Me gusta leer y ver la tele

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Get It Done!

As you all know, Disney has bought Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion. Of course, as we've been talking here, the possibilities now are endless for Star Wars, Indiana Jones and all the rest of the Lucas franchises. There are many stories that I would like to be told, many movies that I would like to see, many books that I would like to read. Episodes VII, VIII and IX, once just a dream, are now a reality. A bigger presence of Star Wars in Disney theme parks is a given at short term. Now that we find under the same roof franchises such as those of Lucasfilm, Marvel, Jim Henson or Pixar, we're going to need a ver big dam to stop the rapid waters of the crossover river. Just think a little about it: Indiana Jones crosses Captain America in the forties, Wall-E meets R2-D2, Howard the Duck goes Muppet...

Just like you, I'm not a fan of any of these options. Maybe because I tend to like to keep my franchises separate. Maybe because they just plain suck. But there's one other option, one possibility, over which I would jump like a madman. And the thing is, I think it's really feasible.

As far as I know, Disney now controls both the rights to Lucasfilm's videogame franchise Monkey Island (a movie adaptation of which has been rumored for ages) and to its own succesful Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise, which borrowed heavily from the spirit of the MI videogames, which in turn were inspired mostly on the Pirates of the Caribbean Disney ride. A better match we'll never find.

C'mon, Disney executives, this is a no-brainer. A new PotC movie would market itself (especially if you throw Johnny Depp into the mix), and the audience push that the Monkey Island franchise would give to it (because it still has a ton of fans around the world, believe it or not) would guarantee its success in theatres, while at the same time its cohort of characters and events and locations would insuflate a lot of fresh air into a movie franchise in very much need of it.

Really, picture Jack Sparrow and Guybrush Threepwood swordfighting MI style. Barbossa and LeChuck teaming up. The one monkey and the three-headed other one just... doing monkey things. Pintel, Ragetti and the Head of the Navigator. Stan the Used Boat Salesman.

Just hire Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio to write the screenplay, and please add Ron Gilbert to the team. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Secret of Monkey Island. How would that be for a treat?

2 comments:

Mario Alba said...

You make a very compelling case, and I would love to see something like this come to fruition. Will it ever happen? Well, I guess we'll have to wait and see.

It is funny you mention Elliott and Rossio, though, because I just read an interesting article discussing 10 directors who could do the new Star Wars trilogy (and 5 that shouldn't, hahaha), and the one name they mention I hadn't thought about is Gore Verbinski, who helmed the Pirates movies written by Elliott & Rossio. Now there's another interesting thought...

Here's the article:

http://www.slashfilm.com/10-filmmakers-who-should-direct-the-new-star-wars-trilogy-and-5-who-shouldnt/

Halagan said...

Completely agree with the aforementioned article. There are some very interesting choices there (Aronofski, Fincher, Cuarón), and they've got spot on the list of 5 worst directors for a new movie. Including Lucas, hehe.

Regarding the post, y would rather have a Monkey Islnad movie, all by itself, by I don't think that's ever goning to be possible. On the other side, if they think of the possibility of merging the two franchises, I really think it would be doable. Not only that, it would be a hit. They would make a ton of money, and isn't that in the end what they want?