Dear Ms. Warner
By now it is
almost common knowledge that the Warner Sisters shingle is developing the
project Return to Casablanca. While
many cinephiles the world over may be cringing at the very thought of a sequel
to one of the most iconic films ever made, I have read with an open mind of the
late Howard Koch’s concept and believe this project has no small degree of
merit. I am thrilled at the prospect of discovering what happened to Rick,
Ilsa, Victor and perhaps even Renault during, and after, the War. I also feel
compelled convey to you a few thoughts towards the making of Return to Casablanca for you to take or
leave as your producer’s instincts suggest:
1) Since
1942, there has been a subtle un-asked, and un-answered, question regarding the
ending of Casablanca. It was Rick who
decided for Ilsa that she would get on the plane with Victor. No one ever asked
Ilsa with whom she preferred to go. While the lady was certainly conflicted at
the time, surely, she had a preference hidden deep in her heart. Who did
Ilsa want to leave Casablanca with? In Return
to Casablanca that question must be explored, and definitively answered
once and for all. Even, especially, if that answer is one Ilsa might have
regretted one day, and for the rest of her life; or equally, if the answer is
one she has come to regret.
2) As
J.J. Abrams discovered in re-casting the classic crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise
hiring actors to portray legendary characters is dicey at best. Digital
resurrection is already with us, from the brief cameo of the late Sir Laurence
Olivier in Kerry Conran’s Sky Captain and
the World of Tomorrow to the audacious, posthumous performance of Tupac Shakur
at Coachella 2012. As long as your script does not demand too much from any
late original cast members, I heartily recommend taking the chance and using
modern technology to revive their performances. Of course purists will protest,
but sooner or later such a perceived “travesty” will be done. It would be best,
I think, to do break that ground in a project such as yours, with grace and
respect for the original material and performers. The motion picture industry
must set its standards and justifications extremely high for digital
resurrection, and sooner rather than later, before they are set lower in some purely
commercial production.
3) I
don’t know if Rick Blaine makes a return in the third act of Return to Casablanca but I almost hope
he doesn’t. Referring to the above paragraph, I believe you could absolutely get
away with a digitally resurrected Sidney Greenstreet, Claude Rains and even
Ingrid Bergman, in brief cameos; but Humphrey Bogart? There’s a trick few might
get on board with including myself, and re-casting Rick Blaine, well, again see
above.
4) A final
thought on casting: I am at a loss for a young actor to play Richard, Rick
& Ilsa’s son. I honestly cannot think of a single young American actor with
the chops and cinematic gravitas to do the job. Richard shouldn’t be played by
some flavor-of-the-month actor fresh out of some tv/film vampire franchise. As
James Cameron did with DiCaprio in Titanic,
you’ll need find a true talent for Richard, one that will continue to grow and
develop a lifelong career.
5) A
few quick words on photography: I doubt I’m alone in thinking any sequel to Casablanca naturally needs to be filmed in
black & white. The obvious romanticism of black and white aside, the style
of the cinematography as well as the shot set-ups themselves should be
evocative of this film’s setting in both time and place. Films of the French
New Wave such as Godard’s Breathless
and 1960’s American indies like John Cassavete’s Faces should be studied I think, but with the understanding that
the goal in doing so is to emulate, not imitate.
6) The
success of Return to Casablanca will
be judged not only at the box office, or by critics, or even devotees of the
original Casablanca. This sequel’s
success will be measured by whether or not it can follow in the auspicious
footsteps its forerunner. This picture must find a way to discover the
zeitgeist of today’s world while offering timeless, universal truths that will
speak to generations to come. Perhaps this film could look at the post-war oil
boom and the root causes of today’s troubles in the Middle East. Possibly
explore culture clashes, indigenous culture’s rights vs. general human rights?
Either must be done, however, while nevertheless reminding us that even those
problems don’t amount to a hill of beans on a planet that we are all of us no
more than caretakers of... And yet, neither Richard nor the film can be felt to
be preachy or trying too hard; instead they must, like Rick Blaine, lead and
even educate us by levelheaded example.
Return
to Casablanca is a fascinating project and I wish you every conceivable
success with it! You have a long road ahead, I think, but please don’t ever get
discouraged and never surrender the vision. Remember that until it had been
done no one ever would have dreamed that Peter Jackson, a nerdish, maker of
gross-out films from New Zealand -- a filmmaker, mind you, who had had only
moderate international success with The
Frighteners –- would be handed hundreds of millions of dollars and a remarkable
amount of creative control to bring J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”
trilogy to life.
Good luck!
Yours Very
Sincerely,
The Film Examiner, a.k.a. Film Dude
