TV/Movies Megathread

[Malthus]

Rewatched Marathon Man. This is a film that I hadn't seen in decades and remember being disappointed by it. Liked it far more this time, and the single reason is that the dubbed version I originally watched completely destroyed Laurence Olivier's performance. Hoffmann is also less whiny and more relatable. That said, for being a movie about nazi criminals it has some uncomfortable racism in it 

The film got me in the mood for 1970s thrillers, so I'm going to try and dig up a few in the coming days.

Re-watching the Dirty Harry movies would be very interesting in light of current events.

[Admiral Yi]

Eurovision is not as ridiculous as I was hoping for.

[Duque de Bragança]

Rewatched Marathon Man. This is a film that I hadn't seen in decades and remember being disappointed by it. Liked it far more this time, and the single reason is that the dubbed version I originally watched completely destroyed Laurence Olivier's performance. Hoffmann is also less whiny and more relatable. That said, for being a movie about nazi criminals it has some uncomfortable racism in it 

The film got me in the mood for 1970s thrillers, so I'm going to try and dig up a few in the coming days.

Re-watching the Dirty Harry movies would be very interesting in light of current events.

You might be disappointed by Magnum Force though. 

[celedhring]

I saw an American friend screaming "WE ARE MAD AS HELL" on twitter and this automatically prompted me to rewatch Network. 

I love that movie, Chayefsky reached screenwriting godhood with it. I really should try to watch The Hospital, but it's not available on any platform over here.

[Syt]

https://bethesda.net/en/article/22Up6o4uyEqTY5S3SdWYqD/kilter-films-teams-with-amazon-studios-to-develop-series-based-on-fallout

KILTER FILMS TEAMS WITH AMAZON STUDIOS TO DEVELOP SERIES BASED ON FALLOUT
JULY 2, 2020

Amazon Studios has licensed the rights to the worldwide best-selling game franchise Fallout, with acclaimed producers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy's Kilter Films attached to produce the project, currently in development with a series commitment.

Amazon Studios has licensed the rights to the worldwide best-selling game franchise Fallout, with acclaimed producers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy's Kilter Films attached to produce the project, currently in development with a series commitment.

"Fallout is one of the greatest game series of all time. Each chapter of this insanely imaginative story has cost us countless hours we could have spent with family and friends. So we're incredibly excited to partner with Todd Howard and the rest of the brilliant lunatics at Bethesda to bring this massive, subversive, and darkly funny universe to life with Amazon Studios," said Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan, Kilter Films.

"Over the last decade, we looked at many ways to bring Fallout to the screen," said Todd Howard, Executive Producer at Bethesda Game Studios. "But it was clear from the moment I first spoke with Jonah and Lisa a few years ago, that they and the team at Kilter were the ones to do it right. We're enormous fans of their work and couldn't be more excited to work with them and Amazon Studios."

"Fallout is an iconic global franchise, with legions of fans worldwide and a rich, deeply compelling storyline that powers it. And Jonah and Lisa are the perfect storytellers to bring this series to life," said Albert Cheng, COO and Co-Head of Television, Amazon Studios. "We're thrilled to join with Bethesda to bring Fallout to television."

The world of Fallout is one where the future envisioned by Americans in the late 1940s explodes upon itself through a nuclear war in 2077. The magic of the Fallout world is the harshness of the wasteland set against the previous generation's utopian idea of a better world through nuclear energy. It is serious and harsh in tone, yet sprinkled with moments of ironic humor and B-movie-nuclear-fantasies.

Fallout games have achieved record-setting sales and received hundreds of awards, including dozens of Game of the Year awards, while its mobile game, Fallout Shelter, has been downloaded more than 170 million times.

Fallout is from Amazon Studios and Kilter Films in association with Bethesda Game Studios and Bethesda Softworks, with executive producers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, and Athena Wickham for Kilter Films, Todd Howard for Bethesda Game Studios, and James Altman for Bethesda Softworks.

Through Kilter Films' overall deal with Amazon, they are currently in pre-production on the techno-thriller drama The Peripheral, based on the William Gibson novel, which follows a woman in a near-future America in which technology has started to subtly alter society. Kilter Films also produces HBO's Westworld which just wrapped its third season and was recently picked up for a fourth season. The series has amassed 43 Emmy nominations along with DGA, WGA, PGA and SAG Awards nominations. Kilter also has produced interactive and transmedia marketing for its series, including a Westworld Super Bowl spot directed by Nolan. Joy recently directed her debut feature film Reminiscence, for Warner Bros., starring Hugh Jackman, Rebecca Ferguson, and Thandie Newton. Joy wrote the script, which landed on The Black List, and produced with her Kilter Films partner Nolan, Michael De Luca and Aaron Ryder.

[Eddie Teach]

Never played the game. Is there good material for a series?

[Barrister]

Never played the game. Is there good material for a series?

It's a great setting: post apocalyptic wasteland with a 1950s-futurist vibe.

What you'd have to invent from scratch are the characters and storylines.

[Valmy]

It requires a great deal of...care to make it work though. The setting. The 1950s vibe is as much about its attitude as its physical setting. Which is why I felt like the Bethesda games were failures for the most part.

And Bethesda is doing this series so I have little confidence it won't fail to be a good Fallout series. They cannot hide behind their shitty crafting mechanics in a show.

[grumbler]

Bethesda didn't introduce shitty mechanics to the franchise, though; shitty mechanics have been a feature from the start.  What made up for the shitty mechanics in the first two was the story (especially all the side quests), and that's where Bethesda has failed.  Luckily, they were smart enough to make their games very moddable, so others could fill in the stories.  Obsidian had better stories but no moddability.

Kilter should hire some of the Obsidian people associated with the first two games (and New Vegas).

[Syt]

I hear Chris Avellone is free now.

[celedhring]

I'd be very surprised if Bethesda was involved in the development process besides having some approval. That said, on current evidence, I'm not that sure the company behind Westworld will be an improvement 

The 1950s setting will be hard to make it work. I hope they keep it though, otherwise it just becomes a generic post-apocalypse world.

[Barrister]

The 1950s setting will be hard to make it work. I hope they keep it though, or it just becomes a generic post-apocalypse world.

Well it's not set in the 1950s, but rather in a vague future as imagined in the 1950s.  And yes, that's what makes it distinct.  There's no shortage of generic post-apocalyptic settings out there.

I'm not sure why that would make it any harder to make it work though - it's something that just has to be kept in mind in set and costume design.

[Admiral Yi]

Never played the game.  What does a vague post-apocalyptic setting as imagined in the 50s look like?

[Barrister]

Never played the game.  What does a vague post-apocalyptic setting as imagined in the 50s look like?

How to describe it... well the remains of houses etc on the surface all look like they're from the 50s.  Music is 1950s-ish stuff.  Computers are all green on black CRTs.  Robots look like something out of Lost In Space.  There's no tablets or cellphones or the like - technology is all quite bulky.

[celedhring]

The 1950s setting will be hard to make it work. I hope they keep it though, or it just becomes a generic post-apocalypse world.

Well it's not set in the 1950s, but rather in a vague future as imagined in the 1950s.  And yes, that's what makes it distinct.  There's no shortage of generic post-apocalyptic settings out there.

I'm not sure why that would make it any harder to make it work though - it's something that just has to be kept in mind in set and costume design.

Well, it's a bit more than that, as Valmy said there's an attitude to it. And it can very easily make the show look silly to a general audience that never played the game.

Post-apocalyptic worlds usually play by the convention that it is our world in the future. The world of Fallout is a fantasy world, in the future.