More on Slumdog

[afoxdrinksblood]

I read an article in Script magazine that said Slumdog Millionaire was adapted from a novel, and that the novel had the gameshow thing, and then the story parts in between were random stories with no strong thread to tie it together as a solid movie, so they rewrote all that stuff. Furthermore, they didn't want it to be all about money so they added the love element and de-emphesized the character's desire for money making it all about the girl. Although I didn't really like how the girl thing was handled at the end, the rest of the story they wrote was quite good, it's just the remnants of the book it was adapted from that sucked. Now maybe the book itself was good, but as a movie I wish they'd just dropped the whole book adaptation thing and written a movie about India without the Hollywood ending. That being said, it's doubtful anyone would have paid this much attention to it if they had done so since good gritty movies come out all the time and don't get this much press and love of the audience. WHat it all comes down to is that for a movie to do this well it's gotta have a hollywood ending. Of course some hollywood hacks are better than others.

Whatever the case I still don't like the movie, but it was interesting to know that really it's that first bad apple that spoiled the bunch, but also what got the whole thing going.

When working on other people's work I always have the inclination to just totally change it into something good. I guess this is what happens if you follow through with that feeling but don't have the power to just get rid of that original thread. All sorts of things can inspire you, but that doesn't mean they should be adhered to in the final product.
I think this is one of the problems with not giving one single person creative control over a project. TOo many cooks in the kitchen.