Redo Exit To Eden

[PatPowers]

The Year: 1992

The Place: Hollywood

The Situation: You, and not Gerry Marshall, are the person who has obtained rights to make a movie based on Anne Rice's "Exit To Eden." What's more, the studio has green-lighted the project and you have complete creative control. You are free to produce, direct, screenwrite and cast this movie however you like. You can use as much or as little from the book as you like. You've pitched the idea to the studios as "A fun, kinky, BDSM romance that'll bring in audiences that are curious about BDSM, but not frighten them away with too much heavy kink." Bringing in a movie that more or less fits this description under a very generous A-movie budget are the only constraints you are working under.

So what do you do? What DO you DO?

 

[catalina_francisco]

LOL, have to say I would probably tell them to find someone else. Not keen on people who take a book then change it to suit themselves or commercial interests for the screen....and also am not interested in prettying up or softening anything to attract 'curious' moviegoers to the world of BDSM in any of its sections, factions, or tastes. What is it with this desire to entice the uninitiated to the lifestyle? Why bother?

Catalina

 

[Chicklet]

i try to find a book that'd make a better movie?

 

[Shankara20]

The Year: 1992

The Place: Hollywood

The Situation: You, and not Gerry Marshall, are the person who has obtained rights to make a movie based on Anne Rice's "Exit To Eden." What's more, the studio has green-lighted the project and you have complete creative control. You are free to produce, direct, screenwrite and cast this movie however you like. You can use as much or as little from the book as you like. You've pitched the idea to the studios as "A fun, kinky, BDSM romance that'll bring in audiences that are curious about BDSM, but not frighten them away with too much heavy kink." Bringing in a movie that more or less fits this description under a very generous A-movie budget are the only constraints you are working under.

So what do you do? What DO you DO?

I would demand control over casting for one thing...

I like all these folks, but in a BDSM movie?
Dana Delany, Paul Mercurio, Rosie O'Donnell, Dan Aykroyd

Rosie was the best of the lot.

 

[rydia57]

I liked that movie! It's in my collection... I watch it when I wanna get aroused...quickly. Something about watching the guy getting spanked I guess, maybe more....

 

[PatPowers]

LOL, have to say I would probably tell them to find someone else. Not keen on people who take a book then change it to suit themselves or commercial interests for the screen....and also am not interested in prettying up or softening anything to attract 'curious' moviegoers to the world of BDSM in any of its sections, factions, or tastes. What is it with this desire to entice the uninitiated to the lifestyle? Why bother?

Catalina

Well, if you're going to be a big Hollywood producer, you have to give up all that rationalism that's displayed in your post. As for prettying up or softening BDSM, sure, they'd do that to attract mainstream viewers. The aim of an A movie is to attract a lot of viewers and thereby make a lot of money.

 

[PatPowers]

i try to find a book that'd make a better movie?

Once again, far too rational a response.

 

[PatPowers]

I would demand control over casting for one thing...

I like all these folks, but in a BDSM movie?
Dana Delany, Paul Mercurio, Rosie O'Donnell, Dan Aykroyd

Rosie was the best of the lot.

I thought Delany was kinda hot but all wrong as a dominatrix. Mercurio was OK as an actor, but I can't speak to his hotness. Akroyd was definitely bad casting. You're right about O'Donnell, she's the best of the lot, though I think Imam did a pretty good job as the villainess.

 

[PatPowers]

I liked that movie! It's in my collection... I watch it when I wanna get aroused...quickly. Something about watching the guy getting spanked I guess, maybe more....

Well, there was that, though precious little else that was all that BDSM-y in the movie.

 

[PatPowers]

OK, here's my idea. Being unusual among Hollywood producers, I've read the book instead of having a literate person explain it to me. I didn't like most aspects of it, but there were a few aspects I really did like, and I plan to keep those.

The aspect I most liked was the BDSM resort. That's an obvious winner. Pretty people having fun in the sun ... great background. Pretty people having KINKY fun in the sun, even better, helps separate this film from beach movies. Plenty of opportunities for shots of naked and half-naked slavegirls and slaveboys doing mildly kinky stuff on the beach, at poolside, etc.

I would however, ditch the whole femdom/malesub romance theme and substitute for it a maledom/femsub romance. I don't think the mainstream is ready for femdom, since most hetero relationships are still basically maledom. It'll make it a lot easier for people to grok it. Besides, that's my personal taste, and I'm the producer, by golly! So I've got a reason AND a halfway decent rationalization. Can't beat that.

That cretin Garry Marshall got quite a few things wrong in his bid for the project, but I do agree with him on one point: this would work GREAT as a comedy. And he was even KINDA on the right track with having the comedy supplied by a cops and robbers plot. Where he completely went off the rails was in making the copsnrobbers subplot so irrelevant to the major theme of the movie. The OBVIOUS thing to do with a copsnrobbers subplot is to use the contrast between the standard damsels in distress imagery and sexual bondage imagery.

To that end, I would have a male-female copsnrobbers team, as Marshall proposed, by my team would consist a buffoonish Inspector-Clouseau-type female detective accompanied by a fawning male assistant. The female lead would be certain that she's the greatest detective since Sherlock Holmes, but she's in fact an obvious idiot and an obnoxious one, too, and is constantly being captured and tied up by the bad guy. She's often rescued by her fawning assistant, who clearly loves her and blindly believes her to be the genius detective she thinks she is, despite all the very obvious evidence that she isn't. Possibly put Matthew Broderick in the role -- he does "hapless" pretty well.

I think that hot MTV hostess Jenny McCarthy would be perfect for the role -- she's hot enough that people would really enjoy seeing her bound and gagged for that reason, and also obnoxious that people would enjoy seeing her bound and gagged for the other reason. And all the capturing and binding would contrast nicely with all the sexual bondage imagery in the movie.

Of course, it could NEVER be done as a straight-up BDSM romance, but hell, it'll be a decade at least before anyone is ready for THAT ...

 

[catalina_francisco]

Well, if you're going to be a big Hollywood producer, you have to give up all that rationalism that's displayed in your post. As for prettying up or softening BDSM, sure, they'd do that to attract mainstream viewers. The aim of an A movie is to attract a lot of viewers and thereby make a lot of money.

LOL, I am not a big fan of Hollywood and glitz, much prefer people in touch with reality more so than those preoccupied with making sure they are seen in the right places, with the right people, and the perfect plastic look and personality. And as I said, why bother attracting the mainstream and ruining a good thing? And making lots of money, if that is someone's main aim in life all I can say is good luck to them but for myself there are more important things in life.

Catalina

 

[Blushing Bottom]

Anne didn't mean for comedy to find its way into her writing but somehow Hollywood thought it would be appropriate to poke fun at an old tradition so full of dark beauty that it frightens those weak in imagination.

The entire movie needs be redone. How about casting Nicole Kidman as the Domme and her ex Tom as her submissive in disguise?

Interesting....

d

The Year: 1992

The Place: Hollywood

The Situation: You, and not Gerry Marshall, are the person who has obtained rights to make a movie based on Anne Rice's "Exit To Eden." What's more, the studio has green-lighted the project and you have complete creative control. You are free to produce, direct, screenwrite and cast this movie however you like. You can use as much or as little from the book as you like. You've pitched the idea to the studios as "A fun, kinky, BDSM romance that'll bring in audiences that are curious about BDSM, but not frighten them away with too much heavy kink." Bringing in a movie that more or less fits this description under a very generous A-movie budget are the only constraints you are working under.

So what do you do? What DO you DO?

 

[PatPowers]

Anne didn't mean for comedy to find its way into her writing but somehow Hollywood thought it would be appropriate to poke fun at an old tradition so full of dark beauty that it frightens those weak in imagination.

The entire movie needs be redone. How about casting Nicole Kidman as the Domme and her ex Tom as her submissive in disguise?

Interesting....

d

Well, yeah, I'll grant you Garry Marshall's TV movie version of "Exit to Eden" left a lot to be desired -- virtually everything. And it would be hilarious to see Kidman and Cruise in the roles of the femdom/malesub lovers. But I still don't like the book and would like to see it changed.

 

[chris9]

Do I have to read the book(s)? Or can I be the sort of producer who has a literate tell them about it? And who will volunteer and tell me the story?

 

[PatPowers]

Do I have to read the book(s)? Or can I be the sort of producer who has a literate tell them about it? And who will volunteer and tell me the story?

Sure, the Hollywood producer who has a literate tell them about it is the commonest kind! Frankly, people tend to be suspicious of producers who can read. Can their commitment to visual media be that strong?

Now, as to the story, I read the book a few (i.e., many) years ago. I don't remember too much about it, except that it was very dull for a BDSM romance. Basically there was a submissive guy named Elliott who was attracted to a dom named Lisa. They had conflicts and stuff. There was a resort. But that's about all I remember. Still, it's a summary ...