Spotted today on MaximumCrowe.com re: Master and Commander...

[annathepiper]

"Meanwhile, in a USA Today article, one Fox executive says the studio may consider making a sequel!! It all depends on how well the movie does on video and DVD. The article: DVDs can push big-money films into profitability."

DUDE! I'm all OVER another Aubrey & Maturin movie! *.*

Comments

[demonhaunted.livejournal.com]

God, I really hope they do make a sequel to Master and Commander. I was ticked beyond belief that it didn't win best movie at the Oscars; winning key Oscar categories always helps movie and DVD sales and I knew that M&C did poorly at the box office.

[annathepiper]

I do not begrudge under any circumstances M&C losing to Return of the King--and I say this as a raving Russell Crowe fan. ;) RotK was a very worthy film to lose to. But I do also note that I saw M&C three times in the box office, and RotK only once!

And now that I've actually become a fan of Patrick O'Brian's books as well, I would dearly love to see a film treatment of another one. Preferably something that will give a chance for Stephen to show off his surreptitious spy side. :)

[demonhaunted.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed RotK but I felt M&C was the superior film. And with box office sales so strong for LotR already, I didn't feel like it even needed to win the Oscars to boost its revenues. On the other hand, I felt M&C was a pretty original film, one that broke new ground, and I was sorely disappointed to see it get so little attention.

I'm really hoping they do a second movie with the same level of quality and class as they did the first.

[annathepiper]

Hrmm. Do I agree that M&C is the more original picture? I think I may. :D

I think it depends on where you're looking for the originality, and it may well pull me back to looking at the original stories. :) Tolkien is not the only heroic epic fantasy I can think of--though arguably it is the grandfather of that particular form of story in modern fantasy, you can go back into older faerie tales and mythology to get stories with a similar kind of scope and flavor.

On the other hand, with Patrick O'Brian, you have naval warfare, espionage, the era of Napoleon, the deep platonic friendship of two very different men fueled by a mutual love of music, the subplots of warfare vs. science... all handled with a deft, light, stylish touch. I've seen these various elements in other places before, but as Tolkien did with the elements he wove together into his works, so Patrick O'Brian did as well--taking elements we've seen elsewhere and weaving them into something entirely his own.

Tolkien has been attempted before, at least in animated form; O'Brian has not. In that respect, certainly, M&C is the more original picture.

And I am with you all the way when it comes to the originality of O'Brian's overall style of story--class and quality. :) I have heard it described as a "thinking man's action movie", and recently heard someone quoted as asking, "How many action flicks have a violin and cello duet in the middle?"

Certainly, too, the entirely musical aspect of O'Brian's works is something I have yet to see anywhere else. I've seen plenty of stories that involve music being performed, but O'Brian is to date the only author I've ever seen who has his characters playing music for the sheer joy of it. I love that. :D

I need to continue reading the series; I'm only up through the first four books, and have the fifth on my To Read shelf. I would be intrigued to see what part of the series they might consider doing in a second movie, since they played around with the timeline of the series as written--I just read The Mauritius Command and noted that it was set in 1805, which is when the movie is set. :)