Lusitania The Movie

[Chris Nicholson]

One idea I have had for a Lucy movie. It could be a sequal to Titanic.Paxton's charachter has quit the salvage buisness and become a ship historian who has become famous for printing Rose's story. He is married to rose's grandaughter now. She is starting to get peeved at him because he is starting to let the money he has made on other peoples sorrow start to get to him. She feels that the only way to really get him to remember the feeling he felt after hearing the Titanic story is to show him another one of rose's stories. She gives him her grandmother's journal and he begins to read. Rose reads in the paper that her mom who has moved to England with her new husband is dieing. Rose doesn't want to let her mom think that her daughter died before her and plus Rose wants to see her mom one last time before she dies so she decides to take the Lucy to England. On the ship she meets a Mr. Calvert who she is shy to at first because after the whole Jack thing she is scared to love, but eventually she warms up to him and they fall in love. They obviously will encounter some trouble during the sinking, but this time it ends happily sor of because they both survive and plus rose gets to see her mom at the end and have a talk to her about the Titanic. They bond and really have a mother daughter moment before she dies. At the end Rose and her boyfriend go back to America on the Olympic which stirs up some memories SHe is wondering if she is doing the right thing dating him after Jack but after awile she goesa to contomplate it on the focastle deck Calvert finds her and asks her to marry him. They kiss on the prow as the ship steams into New York. What do you think?

 

[Nick Rose]

Its interesting!
Get Cameron on the phone!
Could Rose maybee stay in Europe and enlist in hospital ship service and Cameron can tell the Britannic story right too.

 

[miles]

What sets the Titanic apart from the Lusitania.

A) It was her FIRST trip ( Lusitania had been around for years)

B) Not only was it her first trip BUT she was the LARGEST liner in the world. ( Lusistania did not sink on her maiden voyage and was not the largest liner in the world when she sank )

C) Not only dose the largest liner in the world sink on it's first voyage but it is claimed to be UNSINKABLE !!!!


D) If all that was not enough the story gets even more incredible with the so called unsinkable, largest ship in the world, sinking on her maiden voyage -- THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH LIFE BOATS for everyone onboard !!!!

E) The band plays on while it's sinking ?!?!?

F) All the claims about third class being locked below decks.

G) It took longer for the Titanic to sink…. 2 and half hours !!!! And the way she sank breaking in two and her stern rising into the air…….It was over very quick with the Lusitania — was not even night.

The Titanic is like a classic Greek legend. Saying god could not sink this ship. It's like the Titans callenging god.

Anyway I am interested in the Lusitania but it just dose not have what the Titanic has. She was not lost for 73 years hence all the legend that had grown up during that time....... Was like looking for Big Foot, or Noahs Ark !!! We always knew where Lusitania was......

And lastly..... Titanic was big stuff long before the film. Yes the film brought it to front of peoples minds more. But the whole Titanic legend was already there to a huge extent long before the film........

 

[miles]

Those are just a few things that set the Titanic apart from the Lusitania....

 

[miles]

Not sure who wrote what was below BUT the Titanic legend started almost right away. When people were trying to peal the names off her life boats shortly after the sinking... The story of the Unsinkable ship sinking on her first trip was there well before films like A Night to Remember and the discovery of the wreck being found in 1987. The stories about the band playing when she was going down etc were already legend - nothing to do with timing and film releases !!!!

Titanic is past, present and future

If anything the Lusitania's fame has only benefited from the Titanic and there is interest in her much more because of the Titanic .... But there are a whole chain of things that happened to the Titanic that make the story like that of a classic Greek legend. The Lusitania dose not have the same romance of the band playing, it being her first trip, not enough life boats, the largest ship in the world, the classes.. So much more happens in 2 and a half hours than the 30 min’s it took for the Lusitania to sink.

If it were not for the Titanic there would not be as many documentaries on T.V about the Lusitania and nor would they have made a film about the Titanic's sister ship Britannic....






*I think two factors come into play with the Titanic, one being Walter Lord's seminal work on the subject and the hit movie that was made out of it shortly thereafter. Good book + good movie + Great timing = a legend being born. The whole thing took on a life of it's own after that, and was no doubt boosted by the discovery of the wreck back in 1985. Cameron's successful film didn't hurt either.*

 

[Sean Hankins]

Chris,

I like it! Chances are if someone does make a Lusitania film they would probably use some fictional characters. Why not use one so well known to get the audiences attention.

And the part about them sailing back to America on Olympic.....Nice!!

 

[Harold W. Taylor]

I was approached by two Irish movie producers some years ago (around 1986), who were interested in making a movie of the "Lusy". They had found out my mother and father were on their honeymoon when the ship was torpedoed. they were separated for three days, neither knowing if the other were alive. Apparently the project was scrapped.

 

[Harold W. Taylor]

I was approached by two Irish movie producers a few years ago about making a movie of the "Lusy". At that time they stated they had researched the project extensivly and were very interested. They had found references to my mother and father, who were on their honeymoon, when the ship was torpedoed. They were seperated for three days neither knowing if the other were alive. They wanted to use this theme in the movie. Apparently the project feel through.

 

[Mike Poirier]

Hi Wes
Haven't heard from you in awhile. I still have that other thing on your parents if interested.
Mike
[email protected]

 

[Daniel Dieter Abt]

I read an abridged version of a novel about the Lusitania and thought it would/could lead to a very good treatment for a Lusitania movie. The cost of such a film, would be, just as it was with Cameron's "Titanic", astounding. Be that as it may the right treatment is the key. I would have been, in retrospect, much happier with an updated "Night to Remember". I have to admit that I had told my associates that I was worried about Cameron's record and that I was worried to see a big budget flop about Titanic. I toured the set and was pleased to see the extent to which everything was so faithfully being reproduced. That for the most part the reality of the ship and events was of great importance to the film makers. But I worried all the way back to Los Angeles about the finished work. When we got back to the studio and saw the first trailer..we all cheered. We did not cheer because we could see that it was accurate, we cheered because we knew it would be a success. We did not want the story to become a joke because the movie would sink faster than the ship. Of course, the jokes were none the less soon to follow. Be that as it may, the film did increase awareness of the story and induced a study of the facts. A story, a future film about the Lusitania, would do well to accomplish as much. I see much more suspense in a film about the Lusitania. The possibilities for intrigue, the playing out of the much conjectured conspiracies, would do much to add to a sense of suspence. The ending would be so much more disturbing and indeed more violent. Eighteen minutes that, despite being played out in more than thirty or more, would be exponentially more disturbing than Titanic's, perhaps, more elegant demise. And instead of the mere a more innocent and misdirected faith in just technology, a Lusitania film would have us address the vulgarity and wastefulness of war. A very timely message in 2005 than we may have any other example nautical history, outside of the Wilhelm Gustloff. The common theme that any Titanic historian has probably asked more than once, would be, "Have we learned nothing from history?" Tonight I read a cruise review, a day by day account from a passenger aboard an early Queen Mary 2 voyage. The author relates how there was a rumor on board that the ship was being shadowed by two U.K. submarines. How sad will that be, if this, someday becomes yet another footnote to history?

 

[Tarn Stephanos]

Lusitania does not have the same appeal as Titanic.
Lucy was a casualty of war- she was a lovely ship, but she was no Mauritania....
And Lusitania was no Titanic- Lucy was to Titanic what the Yugo was to Bentley...

A made for tv film would be best-


regards


Tarn Stephanos

 

[Mike Poirier]

Hi Tarn-
I think if you do some further reading on Lusitania, you will find that there were quite a few interesting stories and personalities aboard the Lusitania. Perhaps if you look at some of the older threads were Jim put some bios up, you'll get a different take. I tend to think of the Lusitania as the Packard myself.
Mike

 

[Jim Kalafus]

>Lucy was to Titanic what the Yugo was to Bentley

Well....a poor analogy, unless at some point there was a Yugo which established a speed record. Lusitania had consistently high passenger loads, which cannot be said about Yugo in terms of sales. In terms of style, Lusitania had the distinction of entirely original interior designs (in the public rooms at least)which set her apart from the Mauretania whereas Titanic was a warmed over Olympic with a few extra flourishes....Lusitania was, I guess, more akin to the love-it-or-hate-it Bentley, while Titanic was closer in spirit to the Edsel which, as you know, was basically a High End Ford or Low End Mercury with some extra, and superflous, glitter thrown on. Perhaps, to be kinder, the Titanic possessed all the beautiful mediocrity of the 1930 Cord which, although stunning (to some) to look at, was mechanically "just there" and was the rare "workmanlike" luxury car: the Classic Era equivalent of a 1953 Cadillac sporting the propulsion system of a 1953 non-Healey Nash.

 

[Tarn Stephanos]

Hi Jim and Michael!
Its great to know there are fellow titanic buffs who are also classic car buffs, and Jim, you certianly know your cars.

So perhaps Lusitania was to Titanic what the Frasier was to the Pierce/Arrow.

Or perhaps Lusitania was to titanic what the Cord was to the Duesenberg.

Both ships were lovely though, and Lauriat's Lusitania book is as good as Beesley or Gracie's Titanic books...

regards


Tarn Stephanos

 

[Eric Longo]

Hi All,
I for one would be happy to be Cinematographer on such a project - the thing sinks in DAYLIGHT for goodness sake; what an opportunity for great film-making. And as noted, even if depicted in real time - it would be SO violent against Titanic's comparatively slow death - truly horrific. Think what shots could be composed! And such distance shots too. The Henderson family who watched it sink while on a picnic - what scenes could be worked out - contrasting the violence and confusion onboard with the relative calm of the view from near Kinsale. I would make a list of everything done (and everything done wrong) in Cameron's movie, and some from other films, and then "steer clear" of those things. That the story is so unlike Titanic - I think that is one of the strongest things it has going for it.