The Forgotten Soldier Movie Update

[Doug Nash]

Well, bad news - on account of the financial downturn (which apparently is even worse in Europe than it is in the USA), The Forgotten Soldier film project by Paul Verhoeven has been cancelled. Too many backers pulled out, leaving insufficient finances to continue the project. Not sure if another director or studio is willing at this time to take it over - anyone out there have 40 or 50 million USD they are willing to put up?
So after 3 years, it's all come to naught. Perhaps when the world economy picks up again, who knows?
Cheers,
Doug Nash

[Mansal D]

What a shame. They're already put so much money into it. I really think they could turn a profit.

What really makes me mad is the fact they WILL still have huge budget movies that are worthless.
Let's hope for the future.

[John W. Howard]

It is very sad. Verhoeven more than likely would have done a good job. K98 is quite right: undoubtedly the movie studios have found some new comic-book character to bring to the screen, on which they will spend millions. Best wishes.

[Nicolai]

That sucks, it would have been nice to see a decent movie set on the eastern front.

[centurion854]

I don't understand why hollywood picks some real schlock and sinks money into it and lets a worthy project like "The Forgotten Soldier" go. For example, "Inglorious Bastards" Just the trailer alone was enough to turn me off. Brad Pitt has the ability to be a fine actor. In bastards, he overacts like a young James Shatner.

However I just read that some one, Christian Rivers, I think is making a movie called Dam busters. It's taken from the book about 617 squadron. So, It's not "The Forgotten Soldier" but it sounds like it has potential.

[Paddy Keating]

The high production values involved in making a war movie of epic proportions are a big no-no at the moment, especially when studio executives know that they can just churn out a remake or an imbecilic action movie relying heavily on digital technology, with a star or two who need the money after the Madoff affair and they will make a profit. The other factor militating against old school war movies is the language barrier: studios want monosyllabic action-packed slush as they can play it to downtowners in any low grade barrio without a need for dubbing or sub-titles. Moreover, white people fighting each other is not interesting to the studios' target market.

[i]The Dambusters[i] has already been been filmed but there is probably a gap in the market - or in some studio exec's mind - for an American remake with Kanye West playing Guy Gibson, a white labrador called Honky, Barnes Wallis played by Jeff Goldblum, the Nazis played by Englishmen, and B17s bombing the dams.

On the other hand, perhaps someone at the studio did some due diligence and realised that there were question marks over TFS. On top of the risks inherent in showing Nazi soldiers in a positive light, it would have been embarrassing if some movie critic expressed similar doubts to those expressed here and elsewhere about Sajer's alleged war record. Imagine the standfirst: [i]Studio blows $50m on film flop about fascist Walter Mitty[i]. A real career-breaker.

But Brad murdering Nazis? No problem! For one thing, he owes them over the Heinz Harrer scandal and he's also going to be needing Hollywood's best lawyers soon. Gotta establish those credentials.

PK

[centurion854]

Ok I remember Her Harrer(ok I googled him) and "7 years in Tibet" but why was there a scandal and why does the Bradster need a lawyer. I personally think he is a pompus arrogant windbag. I think he plays heroic types on screen because he is a poncy bastard in real life.

[pzrmeyer2]

Ok I remember Her Harrer(ok I googled him) and "7 years in Tibet" but why was there a scandal and why does the Bradster need a lawyer. I personally think he is a pompus arrogant windbag. I think he plays heroic types on screen because he is a poncy bastard in real life.

Perhaps a google search of common Hollywood studio and legal surnames will help you better understand Paddy's nuanced response.

[Paddy Keating]

Ok I remember Her Harrer(ok I googled him) and "7 years in Tibet" but why was there a scandal and why does the Bradster need a lawyer. I personally think he is a pompus arrogant windbag. I think he plays heroic types on screen because he is a poncy bastard in real life.

You seem to have quite a well-developed opinion of Brad Pitt so you should have enough information to hand to answer your own questions. Think about it. By the way, have you Googled 'The Dambusters' yet?

Regards,

PK

[Paddy Keating]

Coming back to TFS, it is rumoured that backers got cold feet not so much because of the subject matter but because there seemed to be many question marks over the veracity of the original 'memoir'. It is one thing to threaten someone with banning from a forum for subjecting a published author to the rigours of due diligence but quite another thing when one is trying to persuade movie producers to support a 'true story' project that buckles under due diligence. It would have been clear to any professional in the film business that TFS' chances of making it into development were fairly slim to begin with. It could be turned into a good action film but there again, there are plenty of other genuine German memoirs that could provide a basis for a screenplay. TFS is what it is: a slightly higher level Sven Hassel genre, a unverifiable memoir - in which even amateur historians can pick plenty of holes - penned by an alleged extremist and published by a house tainted by extremist associations. Add to that the negative view in some circles of Verhoeven's political beliefs and it all adds up to a non-starter as far as mainstream cinema is concerned.

PK

[Doug Nash]

For the love of Mike - that's absolutely BS. The backers pulled out because they went broke durng last year's market crash and no longer have the money to front for the project. It has nothing, I repeat nothing, to do with the subject material. This comes directly from the project screenwriter, Herr Beckner, who has been Mr. Verhoeven's point man for the project. If you have any names of whoever gave you this bogus information Paddy, why don't you mention them here instead of repeating unfounded rumors? Heavens to murgatroid...I thought this bloody mess was done and done.

[Frederick L Clemens]

Just read the news about cancellation of "TFS: The Movie."

Tough break for you, Doug. Actually it is a tough break for all of us - supporters and critics of TFS because it might have finally flushed Sajer out to actually answer some of the criticisms (although there are no answers to many of the flaws, IMHO). What COULD have resulted is that Sajer might have finally declared it to be fiction based on experience, and then we all could just appreciate it from that point of view, especially if the movie was more accurate than the book.

Like Doug, I find it implausible that lack of truth would have been a motive for cancelling the project - moviemakers have a long, long track record of stepping all over the truth for the sake of telling a good story.

The reason that the comic book stories will be filmed instead of TFS is that despite the popularity of TFS among the military history buffs, the fact is that we are a small niche and mainstream movies will not be made to please us.

In any case, if "TFS: The Movie" is DOA - then I would suggest Doug work on getting to do Sajer to do "TFS: The Interview"

[pzrmeyer2]

The reason that the comic book stories will be filmed instead of TFS is that despite the popularity of TFS among the military history buffs, the fact is that we are a small niche and mainstream movies will not be made to please us.

I disagree; I think an action packed bio war story would be immensely popular with the general public, especially on a topic as immense but relatively unkown as the eastern front, the largest, most terrible campaign in the history of warfare. However, it cannot be overstressed that movies made about brave, heroic identfiable German soldiers that arent sadistic Jew killers arent well received by the folks in charge of Hollywood production houses, newspaper movie critics, or the upper east side elitists who much prefer celluoid Germans of the Pvrivate Ryan/Tarentino variety.

[phylo_roadking]

arent well received by the folks in charge of Hollywood production houses

And who fronts up the money in the vast majority of cases? QED.

[Paddy Keating]

As I said, high production values do not fly in today's harsh environment unless the project conforms to tried and tested formulae.

It would be interesting to see 'Dimitri' interviewed but he has shown himself very reluctant to be interviewed. Mind you, he might oblige for a friendly interviewer but I can't see any mainstream media running it, given the history.

PK