The King Of Kong
Seeing that we've been blogging about video games a bit over the last week (or whatever derivation thereof the uWink establishment offers) I thought I'd recommend a terrific documentary about the world of classic video gaming. The King Of Kong: A Fistful Of Quarters is a compelling tale of one man's journey to beat the highest score ever posted on the original classic arcade game, Donkey Kong. The characters are brilliant and couldn't be written so specifically even by the greatest screenwriter in Hollywood. Sorry, Diablo Cody. Actually, New Line has already commissioned a writer to pen a fictionalized remake of the tale, believe it or not. I can't imagine it being nearly as entertaining as the real thing. Check out the original when you get a shot. And maybe while you're here, give your favorite classic arcade game. I was a Galaga guy. Still am. I have a fully functional version on my cell phone.
posted by Chris at
9:50 AM
12 Comments:
They're commissioning people to write remakes of documentaries? Awww, c'mon, can't we see some things on the big screen that are more original? Jeeeez.
That said, I think I'll do a movie about my quest to get to the second pretzel on Ms. Pac-Man. I'm scoring it with the classical music from Gyrus. Guest stars will include Q*Bert and the Centipede.
Funny you should mention Qbert. He makes a cameo in King Of Kong. I can still hear the theme song to that game. Like most of those 80's game themes it just prattled on and on until it was forever ingrained in your brain.
And hey, perhaps we should all look at this remaking of documentaries thing as a positive potential trend rather than a lack of creative innovation at the studios. It is, after all, creating jobs. And if a documentary filmmaker were really ahead of the curve, he could go ahead and shoot the fictional version of his documentary simultaneously. Thus, saving time and money and insuring story accuracy. As soon as something happens in the documentary, you would immediately stop down and bring in the actors to do exactly what just happened. Then you would have the real people right there to serve as consultants. "Is that how you remember it happening?" real person, "Yes, it just happened five minutes ago... just like that. You were here too. Remember?"
They could create jobs on the sets of original movies! These fictionalized documentaries may crowd out other, GOOD documentaries. Ain't nothing like the real thing, baby....
I think the simultaneous shooting of a documentary and a fictionalized version of the documentary would make a good movie.
But speaking of Galaga, what do you know about cold storage?
Frank, I want to make sure I'm following you. Are you suggesting shooting a documentary of the simultaneous shooting of a documentary and it's fictionalized companion piece? In essence, then assuring you would end up with 3 separate movies: the original documentary, the fictionalized version, and a third doc covering the filming of the other two? I think you're onto something.
Chris, Frank has a great idea. I've heard it explained in full. It's a great pitch.
Actually I was thinking that the third film covering the filming of the other two would be a drama, not a documentary.
I like it. You know what it would be a bit like? A movie version of Bill Carter's book, "Desperate Networks" which chronicled the behind the scenes goings on of the network TV landscape from the late 90's up through the launch of "Desperate Housewives."
Frank, run with this. When you've fully developed the idea and there is very little work left to do please contact me so I can attach myself to it and get the requisite monies I'm clearly owed for inspiring it.
My documentary of this comment exchange will be premiering at the Toronto Film Festival. Meanwhile, an all-puppet rendition will debut at the 2nd Annual International Marionette Festival in Hanoi, 2009.
As long as there's a Frogger in the waiting room, I'm there.
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