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Jerry Cornelius film

Tamayyurt

05:25 / 25.11.02

Has anyone seen the Jerry Cornelius movie of the novel The Final Programme? How did this translate to film? Was it any good?

Our Lady of The Two Towers

09:08 / 25.11.02

I've seen clips, it looks like it starts off quite well but then gets bogged down in psychedalia. I think Moorcock has disowned it as wank (there was an interview with him in SFX I think, many moons ago, when it was good) and considering the amount he's churned out, he should know.

gridley

13:42 / 25.11.02

It was better than I expected, but not good as I'd hoped.

Very much like John Pertwee era Dr. Who episode. Weird guy leading military types through funhouse of horrors. "Don't step on that floor board or your atoms will be turned inside out!" That kind of stuff. I'm trying to remember if they played down the whole incest thing or just cut it out entirely. I think the latter.

Definitely worth watching if you're a fan of the books. Definitely not worth watching if you're not...

Rollo Kim, on location

15:03 / 25.11.02

It's watcheable but it misses out so much. Moorcock hated it because it turned against a lot of what he was trying to do - they made it a bit sexist and homophobic somehow. And his sister is just his sister...

Tamayyurt

15:51 / 25.11.02

I wonder how a JC movie would fare these days? Besides better special effects and fight scenes... do you think they'd keep the bisexual and incestual elements? How'd they get the Harry Potter people to be so loyal to the books? We need to see some of that here (only aloud to change things that've been outdated and things like that.)

(wonder if grat morrison would be interested in writing a screen play?)

Who would make a good director?

adamswish

16:33 / 25.11.02

I wonder how a JC movie would fare these days?

It's a good question Imp. For my money I think it would work. Hype up the simularities (and apologies if spelt wrong) between the ideas of Moorcock and modern stuff like Fight Club and the Matrix (or am I about to be crucified).

The film may keep the bisexual nature of cornelious in but I would think the incest would be cut, too many sacred cows out there still.

The re-writting of Cornelious (I guess that's what you're reffering to when you mention Potter) has always been done. Moorcock had JC as an open source character and a few writers have done their bit for the english assassin. Actually one of the easier to get JC books is "The New Nature of the Catastrophe" which gathers a fair few of the "other" stories featuring JC or the other characters.

The important question is which of the four books would they do?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

17:08 / 25.11.02

I saw Final Programme on TV years ago (I seem to remember quite liking it, but, as I say, it was years ago) and have been unable to get hold of it since.

If they were gonna do a modern JC, I think they could do a lot worse than having another stab at that one.

gridley

20:51 / 25.11.02

Yeah, Final Programme is definitely the one to do in film. It needs a director that loves the material though, someone willing to labor to bring it to the screen. If a studio just assigned someone to it, it would be awful.

The last time I thought of a new JC movie was watching CQ. Before that, not since Velvet Goldmine.

videodrome

20:55 / 25.11.02

How'd they get the Harry Potter people to be so loyal to the books?

Easy. The films are based entirely on the fandom of the books, a rabid, detail-obsessed bunch that in short time will rival only Trekkies in their unswerving loyalty to every last speck of the creator's impulse. The producers are afraid of alienating this fanbase by deviating from the books, ably demonstrated by the second film's adherance to the source, which is even more dogged than that of the initial offering.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

21:52 / 25.11.02

I was thinking about this whole "who'd direct" question, and I'd go out on a limb and say Peter Christopherson (from Coil).

A) he already makes music videos as his day job, and to really get the whole pop-culture thing across a music video director would seem an obvious choice...

B) he's got the grounding in drugs and the occult.

C) the soundtrack would be ace.

D) it'd be interesting to see him do a feature.

Of course, you do all realise, don't you, that if they ever DID decide to make another Cornelius movie, they'd fuck it up by getting Nicholas bastarding Cage to play him. And he'd probably rescue some children or something as well.

Tamayyurt

22:40 / 25.11.02

Chairman Maominstoat- they'd fuck it up by getting Nicholas bastarding Cage to play him.

Which brings up the question, along with revulsion and horrible visuals, who do you think would make a decent, if not great, JC?

And I'll get into "The New Nature of the Catastrophe" in exactly a month...I've asked Santa for it.

rizla mission

12:16 / 26.11.02

If we're talking dream projects, I think Terry Gilliam directing The English Assassin would be pretty incredible..

I think the main trouble re: studio interference etc. would be keeping the non-linear nature of the books (for want of a better word) narrative together.. admittedly people like Lynch get away with making films that don't make sense, but I can't think of any way a studio's going to go with a film that has all the trappings of a big budget adventure movie, but no conventional storyline whatsoever..

Rollo Kim, on location

12:34 / 26.11.02

Gilliam would be perfect. Zeppelin's over gas-light London. Amazing. For the last couple of years Moorcock keeps saying he's working on scripts for adaptations of some of his other works.

There's so much they could do with the Cornelius works. But it won't happen. And yeah, if it did it would be a total disaster. They turned Doctor Who into The Terminator for fuck's sake.

gridley

17:56 / 26.11.02

They turned Doctor Who into The Terminator for fuck's sake.

I'm sorry. They did what?

Rollo Kim, on location

18:15 / 26.11.02

You didn't notice? The Master, in his shades and his bloody leather coat... bits of him falling off...

adamswish

18:52 / 26.11.02

I think Terry Gilliam directing The English Assassin would be pretty incredible..

Are you sure? All I remeber from that novel is JC was in a coffin for most of it. Oh and the battleship bombing the seaside town the Cornelious family were holidaying at.

Gilliam is a good choice, He's shown he can turn the strange "unfilmable" novel into a decent movie with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

For me it should be either The Final Programme or Cure for Cancer. Actually the second with someone like Laurance Fishborne as JC, thus safing on make up and stopping any "black and white minstrel"esque back lash in the press.

Tamayyurt

16:00 / 27.11.02

Man, I've been trying to find this film and I can't get it anywhere! They have all sorts of shit at Virgin but no Final Programme! And I don't want to get it online cause if it sucks I want to be able to return it and get something else

with out a problem.

Tamayyurt

16:10 / 28.11.02

Laurance Fishborne is a bit old, no?

bjacques

23:07 / 28.11.02

As far as I know, The Final Programme is only available on DVD, via the U.S. distributor Anchor Bay. That also means it's probably NTSC, which older DVD players can't play. Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen looks the part. Jon Finch did an ok job in the original. When I was in London last I checked all the obvious places, like Forbidden Planet, but no dice. Maybe when I go to the US for Xmas I'll get lucky. But Gilliam can't do the remake yet, because he has to do The Master and Margarita first.

Knight's Move

23:56 / 28.11.02

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Ahem...sorry.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

09:49 / 29.11.02

God, if Gilliam did The Master and Margarita it would rock. More so if he had Bruce Campbell as the cat. (Funnily enough, the first time I typed that it came out as The Master and Magritte... which would also be interesting.)

Gilliam doing JC would also rock somewhat largely. Hmmm... th casting question. Richard E Grant? Or could we go back in time and catch Alan Rickman when he was younger?

Peroxide would, of course, be obligatory.

Rollo Kim, on location

10:50 / 29.11.02

The Condition of Musak!!!!!! Where he's just a scrawny kid trying to get gigs for his band! ['or IS he?']And the big Christmas party with Harlequin etc.

rizla mission

11:28 / 29.11.02

Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen looks the part

ahem.

NO HE DOESN'T.

Unless you were taking the piss that is.

bjacques

22:56 / 24.01.03

Finally got the DVD. It's even better and camper than I remember it. And Jon Finch does indeed fit the part better than Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen. Coming soon via the usual channels (Stoatie, check your DVD plays US, or you can do the firmware upgrade!).

Yagg

04:51 / 25.01.03

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