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** This is an archived, static copy of the Casebook messages boards dating from 1998 to 2003. These threads cannot be replied to here. If you want to participate in our current forums please go to https://forum.casebook.org **
William Friedkin JTR film?
Casebook Message Boards: Ripper Media: General Discussion:
William Friedkin JTR film?
Author: Antony Palmer
Monday, 26 June 2000 - 05:43 pm |        | | I heard a while back Friedkin (The Exorcist) was making a film based on the ripper diary. Jack Nicholson was going to play Maybrick. Unfortunately for tax reasons he pulled out. It then went quiet for a while but last year I did read that Friedkin was still very keen on the idea and had pencilled in this year for production. Anyone heard anything about this? He is a fine Director and I'm sure he'd make a good job of it. With regards to previous films I have been dying to see John Brahms 'The Lodger'. I've been searching the tv listings here in the uk for five years without a whimper. This is a highly regarded film, damn shame. The BBC repeat some lesser films twice or more a year!! I guess the subject matter curtails their showing it. With regard to Ripper programs I did see a fine ITV doc about the ripper diaries, including some re-enactments. It was a pretty good program and basically concluded that they were unable to discount its authenticity. It appears Maybrick was a hypochondriac and was always visiting his chemist in Liverpool. Call it a coincidence but at the time of each of the murders there are no subcriptions made in his name. |
Author: Antony Palmer
Wednesday, 28 June 2000 - 08:46 am | | | Seems I have an uncanny nack of premonition. Just saw on the news that the Friedkin film is on. Check out my full description under the Maybrick DIARY section. |
Author: Tom Wescott
Wednesday, 07 March 2001 - 12:21 am | | Is this for real? Is William Friedkin really making a diary movie? Too bad Melvin Harris and his buddies put a stop to the version starring Anthony Hopkins. That would have certainly been a great film, regardless of your opinion of the diary. Jack Nicholson? Will he have a golf club instead of a knife? I couldn't see Hollywood doing another big screen Ripper flick so soon after 'From Hell'. I'm still waiting on Paul Feldman's tele-movie.
Yours truly,
Tom Wescott |
Author: Paul Begg
Wednesday, 07 March 2001 - 01:06 am | | Hi Tom
Apparently William Friedkin has obtained the funding for his movie "Battlecrease". It isn't so much about the 'diary' as about the events inside Battlecrease House when James died. It does incorporate the 'diary' though. The script is completed and inside sources tell me it's quite good. Mr. Friedkin has been in the UK and met with Shirley Harrison a few times. And as a subsciber to "Ripperologist" you'll be kept fully up to date with all the latest news... |
Author: Tom Wescott
Wednesday, 07 March 2001 - 11:17 am | | Paul,
Personally, as somewhat a student of filmmaking, as well as a scriptwriter, I would find it hard to make a movie about a lesser known crime and only 'incorporate' elements of one of the most legendary. Sure the Ripper must be the backbone of the story. Do you know if Jack Nicholson's involved? Thanks for the info, Paul.
Yours truly,
Tom Wescott |
Author: Richard McNeil
Wednesday, 07 March 2001 - 09:11 pm | | If the working title is, as Paul suggests, 'Battlecrease' then it does seem clear that the film will ostensibly deal with the story of the Maybrick family; with James's death and Florence's trial.
Florence Maybrick was American of course and any Hollywood movie -made first and foremost for US consumption -is sure to want to give her a strong part. I am very surprised that the Hollywood studios have not filmed Florence's story before now -even before the diary surfaced.
I am not a scriptwriter myself but I am keen on movies and movie scripts. I can appreciate what you mean Tom re it being difficult to sideline the diary stuff but if handled and introduced correctly, the diary could surely turn a good story into dynamite. The whole thing certainly strikes me as offering fantastic material for a script/movie.
The question is: exactly how and where would
you -as a writer/director -introduce the diary? The film could open with the discovery/first reading of the diary and then start up proper through flashback. Cameron's Titanic starts like that but I hope to God this is a better film than Titanic! I've always suspected that that film started with a 'who can produce the duffels script from the best possible material' competition.
Perhaps the film makers hope to avoid damaging 'hoax' stories by presenting the Ripper theory as possibility rather than cornerstone. Subtlety is a quality traditionally lacking in Hollywood productions. With that in mind, I like what I hear of this project so far.
Richard. |
Author: Richard McNeil
Wednesday, 07 March 2001 - 09:29 pm | |
Sorry -in paragraph four there I appear to have written duffels. I meant to write duffest. What are duffels by the way? Aren't they small fury mammals people make coats out of? Shame and vanity!
Richard.
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Author: Tom Wescott
Thursday, 08 March 2001 - 12:25 am | | Richard,
I think you hit upon something by being subtle with the Ripper element...Offering it as a small backstory and fill the movie with small coincidences that will make the audience think that 'maybe' James is Jack. As to 'Titanic', I thought it was pretty cool. At least James Cameron didn't use Arnold in that one! As to the role of James Maybrick, they should still try to get Hopkins. You are right about it being an excellent story. We'll have to wait and see, I suppose.
Yours truly,
Tom Wescott
P.S. About duffels...Isn't that what they make bags out of? (duffel bags...get it?)  |
Author: Richard McNeil
Thursday, 08 March 2001 - 01:21 am | | Tom,
Yes, I get it. They make bags indeed and coats/jackets too. It's hardly surprising they're an endangered species!
Richard. |
Author: Christopher T George
Thursday, 08 March 2001 - 08:04 am | | Hi, Tom and Richard:
Richard, you stated, "What are duffels by the way? Aren't they small fury mammals people make coats out of? Shame and vanity!"
What's this about duffels being "small fury mammals"??? I am not sure what you may have confused "duffel" with, if you were not joking, and I don't think you were, but--
duffel also duffle, n. [Du., after Duffel, a town in Belgium.] 1. A blanket fabric made of low-grade woolen cloth with a two-sided nap. 2. Personal gear and clothing carried by a camper.
duffel bag n. A large bag of canvas or duck for carrying personal belongings. ( Both definitions from Webster's II New Riverside University Dictionary, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1984, p. 409.)
From these definitions, it appears that "duffel" has come to mean more the type of informal clothing or gear rather than the fabric, its original meaning, from the name of the Belgian town Duffel where the fabric was presumably manufactured. Nothing to do with "small fury mammals," unless you choose to carry round small fury creatures in your duffel bag or your duffel coat!
Incidentally, Thomas Sadler, the sailor who was a suspect in the February 13, 1891, murder of Frances Coles, and Dr. Francis Tumblety, while he was Stateside in the 1870s, were known to wear a "pea jacket," a jacket with some resemblence to a duffel coat or jacket.
I hear you ask, "Ah, what's a pea jacket?"
I'm glad you asked that question!
pea jacket n. [By folk etymology < Du., pijjekker: pij,: a kind of coarse cloth + jekker, jacket] A short, warm, double-breasted coat of heavy wool, worn esp. by sailors. (Ibid., p. 864).
Brrrrrrrrr. Just the sort of thing to wear on those chilly Whitechapel nights!
Chris George |
Author: Tom Wescott
Thursday, 08 March 2001 - 11:01 am | | Chris,
Richard was only joshing. Obviously he was making reference to the 'triffles' from Star Trek (not that I watch that show). Thanks for the useless information, though.
Yours truly,
Tom Wescott |
Author: Judith Stock
Thursday, 08 March 2001 - 07:02 pm | | I think you mean TRIBBLES.....you are definitely in my back yard here, Tom......
Duffels, on the other hand, are very closely related on the species tree to naugas, which (as everyone knows) are cruelly slaughtered to make NAUGAHYDE!!! I know this, too, because we used to live in Connecticut, just east of the Naugatuck River, and north of the town of the same name. The nauga farms line the western edge of the river bank, and smell dreadful....rather like a room full of sweaty socks!
You're welcome,
Judy |
Author: Lisa Muir
Friday, 09 March 2001 - 12:18 am | | | And I could still hear Archie Bunker talking about the "hair of the mo". |
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