well there are worse things than standing by a river on a sunday

Ever get those days where you have to ask yourself the important questions, such as: "Who would I cast as who in a Muppet version of Hamlet?"

I think I left half my art supplies at fiveseconddelay's place. Which means I'll have to pick 'em up from him at the New Year Party at the Jak-ster's place. Along with, I hope, a USB cord compatible with the digital camera so kindly loaned to me by aeonata so I can actually load these bloody pictures so I can finally get to work on my bloody comic!

I love art supply shopping. Now I just hope I have a modicum of talent to make the splurging worthwhile.

Now it's good and broke!

One of these days, when I get the money and the influence and the sweet, sweet power (possibly with the Cosmic Cube), I want to remake Gangs of New York. Every time I watch it, I'm reminded of all the things that made me fall so utterly in love with it and especially with the character of Bill "The Butcher" Cutting. Which makes the film's many problems all the more frustrating.

What are some of these flaws? Off the top of my head- Cameron Diaz's underdeveloped character, the entire love subplot, the Draft Riots stuff totally swallowing up the main story, bad Irish accents spoken by a mostly American cast, overuse of flashbacks, and abandonment of the fascinating and moving father-son relationship between Bill and Amsterdam for the conventional and unimaginitive "You killed my father, prepare to die" storyline. Yawn. Also, Amsterdam is a boring and unlikable character, needlessly hot-headed, weaselly, back-stabbing, ignoble, and not nearly as honorable as the racist evil villain, Bill. And yet for a good number of reasons, I hold this movie very close to my heart. Every time, the strengths (for me) outweigh the flaws.

Still, with the passage of some time I think this is a movie ripe for revisiting. For one thing, Liam Neeson's Priest was a far more interesting "hero" and adversary for Bill than Leo's Amersterdam, so I'd make him the central protagonist. Amsterdam would still be a mole in Bill's group, but I'd allow a couple more scenes of him and Bill growing closer juxtaposed with the uncomfortable relationship he has with his own, raising the possibility that this evil racist might actually be a better, more loving father than Priest. In the original movie, we just caught a glimpse of him. If we were to believe Amsterdam and Bill, Priest was the most noble man in the Points, yet Monk hints that he might have been just as bad as the rest. I want that story! I want to see more of this badass Priest who might, at heart, be no better than the opressive "Native Americans" from whom he fights to defend his people.

I'd of course keep Monk (Brendan Gleeson) as the moral heart of the story, perhaps the most (or the only) noble man in the Five Points, yet still a badass with a club when he needs to be. I'm not sure what role then Jenny would play; I'd be loathe to try and fail with another love storyline. It'd be far more satisfying if she could actually stand as her own character, rather than the person for the hero to fall in love with, y'know?

Hmm. Maybe if I go through and used the names of the real people, I could "remake" it in the form of a novel and avoid being sued that way. After all, someone just put out a novel of Superman without having any ties to DC comics and yet isn't being sued... maybe I could get away with this less-precious commodity!