06.17.09 HELL’S ANGELS MOVIE? YES, PLEASE.
During a chat with ComingSoon, Tony Scott revealed plans to produce a film adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s first book Hells Angels, to be scripted by Steven Gaghan (Traffic, Syriana). Gaghan does good work, and hopefully Tony Scott will be too busy with other stuff to F this up.
“My dance card is so full, I’m so lucky,” he told us before listing off some of the projects that are at the front of his mind. “I’ve got ‘The Warriors,’ I’ve got ‘Hell’s Angels’ – I’ve owned the Hunter Thompson book for 12 years and Steve Gaghan is writing the script right now. I own all these great titles. Another one called ‘Lucky Strike’ about guys who repro aircraft. ‘Potsdamer Platz,’ which is by the guys who wrote ‘Sexy Beast.’ Now with all these movies that are ready to go. They’re scripted, they’re budgeted, and now I’ve gotta make them before I die. I’m getting old.”
Hell’s Angels is a great book (mostly because of the motorcycles and the gang rape), but Tony Scott last made The Taking of Pelham 123, and there isn’t a lot on his resume that inspires confidence (Domino, anyone?). All I’m saying is that if he starts making Hell’s Angels that look like this… well, I just might have to throw a hissy fit. And I can promise you, it will be embarrassing.
![[image]](http://cdn.fd.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2009/08/trainwreck-of-desire-150x150.jpg)
![[image]](http://cdn.fd.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2009/02/johntravoltapelham123-150x150.jpg)
![[image]](http://cdn.fd.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2009/02/aaroneck-richardjenk-150x150.jpg)
![[image]](http://cdn.fd.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2009/01/mrt-muppets-150x150.jpg)
There are 24 comments about:
HELL’S ANGELS MOVIE? YES, PLEASE.
Yikes! Short-shorts!
I don’t know what looks worse, Travolta’s wig or Travolta’s dick broom.
Gaghan me with a spoon.
Hey Tony, The Warriors has already been done. Why not forget about that one and just get on with the others. I recently re-watched The Warriors and whilst it has some flaws it’s still much loved. A remake is as welcome as a letter from a credit card company.
Fool! There are too many bats to take down with a six shooter.
As a huge HST fan, Gaghan has his work cut out for him. HA was a great read, but the problem with getting HST to work on film is that 90% of the value of the book is the narrative, not the story. So to carry that to the screen you would end up with a dense voice over narrative unless you have somebody with the visual skills of Terry Gilliam (who did a good not great job with FLLV) behind the lens , which Tony Scott is not. [brow furrows with concern]
Hunter S. Thomson: FOR THE LAST FUCKING TIME, YOU CAN’T RIDE MY TAILPIPE, TRAVOLTA!!!
I can’t believe it took 12 years for someone to finish reading it to him.
HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!!
I just went through the IMdb’s list of Tony Scott directed films and threw up in my lap. THIS CANNOT BEEEEE!!!
[sniffs PCP, meth cocktail, grabs a blow torch and a bat, and screams down I-5 to Hollytardland]
Whilst he’s always gone for style over substance, Tony Scott movies are rarely boring. Can’t claim to have seen all of his though. True Romance still rocks.
To John Travolta, “Panhead” means he gives fellatio everywhere.
John Travolta would never play a Hell’s Angel. Now Xenu’s Cavalry on the other hand…
True Romance rocks, but it was an awesome script, and probably would’ve been 100 times better if Tarantino had gotten to direct.
John Travolta isn’t exactly sure what a bitch bar is, but he’d rather drink at a place with nice women.
John Travolta knows all about kickstands sinking into the mud.
John Travolta killed somebody with kindness to get into the Hell’s Angels.
I’ll agree TR was badass, CB. But how in the fuck does that style translate to the material? Doesn’t. Bay shouldn’t remake (anything) On Golden Pond, James Cameron should stay away from 28 Dresses, and Tony Scott should back the fuck off HA. Now, Ridley…
The awesome cast didn’t hurt either. Would Tarantino have landed all that talent if he was directing?
@Br0nze
Hey may not have, but Reservoir Dogs was made for hardly anything and look at the people they got for that. And I would argue the TR script was actually better. Some of the things Tony Scott did: totally out-of-place calypso sounding music (really? beach music while a guy’s on the way to kill a pimp?), jamming the camera super close to everyone’s grill in every scene, adding a weird, happy ending epilogue scene thing.
Hmmm, good question. But at the time he was kinda a “hot young writer” so maybe. His Natural Born Killers script got a good crowd. Most of Pulps cast were sort of no names or I remeber that guy, but I think that was his choice.
Yeah, the soundtrack has a few bum notes and didn’t it “borrow” some of its score from a Terence Malick movie? For me, watching in the cinema, the scene where James Gandolfini’s enforcer beats the shit out of Alabama and she fights back was just as visceral as the famous Reservoir Dogs torture scene. The impact that Reservoir Dogs had though back in the early 90s was astonishing. Really shook things up.
True, the shower fight scene was pretty awesome, and that was definitely a Tony Scott contribution. And being an Italian, I of course loved the scene where Dennis Hopper explains to Christopher Walken why Sicilians are dark “but the WOPS in northern Italy all have blond hair.”
Dude! That would be a movie I would be willing to go and see!
RT
http://www.privacy-tools.tk
NO, NO, NO! As a producer of this movie for Fox, I can assure you it is based on Sonny Barger’s autobio, which was a NYT bestseller in 2000. When Tony mentioned the title, hopeless hack Ed Douglas at comingsoon.net ASSUMED it was HST’s book, which it is NOT. It is true that Steve Gaghan is writing that script.
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