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Tagline
Australians of Arabia - the Centenary WWI Epic that blows away Lawrence annnd Hollywood.
Genre - War
[World History 101]
Plot
Lawrence of Arabia Exposé.
It was the Australian Light Horse and Cameliers, innately suited to the conditions (bred in the Outback) that kicked the Turks out of the Middle East.
The Myth was created by journalist Lowell Thomas sent by U.S Government to get 'Isolationist' Amercia interested in the War.
Then perpetuated by David Lean's Oscar winning film with ludicrous casting of much taller Peter O'Toole, but not one Australian in the script.
Backdrop - World History 101, Colonialism, Zionism, MidEast Oil.
Climaxes with the Australian Light Horse beating Lawrence to Damascus.
[Script Notes]
SYNOPSIS
[Act] I - Civilization Time - World History 101
CAMERA from aerial view pans down over Egypt, closer and closer to port of Alexandria, end of WWI late '1918 preparations to board troop ships to return home to Australia - head credits roll - CLOSE SHOT of face of 'Billjim' (horseman with 'thousand yard stare') sitting around camp fire with tin mug of tea in hand and 'rolly' smoke hanging from lips. He gets up and heads over to his beloved 'Waler' (specially bred horse). [End credits.]
CUT TO: Flashback to '1890s, we begin following, in parallel, the unfolding of the lives of Thomas Edward "Ned" Lawrence (British) and Arthur Olden (Australian, who will beat Lawrence to Damascus).
Introduce voice-over.
Montage (about 10 mins) on Middle East History - the cradle of civilization, invention of writing, Gilgamesh - first epic and great flood story, fractured by internecine, tribal warfare, Arab factionalism ripe for foreign invasion - Colonialism - Oil (discovered '1908), Winston Churchill's dealmaking, Zionism, Battle of Beersheba (31/10/17) leads to Balfour Declaration (2/11/17) - promising the Jews Palestine (earlier real estate hunting in Africa, Sth America, even Australia).
Forward to '2008 introduced to the character playing the producer of the movie we are watching (is also the narrator). Somebody is making it very difficult to get the film out. We now have a story within a story.
[Act] II - Creation of Lawrence of Arabia Myth
Intercutting we see our AOA Producer researching and putting together the next part of the story, all the while meeting threshold guardians.
Back to '1919 (actually after the War) the creation of the Lawrence myth - by Lowell Thomas, a journalist, connected to the U.S Government, mission to work up stories to get 'Isolationist' Amercia interested in entering the War. He had landed first in the depressing trenches of France / Western Front, then heads down to the Palestince campaign on the way home, bumps into Lawrence, and sees the potential of a good yarn, even uses Australian Captain Frank Hurley's film. Takes his show on the road, gets invited to tour England with it, where they have never heard of Lawrence.
In fact it's Olden's 10th Australian Light Horse Brigade - we see that the Australians with their outback horsemen skills were the spearheading force (Allied forces in the field commanded by an Australian, Gen Harry Chauvel) that kicked the Turks out of the Middle East after 400 years (not Lawrence).
Why and how the Australian public swallow the con, washed down with the Gallipoli defeat / diversion - as being the only significant international event in its history.
[Act] III - Race to Damascus
Damascus is widely regarded as the world's oldest city - symbolizes Civilization Time.
A nation comes to terms with who it really is on the world stage - discovery of its actual 'legitimacy' (illegitimacy syndrome in reverse) - coming on 100 years of being led to believe that it's fundamental lifeblood harks back to retreating from Gallipoli, contrasted to the denied, hidden truth - it should have been 100 years of acting like a proud international player, eternally borne back to being the spearheading force in the greatest military victory in modern history - making possible the home of the most influnential lobby in world politics (with all the turmoil that goes with it).
Double Climaxes: embattled AOA Producer gets past the last threshold; suspense of the the race to Damascus.
DISSOLVE back to Alexandria, Egypt (late '1918) - we recognize the opening scene, preparing to return home on troop ships... it continues now, but theres's one last hitch, the Billjim walking over to his Waler (horse), his old mate, is carrying only his rifle. They have been ordered to kill the, now dispensable, half of the partnership that got the powers that be the spoils. Thousands of 'mates' are about to be... and they know, we cut to the Waler's POV.
The End (of Synopsis)
Financing
This is no ordinary Australian movie stuck in pre-production.
It's the most important movie in our nation's history - a shared noble cause - to be 'Cooee-ed' into a national mission / obsession. In the spirit of cricket's 'Ashes' - friendly rivalry / spitefulness. Hence,
David Lean, and Lawrence himself, deliberately left the Australians out of the story. Now it's karma time - 'what goes around, comes around'.
The operation should therefore be funded by the Australian people themselves through a State, better still a National Lottery, just like we had when we were kids with the Opera House Lottery, and an even more apt example, the UK Film Council National Lottery. Ironically, a film they recently funded was Venus, starring Peter O'Toole in one of his best performances.
But it's better to have a lottery for each film project so the public can determine the budget, starting with The AOA Movie National Lottery.
Highly respected doyen of the Australian Filmmaking Mafia, Bruce Beresford, in his recent memoir, "Josh Harnett definitely wants to do this... true stories from a life in the screen trade" makes it clear that the biggest hurdle to getting Australian films on the world stage is funding - it's always falling through.
If we solve that problem with a National Lottery, add an epic story, bring together our Australia Filmmaking Mafia, we can pull this mission off.
A Win-Win for the country, a solid project with long-term benefits for the economy - jobs, tourism, and a role model for our children in challenging times.
All the more relevant as the world sinks into a long Recession.
The people want the government in these times to think outside the box and actually implement projects that are Recession Proof, and are of an innate positive lasting value. Building to the first big payoff timed for the other side of the Recession in '2012 with the release of our Movie to coincide with the hoopla over the 50th anniversary of Lawrence of Arabia.
Warren Buffet put it succinctly in his New York Times OpEd article "Buy American. I am" by aptly quoting Wayne Gretzky’s dictum: “I skate to where the puck is going to be."
All we need is the goverment to set up the "Australians of Arabia - The Movie" Lottery.
A lottery that means something - when Australians buy a ticket in this lottery they are helping the country and their children at the same time.
Open Letter / Plea to State & Federal Government, Australian Filmmaking Mafia & Moguls
"Please, we don't want to grow up couch potatoes watching American DVDs, we want to produce them!".
Particularly in NSW where for the people of the State, being part of the AOA Project, starting with the Lottery will greatly help to restore confidence in the shaky government of the Premier Nathan Rees, by showing a willingness to support vision.
But if they dilly-dally there's a great Tourim opportunity for the other States.
Entertainment (Movies, TV, Cable, Internet) is going to be one of the few strong performing industries of the future - providing lots of great careers for our children.
As the world sinks into Recession, this will be one of the few regular 'feel good sound bites on the news'.
The beloved horses of the Billjim were called 'Walers' named for the state of New South Wales, and play an important part in the story, especially their tragic end (see Script Notes below).
Luhrmann's "Australia" will kill Japan Tourism - our AOA Script can save the day
But there is a monumental blunder in the script of Luhrmann's "Australia" that will kill Japan Tourism - the emphasis on the bombing of Darwin. Really the whole film to them is a homage to the good old days of "White Australia" that emphasized the ongoing threats of subhuman "Yellow Peril" from the north. The AOA Producer has lived in Japan. He has many connections in Japan. The Japanese are most unimpressed that they are made always made out to be the only bad guys in the Pacific War. And now in the new millennium, of supposed increasing enlightenment, it is being regurgitated again in a one-sided re-telling of history.
Japan was a closed society until America forced them to open up in '1853 after 300 years of Isolationist policy - Just Google Admiral Perry's U.S. Black Ships Pacific War Japan. They wanted to exploit them for trade purposes. Japan duly acquiesced and started copying the colonial powers to catch up, especially as they were all entrenched in her backyard. When Japan invaded China in '1905 the first battle was against the Russian section. And the famous Japanese "kami-kaze" (divine wind) suicide pilot comes from the huge armada that left China to conquer Japan but got swamped by a cyclone, earlier in history. The British had already annexed Hong Kong after the Opium Wars. You know, the one where "Her Majesty's Drug Traffickers", as they've been called, were forcing China to accept their opium exports. The Japan upstart got too big for it's britches, America started cutting oil supply routes. Japan retaliates with Pearl Harbour.
This is another very important reason why the Australian Government should clearly be seen to be supporting the AOA Movie - to show that this issue is going to be properly fixed.
The Tourism campaign will need followup anyway, with the movie being released in '2012 with the 50th anniverary of Lawrence of Arabia.
Our script will have a scene covering the Admiral Perry episode along with the AOA producer first getting the idea of respecting deeds of ancestors from O-Bon festival while living in Japan in '1990s and having a Japanese wife.
And funding a film promoting 'humanism' by the Australian people themselves shows they are not racist. Particularly at a time when we have a new African American President Barack Obama ushering in an epochal progessive age of International bilateralism and tolerance based on the 'whole' history of civilization, and not a blinkered cherry-picked view.
Specific High Profile Supporters
It will be wonderful if we can pull off Lottery funding but we still need lots of support.
AOA becomes a litmus test in identifying fair dinkum Australians.
Possible help from prominent Australians, individuals that include CEOs of intstitutions like the Big 4 Banks, who are seen to be greedy, out of touch, or un-Australian:
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Premier NSW Nathan Rees et al; Filmmaking Mafia - Bruce Beresford, George Miller, Peter Weir, Jane Campion, David Williamson, Dean Semler, Mandy Walker, Sam Neill, Mel Gibson, Russel Crowe, Judy Davis, Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett, Eric Bana, Rose Byrne...; Rupert and Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, Kerry Stokes Richard Pratt, et al.
AOA can symbolize a shared national mission for which all fair dinkum Australians feel they want to lend a hand.
Up till now, to TE Lawrence, David Lean, and their modern counterparts, we have remained "Colonials".
Time to claim our rightful place on the world stage.
In cricket parlance it's "The 'Ashes' of Filmmaking - We Outdo the Poms!".
Film School / NIDA
Why be mired in some 4-year course, working with material that has already been done, or original good ideas that will struggle to see the light of day.
Film School / NIDA [Judy Davis started out there; note George Miller did guest piece with them recently] students could be critical to the development of our AOA Movie. The Coen Brothers, Joel and Ethan, got their first film, "Blood Simple", to first base, by shooting a pre-production Trailer, before the main shoot. They then hawked that trailer around to potential supporters. More than a text-based script, it clearly showed what they were trying to do. And that they could write a good story, shoot film, edit, get good acting performances, and move the audience.
So that's what we need to do. Shoot a trailer now. 60 seconds. Inexpensive set up - i.e cheap to shoot.
Most apt would be the "Rudd Scene" - the Prime Minister is in his office, his Chief of Staff shows him our Trailer (i.e. Movie within the Movie technique, but here 'Trailer within the Trailer'!).
Shoot 2 Trailer versions / parts:
1) Rudd riducules the our AOA Movie, including the Lottery Funding, and thus screws the Billjim.
2) Rudd loves it. Particularly in view of political pragmatism - long-term world wide Recession and his need to get re-elected in '2010.
If we draw a blank with Rudd, we do the same with Malcom Turnbull / Leader of the Opposition.
And then onto other prominent Australians, aforementioned.
Again the simple litmus test of who are the fair dinkum Australians.
If we draw a total blank on the home front, we go overseas for backing and support.
We try to attract the interest of Independents like Joel and Ethan Coen (their Distributors), and other progressive filmmakers and thinkers, especially those where there is some Jungian Synchronicity, like George Clooney, Richard Gere, Jim Carrey even (re his JC23 Production company - Lean was filmming LOA when Jim was born, '1962, and we are set to release our Movie in the 50th anniversary year, '2012).
If we have to do that and one day pull it off with foreign money that going to make those that rejected us look pretty
Target Market
Should have wide appeal - international themes, cloak and dagger, exposé, colonialism, oil domination, potential to even bring Japan into story.
Merchandising
AOA has the perfect attributes for lots of merchandising, collectibles, with particular emphasis on Billjim gear - tin mugs, billy can - more at AOA main page.
AOA Theme Park
To get started immediately on the right foot - early support and media attention - we select an Austalian country town to call AOA's HomeTown. Here we will be locating our AOA The Movie Film Studios. This town will also have our AOA Theme Park which will incorporate our movie sets that recreate the WWI Palestine Campaign - '1916 Cairo - Beersheba - El Arish - Jerusalem - Damascus '1918.
Of course on the more technical side we will be looking to Fox Studios.
"Mission Impossible - should you choose to accept it..."
The David Lean '1962 Lawrence of Arabia film comes in at #5 on the AFI Top 100 Movies of all time...
Sure David Lean is revered a great director, but this is the Filmmakers 'Ashes'.
The AOA epic should represent a celebration of how far our Filmmakers have come on the world stage, in the tradition of what the Billjim achieved first - role models for the new generation following in their footsteps.
If we achieve our mission it will be because these guys showed that when a bunch of internationally acclaimed Aussie Filmmakers got togther they are capable producing a Movie that is really going to give that all time Top 5 a shake.
Director
Ideally an Australian - Bruce Beresford (shares Lawrence's 16 August birthday!), George Miller, Baz Luhrmann (unlikey having just done 'Australia' with similar outback themes)...
Director of Photography
Ideally an Australian like Dean Semler
Stars
Ideally, at least get cameo appearances from all the major 'Australian' acting mafia - Russel Crowe, Mel Gibson, Kate Blanchett, Eric Bana & Co...
Mixing it up, Richard Gere would be ideal for the AOA Producer.
Other hommage cameos to give the film even more credibility and attract backing...
Script Notes & Strategy
Our audacious, insolent mission is to outdo David Leans's '1962 LOA movie, which is ranked #5 on the AFI List.
Need to find a Herman Mankiewicz with a John Houseman looking over the shoulder in a Victorville.
Seriously to collaborate with someone like a David Williamson or Bruce Beresford would really help to move the script forward.
Obviously the script has to draw on story lines / archetypes that resonate internationally, but in an original and powerful way.
In some areas of the script we are dealing with sensitive political issues, the only way to do that is use comedy / satire.
(cf. SNL, even the Alfred E. Smith memorial U.S. Election campaign candidate roasts.)
One clear way to get a leg up on Lean is the fact that he totally excluded women from LOA, let alone any love story.
Indeed, 'history is full of dead white males' - another cue and departure point for us.
We pay homage to archetypal motifs, as expounded by Joseph Campbell's "Hero with a Thousand Faces" - to the harbingers from "The Gilgamesh Epic", to Homer's "The Odyssey" (Cyclops, Sirens,...) - to Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", to modern storytellers; locations - desert (/angry thunder gods), the cradle of civilization (The Crescent - Eqypt ) to the modern day and connotations of Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World', resurgence of 'Indo-Asia' (where would the West be without the invention of Egyptian 'Time Reckoning' / astronomy, Sumerian 'Wheel' and 'Writing', Phonecian 'Alphabet', Indo-Arabic 'Numbers', Chinese 'Paper', Japan Pottery'...), and a little bit of the "Great Southern Land".
All of this is encapsulated as "Civilization Time". With the double meaning of:
1) The unfolding of 'Civilization' Time, the advance of civilization, contributions by many, and many forgotten or displaced (examples of how this happens - Lawrence for the Billjim); and
2) It's Civilization's 'Time' in this new millennium, this Brave New World - it's turn to take the spotlight, to take the reigns and lead us forward - harmony, tolerance, electronic global village - all cultures and individuals have a part to play.
3 Act or Trilogy Possibility
What is currently looking like 3 acts - could break into 3 movies.
The film that aptly (re the Australian versions / connections) started really bringing David Lean undone, The Bounty, was going to be a "2-Parter" (The Lawbreakers & The Long Arm).
I) Civilization Time / World History 101
- Colonialism - focusing / landing us into late '1800s - Intercutting parallel stories of Lawrence & Billjim Lead (Olden??) - Zionism - thru to discovery of Oil ('1908) - outbreak of WWI - Turks Attack Egypt...
- Brief intro to making of Lean's LOA ('1961) - Billjim exploits up to mid '1918 just before final leg - Damascus...
- Turks were a formidable force, especially with German tacticians (Battle of Gaza took 3 attempts). Show Turkish soldier side - poor farmers / fodder with families just like the Australians.
- Arabs - proud culture, with rich history ('cradle of civilization' as per montage at beginning of movie) don't trust either side - they know they will get double-crossed again.
- 'Movie within the Movie' (MWTM) : Trials & Tribulations of Protagonists [Producer & Davis??] v Baddies (Establishment) / Time Travel device (see below).
II) Creation of the Lawrence of Arabia Myth
- Comparative Mythology 101 - rewriting history - use of satire montage
- More MWTM.
Not just Lowell Thomas, David Lean, Robert Bolt. They based the LoA script on Seven Pillars of Wisdom. It was Lawrence himself that deliberately downplayed the role of the Australians. Apart from jealousy, to him they were uncouth. So Lawrence started it, he made himself the impostor and plagiarist.
One salivates over the tantalizing thought of the Hollywood fanfare over the Re-Release of LoA (not to mention the strong chance of a Remake) and then:
EXT - CONSUMERLAND - DAY
On the horizon the film-going public sees a dot, getting closer and closer, a trailer for "Australians of Arabia"...
Ironically, David Lean did have a sense of the importance, responsibility even as a filmmaker to be authentic and faithful to history. His whole approach to the Bounty script was to be more authentic that the Hollywood tyrant Bligh (Charles Laughton) was mythical. He was determined to show that the mutiny occurred not because Fletcher Christian was only 24, but along with fellow cohorts, just wanted to stay in paradise - free sex, rather than return to the squalor of England.
The problem was, as Lean himself basically admitted, just like Lawrence and many others, he was "anti-colonial".
No surprises there, that's what cricket's Ashes between England and Australia is all about. If one side can screw the other they will. With LoA it was touché, the Poms. Now it's our turn to get even, and then some.
III) Race to Damascus
• Damascus - widely regarded as the world's oldest city - symbolizes Civilization Time.
• First show Lawrence / Lean version of taking Damascus, not Australians in site. Then the real events.
• Billjim are not allowed to bring their horses back on the ships - forced to kill their true mate after all they've been through...
• Moral to Story - enlightenment - education system - how we teach history to our children...
Lots of Montages - 'Arty' feel
Particularly for cramming 12,000 years of the unfolding of CivilizationTime / World History 101 / Comparative Mythology 101 / Evolution Dynamics (Robert Wright's "Moral Animal") - "Nothing new under the sun" = Cooperation + Tolerance = Reciprocal Altruism (Evo Dynamics - Kin Selection...)
Jungian (as expoused by Joseph Campbell, noting heavy influence on George Lucas, et al) Archetypal
world themes - give our story Epic look.
Exposé Method
Moral Message - 'World History 101' - montage of old photos, maps and newspaper headlines - especially London or New York Times. "We need a whole new way to teach our children the history of civilization in our schools".
[Somewhere fit into moral message that Coppola archetypal 'encouraging creativity point' - he was quoted by someone (can't remember where) - one of those at the beginning of a chapter - something to the effect - "a privileged cool 'popular kid' is busy, in demand, distracted exhausted by day's end sleeps like a log; whereas the un-privileged un-cool 'un-popular kid' , is a loner, lots of time for thinking, angst, lays awake all night - but there's a pearl of creativity growing in a clam, that will be used later to create Art (and thereby a contribution to civilization, and that kid's claim to immortality). Which is better - being 'cool, loved and forgotten'; or creative-based manic drepression and immortality? ...Does any one know that book?!]
Old world maps showing "Palestine", then changes to "Israel" - old newspaper articles about locating Israel in Uganda - Battle of Beersheba - Balfour Declaration...;
old world maps showing Spanish California - old newspaper articles about the Spanish - American War, Louisiana Purchase, Russian fire sale of Alaska...
Including a stunning 'arty' world history montage also enhances international appeal - morphing 'just an Australian movie' perception to: rewriting history is a standard motif - powerplays over oil and land by rich families in one country against rich families in another effect all of us
Film within a film approach. And use of voice-over.
Satire / SNL angle
As we will hit a brickwall re kow-towing to the 'powers that be' - that you can't expect to have a succesful film if it is anti-Establishment / colonial powers, we have to gear the script towards a satire - more comedy, even - SNL style.
Some satire elements include:
• The real TE Lawrence was short, David Lean cast a tall Peter O'Toole to play him.
• In Lawrence's autobiography he has a photo implying that he victoriously enters Damascus first on camel, in fact he arrive after the Australians in a Rolls Royce.
• Lean, like Lawrence, seems to have a palpable disdain for historical accuracy and the 'uncouth' Australians, absurdity of completely leaving them out of the script.
• How a country can be so gullible to shaft their own ancestors in favour of a Hollywood re-write of not just a script, but a big chunk of history.
Even to this day we have our own National War Memorial in Canberra on the Lawrence bandwagon - making them co-conspirators - just as guilty as the Poms of diminishing the true deeds of the Billjim.
• Another classic post WWI point is borne out of the divvy up of the spoils by colonial powers and redrawing maps and creating names for whole new countries. Even more ludicrous when 1 mm pencil lined new country border on a piece of paper, in actuality translates into a half the width of a town when they go out and start putting up sign posts. Not just creating the confusion of just which country are they now in, but that a previous neighbour is now in another country, and it will require a visa to go next door and visit them!
• The Colonizing Game motif - History 101 montage example - the colonial powers (aka rich families from each country) grubby fingers not just in the Middle East for Oil, but Africa, and China (Opium Wars - British demand for China to accept their opium exports leads to annexing of Hong Kong); American zenophobia over 'illegal' Hispanics invading from the south, Spanish speaking, refusing to learn English - Hello! Where do the names California, Los Angeles, San Diego... come from - the map of the USA has not always been so, not to mention buying Alaska from broke Russia in a fire sale...
Not just the West, but China complaints that the Japanese have erased their occupation of China from history taught to children, but other coloninal powers were already in their backyard. The U.S. had opened up Japans closed society (Admiral Perry's Blackships '1853 - if left alone they're never would have been a Pacific War ...and bombing of Darwin), when Japan joined in, they took their piece of China through a victory over Russia... the name 'kami-kaze' pilot comes from the divine wind that turned back a China invasion of Japan earlier...
'1917 U.S. finally enters War - brief montage of soldiers on troop ship to Europe carrying the deadly 'Spanish Flu' later traced to Fort Riley Kansas - kills more people than the war itself.
The point of our montage being that society's news system / Education / History 101 is "bunk".
Key Components of Script
What is going to give this script a chance at making the Top 5?
What story lines are going to have longevity (compare Apocalypse Now to The Deer Hunter - both released at the same time about the same subject - initially AN did not emphasize Conrad's Heart of Darkness, now it does).
What storylines resonate with the International viewer?
We also have to match the stunning LOA cinematography - fortunately we have the calibre of Semler & Co.
Need something as a reposte to the famous long held shot of Ali starting as a dot on the horizon and getting closer to Lawrence. Some astute filmmaker [was it Bruce Beresford in his "Josh Harnett definitey wants to do this..."??] that in the '1989 DVD revamp that Lean made it even longer. Apparently it also helped to revitalize Lean's waning career, only to to go mad trying to put together Joseph Conrad, "Nostromo". Perhaps his pathetic end was the start of the karma.
Ubiquitous Synchronicity
There really is Jungian Synchronicity all over the place. Many scripts use coincidence but in AOA it almost becomes a key character or driving force:
A core theme of AOA is the history and nature of the Impostor Motif. Qutie simply Plagiarism - somebody taking the credit for someone else's deeds. Who realy did what. Who or what culture was the prime mover. There are lots of euphemisms - 'inspired by', 'borrowing', 'coopting' - forgetting to mention the source, the prime mover. The first act of the successful plagiarists is to literally bury the original.
Recorded plagiarism dates back to the first great civilization of Sumer. Any knowledge of their deeds - invention of writing, The Gilgamesh Epic (complete with great flood story); the wheel - were buried in Iraq for thousands of years until they were unearthed in '1853 (ironically the same year Admiral Perry's U.S. Black Ships 'unearthed' Japan). We always wanted to incorporate that into Act I before we lead up to the more recent deeds of the 'Billjim' (William + James), then we found that Gilgamesh was the Babylonian / Akkadian name for the much older Sumerian 'Bilgames' = "The ancestor who was a hero"!
More recent examples: Brownlow's David Lean biography - Lean meets his last wife also called Sandra; Lawrence like to think of himself as Napoleon, born on the same day August 15. But actually Ned was born on August 16. A date shared by Bruce Beresford, making it more meaningful if he lends the Billjim a hand. Robert Bolt was born on August 15.
Karma oriented Synchronicity: Lean started shooting "Lawrence of Arabia" in May '1961 when he was 53. The AOA Producer trying to right the wrong of Lean leaving out the Australians from the script, is also about the same age. Maybe we could use a "Fisher King" angle (like Coppola did with James Frazer et al in Apocalypse Now).
Karma also seeps in a little bit considering that Judy Davis, an Australian, was one of the very few post LoA actresses to stand up to David Lean in A Passage to India.
Judy Davis hails from lesser known Perth WA, just like Arthur Olden.
Also the Bounty project brings Lean undone - it has a history very much connected with Australia, the different versions, Bligh himself, being a Governor of NSW...
And if we actually pull this off it AOA could well be released exactly 50 years after LOA.
And '2008 is really supposed to be all accolades for the cetennial of Lean's birth.
A scene of crew shooting in Alexandria and the local Eyptian official finds out, not just that the script is respectful of Egypt's contribution to the advance of civilization [in the opening montage], but also that the AOA producer's birthday is 26 July '1956 (48 years after Lean, both in the Chinese Year of the Monkey) - the most important, and proudest date in the Country's history.
Maybe a pre-emptive strike scene about the British tabloid press panning our film after it premieres, but actually in the film itself [Kaufman again].
The scene: the press (even the estate of David Lean) - sue AoA for defaming David Lean's LoA because of its story exposing David Lean's LoA defaming the Billjim.
Literally de-faming - writing them out of history.
This leads to another related scene / montage. David Lean's (and Robert Bolt's) shafting of the original scriptwriter, Michael Wilson. "...the ease with which he was written out of the history of Lawrence of Arabia" - "David Lean", Kevin Brownlow, p.404 ('1996). He could easily have used the same wording about the Australians.
After Wilson did so much for Lean's career with his work on the Bridge on the River Kwai script, and the guts of his script remains in LOA. For years Lean got away with blocking Wilson's rightful credit, which was only awarded posthumously (11995). Wilson, also got blacklisted in the McCarthy witchhunts (he was denied the right to walk up and receive his Oscar for Kwai, it was given to a minor writer on the script), died a broken man at the age of 64 (11978) - an ex-marine (couldn't even live in his own country '54-'64, had to live in France) and gifted writer displaced. He and his descendants (you can bet Lean and Spiegel's did all right) were deprived of their rightful recognition, just like the Billjim.
Would be fitting that we fit some kind of hommage to Wilson in the script.
Curiously, though Brownlow also has sympathy for Wilson, he is himself oblivious to the exploits of the Australians as the irreplaceable key spearheading force. He just doesn't seem to be aware that their were important players - including those that dressed in Arab costumes, rode camels and did exactly the same stuff as Lawrence, some of it more crucial.
"Place any normal, sedentary academic in this situation - traveling a thousand miles a month on a camel - and how long would they last? Not only would he have machine-gun fire and furnace-like heat to contend with, but fleas, camel-flies, dysentery and even bitter cold.
This where those who try to undermine Lawrence's reputation come unstuck; the only way to dispel the legend would be to prove he was not there, that it was someone else whose exploits he had taken as his own" (ibid., emphasis added).
It's alway so hard to imagine how a professional biographer can be so blinkered - does all that research, every second line of the extant documents mentions the Australians - and many were as highly educated as Lawrence - Olden went to the U.S. after the War, wrote a book, became a dentist.
And then there's Dame Elisabeth Murdoch's uncle, Col. Nowell de Lancey Forth (above) Commander 3rd Camel Corps Battalion - could he hold a conversation with Lawrence? But sychophants like Brownlow can't see the trees for the forest. The Australians are all brainless standard issue colonials.
Is it naiveté, bias, incompetence? If the laws were effective, their should be a class action on behalf of the estates of the Billjim against these people for literal defamation - i.e. for deleting their fame from history.
Take out Ned Lawrence - would the Australian still have spearheaded the attack to Damascus by October '1918? Yes.
Take out the Outback bred Australian Jackaroos - leave Lawrence and the plodding Yeomanry bred in lush England - would they still have made Damascus by October '1918? No.
But even Brownlow admits the obvious - Lowell Thomas picked Ned and it clicked, because in the disillusionment of the War's aftermath, bereft of any positives - 1919 London - the public needed a hero badly - and they were ready to take anything, anybody could find, remotely close.
The Australians are conveniently out of focus - buried in with run of the mill, dispensable, Allied fodder, even part of the group called 'British Troops'. But second rate ones, because they're not pure, coming from the far reaches of the Empire, the antipodes.
That's like saying the English soldiers are German Troops (and thus at war with German Troops!), because of the conquest of the Angles. (Not to mention the Royal Family having to quietly ditch its German family name for 'Windsor'.)
Lean was reluctant to cast Alec Guiness as Lawrence because he was to old (ends up taking the Feisal role) but doesn't hesitate to cast O'Toole who was too tall.
Male Lead
This brings us to the casting of the AOA lead male character(s).
First, we can't lose sight of the fact that Lowell Thomas's original Albert Hall, Covent Garden Poster (Aug '1919) was originally titled "With Allenby in Palestine" and even higlighted the amazing cavalry.
"It is the most astonishing cavalry achievement in
the whole history of war, ancient or modern."
The public are not interested in old generals or a group (brigades of horsemen) as a hero figure. They want to indentify with a single youngish (late 20s) preferably 'complex', anti-authority type. Thomas soon added Lawrence to the title.
We could go with Major Arthur Olden. "Athur" is a mythical name. But maybe risky - too 'normal' - ended up a dentist, lived a relatively long life (but did go to the U.S. for a while, involved in WA - RSL).
IAE, Olden is totally unknown to all Australians. He and his troops were first to Damascus at sunrise, 1st October '1918. They beat Lawrence of Arabia, who arrived later in a Rolls Royce. Not charging in on a camel. Olden's men in taking the surrender of the Turks at the Town Hall completed the liberation of the so-called Holy Land. It was the Australin Light Horse that spearheaded the attack all the way from Egypt - pushing the Turks back over the Suez, then the first major battle at Romani in mid '1916, the Battle of Beersheba 31 October '1917, then El Arish, Jeruasalem by December, all the way to Damascus. Thereby making possible the Balfour Declaration and the state of Israel. And inadvertently all the Middle East turmoil that followed.
Another possibility is to develop a composite character representing the Billjim. He could be called "William James" - and somehow end up with the nickname 'Bill-Jim'.
And/or we could try "Jack Hogan" - 'Jack' is a strong name and currently very popular again because it alludes to being very masculine, looks even better up against Lawrence, esp if we emphasize 'Ned' - the AOA Producer's ancestor that inspired further research after family history led to his founding of El Arish, NQld, after the war. He seems to have been quite an agressive character, fearless pioneer, expert horsemen, able to navigate by the stars, came back from the war 'effected', dies young like Ned. (More here).
We will probably have to test with a focus group to determine which way to go here.
What else have we got?
• 'Opium of the Masses' Motif - The unfolding of just how the LOA myth becomes Concrete Historical Fact and the exploits of the Billjim are forgotten, even by their own country, happy to swallow the Hollywood version and kow-tow to the colonial powers. And accept the Gallipoli retreat as a more favourable national showpiece ("Our country's coming of age is founded on sneaking out of that Gallipoli beachhead... why would we want to go with an epochal victory").
How they are able to erase a short latent homosexual, and replace him with a tall conservative hero, that single-handedly beat the Turks.
Hence, straight after the opening scene for the credits rollover we find ourselves in the Making of David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia movie set (on location, Petra or Spain...)
Lean casting the tall Peter O'Toole and works on the script devoid of the main historical protagonists - the Australians.
If the AOA Movie works, it will cause a sea change - in future people, including politicians will generally accept the Lawrence version as totally farcical, with the Australians taking their rightful position in world history.
The method to achieve that goal, visually, might include a montage of old maps and newspaper articles from the period. For instance most people of the current generation just think that the map of the world - country names and borders have always been that way. They don't realize that the map showing the country of 'Israel' is relatively new, back in WWI they all showed 'Palestine'.
The other way to show that is - that if not for the Australians (with their innate uniquely suited skills borne out of the Outback), the Palestine campaign would have sputtered out (it wasn't a pushover, in the early part, the supposedly waning Ottoman Empire had attacked British Egypt, and even later, it took 3 attempts to take win the Battle of Gaza) time runs out, the War ends November '1918, the Turks hang on, and might have been able to continue their 400 year occupation of the Middle East. The West would have been left to having their Oil company offices in Ankara.
There are at least 3 other points that we are not allowed to talk about:
1. Oil [Brendand Nelson retracted gaffe on the real reason Howard sent other families loved ones to Iraq]
2. Middle East (indeed the East, generally) as the Cradle of Civilization. The West treats them as a bunch of plagiarizing dysfunctionals. Where would the West be without Indo-Arabic numbers - would they ever have discovered 'Zero', the Phonetician alphabet or how to make paper (the West with their inferior papyrus, was way late on getting that one out of the Chinese - who even gave us ice cream!), development of astronomy and Time reckoning itself? Hence the idea for a 10 minute montage at the beginning.
3. The Zionism Lobby - Not long ago the world maps showed 'Palestine', not Israel.
AOA Producer character / Narrator / Time Traveller
The idea of including ('Movi within the Movie' - MWTM) the AOA Producer character is not just vanity. It allows us to move the time period around. Acting also as our Narrator, this character is a time traveller - all the way back to the beginning of civilization time (hence the subtle references to the misleading AD calendar year dating system).
The 'Time-Travel' device is not as in HG Wells' Time Machine, but when we see the protagonists [our Producer + Female Lead, see below] reseaching and examing old newpapers and documents (even Gilgamesh clay tablets) - i.e we see closeups of the documents, then antagonist / viewer is transported back to that time, and who were the players back then, how it happened, what it lead to, e.g. the Balfour Declaration letter of 2 November '1917.
Producer is innately hooked up to 'time' - specifically Civiliazation Time and Jungian Syncronicity (e.g. shares Jung's birthday, Egypt - born on same day (26 July '1956) Nasser nationalized Suez canal)
Idea of respecting our ancestors and other cultures was borne out of the producer's experiences living in Japan.
A few scenes shot in Japan brings in that market.
The AOA Producer is also a counter-weight / karma character re Lowell Thomas.
He will likewise tour around, using footage taken by Australian Capt. Frank Hurley.
Lead female character
Adding the AOA Producer character also offers a better opportunity to add a 'meaty' female character.
'History is full of dead white males'.
Lean's LOA (and other epic like Apocalypse Now) has no strong female parts.
The best way to deal with that, is add strong a female part through the woman that assists the AOA Producer in overcoming the threshold guardians and finally getting the movie made.
Thinking here of an Australian actor playing herself [a la Charlie Kaufman - Being John Malkovich], Judy Davis would be perfect, because she stood up to him (indeed probably the only Australian that ever did give him some back) on the set of A Passage to India ('84).
"She thought I despised her because she was a colonial... I can't prove that I'm not anti-colonial...
After a while I got really fed up with her. Yet she's a wonderful actress. Absolutely fantastic..." (ibid. p674-5)
This character kicks ass - comes to aid of AOA Producer ..... [or Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts, et al, ... (even make it a young fresh new generation role - someone who knows the film business, like a Rose Byrne, Trilby Beresford...)]
Another strong female character could be the Japanese girl the AOA producer meets in Japan, as part of his Odyssey. [This Japan section could easily spin-off into a whole separate film / sequel of its own]
She could be a kind of Cyclops (again, apparently this is what John Milius was doing with the Kilgore / Robert Duvall character in AN)
Again this helps our Japan / Asia market.
The Desert / Outback as a key character
It has also been noted that not just the LOA was bereft of female parts, but there was little dialogue with the desert playing a key part.
We need to outdo the Ali and match scenes somehow. Either outdo or do a sendup / satire piece, especially if we are force to go the SNL way.
'Walers' (horses) as key characters
The horses favoured by the Billjim were bred in New South Wales, hence the name 'Walers'.
They play a critical part in our story, without their stamina, nobody would have made it to Damascus (the camels too).
The script shows the close relationship that develops, starting in the Outback, riding as children (boys and girls) up to the particular horse they ride to recruitment and training, then onto ships, the long voyage to Egypt, separation as they are diverted to Gallipoli (some not to return) later reunited (after Keith Murdoch gets them out) then the Great Ride.
The ending of the film has to include that moment when they get told that their beloved Walers will not be going back on the ships with them.
Some have had their horses for several years before the War, they've completed an impossible feat together - Damascus before War's end, kicked the Turks out of the Middle East - made possible lots of future profits for the colonizing powers, but their is no money to get them home. No gratitude for the horses.
The Billjim and his real mate, his Waler (with that special nickname he gave it). They've been through so much together, looked after each other, survived some really close shaves, starved together, the lack of water...
And now in one of the most moving scenes in history captured in our movie, the Billjim is sitting there, knows what he has been ordered to do by some General, some clerk back at HQ, who's never been near a horse. Puts down his tin mug, flicks his 'rollie'. He gets up, picks up his rifle and heads over to his horse...
Strong Supporting characters - both sides
Strong Arab (cf. Ali / Omar Sharif, Feisal) and Turk (not just Ataturk) characters - showing dignity cf. demonised dumbo propaganda / Hollywood caricature - maybe just typical farmers from all sides thrust into the horror of battle against some poor sucker just like themselves to fight the rich people's war over oil and land.
Montage of effect of war on wives and families back home - Australian, Turkish and Arabic.
DVD / Internet TV Version
The consumer will have a lot more flexibility here, with a much greater choice of user selected goodies.
And greater opportunities for cross promotion re our sponsors (including State & Federal Tourism, even Tours to the Middle East) and merchandising.
We use a documentary style with lots of flashbacks. All based on cold hard historical facts. Clearly showing the world that, in a nutshell, if you take out Lawrence of Arabia, there's no difference to the outcome. In contrast, you take out the Billjim, the Turks would still be there, now coming up to 500 years of occupation.
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