Thunder Empire as Screenplay

[Webstral]

I've been toying with the idea of turning Thunder Empire into a screenplay. I like the 10-hour format of Band of Brothers and The Pacific. Thunder Empire would never be selected for a live action film, but an animated special is a possibility.

I'm trying to sort through how to use the format to handle certain contained stories. For instance, there would have to be at least one hour devoted to the set-up--everything up to the TDM. There would have to be time devoted to the immediate aftermath. There would have to be some time devoted to the opening stages of the Second Mexican-American War. After the 2MAW settled into its routine, though, it would be possible to look a bit more at other stories and other ideas in the story. The timeline might do a few switchbacks (internally consistent, of course) to show that some of the stories unfold simultaneously and along parallel tracks. Some other things that would have to be covered include task force search-and-destroy efforts outside SAMAD, establishing relations with a gang in Phoenix, use of EPW/refugee labor, daily subsistence, and so on. Some new characters might be introduced for one-off stories, while other characters could be used again and again. The last couple of hours would be devoted to bringing the story to its conclusion, which would be in early 2001 when an airship arrives from Colorado and General Thomason hands off command as part of a peacemaking deal with MilGov.

If the middle bits last four or five hours, what really matters to have told during the September 1998-December 2000 timeframe?

Webstral

[Panther Al]

Ah, but the question is: 44:30m broadcast hour? Or 60m cable broadcast hour? Everything I have heard and been told is 1 page equals 1 minute, so I would aim at the cable version of an hour. I, personally, would do a 75% split between the buildup/first days of the war and where they are now for the first episode, a 25% buildup/first days, 50% Second Mexican War, and then where they are now, with maybe 10% for the last 8 episodes devoted to the past events that tie into whats going in in the episode. In the first two, I would mix it up, so there is context between the principles in the current time as well as what happened before... "Oh man, remember when division cuba tried pulling this crap... *flashback* And here we go again, lets not muck it up this time.."

[pmulcahy11b]

Perhaps the military or History channel might be interested? The History channel in particular has done such speculative fiction shows.

[Raellus]

As much as I'd love to see T2K break into the mainstream media- especially some of your work, Web- I really don't think anything portraying a Mexican invasion/occupation of any part of the U.S. is going to fly with most conventional U.S. media outlets. U.S.-Mexico relations are a touchy subject on both sides of the border and something like that might rub enough people the wrong way to be considered too provocative to air. I don't think this would be much of an issue if Cuba or the Soviets were the baddies.

Anyway, if you decide to pursue this, you might want to mess with the chronology a little bit. A linear, chronological narrative can get a bit stale. Start with the SW after the TDM and give your audience a taste of what the world has become c. 2000. Then backtrack and devote an episode to your character's pre-war lives and how the world spiralled towards nuclear armageddon before returning to the story in progress. It's a pretty conventional technique but, IMHO, it's a more interesting way of telling the story.

[Webstral]

Paul, that’s a very interesting idea. Very interesting.

Panther, I was thinking along the lines of the 60 minute cable hour. You can tell a lot more story, and you can use the occasional naughty word, too.

Raellus, I agree with you that the idea of a Second Mexican-American War is a potential land mine. I’ve been thinking about ways around this problem. My favorite option so far is to use MG Thomason (with Sam Elliot’s voice) to explain a lot of what is going on as a part of interaction with others. In the case of Mexican-American tensions, the good general would weigh in by observing that a handful of Mexican leaders had arranged things so that the decent people of Mexico would get screwed by a people folks with a lot and blame someone else for it. He might even remark that the US and Mexico have about as much reason to fight each other as Canada and the US. Still, once the nukes started flying, all the goddamned bets were off… Something to point out that the whole 2MAW makes very little sense unless you’re in the Kremlin or a couple particular offices in Mexico.


Webstral