What stories from history would you like to see made into movies?

An Andrew Jackson mini-series, in the vain of HBO's John Adams, could be great.

 

The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, which most Americans today probably know nothing about, would make a great docudrama. Actually calling it a "riot" is an understatement -- it was more like a small war.

I've always wanted to see an epic-scale, fact-based disaster flick about the Halifax Explosion of 1917, which destroyed half the city and left at least 2000 dead and thousands more injured.

 

Being from Omaha, I'd love a film version of the story of Tom Dennison. Starring, of course, this man.

 

Andrew Jackson. Now there's a dicy biography waiting to happen. The man accomplished a great deal, but talk about a racist. Fascinating history, but yowza.

 

The events and aftermath of Perry's "Black Ships", told from both, an American and Japanese perspective (similar to Tora, Tora, Tora). You'd probably need a miniseries for that.

 

There was a Docudrama CBC did awhile back about that, but yeah, would make for an interesting movie.

 

History from the point of view of my high school:

First there was Greece, then Greece went away. Then there was Rome. Then Rome went away.
Then there were Dark Ages.
Then all the sudden, Henry VII was king of England. His descendants killed a bunch of people and exchanged time on the throne.
Then there were a bunch of European explorers.
Then the Colonies were formed in the New World, and a little later they rebelled.
And then finally, there was the US.

Nothing happened in Asia between Marco Polo visiting it and Communism. Nothing happened in Africa until Europeans decided to start kidnapping people from there.

So yes, any movie focusing on parts of African or Asian history would be awesome. I've read some old Chinese literature that I think would make wonderful films.

 

I'd love to see the life story of Harriet Quimby.

Also, I think a dramatization of Grace Kelly's friendship with Josephine Baker would be fantastic.

 

The good news is there's a Pompeii movie on the way. It's scheduled for release on the 28th February 2014. The bad news is it's being directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. It stars Kit Harington, Emily Browning, Jared Harris, Kiefer Sutherland, Carrie-Anne Moss, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, and Jessica Lucas.

 

Kit Harrington? He sucks. Gods, how I wish Richard Madden had been cast as Jon Snow. Anyone who saw the RW on GT will know what I mean. What a waste of a talented actor.

 

I know I've said it before on this board, but I'd love to see a movie or miniseries chronicling the building of the Great Wall of China.

 

The Roanoke Disappearance.

There's a Neil Marshall movie just waiting to be made right there!

My luck - Shamadingdong will read this and make it!

BLERGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

 

That's ShamaLAMAdingdong!

 

- The San Francisco 1906 earthquake... in 3D, please. I wanna go back in time and see my hometown as it was then!

- The 1919 Paris Peace Conference, as a 6-7 hour miniseries of statesmen, soldiers, artists, and everyone else in Paris at the time.

- Against All Enemies - the failures to stop 9/11 and the selling of the Iraq War. Not sure what HBO's waiting for on this one... the books was in development at some point, but it's been years since I heard anything about it.

- The Devil in the White City - another film project gone quiet. Not so much because I care about the serial killer story; I just want to see the Chicago Fair re-enacted in glorious detail. Though I'd prefer the San Francisco World's Fairs to get their own movies, of course.

- A JFK double feature, written and filmed as one project, released as two movies some six months apart. Film One is a straight biopic from history; Film Two is a best-guess counterfactual of what might have happened had he survived Dallas.

Anyone can make a movie about an important historical person, living or dead; there's no copyright on public figures, though what they said and wrote is a different story - rumors have it that the MLK estate, for instance, isn't interested in letting a movie quote his most famous speeches unless it really... whitewashes (womp-womp) any of his actual character flaws. But it didn't stop HBO from giving him an origin story of sorts in the pretty-good Boycott.

While I don't doubt that one could make a great Roddenberry biopic totally apart from Trek, I doubt one could finance it, so really one would have to make it at Paramount/CBS, and then you'd have to cast the TOS actors... which would be awkward considering there's the JJ-cast still making movies.

I guess one could make a jaunty/comedic "Roddenberry Begins" sort of movie, ending with him walking into an office to pitch Trek, and casually tweaking history to liberally sprinkle winking foreshadowing throughout his earlier career - space serials he watched growing up, a fellow Army pilot who's quite Spock-like, an Uhura-like secretary at his command, etc. I'd watch that. One might even get away with not having any overt ties to Trek in that way.


... Likewise, the makings of Star Wars and Apocalypse Now would make great flicks.

Good one! He'd make for an excellent miniseries, given the huge breadth of stuff he did. Di Caprio was rumored to be attached to a John Logan TR script for a while... I guess that fell through.

Eh, San Francisco quake pic first, then we'll talk Texas.

 

1Corporate greed that highlights Aspartme or Light bulb conspiracy, or medical companies using people as lab mice
21906 San Francisco earthquake
3The Southern terrorist attack on the SS Sultana and the sheltering of John Wilkes Booth
4Laika aka muttnik
5The extinction of the N.American Eastern Cougar

 

???

Well, that's a new on on me. The Sultana blew up and sank because of a shoddy repair job on a leaky boiler.

Still, the Sultana disaster would make a good direct-to-cable/DVD movie. Probably not enough interest in the subject to warrant a theatrical release.

 

I'd like to see a movie about the glider riders in World War II. While the paratroopers got all the press (even though Band of Brothers is one of my favourite miniseries ever), most people forget that almost a quarter of an Airborne Division were actually landed by glider.

Without them and the heavy weapons and extra supplies they brought with them, the paratroopers would have had a much tougher time during their operations.

 

The Flying Tigers.
The John Wayne movie was okay, but it was mostly made up. The real story was, of course, more interesting.

 

You guys have given some excellent movie ideas that I would love to see filmed.

You know what else I would like to see? One based on the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. I would like to see it named Tiananmen Square, I would like to see internationally famous Hollywood names attached to the project, and I would like to see it given a huge marketing budget with lots and lots of hype.

Then I would like to watch the Chinese government squirm as they try desperately but futilely to prevent their own people from finding out that the movie exists.

 

Ooh, ooh! Joaquin Phoenix as Gene Roddenberry!

A former military officer and outsider who cheated on his wife, had ego issues and yelled at people.

He can have an emotional breakdown and rip sinks out of the wall!