Hi, everyone, I just caught up a day or two ago. It’s been great reading everything Y’all have been writing but I’ve got some ideas to add to the timeline.
Suggestions for movies and tv shows
- I agree with the general sentiments above and think a batman movie featuring The Court of Owls and leaning into horror could be truly horrifying and amazing. With him being trapped underground In the maze there is the potential for a lot of the movie to be dialogue free (except for occasional villainous taunts/monologues) using the evolution/devolution of batman’s fighting style from being ninja-like to a more vicious and animalistic style to show his level of desperation/hunger for survival.
- With the time jump where batman is established and has a big-ish family of companions you could kill two birds with one stone in regards to trying to show LGBT+ representation/feminist themes by having Batwoman show up to help defend the people and setting up/teasing a dramatic/melodramatic prequel movie about her experiences with ‘don’t ask don’t tell’, the sexism/rape culture in the United States army, depicting a committed lesbian relationship, the daily difficulties/problems of life where going overseas could mean all without detracting from her fight against a good villain or gang of villains. Since LGBT+ stuff in the minds of review writers can automatically makes movies as scary as ‘The Green Inferno’ there’s a strong opportunity to use some of Batman’s edgier/more psychopathic villains like Victor Zsaz, The Mad Hatter or calendar man.
While I can’t speak as well for some other things you mentioned, I would caution you not to jump the gun on Batman - first, because a lot of these stories would not appear in the comics for a while yet; second, because (unless Geekhis Khan retcons it) there will be a reboot in the 21st century after Raimi has done a trilogy with Dafoe’s Batman. I daresay he’s already figured out which villains will feature in the next two films and based on the wiki article I personally don’t expect Scarecrow; TRL!Raimi wanted to use him as a metaphor on the War on Drugs before repurposing it for Robin Williams’ Joker and more saliently, a story as complex as you suggested might look… too nuanced, shall we say, for 90s studios (if you look at 90s superhero films you notice that besidesBlade and Burton’s Batman, they still weren’t treated as serious fare)… don’t get me started on comics entering the Dark Age, as indicated by a previous post or two (“The Death of Superman” was mentioned… hopefully this timeline has “Kingdom Come”, at least!)
…Granted, Raimi desiring Scarecrow for his first BM film and to save Joker for a sequel also felt like a nod to the OTL and Nolan doing that in his trilogy (which of course would be copied to usually-lesser success by later superhero films). But I’d hope that, Joker excepting, the reboot ITTL uses villains that Raimi did not (unlike TDKR which, while improving Bane despite the predictable twist turn, also had a less memorable Catwoman…)
[NB: I also realised that, since IOTL “The Death of Superman” happened in a very particular set of circumstances - “Lois and Clark” was going to do the marriage plotline, which led DC execs and their fixation on keeping all continuities in sync to stop the Superman comics writers from doing it when they wanted, forcing them to pad time which led to them saying “screw it, let’s actually just kill him” - I wonder if it happens under similar-but-different circumstances or if it’s pretty much exactly the same in terms of timing, L&C as an adaptation, etc.]
Would The Tempest work as inspiration for the Lion King ITTL? We might be able to keep Timon & Pumbaa if we could.
It may, actually; we could even do more active magic if we used that. Of course, doing a shipwreck and isolated island may be hard (and less appealing), though one could do an oasis in a desert or something… What species would everyone be? Not just Prospero and Miranda, but Ariel, Caliban, and the other humans (whose names I cannot recall).
That reminds me, also, of Julie Taymor - before she wrecked her reputation with the god-awful “Spider-Man: Turn Out The Lights”, she had done many films and theatrical adaptations, especially of Shakespeare or such-inspired properties. Including “The Lion King” and “The Tempest”, and in both cases she gender swapped a character (Rafiki, which worked since the character AND the role of wise elder, are gender neutral, and Prospero which was a more feminist retelling of thst story). Not that I’m suggesting anything should be done there, but it’s kind of interesting. Frankly, the more I think on it the more I like a Lion King/Tempest hybrid bring made by Disnet ITTL.
…Or, y’know, maybe “King Lear”? *shrugs*
