Shoot me now

[yendi]

So, not surprisingly, someone decided to do a new King Solomon's Mines pic (since Alan Quartermain is now in the public eye again). Cool -- we need more good adventure flicks, and we need to forget the mid-'80s version.

But instead of casting someone, oh, qualified for the roll, they've cast Patrick Swayze.

Wait. It gets worse.

It won't be seen on the big screen, where it belongs. It's being filmed for The Hallmark Channel.

Of course, there's nothing to prevent someone else from trying to do the project better. But this is not a good start.

At least there's a new Indy flick in two years.

Comments

[phantom_wolfboy]

Swayze might surprise you. Have you seen Steel Dawn?

Am I the only person not looking foreward to a new dose of racism and sexism disguised as a big-budget adventure film?

[yendi]

I take it you're not an Indy fan?

And no, never seen Steel Dawn.

[phantom_wolfboy]

Steel Dawn is a pretty good little post-apocalyptic western/wuxia flick playing off Shane. Swayze plays the nameless swordsman who protects the village from the evil baron. Not perfect, but it made me look at Swayze as the martial artist he apparantly is--and drew me to Roadhouse, which is perfect.

I'm not convinced, by the way, that Swayze is the perfect man for the role of Alan Quatermain; I'm just saying keep an open mind. The man has a talent for B-movies.

As for Indy . . . well, I was. But the films don't hold up to repeated viewing; the flaws become apparant. And when Thelma and Louise came out a little while after Last Crusade, there was a lot of fuss about how anti-male it was. I remember the critics fussing that they couldn't find a single sympathetic male figure in the film (never mind that I could find two, possibly three). And I thought about Last Crusade; how it only had one woman in it, and she's a Nazi who uses our heroes to get to the Grail, then die. Not one protest from the critics (well possibly from feminist critics, but who publishes them?). Kate Capshaw's character in Temple of Doom does nothing but run around and scream. She does get to rescue Indy once by pulling on a lever, but she accomplishes nothing else in the whole film. The girl in the first film gets a lot of positive press, but other than punching the yak herder, what does she do? She gets kidnapped and needs Indy to rescue her.

I won't even go into the racism thing; that should be obvious enough

new Indy film

[daoistraver.livejournal.com]

what will it be - Indiana Jones and the Mystical Rocking Chair? :)

Re: new Indy film

[yendi]

What, you don't think Ford and Connery are the action stars they once were? ;-)

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

Compared to the Richard Chamberlain nightmare version of the mid-80's, nigh well anything would be an improvement.

[yendi]

Very true. Hard to believe that the low point of Sharon Stone's career could be something other than Sliver.

[terracinque.livejournal.com]

The thing to remember is that, fun though his fiction might be, Haggard was not Alan Moore. He wasn't even Edgar Rice Burroughs, for that matter. So Patrick Swayze is pretty much just what the source material deserves.

And I bet this version will at least be better than the first filmed version (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0029081), from 1937. It was mainly a lot of walking through the jungle, interrupted occasionally by the vocal stylings of Paul Robeson.

(I have it on VHS if you'd like to check it out.)

[yendi]

True -- Haggard, unlike, say, Verne or Sabatini, doesn't always hold up all that well. The real question, though, is whether this will approach the Granger/Kerr version. I'm pretty sure I know the answer.

[terracinque.livejournal.com]

"No?"

[piratejenny.livejournal.com]

Oh goody, here comes my migraine again. I hatehatehate Patrick Swayze. And for the Hallmark Channel? Sheesh.

Makes me hope even more for a Pirates sequel.

[unwilly.livejournal.com]

Yes the Hallmark Channel is legendary for its action adventure line.

My favorite would have to be Alan Alda as Remo The Destroyer. Or maybe Vanessa Redgrave as Foxy Brown.

As for Swayzee, his involvement pretty much will ensure that this film never gets made. His last 4 projects either died or went straight to video store, record over me bins.

Un