June 26 2022

Make it a (New) Movie – Lord of the Flies by William Golding

In our Making it a Movie section we play the role of movie producers and map out the movie production. Lord of the Flies, has already been made into a movie twice once in 1963 and again in 1990, but it’s time to take another crack at the classic literature novel.

Production Notes:

There are reports that Luca Guadagnino is planning to make a new version of the movie. The last info came in April 2020, likely things were delayed because of Covid, but no news on cast or production has been released since. We’ll help Luca (known for Call Me by Your Name – a movie we actually compared to The Song of Achilles previously), cast his movie and maybe inspire some new ideas for his movie.

Based on: Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Genre: Dystopian survival

Logline: Lost Setting + Ides of March Politics + Children of Men atmosphere

I think in the remake version of this movie, it would be interesting to rethink things all together. As we mentioned in our Lord of the Flies episode – it’s not just boys or kids in general that would become savages when forced into certain circumstances, but adults would react in similar matter when faced with an uncertain future and fear for their own lives. Instead of having the movie focusing on a group of younger boys – I would change it to a company. 30-40 men and women, flying out for a company retreat. When their plane crashes, a natural hierarchy is already established based on job titles. The survivors naturally look to the theoretical conch holder, the CEO. What starts out being about corporate world/politics shifts into something much different. As things progress and rescue becomes less and less viable, leadership starts to be questioned and savage tendencies start to emanate. It’ll still be a movie about survival, politics/leadership, and how fear, danger, and uncertainty will turn the most civilized people into savages.

Main Characters/Casting:

Ralph – In the book Ralph is 12-year old boy, but a natural leader. He understands what must be done to be rescued (keeping a fire going at all times), listens, implements the best suggestions, and for a time keeps everyone in check/civilized. In the movie, Ralph will be the CEO. Naturally when the plane crashes he takes command and is assumed as the leader. We’ll go with Edward Norton for the grown up version of Ralph. Norton has shown again and again he can transform from a pretty normal dude into something entirely different and will once again do that in this role.

Jack – Jack thinks he should be leader on the Island for two reasons 1) He can sing in C Sharp (if he were American and not British this would get him stuffed in a locker) 2) He is the leader of the hunters. Jack represents all of our barbaric instincts come to life. He only cares about meat and instant gratification (sounds like the perfect women…I joke, I joke). In the movie Jack would be the head of the sales team, naturally. Instead of all his attention being on the next sale, he turns it towards hunting and eventually his barbaric go-get-em attitude turns him into the evil character he becomes. Joaquin Phoenix seems like the perfect actor for this role, he clearly can play a initially likeable guy (Her, Walk the Line) turned the crazy villain (Joker, Gladiator).

Piggy – Piggy is the most level-headed, smartest guy on the island, but unfortunately he is not well liked, does not help out with any physical labor and overall pretty whiney. While it’s unlikely any corporation would allow a heftier employee to be mocked with the name “Piggy”, we could just say his name is like John Piggens or something and they call him Piggy as a nickname. Any way Piggy would clearly represent a tech guy, always the smartest guy in the room, but socially awkward. Seth Rogen did a great job play Steve Wozniak – feel like he could run it back with this character and convincingly play this role well.

Seth Rogen as Piggy

Roger – Roger is really just a sick fuck. He’s cruel to the youngins, and eventually becomes the tourturer/executioner for Jack. Only someone from the marketing department could be this sick in the head (a few of the members of the BBC may or mayn’t work in marketing). So we would have Roger be the head of marketing and be played by none other than Willem Dafoe. Best facial expressions in acting, if you haven’t seen him Boondock Saints, he absolutely carries the movie.