Great scripts destroyed by poor direction

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  • Great scripts destroyed by poor direction

    Basically what the title says. One right of the top of my head is :

    Last Action Hero by Zak Penn and Adam Leff
    It started as a terrific spec and ended up a terrific disaster. All of the elements were in place to make a fantastic send up of the action genre. It could have been the action movie version of Purple Rose of Cairo. Arnold Schwarzenegger was at the top of his career, as was John McTiernan. Send in Shane Black to to a little rewrite and it should have been brilliant.

    John McTiernan should have been bullet proof, coming off Predator, Die Hard and The Hunt for Red October, but he really let his ego get the best of him, and struggled to find the tone of the movie. It's a shame, because the original spec, Extremely Violent, was really solid.

    Any others? I've heard that David People's script for Soldier was pretty good too.

  • #2
    Re: Great scripts destroyed by poor direction

    Eh, I still think Last Action Hero was awesome - it's all subjective.
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    • #3
      Re: Great scripts destroyed by poor direction

      Based on the preview I've seen, I'm going to say WORLD WAR Z.

      Fingers crossed they just threw the media the scraps and there is good stuff hidden away for now.

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      • #4
        Re: Great scripts destroyed by poor direction

        The Beaver.

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        • #5
          Re: Great scripts destroyed by poor direction

          Similar to this thread:

          http://messageboard.donedealpro.com/...ad.php?t=59850

          I said it then and will say it again: Season of the Witch was a great script and a deserved Nicholl-winner. Through terrible casting and direction, the film lost much of what was great on the page.

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          • #6
            Re: Great scripts destroyed by poor direction

            Originally posted by karsten View Post
            Similar to this thread:

            http://messageboard.donedealpro.com/...ad.php?t=59850

            I said it then and will say it again: Season of the Witch was a great script and a deserved Nicholl-winner. Through terrible casting and direction, the film lost much of what was great on the page.
            I did a search, really I did.

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            • #7
              Re: Great scripts destroyed by poor direction

              I thought Source Code dropped the ball, but I know they rewrote that script from the draft I read as well. Still, I have zero faith in Duncan Jones. I know others liked Moon, but I found it slow, wandering, and anticlimactic. But that's not all on him--there wasn't enough story to work with.

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              • #8
                Re: Great scripts destroyed by poor direction

                Originally posted by jboffer View Post
                I thought Source Code dropped the ball, but I know they rewrote that script from the draft I read as well. Still, I have zero faith in Duncan Jones. I know others liked Moon, but I found it slow, wandering, and anticlimactic. But that's not all on him--there wasn't enough story to work with.
                Yeah...you're definitely in the minority on that one. "Moon" was amazing.

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                • #9
                  Re: Great scripts destroyed by poor direction

                  Gotta agree with Source Code. Wasn't "destroyed", still a solid movie, but it lost so much of what I loved about the script; the cold, sterile atmosphere, the claustrophobia. I did like some of Billy Ray's improvements, think it was more on Duncan than on the rewrite.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Great scripts destroyed by poor direction

                    Moon is great. Atmospheric, visually beautiful, impeccably acted and solidly directed. Script was amazing too.

                    I really liked Remember Me, a spec by Will Fetters. Great writing and a surprising, sneaks-up-on-you ending. Then they cast Robert Pattinson and the film becomes a sappy piece of sh|t that did away with the small, nuanced hints that made the ending so great. But the script truly is a wonderful read.

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                    • #11
                      Re: Great scripts destroyed by poor direction

                      I liked MOON because of Rockwell's performance. Nothing much more than that.
                      "There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."
                      -Maya Angelou

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                      • #12
                        Re: Great scripts destroyed by poor direction

                        DE JA VU. Loved the Rossio/Marsilli script. Rossio was so bummed at the finished project that he didn't want to talk about it. Easy to see why.
                        "There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."
                        -Maya Angelou

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                        • #13
                          Re: Great scripts destroyed by poor direction

                          Originally posted by WriteByNight View Post
                          DE JA VU. Loved the Rossio/Marsilli script. Rossio was so bummed at the finished project that he didn't want to talk about it. Easy to see why.
                          Agreed. Great material treated like more generic junk from the Tony Scott Crap Factory.

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                          • #14
                            Re: Great scripts destroyed by poor direction

                            Originally posted by ddollar View Post
                            The Beaver.
                            I was going to say the same thing. Except it was casting and direction. I loved that script so much.

                            Also, Things We Lost in the Fire by Allan Loeb. Another spec I loved that didn't quite gel on screen.

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                            • #15
                              Re: Great scripts destroyed by poor direction

                              Originally posted by Biohazard View Post
                              Agreed. Great material treated like more generic junk from the Tony Scott Crap Factory.
                              Man on Fire, Enemy of the State, Days of Thunder, Top Gun, The Last Boy Scout, Spy Game, Domino, True Romance, etc...

                              Not quite a "crap factory."

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