Beyond The Candelabra: The People And Events HBO Should Movie-ize Next
As our bracket proves, HBO has, over the years, carved out a nice niche by making prestigious original dramas about remarkable people and events. And our slavering excitement over Behind The Candelabra got us thinking: which other subjects would we like the network to take on next? So we not only made a list -- we sketched out plot treatments and cast lists. No need to thank us, HBO! Just hustle some or all of these into development.
Supermodel
Subject: RuPaul Charles.
Ideal Star: Andre B. Blake.
Essential Story Beats: RuPaul meets Lady Bunny (Dean Norris); RuPaul teases Milton Berle (Mel Brooks) at the 1993 VMAs; RuPaul crowns the first winner of RuPaul's Drag Race.
Why This Film Might Get Made: HBO has a long history of telling gay stories, from And The Band Played On to Angels In America with many stops in between; after Ellen DeGeneres, Charles may be the most famous gay entertainer in America (and is unquestionably the most fabulous); the film has a natural climax with Charles's triumph as a reality-show impresario; though Blake would probably be fine, the ageless Charles could credibly play himself and herself.
Why It Might Not: It's possible that Charles's rise to fame and glory hasn't been plagued by enough setbacks to make a sufficiently dramatic story...?
Tebow: God on the Gridiron
Subject: Tim Tebow.
Ideal Star: Channing Tatum.
Essential Story Beats: The football sensation struggles to reconcile early stardom and relentless hype with his simple love of the game -- and need to testify to his faith in Jesus Christ. Along the way, he rushes for a touchdown on a broken leg; navigates a pressure-packed path to the Heisman trophy, challenged and supported by his roommate, Charles (Donald Glover); and clashes with Jets coach Rex Ryan (John Scurti).
Why This Film Might Get Made: Tebow is a proven must-watch/hate-watch double threat, and a football movie is an easy sell. Slap some soaring John Williams celli on the soundtrack and guarantee 17 full minutes of Tatum shirtlessness (8 of those consecutive!), and it almost shoots itself.
Why It Might Not: Tebow is, as of this writing, unemployed (and not quite 26 years old). As well, HBO's generally coastal-liberal take on various topics is maybe not well suited to a product of devout home-schooling.
Everyday Rebellions
Subject: Gloria Steinem.
Ideal Star: Malin Akerman.
Essential Story Beats: After her parents' divorce, young Gloria (Daisy Tahan) becomes the sole guardian and support of her mentally ill mother Ruth (Vera Farmiga); Steinem gets a job at the Playboy Club in order to write an exposé; Steinem co-founds Ms. magazine; Steinem marries David Bale (John Hurt).
Why This Film Might Get Made: HBO already produced a well-received documentary about Steinem a couple of years back; Steinem remains the one feminist that confused people point to as an example of a feminist who's -- gasp! -- actually attractive!
Why It Might Not: In-fighting among the various "waves" of feminism complicates her biography; successfully shepherding small, incremental social changes is not that cinematic.
Primetime
Subject: Aaron Spelling.
Ideal Star: Ben Feldman (pre-'70s Spelling); John Astin.
Essential Story Beats: Spelling grows up in Texas, is bullied so badly that he's rendered unable to walk psychosomatically; serves in World War II, then attends SMU (and joins the cheerleading squad); sells first script in 1954; creates Charlie's Angels, Beverly Hills 90210, and 7th Heaven; dies in 2006 and leaves behind a squabble between widow Candy (Candice Bergen) and daughter Tori (herself, probably) over his estate.
Why This Film Might Get Made: Spelling created a lot of iconic television, involving a lot of big personalities. In other words: we want to see the knock-down drag-out(s) between Spelling and Shannen Doherty (Irene Molloy). In fact, we would watch an entire movie devoted only to that, and premium cable can really let that rip.
Why It Might Not: Spelling's estate may not allow it...and Spelling himself was not all that scandalous. A fictionalized version of how the night-time-soap sausage gets made might not have much there there (and was already done, twice, for individual shows of Spelling's back in 2004).
Zone A
Subject: The devastating effect Hurricane Sandy had in the Breezy Point neighbourhood in Queens, NY.
Ideal Stars: Robert Clohessy; Scott Wilson; David Strathairn.
Essential Story Beats: Clohessy plays a firefighter whose own house catches fire; Wilson plays a tough old bastard who won't evacuate; Strathairn stars as Dr. William Fritz, a College of Staten Island geologist who had warned of the effect a severe hurricane could have on the greater New York area.
Why This Film Might Get Made: HBO has already had a hit with its miniseries about the South Asian tsunami a few years ago; Breezy Point is still in a bad way, and bringing attention to the destruction could spur viewers to donate to charities working in the area.
Why It Might Not: Too soon and too sad.
Didn't We Almost Have It All?
Subject: Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown.
Ideal Stars: Paula Patton and Michael K. Williams.
Essential Story Beats: Young Whitney (Quvenzhané Wallis) wows parishioners with her hymn singing in church; Whitney's first solo album takes the world by storm; Whitney meets Bobby; Whitney sits for a notorious interview with Diane Sawyer (Portia De Rossi); Whitney dies under sketchy circumstances.
Why This Film Might Get Made: Liz And Dick was a buzz machine for Lifetime last fall; this would dwarf it.
Why It Might Not: Bobby Brown is still alive and may choke off any attempts by the production to portray some of the more unsavory moments of the couple's life together.
And Then There's Bea
Subject: Bea Arthur.
Ideal Star: Jane Lynch.
Essential Story Beats: Opening on the set of The Golden Girls, the film follows Arthur's career in flashback, from her (disputed) Marine Corps service to her Tony-winning performance as Vera Charles in Mame opposite Angela Lansbury (Rachel Bilson) to her days on Maude, and eventually onto the set of The Golden Girls. With Faye Dunaway as Rue McClanahan, Lesley Manville as Betty White, Mia Farrow as Estelle Getty, and the cheesecake as itself.
Why This Film Might Get Made: With the right casting, it's both awards bait and viewer-nip; Arthur took part in half a dozen seminal pop-culture moments in the twentieth century, and her recent return to the headlines (via her, uh, headlights) could mean the time to ink a deal is now.
Why It Might Not:The GG costumes are a tough sell for both actors and wardrobe; casting spoilers could make the film itself an anticlimax.
Run For Your Life
Subject: The Valentine's Day shooting death of controversial Olympian Oscar "The Blade Runner" Pistorius's new girlfriend, model-hyphenate Reena Steenkamp.
Ideal Stars: Ryan Gosling as Pistorius; Keira Knightley as Steenkamp.
Essential Story Beats: Detective Hilton Botha (Larry Gilliard, Jr.) interrogates Pistorius about the shooting. Pistorius's childhood, rise to prominence in track-and-field, and other alleged incidents of violence appear in flashback.
Why This Film Might Get Made: It's current; it's got true-crime and overcoming-adversity elements; casting an Oscar-nommed fox like Gosling (or the less athletically imposing, but nearly as prestigious, Aaron Paul) in this charismatic anti-hero role would make the story greater than the sum of its parts.
Why It Might Not: Pistorius is, at best, a determined horse's ass, though relative likeability is seldom a concern for HBO. And a date still hasn't been set for his trial.
Operation Bambi: The Firing of Ann Curry
Subject: Ann Curry's embattled tenure on, and subsequent notorious dismissal from, The Today Show.
Ideal Stars: Reiko Aylesworth as Curry; Matt LeBlanc as Matt Lauer.
Essential Story Beats: Based on Brian Stelter's best-selling Top of the Morning, which explores the morning-show donnybrook in detail, the film opens with Curry's ill-fated 2011 promotion, and goes on through the show's declining ratings and the ongoing tension between the inept Curry and her unfairly maligned co-star, Lauer, until Curry's tearful departure.
Why This Film Might Get Made: This version of the film might get made because someone else has to feel completely baffled by the casting of Lauer as the villain in this tragedy, and want to see a take on the situation that acknowledges Curry's longstanding ineffectiveness (and apparent dimness) in various roles on the show. Any version of the film is a slam-dunk, though; Stelter's probably already optioned it, and the sooner it gets made, the hotter the iron for striking.
Why It Might Not: Might be too inside-baseball, or go off the boil as a hot topic if it takes too long to make.
Promises To Keep
Subject: Joe Biden.
Ideal Star: Scott Glenn.
Essential Story Beats: A young Joe (Matt Lanter) recites poetry in the mirror to overcome his stuttering; Joe's first wife Neilia (Evan Rachel Wood) is killed in a car accident, along with their 1-year-old daughter; Joe tears into Clarence Thomas (Wendell Pierce) during Thomas's Supreme Court confirmation hearings; as running mate to Barack Obama (Harry Lennix), Joe helps win the 2008 presidential campaign.
Why This Film Might Get Made: Joe Biden is one of the greatest Americans ever...?
Why It Might Not: He did get accused of plagiarism on several occasions, graduated at the bottom of his law school class, and curses into live microphones on a near-weekly basis; a movie version of his life could not exactly be a hagiography.