Films I want to see onscreen - The story of the Highgate Vampire

Highgate cemetery is a burial ground in the north of London. There's well over 50,000 graves there containing nearly 200,000 Londoners. It's a massive place that stemmed from Victorian times so it's packed full of Gothic charm and creepiness. It's an eerie and overgrown site so it's not a shock to hear about decades old stories detailing the forces of darkness that roam it's crooked pathways and crumbling tombs when the sun sinks below the horizon and the night rises on tenebrous wings (I totally stole this line from Salem's Lot btw).

It's just a pity that the stories are a load of bollix. Or are they? Ooooooo.

In 1968 a group of tombs were vandalised and a body still in it's coffin was found with an iron bar rammed into it's chest. This macabre act seemed to stir up the imaginations of the people of Highgate and in particular two local men. Two very unusual local men.

David Farrant

On Christmas Eve 1969 a man named David Farrant claimed to have seem a ghostly figure wandering the cemetery as he passed by one evening. He contacted a paper and they published his claims and asked had anyone else seen anything spooky in the area. Numerous people got back to him telling him about all manner of ghosts and goblins in the graveyard but one reply really stood one. A reply that said with certainty that the supernatural being wasn't a ghost, but a vampire. And not only a vampire but a King vampire. The person making this claim was a fellow by the name of Sean Manchester.

Bishop Sean Manchester

London's newspapers lapped it up and knowing the public's love for a scary story they stoked the hell out of it all and this led to a rivalry between Sean and David. Both claimed to be supernatural experts and both claimed they could rid the cemetery of the vampire's evil presence. Live exorcisms followed on ITV (seriously). Manchester's vampire tale grew exponentially every time he told it until it almost exactly resembled a certain Bram Stoker tale (except for the part where the vampire turned into a giant spider, yeah.). Farrant was arrested for desecrating tombs in his search for nightwalkers and for taking part in nude public Wiccan rituals. Manchester went so far as claiming him and friends had actually found a vampire but for legal reasons they talked him out of staking it. The papers couldn't believe their luck with the two of them. Issues flew out of the shops and they played each one off the other so well that eventually they started challenging each other to duels in the Summer of 1973. Magic duels! Sadly the duels never happened but the rivalry continued for decades until David Farrant's death in April of this year. Over the years Farrant distanced himself from the stories but Manchester doubled down on his and released numerous books chronicling his battles with the undead.

Farrant's TV exorcism

We need to see a film made about this. It would be an absolute blast. A comedy rivalry for the ages. Sean Manchester, the self proclaimed Bishop (yeah) and David Farrant, the Wiccan high priest facing off in the press. Imagine Simon Pegg as Farrant and Nick Frost as Manchester. The final film in their trilogy of comedy horror (Hot Fuzz & World's End aren't horror) that started brilliantly with Shaun Of The Dead before dying on it's arse with Splatterhouse Rulez. If done well this could be as good as Shaun was. We all know they work brilliantly together but seeing them against each other could be awesome. The horror part would be good too. Even without the supernatural stuff it's a creepy story and the setting is just terrifying.

Someone tee this one up please. It's a story that would be just perfect for the British sense of humour. It's just too good a tale to let lie.

I want to see a new film made about the Mary Celeste

The tale of the Mary Celeste is one of the most infamous and eerie ocean tales ever. It's a story ripe for retelling and amazingly there's only been one film ever made about it which was 83 years ago by Hammer productions. I'd love to see a new take on the story.

On the 5th of December 1872 the Mary Celeste was enroute to Genoa from New York City when she was found floating in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, just off the Azores.  The crew of the Canadian ship Dei Gratia spotted her stalled in the water and decided to board her only to find a very unsettling scene altogether. The ship was completely empty, not a sinner on board. There were very little signs of disturbance apart from one stain that may have been blood but no missing cargo, nothing to suggest the ship had come under attack or that the crew onboard had come to any harm. It was in a slightly disheveled state with some odd marks on the hull and a lifeboat was missing but other than that the whole situation was a perplexing one. Personal belongings lay in the rooms of their owners, important provisions sat in larders including barrels of oil and alcohol, things that would never have been left behind had the crew evacuated to another ship or had they been raided. The ship's log was found and the last entry and position had been 9 days before. But shipping experts of the time say there was no way an unmanned ship could have made it from there to were it was found. It just was not possible. To top it all off none of the reported crew onboard was ever seen again.

What happened?? Who the hell knows. And this makes it a story that bulges with cinematic possibility. There are so many directions a film about the Mary Celeste could take. Was another ship involved? Was it an inside job? Did everyone on board lose the plot due to alcohol fumes rising from the hold below decks which was an actual hypothesis. Did one person kill them all?? You could have a tension packed film inspired by Agatha Christie's 10 Little Indian's. People being picked off one by one by someone unknown, everyone suspicious of each other, the enemy within. It's a story that's been done before in films like The Thing and D-Tox and TV shows like The X-Files but the maritime setting could make it unique.

Other theories put forth over the years are freak nature events. Waterspouts, sea beasts, giant waves, seaquakes, a rogue iceberg that sent the crew running for the lifeboat. This could turn the story into a disaster movie. Everyone loves a disaster movie. Master And Commander meets Twister maybe? A 19th century take on The Posideon Adventure? One theory was the ship was attacked by a giant squid who plucked the crew members off the ship one by one. This one came about because the marks on the hull could feasibly have come from suckers on tentacles. Ridiculously far fetched but it could make for a good scary monster movie.

Other theories were even more outlandish. Alien abductions for one! Remember the end of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind when we saw people returning off the alien ship who had been missing for decades. This could be an origin story for some of those people. 19th century sailors in space. Haha imagine it. Another bonkers theory was one about the sailors somehow stumbling across the lost city of Atlantis. That's a ready made movie right there. 19th New York sailors in a mythical city. Who wouldn't want to watch that?

The possibilities with this are endless. It's too interesting of a story to let lie. It's a licence to go wild with the only story constraints being the writer's imagination and of course the few facts we have. I hope we see some story about it onscreen someday, be it horror, thriller, psychological drama, whatever.

One suggestion though. Jason Statham as the boat's captain. Then you're on a winner.

An Irish film I'd love to see get made. The story of Grace Gifford

"As we gather in the chapel here in old Kilmainham Jail
I think about these past few weeks, oh will they say we've failed? 
From our school days they have told us we must yearn for liberty 
Yet all I want in this dark place is to have you here with me 

Oh Grace just hold me in your arms and let this moment linger 
They'll take me out at dawn and I will die 
With all my love I place this wedding ring upon your finger 
There won't be time to share our love for we must say goodbye" 

Grace by Frank & Sean O'Meara

We all know this famous Irish song but what do we know about the woman behind the song - Grace Gifford. She's known as the woman who married Joseph Mary Plunkett hours before his execution at the hands of the English for his part in the 1916 rising but there's so much more to her story than that. It's a story I'd love to see onscreen. I think it could be great.

Grace was born into a Protestant family in 1888. She was very talented at art and trained under William Orpen. Eventually art became her career and she contributed drawings and political cartoons to numerous newspapers and books. Around this time her sister Muriel got married to future 1916 rising member Thomas McDonagh and through him she met Joseph Plunkett. Plunkett was a Catholic and they build a friendship during conversations about religion, a subject both were deeply interested in. Eventually that friendship turned romantic and they became engaged after she became a Catholic and were due to marry on Easter Sunday 1916. But fate intervened.

The 1916 Easter rising took place and Joseph was arrested for his part as a founding member. He was sentenced to death by firing squad in Kilmainham jail on the 3rd of May. Grace bought 2 rings and with the help of a priest she was allowed into the jail and there she married her love in the chapel. Their marriage lasted a couple of hours and then she became a widow.

Grace then decided to dive into politics and used her artistic skills to support Sinn Fein. Soon she was a fully fledged member of the party and became guardian to her niece and nephew after her sister, who had also been widowed, passed away. In 1919 her artwork was used during a holiday for The Irish Women's workers union which brought her to national prominence. A few years later she was arrested for her part as an active Sinn Fein member during the Irish civil war. Harrowingly she ended up being jailed in the very place where her husband lost his life. Instead of wallowing in grief though she devoted her energy to her art and spent her sentence decorating her jail cell with her own art.

After her release she was ostracised by society for her anti treaty part in the civil war and by her husband's family who cut her out of her husband's will. Once again her skills as an artist came to her rescue and eventually she had the privilege of working alongside W.B. Years and illustrated a book of his. She also became a costume designer in Dublin's Abbey Theatre. Her fortunes increased again when she was recognised by Eamon De Valera and received a civil list pension which enabled her to concentrate solely on her art. Around this time though the stress she had lived with for years began to take its toll on her and she spent her last years in a frail and sickly condition before passing away in 1955 aged only 66. She was buried in Glasnevin with full military honours with Sean T O'Cealligh in attendance. 

She had never remarried. She went to her grave still in love with her husband of a few hours.

The artwork in her Kilmainham jail cell still survives

Her story has the making of a brilliant film. One which would break your heart. RTE's godawful Rebellion TV show aside we rarely get to see anything about women's place in early 20th century Irish society. It would be great to see the rising through the eyes of the people in the background. The people who loved the founding members. Seeing it from this perspective would give a whole new slant on a story we are all familiar with. Plus how many biopics of tortured male artists have we seen over the years? Too many. We could see the troubles a woman had trying to build a career back when a woman's place has seen to be in the home and we could see the damaging effects the class system of the time had on people perceived to be on the wrong side of society.

I'd love to see the story of Grace get introduced to a whole new audience. She deserves it. Her story was sad but she lived her life to the fullest and never let her tragedies bring her down. 

Now who could play her part.

Saoirse Ronan as young Grace?
Maria Doyle Kennedy as older Grace?

Any suggestions as to who could do her justice?

I want to see more stories about the parts of Ireland we don't talk about

Ireland is pumping out movies these days. It's great. The film scene here has never been healthier but I'd like to see it being used to shine a light on some of our more pressing societal issues. We need to see more films about the rarely mentioned sides of Ireland, the things we don't want to talk about. The people we ignore, the alienated and the disenfranchaised. The things that to outsiders make us look backward and ignorant. We need to have our faces rubbed in it. We need to wake up. Our leaders need to wake up and film is a great way to get people to take notice.

We need to see stories about : 

The suicide epidemic that is decimating generations of people in this country and that is being totally ignored by the powers that be. The mental health situation in Ireland is a ticking time bomb.

The horror of direct provision and the stories of the people trapped in limbo there. The children who've grown up knowing nothing else. The wasted talent just sitting there rotting.

The stories of the girls and women who've had to travel to Britain for abortions that they can't legally get here. The fact that women in the 21st century don't have the right to choose what they can do with their own bodies is shameful.

The damage religion has done and the indelible stain it has left on people. The people who's lives have been ruined by clerical abuse and church interference.

The families being raised in hotels and bed & breakfasts that have been utterly failed by everyone.

The racism and homophobia that we deny exists anymore but that is still happening around us everyday. 

The story of Irish immigrants, the people who've left and who are miserable abroad but have no choice as there's nothing for them here.

The homeless people whom we are afraid to make eye contact with who are dying on our streets metres away from a building filled with politicians who'd step over them.

The corruption endemic in every aspect of our society from sport to government to charity.

And finally our horrible, horrible relationship with alcohol. The truest Irish cliche we see in film is one that's rarely looked at in a negative light. 

I love Ireland. I really do. It's a beautiful place full of brilliant people but we need to see more about these things. Some of the greatest films ever made were the ones that asked the hard questions and shone a light on the things we wanted to keep in the dark. If these stories are told more openly then hopefully answers will be more forthcoming. Over the years film has shown itself to be a powerful force for change because it's a medium that's accessible to everyone. 

It can do more. It should do more.

I want to see more films set in Limerick

I'm sick of Irish films set in Dublin. I like Dublin mind, it's a grand aul spot but there's far more to the country than it. Just look at Limerick in the above picture. It's beautiful. And it needs to be seen in more than just shitty TV3 crime documentaries or have some wagon complaining about it on the Late Late. Last year we got The Young Offender's which was set in Cork and it was a love letter to the county. I want something like that for here.

In the history of Irish cinema there's been two films set in Limerick. Two. A couple more have been filmed here and in the surrounding country side (A John Ford film called The Rising Of The Moon and a silly ghost story called High Spirits) but only 2 have been set here. One is forgotten drama called Cowboys and Angels that's forgotten for a good reason and the other, well we all remember the other, a rain filled howl of despair called Angela's Ashes that puts me on a downer just typing about it.

Now we have a new film and TV studio in Limerick called Troy studios. The new George RR Martin TV show for Netflix is about to be filmed there soon and no doubt will be a success following on from Game Of Thrones. Now's our chance to see something Limerick born and bred and I'd love someone to take a chance. We have the stuff to do it now.

We've a wealth of resources ready to be onscreen. That massive glorious river. The Georgian section for period dramas. King John's Castle. The beautiful Peoples park. The history everywhere. The sound lovely people ready and willing to be given a chance. Throw a stone west of Limerick and you'll hit a castle or a castle ruin. Shannon airport is only out the road. And we're only an hour from the Atlantic Ocean.

I want to see

A biopic of Paul O'Connell.

Drama on the UL campus.

A disaster film set at Ardnacrusha.

A tragi-comedy set in Donkey Fords.

A Mary I set exam heist film.

The stories of Con Colbert and Sean Heuston and their parts in the 1916 rising.

A ghost story in Curraghchase.

Speed boats ripping along the falls.

 A Predator film set in Cratloe Woods.

Adulterous tales from Ted's.

A medieval tale set in the King Johns Castle.

High Powered intrigue in Plassey Park.

Tales of sporting glory in the Gaelic grounds and Garryowen.

A love story set amongst the Diddley Aye in Dolan's warehouse.

A film about the Rubberbandits and how they got started.

The story of the one brave soul in Limerick who hates rugby.

The great Chicken Hut Gravy robbery.

A movie about the 100,000 people who wedged into Thomond Park in 1978.

The true story of Gerry Hannan's crusade against Frank McCourt.

Jokes aside I'd love to see stories from the city I've called home for nearly 20 years. Stories about the hardships people face. The epidemic of suicide that has cast a pall over the river. The brave hardy souls who venture out along the river night after night for help people in trouble. But i want to see the joys too. The little wins. The people bringing their kids up right against the hardship all around them. The sporting glory. The wave of change washing over the city lately. The salt of the earth people. That brilliant take no shite attitude. Anything that would show the wider world how much this lovely city has to offer.

I just want, we just want to see the place be represented positively on screen. It would be great.

The Twits. A book I'd look to see on the big screen.

A right pair of bastards

I'd do bad things to see Roald Dahl's 'The Twits' turned into a live action film.

The Twits is a wonderful book, dark but hilarious in that way only Dahl could do. Me and my brother read it numerous times as children and cried laughing at it everytime. It was the first time I'd read a children's book that contained characters so unabashedly nasty. It was also full of queasy Quentin Blake illustrations that made you squirm when you looked at them but of course that just made you look even closer.

It's the story of an absolutely vile couple. Mr and Mrs Twit. A pair of hateful morons. They despise everything. Animals. The neighbourhood children. Each other. They spend their lives shut inside their house, only emerging to trap birds to put into their bird pies. They are both miserable and spend their time devising ingenuous plans to make each other even more miserable. Glass eyeballs are popped into pints of beer. Worms are mixed into spaghetti. One amazing plan sees tiny discs of wood gradually added to the bottom of furniture and a walking stick to make a person assume they are slowly shrinking. Eventually people become sick of them and their nastiness and use some of the Twit's own tricks to get revenge.

All the nasty fun aside there's a great moral to the story too. It's about what happens to people when they become too filled with hate and spite. What happens when you let it take control of you. How inner ugliness starts to show on the outside too. (See the pic of Mrs Twit below). The dangers of a toxic relationship.

As for who could play them. They'd have to be British actors. Definitely. Or maybe Irish. We both share that same warped sense of humour.


Mrs Twit. 

The progress of Mrs Twit

I'd love to see Kathy Burke in the role. She's a brilliant actress and comedian, does grumpy and frumpy excellently, and one who can be hilariously filthy at times. Waynetta Slob anyone? Throw on a fright wig, a fake nose and chin and a handful of warts and she'd be the perfect Mrs Twit.


Mr Twit.

Mr Twit's beard still makes me shudder 30 years later

I'd love to see an actor noted for playing upper crust characters take on Mr Twit. Hugh Laurie maybe. Mark Rylance or Michael Sheen(he'd be great).  I'd pay good money to see any of those with a scraggly beard taking on a plate full of wriggly spaghetti. Wait a minute! Brendan Gleeson could be awesome in this. Imagine that ginger beard full of food scraps. Lovely.

Dahl's films have a pretty good history of being adapted well to film. Willy Wonka (the first one) & The Witches perfectly captured the light and dark so prevalent in his books. Matilda was lovely fun and although I wasn't a fan of either The BFG or Fantastic Mr Fox, both were very well received. 

Roald Dahl originally wrote this book because he hated beards, hated men who grew them. Imagine what he'd think of today.

C'mon someone and make it please. It would be deadly.

Things I want to see on the big screen. Tom Hanks going to the darkside.

I want to see Tom Hanks mow down a load of OAP's.

Or something to that effect.

I love Tom Hanks. I think he's great. He seems like a grand chap. He's starred a lot of feel good films that I've enjoyed over the years.. Big, The Money Pit, Splash and Dragnet as a young lad and Catch Me If You Can as an adult. He's always value for money. He never gives a bad performance and he's always good to watch. He's the James Stewart of our generation. The dependable everyman who people look up to. The actor the cool cineaste people claim not to like but you know they do(don't bother lying). He's always sound. Even when he's murdering gangsters in The Road To Perdition or being a shifty political type in Charlie Wilson's War he's still likeable

Still likeable.

I want to see him go dark. I want to see him be malice personified. To be utterly unlikeable. 

He went towards the dark side in the recent (piece of shit) film 'The Circle' as a morally dodgy Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg type but its not far enough. I want DARK. I want roles like -

Lee Marvin in The Big Heat.

Michael Rooker in Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer.

Mrs Danvers in Rebecca.

Javier Bardem in No Country For Old Men.

Henry Fonda in Once Upon A Time In The West. (this is the one to live up to)

Kathy Bates in Misery.

James Woods in Cop.

All pricks.

I want to see him do stuff like that. I love an actor brave enough to go full dark. I emphasised Henry Fonda above. Fonda was a big star from the Forties to the Sixties and was a Hollywood go-to good guy too. He was always a strong moral centre of a film in things like My Darling Clementine, 12 Angry Men and The Ox-Bow Incident to name but a few. Audiences were used to seeing him like this, they expected this persona. Then OUATITW came along and blew those expectations out of the water. In a time before film magazine and review shows and websites full of spoilers no one expected anything different. Then the film opens with his character Frank, hired killer, murdering a family, kids and all. Oh Jesus I can't even begin to imagine how appalled audiences must have been. It's telling that after almost 50 yers that when the film is mentioned most people remember him as the baddie and not Charles Bronson as the hero.

That's what I want for Hanks. 

I want moral bankruptcy. I want no redemption. I want him to be an irredeemable fucking bastard.

He would be great. 

A story I'd love to see on the big screen. The Battle Of Ramree Island

Ramree's Mangrove swamps

World War II films are ten a penny. There's 70 years worth of them. Some of them are absolutely fantastic and some are awful but most of them are about the same thing. One side against the other. Man vs Man. English Vs Germans. Yanks vs Japanese and so on and so forth.

The story of the Battle of Ramree Island is a different kind of war story though.

It's absolutely terrifying. The stuff of nightmares. One that could make for a great film.

Ramree was a small Island off the coast of Burma. Small but of big strategic importance. It was being held by Japanese forces and the Allies needed it to establish an airbase for resupplying their troops in Burma. 

On the 21st of January 1945 allied forces invaded the island and started to skirmish with the enemy. The battle continued for 2 days until the Japanese forces found themselves outflanked. 900 of them decided to retreat across land to join up with a larger group. To get there they had to travel through a dozen miles of mangrove swamps and while they were in there they found themselves surrounded on all sides by the allies. But a worse danger lay waiting inside the swamp, salt water crocodiles. Man eaters. The place became death. 900 soldiers had entered the swamp. The next day 20 were left. 20. Far more would have survived if they had stood their ground and fought. The allied soldiers camped around the swamp heard it all. 

“The scattered rifle shots in the pitch black swamp punctured by the screams of wounded men crushed in the jaws of huge reptiles, and the blurred worrying sound of spinning crocodiles made a cacophony of hell that has rarely been duplicated on earth.”

Nope.

This story could be the basis for an extremely intense film. Imagine The Thin Red Line crossed with Jaws. But with crocodiles instead of sharks of course. And we could see it from the Japanese soldiers point of view. It would certainly make for a unique movie. World War 2 films from a Japanese point of view are rare, U.S. ones especially. Letters From Iwo Jima is the only one i can think of off hand. Taking a Japanese WW2 POV and having it in a horror film would be very unique indeed. This could be Jaws for a new generation of cinema goers. TBH I'm amazed this hasn't been made into a film yet. The nearest the story has come to any form of adaption is in pulp comic books (see above) of the 1950's and 60's.

Of course a lot of modern day research says the numbers reported are exaggerated but since when has that ever bothered film makers. 

To quote the great western 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' -"When the legend becomes truth, print the legend"

Crazy Horse. An epic story that deserves an epic film.

How many western films have been made? Thousands.

How many western films have native Americans appeared in? Thousands.

How many western films have been made from their point of view? Dozens. 

Dozens compared to thousands. It's not on is it. Their experience was an integral part of the West and they've been whitewashed out of cinematic history. And films made from their POV invariably starred white actors darkened up, like Charles Bronson and Burt Lancaster for example. Even up to the 90's it was happening. Johnny Depp in The Brave for example. Sorry, I've forgotten another Depp one, he played Tonto in the recent version of the Lone Ranger. FFS. 

Arguably one of the most famous Native Americans was Crazy Horse. His life story is the stuff legends are made of and yet only 2 movies have been made about him. One in the 50's and one in the 90's. And of course the one in the 50's was with a white actor - Victor Mature. It's time for another. 

Crazy Horse was born into the Lakota Sioux in 1842. His birth name was Cha-O-Ha. His light skin-tone made many in the tribe believe his father was white and this lead to his mother killing herself out of shame. He began to have visions as a young man after witnessing a battle and these helped him build his confidence, his self belief and his skill on the battlefield as he grew. His reputation grew too as many believed he was invincible. Eventually he became a leader and led his compatriots against the U.S. army during the land grabs in the 1860's to 1880's. He eventually found himself in battle against the forces of President Ulysses S. Grant who were led by the infamous Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer. They won the battle but sadly Crazy Horse was dead less than 18 months later.

His story is the stuff of cinema. His tragic early life. His vision quests. His shy personality. His first kill. His skill at battle. His relationship with the great Sitting Bull. His participation in the Sioux uprising and the Indian Wars. Ensuring tribes that were once enemies combined to fight the common enemy. His marriage to Black Shawl Woman and the birth of daughter They Are Afraid Of Her. His leading of a war party at the Battle of the Little Big Horn and Custer's Last Stand (and the horrific consequences of that battle for the Sioux )and his very very questionable death at the hands of the Federal army.

This is a film that would need the epic sweep of films like Cimarron, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee and Dances With Wolves combined with the post modern revisionism of things like Unforgiven and Deadwood. Looking back at the events without the glory and patriotism of earlier portrayals. Showing how good life pre war was and just how bad things got post war.

As for who could play him, it would have to be an Native American actor. Anything else would be an insult. Rudy Youngblood who was so great as the lead in Apocalypto would be a great choice. Or maybe Zahn McClarnon who was brilliant as Hanzee in Season 2 of Fargo. And Gil Bermingham who was great fun as Jeff Bridges' partner in Hell Or High Water could make a cracking Sitting Bull. 

It's not a film that will get made during Trump's reign. White America does not come out of the story looking good. The native Americans were just fighting what they saw as invaders, fighting to protect what was theirs. 

I'd love to see this. A real American story. A fitting postscript would be seeing the Crazy Horse monument in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Even bigger than the faces at Mount Rushmore. A big monument for a giant of a man.

The Crazy Horse monument in South Dakota

Films I'd love to see get made. King Suckerman.

Remember Neon magazine? A excellent movie mag that was around in the late 90's. A nice mix of the best parts of Empire and Sight & Sound. I loved it. And even though it's gone years I still love it because it introduced me to the books of George Pelecanos.

The article was about a book of his called King Suckerman and that Puff Daddy or whatever he was called then had just bought the rights to it. The description of the book caught my eye and the next time I was in Eason's I picked up a copy of it.

And I fell in love.

Dimitri Karras is a young Greco-American man floating through life making money as a low level pot dealer. His best friend is Marcus Clay, an African American Vietnam veteran who has just opened a record store in Washington DC. Dimitri is carefree and careless. Marcus has had his fill of trouble during the war and just wants to enjoy the quiet life with his wife and new born son. A business deal goes wrong for them and invites a whole lot of trouble and bloodshed onto their doorstep with everything coming to a head during the United States Bicentennial celebrations on the 4th of July, 1976.

A nice simple story and one that would make for a great film. It's fast. It's funny in places. People, places and actions feel real and unforced. The characters have depth and shades of gray and are well drawn, you care deeply about the good guys and despise the bad guys. 70's music and fashion is always fun to hear and see. The title is taken from a (fake) blaxploitation film that gets mentioned a lot in the film and the characters are films fans too. Loads of film references in there too. Vanishing Point, The Mack, Black Caesar and Two Lane Black Top all get name checked. It's not an action heavy book but it builds to a blazing and bloody climax under a firework filled sky.

The story may be simple but the writing isn't. Themes of race, nationalism, the treatment of black people in America are all touched upon. The causes and effects of violence. The effects of abuse, incarceration and war on the male psyche. How drug use, no matter how tame, has far reaching consequences.

Pelecanos is of Greek descent as well so the book gives us a nice insight into a little bit of Greek culture, food and traditions and their way of thinking, as well as throwing a little bit of the language our way. 

Of course this isn't the only Pelecanos book thought would be good on the big screen. And there's plenty of stuff to work with. See below.

I may be a fan of his

The Sweet Forever is the follow up to King Suckerman and this time Marcus is the leading man and it's another masterpiece. And it's story is one that's still frighteningly topical these days. The decimation of the inner city by drugs.

Right As Rain could be another cracker too and yet another topical one as one of it's main storylines is about the killing of black men by police.

A few years ago there was talk of Shoedog and Right As Rain getting their own films but nothing ever came of it. And i'm surprised because George has become a well known TV writer mainly for his work with David Simon and Ed Burns on such superb shows as The Wire (he wrote the episode where Wallace is killed, the bastard) and Treme. Other shows he wrote for were The Pacific and most recently Bosch and an upcoming 3rd collaboration with David Simon, The Deuce.

Who could play Dimitri and Marcus?

I've my eye on Gbenga Akinnagbe for Marcus. A cracking actor, so good as Chris Partlow in The Wire, brooding and quiet but capable of explosions of extreme anger. But with a calm sound side shown in stuff like Nurse Jackie and The Good Wife. Plus he's worked with Pelecanos twice on his shows too. The Wire and the upcoming The Deuce.


For Dimitri? I haven't a clue TBH. Any suggestions?

C'mon Hollywood, get ye finger out and start taking notice of this chap's back catalogue. 

There's gold in them thar hills.

The story of Cú Chulainn. A film I'd love to see get made.

The last big budget Irish film was Michael Collins. That was 21 years ago! That's just not on at all! Everyone loves us or so we hear, therefore it stands to reason that everyone would love to see another massive Irish film right? 

And what could this massive film be? Why a mega budget film version of the story of Cú Chulainn, one of the most famous stories in Irish mythology. And why not? The historical fantasy genre is massive. Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit were huge. Game Of Thrones is a still a global phenomenon 6 years into it's run. Imagine a story as rich and full of fantasy as those but with an Irish slant? Come on. It would be amazing. An action packed epic full of celtic mysticism*

*Colm Meaney in Intermission has made this phrase a fave of mine :D

We could see him growing up as Setanta (his birth name), his training with Scáthach, a fearsome woman warrior, falling in love with her sister Aífe, his life long friendship with Ferdiad and the famous confrontation with the hound of Chulainn that gave him his name. We could see him defend Ulster single handedly against Warrior Queen Medb at the battle of Cooley. We'd see some of the self made tragedy that entered his life. And I'd love to see what happens when he went into his infamous battle fury where he killed everyone that came near him be it friend or foe. And his death is really the stuff of legend. A true warrior's demise. 

Nicky English style

There were rumours a few years ago that Michael Fassbender was attached to play the great man. He's proved his action chops with 300 and Centurion and as Magneto in the X-Men films and would be a great home grown pick for this. And come on, it would have to be an Irish actor. Brendan Gleeson could be great as Chulainn or Conchobar Mac Nessa, the King Of Ulster. He has plenty of experience with historical war epics such as Braveheart, Troy & Kingdom Of Heaven. Maybe Saoirse Ronan or Ruth Negga as Queen Medb? Tbh Medb needs her own film too. Liam Cunningham would be perfect in this too. As a matter of fact every film is made better by the addition of Liam Cunningham.

Imagine seeing the stories we learned as kids on the big screen? Imagine the buzz you'd have watching this in a cinema full of cheering Irish people. 

There's swathes of stories to choose from aside the above. Tír Na nÓg. The children of Lir. The Tuatha Dé Danann. Fionn Mac Cumhaill. A rich deep tapestry of mythology that is mostly untapped. Song Of The Sea, a family film from 2014 recently delved into the stories of selkies and it was phenomenal stuff. Now imagine a grown up retelling of some of these myths. 

Aw man this could be lethal. 

Stories I want to see made into huge films. Lyudmila Pavlichenko.

The Story of Lyudmila Pavlichenko.

This could be a fantastic biopic. The story of the best female sniper in the world. 

I'd love to see a big budget version of this story on screen from a director like Kathryn Bigelow or Patty Jenkins. Both have proved themselves as great directors of action.

Lyudmila fought for Russia during World War 2 and notched up 309 kills. When the war started she wanted to join the army but because women weren't accepted at the time she was given the option of becoming a nurse. However because of her skills ( She'd been sharpshooting since the age of 14) and the demand for soldiers she was finally accepted. Her and 2000 other women became snipers in the Red army. She fought in Odessa between 1941 and 1942 and became very famous because of how good she was and how feared she was by the German army. After the war she went on to become the first Soviet person to be ever invited to visit the USA by an American president and gave speeches to massive crowds in New York and Chicago.

I know there's been buckets of war movies made but how many have we got to see from a woman's perspective? It would add a whole new dimension to proceedings. Plus we'd see the struggles and adversity she faced in what was up to then very much a man's world. And still is.

I love to see it done correctly though. Films that glorify warfare are always a letdown. The best ones are the ones that show exactly what war does to people.

Ok, now, before I forget, there has already been a Russian film ( Battle For Sevastopol ) made of this story but it's too melodramatic and too afraid to focus fully on Lyudmila. It's a pity it felt the need to add fake drama to a story already full of it. A film like this doesn't need a forced love story.

Hollywood has always been afraid of big budget women led blockbusters but surely the success stories of the Hunger Games series of movies and more recently the huge box office of Wonder Woman would give them more confidence.

Now. Any ideas on who could play the lead role?? Being brutally honest, it probably and sadly wouldn't ever get made with a Russian actress in the lead especially if it's a big UK or US production. So I'm thinking maybe Emily Blunt. Any other suggestions? 

Next - The story of Cú Chulainn.