Believe It or Not, I learned more about RIPLEY'S!

Harry here, yesterday I had discussions with Jim Jacks, one of the producers of the RIPLEY'S BELIEVE IT OR NOT about that project which I discussed on the page yesterday. It turns out the information about the film being a biopic was not accurate. It seems that they envision the film as being a series of action-adventure films... tall tales if you would about the life and adventures of Robert Ripley and his quest for the strange and unusual things in the world of the 20's, 30's and 40's.

Jacks quite passionately described the life of Ripley as one of the daringest adventurers to have ever walked the Earth. Comparing his real life to that of the famous Pulp hero of DOC SAVAGE. He traveled with a team of experts, when he met remarkable people imbued with the abilities beyond those of normal beings... such as walking on hot coals, Ripley would convince them to teach him. He mentioned that there were rumors the Ian Fleming partially based the fictional character of James Bond as partially upon that of Ripley's. He traveled the world with a harem of 30 beautiful Asian women, had homes in California, New York and Florida. His travels took him to every country in the world, and he was known as a formidible boxer. They are currently searching for writers to help them craft the life of Ripley into a series of adventures and journeys. And he mentioned that several filmmakers have expressed interest in taking on the project out of the sheer joy of playing the era, dealing with a character of near legendary proportions.

I've heard from several folks that have been associated with BION (Believe It Or Not) projects in the past, that were everything from serious Biopics to comedic takes being tailored for Bill Murray. These versions have been titled everything from AMERICAN ODDITY to STRANGER THAN YOU THINK. It seems the most successful of these was a serious look entitled AMERICAN ODDITY, that various companies toyed with for a while. It was written by Rob Healy and his writing partner (both working on an eccentric redneck FORMULA 51 film about a super rich redneck 'a real one' that believed there were trees on the moon and founded TelStar) and their version was taken to Dreamworks by Jersey Films, Paramount by Cruise/Wagner, Neil Labute took it to USA Films and finally Mary Jane and Harry Ufland went to New Line with it. Their take was a more somber take about a man "who spent his entire life looking for the strangest of the strange, the ultimate oddity, only in the end to find that it was himself."

However, now all the rights to Ripley's life and story are in the hands of Alpaville and Paramount, who are very excited about fleshing out and bringing to life the biggest possible series of stories about this remarkable life... with a nod here and there to the Pecos Bills and Paul Bunyons and John Henrys in the world. Personally, I'm curious about all of this.