“Happy Catacombs” is my first attempt at fan-fiction movie script, which I have started in May shortly after seeing the film.
I have at least 7 different partial-rewrites ( “script-doctoring”) or spin-offs of my favorite movies and books which I think could be have a better interpretation (Hamlet, Star Wars V), make a totally new fun story, or just be adapted to film (haha, we all know what “adapting” can do to films).
Some books are just so perfect (Till We Have Faces, Crime and Punishment, Lord of the Rings, Narnia) that there’s really no way of improving them except to adapt them for screen–without changing the characters, or the metaphorical story, or the morality. (With Peter Jackson’s permission I would like to redo the Gondor-Denethor-Pelenor fields plot in a separate story instead. sigh.) With the express authority to excommunicate director/producer Andrew Adamson, I would like to remake Prince Caspian dearly.
Hunger Games is of course a well done film, as I have said earlier. I have not read any of the books, but was quite educated by my siblings who have. Of the books, I have heard they are remarkably well-written and able to manipulate your emotions (“just like Tolstoy”) However concern was directed towards the descriptions of violence which appeared to be as sensational as well as undermining to the moral messages of the story itself.
I confess I am intrigued by the books’ reference to the Roman times as a parallel to our present culture of immoral crony-capitalism which is in effect socialist, and moving towards Communism, which is slavery. Rome did not become great because people thought killing themselves would be a great sport.
However I would like to throw light on a particular event other than the “Games” that Collins so engrosses upon–the Catacombs. Just as the movie “Gladiator” removed their Christian-martyr scene, which would underplay hollywood’s desperate message of “survival,” I would like to replace a little healthy dose of self-sacrifice. According to some Roman accounts, it was the effect of the Christians’ martyrdoms which eventually spoiled the fun and put an end to the games. The answer to a corrupt society is intriguing politically; and the answer to avoid killing, is perhaps answered in living with the dead. So I call it my “Happy Catacombs” where all the heroes are hidden, the beaten are blessed, and the dead shall rise again.
Jubilation 