It once again says a lot about how little I understand classical stories that your list of "four characters the production has to get correct" doesn't include the titular Hunchback. But played by Josh Brolin? Eh, it's not the worst idea in the world. I would bet money on Depp being in it in some capacity, but that owes more to Depp just being in every goddamn movie now than it does to Burton specifically.
Re-inspired theatre soundtrack by Danny Elfman was a given from launch, of course.
Ah, but the actual novel is named after the
cathedral, not its bellringer. And the thing is, the hunchback is not a core, active element of the plot in any meaningful way. He's there to sweep up the pieces after the three "keystone" characters to the love triangle have messed everything up. He is there to suffer, and to love futilely--kind of like Frollo, but in a passive, rather than active, sense. The thing is, most productions get him the most right out of anyone, but that's because his personality is attractive, and not too complicated. What they seem to understand is that he isn't a noble, high-minded sufferer. He's an "animal" in temperament. A dog. Faithful, abused, prone to biting. Most productions play up the part of his personality that is like a lapdog in its sweetness and naivety, which results in an acceptable story, but not a faithful one.
The real issue is the stuff they do to all the other characters in order to get this clearcut story with the hunchback as the hero =/ The changes I suggested to the standard setup of the other folks would give Quasimodo's personality a hell of a lot more leeway, and hopefully result in a closer relationship to Hugo's original, clean interpretation.
Never seen a single movie with Josh Brolin in it, but on the other hand, if he could pull off playing the main character of
No Country for Old Men... well, I have a bit more faith in him now, I suppose. Just never seen him in the sorts of movies I've watched up until recently.
Am I right in assuming that this will be another musical-thingie by Tim Burton?
If that's the case, color me excited.
I'm praying for no, because we already have too damned many musical interpretations of Hunchback, and we've already got a good one, too. What we need is a good standard film adaptation without the bullshit of the 1920-era films that have gone on to pervade every other American retelling.
That, and Burton has shown himself excellent at creating an aesthetic, but apparently can't do strong vocal casting to save his life. Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp did great jobs as actors in Sweeney Todd, but in a cast where more than 50% of the actors had had zero vocal training, and pretty much all of the main characters had very weak voices... *sigh*
Well, I'll watch it and write up a review when the time comes, I guess. There's been no info about musical or not, and it's just in the planning stages.
Author
Topic: [MILK] There were 12 eggs here what did you do with them? (Happy thread?!) (Read 16262930 times)