Author Topic: New Nicholas & Alexandra Video - Mini Series? Part I  (Read 221119 times)

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Offline TimM

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New Nicholas & Alexandra Video - Mini Series? Part I
« on: March 22, 2012, 11:55:39 AM »
Who thinks that N&A would make a good television mini-series?  That way, they would not have to condense so much into just a few hours.
« Last Edit: January 10, 2013, 08:51:55 AM by Alixz »
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Robert_Hall

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Re: New Nicholas & Alexandra Video - Mini Series?
« Reply #1 on: March 22, 2012, 12:30:44 PM »
Good idea Tim, as long as it was Masterpiece quality. Not just another soap opera. Think Downton Abbey.

Offline edubs31

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Re: New Nicholas & Alexandra Video - Mini Series?
« Reply #2 on: March 22, 2012, 12:31:53 PM »
Who thinks that N&A would make a good television mini-series?  That way, they would not have to condense so much into just a few hours.

I agree and commented on this in the "Actors in what Roles, etc" thread. I'm thinking something along the lines of a six part (six hour) mini-series. It wouldn't need to be strictly in debt to Massie's book either. Just call it "The Romanovs" and start with the death of Alexander III, and Nicholas' ascension to the throne, up through the events of 1917/18.

You're a writer Tim...come up with a working script to pitch! You'll have plenty of time of too because I'd think a network like HBO, BBC or Showtime would want to tie it in with the hundredth anniversary of the Romanov murders in 2018.
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Offline Kalafrana

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Re: New Nicholas & Alexandra Video - Mini Series?
« Reply #3 on: March 22, 2012, 01:00:12 PM »
They would certainly make a good mini series.

Count me in for the writing.

Offline edubs31

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Re: New Nicholas & Alexandra Video - Mini Series?
« Reply #4 on: March 22, 2012, 01:27:05 PM »
They would certainly make a good mini series.

Count me in for the writing.

Terrific Ann! :-)

Re-posting this from the other thread, my outline for the basic structure...

Hour 1 (1894-1895) - Nicholas and Alix are engaged, Alexander III dies, Nicholas assumes the throne, the wedding, and Olga is born.
Hour 2 (1896-1903) - Nicholas' coronation and the Khondynka incident, the exhibition,  Hague Peace Conference & births of TMA.
Hour 3 (1904-1906) - Russo-Japanese War, birth of Alexei, pogroms against the Jews, Bloody Sunday, October Manifesto
Hour 4 (1907-1913) - Focus on family life, the Duma, brewing revolution, Sotolypin's assasination, Spala Incident, Enter Rasputin
Hour 5 (1914-1916) - Famous portrait session, World War I, life at the military hospital, Rasputin's murder
Hour 6 (1917-1918) - Bolshevik Revolution, Nicholas' abdication, held captive, Withdraw from WWI, IF murdered, epilogue
Once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right...

Robert_Hall

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Re: New Nicholas & Alexandra Video - Mini Series?
« Reply #5 on: March 22, 2012, 01:36:58 PM »
IMO. I think each episode should be 2 hours.  NO commercials or breaks.  Knowing PBS, they would riddle it with pledge breaks.

Offline edubs31

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Re: New Nicholas & Alexandra Video - Mini Series?
« Reply #6 on: March 22, 2012, 02:02:30 PM »
IMO. I think each episode should be 2 hours.  NO commercials or breaks.  Knowing PBS, they would riddle it with pledge breaks.

Six two hour episodes? Whoa...I mean it sounds great to me...but that's a pretty big commitment for the average viewer. That's like six separate movies about the Romanovs. They might as well make a movie trilogy instead...divide "Nicholas & Alexandra" into two parts and make a third movie on the events that precede Alexei's birth...
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Robert_Hall

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Re: New Nicholas & Alexandra Video - Mini Series?
« Reply #7 on: March 22, 2012, 02:15:55 PM »
It is a niche viewers  market, after all.  2 hours each would attract  those interested. Masterpiece is often 2 hour episodes. This is all conjecture, however.  A highly unlikely project. Who would finance it ?

Jen_94

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Re: New Nicholas & Alexandra Video - Mini Series?
« Reply #8 on: March 22, 2012, 02:38:54 PM »
Terrific idea, I like it very much :) A 2 hour episode would indeed attract those interested. I know I would be hooked!

To Finance it..I do not know.

Rodney_G.

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Re: New Nicholas & Alexandra Video - Mini Series?
« Reply #9 on: March 22, 2012, 03:17:01 PM »
I thought I remembered the "graphic" opening, too. I haven't looked at my VHS in a long time. It was the first movie I bought on VHS and it cost me about $75 at the time. Long before buying movies became popular.

I have the DVD, too, but I know it opens with the red screen sharpening into the lamp. It ends with the red screen as well as the murder room scene ends and we move up into the credits.

I remember thinking, when I saw it in the movies, that it was basically the life of Alexei from his birth to his murder.
Thanks for the confirmation, Alixz. I Do think there was such a 'graphic' opening, though probably only for the VHS format, and conceivably excised even from that, in later editions.

Alixz

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Re: New Nicholas & Alexandra Video - Mini Series?
« Reply #10 on: March 22, 2012, 03:37:34 PM »
You could count me in for the writing as well.

Or at least editing and fact checking.

bestfriendsgirl

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Re: New Nicholas & Alexandra Video - Mini Series?
« Reply #11 on: March 22, 2012, 03:45:26 PM »
Who would finance it ?

Why, me, of course ... when I hit the biggest lottery jackpot in world history!  ;) :D

Robert_Hall

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Re: New Nicholas & Alexandra Video - Mini Series?
« Reply #12 on: March 22, 2012, 04:05:20 PM »
A 12 hour series, accurate to history, would take a lot of collaboration.  Drama, yes. Fantasy no. Attention to detail, especially as a lot is available now in Russia itself  would be paramount. Fact checking would be most important. Production values,  the best, as only BBC can do. Scripts would be  complicated and take several writers. Plus someone to put them all together. This Would cost a fortune !
 I can see the adverts now- the greatest  adventure in history yet. Cast of hundreds, etc.

Jen_94

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Re: New Nicholas & Alexandra Video - Mini Series?
« Reply #13 on: March 22, 2012, 04:21:38 PM »
I am seeing advert for it now too, with the dramatic music and all!

I agree about the fact checking, most definitely. Definitely one of the msot important part of getting a History documentry/series right, in my opinion.

Offline TimM

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Re: New Nicholas & Alexandra Video - Mini Series?
« Reply #14 on: March 22, 2012, 04:25:55 PM »
Quote
A 12 hour series, accurate to history, would take a lot of collaboration.  Drama, yes. Fantasy no. Attention to detail, especially as a lot is available now in Russia itself  would be paramount. Fact checking would be most important. Production values,  the best, as only BBC can do. Scripts would be  complicated and take several writers. Plus someone to put them all together. This Would cost a fortune !
 I can see the adverts now- the greatest  adventure in history yet. Cast of hundreds, etc.

They could actually shoot part of it in Russia (which, for obvious reasons, couldn't be done in 1971).  Go on location in and around St. Petersburg, Tsarskoe Selo, and Livadia (all the palaces from NAOTMAA's time are still there).  Wouldn't be cool to shoot scenes in the actual places where the IF once walked?
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