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Reboots & High Concepts or “Everything Has Been Done Before”
Been There, Done That…
Shakespeare Reboots Shaking up The Bard
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Bugs as Samurai? How many times can you retell the same story?
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Punch it Up! It’s all about the high concept.
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Classic Tales & Tests of Time
Sons of Anarchy “Hamlet meets Hairy Bikers” is one way we’ve heard the fabulous Sons of Anarchy described. Full of lies, betrayal and bloodshed you can see the comparisons between Jax Teller and Hamlet. Both born rulers with deceased fathers is a clue, but Sons of Anarchy isn’t the only retelling of Shakespeare’s classic.
The Lion King has been recognized as a Hamlet animal fable, Ophelia by Lisa Klein is a literary retelling and Hashtag Hamlet a more modern version for the social media age “with a heavy emphasis on themes of generational conflict and reduced opportunities for young people in a society dominated by an older generation that refuses to relinquish power. @KELLYBEAN0415 gives a detailed analysis of Sons of Anarchy vs Hamlet at http://www.bustle.com/articles/53033-sonsof-anarchy-vs-hamlet-these-two-storylinesare-practically-one-in-the-same
Anyone interested in writing should read John Yorke’s ‘Into The Woods’ . In this excellent book the former Controller of Drama Production for BBC opens his Introduction with a question that makes you wonder whether he’s describing Avatar or Pocahontas. He goes on to take the story premise, “A dangerous monster threatens a community. One man takes it on himself to kill the beast and restore happiness to the kingdom…” explaining that this is the 1976 movie Jaws, but it’s also the story of Beowulf and also The Thing, Jurassic Park, Godzilla. Recasting the ‘monster’ as a human it becomes every Bond movie, House, Spooks, CSI. He goes on with numerous examples that are a treat to consider. It’s no secret that Macbeth is a mirror to Netflix’s House of Cards, based on Richard II and Macbeth, both described as the “epitome of elegant evil”. This wicked political drama penetrates the shadowy world of greed, sex, and corruption in modern D.C. with plot similarities to Shakespeare’s play in the desire for the golden round or, in the case of the television series, the American presidency. Particularly interesting is the inclusion of many images from the play artfully placed in each episode, Claire Underwood’s jarring encounter with the old woman in a graveyard while she was jogging is one. “You should not be here,” the hag appears and suddenly warns Claire, “Show some respect here.” The incident resonates much like the spectre of the witches, a constant presence in the original play.
making many fans (herself included) believe that Jax will suffer from the Prince’s same tragic fate. 2 2
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Hollywood Reboots Maleficent is a fictional character from Walt Disney's 1959 film Sleeping Beauty and an official Disney Villain. She is the (self-proclaimed) Mistress of All Evil, who, after not being invited to a royal christening, curses the infant Princess Aurora to "prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die" before the sun sets on her sixteenth birthday. The character is Disney's version of the wicked fairy godmother from the original French fairy tale and Tchaikovsky's famous ballet. Numerous reboots include the Wizard of Oz, featuring as The Wiz (relocating Kansas to Harlem in the 1970’s), The Great & Powerful Oz and Labyrinth – the Jim Henson directed update featuring a coming of age story of a young girl in a magical dream world, searching for answers from a lord in a big city and meeting three unlikely confidantes along the way.
The Silence of the Lambs mirrors Beauty & The Beast , where the central relationship between beastly Hannibal Lecter and the beautiful Clarice Starling, who is drawn toward his brilliant inner world and holds the key to any sort of salvation he may hope for. Little Red Riding Hood has featured as reboots in Neil Jordan’s twisted take in The Company of Wolves featuring Angela Lansbury as Granny and again in Freeway with a sophomoric Reese Witherspoon and Kiefer Sutherland as Bob Wolverton, a sadistic madman. Other classics retold include A Bug’s Life as an animal fable retelling Seven Samurai, Clueless – Jane Austen’s Emma through the eyes of a California valley girl and Frozen born from inspiration by Hans Christian Andersen’s Snow Queen.
In books The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer has Cinderella given life as a cyborg mechanic in Cinder, her book Scarlet enacts Red Riding Hood with a wolfhybrid-human guard sent to kill her. The third instalment Cress finds her on a solo space station where she’s been playing the role of Rapunzel all her life.
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Peter Pan Peter Pan was originally written by JM Barrie in 1904 as The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, appeared as a play, Peter and Wendy in 1911 and consequently via cartoons and bedtime stories, retold from different perspectives in film as Hook in 1991 and then on DVD as Disney’s Return to NeverLand in 2002. Given a revamp for the web, The New Adventures of Peter & Wendy is a webseries told in twice-weekly instalments consisting of a 24 episode season with some interactive transmedia elements that will be fun for anyone who likes romantic comedies.
Punch It Up If “everything has been done before” is true, it’s going to be the high concept that sets a story aside in a new and unique way. Punching up a classic by considering a shift in era or timeline, replacing a human with an animal, an arena with a park or a castle with the Whitehouse keeps a core structure of pace, antagonists, inciting incidents and premise all intact, while adding a sprinkling of pixie dust to appeal to new audiences, across new platforms and in exciting new ways. Look out for our next instalment on February 10th that will segue into a sound-bite on Basic Plots…
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