I gotta admit, after reading parts of the script, hearing what Cussler says about Sahara, the lawsuits, and the fact that Cussler reps refused to attend the director's cut screening, I am not really confident that Sahara is going to be "all that."

Not even the trailer has convinced me.

Which leads me to this - a Dirk Pitt Fan Film? Does anyone know about fan films here? If you don't, check out some of the work at theforce.net which is largely Star Wars fan films. Some aren't too good, but a lot of them are not too bad. IN fact, a few a quite good. I made one a few years ago, called ROGUE (which you can see at TFN).

Anyway, is anyone in the LA area interested in perhaps making a Dirk Pitt fan film?

Email me at mattgarrett_99@yahoo.com

but you must be in L.A.

Vini Vidi Vici!

MG

Nice idea. th: One slight problem, where would we get the resources, materials, and funding for a fan film? It would be great to make, though.

Check out THEFORCE.NET - it can be done. You just need contacts.

Matt, I would swear that I saw something on Raisethetitanic.com about someone wanting to make a fan film of that story, but when I just went there, I couldn't find a whisper.

It makes me think though that with a little editing, you could work in all the production footage of the submersibles and the ship and so forth from both the original RTT and James Cameron's blockbuster, and just re-shoot all the character stuff with new (true to the book) dialogue. You'd only have to build a few sets, like the interior of the submersibles.

Anyway, just a thought. check out the Raise the Titanic webring...I'm sure that the RTT fan film isn't just in my imagination.

I don't know about a titanic film but with over 3,000 members and each kicking in so much money we could hire a production crew and have Dr. C write the script and add a few bucks of his own.

I was hoping we would here from Clive on any latest feelings he has about the movie - I have to say that the review we recieved had me feeled with some hope. But for me a word from Clive would make me feel better about it.
The Fan Film idea sounds interesting BUT as I indicated some idea from Clive would be the best route to go.

Anyone's thoughts? :unsure:

The real problem with adapting a good novel, or for that matter any novel, is that a page of print roughly translates to a minute of screen time...so, for a four hundred page novel, you get a seven hour movie...or you take a pair of scissors to your source and cut out sixty percent.
There's never going to be a happy medium between Clive's novels and a film makers vision thereof. But, and this is where a filmmaker has some latitude, it is possible to bring THE HERO, or in this case, the main characters (Pitt, Sandecker, Giordino et.al.) to the screen. Really, that's what we want--a credible Dirk Pitt. We don't need to see one of our favorite novels hacked up and acted out; most of us have already lived it out in our imaginations. What we need...and what a good fan film director should try to give us...is an original short story featuring our favorite marine engineers. I don't think it would be that tough.

A page a minutes sounds realistic enough that there's any wonder Hollywood even bothers. This explains the long history of mangled books to film. A fan film would probably be short if Dr. C writes it or approves a script. Any of the talented writers here on the forum could get one of those script-writing books and then writes one and sends it in to SAG East or West. A director or producer could find it or Dr. C or someone from the forum with contacts could inform a director or producer there's a script registered with SAG and things could get moving.

Cool Idea! I would help you to organise it but I am to faraway from LA(thousands of miles). Hope you can realise it!! Let the dreams come be true :)

its sounds like in order for CC to be happy, he'd have to turn each of his books into a Mini-series. Even a movie mini-series. Like play part 1 for 2 months and then put part 2 on for 2 months. Or have each have a showing of a day.

So sorry to dig up old bones, as it were, but being a first timer here, I figured I'd search around and see what past disscusions have been about.

Then I saw this. Fan-films. I think Dirk Pitt fan-films are an awesome idea. If we can't depend on Hollywood to make it right, we, that is the fans, should do it ourselves.

I am almost done with a fan script for RTT that you can read. Just click the link in my signiture. I've been at it for over two years and I'm finally getting it right. I had planned to send it to Doctor Cussler and the people involved in the film version of Sahara, but I figured, why not just show it off now? I was actually in talks with someone in California who wanted to make a fan film with it, but nothing ever developed with that.

If anyone is interested, check it out and let me know what you think. The format is a bit messed up, but that's just due to Freewebs.

Thanks. :)