Genre: Sci-Fi that became Sci-Fi Comedy
Premise: A 30-some year old man living in New York City slowly discovers that his world is strangely predictable. Eventually, he discoversthat his life is nothing more than a television show that's filming 24/7 and all his family and friends are hired actors.
About: The original drafts of The Truman Show (which was first an outline called The Malcom Show) was very futuristic and set in New York City.Scott Rudin bought the script in the fall of 1993 for $1 million. Niccol was to direct, but Paramoutn felt the $80 million budget was way too high. A few directors were considered: De Palma, Burton, Gilliam, Snnenfeld, Spielberg and then Peter Weir (who is also from New Zeland) was signed in early 1995. As draft went on, the studio requested the story become funnier and less dramatic. Sixteen drafts later, Weir had ashooting script on his hands.
Writers: Andrew Niccol has sole screenwriting credit. He'd done Gattaca and had a pretty solid TV directing background.
I saw this film years ago in the theaters, and haven't seen it since. I remember I was about ten minutes late so I missed the first part of the film. That didn't seem to make much of a difference, though, because The Truman Show isn't that sophisticated a story line. A man's lifeis actually a TV Show. And, if you ask me, choosing to make this film a comedy is a completely ridiculous idea. It became just another vehiclefor Jim Carrey's screwball antics, and that theme undermines the greatness of the Truman/Malcom show. Also the decision to cast this film ina suburban environment was a misstep as far as I'm concerned. As someone who lived in New York City for many years, it's the perfect place tostop and in a moment of pure insanity wonder if all the bustle around you is actually moving in synch to you.
There's also several plot devices that were added to the script after the draft I read: Truman was made afraid of water to make more drama whenTruman finally does escape, Sylvia (the girl Truman falls in love with outside of his marriage) starts a "Free Truman" campaign which creates a nice subplot, there's a nucleur meltdown when Truman is attempting different ways to leave to create tension, Truman begins to stay in the basementin the film rather than just creating a dummy and escaping during the night like in the script, the people cheer on Truman's escape in the filmto add onto the subplot, and in the script while Truman escapes his world and wanders the film studio in the film he speaks to his creator andthe movie ends with him leaving his world which makes alot more sense (the film studio stuff although neat isn't necessary).
Inevitably, the media in The Truman Show is represented as all invasive (which is why it makes so much sense to set the film in New York City, the hubub of the media world, rather than some imaginary suburb). Also, keep in mind in the late 90's the internet was really starting to takeoff and it was creepy to many how connected the world was finally becoming. Truman is filled with illusions (fake buildings, fake people, fakeevents) that attempt to represent real events, which parallels the world of biased media coverage, and particularly Fox news. The world is allinvasive, and it's nearly impossible to determine differences between the real and fake. And then, when things blow up in our faces and the liescan't be held in anymore, we have startling moments of realizations. The whole film stands as a direct allegory.
The Truman show's primary flaw is that in becoming so fixated on presenting this allegory, ultimately it falls by the wayside in terms of presentingany other storylines to follow or other things to entertain our imaginations. And to me, this is a waste of story. Why set up a concept so deliciousand not explain other, unique elements to this world? During the slow moments of the script, when Truman was taking his sweet time to realize thathe was in fact in the middle of a world where everybody was watching him, I found myself wondering things like: how do the actors live in this bubblewhen they're not on TV and not about to see seen by Truman, how exactly do the technical elements of this world work, and what events were so entertainingto keep a whole audience watching Truman was in the midst of boring years. Judging by the finished product, the studios tried to solve this problemby giving us other story lines to follow. But like, Forest Gump or The Sixth Sense, the decision was made that in order to follow such a unique characterand for the audience to buy into such a unique concept ultimately we'd have to focus just on this one character and not see much outside their perspective.
That being, said, I have a newfound respect for the Truman Show. Even if it was misinterpreted by the direct, and potentially risked being nothingmore than a screwball comedy with Jim Carrey.
Scooby Doo (Complete Crap)
Atilla (Poor, Few Redeeming Qualities)
Wedding Crashers (Mediocre)
[X] - Hot Rod (Good)
Definitely Maybe (Pretty Darn Good)
Isla Prospects: Normally I'd say Isla would have played a good Meryl (Truman's wife), judging by The Wanna Be's and The Look Out she has experienceplaying a female figure who is hiding pretty heavy secrets. But, having seen Laura Linney in this role, I really can't imagine anyone else.
What I Learned: While you can connect theme to story, that doesn't necessarily mean you'll end up with something that's high entertainment. But, undermost circumstances, you will end up with something that is remarkably powerful. In many ways, The Truman Show is a good film that would have been greatif it's theme was mined for further story potential.
Script Link: Google has several drafts.
Premise: A 30-some year old man living in New York City slowly discovers that his world is strangely predictable. Eventually, he discoversthat his life is nothing more than a television show that's filming 24/7 and all his family and friends are hired actors.
About: The original drafts of The Truman Show (which was first an outline called The Malcom Show) was very futuristic and set in New York City.Scott Rudin bought the script in the fall of 1993 for $1 million. Niccol was to direct, but Paramoutn felt the $80 million budget was way too high. A few directors were considered: De Palma, Burton, Gilliam, Snnenfeld, Spielberg and then Peter Weir (who is also from New Zeland) was signed in early 1995. As draft went on, the studio requested the story become funnier and less dramatic. Sixteen drafts later, Weir had ashooting script on his hands.
Writers: Andrew Niccol has sole screenwriting credit. He'd done Gattaca and had a pretty solid TV directing background.
I saw this film years ago in the theaters, and haven't seen it since. I remember I was about ten minutes late so I missed the first part of the film. That didn't seem to make much of a difference, though, because The Truman Show isn't that sophisticated a story line. A man's lifeis actually a TV Show. And, if you ask me, choosing to make this film a comedy is a completely ridiculous idea. It became just another vehiclefor Jim Carrey's screwball antics, and that theme undermines the greatness of the Truman/Malcom show. Also the decision to cast this film ina suburban environment was a misstep as far as I'm concerned. As someone who lived in New York City for many years, it's the perfect place tostop and in a moment of pure insanity wonder if all the bustle around you is actually moving in synch to you.
There's also several plot devices that were added to the script after the draft I read: Truman was made afraid of water to make more drama whenTruman finally does escape, Sylvia (the girl Truman falls in love with outside of his marriage) starts a "Free Truman" campaign which creates a nice subplot, there's a nucleur meltdown when Truman is attempting different ways to leave to create tension, Truman begins to stay in the basementin the film rather than just creating a dummy and escaping during the night like in the script, the people cheer on Truman's escape in the filmto add onto the subplot, and in the script while Truman escapes his world and wanders the film studio in the film he speaks to his creator andthe movie ends with him leaving his world which makes alot more sense (the film studio stuff although neat isn't necessary).
Inevitably, the media in The Truman Show is represented as all invasive (which is why it makes so much sense to set the film in New York City, the hubub of the media world, rather than some imaginary suburb). Also, keep in mind in the late 90's the internet was really starting to takeoff and it was creepy to many how connected the world was finally becoming. Truman is filled with illusions (fake buildings, fake people, fakeevents) that attempt to represent real events, which parallels the world of biased media coverage, and particularly Fox news. The world is allinvasive, and it's nearly impossible to determine differences between the real and fake. And then, when things blow up in our faces and the liescan't be held in anymore, we have startling moments of realizations. The whole film stands as a direct allegory.
The Truman show's primary flaw is that in becoming so fixated on presenting this allegory, ultimately it falls by the wayside in terms of presentingany other storylines to follow or other things to entertain our imaginations. And to me, this is a waste of story. Why set up a concept so deliciousand not explain other, unique elements to this world? During the slow moments of the script, when Truman was taking his sweet time to realize thathe was in fact in the middle of a world where everybody was watching him, I found myself wondering things like: how do the actors live in this bubblewhen they're not on TV and not about to see seen by Truman, how exactly do the technical elements of this world work, and what events were so entertainingto keep a whole audience watching Truman was in the midst of boring years. Judging by the finished product, the studios tried to solve this problemby giving us other story lines to follow. But like, Forest Gump or The Sixth Sense, the decision was made that in order to follow such a unique characterand for the audience to buy into such a unique concept ultimately we'd have to focus just on this one character and not see much outside their perspective.
That being, said, I have a newfound respect for the Truman Show. Even if it was misinterpreted by the direct, and potentially risked being nothingmore than a screwball comedy with Jim Carrey.
Scooby Doo (Complete Crap)
Atilla (Poor, Few Redeeming Qualities)
Wedding Crashers (Mediocre)
[X] - Hot Rod (Good)
Definitely Maybe (Pretty Darn Good)
Isla Prospects: Normally I'd say Isla would have played a good Meryl (Truman's wife), judging by The Wanna Be's and The Look Out she has experienceplaying a female figure who is hiding pretty heavy secrets. But, having seen Laura Linney in this role, I really can't imagine anyone else.
What I Learned: While you can connect theme to story, that doesn't necessarily mean you'll end up with something that's high entertainment. But, undermost circumstances, you will end up with something that is remarkably powerful. In many ways, The Truman Show is a good film that would have been greatif it's theme was mined for further story potential.
Script Link: Google has several drafts.
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