Witcher Movie Done Right.....

[username_3200680]

Witcher Movie Done Right.....

Now that Peter Jackson has put his touch on the Hobbit and to all those who dream like I do everytime you watch L.O.T.R. to yourself, why won't Peter Jackson make a Witcher movie. Does he even know of the Witcher games? I am not sure if he does or not, what I do think is that Peter Jackson is at this point probably the best person to make a real good version of Geralt in all his glory. Especially with all the money that will be flowing in from the Hobbit. I am just curious how many other people think this is a good idea.

 

[Sirnaq]

Subject was discussed already few times.

 

[GuyNwah]

Probably more than a few times />/> I just don't think it has the English-language mass market appeal to justify a very costly production on Peter Jackson's scale. You're supposed to make money on a movie, not eat up the profits from your last one.

If you're going to make one, I wouldn't want it to be a high, wide, and handsome epic anyway. The Witcher tales are very personal and not epic at all. They're about people and "otherness", not about quests and kingdoms. More Gilgamesh than Beowulf. Let David Cronenberg direct it. Then it might be interesting.

 

[chromie92]

Guillermo del Toro anyone?

 

[GuyNwah]

Guillermo del Toro anyone?

I think he could do well by Witcher Geralt. The more I think about his work, the more I like the idea. I would have liked to see his take on The Hobbit, but MGM made a Charlie Foxtrot out of it. He's got so many irons in the fire that he won't be free before 2017 or so, though.

 

[FoggyFishburne]

I hate del Toros style. Too little substance. He relies heavily on shock and awe and manipulating the audience. Don't like him at all.

A Witcher movie done in the European spirit, treating the audience with dignity and respect, with emphasis on heavy themes and intelligent writing could definitely work. Though I have to stress, I don't want to see a Hollywood version. It's gotta be European production, with a European staff, made with a European mentality. The glossy, explosive bullshitty style that Hollywood would offer doesn't jive well with the tone of the Witcher. In fact, they go together as well as oil and water.

 

[Sirnaq]

Rather than a movie i would watch tv series. But rather than a tv series i would let it go.

 

[CostinRaz]

Peter Jackson should not come within 100 yards of the witcher series. He'd just simplify it a lot ( like he simplified the War of the Ring ).

 

[Corylea.723]

Peter Jackson did a nice job with The Lord of the Rings because he adored the books and had done so since he was a kid. His movie adaptations of those books were done at least as much because of that love as because of anything else, and the passion that comes with love will get you a level of quality and care that greed or ambition or other drives won't.

If Jackson were to make a Witcher movie without loving the books, I imagine they'd be reasonably competent but not inspired, and that's something that wouldn't serve him well and wouldn't serve the Witcherverse well.

And much as I liked the LOTR movies, the Witcher tales are different, and I think they need a different sort of director. I'd want to see somebody with a feel for quirkiness and an ability to blend the unusual with the everyday, somebody like Joss Whedon.

The person we need to direct a Witcher movie is someone who has read and loved the books for many years, someone who's making that movie because of passion for the subject. Almost certainly, that means that the director's native tongue will NOT be English, but Polish or Russian or German or ...

Is there a Polish Joss Whedon? That's who I want.

 

[CostinRaz]

Sure. I'll be the first to admit the LOTR movies are fantastic as movies but as adaptations...well they are solid but not great in my view.

The simplification of the Battles of Helm's Deep, Minas Tirith, Osgiliath, Pelennor, Black Gate. Changing Aragorn, Boromir, Denethor, Sauron, Frodo and Sam ( seriously Frodo telling Sam to go home because he trusts Gollum?! ) for the worse. The removal of Imrahil and the other Lords of Gondor etc. The overpowered nature of the Army of the Dead.

Really I can go on here, but I think you get the point.

As for who would make a good witcher movie...there's only director I can trust with that kind of thing to get the complexity, politics, moral ambiguity right and that is Gao Xixi: The director of the Three Kingdoms 2010 TV show.

 

[gregski]

There are some up and coming Polish directors like Wojtek Smarzowski or Marcin Krzysztalowicz that seem to be specializing in dark, grimy stories dealing with complex and ambiguous moral and social issues. Their movies like The Dark House, Rose or "The Raid" are one of the best movies I've seen in past years(yes, including american blockbusters) even considering I've been very critical of our film industry so far. "Rose" and "The Raid" are stories of scarred individuals in the wake of bigger events like war that surround and affect them. Watching those movies often makes you think about humans being monsters(sounds familiar?).

I think if hypothetically those guys were to make a Witcher movie, it would be far from some fantasy epic tale, but rather a dark story about human and non-human nature and all the scum of this world.

 

[wisielec]

If you're going to make one, I wouldn't want it to be a high, wide, and handsome epic anyway. The Witcher tales are very personal and not epic at all. They're about people and "otherness", not about quests and kingdoms. More Gilgamesh than Beowulf. Let David Cronenberg direct it. Then it might be interesting.

Like District 9? Jackson was involved... and gave the Hollywood a finger there too as he skipped 'em completely iirc.

Gregski, you made an interersting point, I didnt even considered polish filmmakers of the "younger" generation. Too many of 'em are involved with tv soap operas (which makes their brain turn into gellatin XD).

BTW its Krzyształowicz I think.

 

[gregski]

Gregski, you made an interersting point, I didnt even considered polish filmmakers of the "younger" generation. Too many of 'em are involved with tv soap operas (which makes their brain turn into gellatin XD).

BTW its Krzyształowicz I think.

Yeah, they are involved in some shitty projects too but their last work is their redemption, at least for me. Hell, even the older generation - Pasikowski and "Pokłosie" (Aftermath) - asks some serious question about morality.

PS. You're right, I'll fix his name.

 

[Blothulfur]

I'm too much of a finicky beggar to like what Jackson did with Tolkiens work, plus everybody seems to whisper conversations in them, bit weird. There was a film called Beowulf and Grendel starring Gerard Butler that I watched a bit back, that really captured the spirit of the Witcher, in that the story was multi layered and ambiguous. Wouldn't mind the director of that to have a pop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGlSAtb-SDw

 

[KnightofPhoenix]

Don't see it happening. The nature of the Witcher does not lend itself to epic spectacles, which is what movies are, more often then not, about.

I mean imagine an adaptation of TW2, with Geralt walking away from Letho. Won't happen, what movie would risk having that as a climax? So they'd make a mandatory fight, and I wouldn't like it.

 

[gab961111.59]

Don't see it happening. The nature of the Witcher does not lend itself to epic spectacles, which is what movies are, more often then not, about.

I mean imagine an adaptation of TW2, with Geralt walking away from Letho. Won't happen, what movie would risk having that as a climax? So they'd make a mandatory fight, and I wouldn't like it.

I hope it wouldn't be about the game. The books don't have many choices like the games.

 

[Aver]

Michael Bay would be awesome director of this movie. You would not believe how many explosions you can put into scene about sword fight.

 

[Sirnaq]

Michael Bay would be awesome director of this movie. You would not believe how many explosions you can put into scene about sword fight.

Or Uwe Boll

 

[Aver]

Or Uwe Boll

Well, the first movie feels like it was directed by him so it wouldn't be nothing fresh .

 

[FoggyFishburne]

Peter Jackson should not come within 100 yards of the witcher series. He'd just simplify it a lot ( like he simplified the War of the Ring ).

Not really fair. The Lord of the Rings movies are adaptations of the books. As an adaptation, you're supposed to adapt the work into another medium while using the strengths of that medium to convey the story as powerfully as possible without loosing the main narrative that was in the original work. He did a fantastic job and I doubt anyone could've done it better. The books are boring and focused on too much stuff that had little to do with the main plot. Jackson eliminated all of that and concentrated on what the books were about while ensuring that it visually reflected the books' tone, mood and settings.

And if you're talking about simplify in the sense of "dumbing it down for the audiences that might not have read the books" then I have no idea what you're talking about. I've read the books, he included the most important bits. Still can't believe you're expecting a 100% accurate representation of a tale told in books, to unfold the same way in a visual medium. Especially since there are the extended editions of each movie, I can't really imagine what more he could put in there. Was Tom Bombadil and the Barrow Downs really that essential to the plot?

I know it's cool to hate something that's popular but come on. Elitism isn't sexy.