An Alternate Rise of the Blockbuster

[ColeMercury]

Will James Cameron make Aliens slightly different I wonder.

You can assume that all films which were made in both OTL and TTL are slightly different in some way or other. The broad strokes are the same but the details vary.

 

[Glen]

Been reading this for a few days now but have had problems with posting from my kindle, but now that I'm at a computer I can do some commenting. First, overall let me say that you've made some really fun changes here - kudos!

Update #2: The making of Apocalypse Now. (Updates will be vaguely linear, but not strictly so.)....

Good stuff, liked putting Christopher Lee and LeVar Burton in it! Will miss Charge of the Valkyries, though....

I've decided to revise Update #3. There were some aspects of it that I really wasn't happy with, and other parts that I thought needed expansion or explanation. So, here it is again.

Update #3 (for real this time) -- the making of the Star Trek films.

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Not real fond of the Planet of the Titans idea, but it certainly was a proposal made OTL.

Costume evolution is reasonable.

No Spock or Sulu makes me sad.

Update #4 -- a breakdown of the characters, settings, etc. in the film The Star Wars (1979).

It's amazing how malleable the original Star Wars movie was - all reasonable extrapolations, though.

Update #5 -- the making of The Star Wars.

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LeVar Burton is a fun choice for TTL's Han Solo, and I think the choice of Bill Mumy for Luke is inspired - he basically proved he can play the development of a character from a sheltered youth to a kick-ass spiritual warrior in B5 IOTL. Also like Toshiro Mifune as TTL's Jedi Mentor for Luke.

(a charge that would also be levelled at the series of TV movies written by Glen A Larson entitled The Ark of Adama, which would begin broadcast in September of that year.)

I'm a bit surprised that the name still didn't get changed to Battlestar Galactica - Ark of Adama really is bad!

enlisted Alan Dean Foster to write the screenplay

Now that's an interesting development! A real science fiction writer doing the screenplay!

And Peter Lupus is Vader

Wow, that's an interesting choice! Not fond of losing the classic Vader mask, but understandable why it happened.

In TTL, C-3P0 has an American accent.

Sad - too bad Daniels didn't get the nod again.

Update #6 -- the making of Superman, Superman II and what happens after...

I like Donner getting to complete his Superman II and the launch of a comic book movie craze.

Update #7 -- the making of two films written by a certain Mr Lawrence Kasdan...a horror film that showed the dark side of alien abduction. The story centred around a family held captive in their farmhouse and terrorised by a team of malevolent alien scientists....the project was renamed Night Skies.

Sounds like Signs.

Raiders of the Lost Ark had begun, including the process of casting the hero Indiana Jones. After looking at many established actors including Tom Selleck (who proved unavailable due to being attached to Magnum, P.I.), Peter Coyote and Tim Matheson, the role ultimately went to Lucas’s old friend Harrison Ford.

Glad to see Raiders still being headed by Harrison Ford!

Spielberg’s film for Universal Pictures ended up being a supernatural modern-fantasy film centred around child protagonists, released around Easter 1983...Spielberg's supernatural kids' film for Universal in TTL is a story which doesn't really have an equivalent in OTL, but it has a similar sort of tone and feel to ET.

Interesting - sorta makes me think of Goonies.

Update #8 -- the making of Chapters II and III of The Star Wars....

Kiber Crystal seems weaker than OTL episodes, but Return of the Jedi sounds fun as all get-out! Prince Valorem seems odd but interesting, sorta a smoother Emperor in some ways. You really dug out an interesting actor for the role, that's for sure. Air Whales and Wookie armies, oh my!

Tony Scott’s direction was praised, and he soon moved on to the job of directing an adaptation of Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire for Paramount Pictures.

Fun, fun!

More later...

 

[ColeMercury]

Kiber Crystal seems weaker than OTL episodes, but Return of the Jedi sounds fun as all get-out! Prince Valorem seems odd but interesting, sorta a smoother Emperor in some ways. You really dug out an interesting actor for the role, that's for sure. Air Whales and Wookie armies, oh my!

How do you know? I've barely described it at all. (Mainly because I'm not solid on what actually happens in it except that the Kiber Crystal heals Akira -- who was dying due to being too cyberneticised -- but ends up being destroyed at the end in a bittersweet sort of ending).

 

[Glen]

How do you know? I've barely described it at all.

Story sounded weaker with a lower budget than Empire, and I didn't even like Empire that much. Ergo, don't think I'd like it so much (still probably would watch it, though).

 

[Glen]

Update #9 -- regarding the works of Arthur C Clarke.

Songs sounds interesting. I like that there are more Clarke shows about.

Still, The Songs of Distant Earth was directly responsible for inspiring two other fictional works to be made afterwards. One of these was a three-part television miniseries adaptation of Clarke’s 1953 novel Childhood’s End; the first instalment starred Max von Sydow as Stormgren, the second and third parts starred LeVar Burton as Jan Rodricks, and all three parts featured James Earl Jones as the voice of Karellen. (Incidentally, Childhood’s End was only the second time that LeVar Burton had ever received top billing, the first being for his role as David in An American Werewolf in London.) Clarke was not directly involved in making the miniseries: it was written entirely by writer-director Nicholas Meyer, who was forced to pull out from directing as well due to an extended post-production period on his television movie The Day After. Instead, Childhood’s End was directed by Leonard Nimoy, who would use the miniseries to prove his talent behind the camera (as his previous directorial experience was at the time limited to two episodes of his friend William Shatner’s television series T.J. Hooker). The experience of making Childhood’s End with Nimoy as director could in retrospect be guessed to have had a profound personal influence on LeVar Burton.

Wow, just wow - so many cool bits and hints in this. But how did Nimoy and Shatner become friends so early?

The other fictional work inspired by The Songs of Distant Earth came from Clarke himself: the experience of making the film had made him properly consider if it really was possible to do a direct continuation of 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was something he had previously dismissed out of hand. Some months after the film’s release, Clarke contacted Coppola with a proposal to collaborate, in the same style Clarke had done with Kubrick in the 1960s, to create novel and film versions of 2010: Space Odyssey II....comic actor John Larroquette as Dr Walter Curnow.

Yeah John Larroquette!

Update #10 -- a whole lot of blockbusters and non-blockbusters released over the period 1982 to 1984, described movie by movie.

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Sounds like a great Batman movie with that line-up of talent. I so totally can see Keaton as the Joker.

Clever way to handle Captain America, might prove interesting. I overall like Michael Biehn, though for some reason I have a hard time picturing him as Cap. Not really sure why Connery as Reinstein, but its a short. Having a hard time imagining Daryl Hannah as Carter as well. Still, they're all decent actors so I imagine they'll make it work.

would introduce Captain America’s sometime modern crime-fighting partner, Sam “The Falcon” Wilson.

Ooh, that could be fun. Can't wait to see who you cast!

Snake Plissken

Snake is back! Sounds great - of course, too bad that they didn't stop while they were ahead.

The Terminator

The substitution of TTL's Hamill is reasonable.

Blade Runner

In some ways I actually think I might like this version better than OTL's. I know, I know, you were trying to make it worse, but I think Hackman would rock in this role.

Rutger Hauer (who would next go on to play the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt in Tony Scott’s adaptation of Interview with the Vampire).

An earlier version of Interview with Hauer as Lestat directed by the director of The Hunger - YES! You rock!! Though I also would favor Julian Sands as Lestat. Let's see how you do with the rest of the casting.

Battle of the Bonds.

That sounds interesting...

 

[Brady Kj]

For the role of Commissioner Gordon, the filmmakers made the unconventional choice of James Earl Jones; this was the first time the character was portrayed as African-American, a choice that would be carried over to the comics in the “rebooted” timeline following the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover story.

James Earl Jones would make that role pretty memorable, and this means Batgirl will be black, too!

 

[ColeMercury]

But how did Nimoy and Shatner become friends so early?

They've been friends since the 1970s. They didn't really get along while filming the TV series but they became good friends afterwards while doing conventions together.

That sounds interesting...

"Battle of the Bonds" is actually an OTL term for when Octopussy (starring Moore) and Never Say Never Again (starring Connery) both came out in 1983. Of course, in TTL things happen rather differently...

 

[THE OBSERVER]

Bring on the "Battle of the Bonds." Hell, perhaps you could do it earlier ITTL!

 

[phx1138]

Somehow, I overlooked this before...

by Arthur C Clarke as a second collaboration with Stanley Kubrick, with whom he had made 2001: A Space Odyssey

If what I read of the "collaboration" is true, it was mostly Kubrik putting Arthur's name on his own script.

only the second time that LeVar Burton had ever received top billing, the first being for his role as David in An American Werewolf in London.)

(I never liked David Naughton.) Doesn't this provoke some shrieking about interracial sex with Jenny Agutter? Or is she not cast? (I can't think of another film she did after "Logan's Run" that was worth a damn.)

Childhood’s End was directed by Leonard Nimoy, who would use the miniseries to prove his talent behind the camera

Bravo. I'd regret it if this meant he didn't do any "Outer Limits" in the '90s, tho.

 

[thekingsguard]

One question: What about Highlander?

 

[cheesekun5000]

I just had a thought. Does James Cameron still direct The Abyss, Terminator 2, True Lies, Titanic, and Avatar in TTL? If not, then who could be possible surrogates for these projects? Personally, it would be a trip if TTL's Avatar was an anime film directed by Mamoru Oshii, or Titanic helmed by Spielberg. The possibilites could boggle the mind!

 

[thekingsguard]

I just had a thought. Does James Cameron still direct The Abyss, Terminator 2, True Lies, Titanic, and Avatar in TTL? If not, then who could be possible surrogates for these projects? Personally, it would be a trip if TTL's Avatar was an anime film directed by Mamoru Oshii, or Titanic helmed by Spielberg. The possibilites could boggle the mind!

Welcome to the boards and nice username!

I could see Cameron direct The Abyss and Titanic if given the opertunity - he is in love with anything that gets to showcase the ocean. Whether or not he gets the money to make them is another thing.

 

[ANARCHY_4_ALL]

Welcome to the boards and nice username!

I could see Cameron direct The Abyss and Titanic if given the opertunity - he is in love with anything that gets to showcase the ocean. Whether or not he gets the money to make them is another thing.

Though maybe after Aliens and this initial sci fi craze. He will be more obsessed with space than the ocean. And out of my own accolade I hope Titianic is not made.(I abhor that movie) Maybe an earlier cheaper made Avatar is made. Or maybe a strange combination of it and Aliens?

 

[ColeMercury]

One question: What about Highlander?

As I have said before: patience, grasshopper.

I realise this timeline isn't strictly linear but I want to keep it as linear as I can. Highlander is still a few years off.

 

[thekingsguard]

As I have said before: patience, grasshopper.

I realise this timeline isn't strictly linear but I want to keep it as linear as I can. Highlander is still a few years off.

Hoi, sensei (I hope thaqt's a hint we still get a Karate Kid )

 

[THE OBSERVER]

Next update ready Cole?

 

[ColeMercury]

Next update ready Cole?

No

I haven't got around to it yet.

(I've been doing some long-term planning for the 1990s and beyond, but no actual update writing.)

 

[Brady Kj]

I have a Superman request. Please have Wallace Shawn play Mr. Mxyzptlk. The fact that Mr. Mxyzptlk was never played by Shawn is a great tragedy of OTL.

 

[ANARCHY_4_ALL]

Bump this thread.

 

[phx1138]

And bump again. Do we need the crash cart?