💬 Weekly Question: What film would you force Hollywood to make?
Weekly questions’ comment sections are left open for one week. This thread is now locked.
Back in November, a Bluesky account posed a question I’m going to steal and pose to you myself today. But with it, I’m going to include comments made by novelist Celeste Ng about it. I think her thoughts provide very necessary perspective, which I’ll be interested to see what you do with. Here’s the question in its entirety for you?
If you were a despotic president, what film would you force Hollywood to make?
The original poster, Ben K., answered his own question with Kill Bill, Vol. 3 - a film Quentin Tarantino fans have been clamoring for since he started speculating (apparently for fun) about it. Others weighed in with similarly masculine titles directed by white men. Ng took issue with that. Perhaps you will, too.
Now it’s your turn to weigh in. I’d love you to consider Ng’s thoughts as you do, both to challenge yourself but also reflect on what she might make of whatever mythical film you’d like to see. To be clear, no choice you put forth will be incorrect. Your passions are your own, but this could turn into a great opportunity for us to reflect on both our tastes and our cultural programming.
Personally, my vote goes with Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Dune. Jodorowsky’s imagination is…insane. And Frank Herbert’s novel is my Bible. I’m not confident I’d have loved the result of this collision of instincts, but I’m 100% certain it would’ve been one of the most exciting things I’ve ever seen on screen. (Extra points for you if you weigh in about what this might say about me, my taste, and my cultural programming.)
As always, remember: we’re a community at 5AM StoryTalk. Our opinions, like our identities and cultural positions, vary. Engage thoughtfully and considerately. In other words, as I like to say: don’t be an asshole.
I'd take it in the other direction: I'd ban all sequels and remakes for ten years. That way we'd get to see some new (and hopefully fresh!) properties.
Not sure I’d force it but Harry Turtledove’s best alternate history novel, Rue Britannia, might appeal to a lot of people - Shakespeare trying to survive in an England under Spanish rule while Elizabeth languishes in the Tower. Both the Spanish and the English nationalist underground are trying to recruit Will to write a new play espousing their point of view while he’s trying just to survive. The novel drew heavily on Kit Marlowe’s Tamberlane for the excerpts from what Shakespeare showed both sides trying to satisfy them.