Whose amazing life-story would you like to see turned into a big-budget film? (1 Viewer)

[Geldo]

Suggestions and reasons why?

 

[Semper]

There is a Vietnam vet I met a few years ago who won the Medal of Honor. His last name was Lynch. Just a fantastic human. It would have to be a fiction based on real events but I would for sure watch it.

Allen James Lynch - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[SWJJ]

Mine, assuming they paid me big money for the rights, not so much as my life story is so intriguing, just that I want the big payday.

 

[Sailorsaint]

Putin....oh wait....Borat....nevermind.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Richard Pryor - best stand up of all time (I’ll fight you!) crazy life

Jim Henson - read his biography. Great story

Marvin Gaye (there have been several false starts, include one that was nearly done filming before they ran out of money)

I’d like to see one on the making of Jaws (similar to the recent Godfather series)

2006 New Orleans Saints

Mark Twain - why there hasn’t been one I’ll never know. And I’ll never know why it didn’t star Hal Holbrook

I love series food that built America. Any number of those stories I’d like to see fleshed out

Particularly Milton Hershey and Forrest Mars. Love the book Emperors of Chocolate

 

[Geldo]

Personally, I'd love to see a biopic of Paul Robeson.
Outstanding Actor, NFL star, Singer, civil rights activist...so much talent in a single man.

His struggles with mental health and the possibility he was one of Sidney Gottleib's poison victims, also make him fascinating, as well as his bravery in front of the McCarthy committes. The fact he was so wrong about the Soviet Union also makes him more interesting to me.

 

[Sun Wukong]

Mary Toft.

Look her up.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

Stormy Daniels

But really there are so many dancers that deserve biopics bc they offer such rich visual and dramatic tapestry
Vaslav Nijinsky - 1st act would be his rise as world famous dancer, 2nd act would be choreographing Rite of Spring and the riot it caused, 3 would be his descent into madness

Matt Turney- Martha Graham’s first black dancer

Merce Cunningham - but that should be more of an experimental film. He and his partner John Cage (composer) introduced chance elements (flipping coins, turning cards, the I Ching, et al) into their art making - the movie should reflect that

Theatre wise, Stanislavsky and Meyerhold would make a great movie- the development of Modern Theatre within the backdrop of the Russian Revolution
Stanislavsky eventually assimilated but Meyerhold was shot by Stalin’s goons bc he stayed true to the Revolution

 

[Saintman2884]

Personally, I'd love to see a biopic of Paul Robeson.
Outstanding Actor, NFL star, Singer, civil rights activist...so much talent in a single man.

His struggles with mental health and the possibility he was one of Sidney Gottleib's poison victims, also make him fascinating, as well as his bravery in front of the McCarthy committes. The fact he was so wrong about the Soviet Union also makes him more interesting to me.

Paul Robeson was one of many artists, intellectuals, writers, singers and performers who were hopelessly, terribly naive and fatally wrong in their views, and aspirations of what they believed the ideals of what the Soviet Union stood for (which is the key aspect behind their initial support), and the totalitarian, dystopian nightmare that it was under Stalin and how even after his death, it still remained a highly corrupt, terribly mismanaged, brutal oligarchy under Kruschchev and then even more so under Brezhnev, "years of stagnation" as later Soviet/Russian historians called it. Even well-known writers, and philosophers like George Bernard Shaw and Jean-Paul Sartre were a bit overwhelmed at different points in their praise, and apologist arguments in defense of Soviet war crimes or inept, catastrophic domestic policies like forced collectization, Stalin's meglamania, criminal paranoia led to millions of innocent, loyal Russians in the Red Army, political elites, mid-tier bureaucrats, whoever didnt fit in Stalin's diseased paranoid mind, including Trotsky living in exile in Mexico City who was murdered by a NKVD agent using a ice axe.

 

[RaginSaint93]

Wouldn’t mind seeing a movie about Bill Gates

 

[Saintman2884]

Richard Pryor - best stand up of all time (I’ll fight you!) crazy life

Jim Henson - read his biography. Great story

Marvin Gaye (there have been several false starts, include one that was nearly done filming before they ran out of money)

I’d like to see one on the making of Jaws (similar to the recent Godfather series)

2006 New Orleans Saints

Mark Twain - why there hasn’t been one I’ll never know. And I’ll never know why it didn’t star Hal Holbrook

I love series food that built America. Any number of those stories I’d like to see fleshed out

Particularly Milton Hershey and Forrest Mars. Love the book Emperors of Chocolate

Apacolypse Now would probably make a far more interesting behind-the-scenes, development TV series because you'd be able to use some of the same actors that were in the Godfather making-up TV series, the Offer, particularly Francis Ford Coppola and some of the studio execs. I know the movie is based off Conrad's Heart of Darkness and it changes the time period and geography, but the themes expressed in the movie are frightening, haunting and terrifying and it would be a much more interesting introspective character study if a producer could manage it right then Jaws.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

Paul Robeson was one of many artists, intellectuals, writers, singers and performers who were hopelessly, terribly naive and fatally wrong in their views, and aspirations of what they believed the ideals of what the Soviet Union stood for (which is the key aspect behind their initial support), and the totalitarian, dystopian nightmare that it was under Stalin and how even after his death, it still remained a highly corrupt, terribly mismanaged, brutal oligarchy under Kruschchev and then even more so under Brezhnev, "years of stagnation" as later Soviet/Russian historians called it. Even well-known writers, and philosophers like George Bernard Shaw and Jean-Paul Sartre were a bit overwhelmed at different points in their praise, and apologist arguments in defense of Soviet war crimes or inept, catastrophic domestic policies like forced collectization, Stalin's meglamania, criminal paranoia led to millions of innocent, loyal Russians in the Red Army, political elites, mid-tier bureaucrats, whoever didnt fit in Stalin's diseased paranoid mind, including Trotsky living in exile in Mexico City who was murdered by a NKVD agent using a ice axe.

Getting way out over your skies here

A stopover in Berlin enlightened Robeson to the racism in Nazi Germanyand, on his arrival in Moscow, in the Soviet Union, Robeson said, "Here I am not a Negro but a human being for the first time in my life ... I walk in full human dignity.”

You’re not going to tell a black cultural icon where he felt his dignity is best respected are you?

I’m obviously not going to make a pro-Stalin argument, but it is also NAIVE at best to say those same artists, activists, et al could not see what racism, xenophobia and predatory capitalism did to the US in the teens into the 30s and seek a better way

 

[Saintman2884]

Getting way out over your skies here

A stopover in Berlin enlightened Robeson to the racism in Nazi Germanyand, on his arrival in Moscow, in the Soviet Union, Robeson said, "Here I am not a Negro but a human being for the first time in my life ... I walk in full human dignity.”

You’re not going to tell a black cultural icon where he felt his dignity is best respected are you?

I’m obviously not going to make a pro-Stalin argument, but it is also NAIVE at best to say those same artists, activists, et al could not see what racism, xenophobia and predatory capitalism did to the US in the teens into the 30s and seek a better way

Except the country and regime they were looking and hoping for as a better, more utopian world or society let their idealism get in the way of viewing Stalinist Russia as a brutal, totalitarian nightmare. Also, people like Robeson and other Western intellectuals weren't aware or didnt know about the mass purges, killings, Siberian gulags, forced collectivizations, mass famine and starvation in Ukraine (Holodomor) in the 1920's and 30's, he and others let their disgust of racism and xenophobia in Western countries lead them to choose a " lesser evil " that ended up being worse than the flaws that existed in the USA, UK, or France. They were extremely naive to even believe that a one-party totalitarian Communist regime was somehow this better path forward for a more, egalitarian society and world then the worst flaws that existed in the capitalist West.

If Robeson had seen the gulags, visited the infamous Lubyanka prison where Beria's NKVD agents tortured, beat up, and imprisoned dissidents and intellectuals for years, actually toured the Ukrainian countryside and seen the devastation of the man-made famines, I wonder how much promise and hope he'd wouldve seen in Stalin's Russia and come away with the same conclusions. The Soviet authorities showed him what they wanted him to see, a false, unreal vision of a fairer, egalitarian society that put human beings first that didnt exist and didn't even try to live up to its lofty ideals, not even really when Lenin was alive, either. Robeson believed he was being treated like an actual human being in what was really a facade, a carefully-crafted illusion made to influence and express upon his sincere idealism in a better world. He got played. Like Mark Twain used to say, "Its easier to fool someone than trying to convince them they've been fooled".

Sometimes, its better in the long run to try and improve deep, systemic socio-political problems in your own countries then try and prop up some deluded, imagined idealized version of a brutal, totalitarian regime that doesn't exist but goes out of its way to fool and convince "useful idiots" to view a doctored version of a better, humane society. Orwell, through his experiences fighting for the Spanish POUM in the Spanish Civil War saw the brutal, violent tendencies evident in Stalinist Russia and hardline, Communist regimes and came to the conclusion they were hardly any better than Hitler's Nazis or Mussolini's Blackshirts. Read For Whom the Bell Tolls. Then read Arthur Koeschler's Darkness at Noon. Robeson didnt see or experienced what those two men, in Koeschler case, a dedicated Marxist and member of the Communist Party, USA before witnessing the Moscow Show Trials of the late 30's which later led him to quit the party.

 

[BayouSAINTJoe]

Mine...I would like to see how they use CGI to capture the epic scale of the dumb arse decisions I made in life.

 

[SWJJ]

Percy Julian lived an incredible life that would make for an incredible film.

He was born in 1899 in Alabama. His grandparents were former slaves. At the time black students were not allowed in high school in Alabama. His family believed education was the key to living better than how most Alabama former slaves were living.

He moved to Illinois in order to be able to continue his education. He was taking college courses at De Pauw University during the day and taking high school classes at night to catch up to his peers. He eventually graduated 1rst in his class with tons of honors.

He was a Chemistry instructor at Fisk University for a while and left when he received a scholarship to Harvard to finish the work on his Masters. Then on to Europe at University of Vienna in Austria for his PhD. After which he taught at several prestigious universities in America. He was working as a professor at Howard university when he was accused of having an affair with a colleague's wife, (whom he went on to marry.) Because of the scandal he was fired.

He worked for several major industrial organizations, and invented many useful items, some helped in WWII (Aero-Foam fire suppression materials made from Soy Beans) and eventually left to start his own company Julian Laboratories. After patenting several ground breaking chemical processes he sold his company and became one of the first black millionaires in America.
He struggled with the racism in America and really enjoyed his time in Europe where being a black man didn't have the same stigma as it did in America. Because he was successful, he spent much of his life living in very affluent neighborhoods. In the 1940s this meant white neighborhoods. He was harassed his whole life in America, and in 1950 someone firebombed his home on thanksgiving day.


He developed the process of synthesizing human hormones, like cortisone, testosterone, progesterone, and physostigmine. His synthesis of physostigmine was recognized by the American Chemistry Society as on of the top 25 achievements in American Chemistry.

His accomplishments, life struggles, and story are much more in depth than I could really explain in a single post. When I taught high school science we would spend a week during black history month learning all about Dr. Julian.
There is an old documentary on NOVA about him, but a full length feature film with a proper budget would do his story much more justice than my class or NOVA was able to do.