screenplay challenges : from life and books to movie treatments and graphic novels
Baudolino dozes off while looking at the griffons, one of which…flies off the tent’s cover and, after circling the courtyard, lowers itself by Baudolino who gets on its back. They fly over the Nile, desert land, the shore of Mediterranean, then inland. Baudolino rejoices at the sight of a fortress with tall towers and minarets, Read More …
Umberto Eco writes on 29 pages, most of them discussions about religion and philosophy, the love story of Baudolino and Hypatia. She is the disciple of Hypatia of Alexandria, historically known as a “martyr for philosophy”. The fictional Hypatia believes that God needs a “redemption”. Actually, she says that it’s on us to accept that Read More …
The first part of the book, until Frederick drowns, has roots in historical reality. The second part though is populated with mythic places and creatures. In my movie, I had divided this second part into two: a “real” pilgrim through places of religious and philosophical thought, rendered with “real” characters, and the arrival at the Read More …
After completing the sequences of the pilgrims’ route through religious and philosophical experiences, I had to return to their starting point in the script: the beginning of the Third Crusade to freed Jerusalem from Saladin. Following the Diet in Mainz, Frederick Barbarossa takes the land and the England’s and France’s kings the maritime routes towards Read More …
Writing “The Poet Dreams about Bathsheba” sequence in Baudolino made me search for a camel photo. The one I found was fun and it inspired a little poem. Then, poetic inspiration spilled into sequential art. What if can turn this little sequence into a comics page? I could “see” the page and panels’ composition but Read More …
Walking through a small village with circular mud huts Baudolino stops to describe Zosimos and ask a villager if he saw him. The villager frowns not understanding the language. Baudolino mimics a traveler walking and points at Boron’s beard in an attempt to describe Zosimos. The villager seems to understand and speaking in his own Read More …
In Baudolino book, the Huns invade Pndapetzim, the city at the border with the Universal Religion realm. I think about replacing them with the apocalyptic Gog and Magog. However, while searching the internet I find a depiction of them less apocalyptic, apparently working hard in a Muslim land. Were they punished or just making a Read More …