Douglas Adams, Narnia, and Trailers

A few interesting movie tidbits: Joel Greengrass writes "Final post-production has been completed on the long awaited documentary, 'Life, the Universe, and Douglas Adams.' Narrated by Neil Gaiman, the film is a tribute documentary about the life, loves, and passions, of the greatest sci fi comedy writer ever, Douglas Adams. The film will be available for sale on August 4 at douglasadams.com." Reader The_Shadows writes "Sci-fi Storm and Scfi.com's Scifi-wire are reporting that Walden Media exercised options for feature-length, big screen versions of the Chronicles of Narnia, by C. S. Lewis. They have also found an Emmy award winning writer (Ann Peacock) to adapt the most famous book, 'The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.'" And finally, there's an interesting piece about the process of turning a two-hour movie into a two-minute trailer.

How to Make a Trailer:

[superdan2k]

Take all the best parts of the movie. String them together in one 2-minute epileptic-seizure-inducing orgasm of light and sound, preferably with some modern rock/psuedo-metal song in the background. Stick your title on the end in a grunge or techno font along with "This movie has not yet been rated," and a release date between 6 months and a year into the future.

Greatest Scifi Comedy Writer....

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh.. we are not talking about the author of Battlefield Earth then ;)

2 minute movie trailers

[maddskillz]

Getting a movie to fit into two minutes shouldn't be too dificult, since it has already been proven you can get five books into a trilogy

Aslan

[Skyfire]

Heh, they should get Sean Connery to be the voice of Aslan. That would rock

Re:The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy

[L. VeGas]

Being the funniest sci fi writer is roughly equivalent in status to being the best ballet dancer in Idaho.

Re:Aslan

[Anonymous Coward]

Darth Vader as Aslan.

"You are all my son."

Re:The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy

[Anonymous Coward]

I da-ho? You da-ho!!

;-)

That's a teaser, this is a trailer...

[isaac]

Take all the best parts of the movie. String them together in one 2-minute epileptic-seizure-inducing orgasm of light and sound, preferably with some modern rock/psuedo-metal song in the background. Stick your title on the end in a grunge or techno font along with "This movie has not yet been rated," and a release date between 6 months and a year into the future.

No, that's a teaser.

A trailer is where you start with some soothing an peaceful scene, when

[Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells"/Sam the Sham & the Pharoahs' "Louie Louie"/Smashmouth's "All-Star"]

starts playing and Don LaFontaine [everything2.com] intones the words "In a world

[gone mad/where dreams come true/where shit happens]..."

and some fast paced cuts show the the audience that this movie is supposed to be

[scary/funny/action-packed].

Then Mr. Fontaine tells us about the "one

[man/woman/dog]

[brave/smart/stupid]

enough to

[fight for something/change everything/screw everything up]"

while we see our protagonist looking

[determined/happy/dumb as a sack of hammers].

Then a quick montage of the

[funniest/exploding-est/tear-jerking-est]

scenes interspersed with a voiceover telling us what

[A-list/B-list/C-list]

celebrities have top billing and that the movie is

[based on a book by somebody/based on a true story/based on an older, better movie/from the director of some other movie that made money],

then finally we get the title of the movie and a screenful of tiny text acknowledging all the people who got paid enough to feed a village in Botswana for a

[month/year/decade]

for their work on the film.

This is a standard part of any film school curriculum, you see. Job applications in Hollywood test you on this stuff.

-Isaac

making trailers

[roofingfelt]

And finally, there's an interesting piece about the process of turning a two-hour movie into a two-minute trailer.

I thought they usually worked the other way around in Hollywood these days...

Re:Narnia Movie (drifting slightly OT)

[Jeremi]

When we examine the record of Christ's words, deeds, and how people and society
reacted to him, it looks like the chance of him being a nut can probably be ruled out.

This doesn't follow. There are have been many examples of "complete nuts" who were nonetheless very charismatic and influential. Jim Jones, Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Richard Stallman... ;^)