Who should Direct?

Specter

Specter

Ghostbuster Meets World
Staff member
Knight of the Noble Order
Royal Guard
Who do you think should direct Narnia 4: The Silver Chair?
 
Randall Wallace of Braveheart fame. At least he wouldn't turn every hero into a useless moron, the way Andrew A-dumb-son loves to do.
 
Who should direct The Silver Chair?

Me.

No, seriously; I really AM an aspiring filmmaker. It's not gonna happen for The Silver Chair, but once I can scrape together a few hundred thousand dollars and get a feature film under my belt (which should happen in the next year or two), I'm DEFINITELY going to launch an all-out campaign to direct The Horse and His Boy. It's my favorite of the series and I've been planning on trying to direct it for years. I even have tons of notes and a marked up copy of the book for when I eventually start developing my screenplay for it.

Here's my most recent short film if you guys want to check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4H0gJ4TwYc

It's about 18 minutes long, so if you'd rather check out the trailer before watching it to see if you think it will be worth your time, here's the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FAiEhQJzJA

It's called Liberation. I am the writer, director, cinematographer, and editor. I also cameo as a prisoner at the 9:55 mark. It's a dystopian, vaguely science-fiction action film set in the near future. I don't want to say too much more because it would spoil some of the twists. Just a heads up for anyone sensitive to violence, it DOES contain quite a bit PG-13 level blood and violence. But it also has a very explicitly Christian message that will make sense if you stick it out to the end.

So... What do you guys think? If you've watched my short film and seen what I'm capable of doing with virtually no money and an EXTREMELY tight shooting schedule, do you think you would you trust me to direct one of the Narnia films a few years down the road? Would you like to see someone like me who is an avowed fan, an up-and-coming filmmaker, and a serious Christian who isn't afraid of the religious aspects of the series take the directing (and writing) reigns?
 
David West said:
So... What do you guys think? If you've watched my short film and seen what I'm capable of doing with virtually no money and an EXTREMELY tight shooting schedule, do you think you would you trust me to direct one of the Narnia films a few years down the road?
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Down the road... possibly. I think you have to make yourself a name with a big hit either in Hollywood or independent before you are called in an assignment like directing a Narnia movie. But, anything can happen.

*Spoilers for David's film:
I did see your entire film. I think it was very good. A little shaky on the acting and dialog but good. But I'm an old guy who is always thinking ahead and I could almost see the end, especially after the incident where the protagonist had some "help." If that part hadn't been there, I probably would not have guessed it. And stopping at a fence rather than ramming it with the big truck looks very suspicious. But the film is good. I have no doubt you are capable of doing much better if you have more time and resources.
 
Part of me would like Guillermo Del Toro .We need some one whose great with creature effects and SC has more otherworldly creatures then any other Narnia book between Puddleglum, the salamanders, the gnomes, et all.
 
BarbarianKing said:
Down the road... possibly. I think you have to make yourself a name with a big hit either in Hollywood or independent before you are called in an assignment like directing a Narnia movie. But, anything can happen.
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That's what I'm working on right now. I'm working on a feature film script right now called The Smoking Gun. It's a gritty, modern day western about the war on drugs. I should have a first draft of the script done by the end of the year. I've been developing the story for about three years, and I'm currently working on developing my script from the 16,000+ word treatment that I've wrote up for it a while ago. Once my script is done and refined a bit in a few months, I'm going to start seeking funding. Between crowd funding and a few connections I've been able to make I think I should realistically be able to get several hundred thousand dollars to make the film.

Hopefully I'll be able to shoot The Smoking Gun either late next year or early 2015. I think once I have that film under my belt I'll have a reasonably realistic chance of being able to land the HAHB directing gig, as it likely won't even start until 2017 or 2018 at the earliest. There've been quite a few directors who have made the leap straight from commercials and music videos to massive blockbusters. Joseph Kosinski's and Rupert Sanders spring to mind as recent examples. Their first feature films were Tron Legacy and Snow White and the Huntsman, respectively. Before that, neither one had done any features or even had a particularly extensive list of credits.

So with that in mind, I think that having a decent feature film under my belt will be enough to give me a real shot. And since I'm confident that my modest 6-figure-budgeted feature will look like it had a a solid 7-figure budget, I think that will help. It's going to be tough, no doubt, but I have a pretty detailed plan that I'm going to put into motion as soon as I wrap The Smoking Gun. The slow production of the series to date has actually been a boon for me. The timeline is in a perfect place right now for me to make this happen!
 
BarbarianKing said:
*Spoilers for David's film:
I did see your entire film. I think it was very good. A little shaky on the acting and dialog but good. But I'm an old guy who is always thinking ahead and I could almost see the end, especially after the incident where the protagonist had some "help." If that part hadn't been there, I probably would not have guessed it. And stopping at a fence rather than ramming it with the big truck looks very suspicious. But the film is good. I have no doubt you are capable of doing much better if you have more time and resources.
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I guess I should address a couple of things here, too... (Spoilers for my film will follow, so if you haven't seen it yet, scroll up a few posts and watch it!)

I made this film for a Christian speed film making competition called the 168 project. The idea is that at the beginning of the competition you are assigned a bible verse (I got Exodus 30:16) and have 10 days to write a script and plan your film, followed by 7 days (AKA, 168 hours) to shoot and edit it. So this film was made in it's entirety (well, almost... I spend a little bit more time polishing it up in post before I released it online) in a week and with a budget of less than $800.

Originally, the script DID have the truck ramming through the gate (as well as running over one of the gate guards), but I had to change this on the day of filming for several reasons. The main reason was that the gate only opened one way, which was something I hadn't realized before. And for several reasons, it was not going to work to film from the other side, so busting through became impossible. Besides that, my film was already going to need some serious cuts to end up under the 10 minute time limit, and the rather elaborate action scene that was originally planned to bring the film to a close with the truck blocking the guards' pursuit would have added several more minutes to the run time. And finally... We were just straight up out of time to shoot any more. So I decided to end it with the truck stopping at the gate.

I actually think it makes quite a bit of sense this way. Saul knows he is dying, and that he can't keep going too much longer, so it's not like he's trying to save himself. He absolutely COULD have busted through the gate, but he chose not to because if he had, the chase could have gone on indefinitely. So instead he stopped at the fence, which allowed him to hold up the guards just long enough that the prisoners he was helping could escape.

As much as I WANTED to have a scene where he smashes through the fence and runs over a guard, this was much more feasible given the project's limitations. I can't wait until the day when I actually have a budget and the luxury of doing virtually whatever I want with a film...
 
Here's my first crazy idea for a director: Andy Serkis. For those who might not know, he's the guy who played Gollum in the Lord of the Rings, Ceaser the Ape from the new Planet of the Apes films and several other roles.

He was recently the Second Unit director on the Hobbit Films and is also directing a Jungle Book film coming out soon. I think he could really be an up-and-coming director. Plus I think they'll probably end up using some amount of motion capture in the Silver Chair film - The giants, the underworld people, even some of the animals, etc. And Andy Serkis is the king of motion capture... (Although that's shouldn't be the main reason for hiring him since almost every fantasy, si-fi film these days uses motion capture.)
 
Machiathemarshwiggle said:
Here's my first crazy idea for a director: Andy Serkis. For those who might not know, he's the guy who played Gollum in the Lord of the Rings, Caesar the Ape from the new Planet of the Apes films and several other roles.

He was recently the Second Unit director on the Hobbit Films, and is also directing a Jungle Book film coming out soon. I think he could really be an up-and-coming director. Plus I think they'll probably end up using some amount of motion capture in the Silver Chair film -- The giants, the underworld people, even some of the animals, etc. And Andy Serkis is the king of motion capture... (Although that shouldn't be the main reason for hiring him since almost every fantasy, sci-fi film these days uses motion capture.)
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Mister Serkis COULD NOT possibly be any WORSE than Andrew Adamson.

There is a family by the last name of Burns which has been making ambitious low-budget movies for the Christian market. John Rhys-Davies played a villain in their latest movie, "Beyond the Mask." If they could be at the helm of a "Silver Chair" movie, they might actually film something resembling WHAT MISTER LEWIS WROTE.

 
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