1453: The Movie

This has come up before, but why on earth has nobody ever made a movie about the Siege of Constantinople? Has there ever been anything that would make a better movie? The Last Roman Emperor, ships rowing overland, monster cannon, Janissaries, Sultans and Popes and everyone in weird tangled alliances, the chain across the harbor...

Come on! Someone get to it!
 
It would be really great!

And there is not either a film about Lepanto: two massive fleets clashing, the author of Don Quixote being captured, pirates, knights of Malta...
 
This has come up before, but why on earth has nobody ever made a movie about the Siege of Constantinople? Has there ever been anything that would make a better movie? The Last Roman Emperor, ships rowing overland, monster cannon, Janissaries, Sultans and Popes and everyone in weird tangled alliances, the chain across the harbor...

Come on! Someone get to it!

I'd pay good money to watch it.

Lepanto too.

And Xenophon's March Up-Country.

10,000
 
I think most people know too little about the Ottoman capture of Constantinople and the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire to sell that movie. And historical spectacles are so not Hollywood at the moment. Everyone is waiting for Beverly Hills Chihuaua V.
 
We just went through the historical spectacle phase.
Gladiator, Troy, Kingdom of Heaven, Alexander and maybe even Master and Commander. (Weirdly, I was bored out of my mind when I saw it, then I read the first 14 books and when I watched again I loved it.)
 
It would have to be an independent film, more than likely, due to the following problems it might have:

CAIR would go berserk and pressure the studios to not depict ANY misbehavior by Muslims at ALL during the fall of the city, in a similar manner to how they badgered Hollywood into changing the villains of "The Sum of All Fears" to some kind of elite cabal of Austrian Nazis (originally they were a coalition of radical Palestinians, a German Communist, and a Native American activist).

(It would be hilarious, in a really sad way, if thanks to CAIR complaints, they made the conquerors of the City Mongols or something with no Islamic references whatsoever, history be damned.)

However, at the same time, there'd be complaints from American cultural conservatives about portraying the Church, Christians, etc. a certain way.

Plus, do it "wrong" and the movie might be banned in certain countries, interfering with its marketability.

Perhaps we could persuade Mel Gibson that Constantinople fell because the Orthodox Church would not submit to reunion with Rome and he can fund it?

His "Passion of the Christ" was an indie film that made a colossal amount of money, after all.

And wouldn't this belong in Non-Political Chat?
 
Well, as long as they don't have some Kung-Fu bullet time battle between the Patriarch and the Pope, it might be worth watching.
 

Faeelin

Banned
CAIR would go berserk and pressure the studios to not depict ANY misbehavior by Muslims at ALL during the fall of the city, in a similar manner to how they badgered Hollywood into changing the villains of "The Sum of All Fears" to some kind of elite cabal of Austrian Nazis (originally they were a coalition of radical Palestinians, a German Communist, and a Native American activist).

You know, we made Kingdom of Heaven. Just saying.
 

Leo Caesius

Banned
You know, we made Kingdom of Heaven. Just saying.

Shush, you. We'd rather lament the death grip that Muslims have on Hollywood (and American society in general), which far exceeds the influence one would expect from a miniscule and largely apolitical minority. Everyone knows that CAIR has a veto on everything coming out of Hollywood these days.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
Who would play Giovanni Giustiniani and Constantine XI?

Mehmed II would probably have to be an unknown, young actor, as he was only 21-years-old.
 
There is an european coproduction inspired in Tirant lo Blanc made in 2005 where the turks are more or less the bad guys. Anyway the film sucks although the several scenes with naked women. Hollywood is not the only place in the world where the people makes films.

Another good topic for a film or films could be the berber pirates in the XVI-XVIIth centuries. Religious converts, renegades, kidnapping, ramsons, slaves gaining its freedom and becoming prestigious among their old foes and captors and, of course, naval battles and magnificent galleys. Without Johnny Depp if possible.
 
hmmm, all these ideas for 1453, Lepanto & Malta are essential :) Well, thing is, there was also the MONGOL last yr as the 1st in the Genghis Khan trilogy- which I reckon could potentially mark the start of a renewed set of films in such medieval warfare themes. Oh, don't forget also a movie which oughta be made on the Spanish conquest of Mexico in 1519-21- including the epic siege of Technotitlan...

quote: Who would play Giovanni Giustiniani and Constantine XI?

hmmm, how bout a guy like say Josh Duhamel (I've just been watchin TRANSFOERS on tv lol) ofor the former, together with say Liam Neeson as the latter ?
 
This has come up before, but why on earth has nobody ever made a movie about the Siege of Constantinople? Has there ever been anything that would make a better movie? The Last Roman Emperor, ships rowing overland, monster cannon, Janissaries, Sultans and Popes and everyone in weird tangled alliances, the chain across the harbor...

Come on! Someone get to it!

I agree totally, but be careful what you wish for. The Hollywood version might end up portraying the Ottomans as the stereotypical baby-eating villains.
 
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