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Wanted Director Set To Adapt Moby Dick
Fresh off of the adaptation of Wanted, director Timur Bekmambetov has decided to tackle a whale of a project (hardy har har) in Moby Dick. We get the following scoop from our friends at slashfilm:
In what the trades are dryly referring to as a “reimagining” and “splashy,” Universal Pictures has hired Timur Bekmambetov to direct a new version of the literary classic, Moby Dick, that will “apply the visual flourish he displayed on the [studio's] summer hit Wanted.”
It’s pointless to feign outrage about this announcement (books, meh), but note that screenwriters, Adam Cooper and Bill Collage, have taken liberty with Herman Melville’s opus, exercising the first-person narration of Ishmael so that “the whale can fuck up way more shit, dudes.” They previously penned Accepted and the Olsen Twins’ New York Minute. Also, Captain Ahab “will be depicted more as a charismatic leader than a brooding obsessive.”
I have no problem with a Moby Dick adaptation, but since the book is a classic – I’d assume they would try to recreate this magic on the screen. But this doesn’ t appear to be the case, and I’m wondering why they’re calling it Moby Dick at all. If you’re going to change the story to the point where only the names are the same – then you should probably call it something else.
Orca the killer whale is a film about a tyrannical sea mammal (and is enjoyable enough from what I remember). I have no problem watching giant beasts wreak havoc, in fact, I love it. I just don’t understand why the writers of an Olsen Twin’s film will be allowed to hull out a classic just to use its name. That doesn’t seem very classy San Diego. International Friends – what are your thoughts?
How about this: have Ahab be a genetically engineered human with some really wild hair and some good pecs, have the whale be a captain of some sort, and set the whole thing in space.
I’m a genius.
I’m fucking shocked and horrified at this news! DON’T FUCK UP MOBY FUCKING DICK!
Please be true to it’s original tale! No one wants a PUSSY Captain Ahab! Fuck Charisma! I want a Man who is OBSESSED with a WHALE that will do anything to find it! I want him to be old and chissled and cranky! I want him to look as if he had been raked with hot coals and held underwater for ten hours! That will give your skin texture!
I want a great MOBY DICK movie!
I am going to go cry now.
OK, aside from Robert Forest, is there anybody else out there who really cares? I doubt the public is salivating at the prospect of a new Moby Dick adaptation, faithful to the text or not. This will be lucky to do $4.5 mil on opening weekend and then speed its way to the DVD clearance racks.
LOL…..Jesus its the year 2008 and we still cant come up with a way to make an epic moby dick movie….im with forest and doug…..
DONT FUCK UP MOBY DICK…its one of the greatest stories ever told…and youre giving me a charamastic leader ahab….i want a grizzly old nick noltie type that will put himself in deaths mouth to kill that cursed whale…..i want a man that will throw men in the water to destract moby dick….he should smile when the whale would almost flip over the boat….ahem
sorry for the rant….
HELL yeah, Chris! PREACH IT!
it pisses me off that these hacks from the mtv generation feel the need to destroy the depth and spirit of one of the greatest novels ever written.
“I’m wondering why they’re calling it Moby Dick at all. If you’re going to change the story to the point where only the names are the same – then you should probably call it something else.”
Well with this thought process, then the Bourne movies should most definitely be called something else cause the stories are 100% different than the books, granted they are not classics. I mean hell, they left out the main bad guy and purpose of books one and two. And to continue this, shit, they might as well change the name of all movies adapted from books since they are rarely anything like the books. And that is where the genius in Blade Runner really shines through. Based on a book, by it was so far different than the book that it was not named after the book. :D
Should of said “some of the genius”, cause the movie was genius all round.
With all that said, I want a steampunk telling of Moby Dick.
u inspired me….im gonna write a script for moby dick….as a wannabe filmmaker….ive been looking for an idea to write, fuck it….im going for it….
Moby Dick the *story* is good. Moby Dick the *book* is boring as sin. There’s a difference.
Well if their goal is to rape and destroy a classic book like Moby Dick (witch by the way i don’t find boring at all, on the contrary I think it’s a masterpiece) then they made the right choice i guess.
Here in Europe (I’m writing from Greece by the way) we love this book (and not just the “story”) they are going to call this film an abominaton before it’s done. And in that case they maybe be right.
Timur Bekmambetov is a great auteur. His work will only get better and I look forward to seeing his next film whatever it is.
Hey! As a follow up, why don’t they adapt The Grapes of Wrath as a wacky family travel comedy, in the vein of National Lampoon’s Family Vacation?