Maybe the most important one of all, grinned “Flags of our Fathers” star Adam Beach, revealing exclusively to MTV News his plans to star in a live-action “Turok” movie.
“We just finished the animated movie and now we’re going into the feature film movie [which should lens] hopefully in a couple years. We’re about to set up meetings to develop a script and put it out there,” Beach enthused. “I’ll have to beef up, and be a good guy, and save the world!”
“He’s the first Native American superhero that I ever looked up to,” he said. “He basically [comes from] a family where they’re protecting our universe from an alternate universe that wants to take it over. He uses his wits, and his might, and his special bow and arrow to take over the world.”
In most incarnations of the Turok story, Turok didn't save the world, much less "take it over." He merely saved the denizens of a "lost world" (i.e., a valley or pocket dimension) from rampaging dinosaurs. Saving 6 billion people vs. saving 600 or 6,000...slight difference.
It sounds as though Beach wants to make an unsubtle, action-oriented version of Turok. Which is too bad. This is an opportunity to counteract the stereotype of Indians as savage warriors. Instead, the movie may reinforce it.
I talked to Beach briefly about my writing a script for him. Undoubtedly he's forgotten about it and will go with an experienced screenwriter. Which again is too bad. I'd do Turok as a sophisticated, sci-fi-oriented, time-travel story that would blow other movies out of the water.
For more on the subject, see The Best Indian Movies.
Writerfella here --
ReplyDeleteWow, Adam Beach as a Kiowa? Um, er, uh, who gets to play Andar?
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
Is Andar in the video game? I'm guessing this movie will be more like the latest iteration of the game than the 50-year-old comic book.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you can play Turok's father or some other Kiowa elder. Why don't you audition?
Writerfella here --
ReplyDeleteNope, writerfella already has been there, done that in 1993 when he auditioned to play Adam Beach's father in SQUANTO: A WARRIOR'S STORY. If anything, at age 67, writerfella likely would play Turok's grandfather or maybe even a dinosaur...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
Did Beach personally reject you for the role in Squanto? Unless he did, I'm not sure how that's relevant.
ReplyDeleteYour age difference with Beach is the same now as it was then. He'll be 36 in November, so you're about 31 years apart. You're closer in age to his father than to his grandfather.
writerfella here --
ReplyDeletewriterfella was 52 back then and, no, Adam Beach at age 21 in his first major movie role would not have had casting approval. Rather, the Disney casting was done by Lynn Stalmaster (who incidentally thanked writerfella for being one of the few auditioners to know his lines). writerfella never knew who played the part eventually (hopefully NOT Saginaw Grant!) but if he was to be rejected at all, it was good to have it done by Lynn Stalmaster himself...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'