And more French Rev on the radio on saturday 26th and 2nd...

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

The filmscript for the film that Richard (Gandhi) Attenborough has never managed to get made, on Tom Paine in the American and French revolutions, is being broadcast in two parts as radio plays, 2.30-4pm BST (British Summer Time) this saturday 26th July, and next sat, 2nd August. "These Are The Times" by Trevor Griffiths. The first part is the American war of Independence, the Second part, on the 2nd, the part covering the Revolution (Paine was sentenced to death in Britain for sedition, fled to France, was elected to the Convention, then sentenced to death there as well!). There's an interview with Trevor Griffiths on the script - which he's spent 20 years on - online, on the BBC website ' listen again facility - it'll be up there till monday. Front Row, Tuesday 22nd, about 14 minutes into the programme. http://209.85.215.104/search?q=cache:a1_SLsISdAoJ:www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/frontrow/past_programmes.shtml+these+are+the+times+radio+4+part+two&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=safari
The plays themselves should be available online for 7 days after broadcast.

Comments

[jonahmama.livejournal.com]

Wow - thanks for posting this, I really want to listen to this! You might also post this on early_republic (American Revolution community).

I've often thought Tom Paine's life would make a great film, but didn't realize someone had a script done. Wonder why it's never been made here. HBO had some success with "John Adams" - it seems a natural choice for them to follow up by making this script. Hmmm... might look into this at some point.

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if the 'listen again' facility (for missed programmes) is available outside Britain - it might be a idea to check by listening to something else on the bbc website - but people do seem to be able to listen to radio programmes as they're being broadcast, which is 2.30p.m. b.s.t. - it'll be on 'listen again' after the broadcast. The screenplay is also available as a script (which I haven't read, but is meant to be excellent) - the scriptwriter's an old lefty, but I imagine (given Paine's experience) he's not all that enthusiastic about year 2!

The interview is interesting, if you can listen to it through the link: he says they couldn't get funding because of the politics of the piece - though regime change in Washington might help it to happen. I suspect also it may still be because of the 80's British film 'Revolution', about the American war of Independence: it had a big budet and flopped and made Goldcrest - who made Chariots of Fire - bankrupt and really put a spanner in the works of the film industry here: Britain's 'Heaven's Gate'. With CGI it could be done much less expensively, though - there was some talk of filming Stanley Kubrick's Napoleon script recently. Attenborough's too old to do it now, though, but the script is out there!

[jonahmama.livejournal.com]

Sadly you are correct and the "listen again" feature does not seem to work outside the UK. :( (And I'm too lazy to wake up at 6:30 AM...) So I will look for the script itself. Sometimes these things also get posted on YouTube eventually.

Screenwriters, who often have political agendas to their pieces, love nothing more than to assign political motives for studios' reluctance to finance their projects, but this is pretty much never the case. Studios want and need above all to make money, and politically incorrect projects are often more profitable, not less. Also, criticizing Washington is and has been a favorite pastime of Americans (and Brits!), regardless of who happens to be in power at the moment, and certainly regimes have come and gone over the past 20 years. Your reasoning is much more likely to be correct; one colossally failed project can sink several similar ones after it. Studio executives typically pass on a project for one of the following reasons: they feel there is not enough general public interest in the topic to generate good business (there is a notorious perception that history pictures are often critcally acclaimed but rarely blockbusters); they feel that although the topic would generate wide interest the project would be so costly to produce as to limit profitability (as you pointed out CGI is now cutting costs dramatically); or they feel the script is just not very well executed, often because it makes for a good piece of literature, but not very good cinema. Recognizing these factors would probably be the first step toward getting a project like this made.

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

Yes, the BBC have just emailed me (out of the blue!) to say that's the case regarding the website for the arts programme with the Saint-Just inspired garden on it, too. Shame, because it's a good play - though I'll admit I know comparatively little about the American War (probably more than Mel Gibson, though!) - I'll probably be shouting at the radio next week when it's the second part, on the French Rev.

It's a great script, but as it isn't full of action or sex, I can't see it being done on the big screen. Almost all cinemas are teenager-oriented multiplexes now, and I can't see that changing (even 'art house' cinemas play safe these days). It would work on TV, though - and as a lot of stuff is now British/US co-production it could happen...