CGI is amazing sometimes. Here is a short one of some Spitfires and Mosquitoes by a Japanese artist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1RV4O9vUqU

It certainly diminished the incentive to resurrect the real items when you can produce computer animation that is good enough to do the job.

PC

No doubt, but it does provide the opportunity to reproduce scenes (and locomotives) that would otherwise be impossible.

CGI is not a cure-all, though.

The building I work in has a marketing company in it; its owner is a big fan of Tony Scott (and Denziel Washington, he thinks "Unstoppable" looks like a great flick based on the director, the cast, and the trailer). One of the things he likes about Tony Scott (director, "Top Gun" and the recent remake of "The Taking of Pelham 123") and his brother, Ripley Scott (director of "Aliens" and "The Duelists") is that they are like him in that they run a company that mostly makes commercials, and they use that money and experience to make a couple of movies a year (which he is looking to break into as well).

I have had the chance to speak with him about my proposed TV series based on the adventures of railroaders on the job (12 episodes written, enough material overall for 40 episodes, but no sales--phooey!), and the subject of animation and models came up. He said that computer animation could be quite impressive (think of the extended back story in the latest version of "King Kong," which is essentially the first 45 minutes of so of the movie, recreating New York of 1933), but that it was also still quite expensive (almost as much as shooting with special effects and live action). He commented that models were the cheapest way to go with something like this, and that can still be impressive, too, if you think about films such as "The Greatest Show On Earth" (directed by Cecil B. DeMille, 1952), and for that matter all the "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" flicks.

The technology isn't the problem, though, and neither is CSX (my series was based on an unnamed railroad with town names, terrain, a hotel, and equipment that looked a lot like the C&O). The real problem is with the Hollywood establishment that may or may not think this can make money. Most of them won't think so, or they'll think they have to jazz it up with "Perils of Pauline" or "Hazards of Helen" material (which makes up much of "Unstoppable," which includes chemicals, a derailment, a big explosion, and a passenger train), or other material that wouldn't be of a family nature (what I call "nudie cuties").

The whole thing would probably have to be made outside the studio system, and somehow be done cheaply to boot. And, most importantly, you would have to have a story that captures the interest of the general public; that's where your ticket sales and rental revenue will come from.

P.S., re: "Unstoppable:" Recently found out that the derailment scenes were done with full-size SD-40-2 replicas built of fiberglass! Power was from a truck engine, and the units were operated by a stunt driver. Derailment was performed on cue with a hydraulic ram. Less expensive that wrecking full scale engines, and also a form of insurance if the shot doesn't come out (easier to repair the replicas for another take).

Maybe it's not quite what you're thinking of, but...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM-0Ywc7wNY

I can think of a number of examples of that happening within new media.

1. Fan-produced sci-fi, starting with the wonderful Star Wars parody "Troops".
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea ... id=3127723
(Troops was made over 10 years ago.) The studios tolerate this if no fans make money off it. Some productions have the original actors (Star Trek especially); some are even SAG. A lot is being made and some is quite excellent. (not that the studios were setting a particularly high bar, if you recall the last couple of Star Trek series.) The Firefly fans have only gotten started.

2. Then there's original work in niche areas. You wouldn't think a sitcom based on addicted World of Warcraft gamers could be successful. But golly, last week they made a spinoff music video called "Game On"...
http://community.livejournal.com/ohnoth ... 49021.html
For awhile it OUTSOLD KATY PERRY on iTunes.

3. Then there's all this niche stuff done by the mainstream or at the edge of the mainstream. Stuff like "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" which Joss Whedon (Buffy, Firefly) did during the writer's strike. You can walk into Target and buy an HD camera, and into the Apple Store for a copy of Final Cut. Need CGI? That's available too.

I definitely see it as possible. Mostly it's believing it's so. And finding a viable location for some of the shoots. IRM seems a logical place.

You made my day--never thought I'd live to see a h/t to Dr. Horrible on RyPN!

That essentially is a major problem with the Hollywood system--and it's not confined to railroad-themed films either. Cutthroat Island in 1997 basically killed the pirate movie for many years as studio executives decided people were not interested in pirate movies anymore, despite some success stories in years past. The fact that the movie, while looking very nice, just wasn't a good script and turned into a bad movie. This didn't matter, and it took the success of Pirates of the Caribbean for another pirate movie to be considered.

Same thing happened when the script for Back to the Future was floating around. The raunchy teen comedies were the big thing at the time, and no studio was willing to make a "nice" film. In desperation, they took it to Disney, who understandably rejected it for the mom-developing-a-crush-on-her-own-son premise. It took director Robert Zemekis' success with Romancing the Stone and the involvement of Steven Spielberg to get the film greenlit. We all know how that turned out.

My general theory is that if you have the right script, get the right director/crew/cast and a workable budget, anything can be successful, providing the studio can figure out how to market the film/series--which is far from a given.

As far as railroading goes, an adaption of Clive Cussler's The Wrecker would be pretty impressive if it could be done. That's about as close to Emperor of the North as you could get. It wouldn't be cheap, and filming locations might be hard to find. Getting a studio to agree on it would probably involve getting a big name to sign on.

As far as railroading goes, an adaption of Clive Cussler's The Wrecker would be pretty impressive if it could be done.

I also like Clive Cussler's Night Probe. That would be fun.

How about a "reality" show based on Cussler's Sea Hunters books of true sunken shiop searches? One included a lost locomotive in a river that wasn't........

dave

Fiberglass? As far as I know, "Unstoppable" wrecked gutted "real" locomotives. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM4WrlFm0d4 I doubt fiberglass could withstand the abuse (derailment, roll over, explosion, fire, etc.)

I think you might be confusing "Unstoppable" with "Inception"?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmkQ7fw-l0g (at :39)

That is a 3/4 size fiberglass locomotive mounted on a truck body.

Well, you could be right. What I was doing was repeating what turned up on some other forum, supposedly from a fellow who was at the derailment filming scene.

A link to the story of the original incident, which also has sub-links, one of which is to the official report.

http://kohlin.com/CSX8888/index.htm

Commentary: It's my understanding that CSX crews have taken to calling the 8888 the "Crazy Eights." In this vein, I can imagine the "employees" of the ficticious A&WV later (sarcastically) calling the 777 "Lucky Sevens."

The "prop" engines"--interesting to note they are connected with a drawbar of some kind, and there is some weird device sticking out of one of them, an antennae of some sort?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXOuyM8H ... re=related

Shooting the scene in which the pipes fall off the flatcar. This is on the approach to the former B&O bridge between Benwood, W.Va. and Bellaire, Oh.; we are on the Ohio side. If you compare this shot with what is in the trailer, there are more industrial structures in the finished shot, no doubt added digitally.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMz2cWQz ... re=related

The trailer, located here for handy comparison:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FxWZE8GQ-U

What the devil do they have Washington doing?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCdp5kBv ... re=related

Just moving a locomotive around:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BtoLRoD ... re=related

News footage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXcBJrL7 ... re=related

Slide show, including shots at the wye and interchange (former "old" W&LE and PRR) in Dillonvale, Oh.; note that the movie crew had two sets of identical GEs, with the swame numbers. And I apologize for the soundtrack; there's no accounting for the taste some people have:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7c8vO1m ... re=related

Bah, which is worse for Perilium Paulinia, the movie, or this announcer?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apsKBo8- ... re=related

News footage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vN6jX4S8v8&NR=1

Hot brakes (supposedly):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWVAUTo6 ... re=related

Ohio River bridge:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaY0-n6e ... re=related

A hint as to how the derailment scene will fit in the plot?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfwPeJYl ... re=related

Looks like one of the copies of the 1206 was gutted as a rolling set:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXdKYahp ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk_aHM6I ... re=related

Stunt rigging, no doubt to be removed digitally:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3nx5rqP ... re=related

Enjoy.

While on the subject of potential adaptations, what would you nominate besides Cussler's "The Wrecker?"

My nominees would include "The General Manager's Story," by Herbert Hamblin. Much of my series proposal came from this book published in 1898--a novel in autobiographical style, in which, as one commentaror noted, the "cloak of truth fits uncomfortably tightly." My own impression was that Hamblen had his 19th century railroading down cold--and well he should have, as he had been in engine service for 16 years before becoming a writer.

Another nominee would be "One Way to Eldorado," by the late Holister Noble. This would be Noble's last book, published in 1954 (he would die by his own hand, while battling what would prove to be false charges of plagiarism). At its most basic level, one could say it's "The Great Train Robbery of 1954." Has a lot of wonderful description, however, as we ride with the characters on a ficticious Great Western that has a lot of SP's route over Donner, including cab-forwards and a summit station under a gigantic snow shed. Perils of Pauline/Hazards of Helen elements include avalanches that destroy a cab-forward, a blizzard, gangsters, a gold shipment, a runaway passenger train and ensuing derailment, the aforementioned train robbery, and a gun battle in the hollowed out remains of the Comstock Lode. Lots of colorful characters, too; favorite piece of dialogue has the narrator calling the line's top diesel streamliner "The Burp." Thought the ending a bit disappointing, though.

My proposed series also borrowed a bit from Edward Custer's "No Royal Road."

Any other suggestions? I lean toward the classic era myself, but contemporary may be considered too, including one book some people have thought highly of, "Railroad Noir," although I'm not certain that one would be what I would call "family friendly."

I remember a novel I read, probably 40 years ago in Jr. high, called The Long Trains Roll, set during WWII, pretty transparently on the PRR. It dealt with a Nazi sabotage plot of a Horseshoe Curve type of place. Since, in-fact, there were Nazi saboteurs landed by sub in the NY area near the beginning of the war, and hanged as spies, this was a "ripped-from-the-headlines" story. MIght make for an Indiana Jones type of wild ride film.

About the CSX 8888 thing, yeah "Crazy Eights" was one nick-name for it, "Lil' Runaway" another.

My understanding about the "mirror-image" numbered locos on Unstoppable is that that was done so that they wouldn't have to turn the train to shoot going in the other direction. My guess is that in the finished movie you will never see the rear end of the train. If you were to look at the car consist, you'd see that the cars were the same from end to middle on either end. Rather ingenious, actually.

At one time I entertained the idea of writing a movie with a railroad theme, mostly as a vehicle to bring a bunch of big excursion steam locos together. Set in the active fan-trip era of the late '80's/early 90's, the idea was that some big-time drug dealer was using a NS steam program or Chessie Safety Express series of excursions to secretly move a big shipment. Call it Steam, Steel and Snow (or Blow). It would have allowed for a variety of some of the larger than life characters in the preservation/fan scene to be portrayed. Non-insiders would probably have called the characters "totally unrealistic", but those of us here would know better, eh?

J3a-614, if you ever need a critique of, or technical consultant for your work, let me know. I have 23 years of Class I experience, both passenger and freight, OBS and T&E, as well as over 40 years in the hobby dealing with all kinds of characters! (Some would say I are one <g>!)

I'm surprised no one mentioned this one, even though a movie is reported to be in the works after several decades' delay: Atlas Shrugged. But then I've never seen this book mentioned in any rail preservationists' or railfans' medium, maybe because no one thinks of it as a railroad story, although the lead character was conceived during a cab ride in the Twentieth Century Limited. If the movie appears, I'll be interested in seeing whether its makers re-create the railroad-based world of the 1940's that was already history when the book was published, or move the thing into the present to try to make it comprehensible.

Aarne Frobom
Tunnel City, Michigan