Thursday, April 29, 2010

Isle Watch Both...

Perhaps you recall that Treasure Island is one of my favorite books. In my top five. Or three even. Besides being connected to Peter and Wendy (Peter Pan) both in text and the friendship of Robert Louis Stevenson and Sir J.M. Barrie, it’s a masterpiece of entertainment and the source (it would seem) of EVERY pirate cliché [with the exception a hook for a hand, of course. ;) ]

You might also recall that in this post I reported on a new film adaptation of it. Despite it being slated as a “hipper” version, I’ve become excited, or at least hopeful, that Stevenson’s classic is done justice with modern filmmaking.

Well, now we have two shots at it. You know how there were two volcano movies virtually at the same time, two asteroids hitting the Earth movies, two cute insect movies, etc… well, now, yes, it seems Warner Brothers is also setting sail with a film based on the book Treasure Island.

Normally I’d roll my eyes at the “two alike movies” scenario, but here it’s a second chance to get it right, so to speak. I certainly have not seen ALL (there roughly 50) of the adaptations of the book, but the few I have seen have been good, but not “good enough.”

So here’s hoping the complexities of Long John Silver shines on the silver screen. And a lot will depend on the actor playing Jim Hawkins. Without a good Jim, you’ll have nothing.

2 comments:

Anon said...

Have you seen the version with Charlton Heston as Long John Silver and a young Christian Bale as Jim Hawkins? It's apparently not available anymore but I saw it on youtube, and it was pretty good--from what I hear it was one of the more faithful adaptations.

Peter Von Brown said...

Not sure if I have seen that one or not... Bale as Hawkins sounds fun, but I have to say Heston is not my ideal choice for Silver. No, I do not have someone in particular in mind. Faithful sounds good, though. I'll have to re-read the book before seeing the movies, of course. [Oh what a shame! :) ]