Conservative estimates on my part gave a rough running time of HOD to be about 6-7 minutes.
The first cut is 14 minutes 23 seconds and that’s sticking exclusively to the script with no additional material thrown in for good measure.
Granted it’s a bit flabby at the end, but even so, if the final cut drops below 10 minutes I’ll be surprised.
Whoever said a page of screenplay equals a minute of screentime was blatantly lying!
Still, it seems to work. I’m a bit jaded at the moment, so I’ll reserve further comment until I’ve watched it all the way through with a fresh pair of eyes.
BTW, if anyone reading this knows what Fine Line, the subsidiary of New Line, are doing with Foucault’s Pendulum, I’d love to know. I’d give my right arm to have a crack at that screenplay (and just about anything to make it!).
I worked out a Dramatica storyform for it earlier this evening. It’s a complex book, but there’s a cracking film there waiting to get out.
Apprently Kubrick wanted to make it into a film, but Umberto Eco had reservations about giving the rights away after the hash they made of The Name of the Rose. Fine Line acquired the rights to it in 2000, but seem to have simply sat on it. I wonder if they’re struggling to find the right writer?
OI! I’M OVER HERE!
I just finished reading it again yesterday. I haven’t read it for about ten years, and hadn’t realised what a huge impact it has had on my life. SToA rose out of it, as did several other crackpot ideas I’ve had for web sites and films.
Awesome book.
2 comments
bazza says:
April 23, 2006 at 9:30 pm (UTC 1 )
cool still, looks like you might have a cracking performance there. on the edit side I’m reding a book by Walter Murch at the mo, he edited The Conversation and The English Patient among others. He is also a sound editor/designer and is full of really cool ideas for both crafts. Apparently everything he writes is great so check him out. I’m reading The Conversations
Andy Coughlan says:
April 23, 2006 at 10:31 pm (UTC 1 )
Cheers Bazza, yes the performances are amazing, I spent most of the time watching them with the hair standing up on the back of my neck. I just hope the edit does them justice. I have read Murch’s In the Blink of an Eye, which is excellent (and very quick) reading. I’ll check out The Conversations…