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in
Gold
Its the story of a prospector whose life becomes a roller coaster ride after he finds gold in Indonesian forest.
This script has been floating around in Hollywood for close to half a decade.At one point it has Christian bale and Michael Mann attached. But ultimately it ended up with post oscar win Matthew Mcconaughey and director Stephen Gaghan. Often times Hollywood has a very predictable process in terms of getting talent attached to a project. In terms of directors, first priority for scripts like these is to go for auteurs because success for these scripts is to get an oscar nomination.If they aren't available they would go for directors who are less consistent but made a good movie a while ago. Directors like James Mangold , Stephen Gaghan fall into the category. Its understandable why the stars of the movie and studio would green light the project with Stephen Gaghan at helm.
The best thing going for this movie is the performances of Edward Ramirez and Mcconaughey. Ramirez is perfect for the role of cunning yet charming geologist kind of like a movie director who should sell the money guys on his idea to get funding. Ramirez in a similar way sells the idea of existence of gold in this remote location. Mcconaughey on the other hand even though not as perfect fit for the role of prospector as Ramirez was for his role still managed to make the role believable. There are shades of harvey weinstein to his role (excluding the sexual harassment aspect) in terms of being driven and physically repugnant look.
The best way I can describe this movie is its Sheep in wolf of wall street's clothing. Its one of those movies where reality meets fantasy. Its similar to why people buy lottery or participate in treasure hunts. Everything changes overnight. The key element to these kinds of movies is that people should buy the change of circumstances. Audience need to witness the overnight shift of life. This script seems to have become obsolete the moment wolf of wall street hit big. This movie was made on a low budget. So the transition from down on luck to obscenely rich didn't work.
In movies like these the lead character at the center of this storm need to be the one driving the narrative and not be a pawn.Every absurd thing that happens in wolf of wall street is driven by Jordan Belfort but not so much in this movie. Even the drive of the lead character in the movie in not well established. If you are a stock broker, then your drive to make money at any cost is much more believable than a prospector deciding to go to Indonesia with a vague knowledge about its existence.The direction did not help either. It lacked the momentum required. The production isn't high profile enough to generation anticipation for this movie.The story is very formulaic even in its reveal.
Its the story of a prospector whose life becomes a roller coaster ride after he finds gold in Indonesian forest.
This script has been floating around in Hollywood for close to half a decade.At one point it has Christian bale and Michael Mann attached. But ultimately it ended up with post oscar win Matthew Mcconaughey and director Stephen Gaghan. Often times Hollywood has a very predictable process in terms of getting talent attached to a project. In terms of directors, first priority for scripts like these is to go for auteurs because success for these scripts is to get an oscar nomination.If they aren't available they would go for directors who are less consistent but made a good movie a while ago. Directors like James Mangold , Stephen Gaghan fall into the category. Its understandable why the stars of the movie and studio would green light the project with Stephen Gaghan at helm.
The best thing going for this movie is the performances of Edward Ramirez and Mcconaughey. Ramirez is perfect for the role of cunning yet charming geologist kind of like a movie director who should sell the money guys on his idea to get funding. Ramirez in a similar way sells the idea of existence of gold in this remote location. Mcconaughey on the other hand even though not as perfect fit for the role of prospector as Ramirez was for his role still managed to make the role believable. There are shades of harvey weinstein to his role (excluding the sexual harassment aspect) in terms of being driven and physically repugnant look.
The best way I can describe this movie is its Sheep in wolf of wall street's clothing. Its one of those movies where reality meets fantasy. Its similar to why people buy lottery or participate in treasure hunts. Everything changes overnight. The key element to these kinds of movies is that people should buy the change of circumstances. Audience need to witness the overnight shift of life. This script seems to have become obsolete the moment wolf of wall street hit big. This movie was made on a low budget. So the transition from down on luck to obscenely rich didn't work.
In movies like these the lead character at the center of this storm need to be the one driving the narrative and not be a pawn.Every absurd thing that happens in wolf of wall street is driven by Jordan Belfort but not so much in this movie. Even the drive of the lead character in the movie in not well established. If you are a stock broker, then your drive to make money at any cost is much more believable than a prospector deciding to go to Indonesia with a vague knowledge about its existence.The direction did not help either. It lacked the momentum required. The production isn't high profile enough to generation anticipation for this movie.The story is very formulaic even in its reveal.