Butler's Script Sale of the Week...
April 21st, 2002
Sigh. More remakes and sequels this week. The classic story of DUDE, WHERE'S MY CAR (2000) continues in SERIOUSLY, DUDE WHERE'S MY CAR . All those left hanging on the fate of the FBI agent/beauty queen in MISS CONGENIALITY (2001) can rejoice in the news of MISS CONGENIALITY 2. And, for some reason, Paramount feels it necessary to remake ALFIE (1966).
If you're going to remake a movie, remake something no one under 60 has ever heard of, like the 1948 film EVERY GIRL SHOULD BE MARRIED or remake a great foreign flick, like the Korean IL MARE (2000). Okay, in a perfect world people should watch great foreign flicks and old movies, but this is far from a perfect world isn't it?
More troubling than remakes and sequels, however, is the recent trend of adapting video games for the screen. Hollywood has enough trouble adapting books, and most of them have well crafted stories! Still, that hasn't stopped Dimension Films from trying to adapt the hit game MAX PAYNE. Good Luck.
So it's refreshing to hear that 70 year-old writer/director/producer Robert Benton is still making flicks. So refreshing, in fact, that his upcoming adaptation of the 1934 John O'Hare novel APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA is my Script Sale of the Week.
APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA concerns Julian English, a high society WASP, who crumbles under the pressure of his social status and the creeping Depression. It's very much a novel of it's time, with well sketched characters and themes that still resonate today. Some who have read it have called it an "AMERICAN BEAUTY (1999) of the 30's".
Perfect material for Benton, whose characters and themes, from BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967) to NOBODY'S FOOL (1998), have always been deep and meaningful without being heavy handed.
Benton is a bit of an anomaly in Hollywood. Unlike many of his peers he has refused to give in to the quick pace and hyper-cutting of today's "MTV" cinema. And unlike all these music video directors turned filmmakers, Benton understands that great films come from within. Within the character and the actors, within the story and the author, and, most importantly, from within himself.
A lot of younger critics and audiences find his pace too slow, arguing that the hectic world of the 21st century deserves a cinematic style that aptly reflects it.
They couldn't be more wrong. Life may have gotten faster, our attention spans may have gotten shorter, but human nature, save some generational affectations, has remained the same.
Benton understands this. And he understands that the best way to explore human nature and comment on it is to take one's time. His subtle, character driven style does this in a way that the likes of McG and Michael Bay will probably never understand.
Smash cuts and witty one-liners may be exciting and entertaining, but they will never feed our souls. Thank God for Robert Benton, who while entertaining us also informs and touches us.
--Edward Butler
If you're going to remake a movie, remake something no one under 60 has ever heard of, like the 1948 film EVERY GIRL SHOULD BE MARRIED or remake a great foreign flick, like the Korean IL MARE (2000). Okay, in a perfect world people should watch great foreign flicks and old movies, but this is far from a perfect world isn't it?
More troubling than remakes and sequels, however, is the recent trend of adapting video games for the screen. Hollywood has enough trouble adapting books, and most of them have well crafted stories! Still, that hasn't stopped Dimension Films from trying to adapt the hit game MAX PAYNE. Good Luck.
So it's refreshing to hear that 70 year-old writer/director/producer Robert Benton is still making flicks. So refreshing, in fact, that his upcoming adaptation of the 1934 John O'Hare novel APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA is my Script Sale of the Week.
APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA concerns Julian English, a high society WASP, who crumbles under the pressure of his social status and the creeping Depression. It's very much a novel of it's time, with well sketched characters and themes that still resonate today. Some who have read it have called it an "AMERICAN BEAUTY (1999) of the 30's".
Perfect material for Benton, whose characters and themes, from BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967) to NOBODY'S FOOL (1998), have always been deep and meaningful without being heavy handed.
Benton is a bit of an anomaly in Hollywood. Unlike many of his peers he has refused to give in to the quick pace and hyper-cutting of today's "MTV" cinema. And unlike all these music video directors turned filmmakers, Benton understands that great films come from within. Within the character and the actors, within the story and the author, and, most importantly, from within himself.
A lot of younger critics and audiences find his pace too slow, arguing that the hectic world of the 21st century deserves a cinematic style that aptly reflects it.
They couldn't be more wrong. Life may have gotten faster, our attention spans may have gotten shorter, but human nature, save some generational affectations, has remained the same.
Benton understands this. And he understands that the best way to explore human nature and comment on it is to take one's time. His subtle, character driven style does this in a way that the likes of McG and Michael Bay will probably never understand.
Smash cuts and witty one-liners may be exciting and entertaining, but they will never feed our souls. Thank God for Robert Benton, who while entertaining us also informs and touches us.
--Edward Butler
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