Hey folks, El Cosmico here with a script review from friendly reader Optimus Prime. Well, I'm glad to see he's keeping himself busy since his show was cancelled. Take it, Op,
Here in Seattle thanks to Cinema Seattle, we have a program called the Screenwriters Salon. It is a program where they bring in an undeveloped screenplay, have actors read the parts, and when it's finished the crowd gives feedback to the writer. Imagine my surprise when they announced that this month they were going to have Christopher McQuarrie the writer of The Usual Suspects, and his latest draft of Alexander (dropped the Great). First I'll give a script review and then I'll tell you where Christopher said this film is in development. This is a complete overview of the film including the ending, but since this is very much a work in progress, not to mention historical fact it's not that spoilerish.
Alexander is an epic in every sense of the word. The story of Alexander the Great, around 350-320 B.C., king of Macedonia, conqueror of most of the known world by age 25. The story begins with Alex's (He's referred to as Alex through the entire script.) mother Olympias speaking to him about how she was impregnated by Zeus himself, that he is destined for glory, much more than his father King Phillip II. Young Alex is then taken to a meeting with the Persians, to stand in for his father, here it is very evident that he is a strong, bright kid. He speaks frankly with the Persians about Macedonia attacking Greece and then Persia. At a horse auction Alex meets his life long companion, he tames the enraged Bucephalas, this powerful horse carries him through all his battles.
As a young man Alex helps his father defeat the Greeks, Alex is described as covered in gore. Alex and his father have a falling out, his father feels that he is not fit to be king. Shortly after they sort of make peace, his father is then murdered and Alex takes the throne. We then follow Alex and his army into Persia where after a short bloody battle, Persian King Darius pulls back, with plans of attacking Alex when his army is weaker. Alex's army proceed on and into Egypt, where he is named Pharaoh. Then in the largest battle of the film, Alex with strategical mastery, defeat Darius for good. Alex and his Macedonian army move into the Persian capital Babylon.
Power struggles start among Alex's top brass, lead officers are executed, the army is getting fat and lazy. Alex urges them to move on. The army crosses the Hindu Kush and on into India. There is another small battle, Alex is nearly fatally wounded, and his mighty horse finally falls. Because of their weariness the army nearly a revolt against Alex, so he and his army return to Babylon. Where Alex finally dies of illness. It will be a powerful ending with 50,000 soldiers lined up to see the king in his death bed.
This is the simplest of overviews with much left out, because if this script was filmed as is it would be about 4 hours long. I left out the other major characters of the film, mainly officers in Alex's army and Alex's lifelong friend Ecbatana, who which with there are many homosexual under-tones. This is a script filled with striking and memorable images, huge, brutal battles, and very smart dialogue. They don't dumb it down at all, if made this way it's a much larger story than Braveheart or Gladiator. Right now, it is about as historically accurate as a film can be. The film starts to drag after Alex defeats the Persians, because once that's done there's not much left for him to conquer, it's also a bit muddled because they're trying to fit the last 6 years of his life into about an hour.
This project came about after Christopher and a friend saw Lawrence of Arabia. Chris said you just couldn't make another film like that, that all the big stories like that had already been told. His friend brought him a book about Alexander the Great. News leaked that Brian Singer (who is not involved) and he were working on developing this film, Peter Buchman (Jurassic Park 3) a Seattle local and Alexander aficionado got in touch with Chris about writing a screenplay. At the time Oliver Stone, HBO, and others had Alex films in the works, so Chris says go wild, do whatever you want. Six months later a 230 page screenplay shows up. Since then they've whittled it down to a more manageable size, what they read last night was the latest draft, still obviously huge.
Chris has had talks with Warner Brothers about directing this $100 million film. They've been interested, but it's not really economically feasible. The WB want something more like Braveheart, a story where there is a evil villain and a definite ending. Chris wants to keep it historically accurate, more of a character study. So as of right now it's really going nowhere. Chris and Peter are going to keep plugging away on the screenplay, but it may never be made unless a big name actor steps into Alexander's role and demands this film be made. Good luck Chris, it could be an amazing film.
Thanks, Optimus! We all expect good things from Chris, and I doubt this film will disappoint. It's one of a handful of films in development that I'm truly eager to see.
