[quote]Big Kahuna wrote:
[quote]Gettnitdone wrote:
Yeah, why hasn’t Hollywood made a film about the great Hannibal the Carthaginian? Oliver Stone, a pretty good director, butchered Alexander, so maybe they should let a less well-known director helm a potential Hannibal film.
Regarding Hannibal, as in Anthony Hopkins, Kahuna’s argument loses some strength when you consider how no one knows who Jonathan Demme is but Ridley Scott is thought of as one of the best directors in Hollywood. In other words, Silence of the Lambs was directed by a less well-known director but Ridley’s Hannibal from 2001 was mediocre.
And Terrence Malick is over-rated! How you like them apples.
[/quote]
Agreed, Alexander was a pitiful attempt at best. I’m not sure I’m such a fan of Stone as a director, his early work was incredibly good, but somewhere along the line he made a bad film and after that everything else followed suit. I don’t think he’s recovered for any considerable string of films since the very early 90’s, which is a hell of a long time, especially given the amount of movies he’s made since.
I’m making no argument that simply because a director is more widely recognised and assumed to be somewhat masterful of his craft that’s it’s impossible for him to make a bad movie, unlikely, but not impossible. Demme, although writhing in obscurity, is incredibly good at what he does and it’s shown in nearly all of his films since the start of his career.
Silence Of The Lambs was beautifully acted and incredibly well written, something which Hannibal was inarguably not. More so than mediocre I’d say that Hannibal was legitimately “bad”. Scott lost sight of what Hannibal should be, as he was in the books. His focus was too extensive on the gore aspect of the serial killer than the personality and ominousness of the character himself, and he payed for it. Silence was exactly the opposite, Demme knew how to grow Buffalo Bill into a menacing, insane, murderer and it payed off. He kept the gore minimal and focused intently on the characters themselves, Scott should have followed Demme’s example and he didn’t, so he fumbled and his movie became a flop.
As for popularity I’d wager that Scott is more popular just by the extent that his films are the type that will bring audiences, more people want to see a horror film about Aliens than a Neil Young documentary. I’m sure it goes deeper than that on the bartering level when it comes to each director’s agency and how effective they are at marketing their client, amongst other things, but that’s moot point.
Gasp! Not a fan of Badlands? I loved how Malick made his films. A little poetic maybe, but beautifully handled all the way up until release. The Tree Of Life was very good, maybe not as good as intended, it was no magnum opus, but serene and wondrous all the same.[/quote]
Everybody, except Jodie Foster , lost sight of the fact that Hannibal wasn’t a very good book.