I understand that movie properties are hard to come by these days, and we’re running out of board games and toys to make movies out of, but I’m a bit hesitant about this growing new trend of plucking figures from history and fictionalizing their lives so they’re more exciting.
This was done to some extent with Guy Ritchie’s SHERLOCK HOLMES (though to be fair, his life was mostly fictional to begin with) and then it was announced a MARCO POLO action-adventure movie was coming. Now who’se next? Why Leonardo Da Vinci of course!
If you’ve played Assassin’s Creed 2, you’ll realize it was enough of a stretch to imagine Da Vinci as a supplier of weapons tech for a secret society of assassins, but now, Warner Bros. wants to make the man himself an action hero, with a story that’s INDIANA JONES meets NATIONAL TREASURE meets well, THE DA VINCI CODE. Heat Vision explains:
“Da Vinci is best known as the painter behind “Mona Lisa” and “The Last Supper,” though he also was an inventor, engineer, architect, mathematician among many other occupations. The project re-imagines Da Vinci as a member of a secret society who falls headlong into a supernatural adventure that pits the man against Biblical demons in a story involving secret codes, lost civilizations, hidden fortresses and fallen angels.”
You know what? I say go for it. A supernatural action adventure set in the 15th century could be pretty cool, and this plot does mean SOMEone will have to write an original story for it, even if the character comes with a bit of backstory already. This actually could turn out to be a lot of fun in the right hands.