10,000 BC - the screenplay

I will do a summing up post once I am done going through the screenplays, but I recently read this one, and I want to talk about it now.

I  haven't seen the movie, but I had heard things about it that weren't at all encouraging. I thought it made sense when I got to title page. In addition to the original two writers, it showed three rounds of revisions, for a total of five hands on the script. (That version at least.)

Upon starting to read, it made less sense, because actually the screenplay didn't seem that bad. It wasn't anything extraordinary, but it wasn't horrible. I did feel like the mammoth hunting techniques and the carved beads shows some Ice Age influence, which based on the time lines was certainly possible, but that's not necessarily bad.

I thought perhaps the problem with the final product had been special effects or something, until I got to around page 40 and the Terror Birds appeared. There was a sudden change in tone and realism. It appeared there was a conscious attempt to punch up the action, and it felt patchwork-y, but okay, the different revisions and writers totally made sense at that point.

After that, there was a kind of a return to normal. Some of the emotional exposition was a little clunky perhaps, but it felt like it was back to the type of writing the first 40 pages had, until we got to the pyramids.

Now, I do think I remember someone complaining that it was about 8000 years too soon for the pyramids, but actually that's okay, because they weren't those pyramids. I mean, yes, they are in the same general area, and built in the same configuration, but the end of the screenplay shows them being swallowed up by the desert, so it's not those pyramids. Obviously, someone just had the same idea later.

While it might seem like that doesn't make sense, because the pyramids were being built as a way to get the alien ruler back to his home planet, that clearly can't have been the real purpose since the ruler was later revealed to merely be a human in disguise, and not actually an alien, so it all makes sense.

No, that makes no sense at all. That section felt a little patchy too, actually.

You can see how it starts with a feeling that the movie is not enough. It's not exciting enough, or revolutionary enough. It will not draw enough viewers. It will not make enough money. (Maybe more that last part.) Trying to fix that does not automatically give you a better movie.

It might make you more money though. This one did not seem to earn back it's budget domestically, but it came close enough that foreign box office probably put it over the top.

It does seem possible that the original screenwriters would be disappointed with how the end result compared to their artistic vision, but one of them was Roland Emmerich, who was also the director. The other, Harold Kloser, has collaborated with Emmerich on multiple projects, including 2012 and White House Down, so maybe he's good with it.