Thoughts on Top Gear vs. The Grand Tour

Image courtesy of www.thedrum.com

Hello you! The name is Luca, but you can call me Luca. Before I begin, I want to thank you all for the people who read and spread (Registered trademark) my last blog post regarding the Curious Incident movie I want to try and get made. Thanks to a load of friends on Taron Egerton social media fan accounts, as well as many real life friends spreading it too, and because of you, it has as of now 138 views. As a result of you lot sharing my blog post around, a few numbers went up on my other posts, the most being 26, but still nothing like my Curious Incident post.

 

So I'm grateful to you all. Hopefully we can continue to convince the appropriate people that a Curious Incident movie can be critically and commercially great, using the hashtags on social media #TaronEgertonForCuriousIncident and #CuriousIncidentMovie.

 

Anyway, to my post for today and it concerns perhaps the separation more significant to someone than their parents. That being between Top Gear and its trio of plebs consisting of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, after the BBC sacked Clarkson for assaulting one of Top Gear's producers.

 

Before we move on, I have to say that as a huge fan of Jeremy Clarkson, I very much condemn his actions no matter the context of what led up to Clarkson punching the producer. The BBC were screwed either way because if they kept hold of him, that would have set a bad example for all employees regarding violence. Of course, we all know what happened since they ended up getting rid of him, and I want to talk about it.

 

So in an attempt to keep afloat without the buoyancy of Clarkson's massive belly, the BBC decided to hire the following; radio host Chris Evans (Not the guy who plays Captain America), Joey Tribbiani himself Matt LeBlanc, former owner of four time GP winning constructor Jordan Grand Prix and former BBC F1 pundit Eddie Jordan, German racing driver and queen of the Nürburgring Sabine Schmitz, and motoring journalists Chris Harris and Rory Reid.

 

Image courtesy of www.express.co.uk

It is safe to say that 2016 is the year of mass dislikes on YouTube. The new Ghostbusters movie with the all-women led team, the latest instalment in the Call of Duty franchise Infinite Warfare and this, new Top Gear. With Clarkson, Hammond and May no longer presenting, this thing was always doomed for failure, and honestly, car shows can no longer be car shows because it will be constantly compared to old shape Top Gear with the old trio. But how did new Top Gear do as far as being its own thing? Honestly, not too bad.

 

There were things I liked and things I didn't like, and I hope to present them to you in hopefully a non-shit manner. So let us start with the presenters:

 

Chris Evans - The lead presenter, and the weakest. I know this is probably out-dated information now because Evans did announce that he would be stepping down as presenter. Nonetheless, Evans was no doubt one of the weaker links of the show, his comedic timing was a tad off and his humour was too Clarkson-esque, which as we know works for Jeremy Clarkson but not for Chris.

 

I heard a lot of hear-say from the Top Gear set that he was very demanding, short tempered and apparently also, he was very demeaning to many members of the crew and audience. Some parts may have been complete lies or exaggerated to an extent, but I can certainly see how that may have been the case by how he was on the show.

 

Overall, he did his best but he's not the best person to lead the show.

 

Matt LeBlanc - We all love Joey, don't we? I was very surprised to hear that Matt LeBlanc was going to be a host on Top Gear and I was very intrigued to see how he would do. He impressed me, even though I felt his humour as well was a tad forced and he didn't mesh with the script, but you could tell his star power had influence and everyone respected him.

 

I will continue to be surprised should LeBlanc continue, I was fully expecting Top Gear to become The X Factor with its musical chairs of judges/hosts. I expect LeBlanc to only get better in time as a host, and I feel will be a great leader for the show.

 

Sabine Schmitz - Unfortunately for me, another weak link though this is through no fault of her own. Schmitz if you somehow have not picked up already, is German (The only time you're reminded someone is German more than in this blog post is in The Martian with the character Alex Vogel). As much as I really like Sabine, she does fall behind with her English not being amazing.

 

That being the only major issue. I felt she gave it her all and had all the best intentions, but with English not being her first language, she could not really work with the script. I feel like I am being too harsh on her, but I do hope she can get better and I expect her to do so.

 

Eddie Jordan - I find Eddie very funny, I always have. Since his BBC F1 pundit days, the banter he had with David Coulthard and all the other drivers. He is very much the grandfather of the group that gets away with murder, but you shrug it off because he's just that much of a laugh.

 

He however didn't have brilliant chemistry with most of the other cast unfortunately and I would much prefer to see him back where he is good, in the F1 circle.

 

Chris Harris & Rory Reid - I put these two together because these two are great. I was already aware of Chris Harris from his many YouTube videos reviewing cars and his racing also. Rory Reid on the other hand was a completely new face for me.

 

Harris and Reid also performed double duties with the BBC Three online exclusive show Extra Gear, which showed exclusive footage and behind the scenes clips from the shoot. They had incredibly fluid banter back and forth, and they in my eyes were the best presenters overall, and I hope that if any two presenters had to stay on from the current line up, it would be Harris and Reid.

 

As for other things I did and didn't like, I have an opinion on the new way they have guests on the show. I really like the touch of having a rallycross layout with a water splash and jump, and the fact they have a Mini with bucket seats, but they have got rid of the challenge that is the follow-through and that really sucks.

 

Then as for the guests, they have two guests every episode and they have one read out the other's reason for going on the show (Promoting something), both mention what their first car is and have an audience applaud vote and another for whatever their best car is. Not really focussing on the guest's career, which I guess since it is a car show does make sense.

 

Overall as a car show goes, it isn't too bad. But it's Top Gear, and if proper 'by the book' car shows are dismissed in favour of three older men falling over in shitboxes then the game is fucked unfortunately. I can see Top Gear continuing if perhaps they sign up a good mix of talent, likeability and enthusiasm, maybe it could hold its own. I know for a fact that the BBC really want to sign Jenson Button as a host, and since Chris Evans has left and the Channel 4 F1 team may be out of a job soon since F1 will become exclusive to Sky in 2019 (Apparently, could be completely untrue) then we may see some more faces we like in the future join Top Gear.

 

Now onto the old trio of dipsticks that are Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May on their Amazon Prime original exclusive, The Grand Tour.

 

Image courtesy of www.telegraph.co.uk

When the first image of The Grand Tour was revealed with Jeremy Clarkson in front of the McLaren P1, Richard Hammond next to the Porsche 918 Spyder and James May next to the Ferrari LaFerrari, that was all I had to work with and I was worried. For some context, the three had been building up the hype for these three hybrid hypercars to lap the Top Gear test track for what I suspected would be the final episode of that particular season. Clarkson had even bet the McLaren would be quicker than the Porsche and if it wasn't, he would change his name by deed poll to Jennifer.

 

This obviously being before the controversy that would lead to him getting the boot, and even in the new formatted Top Gear, they never actually gave the three cars to the Stig. So seeing this image made me think they were going to compromise and recreate the TG format entirely with a purpose built facility, which in that image is probably Algarve in Portugal, I cannot be certain.

 

However now with the name 'The Grand Tour', I've had hopes for it to head in a particular direction. You remember those end of year DVD's that Clarkson made? The first one I saw was his 2005 DVD 'Heaven and Hell', and for the most part with all these yearly DVD's he would hammer a load of cars around an airfield. From 2006 onward beginning with his American centred 'The Good, The Bad, The Ugly', he would travel to many locations around the world with race tracks, wonderful roads and amazing scenery but most of all, some incredible cars.

 

Infact what prompted me to write this blog post was the Perfect Road Trip films that Clarkson and Hammond made where they would tour places like Italy and France, seeing that reminded me what I loved about old Top Gear. My older brother loved the cheap car challenges from old Top Gear, but I can vouch for the consensus when I say that the best part about Top Gear was the inclusion of the exotic cars, that we as the audience long to drive and we live through seeing Jezza, the Hamster and Captain Slow drive across the most amazing places.

 

I know they're filming for The Grand Tour right now, I hope that they do end up using the simple 'Fast cars, amazing roads and race tracks' concept that we love, and it would fit the name incredibly well. They could even have guest racing drivers on the show occasionally.

 

Most of you may not know this, but back when I was in secondary school, I made my own 'car reviews'. It was called (Prepare for the cringe) 'LucarioGear: Driving the Dream', because my old username had the Pokémon Lucario in it (Which is one of my favourite Pokémon) and my logo was a piece of paper, stuck to some cardboard resting against a cushion. On that piece of paper would be a shot of Lucario using Aura Sphere from Super Smash Brothers Brawl, the word 'Lucario' from the Pokémon movie Lucario and the mystery of Mew, 'Gear' from Fifth Gear and 'Driving the dream' from a book I loved reading. I would get my dad to point my camera at it as I spoke, then we cut and point my camera towards my TV and it would be me playing Gran Turismo 5.

 

The first episode I made focused on the Ferrari 458 Italia, Ferrari Enzo and the Ferrari F40, the one I am most proud of. I went on to make videos on the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, the Ferrari California, the McLaren MP4-12C then the Pagani Zonda R. I made it with horrific jump cut delivery, me going off on random tangents, and my poor dad would have to be incredibly precise with the rewinding of the tape if I wanted to re-do something. In my first video, I even had a reset date of something like 01/01/1990 in the bottom corner that you would normally expect to find on You've Been Framed.

 

I stopped because I was getting people from my school sending hate messages to me, but no matter. Originally, I was inspired by a friend of mine who unfortunately, I've never had the chance to speak to him for years. He went by the YouTube username 'salberts93' and he was Dutch, and I idolised him for the longest time after seeing his video he made on the Ferrari California on Gran Turismo 5 (Prologue I believe it was back then).

 

We got talking and he told me he was stopping his series that he had dubbed 'Sixth Gear'. I can understand why but I absolutely adored his videos due to their handheld low-budget charm, and this passion we shared was one that stemmed from seeing powerful and expensive vehicles that in the real world, we stood absolutely no chance of obtaining ourselves. So I hope that we see The Grand Tour focus primarily on what we as the viewers want, as much as the cheap car challenges are fun, I prefer seeing fast dream cars, everything from near 1,000-horsepower hypercars to classic E-Type Jags, and from quick little Fiats with a sliding roof and convertible four door Rolls Royce cars.

So that is what I am hoping for with The Grand Tour, which will be releasing exclusively on Amazon Prime in Autumn 2016, most likely around October. I really do hope they follow this simple formula, if they do so then they will wipe the floor with Top Gear in my opinion. They better do so, my parents are legends for paying for Sky F1, BT, Netflix AND Amazon Prime, and I am forever grateful to the both of them.

But what are your thoughts? I highly encourage you to make a blog post about this yourself, or put a comment below. Who knows? Maybe you'll introduce me to a new insight that I would not have thought about otherwise.

If you're new here, make sure to Follow By Email in the top right so you can be sent notifications of when I next post. You can also follow me on Twitter @TheLucaFormat. I hope to see you when I next post. So until we meet again.

Luca.

What is a voice with no power? (Part 2: Curious Incident movie)

Image courtesy of www.nationaltheatre.org.uk

Hello again everyone, the name is Luca but you can call me Luca and welcome back to Red's One-Shot. The blog where I write down stuff and expect you to read it, but hey! Your life. You do what you want with it.

 

It has not been long since I posted, and I have regrets with how I spoke about the last post. It is a yabbering mess and it had no resolution to it, mainly because this is the second part and this will have a resolution and an overall message. Before I begin, like I said in my last post I said I would need as much help from you guys as humanly possible, but really, only if you personally cared for what I have to tell you.

 

As I start this post, it is after midnight on July 15th 2016 and I'm wide awake, pacing through my house whilst my parents are still asleep, wanting to begin writing on this and hopefully never get distracted. After reading this bit later on, my parents will probably be quite mad at me if my mum doesn't walk in at this moment after noticing my light is still on in my room.

 

So this is the most real I am ever going to get with you, I don't want fame. If any of this happens, I want to return to my life of obscurity and never believe I got gifted anything in life that I reckon should be well and truly earned. People who have come to read this, thank you all of you and I appreciate you all, and thank you to those who join me in this.

 

Back around last year, a friend of mine named Emma made me aware of a book and theatre show called 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time'. This being back in about February 2015, when I went to London with my college, and my parents had also made the trip to London incase I required any help with certain things. So the college trip was a Performing Arts trip and we went to see Odyssey in the Paper Cinema - which I only enjoyed due to seeing the cosmetics playing out in front of us - and also Memphis, which also plays into this slightly and is absolutely amazing.

 

My parents told me they were going to see Curious Incident, and I remember very distinctively how I recognised it when on the phone with my mum and I was like "Wait, my friend Emma told me about this".

 

So for you lot who are all like "What you on about mate?" in regards to Curious Incident, allow me to bring you up to speed. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time is a 2003 best-selling-novel written by Mark Haddon, which - thanks to the Bing search engine for telling me this - has won accolades such as the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, the Waverton Good Read Award and the Costa Book of the Year. It was then adapted by Simon Stephens and Marianne Elliot for theatre, and won many awards including seven Olivier awards, and many more that I cannot list but I assure you, it won a LOT of awards.

 

As for what the story is about, it is focussed on 15-year old Christopher Boone, who is on the autistic spectrum and one night he discovers his neighbour's poodle named Wellington dead with a garden fork sticking out of him. This prompts Christopher to find out who killed his neighbour's dog, and whilst trying to find who killed Wellington, he discovers the answers to a secret that hits much more closer to home for him.

 

That is all I will tell you, and I can highly recommend this story for you.

 

I never want to milk this, but Curious Incident having a character with autism does hit it home for me and why I really like this story. I have autism myself, and reading the book as well as watching the theatre show, always made me notice parallels of my early life. Now I'm not naïve, I know this is not the first example of someone relating to something else, but I just thought I'd briefly talk about it so to solidify what I am attempting to do here.

 

After my friend Molly was kind enough to let me borrow her copy of Curious Incident, I saw the theatre show twice. Once with my friend Lauren, and the other with the college when we went back to London this February where we also saw Kinky Boots (That show is very enjoyable too, I recommend it). For the longest time now, I have been dreaming of seeing a Curious Incident movie made, and I have been constantly trying to get in touch with the right people.

 

For as long as I can remember back to knowing about this story, I was trying to contact whoever I could to see what I could do to get this movie off of the ground. I thought Working Title and Studiocanal would be the best choice to get this movie made, I got in touch and they never got back.

 

Reading up on Curious Incident's Wikipedia page, the rights were optioned by Warner Brothers and so I actually got in touch with Mark Haddon when asking about this, and he told me that WB had now bought the rights completely. With Warner Brothers having had the rights bought out back in 2011, they had tasked their Harry Potter screenwriter Steve Kloves (Responsible for writing all the Harry Potter films with the exception of The Order of the Phoenix) and a many-time WB film producer David Heyman with the Curious Incident movie.

 

So for months, I was attempting to find the correct email addresses for anything Warner Brothers related, giving detailed reasoning for why I thought so-and-so should get cast as this character, who the director should be, who should score it, what time it should be released etc. and everytime, I wasted my typing and time as the person would just say "We are not the correct people you need to contact" rather than telling me who were the correct people so I was just at a dead end and was never told the way out of the maze and to this day, I'm still in this maze.

 

For reasons I shall explain later, I even have a friend who is associated with writer/director Matthew Vaughn (The man behind such masterpieces - and I mean that sincerely - as Kingsman, Eddie The Eagle, Stardust, Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class among others) to try and get him onboard to perhaps have a hand in producing it. How I managed, I'd rather not say incase there are implications with our mutual friend, but now would be a good time to tell you who I have cast as the characters.

 

Oh by the way, I have recited this cast list in my head for months now and can list them off by heart. I have my reasons for why I reckon they should be cast and I'll tell you now why I believe Matthew Vaughn may have been interested in helping develop this project. For the lead character of Christopher, I have undoubtedly my favourite actor working right now, Taron Egerton.

 

Image courtesy of www.pintrest.com

Many of the people who know me in real life, know that I am a huge fan of Taron here. When I saw him in Kingsman: The Secret Service, I knew he would be going places immediately, and now having seen him play Eddie The Eagle, he has solidified what people suspected. So why do I think he should play Christopher in Curious Incident?

 

I reiterate from before, going from Gary 'Eggsy' Unwin to Michael 'Eddie The Eagle' Edwards is an incredible change and even his Eddie The Eagle co-star Hugh Jackman said "I do not know of any other actor in the world who can nail both of those roles", probably paraphrasing but it is definitely along those lines.

 

When I saw the stage show of Curious Incident, the way Christopher spoke was a very outward and direct way of speech (I suggest you look for a YT video of Curious Incident theatre show rehearsals with Christopher so you get what I mean). In my time around fellow autistic peers, that way of speaking was a lot more common than perhaps being a little bit quieter, and Taron has a very outward way of speech that I reckon would work to his advantage playing Christopher.

 

In Eddie The Eagle, the way Taron carried himself was almost 'chameleonic' if you could call it that. I just remember watching him walk over to see Hugh Jackman's character and I just laid back in my chair and said to myself "That is Christopher from Curious Incident".

 

Taron also has this ability to appear on screen and represent an age that can be so much far either younger or older than what he is. As of now, Egerton is 26 but in Kingsman I was convinced he was 17, and I reckon it will be a while before he starts to look much older so I reckon right now, he can be a more than convincing 15-year old character.

 

I know this is a bold claim, but I am absolutely convinced that Taron Egerton, will at least be nominated for an Academy Award for Curious Incident under the right direction and filmmakers. Infact, I'd hope I could see into the future just to find out who would be competing in the same category just so I could also say "He will win".

 

My aim was to always shoot for this movie after Taron had shot the Han Solo movie, but since he didn't get the Han Solo role (BS but oh well), more time for this I suppose!

 

Now for the next character, Christopher's father Ed. A hesitant and broken soul who whilst loves Christopher, he can get frustrated with him and his inability to communicate, so we need someone who is a suppressed and subtle actor, who can switch off and convey a real darkness to them but is not that too far out of the ordinary. That's why for Ed, I believe it should be Gary Oldman.



Image courtesy of www.wikipedia.org



Warner Brothers would love this casting, since Gary Oldman has been a many time associate to WB because of roles in franchises such as Sirius Black in Harry Potter and James Gordon in the Dark Knight Batman films. Plus it needs to be said, Oldman walks on that tightrope of being larger than life and down to earth, he masters that fine line in that he seems like a friendly next door neighbour.

But when you need him to be, he can amaze you all. Oldman has been labelled as perhaps the greatest living actor working today, and rightfully so I think, he brings the intensity and the normality needed to nail both a real character, and a caricature.

This is why I believe he could nail the role of Ed in a Curious Incident movie, because Ed is a reserved character who has two sides to him, that you as the reader or audience, can believe are not that far of a trait to be seen as inconsistent. You need to believe this character, you need to know someone like him in your regular British life to know that he is a very real character and that is something Gary Oldman has mastered beforehand.

Next we come to Christopher's mother Judy, who plays a huge role in the story. I was thinking of who to play her not long ago and I was always unsure about everyone I had thought of in the past before I - shamelessly - was 'Google'-ing Daniel Craig, and noticed who he is married to. I searched into her work, and was like "SHE IS PERFECT! I have found Judy for Curious Incident", and incase you have not guessed already, it is Rachel Weisz.



Image courtesy of www.imdb.com

Like Gary Oldman, Rachel Weisz has played many characters and all are very believable, and somewhat very typical, like you could meet them and they would not overwhelming. Weisz carries an incredible grace to her that is grounded in reality, again making a character very convincing.

 

In the story, Christopher has memories of his mother that are told throughout the narrative. We find out that unlike Ed, Judy doesn't have the patience with her son and buckles under the pressure, and I know Weisz is very outward with her emotions on screen. She starts alongside Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander in the movie 'The Light Between Oceans' and her character from what I've seen in the trailers, she has nailed the emotion to an incredible extent. (On another note, David Heyman produces this movie, he also produced another Taron Egerton film 'Testament Of Youth')

 

Weisz's incredible charisma to emit warmth, a gentle subtlety, normality and gracefulness can only be too perfect to match the memories that Christopher has for his mother. If she can do it, Rachel Weisz can do it in spades and then some!

 

Next up, Christopher's support assistant at his school, Siobhan, who teaches Christopher how society works, and how to behave in its complex guidelines. When I went to see the theatre show, I saw Siobhan depicted as a woman in her late 40's and whilst I never saw that as an incorrect manner to portray her, I thought that maybe have someone a bit younger, not too young but I'll explain my reasons. Anyway my pick for Siobhan is Joanna Page.

 

Image courtesy of www.thesun.co.uk

For those of you outside the UK who most likely won't know Joanna Page, her biggest role in an international movie role is probably in Love Actually as Martin Freeman's co-star in a movie in which they are performing sex scenes together. But her biggest role came in the form of one half of the titular characters in Gavin & Stacey, where Page portrays a very bubbly and lovely Stacey, who engages in a long distance relationship with Mathew Horne's Gavin.

I put some incredible thought into this because I actually was under the supervision of a support assistant named Sam for my three years in college. What I loved about working with Sam was that she was the first support assistant I had that embraced my quirks and made me feel at ease whilst getting me to focus as well, she knew when and when not to enforce anything onto me and as a result, I learned more and I benefitted a lot from being under her supervision.

She's probably reading this right now and is on a massive ego trip. I mean that all in good fun.

But Sam was the first person who supervised me who I consider a friend more than a support assistant, because me and her would often talk about movies, racing, video games, current events, everything. Because she was a lot closer to my generation, she and I could relate to a lot of things whilst also still being older enough to offer advice. This is why I have picked Joanna Page to play Siobhan.

Rather than being a figure of authority, having a support assistant in this scenario seeming more like a friend offers a much more interesting dynamic between them, and being closer in age only solidifies that. Plus also, Joanna Page being mostly famous for her role as a very warming and lovely individual, plays more into being the supportive and helpful hand that Siobhan plays for Christopher.

For the next character, we have Roger Shears, described as "Evil" by Ed, he left his wife prior to the story beginning. After seeing the stage show, I concluded that the person that plays him have a smooth but intense presence, an unsettling charisma and yet again, I have overused this word a lot now, subtlety. (Here's an idea, take a shot every time you see me use subtle or a variant of the word. You'll be knocked out cold long before you finish this post)

So for this role, I considered a lot of actors but the person I have gone with is Andrew Scott.

Image courtesy of www.walesonline.co.uk

We all know Scott for his role in BBC's Sherlock as Moriarty, which he does an incredible job at with his very funny quirks and plots to mess with people. My idea to cast him as Roger was sparked when seeing him in the latest Bond film Spectre, where he played Max Denbigh, a member of British parliament who is secretly an undercover member of the titular organisation.

 

Hopefully what I am about to say doesn't offend Andrew Scott, it's a more a credit to his acting ability but he has a very unsettling presence whilst also again, not seeming larger than life. Which given that I just said how over the top he is in Sherlock, is also a real credit to his acting ability.

 

Plus also, it would be a noteworthy fact to put on the trivia page of this movie, Christopher idolises Sherlock Holmes and it is mentioned throughout the story, and both Andrew Scott and another person who I shall get to, have played major characters in a Sherlock Holmes story.

 

Second to last character, Roger's ex-wife Eileen and the owner of Wellington the poodle who is killed at the beginning of the story. This one, I am unsure on because it was never to my knowledge, explicitly stated which race the character is, because in all the versions of the stage show I have seen, Eileen was black.

 

I have had a few people in mind, some black and some white. If the character was always black, I am going to cast a very talented black actress, Carmen Ejogo.

 

Image courtesy of www.twitter.com

First time I came across Ejogo was when she portrayed Loretta King to David Oyelowo's Martin Luther King in Selma. She is also appearing the new Harry Potter spin-off set of movies Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and from what little I have seen of her, I feel she is more than capable of taking on this character.

 

Eileen is constantly in the background and we never really see a lot of interactions with her, only mentioned through the character Ed. We could see more screen time for her depending on how Steve Kloves has written the screenplay, hopefully we can get to see a bit more of Eileen since Carmen Ejogo is such a magnetic presence on screen.

 

Last but not least, the elderly Mrs. Alexander and this pick not only is a casting, it's a reprising of this role. The person I have picked for Mrs. Alexander also played the character in a West End running of the show, and that person is Una Stubbs.

 

Image courtesy of www.allthetests.com



If you lot recognise Stubbs but don't know where from, she's mostly known for her role as the landlady Mrs. Hudson in the BBC Sherlock, now completing the two examples of Sherlock Holmes actors which I stated earlier on in the list.

 

Both of Una Stubbs' stated characters share a friendly and good natured attitude toward our unsociable main character, that being the titular character in BBC's Sherlock and Christopher in Curious Incident. Stubbs' very warming presence puts you at ease, like a very typical elder and since she has already had experience playing the role, it only makes sense.

 

Other major points I'd like to make, I have an idea of who I'd like to see direct the movie, Tom Hooper. Responsible for movies such as The King's Speech, Les Misérables and The Danish Girl, all of which are outstanding, and his directing style teamed with a script written by Steve Kloves could make for the same thing, or dare I say, will!

I even have an idea of who could score the film, I loved the soundtrack on The Martian and that was composed by Harry Gregson-Williams so I reckon he should do the score for the film. Maybe even an original song, by Birdy? Her songs are so emotionally riveting that I reckon it would make a great fit for Curious Incident.

Now for perhaps a compromise; Curious Incident will never make a hell of a lot of money, and WB are in a bit of a state after Batman V Superman underperformed so what I was thinking the following. I always wanted Working Title and Studiocanal to make the film since they have a way of making these films, and I know for a fact that WB have a great working relationship with these two studios.

Just last year, Warner Bros had a gangster film and WT/SC had a gangster film, and they were Black Mass with Johnny Depp and Legend with Tom Hardy respectively. This could be pure coincidence, I am not speaking on their behalf but both movies opened up in separate regions at the same time, with Black Mass making its US debut in the same month Legend was released in the UK, and vice versa.

Another example being when Working Title and Studiocanal financed and produced the Zac Efron-led film We Are Your Friends, Warner Bros distributed the film so what I am proposing is the following. Working Title and Studiocanal make the film, Warner Brothers distribute it.

So that's finally all I can say about these proposals I have for Curious Incident. Now I know fine well, I'm naïve as can be but I'm aware enough to know that movies are made to make money, I mean now that Pokémon Go has taken over the world, only now do movie companies really want to make a live action Pokémon movie.

This is where you all come in. If you personally want this to happen, we need to spread this as much as possible. I don't want the fame from this, I just want to see this movie happen because I reckon there is a lot that can be done here. But Curious Incident is not trending right now, this can change that.

Now to what I want to express to you all. My name is Luca and I have no power, I'm merely an atom of an atom in this world of many particles, but individually we may be weak, together we can be strong.

You lot deserve a voice. I remember in secondary school, I was asked "What do you want to do for your career" and at the time, I said "Car designer!" (Not my dream anymore) and then that was followed up by "Okay well you need to do something proper, what about working in a clothes shop?". I am not pulling your leg! I was told to stop thinking big and start thinking realistic, well to that I say, fuck all of it.

I may not have some kind of degree that gives me permission to do something that I could not do otherwise. I may just be some loser who wears the colour red and only leaves his house normally to collect food. I may not have the influence to decide for others. But that is not going to stop me no matter how ridiculous it may get and it should not stop you either.

If you have a dream, do not ever stop. Don't be discouraged, do not let anybody tell you it cannot be done.

I've just realised I sound like one of those Tumblr people with those black and white photos of post-it notes saying "Do not kill yourself. Not today, tomorrow or ever". Wow! Thank you. I had a shotgun between my teeth right this second, but now that I have seen this... I am going to do it anyway just to piss you off! (Joke credit to 'A Kind Ale War' on YouTube)

All jokes aside, I can only hope enough people get this going. I know I'm going to get people telling me I'm pathetic, and I've always discouraged myself from doing this before because "Why would they listen to me? Yeah, I've got a blog, therefore you should hire me even though someone's grandmother has a gardening blog".

Never give up everyone. Thank you so much for reading and again, I reiterate, if you personally care for this, spread it like wildfire and maybe the correct people will sit up and take notice.

So now it is about half past 2, and it's July 16th 2016. Don't worry, I took breaks from writing this, but all the time I was thinking, what to write next. I'm glancing outside my window and it's glorious outside, I'm hungry and I've just been watching one of my favourite YouTube gamers Broughy1322, and I'm nervous to see what comes of this.

I bid you farewell, so until we meet again, thank you all of you.
Luca

What is a voice with no power? (Part 1: FIA F3 Europe)

Image courtesy of www.editthumbs.com

 

Hello, you. The name is Luca, but you can call me Luca and, I have no power.

 

I obviously have some of course, and I feel extremely entitled saying it so bluntly as that. I don't like to complain about my life so much because I have it really good, I have a very supportive and loving family and I always remind myself how lucky I am. Some people have no family, or a divided family, some even have a family that rejects them, and so many other aspects of people's lives that I will be better off with.

 

So that's why I never want to appear ungrateful, I appreciate so much in my life and feel bad if I feel like I have been dealt a bad hand and feel the need to complain, I don't take for granted what I have in life. So with this article, I am not looking to complain at all, I am just wanting to express my experiences with a particular situation I was involved in a few years ago, and even though I had the correct ideas, my lack of power meant nothing ever happened.

 

Back in 2013, the FIA European Formula Three championship had just entered its first proper season as its own championship after the FIA had taken over and was going from strength to strength. It had originally stemmed from the F3 Euroseries, launched back in 2003 after the efforts of the German and French F3 championships merged together and it had since then ran alongside the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, Germany's leading racing championship.

When the FIA took over the championship, I could see potential to take this championship to the next level. To distance it from being a by-product of the DTM and instead, support many other championships to take advantage of the European F1 circuits that the junior racing drivers that take part in F3, would go to if their aim is to get to F1.

To achieve this, I got in touch with someone whose identity I am refraining from telling you. He worked closely in the DTM and European F3 field, and he agreed that since the FIA had taken over the Euro F3, it would be best to move away from primarily supporting the DTM. Infact the Euro F3 has been doing that steadily since 2013, but never completely in the direction it honestly should have.

The DTM championship tends to use shorter variants of circuits, according to another friend whose identity I will withhold also who is a racing driver and has driven in European F3, his exact words in an email to me are as follows:

"This is a very interesting point that you make and I think very well timed.

Honestly my thoughts when doing the Euro Series was why on earth did we race on such short versions of all the circuits. As you say in my opinion it is stupid having the likes of Brands Indy, short Nürburgring, short Barcelona, short Hockenheim on the calendar and there were even talks of using the short version at Zandvoort!

As it is now the FIA series then it would be an ideal time to distance itself from DTM and focus on the relevant tracks with full layouts.

It is far more productive to spend your time driving high spec F3 cars on full grand prix circuits rather than mickey mouse track layouts."

 

So onto my idea, it was basically a schedule that visited the circuits on the F1 calendar supporting multiple championships. It was heavily reliant on other championships visiting that circuit, so initially when I planned this back in 2013 for the following year, I assumed the World Touring Cars would run at Monza and they didn't.

This schedule I had planned for the European F3 included Monza, Silverstone, the Hungaroring, the Grand Prix de Pau, Monaco, the Red Bull Ring, Spa-Francorchamps, the Nürburgring, Zandvoort and Hockenheim. Though the fact that at the time, I had the idea to have Euro F3 run alongside the Blancpain Endurance Series rounds at Spa and the Nürburgring but that's a story for another day.

My idea was that Formula Three go to Silverstone, Spa and the Nürburgring supporting the World Endurance Championship, Monaco supporting F1 and Zandvoort, Red Bull Ring and Hockenheim supporting the DTM.

Anyway so now I've probably spent too much time explaining the full idea to you. My friend who had close ties with DTM and Euro F3 gave me the email address to a superior within the FIA European F3 heads at the time, and I emailed him proposing this idea but he never got back to me.

I'm not unreasonable, I believe I'm not anyway. I know some things in the schedule I had planned may have needed some fine tuning, I know for a fact that Pau and Monaco being back-to-back with the Grand Prix de Pau taking place the Monday before the Monaco Grand Prix, giving the teams two days to travel from the North to the South of France, minus repairs etc.

Nonetheless, the concept was there. Think of my old ideas as something big and out of this world, then as time went on, watered down to something grounded in realism in time but the main idea was there. However, even with my racing driver friend and the other guy who worked closely in the DTM and Euro F3 field supporting me, seeing my points, the Euro F3 bosses have not listened and instead had the opening round of this year's schedule at the piece of shit track that is Paul Ricard.

This isn't a matter of my ideas not being good enough, I understand again that they'd need refining, it was more of the fact that I did not have the power. I was not looking for money in this matter, I was wanting to see the European F3 to become an incredible force and it is still, incredibly underwhelming. Perhaps because the national Formula Three championships had to fold because Euro F3 became so accessible.

I've decided to split this particular post into two, this took so bloody long to write and I have not got to my main point. I have other instances where I have tried to propose some stuff, but I'll touch on that briefly in my next post. However my next post will mainly centre on a big upcoming actor, an adaptation of a best selling book and a major movie studio, which if you personally would care about, help spread the word and I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you all for checking out my post. I want to hear your thoughts on this, not that a lot of you would know everything so I hope I've done all I can to help you all understand where I am coming from.

Also, I reiterate that I will complete this with my second post, which I will get to work on immediately. However, GTA Online is getting an update on Tuesday and I'll probably end up playing the living crap out of it, but this means a lot to me too so I'll be pouring my heart into the next post.

If you're new here, you can get every new post sent directly to your email if you care to see my future posts. Or you can follow me on Twitter @TheLucaFormat and you will see me forcing it onto your feed like one desperate for attention shithead.

Alright! I'm leaving it off here. See you peoples soon.

So until we meet again,
Luca.