteran, whether active duty, retired, national guard or reserve, is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America", for an amount of "up to and including my life." That is honor, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand it." anon

  9. #9
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    Star+Story=Audience? Sometimes.

    Quote Originally Posted by thanmuwa View Post
    On the other hand, Saving Private Ryan wasn't made that long ago, and if they don't get WWII, how did anyone manage to convince the studios to make the likes of Braveheart, an era long before WWII? I am sure the right screenplay to the right director would soon have it as a film.
    Anything is possible in Hollywood, but in the scenario you've described who is going to play Mad Jack? Forget the script for a moment and concentrate on the lead actor. You need a Scot (or at least a Brit who can play a Scot) who can open a non-franchise move world wide. Right now there doesn't seem to be a British actor who has the box office draw of a Tom Hanks or Tom Cruise (and Cruise's WWII yawner Valkyre didn't exactly set box offices on fire).

    And the Script. Mad Jack had a multi-decade career-- what are you going to focus on? What is the subplot? Where is Gweneth Paltrow in all of this?

    Everyone can pick holes in Braveheart because to tell the story Randy Wallace played fast and loose with history. That the picture got made at all is down to Wallace's ability to get his script into the hands of the one guy who could afford to produce it-- actor, director, producer, Mel Gibson.

    When it comes down to it, unless you have a franchise, like Fast and Furious or Star Trek studios don't like to take chances on pictures costing more than $100,000,000.00.

    After all, they aren't the Federal Government.

  10. #10
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    Hollywood always has a crying need to get as many Americans as they can into a movie about WW2.
    [B][COLOR="Red"][SIZE="1"]Reverend Earl Trefor the Sublunary of Kesslington under Ox, Venerable Lord Trefor the Unhyphenated of Much Bottom, Sir Trefor the Corpulent of Leighton in the Bucket, Viscount Mcclef the Portable of Kirkby Overblow.

    Cymru, Yr Alban, Iwerddon, Cernyw, Ynys Manau a Lydaw am byth! Yng Nghiltiau Ynghyd!
    (Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Cornwall, Isle of Man and Brittany forever - united in the Kilts!)[/SIZE][/COLOR][/B]

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