You have $150 million to make one Civil War movie - make a realistic pitch.

I think there are many smaller stories involving fascinating characters that could be profitable at a lower cost, that would not fit the blockbuster model. Harriet Tubman's raid. The black spy in the Confederate White House. Henry Berry Lowrie versus the Home Guard. Mosby, the Gray Ghost. I would make two small movies telling stories that are not well known with unknown actors and actresses.
 
I would want to do a miniseries like Band of Brothers but 2 hours long per episode. I'd love to do one on Confederate Brigadier General Micah Jenkins. When the miniseries hits an all time high and make millions of more then make more miniseries! I would cover men and units on both sides.
 
Yeah that True Grit remake was horrible. The dialog killed it, along with what's-his-name trying way to hard to mimic Jeff Corey's Tom Chaney instead of imparting his own take on the character.

On a side note, I did not know there was a remake of The Beguiled now I wonder if it was as bad as the original.

But getting back, yeah we need Matt Damon as "Blondy" and Nicholas Cage as "Tuco". :rofl:
I disagree...the original had a lot going for it if you are a study of relationships between Yankee soldiers and lonely Southern women during the war. Again, the remake made McBurney a pathetic wimp compared to Clint being a rogue.
 
Why not spend the money to buy all the copies of Gods and Generals and take that piece of **** off the market?
It doesn't work like that.

"Wow, these G&G vids are selling like hotcakes. Let's make some more."

...and you would make Ron Maxwell rich. Maybe he would make - what was it called? - "Last Full Measure?"
 
I think there are many smaller stories involving fascinating characters that could be profitable at a lower cost, that would not fit the blockbuster model. Harriet Tubman's raid. The black spy in the Confederate White House. Henry Berry Lowrie versus the Home Guard. Mosby, the Gray Ghost. I would make two small movies telling stories that are not well known with unknown actors and actresses.

The story of the VMI cadets should be very interesting if done right, but the 2015 film apparently missed the mark.
 
Pick any great regimental history: A Scythe of Fire (8th Georgia) or Last Full Measure (1st Minnesota) for example. Follow them, picking a number as your major characters, from enlistment, camp, wartime to the end of their service and postwar. Promote it like Saving Private Ryan, Gettysburg, Band of Brothers etc. BOOM!!!...hopefully.
 
Monitor vs Merrimack with a cast of big names, big sets, and CGI might be a good choice. The fairly inconclusive nature of the fight is probably a big mark against it though. Still have not seen it yet, but the made-for-TNT Ironclads movie covering the battle is supposed to be pretty decent.

I didnt know about the TNT Ironclads film, I will have to look for it. I do really like the TNT Hunley film, I think that was very nicely done.
 
I like the idea of a Grant biopic too (and I believe there is one in the making by Appian Way.) The challenge is to find the best focal point.

Grant and Sherman would be one way to go. Both looking in from the outside at the beginning of the War - when Sherman was "crazy" and Grant was "drunk." Sherman, long out of the army, gets a commission through his family connections but is soon believed to be out of his mind because he quickly comes to the absurd conclusion that hundreds of thousands of troops will be needed to put down the rebellion. Sherman knows Southerners, spent the last year before the war teaching at a military academy in Louisiana, but no one is listening. Grant, also years away from his army days, cooling his heels outside McLellan's headquarters, patient, perhaps aware that McLellan is keeping alive the old stories about that time on the Oregon Coast. McLellan doesn't even give him the time of day.

They've met before at West Point. Grant remembers the outgoing redhead a couple of years ahead of him who riffed on the initials "U S" and settled on the name "Sam Grant." Sherman remembers the shy younger boy, still not fully grown, the horse whisperer.

Separately they make their way through the ranks, Sherman begging Lincoln not to put him in charge of anything, Grant taking any opportunity he gets in between the many changes in command in the West to actually attack something.

Shiloh is their trial by fire and where they bond. Both have a lot to prove. After the first day's battle Sherman approaches Grant, who is standing under a tree all night because he can't sleep and has to listen to the cries of the dying and wounded. Sherman is about to mention retreat, but something about Grant stops him, so he just says "We've had the devil's own day." "Lick 'em tomorrow," is Grant's reply.

After that they are besties. What do they talk about in their tents and how do they bond? Sherman talks Grant out of resigning from the army after Shiloh. Other officers observe a reunion between them with great relish - like two schoolboys getting together.

Arguing over the approach to Vicksburg, but amicably. Sherman wants to retreat and regroup, Grant wants to press on. When Grant's star rises, does Sherman have any regrets about asking to always be second in command? How does he feel about Grant's move east?

Then Sherman's own meteoric rise as he takes Atlanta and Savannah. A meeting on the River Queen with Lincoln, so different now.

Sherman's humiliation when his surrender terms with Johnston are rejected and Grant takes on the job of breaking it to him, but the situation is inflamed by Stanton going to the press and accusing Sherman of treason.

Sherman begging Grant not to go into politics. It won't suit him. He knows his friend. A growing apart during Grant's presidency over many issues.

While Grant is dying Sherman leads an initiative to get Congress to restore his army pension, which he lost when he took the presidency, so that his widow Julia will not be destitute.

A last sad meeting between the two men shortly before Grant's death.

Kind of a wartime Bromance
 
What about a USCT Civil War film about another Black Regiment besides the 54th Massachusetts? Perhaps a regiment that was involved in the Eastern Theater in 1864-1865? Also, I would interested to see a depiction of the Battle of New Market Heights in this suggested film.
 
I think I had a great idea for a CW movie last night.

A movie focusing on the life and times, (great emphasis on his wartime life), of Fielding Hurst and his merry band misfit maniac troops.
 
I think I had a great idea for a CW movie last night.

A movie focusing on the life and times, (great emphasis on his wartime life), of Fielding Hurst and his merry band misfit maniac troops.
I grew up in Rusk county Texas, mostly in Overton. What, exactly, do you do in making movies. I v
e always had a desire to be a film maker.
 
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