The Power and the Glitter!

And, not sure when this was released, but Godzilla vs. king kong was not good at all IMO. Maybe we could see a completely different, good Godzilla movie instead?

Actually King Kong vs. Godzilla was released in 1962, but there were plans for a remake in the 90's until that bastard Ted Turner pulled the plug.

I agree, the American version of KKvG isn't very good, the original was meant to be a comedy, slapstick and all. That one is much better.

Btw, for more ideas, there was the "Aliens vs. Predator" and "freddy vs. Jason (vs. michael, ash, al gore etc.) fan match ups floating around then, and talks of the godfather part 4
 

Glen

Moderator
Here are some to think about;

-Godzilla: I am unashamedly a lobbyist for the King of the monsters :D. The second series was going, not strong, but going in Japan around this time. Godzilla vs. Mothra was released in 1992 and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla 2 would come out in 1993 (both could be changed up. I can pm you details). Also, Toho would be in the process of negotiating for a new attempt at an american Godzilla. I believe at this time the planned director was Jan De Bont and a script had been written by Terry Rossio and Ted Elliot.

Like Japanese Godzilla - dislike American Godzilla - keep Godzilla true!

-Doctor Who: There was a Doctor Who movie later in the nineties to bring the character back.

More Doctor Who usually good - wouldn't mind seeing an earlier return of the Timelord - very possible - however, the OTL movie was subpar IMO - feel free to make a darker Doctor Who (though some of the 4th Doctor episodes verged on horror, so its actually more returning the pendulum that way), but make it better than that TV movie - stay true to established (albeit loose) continuity. I have more on this later....
 
Hmm... well, any discussion of King Kong in the 90's has to mention that Peter Jackson originally wanted to it before he got to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It would be more lighthearted and comedic, and would have involved Robert de Niro and (wait for it, Brainbin...) George Clooney as Jack Driscoll. :D

What would be the effects of Watchmen being a little bit of a giant monster movie in one part.... (darn, spoilers)...
 
(wait for it, Brainbin...) George Clooney as Jack Driscoll. :D
What is it with this guy? Does he have some kind of magic pixie dust or something? To which I am immune because I remember how lame he was in his appearances in 1980s sitcoms? "The Facts of Life", "The Golden Girls", "Roseanne"... Maybe more of you need to see him in them. That might dispel you of the notion that he's the Great and Infallible Clooney. (Also, most of those shows are worth seeing anyway.)
 
Gah, what's with the great pop culture timelines. I love it.

President Mario Cuomo with libertarian Weld getting a showing? Fantastic, and nicely mirror image.


(Oh and vultan—and jerseyrules for that matter—why the messy links in the signature? Unless it's a style choice, of course, that has simply passed me by :).)

-The Brady Act passed, and Cuomo’s “legislative signature”, the Affordable Healthcare Act, is well on its way to seeing the light of day. This has led to huge conservative backlash (Congressman Alan Keyes called it “a stepping stone to communist dictatorship”), and opinion polls are starting to favor a Republican surge in the 1994 midterms…

OTL Republicans won the midterms because of the finishing of the Republican alignment in the south at the Congressional level and by tapping into populist Perot-style voters.

Cuomo can't do anything about the first, he should be able to do something about the second if he can make the pitch case on healthcare and given that he's such a great speaker in an era where network Presidential addresses have a much higher audience he might be able to do so.

Jeff Goldblum? Nice! :cool:

Such a great actor. Anybody watch his short lived TV show Raines?

Because I'm a nice guy, if anyone has any suggestions for 1990's pop culture that don't preclude anything I'm going to do, I'll consider it.

Thoughts?

Hmm. A big high profile dystopian SF TV series that's actually good and has no aliens or robots and tries to skip soon-to-be-dated computer special effects? Tough order I know.

A Neuromancer movie would be nice.

Futurama better not get cancelled :).

A potential way to keep the relationship going is to have the 64DD add-on (think Sega CD for the N64) see the light ITTL. That might keep Square onside. It will also save "Earthbound 64",

The 64DD did come out. But it was basically doomed from the start. Nor would a CD drive fix some of the N64's fatal flaws (soundchip, for instance or the three-pronged controller). Now if Nintendo had some kind of consumer electronics partner company…. Either Sony or Panasonic would do, and if Sony perhaps we have a MiniDisc based console (Nintendo did go for odd discs with the GameCube). We'd have to butterfly that old contract and we might see a CD add-on for the SNES.

More plausibly from the time we have to work in is that Nintendo simply makes a different N64. Perhaps Sega grabs the chip design, as they were offered it before Nintendo, and therefore Nintendo has to find some other design which butterflies other things.

And Earthbound 64 died (alas) because the team had no experience working with 3D graphics. That could of course be changed.

And, because I have a soft spot for Nintendo's old rival: keep Sega in the console game. Or at least have Sonic continue to appear in games similar to those from the Genesis era. (No weird redesign, no changing of Robotnik's name, no new friend in each game, etc.)

Well that would require fixing Sega of Japan. Perhaps Sega of America manages a reverse take-over and/or finds a partner.

An early Sega-Microsoft alliance? If Sega grabs the OTL N64 chipset that might leave them more focused on Silicon Valley.
 
Gah, what's with the great pop culture timelines. I love it.

President Mario Cuomo with libertarian Weld getting a showing? Fantastic, and nicely mirror image.


(Oh and vultan—and jerseyrules for that matter—why the messy links in the signature? Unless it's a style choice, of course, that has simply passed me by :).)

Thanks, and welcome aboard! Yeah, Cuomo and Weld certainly are interesting guys.

The link style was done at a time when, well, I didn't know how to hyperlink.:eek:


OTL Republicans won the midterms because of the finishing of the Republican alignment in the south at the Congressional level and by tapping into populist Perot-style voters.

Cuomo can't do anything about the first, he should be able to do something about the second if he can make the pitch case on healthcare and given that he's such a great speaker in an era where network Presidential addresses have a much higher audience he might be able to do so.

He's a good speaker... but so was Clinton...

Such a great actor. Anybody watch his short lived TV show Raines?

Actually, no. I know of him primarily because of his genre films.

Hmm. A big high profile dystopian SF TV series that's actually good and has no aliens or robots and tries to skip soon-to-be-dated computer special effects? Tough order I know.

Well, with a somewhat extended time of late 80's/ early 90's dystopian sentiment (ie crime, the economy, etc- the environment that gave us RoboCop. Know what I mean?), there may be an opportunity...

A Neuromancer movie would be nice.

Futurama better not get cancelled :).

A "we'll see" on both accounts.
 
Sorry guys, my sickness and other social and academic obligations have kept me away from writing more than I'd hoped, but here's a little taste of things to come (unrelated to Watchmen, but related to pop culture):

---

Dreams from My Father

Barack H. Obama was doing well for himself. A professor at the prestigious University of Chicago Law School, a civil rights attorney, a community organizer who had helped in project to register hundreds of thousands of African-Americans to vote ahead of the pivotal 1992 election (with the recent examples of Evan Mecham in Arizona and David Duke in Louisiana, ensuring black political equality was becoming more and more a priority for civil rights groups), the young Obama was building quite a name for himself in Illinois. His story was so interesting, he had been offered the opportunity to write a book about his life and experiences.

In fact, in the wake of the return of racial politics in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, what with the election of David Duke in Louisiana, the issue of affirmative action hitting the headline news, the Rodney King debacle, the aftermath of the Crown Heights and November riots, there was actually a huge demand in the media for stories related to African-Americans and their historical plight. As copies of The Autobiography of Malcolm X and other books of a similar nature flew off the shelves throughout 1992, Hollywood began to take notice.

One big example of this added attention to black-oriented stories in the film industry was the success of the Spike Lee’s Malcolm X at the 65th Academy Awards. Denzel Washington would take home the gold for his portrayal of the titular character [1], while Spike Lee and Arnold Pearl would win the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay [2]. The movie was further nominated for Best Director for Spike Lee and Best Picture [3]. Many contended that the film was only this successful because of political reasons and for the widely-held belief that Lee was snubbed for the paucity of nominations his masterpiece Do The Right Thing had a few years before. It should be noted that Malcolm X was by far the more financially successful of the two films, raking in nearly $100 million in the domestic box office [4].

Many studios were also on the hunt for scripts that dealt with race relations and minority issues. Actor Richard Dreyfuss was able to sell Universal a screenplay he and author Harry Turtledove were working on under the working title "The Two Georges", an alternate history epic set in a modern North America where the American Revolution had been avoided, on the promise that the parallel universe’s critique on modern American politics and race relations was a timely introspective, and on the promise that the film would prominently feature an alternate Martin Luther King, Jr. as Governor-General of North America. [5] Another prominent actor, Danny Glover, also successfully pitched an idea of a biopic of Haitian revolutionary Toussaint Louverture to Warner Bros. [6] More darkly, screenwriter David McKenna began working on a screenplay for a film about neo-Nazi gangs in Venice Beach, which eventually evolved into American History X, one of the most controversial and critically divisive movies of the decade.

Lo and behold, it was during this time that, after acquiring unfinished portions of Obama’s memoir from Times Books, which was set to publish the final product, that Universal Studios sent a galley proof to legendary director Norman Jewison (who had actually been set to direct Malcolm X before Spike Lee came aboard) to gauge his interest in directing a theatrical adaptation of the young man’s interesting life, under the working title “Dreams from My Father”…

...

[1] Beating out Al Pacino’s Yosemite Sam impression in Scent of a Woman.

[2] It wasn’t even nominated in our timeline. In this world, it beats out Howards End, and A River Runs Through It goes unnominated altogether.

[3] Again, wasn’t nominated in our timeline. Here, I would imagine (or hope) Scent of a Woman goes without it's nominations, because director Martin Brest would go on to direct Gigli.

[4] Better than our timeline, because there’s more interest.

[5] In our timeline, Turtledove and Dreyfuss actually intended the novel to be the basis of a feature film. Here, they have a better opportunity to seal the deal.

[6] Glover had, and still has, this idea in our timeline, but I’m cheating since historically he got it more recently. However, due to the hesitation major studios have over casting all-minority casts, it’s languished in development hell. Here, we’ll say Danny got a similar idea after reacting to all the extra media coverage civil rights in the United States had gotten in the aftermath of Duke’s election and the riots, and he gets it at the best time for a studio to greenlight it.

---

Thoughts?
 
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Always nice to see another update!

As copies of The Autobiography of Malcolm X and other books of a similar nature flew off the shelves throughout 1992, Hollywood began to take notice.
I can't help but be reminded of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air", and the scene in which Aunt Viv (the good one) starts talking about how only having read The Autobiography of Malcolm X (without having studied the real history behind it) would, in her words, "trivialize the entire struggle". That's a very clumsy segue into wondering how "Fresh Prince", which was actually surprisingly socially and politically charged in its first season, would cope with the events of TTL - and indeed, how the career of Will Smith in general will be affected.

vultan said:
One big example of this added attention to black-oriented stories in the film industry was the success of the Spike Lee’s Malcolm X at the 65th Academy Awards. Denzel Washington would take home the gold for his portrayal of the titular character [1], while Spike Lee and Arnold Pearl would win the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay [2]. The movie was further nominated for Best Director for Spike Lee and Best Picture [3]. Many contended that the film was only this successful because of political reasons and for the widely-held belief that Lee was snubbed for the paucity of nominations his masterpiece Do The Right Thing had a few years before.
Agreed that, given this climate, Malcolm X won clean up at the Oscars, especially given their acknowledged tendency to hand out "apology" or "consolation" awards for past snubs. That said, I suspect that Scent of a Woman would go without the Best Picture nomination. There's nothing really memorable or lasting about the film except for Pacino's performance; Meanwhile, A Few Good Men has a star-studded ensemble cast, and was a huge crowd-pleaser. In 1993, those kinds of movies are still nominated for Best Picture (witness Ghost just two years before), even if they don't actually win it anymore. I definitely agree with the Brest snub for Best Director.

vultan said:
Actor Richard Dreyfuss was able to sell Universal a screenplay he and author Harry Turtledove were working on under the working title "The Two Georges"
You just couldn't resist, could you? Very interested to see how this one develops and is received.

vultan said:
Lo and behold, it was during this time that, after acquiring unfinished portions of Obama’s memoir from Times Books, which was set to publish the final product, that Universal Studios sent a galley proof to legendary director Norman Jewison (who had actually been set to direct Malcolm X before Spike Lee came aboard) to gauge his interest in directing a theatrical adaptation of the young man’s interesting life, under the working title “Dreams from My Father”…
So Barack Obama is thrust into the national spotlight over a decade ahead of schedule. This one might be interesting, because he could very well crash and burn (anyone remember Antwone Fisher?), and then return to academia, never to be heard from again.

vultan said:
Beating out Al Pacino’s Yosemite Sam impression in Scent of a Woman.
Hoo-ah!

vultan said:
Martin Brest goes without his nomination for Scent of a Woman (because in our timeline he went on to direct Gigli).
I have to ask, out of a sense of morbid curiosity. Have you ever actually seen that famous turkey? ("Gobble, gobble.")

Some very interesting developments we have here. There are going to be a few interesting butterflies from the Oscars alone. Are we to assume that Unforgiven still took Picture and Director? If so, I can't expect Lee to take that very well, despite his own Oscar win. We already know from OTL that he's more than willing to attack Eastwood; perhaps this feud will be ignited much earlier than IOTL. However, Washington's victory as Malcolm X means that he won't be given his own consolation Oscar for *Training Day. On the other hand, Pacino still doesn't have one - which means that he'll be due a consolation Oscar. It's a vicious cycle, Oscar entitlement...
 
I can't help but be reminded of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air", and the scene in which Aunt Viv (the good one) starts talking about how only having read The Autobiography of Malcolm X (without having studied the real history behind it) would, in her words, "trivialize the entire struggle". That's a very clumsy segue into wondering how "Fresh Prince", which was actually surprisingly socially and politically charged in its first season, would cope with the events of TTL - and indeed, how the career of Will Smith in general will be affected.

Ah, yes, I remember these episodes. It's possible the effect could spill more into later seasons.

Agreed that, given this climate, Malcolm X won clean up at the Oscars, especially given their acknowledged tendency to hand out "apology" or "consolation" awards for past snubs. That said, I suspect that Scent of a Woman would go without the Best Picture nomination. There's nothing really memorable or lasting about the film except for Pacino's performance; Meanwhile, A Few Good Men has a star-studded ensemble cast, and was a huge crowd-pleaser. In 1993, those kinds of movies are still nominated for Best Picture (witness Ghost just two years before), even if they don't actually win it anymore. I definitely agree with the Brest snub for Best Director.

Hmm... since I have you justification, I'll probably change that...

You just couldn't resist, could you? Very interested to see how this one develops and is received.

So am I!;)

So Barack Obama is thrust into the national spotlight over a decade ahead of schedule. This one might be interesting, because he could very well crash and burn (anyone remember Antwone Fisher?), and then return to academia, never to be heard from again.

That is one possible outcome...


Hey, facts are facts.

I have to ask, out of a sense of morbid curiosity. Have you ever actually seen that famous turkey? ("Gobble, gobble.")

I saw about thirty minutes of it straight-through on HBO once. It was... well, it was... meh...

Some very interesting developments we have here. There are going to be a few interesting butterflies from the Oscars alone. Are we to assume that Unforgiven still took Picture and Director? If so, I can't expect Lee to take that very well, despite his own Oscar win. We already know from OTL that he's more than willing to attack Eastwood; perhaps this feud will be ignited much earlier than IOTL. However, Washington's victory as Malcolm X means that he won't be given his own consolation Oscar for *Training Day. On the other hand, Pacino still doesn't have one - which means that he'll be due a consolation Oscar. It's a vicious cycle, Oscar entitlement...

Yep, Clint does win the big ones. However, there is the possibility that with Spike doing well, he'll feel less obligated to lash out at the Hollywood establishment (and remember, the two directors had a very specific beef with each other over just one of Eastwood's movies. I can't imagine Lee would attack the man for no reason in particular).

Also, there's the possibility that Al Pacino becomes the Italian-American Peter O'Toole.:D

'Course, maybe the Oscar lust drives him to choose better roles over the next two decades.
 
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