Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Chalk two up for George Nolfi, a name to remember for anyone interested in strong, clean screenwriting.
His PATHFINDER has been one of those long-in-development hot potatoes that’s been bounced from director to director. I read it around the time David Fincher was flirting with it, and I thought it was smart and powerful work. Writing an original and writing an adaptation are very different skills, though, so I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked up his screenplay for Richard Donner’s next film TIMELINE, based on the novel by Michael Crichton.
Crichton, like John Grisham or Stephen King, is practically a franchise unto himself. His genre books all take a strong scientific premise, then spin stories that allow him to examine the various ideas inherent in that premise. From the days of WESTWORLD and THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN to more recent work like JURASSIC PARK and this novel, Crichton has always had a strong sense of how to manipulate an audience without insulting them. The film versions of his books have been mixed bags, at best.
That’s strange, because Crichton is a screenwriter at heart. His stories are all built with an audience in mind, and no matter how much tech background is offered up, the stories themselves remain fairly simple, easy to boil down to their essence. I’ve been puzzled by some of the choices we’ve seen made in bringing his work to the screen before, and when I read the novel TIMELINE, my first thought was, Great read, but they’ll screw it up. They always do.
So it is to George Nolfi’s credit that he managed to take TIMELINE, strip it down of anything extraneous, and turn it into a sleek, streamlined script that should play sensationally with the right cast attached. Richard Donner’s going to have one of the most strenuous shoots of his career with this one, and if he follows the script as written, one of the roughest adventure films we’ve seen in recent memory.
As you can imagine from the title, TIMELINE is a time travel film. As in the book, we are given information in little pieces, tiny clues that add up to a larger picture. A mysterious figure appears in the road, bones broken, bleeding internally. In a secret research facility in the desert, billionaire ROBERT DONIGER orders a cover-up involving the mystery man. In the Dordogne River Valley in France, an archaeological dig is underway on a medieval town called Castelgard. We meet a number of members of the team, including ANDRE MAREK, KATE ERICSON, CHRIS HUGHES and the man in charge of the dig, PROFESSOR EDWARD JOHNSTON. The character exposition in these scenes is handled well, with a nimble touch. Marek is a man who is in love with the world he uncovers, who has romanticized the whole notion of the medieval lifestyle. Kate and Chris are struggling to balance the sexual attraction they feel for each other and their responsibilities on the dig. And the Professor... well, he’s got a few secrets, including the source of the funding on the project. He’s in the middle of piecing together the full story of the Seige of La Roque at Castelgard. There’s no clear answers in the historical record about how the French finally defeated the last English stronghold in the region, and the pursuit of that answer is what fuels the Professor’s quest. His efforts are interrupted briefly when he is called to New Mexico to meet with Doniger, the project’s benefactor.
While he’s away, a startling discovery is made that throws the integrity of the dig into question. In a room that’s been sealed for 600 years, a bifocal lens is found, something that can’t possibly be there. When they try to contact the Professor to talk to him about it, he’s impossible to reach, something that really sets their nerves on edge when they find a set of documents wrapped in oilcloth in that same room, one of which is clearly a note reading "HELP ME. E.A. JOHNSTON. 4/7/1357." Carbon dating confirms that the note was written 600 years ago. This leaves them totally baffled, and they confront Doniger with what they’ve pieced together. He flies them to the New Mexico, and by page 22, the words "time travel" have finally been spoken in an almost non-chalant manner. Doniger confirms for the team that the Professor went back in time and got separated from his group, and is trapped. Doniger wants them to go back and help locate and rescue the Professor, and in order to help persuade them, he demonstrates the technology for them.
As longtime readers of AICN are well aware, I have a Time Machine here at the Moriarty Labs, and I’ve written before about how painful the process can be. Well, hats off to Crichton and Nolfi for getting it right. The act of travelling through time isn’t just sitting in a chair and taking some passive ride in this script; instead, it’s turbulent, disruptive, and potentially dangerous. When Marek, Chris, Kate, and Francois, a translator, are sent back, they are accompanied by a couple of Marines. The rule is that they can’t take any weapons back that don’t belong in the time period. One of the Marines smuggles back a couple of grenades, though, a decision which sets of a shocking series of events that ends up with Francois dead and the rest of the group trapped back in time, still not sure where the Professor is, and not sure how they’ll get home.
If you’ve read Crichton’s book, allow me to assure you that Nofi managed to get all the good stuff into the film. It’s brutal, full of shocking violence and an unflinching eye for the reality of medieval life. If you haven’t read the book, you’re in for a real treat. This is one of Crichton’s most effective yarns overall. It’s a pulp story told with energy and an inventive sense of fun. The role to end all roles in this one is Marek. Within his first few hours back in time, he’s killed several men and come face to face with the not-so-romantic reality of this time and place that he’s always idealized. Yet, even though it’s not what he thought it would be, it’s still a place where he seems to fit in a way that he never has in modern life, and watching him come into his own as a person is one of the treats in the script. With the right actor in the role, Marek could be an iconic character. Equally effective is the main villain of the piece, De Kere, a mysterious figure with some connection to both time periods. His nature and his origin are truly horrific, and should give someone a chance to really shine.
I know it sounds like I’m in a good mood this week with all the positive reviews I’m handing out, but what can I say? I lucked into a great reading stack, and it’s been a real pleasure while I’ve been dealing with this fucking flu to have material this rich to dig into. I’m going to try to bring you three or four pieces a day for the rest of the week in an effort to keep up, and watch the site for a big announcement for all LA area AICN fans coming later this week.
"Moriarty" out.
