"New ‘Master and Commander’ Movie in the Works From" Topic

… ‘Chaos Walking' Writer

"According to a report in Deadline, 20th Century Studios is developing a new Master and Commander film, almost two decades after the release of 2003's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.

The new film will be written by Patrick Ness, who previously wrote the 2016 film A Monster Calls and, most recently, the film Chaos Walking, which was an adaptation of his own book, The Knife of Never Letting Go.

The original film starred Russell Crowe as Capt. Jack Aubrey, who was in charge of a British vessel in pursuit of a French warship. The film was nominated for 10 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director for Peter Weir. The film has gained even more appreciation over the years since its release, and since Master and Commander was an adaptation of a book in Patrick O'Brian's long-running series, the original film was intended to be the first of several movies based on O'Brian's books…"

From here
link

Armand

If it is as good as the fist one … Huzzah!

The first is one of my top 10 war movies, and my war movies are top 10 of all movies.
If it's half as good it will be worth the watch.

Agreed- just re-watched with my kids a couple months ago. Great movie, i hope this next one is just a good.

Russel Crowe is a bit old now for the role. The first movie suffered from being overshadowed by Lord of the Rings that was released at the same time. Timing is everything.

I've not seen it, is it good?

As it happens I have just reread all the books in series order. It took me about six weeks. This would be I think the third time of so doing.

As written they still seem unfilmable to me. 2/3rds of the books are set between 1812 and 1815 during which time the various children get too old and the adults not enough. Maturin is about 30 in 1800 but is 39 15 years later; Sophie is 27 in 1802 and 30 in 1815; and so on.

Then there's 2/3rds of the novels happening during the War of 1812…

I agree with 14Bore and wish this film well. The reception of the first film was disappointing to me but my hopes for a sequel anyway were not fulfilled. Weir et al produced a masterpiece.

O'Brian's timelines were always extremely dubious!

4th Cuirassier:

You are right actually. What they did in the first film is cut and paste parts of different books, with modifications.

It seemed to work in the final film version, at least to me.

The first movie was a combination of elements from several of the novels. I have not read the books, but the movie was told a great story.

Due to the movie have read all up to Yellow Admiral, some good script writers could get a little from a few books in later.

@ dantheman

I actually think that is exactly the right approach. Without attempting to film the unfilmable, put the essence of the whole series on screen.

This must include the humour. Stephen meeting a former patient in The Fortune of War: ‘Wallis,' said Maturin, ‘I am happy to find you here. How is your penis?'

Stephen greeted by a fellow physician: 'You yourself are thin. Nay, cadaverous, if I may speak as one physician to another. You have a very ill breath; your hair, already meagre two years ago, is now extremely sparse; you belch frequently; your eyes are hollow and dim. I should very much like to see your excrement.'

‘You shall, my dear sir, you shall.'

There is also an incident where the duo are captured and brought to the French captain's cabin. He rises and comes around his desk to greet them, and has no trousers on. It's Carry On Post Captain basically.

Imho… both the books and the film are great….

Armand

4th Cuirassier,

M&C is an interesting film. It is, to a large extent, an aggregation of episodes knit together by an over arching through thread, of one small ship trying to accomplish a seemingly impossible mission, with no hope of help, on the far side of the world.

The story is solid, if a bit leisurely. Where M&C truly shines is its immersive presentation of life on an early 19th century man of War.

I would recommend trying to see it on as large a screen as possible, and being prepared to fiddle with the brightness settings. Life below decks was inevitably poorly lit. You could well find yourself unable to really see what's going on using normal picture settings.

It's definitely worth a look.

4C,
"Master and Commander" is currently on Amazon Prime as a freebee. It is a relatively unheralded film, but quite unfairly so IMHO. Well worth viewing, very much so in fact, considering the crap being spewed out of Hollywood nowadays.

I myself have viewed it four times.

B

Looked at other links on this. There is a new screenwriter but no director or actors chosen. It has a long way to go. If it sees light of day (BIG if) it will be a prequel to Master and Commander, so all new actors.

Critics claim Master and Commander had limited success because audiences started pivoting to Superhero, Sci-Fi and Fantasy genre at the time Master and Commander was released.

I believe the rights to Master and Commander are ultimately under the Disney umbrella now that they bought the Fox franchise in 2019. Disney made a killing on the Superhero front. If they are behind this one, we may see a revival of historical drama. We can hope.

My local hobby shop attributes the current wave of science fiction and fantasy gaming as an outgrowth of what is popular in the cinema. Older historical players watched sand and sandal movies like ‘Spartacus' or war movies like ‘Saving Private Ryan'. If correct, it would be interesting to see if there is any impact.

I really enjoyed the film, and one thing I though they got spot on was the casting. Aubrey, Maturin & even Killick all came to life for me & were very much as I'd imagined the characters to be.
However, I do have a reservation – I've read the first 17 O'Brien books (some of them twice) and I think they could have chosen a better storyline from such a wide choice.

I have heard that the new movie will be a prequel of sorts with new, younger actors showing Aubrey and Maturin's first meeting and many of the events that happen in the first book of the series (which was also titled "Master and Commander").

Hope so…

Armand

If they started with actors in their early 30s they could start in 1801 and make five or six films over ten years with plausibly ageing characters.

We need a poll on which book has the best sea battle in it….

Rumor has it that Disney will introduce Johnny Depp's famous Captain Jack Sparrow character into the next M&C film.

Just joking, I hope. However, I cannot think of a more untrustworthy custodian of the Aubrey/Maturin franchise than Disney.

B

Ioan Gryffud said years ago he would have loved to play Hornblower throughout his career. Horry had quite a career in the books, being a heroic arthritic Admiral.

Crowe also expressed a similar interest, and he's also perfect for the part.

What you have to then do is match the book to the actor's age. Let's not make the same mistake of casting a 55 year old Bruce Willis as a Lieutenant in the Special forces. "Tears of the Sun" anyone?

It just occurred to me that they may be thinking of a "reboot" – a second presentation of the same story.

I sincerely hope they pick a different book in the series to base the screenplay.

Besides – the original M&C film was focused primarily on the male audience. They could use one of the storylines that included Dianna to make it more interesting for women, particularly as Dianna is not necessarily a "good guy" character.

Russell Crowe is far too old now – he's 57. Jack and Stephen alike are no more than about 30 in the first book. As late as the 20th, which is post-Napoleonic, they'd still be ten years younger than Crowe is now, and Stephen is actually said to be ten years younger even than that.

I think one would need anyway to condense the activity and characters of the series into a smaller group of films set over ten to twelve years and then crank them out pretty fast with the same players. With the Harry Potter movies there was one book per year of school, so they started with a cast of 11-year-olds then filmed those pretty fast before the cast started to look too old. Even then it didn't quite work because the Harry Potter actor was eventually 22 playing an 18-year-old.

We need more of the women and shore action too, because what happens these is the mainspring of the plot much of the time.