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Which Chess player do you think there should be a movie about?

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ImNotaFish

The cast could include
Kasperov The excentric Russian guy
Magnus the upandcoming Norweigan gangster from Gryfinddor...
Judit the .... . . 

ImNotaFish

Yes I agree the movie "Finding Bobby Fischer" was pretty rediculous.. a very Anti-Chess Movie. The one movie anyone can remember based on chess.. 

ImNotaFish

:) And Theres one with Kasparov Dealing with his loss to the computer. Another blow to chess. Im going to have to see that jew hating movie Cant wait. 

SocialPanda
dashkee94 wrote:

I'll say this--Hollywood is to story telling as the pop charts are to music.  A popular film has broader appeal the clearer the protagonist/antogonist relationship is, and the antogonist in Morphy's story is what?  His illness?  The Morphy character is a compelling one (BG, you know how I feel there), but the "Pride and Sorrow" story (ala John Nash) can only be offered as tragedy, utimately, and actually winds up as an anti-chess theme.  It's the same thing with Jeff Sarwer--eventually, he has to give up chess--compelling human drama which Hollywood could ruthlessly exploit, for sure, but the resolution is an anti-chess message.  It's tough to come up with a positive story that both promotes chess and produces compelling drama--that's why I think a movie of one of the old tournaments presented as a light comedic farse might be a better approach (maybe not as over-the-top as, say, Monty Python, but in the same vein). 

Look, here is a comedy:

The hero's (Vladimir Fogel) preoccupation with chess leads to him missing his own wedding ceremony, but the marital peace is restored with the help of the World Chess Champion, José Raúl Capablanca.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_Fever

SocialPanda

This are two movies that I think are not in the wikipedia in english, so maybe you haven´t see them:

Capablanca (1987)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0136747/

It was produced by a soviet-cuban group.

And this one:

Schwarz und weiß wie Tage und Nächte (1978)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078211/

But this is a fictional movie, anyway, it has some references to famous chess players.

QueenTakesKnightOOPS

How about a composite Movie, Tal & Fischer as main Characters, they both had interesting lives outside Chess, their careers overlapped, then you could flash back to Fischers hero, Morphy & some of the Russians, throw in bits from other characters who were legends. There are a variety of film techniques that could be used to pull it all together and ............. Oh what the hell am I saying, the movie producers can't even set the board up the right way around ..... sigh!! .... guess we will just have to keep on dreaming!

SmyslovFan

I'd like to see a movie about the Gold, Cheese and Chess Society (GC &CS). It's also known as the Government Code and Cypher School, or Bletchley Park. Harry Golombek, Hugh Alexander, and a bunch of other British problem solvers and chess players (including Alan Turing) worked to solve the enigma machine. 

sammynouri

Producers suck at chess. Im not saying they're bad players, they just don't get it

sammynouri

Like that episode of doctor who. I must admit I laughed my ass off.

TheGreatOogieBoogie
ImNotaFish wrote:

The cast could include
Kasperov The excentric Russian guy
Magnus the upandcoming Norweigan gangster from Gryfinddor...
Judit the .... . . 

Judit the, umm, wonder lady? 

DrCheckevertim
QueenTakesKnightOOPS wrote:

How about a composite Movie, Tal & Fischer as main Characters, they both had interesting lives outside Chess, their careers overlapped, then you could flash back to Fischers hero, Morphy & some of the Russians, throw in bits from other characters who were legends. There are a variety of film techniques that could be used to pull it all together and ............. Oh what the hell am I saying, the movie producers can't even set the board up the right way around ..... sigh!! .... guess we will just have to keep on dreaming!

That would be awesome.

Osiris27

Nimzovitch could be an interesting movie.

Lasker as well.  A sad tale could be made about Steinitz.  Capablanca could be a sexy movie.  I would see any of these.

Crazychessplaya

Both.

Jion_Wansu

A movie about Magnus Carlsen?

fabelhaft

There are numerous movies about athletes, boxers, race car drivers, football players, etc, and I doubt that there would be less of interest to say about the lives of Alekhine or Morphy than about James Hunt and Niki Lauda (IMDb lists Rush as the most popular sports film at the moment). 

For example Chariots of Fire was great, and it wouldn't be impossible to make something similar about a chess player, but for commercially successful a boxer or wrestler would probably work much better. They couldn't well pick Hugh Jackman to be Steinitz, but it isn't difficult to imagine a good movie based on the life of the latter.

Elder_Knight
socialista wrote:

This are two movies that I think are not in the wikipedia in english, so maybe you haven´t see them:

Capablanca ...

Capablanca?  Is that the one where Bogart says "Play it again, Sam"?

 

;)

NomadicKnight
Jion_Wansu wrote:

A movie about Magnus Carlsen?

"Magnus Carlsen: The story of a tragic fall into madness" --- Wait foooor it.... 50 years from now we could be talking about the guy like we now talk about Bobby Fischer. Wink

Xeelfiar

Reti would be interesting too

SmyslovFan
fabelhaft wrote:

There are numerous movies about athletes, boxers, race car drivers, football players, etc, and I doubt that there would be less of interest to say about the lives of Alekhine or Morphy than about James Hunt and Niki Lauda (IMDb lists Rush as the most popular sports film at the moment). 

For example Chariots of Fire was great, and it wouldn't be impossible to make something similar about a chess player, but for commercially successful a boxer or wrestler would probably work much better. They couldn't well pick Hugh Jackman to be Steinitz, but it isn't difficult to imagine a good movie based on the life of the latter.

Chariots of Fire isn't a biopic, it is a story about preparing for the Olympics. What made that story compelling wasn't the sport, but the competing interests of church, state, social class, family, and glory. Get all of those elements together in a chess movie, and you may have a hit. 

One idea may be to tell the story of the Mannheim Chess tournament of 1914, or the Triberg tournaments, set up among expats who could not go home during the Great War. 

Don't try to tell the story of a chess player, that's too boring. Most of the good stuff happens without any "action". Tell a story about people who happen to be really good chess players. The best chess movies, The Seventh Seal, Searching for Bobby Fischer, and Dangerous Moves, all focused on the people who were playing the games. 

Spiritbro77

It is possible to make a great movie about virtually any subject. Migrant workers in the depression? "The Grapes of Wrath". A washed up boxer who's taken way to many beatings? "Rocky".  Another bank heist movie? Please no more! Then came "Reservoir Dogs".


Take an interesting player, write an epic script, and if everything goes right....director, casting etc. You've got something.