Biopics you'd like to see made

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Biopics are always popular (if often controversial) and recently, so many have had them made about them that I wonder if there's anyone left who hasn't.

At the risk of having missed a smaller production than Spielberg's Lincoln, or the one about the Queen, or even the Damned United one about Brian Clough, are there any people you've never seen one made for/about that you'd like to see?

I've always thought Mark McCormack must have had a fascinating life. He was Arnold Palmer's lawyer, and effectively invented the modern understanding of sports agents and advertising via his company IMG. Not only that, he was instrumental in making tennis "Open" and is credited with the concept of the modern "Grand Slam" in professional golf. The peripheral figures in his life alone - in particular Arnie, Jack and Gary - would be fascinating studies, placed back in their 60s personas.

[Ginger Yellow]

Biopics you'd like to see made

I don't really want to see any made. They're pretty terrible as an art form, and it's lucky when they turn out good.

[delicatemoth]

Biopics you'd like to see made

I mainly agree with GY, but there are some good ones - 'Senna' was excellent, as was 'Salute'. Do they count as biopics, seeing as they're documentaries which don't include actors?

I'd quite like to see a proper biopic of Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener, if only to redress the appalling, grotesquely insulting travesty that is 'The Danish Girl'.

[Ginger Yellow]

Biopics you'd like to see made

No, I'm not counting documentaries. I'm specifically talking about artistic representations. Even before you get into the usual issues of hagiography/demonisation, there's a fundamental conflict between accurately portraying someone's life, which is basically a bunch of stuff that happened, and the structural needs of narrative drama. I'd rather have either a documentary or an actual fiction, like say The Master.

That said, there are some good ones. I just think they're the exception.

[3 Colours Red]

Biopics you'd like to see made

Always thought a ZTT film in the style of 24 Hour Party People would be... intriguing, at least. Probably not good, but certainly interesting.

[Stumpy Pepys]

Biopics you'd like to see made

George Formby's infamous tour of South Africa.

[tee rex]

Biopics you'd like to see made

Magellan.

Needs to be a mini-series, movie-length won't do it justice. The famous voyage itself has all the ingredients the producers could ask for, so we can go high art or lowbrow, take your pick.

Spoiler: he dies.

[San Bernardhinault]

Biopics you'd like to see made

If we really had to have a biopic made, I think I'd like to see a Fitzroy Maclean one, or possibly a Ryszard Kapuscinski one.

[Bored Of Education]

Biopics you'd like to see made

This guy.

[multipleman78]

Biopics you'd like to see made

Jennifer Capriati. I would cast Hailee Steinfeld as the young Capriati but no idea who would portray the more muscular, victorious Capriati.

[evilC]

Biopics you'd like to see made

Viktor Schauberger

Tony Faramus - a bit of a local hero round here, due to his hunt saboteuring work. Preferably based on his autobiography.

A full-life biopic of Richard Feynmann might be fun, if something of an epic. I've yet to see 'Infinity'.

For a car enthusiast like me, people like John Surtees, Murray Walker and Colin Chapman (though the latter may not be that life-affirming!) would be cool to see.

A before, during and after biopic of Stanislav Petrov would be nice to see, too.

I'm sure there's more. I'll mention them if I remember them.

[beak]

Biopics you'd like to see made

Guillaume Le Gentil:

He was part of the international collaborative project organized by Mikhail Lomonosov to measure the distance to the Sun, by observing the transit of Venus at different points on the earth. Edmond Halley had suggested the idea, but it required careful measurements from different places on earth, and the project was launched with more than a hundred observers dispatched to different parts of the globe, for observing the transit coming up in 1761. The French expedition turned out to be particularly unlucky, and perhaps the most unfortunate was Guillaume Le Gentil, who set out for Pondicherry, a French possession in India.[1] He set out from Paris in March 1760, and reached Isle de France (now Mauritius) in July. However, war had broken out between France and Britain in the meantime, hindering further passage east. He finally managed to gain passage on a frigate that was bound for India's Coromandel Coast, and he sailed in March 1761 with the intention of observing the transit from Pondicherry. Even though the transit was only a few months away, on 6 June, he was assured that they would make it in time. The ship was blown off-course by unfavorable winds and spent five weeks at sea. By the time it finally got close to Pondicherry, the captain learned that the British had occupied the city, so the frigate was obliged to return to Isle de France. When 6 June came the sky was clear, but the ship was still at sea, and he could not take astronomical observations with the vessel rolling about.[2] After having come this far, he thought he might as well await the next transit of Venus, which would come in another eight years (they are relatively infrequent, occurring in pairs 8 years apart, but each such pair is separated from the previous and next pairs by more than a century.)

After spending some time mapping the eastern coast of Madagascar, he decided to record the 1769 transit from Manila in the Philippines. Encountering hostility from the Spanish authorities there, he headed back to Pondicherry, which had been restored to France by peace treaty in 1763, where he arrived in March 1768. He built a small observatory and waited patiently. At last, the day in question (4 June 1769) arrived, but although the mornings in the preceding month had all been lovely, on this day the sky became overcast, and Le Gentil saw nothing. The misfortune drove him to the brink of insanity, but at last he recovered enough strength to return to France.

The return trip was first delayed by dysentery, and further when his ship was caught in a storm and dropped him off at Île Bourbon (Réunion), where he had to wait until a Spanish ship took him home. He finally arrived in Paris in October 1771, having been away for eleven years, only to find that he had been declared legally dead and been replaced in the Royal Academy of Sciences. His wife had remarried, and all his relatives had "enthusiastically plundered his estate".[3] Lengthy litigation and the intervention of the king were ultimately required before things were normalized.

There's a play and an opera about him, but I'm unlikely to see either of them any time soon.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Biopics you'd like to see made

Ginger Yellow wrote: I don't really want to see any made. They're pretty terrible as an art form, and it's lucky when they turn out good.

This.

OTOH you can use biography as a skeleton to build an interesting fiction.

For example Paul Cezanne, Emile Zola, and Baptisin Baille were inseparable as boys. All three went on to have significant careers (Baille was a physicist.) Though wildly different personalities they stayed in touch throughout their lives. I think a skilled writer could make something from this relationship.

[danielmak]

Biopics you'd like to see made

David Beckham

I'm just messin' with you. I generally agree with GY that this type of film rarely works for me. I did like the Basquiat film a lot and the Motorcycle Diaries was great, so I think it can be done. But I think there needs to be a good book that provides the foundation for the script (to kind of build on AdC's comment).

[Guy Profumo]

Biopics you'd like to see made

danielmak wrote: David Beckham

I'm just messin' with you. I generally agree with GY that this type of film rarely works for me. I did like the Basquiat film a lot and the Motorcycle Diaries was great, so I think it can be done. But I think there needs to be a good book that provides the foundation for the script (to kind of build on AdC's comment).

Who would you cast to play the cameo role of Sarah Kennedy?

[Guy Profumo]

Biopics you'd like to see made

danielmak wrote: David Beckham

I'm just messin' with you. I generally agree with GY that this type of film rarely works for me. I did like the Basquiat film a lot and the Motorcycle Diaries was great, so I think it can be done. But I think there needs to be a good book that provides the foundation for the script (to kind of build on AdC's comment).

Who would you cast to play the cameo role of Sarah Kennedy?

[3 Colours Red]

Biopics you'd like to see made

Guy Profumo wrote: Who would you cast to play the cameo role of Sarah Kennedy?

Any pisshead who reads the D***y M**l would do...

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Biopics you'd like to see made

Louise Mensch. I think perhaps Gywneth Paltrow for the part.

[WOM]

Biopics you'd like to see made

I was bored one day and actually roughed out a treatment for a biopic of Liz Carmichael. She developed a three-wheeled car called the Dale that was made from strong, ultra-light material developed by NASA and which got 80 mpg during the mid '70s fuel crisis. It was fantastic.

Except that Liz was really a transsexual named Jerry Dean Michael - whose secretary was actually his wife - and the space age material was bog-standard fiberglass and the car didn't actually run.

The whole thing was, of course, a fraud designed to bilk investors. I think I could turn that into a decent film.

[Snake Plissken]

Biopics you'd like to see made

One of the Freeview channels (possibly True Entertainment) churns these out on a regular basis. Seen bits of a Meat Loaf one, a Three Stooges biopic and The Karen Carpenter Story.

[Ray de Galles]

Biopics you'd like to see made

If I ever tried my hand at scriptwiting it would be a film about Harry Grindell Matthews.

[Bored Of Education]

Biopics you'd like to see made

I realised that the biopic I would like to see is about Paul Robeson but apparently Steve McQueen is making one. I haven't seen 12 Years a Slave but this sounds like a good thing.

[Come along, Min]

Biopics you'd like to see made

12 years is the only McQueen film I've seen and it's crap. Prepare for a load of worthless boring shit

[Reed John]

Biopics you'd like to see made

Rogin the Armchair Fan wrote: Biopics are always popular (if often controversial) and recently, so many have had them made about them that I wonder if there's anyone left who hasn't.

At the risk of having missed a smaller production than Spielberg's Lincoln, or the one about the Queen, or even the Damned United one about Brian Clough, are there any people you've never seen one made for/about that you'd like to see?

I've always thought Mark McCormack must have had a fascinating life. He was Arnold Palmer's lawyer, and effectively invented the modern understanding of sports agents and advertising via his company IMG. Not only that, he was instrumental in making tennis "Open" and is credited with the concept of the modern "Grand Slam" in professional golf. The peripheral figures in his life alone - in particular Arnie, Jack and Gary - would be fascinating studies, placed back in their 60s personas.

He gave a shitload of money to my alma mater to build a massive indoor tennis center which we needed like a hole in the head.

[Stumpy Pepys]

Biopics you'd like to see made

snakeplissken wrote: The Karen Carpenter Story.

"Chubby? Hmm …"