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Sardonicus and THE PATRIOT
He folks, Harry here. Before we move on to the sinister Sardonicus, I wanted to clue you in on the bit that I have read this script as well, and it has quite a lot of potential that is dependent upon wonderful execution and casting. With Mel Gibson as the 'swamp fox' you have a wonderful lead, but this film needs to surround him with a ton of great character actors that feel like they've lived in the wilderness and tamed it. I can't wait to hear David Arnold's score for this one. I tell ya, he's just soooo right to do piccolo flutters and snare drum rhythms... If you have heard anything about the casting on this film... drop me a line!
Hello Master Knowles, Sardonicus here...
I suppose you never know when fortune shall smile upon you and throw a morsel
of coolness your way, so you can imagine how pleased I was during a tedious
flight earlier this week. First, a quick word to the pseudo-player that
begged me to move to the window seat in case he needed to stretch his legs
into the aisle after flying in for some very important last-minute
screenings...
Never, ever, ever fall asleep next to me on a plane after bragging that
you've got the latest draft of Mel Gibson's next movie in your lap.
I didn't get a whole lot of time to read, just a couple of scenes, but from
what I did read, Mel's playing a South Carolinan father of seven in this
Revolutionary War piece, a man whose feats on the battlefield in past
conflicts are legendary. However, with the new war with England looming and
the rebellion seeking help, Benjamin Martin (Gibson) declines to fight or to
even condone others fighting on his behalf, his late wife's calming influence
still guiding him. It isn't until later, after his son Gabriel is killed
(another son, Thomas, dies along the way, but I didn't find the circumstances
behind his death) that Martin decides to return to his old ways. While I
didn't have time to scan through for battle scenes (darn guy kept threatening
to wake up), the dialogue I had read was quite moving. I'd really like to
get my hands on this script again to find out more. Perhaps your able friend
Moriarty could track this puppy down...
Until we meet again, Master Knowles, be well...
Sardonicus
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according to entertainment weekly, the actor playing mel gibson's son in "the patriot" is heath ledger. he was in "10 things i hate about you"
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Good Lord, kids. The Patriot is about the lowest security script ever. If Harry himself does not have this script, AND know about 2 dozen people who will do, I will eat my hat. It's not fresh in my mind, since it's been a while since I read it, but the thing that stands out in my mind most is that this is the most violent script that I've ever read. Period. I am not going to say what one of the weapons used is, because it might be the slightest bit spoilerish, but suffice it to say that if I ever heard about this weapon in history class, I forgot about it. The way that the script describes the damage is truly horrifying. The opening setup establishes the violent tone right out of the box (that's no spoiler). It's a *good* script, but nothing to write home about. The dialog in mine had obviously been written-rewritten with Mel in mind, because it was insanely easy to visualize him. At about page 5 you know what the ending will be, though when it gets there, it's still mildly intriguing. I'm too lazy to go grab the script right now, but to me, the critical casting is not so much Mel's kids in the film, though they are critical, especially the one son (who was one of the first roles cast -- and who's name escapes me), but it's the casting of the elite forces, the Green Dragoons (if I recall correctly), that is going to make it or break it, especially the casting of the lead villain. They're pretty cool -- but they're just so damn nasty that if the wrong actor is cast as the lead villain, it could easily go right over the top and lose the understanding of the villainy. But my God. What passes for a scoop on AICN these days is pretty sad (e.g., a guy seeing a few pages of a very common script on a plane).
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First of all, im first. For the score Arnold is ok,but Trevor Jones(Last of the Mohicans) would be perfect. This scooper's story stinks. Too cloak and dagger to be real.
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When Arnold's got that guy escorting him on the plane, Arnold just smacked him in the nose and broke his neck. Then you could've gotten the damned script!
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Not much of a scoop, but still sounds great. It looks like Gibson is back with bladed weapons, re-doing Braveheart; but considering that that movie is my favorite of the decade, more power to him! Gibson is the best action star alive, and one of the best actors, period. We need him in more epics, showing that incredible rage of his.
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Now you tell me...And Sterling, if you could e-mail me a copy of the script, that would be cool. I was looking at the June 12th draft, and would like to read it start to finish...
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From the script I've seen (which is from the fall of 1998), it's about Francis Marion, a real life guerilla leader for the revolution who lived in the S.C. swamps. He was essentially a "terrorist" (in the same way history labels Michael Collins of the IRA one, I suppose). But I've studied Marion for some time and this story they've concocted bears little similarity to the real man. First of all, he had no children and this doomed "son" Gabe (Heath Ledger) is his beloved nephew. Marion married his cousin Mary Videaux and served in the state legislature. He was not a pacifist farmer dragged into the war because his son was whacked by the Brits! He was a renowned "Indian fighter" and a Southern slave holder. Of course, Mel won't be playing that! I hope they did change the character's name as this will be as bad a mangling of the real ( and interesting) story as Disney's "Swamp Fox" series of the 50s was, which starred Leslie Nielsen as General Marion!
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Devlin and Emmerich are making this, yes? Well, I guess this is *ANOTHER* film I'll skip. I'm actually shocked to lean some Kaiju fan boy hasn't clubbed open their skulls yet. They *ARE* doing a sequel to that shit-fest of a Godzilla film they made, after all.
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I don't know much about this movie, but from the sound of it the plot is really similar to "Shenandoah" (Jimmy Stewart movie / John Cullum musical) but set in Revolutionary times instead of the Civil War.
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C'MON, PEOPLE! Anyone who believes that this 'source', just by dumb luck happened to stumble upon the first part of the 'Patriot' script in the lap of the guy next to him on a plane is a complete drooling idiot. Isn't it convenient that this 'source' just happened to scan enough of the script to whet a reader's appetitite without giving away audience-repelling spoilers, while showering it with praise all the while? Sounds like HYPE-BUILDING to me. With every passing day I believe Barry Sonnenfeld's view on internet 'reviews' more and more - more often than not they're PLANTED by representatives of the studios themselves, giving their films good reviews and buzz, and other studios' projects negative ones. SITES LIKE THIS ARE BECOMING NOTHING MORE THAN AN EXTENSION OF THE STUDIOS' MARKETING DEPARTMENTS...and it's all free.
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Perhaps there are studios out there pulling such crap but, since I do have access to the script in question, the story's comments ring true for the most part (save for the characters' name changes). I have been able to glean similar highlights by browsing through scripts before without reading them too closely. Dialogue stands out and such things. And in LA, scripts are always being xeroxed and passed around despite being told not to by your bosses (USC film grad and ex-LA resident speaking here so I've witnessed it firsthand). True, the sleeping guy on the plane seems about as genuine as the "I met Ewan McGregor in a Chicago bar and he told me about Leo in Episode 2" story that Harry ran a few weeks back -- but remember that a source also gave Harry that tale about running into Ian McKellen at the airport around the time of the Golden Globes and him telling the guy he was considering being in the X-Men. Then four months later the official announcement was made. So it's not all part of some grand crap-slinging conspiracy. That would require studio marketing guys to work harder than they would like to!
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You may be right in some cases, but not in this one. I don't work for any movie studio or PR firm. It's funny that you think that about my comments, because yours is a view I've shared in the past. I'm just a film fan who reads this site regularly who was in the right place at the right time. Whitey, Gibson's character was named Benjamin Martin in this draft, and unfortunately I didn't get to read more so we could compare other differences and similarities, as I think it would prove an interesting roadmap of the trip a screenplay takes from first draft to shooting script. As for the filmmakers responsible for this flick, the director is Roland Emmerich and the writer (there was no cover page on this script, just 'Patriot' written in magic marker on the header of the forst page), according to the IMDB, is Robert Rodat. Devlin is producing.
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Great. Mel playing another Republican, my wife is dead, I am pissed, they killed my son, responsible family man-ish lame role. Oh, and Emmerich is directing. Great. Ok, hm, let's count how many good films Centropolis have made.... well, I'll try, but both of my arms were blown off in a freak copy machine accident. Oh, well, here goes.... ZERO!!!! Whew! Got lucky that time. Really. I mean, yes, this is Mel trying to do Braveheart, Part II, and I say WHO CARES? I know a lot of you do, but for me, I prefer character development to bloodshed. I know that movies where the main character doesn't develop can be good, but the VERY BEST movies involve characters that DO develop. So, I guess what I mean is good war movies need CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT and I bet my left arm (which I don't have anyway) that we won't be seeing any in The Patriot, based off Mel's past characters and Centropolis's basic sucki-ness. By the way, I think the best movie of the decade is Dances with Wolves. Flame away. Be sure to include examples of GREAT character-develop roles for Mel like... um... how he cuts his HAIR in Lethal Weapon 4.
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Hello people this is really cool to find something on The Patriot. I was a core soldier in the movie,one of the 200 selected. The wall of the Red coats coming toward the Blue coats with out stoping is true. I did that, then the Blue coats would run for their lives. That was the Battle of Camden. I have lots of intresting things to tell. This was my first movie as a extra. What got me the job was that they were looking for guys with long hair weigh no more than 180lbs, no taller than 6' and jacket size couldn,t larger than a 44. I have pictures of me in my costume on the set. I was a Red Coat till I almost lost my day job. Here is some of the scenes that I was in, Two ambush, one in a cotton field, the other was in a pasture and raining in this scene. Did some marching scenes with close ups of the camera. I was in one scene were Tavington comes up to a camp site were he overlooks the camp and grabs a fire fly and looks at it funny then he crushes it, then Tavington hurrys to the generals tent with two Indians following him. This was the last time I was on the set of the movie. Before I left the last two weeks of filming the Cowpens battle was coming up. They were bringing in some new extras for us core soldiers to train on using a flynt lock black powder gun and show them the 18th century commands on handling the guns. Have lots of things to talk about.
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