4 stories
The Manchurian Candidate
Set in 2024. Special forces team gets captured in a Sub-Saharan African country by Chinese forces who are actually working as minor partners for a U.S. far right Christo-fascist thinktank called the Manchurian Institute, which is fronted as a U.S.-China foreign affairs thinktank by Korean War veterans following the war. Brainwashing scene rips off Parallax View and includes showing clips from Alan Lomax archives of church singing from the 80s. Involvement of American fascist conspiracy goes way further in this version than previous adaptations. Twist is that they were ultimately responsible attempting to assassinate moderate Republican presidential candidate and the Chinese were minor allies. Unclear throughout whether Eugenie character is involved with the brainwashing and works for the Manchurian Institute or not. Republicans and Democrats explicitly mentioned. Jordan is a Democrat who is frequently tagged as a socialist, Shaw is a Republican. Themes of national delusion, patriotism, jingoism, mass surveillance, PTSD, disinformation, separation of church & state, near-peer war, AI, dreams, domestic fascism. Ray and Jocelyn relationship inspired by Mary Matalin and James Carville. Stuff taken from both films and book. Ends with characters talking about how a forthcoming Congressional hearing and new coverage will expose it all and one character jokes about how no one will therefore no what really happened. Relationship between Mrs. Iselin and Raymond explicitly incestuous.
Dracula (2023)
Very loyal and direct adaptation of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel. No deviations made from novel and very little cut. First Mina hypnotization scene done in one take with Mortensen speaking off-screen. Demeter scene shot in black and white. Shot on 65 mm with primarily natural light. Like novel, theme of goodness and friendship between human characters with no redeeming qualities for Dracula character.
Othello (2022)
The Venice scenes will take place in New Orleans, with the opening scene in particular taking place on Bourbon Street. The Cyprus scenes will take place on an unidentified island resembling Cuba or Puerto Rico. The film will be set during and immediately following the Spanish-American War. Garb will be turn of the century and military. No scenes or acts will be cut and there will be only three changes to the dialogue: In the second to last line, Lodovico will say "States" instead of "state". In Act 4, Scene 2, "Mauritania" will become "The Philippines" and "votaress" becomes "nun". Iago, Roderigo, Emilia, Montana, and Bianca will use American accents. Desdemona, Brabantio, Gratiano, Cassio, and Lodovico will use British accents. Othello and The Duke of Venice will be dealer's choice
The Great Gatsby (2022)
Dialogue pulled directed from the novel and no scenes cut. Shot on 65mm. Two scenes added: The first being a riff on the scene from Baz Luhrmann's adaptation where Carraway looks out the window during the apartment party and sees the city with the trumpet playing. Instead, Carraway will retreat to a fire escape during the party at night and look across the street into different apartments as a trumpeter on a neighboring fire escape plays. Catherine will come out to join him and conversation will ensue. Scene serves as a display of the Jazz Age at its best. The second scene will take place during a party at Gatsby's later in the film. Nick will be in the dredges of drunkenness when he encounters a woman who introduces herself as Columbia ("Like the University?"). They will retreat outside to talk and as they overlook the revelry, she will, over the course of the conversation, shatter his illusions about the Jazz Age (in part, through mentioning the struggles many other people are under and alluding to the coming Great Depression in an almost prophetic way), and serve to help begin his descent into disenchantment. She will walk away and when Nick tries to look for her, she will have seemingly disappeared into the crowd
