Pass the soma! We’re going to the feelies! Ridley Scott is eager to begin his first sci-fi film in two decades, with a new adaptation of Brave New World starring Leonardo DiCaprio (who owns the rights to the Aldus Huxley’s novel of futuristic dystopia). First heard about this in March, but it seemed too good be true. More oblique hints revealed in an interview in Eclipse magazine yesterday seem to solidify the rumors:
QUESTION: You directed Blade Runner and Alien, which are seminal science fiction films. Why have you not done more science fiction films?
RIDLEY SCOTT: I am going to do one. I waited for a book for 20 years and I have got the book. I am not going to tell you what the book is but that film is going to probably be written within the next month. That will definitely be what I do next after Nottingham, the Robin Hood film that I am doing now in England.
The screenplay is by Andrew Nicholls (not Andrew Niccol of Gattaca fame). For those of you (like me) who dozed off in high school Lit class,
Huxley imagines a future world where children are processed genetically in bottles rather than conceived ‘naturally’, and belong to one of five classes according to their intelligence: from perfect “Alphas” down to moronic “Epsilons”. Learning takes place by repetition teaching during sleep, but basically this consists of enforcing certain behaviour patterns through suggestion. This is backed up by the legal drug ’soma’ that pacifies people through a false sense of fulfilment.
hmm… Apologies to all those who wish we’d keep political discourse out of movie news. Directors just won’t cooperate.
“You got politics on my movie!”
“No, you got movies in my politics!”
hey, wait a minute! It’s delicious!
You can read the entire novel online. Full of fun stuff like this:
Brave New World takes a look at human obsessions with pleasure. In the society in the book, there are several quick and easy ways of feeling good. First of all, there is soma, a readily available drug used to escape from reality for a few hours or a few days. [as in Prozac, Paxil, or Fox News] The “feelies” are a common form of entertainment. The audience sees, hears, smells, and feels a sort of action-adventure adult movie. ['Wii Move You'] Casual sex is a third popular way to spend spare time. [Some things never change.]
So what does this mean for fans (those nihilistic fans) of Blood Meridian?
QUESTION: Are you still planning to make Blood Meridian?
RIDLEY SCOTT: We got it down as a screenplay and the problem is that it is so savage. But that’s what it is. If you did it properly it would be an X-certificate. But you can’t apologise for the violence and you can’t quantify the violence and you shouldn’t try to explain the violence. It is what it is…an exercise in brutality, savagery and violence. For the most part it is probably relatively accurate. It shows the flipside to Dances With Wolves of how the United States was probably taken. It was taken by the throat.
Funny, all these years I thought the flipside to Dances With Wolves was Goodfellas. But I’ll happily accept Blood Meridan as an alternative answer. X-certificate, NC-17, whatever it takes.
16 Responses for "Ridley Scott’s Brave New World"
I just groaned out loud. There are so many talented actors out there, why must DiCaprio be in every movie?
DiCaprio??? Ohhh, Cr*p no.
The good news is, maybe this means Scott is shelving Cormac McCarthy’s BLOOD MERIDIAN. The best American Novel of the last 50 years is also unfilmable. EsPEcially by Ridley Scott.
Daniel, how would you like a nice cup of SHUT THE FUCK UP?
I mean, would you whine like this if it was Depp* or Bale?
Fact is, Leo is a movie star, and yeah I got fucking sick of that TITANIC shit years ago, but you know what?
Under Scorsese, that shit has grown as an actor, and hey I still say he should have gotten an Oscar nod for THE DEPARTED instead of BLOOD DIAMOND…even though he was good** as an asshole in that one.
And hey, he was fun in CATCH ME IF YOU CAN.
So yeah, don’t hate Leo just because he’ll bang more ass than you will in a year, or that he and his buddy Tobey will drink their livers to death by 40.
*=Hell, he was Dillinger in Mann’s PUBLIC ENEMIES before he quit and Depp took over.
**=Though people in South Africa tell me that accent was Dick Van Dyke/MARY POPPINS laughably bad.
[Ryan "the kid" Adams wanders in after Judge "RRA" Holden clears a path, blazing a stark trail across the endless plain, a shimmering mirage of hellish heat lapping the sand like primal tidepools of blood... or something. Dusty round turds of goats strewn around too... probably.]
ouch, you guys are so being so rough on Leo. Gotta expect that since he owns the rights to Brave New World (with his father) at the very least he’ll be dedicated whole-heartedly to seeing it done right. Even if I had no personal opinion and no clue at all regarding DiCaprio’s relative strengths and deficiencies as an actor, I’d be willing to defer to the seasoned judgment of directors like Scorsese and Scott who seem to deem him worthy.
I will concede, A-Dog, the prospect of Blood Meridian gashed and geysered across the screen is a little disturbing. Not so much because it’s unfilmable, but more because if it’s possible to faithfully film Blood Meridian would the resulting movie be unwatchable? (and would anyone want to ride home with the guy who invited us to see it on a first date?)
I had to set the novel aside several times after certain passages wiped me out — had to get away from it for days or weeks at a time. Lots of people had trouble with the brutality of There Will Blood, but at least there weren’t a lot scalpings.
Interesting that you say it’s unfilmable, “especially by Scott.” I wonder who you think might be capable of filming Blood Meridian, A-Dog (or anybody else who wants to think about it.) I’m not asking to be confrontational. I’m sincerely curious.
Glad you asked, Ryan. My vote goes to Terrence Malick. Probably out of luck, I know, but a boy can dream. I thought of John Hilcoat even before he was pegged for THE ROAD (can’t wait, btw). And, just for the hell of it, PT Anderson has proven he can do just about anything.
Don’t get me wrong, I think Ridley Scott is one hell of a film director in his own right. I just don’t think this is his bag. For the same reason I also have no desire to see a Scorsese BLOOD MERIDIAN…on second thought, I’d be first in line for that, but I digress.
I agree with your unfilmable/unwatchable point. I just feel like it’s impossible to include everything. Tree Of Dead Babies, anyone? Just don’t think anyone WOULD film that. Maybe I’m wrong.
I pretty much think Ridley Scott is the right director for The Brave New World because of the job he did in ….THELMA AND LOUISE.
I don’t see Leo in the lead for BNW. Ryan Gosling, maybe. Channing Tatum.
[...] speculation now mounts over what said novel could be. Awards Daily believes it could be Brave New World, Aldus Huxley’s novel of futuristic dystopia which for the [...]
I think this has the potential to be fantastic. Leo needs to freshen up his director Rolodex anyway.
Hey, I like Leo. He’s good.
I’m South African. His accent in Blood Diamond was terrible. A good effort for sure, but still hugely distracting. & funny. There was plenty laughter, ‘bru’.
His pre-Titanic work is really good & really interesting, and his recent work with Scorsese is excellent.
The reason Leo DiCaprio gets to be in this is because he is very very rich & has some very important friends. & he owns the rights.
I think he’s a good actor, but i agree, i dunno if this is right for him.
Ryan Gosling is right for everything. But I actually really think he’d be great for this..
RRA: I wasn’t aware of Leo having a drinking problem. He strikes me as smarter than that. I wouldn’t be so sure about the sex bit either as one of his recent partners gave him a 4/10 in that department. You know what? I’m actually glad for that. It shows his focus is on what’s important (his work, the environment, etc) and that his priorities are in order. Agree with everything else you said.
elessar, not as much as a drinking problem, but more like he and Tobey Maguire, if the tabloids are to be believed, are noted…or were noted… for being drinking/clubbing buddies.
And I simply made a joke out of that.
Friedl, yeah you’re not the first South African to tell me the disaster that was Leo’s accent in BD, but then again I’ve heard the same from Bostonians on his tongue* for THE DEPARTED.
Still acted darn good in both anyway.
*=Still, I guess having natives like Damon and Wahlberg** helped ease the pain I guess….or would if I gave a shit.
**=Off the Wall, but Damon/Wahlberg/Ben Affleck should get together and make a random-ass movie involving Boston, and get it over with. Get Affleck to direct*** and we’re good.
***=GONE BABY GONE**** was a well-made movie.
****=OK, I’ll quit this shit now.
Thanks for keeping this topic hoppin’ guys. Busy all day Thurs and couldn’t jump in.
A-Dog, I’d be intrigued by either of those alternative director choices. Extremer the better.
RRA, excellent idea there with your All Drinking, All Swearing, All Bostonian cast. Here’s a hot property they could populate, Dennis Lehane’s latest:
Won’t be in bookstores until Sept 23, but no doubt every decent producer in Hollywood has already read the galley. (or, you know, had their readers’ roommate read it.) They’d better grab it before Clint does. Or Adam Sandler or somebody.
Problem is, how would those Beantown boys ever come up with the scratch to buy the rights?
uh-oh, period piece apparently. (heads up, Marty. Likewise, DDL) We know Casey can carry it off, but how would Ben Affleck look in turn-of-the-century drag? Have Monahan juice it up. Whole new genre: Fin de siècle noir.
elessar, are we sure that 4/10 tag doesn’t refer to girth and length?
It’s been 18 years since I read Brave New World, but I remember reading it back then and just reeling from how good it was. Leo does great work and Ridley is capable of greatness, so count me as psyched.
[...] /film has the news that Ridley Scott has added Joe Haldeman’s 1974 novel The Forever War to list of movies to which he’s attached. (after Nottingham, and before Brave New World?) [...]
Меня заинтекресовала информация предоставленная автором темы. А если ли ещё статьи по этому направлению?
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