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I'm going to take a major risk here. Seeing as how I've been taking risks throughout the competition, some turning out better than others, I'm going to have to follow my heart again and do what I originally set out to do.
I thought about this long and hard. I'm remaking not only a masterpiece, but an Asian movie which has been overdone as of late and could bring the backlash of a lot of people. I'm also doing more of a re-imagining than a straight remake, which might bring the wrath of the judges as well. Nevertheless, I'll do what I feel gives me the best shot of moving on.
Kwaidan
Directed by: Jim Jarmusch
Written by: Chuck Palahniuk
Original Plot (as taken from IMDB):
This film contains four distinct, separate stories. "Black Hair": A poor samurai who divorces his true love to marry for money, but finds the marriage disastrous and returns to his old wife, only to discover something eerie about her. "The Woman in the Snow": Stranded in a snowstorm, a woodcutter meets an icy spirit in the form of a woman spares his life on the condition that he never tell anyone about her. A decade later he forgets his promise. "Hoichi the Earless": Hoichi is a blind musician, living in a monastery who sings so well that a ghostly imperial court commands him to perform the epic ballad of their death battle for them. But the ghosts are draining away his life, and the monks set out to protect him by writing a holy mantra over his body to make him invisible to the ghosts. But they've forgotten something. "In a Cup of Tea": a writer tells the story of a man who keep seeing a mysterious face reflected in his cup of tea.
Changes in the remake:
I'm going to set the film in the American pioneer days along the Oregon trail. I'm keeping the titles and basic plots of the stories the same, with the exception of Hoichi the Earless.
In “Black Hair,” a Wyoming frontiersman leaves his Native American wife to move west to California to marry a rich business mans daughter. He becomes miserable, and returns to his true love in the cabin in Wyoming to discover that she is no longer who she used to be. His once beautiful wife has died and become possessed by the spirit of the woods to bring her vengeance to him.
In “The Woman in the Snow,” two aspiring miners get lost in a snowstorm in Montana. When they bed down for the night, they are visited by the spirit of a beautiful snow woman, who cannibalizes the elder. She agrees to spare the youngers life if he never speaks again. Years later, the young man has struck gold and made it big in San Francisco. He opens a bank, and engages himself to a beautiful Irish immigrant. Right before their wedding night, he tells her the truth of what happened all those years ago. Little does he know that his wife is the snow woman in disguise, come to test his vows.
Hoichi the Earless will be changed to “Margaret's Tale.” In the story, Margaret is a young blind daughter of a family heading west with a beautiful singing voice. She hopes to sing in California and help support her family while they try to make a new life. They get caught in a snowstorm in the mountains, and many of them die. Out of food and starving, one night Margaret is lured into the woods by a gentleman who offers her food for her and her family in trade for song. When she arrives, there are groups of people in cabins awaiting her. After she sings many songs, they give her hot food and direct her to give it to her party but not inform them of where it came from, lest there be no more. After several nights, Margaret is followed into the woods by a young man who has eyes for her. He discovers her singing to the ghostly spirits of the Donner party, whom have been feeding them the meat of other wayward travelers in exchange for entertainment.
In “A Cup of Whiskey,” we see a young business man drinking and being merry in a saloon. When he peers in his glass of whiskey, he sees the face of a Spanish conquistador. Shaking it off, he drinks it down and continues to celebrate. Flashing back, we see the conquistador employing native slaves to mine gold, and then murdering them and taking all they produced. While the man tries to sleep, the ghost of the conquistador haunts him and tells him he has wronged him. The man tries to fight off the ghost, driving himself to insanity. In the final moments, we see all the wrong the young man has done to others as he slowly puts a gun into his mouth.
Cast:
Mickey Rourke – Husband (Black Hair)
Monique Curnen – First Wife (Black Hair)
Reese Witherspoon – Second Wife (Black Hair)
Jeffrey Donovan – Young man (Woman in the Snow)
Bryce Dallas Howard – Snow Maiden (Woman in the Snow)
Maggie Gyllenhaal – Margaret (Margaret's Tale)
Michael Wincott - Gentleman (Margaret's Tale)
Guy Pearce – Young Businessman (A Cup of Whiskey)
Joaquin Phoenix - Conquistador (A Cup of Whiskey)
Campaign:
For posters, I would do one for each separate story. No words on the poster, just a picture to create the feeling of desolation and loneliness I want to convey to the movie goer.
For TV campaigns, I'd rely heavy on the learning channels to recount supposed ghost tales of the pioneer days and do my best to have interviews with people who had pioneer ancestors tell what their grandparents told them of the hardships.
For viral, I'd encourage all comers to retell their American heritage ghost stories that they've learned from pioneer days, and publish a magazine to be sent to all subscribers for free. I'd insert versions of all four tales told within the pages of the periodical, trying to invite realism and a sense of heritage to the stories that we're telling.
I'll also try to use as little FX as possible. I want all four of these stories to be as dialogue and atmosphere driven as possible. If I can stray from using CGI at all, I will.
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