The world in P.D. James’ novel The Children of Men differs vastly from the onscreen realm that we see in the 2006 film adaptation. The basic premise remains the same: widespread infertility has halted the birth of human babies for nearly twenty-five years and Oxford professor Theo Faron, along with the rest of humanity, calmly and apathetically … Continue reading Isolating Tensions: Foreground & Background in “Children of Men”
Scripts
Planned Obsolescence
It’s been reported that some kind of remake and/or prequel is in the works for Ridley Scott’s 1982 cyberpunk film Blade Runner. As a fan of both the film and the original novel I find this somewhat troubling but also rather amusing. It seems that no other story has had such a complicated history with … Continue reading Planned Obsolescence
Dystopia
While waiting in the security line at Newark Airport last December, I had a minor revelation. It was a terrible line, probably the worst I had seen in my 4 years of flying home from the East Coast, so there was not much for me to do but look around and taken in the sights. … Continue reading Dystopia
Information Dump, or Why “Inception” Lost Best Original Screenplay
Okay, that’s unfair. Inception didn’t win Best Original Screenplay because the Academy preferred The King’s Speech, and with good reason. It was a great film built upon the foundation of a powerful script. (Why Hans Zimmer didn’t win Best Original Score is beyond me though…) The most common criticism I’ve heard regarding the execution of … Continue reading Information Dump, or Why “Inception” Lost Best Original Screenplay
Why Screenplays?
I suppose that would be a good place to start. I’m not sure that I can really pinpoint when my interest in film developed, but there is a definite moment where the screenplay became a distinct object of appreciation for me. In 7th grade I took a class called “Media” and one of our assignments … Continue reading Why Screenplays?
Mariel Calloway 