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Time in a bottle

Weird idea, while drifting off to sleep:

A Lexicon of Lost Hollywood. Each entry is a movie review of a movie that was never made; each movie review must refer forward and back to other movies. You can make up actors and directors and screenwriters if you like, but they cannot be entries: they will always be defined only by the reviews of their movies. Or, if you wish, you can use the stars that we know.

The slots are not alphabetical: they are chronological. 1940-1945; 1945-1950; 1950-1955; 1955-1960; 1960-1965; 1965-1970; 1970-1975; 1975-1980; 1980-1985; 1985-1990; 1990-1995; 1995-2000. 12 slots. The secret history of Hollywood (and Bollywood, and the BBC, and Hong Kong) is revealed slowly as the needle of time moves forward.

4 Comments

  1. I like this. I’ll work on my entry today instead of listening to the pastor’s sermon.

    I assume you mean totally invented movies. Or do almost real movies count, like Casablanca if Ronald Reagan had stayed in the original cast, or the version of The Man Who Would Be King John Huston wanted to make in the 40s with Humphrey Bogart and Clark Gable, or The Wizard of Oz with Shirley Temple and W.C. Fields?

  2. Hm. I was thinking totally invented movies, yes — as if there was a shadow Hollywood lurking behind the real one, not overlapping. Although man, now I want to see that Wizard of Oz.

  3. Very cool idea, Bryant. If you start this up, let me know.

  4. Nick Wedig Nick Wedig

    I had the same idea the other day, when thinking of cool settings to propose to my roleplayin group in conjunction with Lexicon. I’d imagine you could include phantoms in the film description by citing other movies by the same director or star and pointing out inspirations and remakes of films.

    I think that would make for an entertaining game.

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