Why haven't they...

[macwilkin]

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.

Spot on, Rathdown. As much as I'd love to see a movie about Mad Jack (who was born in Hong Kong to English parents), I just don't see it happening -- now a documentary I can see. Give the History Channel enough time, and they might just pick up on it. I'd much rather see a well done docuementary then a poorly made feature film anyday.

Of course, we can give Hollywood credit for a very good movie such The Great Raid, which was about 80-90% accurate, and did look to historians who had researched and written books about the subject as advisers.

Regards,

Todd

[Bigkahuna]

Any guy running around with a longbow and a broadsword in WW2 is something I would pay to see.

[Dan R Porter]

Hollywood always has a crying need to get as many Americans as they can into a movie about WW2.

I humbly disagree.

"Braveheart", though controversial, was not about americans.

And the recent WWII epic, Valkerie, though I have not seen it. I would hope they would not choose Mel Gibson for this particuler role, but they probalbly will. I would almost bet gibson has this on his desk, we have seen...

Braveheart,
Patriot,
we were soldiers
apocolypto
etc etc.

[macwilkin]

I humbly disagree.

"Braveheart", though controversial, was not about americans.

And the recent WWII epic, Valkerie, though I have not seen it. I would hope they would not choose Mel Gibson for this particuler role, but they probalbly will. I would almost bet gibson has this on his desk, we have seen...

Braveheart,
Patriot,
we were soldiers
apocolypto
etc etc.

Dan,

Trefor's point, as I understand it, was that Hollywood tends to have a very limited view of WWII. Witness the Errol Flynn move Objective, Burma!, which was on TCM this weekend. The film basically implies that it was the Americans alone who fought in Burma, and never mentions the British 14th Army under one of the Greatest Generals ever, Slim of Burma, that fought the Japanese yard by bloody yard. In fact, British troops rioted in India when the film was released there because of its inaccurate depiction of the Burma campaign.

Even in "SPR", there was no mention of the other Allied forces engaged on Normandy -- No Gold, Sword or Juno Beaches. Another recent example was the movie U-571 which basically claimed it was the Americans who broke the Enigma code, when it was the British who actually did.

As I tell my history classes, there were 26 Allied Nations that won the Second World War.

T.

[McMurdo]

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)

The only Scot I can think of off the top my head would have to be Ewan McGregor, of course if you went with a Brit Jude Law or perhaps Daniel Craig spring to mind, but then again with Robert Downey Jr. playing Holmes I suppose anything is possible. I wonder what Guy Ritchie would do with this story, or perhaps Quentin Tarantino But then they'd get Brad Pitt, Toby Maguire, or Matt Damon to play him or someone just as ridiculous.

[macwilkin]

The only Scot I can think of off the top my head would have to be Ewan McGregor, of course if you went with a Brit Jude Law or perhaps Daniel Craig spring to mind, but then again with Robert Downey Jr. playing Holmes I suppose anything is possible. I wonder what Guy Ritchie would do with this story, or perhaps Quentin Tarantino But then they'd get Brad Pitt, Toby Maguire, or Matt Damon to play him or someone just as ridiculous.

a young Anthony Andrews would do a decent job with Mad Jack. He did a very good job playing Col. Richard Meinertzhagen in the Aussie film The Lighthorsemen.

Meinertzhagen was just as colourful as Mad Jack was.

T.

[McMurdo]

Thanks for that Todd, U-571 was a wonderful example of how the Americans won WWII, said with tongue firmly planted in cheek. God knows they were a needed addition to the Allied forces when they did join the fray, however they did not win the war alone, as the recent Canada thread has said, the Canadians were the ones who penetrated the German lines the furthest during the D-Day invasion for example, and you rarely hear that in a picture concerning D-Day.

[macwilkin]

Thanks for that Todd, U-571 was a wonderful example of how the Americans won WWII, said with tongue firmly planted in cheek. God knows they were a needed addition to the Allied forces when they did join the fray, however they did not win the war alone, as the recent Canada thread has said, the Canadians were the ones who penetrated the German lines the furthest during the D-Day invasion for example, and you rarely hear that in a picture concerning D-Day.

Personally, one of the most moving stories for me from WWII is the siege of Hong Kong in December, 1941. The Canadian Regiments engaged in particular showed extreme gallantry in their ill-fated efforts to hold the line against the Japanese.

T.

[macwilkin]

Speaking of Hollywood's portrayal of historical personas, one of the most slanderous portrayals was that of Col. Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai. Nicholson's real-life counterpart, Col. Phillip Toosey, was nothing like the fictional character played by Sir Alec Guiness:

http://www.juliesummers.co.uk/colonel.php

The History Channel produced a very good docuementary about the real story of the Bridge on the River Kwai (the bridge was bombed by the USAAF, and then rebuilt).

Regards,

Todd

[Zardoz]

There have actually been quite a few WWII themed movies in the last few years, off the top of my head; Flags Of Our Fathers, Letters From Iwo Jima, Black Book, Uprising, Days Of Glory, Hart's War, Enemy At The Gate, Downfall, U571, In Enemy Hands, Enigma, The Great Raid, Band Of Brothers, Valkyrie, Codetalkers, etc...And more to come.
Some better than others as history, and some more successful than others at the box office, but I think that many filmmakers are still finding interesting stories to tell, and not aways from the point of view of America or our allies.