Jules Verne Forum

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Re: The Mysterious Island

From: Thomas Davis <tad_davis~at~me.com>
Date: Fri, 06 Jan 2012 14:48:54 -0500
Cc: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

Craig,

You nailed the many dramatic values of this novel in your message. Maybe we could persuade someone to use the fine Classics Illustrated comic as a storyboard.

By the way, after seeing Fincher's Dragon Tattoo, I think he COULD do a very satisfying film version of 20K. Whether he will or not remains to be seen.

Tad Davis



On Jan 6, 2012, at 6:55 AM, Craig Weatherhill <craig~at~agantavas.org> wrote:

> I think the secret of filming the book would be to cast off any ideas of making it a spectacular, and to concentrate on the growing mystery.
>
> The book has its exciting moments: the escape from Richmond and the deflating balloon in the storm; the orang-utan raid (as long as they're looked after a whole lot better than the two who played Clyde in the Clint Eastwood films, who were shamefully mistreated); Tabor Island; the pirates and the shooting of Herbert Brown; and of course, the eruption of Mount Franklin.
>
> But the important theme of the story is how a group of men dumped on an unknown island with nothing but the shirts on their backs come to tame it through ingenuity and teamwork; and the ongoing mystery of who/what is helping them along. So, it has the potential of being a very atmospheric film, with spectacular high points.
>
> So many stories have been utterly ruined by film-makers because they departed so much from the original books and it's been shown that if they remain faithful to the book, something very special can emerge. I recently watched the first 2 Narnia films and applauded from my armchair at the end of both because they had stuck to the book, had a production team with vision and sensitivity, and produced something very special.
>
> Recent film adaptations of Verne's 20K have been so unspeakably awful that I now refuse to watch repeats of them. Disney's 1954 film remains by far the best and closest to the book (and it's amazing how many of its effects were so much better than the more recent attempts). But it still wasn;t the book - a far better (and more spectacular) ending would be the Maelstrom and the doubts that would keep a departing audience guessing: did Nemo and the Nautilus survive?
>
> Craig
>
>
>
Received on Fri 06 Jan 2012 - 21:49:13 IST

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