WHY ISN'T THIS A FILM? - Tesla

Real Life can be much more interesting than fiction.  Some real life people and events should be films, like... Nikola Tesla.

Nikola Tesla is the new god of geekdom... as such, where is his film?

TRUTH IS AS STRANGE AS FICTION - Overview #2

The next 8 posts on this blog (following the overview of the first 8).

CUE THE HORROR THEME MUSIC
Things that have happened in real life that seem like the set-up of a horror film.

• Miami Zombie Attack.
• The Giant Prehistoric Virus Returns.

WHY ISN'T THIS A FILM?
Things that have happened in real life that should be movies.

• Alexander & Draga.
• Bass Reeves.

SIMPSONS DID IT
Things that have happened in real life after they happened on The Simpsons.

• All You Can Eat Seafood (part 1).
• All You Can Eat Seafood (part 2).

PRINT THE LEGEND
Things people claim have happened in real life... but didn't.

• Jeanne de Clisson "The Lioness of Brittany"
• The Man Who Inspired the Lone Ranger.

~ DUG.

REAL LIFE SUPER VILLAINS has got away.

Real Life Super Villains will no longer be posted on this site.  However, SUPER VILLAIN ADVICE will be the home of REAL LIFE SUPER VILLAINS for all your future Super Villain needs.

SIMPSONS DID IT - All You Can Eat Seafood (part 2)

With over 500 episodes, The Simpsons have used a lot of ideas.  So many reality is starting to copy them...

12th November 1992.

The first broadcast of "New Kid on the Block" (The Simpsons Season 4 Episode 8) in which Homer Simpson sues an All You Can Eat Seafood restaurant for false advertising because he hadn't had all he could eat.

May 2010.

David Martin entered A Ca-Shi to take advantage of their $28 All You Can Eat Sushi deal.  Martin then began to eat just the sashimi (the fish) and left the rice.  A Ca-Shi owner Jay Oh said he'd have to eat the rice to get more sushi.  Martin filed suit in the Los Angeles County Superior Court against A Ca-Shi for $4,000 for discriminating against his disability and "humiliation, embarrassment and mental anguish".  See Part 1.

But, really, Sushi AYCE vs a Fried Fish Buffet?  A lawsuit for discrimination vs a lawsuit for false advertising.  It's a little forced, isn't it?  Well, let's take it up a notch.

12th May 2012.

Bill Wisth entered Chuck's Place to take advantage of their All You Can Eat Friday Fish Fry, as he regularly did.  After eat twelve pieces of fish Wisth was cut off, the establishment claiming that they were running out of food for other patrons.  Wisth refused to pay.  The restaurant offered him and additional eight pieces, but he called the police.

That Sunday, Wisth began picketing the restaurant and vowed to do so until there was a resolution.  The police were again called, Wisth has given a warning for disorderly conduct. 

The owner also claims that Wisth had been sharing food with a friend and has run up a substantial tab that he hasn't paid off and has caused disturbances in the past.  Wisth weighs 350lbs (strangely it comes up in most of the stories.)

~ DUG.

Other Television Posts.

PRINT THE LEGEND - The Man Who Inspired the Lone Ranger

Was Bass Reeves the basis for the fictional character, The Lone Ranger, based on a white man, Texas Ranger John Reynolds Hughes, or a black man, Deputy US Marshall Bass Reeves?

WHY ISN'T THIS A FILM - Bass Reeves

Deputy US Marshal Bass Reeves 

Bass Reeves being mentioned on Justified.

Bass was born in Paris, Texas, in 1838, the son of slaves.  Eventually Bass became his owner George Reeves' personal companion and body servant, and accompanied him when he joined up for the Civil War.  Bass left George, possibly after a fight over a card game, and fled to Indian Territory when he learnt to fire a pistol and rifle with both hands.  Although he claimed to be "only fair" with the rifle, he was regularly banned from competitive Turkey shoots for being too good.  After the Emancipation Proclamation he returned from Indian Territory and became a landowner in Arkansas, married and raised five girl and five boys.

In 1875, Judge Isaac C Parker appointed James F Fagan as US Marshal and told to hire around 200 Deputies to clear up the lawless Indian Territory.  Fagan heard of Reeves' familiarity with the territory and the languages and recruit Bass as a US Deputy Marshal based at Fort Smith (the court covering the largest area in the country) making him the first black man commissioned as a law man west of the Mississippi.

Reeves would leave with a number of warrants, and although Reeves could neither read nor write, he got people to read the Warrants to him and memorised them, allowing him to always produce the correct one when asked.  He was known to return herding a number of outlaws back to Fort Smith, making a handsome reward from fees and rewards.

• Suspecting two outlaws were hiding at their mothers, he disguised himself as a tramp with three bullet holes in his hat, and visited her saying he'd been chased by a posse who'd shot at him, hitting his hat.  The mother suggested that he join forces with her sons who returned as the sun was setting.  The three discussed their crimes and planned to head off the next morning.  While the two outlaws slept, Bass produced his hidden handcuffs, cuffed them while they slept and then led them the 28 miles back to his camp, being cursed by the mother the first three miles but making $5,000 in reward money for the pair.
• He arrested six outlaws by dressing as a farmer and pretending that his cart was caught on a stump outside thier house, drawing on them when they came out to help him.
• Bob Dozier was an outlaw wanted for a range of crimes. Unpredictable and hard to track no lawman came close to capture him.  He even eluded Reeves for several years until, finally, Reeves tracked him down.  Dozier refused to surrender and was shot and killed in a gunfight with Reeves.
• He arrested horse thief Belle Star in 1882.  Some say she surrendered when she heard that the legendary Bass Reeves was after her.
• He was arrested in 1887 for the murder of his posse's cook, William Leach, but was acquitted after testifying that he shot him accidentally while cleaning his gun.  It is suggested that the trial may have been politically motivated and bankrupted him.  The 49 year old returned to his job as a Deputy US Marshal.
• In 1889, he waited along the route that the Tom Story Gang's long-term horse rustling operation used, surprising Story with a warrant.  Story drew on Reeves, but Reeves was quicker.  The gang disbanded and were never heard from again.
• Greenleaf a Seminole outlaw who'd killed seven people and been on the run for nineteen years was captured by Reeves in 1890.
• The murderous Brunt brothers (known for killing officers of the law) laughed at him when they read the warrant he gave them.  But he used their inattention to draw on them, killing two and disarming and arresting the third.
• In 1892, Reeves returned with a pair of prisoners to be told that his daughter in-law had been murdered and his own son, Benny/Bennie, was wanted for the crime.  The warrant had been on US Marshall Leo Bennett's desk for two days - none of the other Deputy Marshals wanted to take it.  A shaken Reeves demanded that it be given to him.  Two weeks later he returned with his own son as a prisoner.  Benny served 20 years.
• After a running gun battle with Reeves in 1895, dying horse thief Jim Webb acknowledge Reeves as the better man, giving him his gun and scabbard.
• In 1902, Reeves and another Marshal arrested 25 men (black and white) who participated in a "race riot" in Paris, Texas.
• Reeves said that the most outlaws he captured at one time was a group of nineteen horse thieves he captured near Fort Still.
• One of Reeves last cases was arresting Reverend William Hobson for illegally selling liquor to pay off the church debt.  Only three years early Reeves had been baptised by the same Reverend.

Reeves brought in 3,000 outlaws in his 32 years as a Marshal, the only one on record to have served from the Parker's court until Oklahoma statehood.  In that time he also shot fourteen men as, but said that he never did so unless to save his own life.  He himself was never shot.  When Oklahoma achieve statehood in 1907, law enforcement came under state control and aged 68, Reeves joined the Muskogee Oklahoma Police Department, but no crimes were reported on his beat for the two years we walked it.  He was diagnosed with Brights disease in 1909 and died in 1910.

Why it should be filmed:

• Solid action story.
• Historical significance.
• To start to redress the white-washing of the American West.
• Morgan Freeman wants to play him.
• Cool facial hair.

Previous films of this story:

• Bass Reeves (2010) - A very low budget, hard to find film.
• Some claim inspiration for The Lone Ranger and Django Unchained due to superficial similarities.

Should be in the Style of:

• True Grit (2010).
• Unforgiven (1992).

~ DUG.

Other Film Blogs.

CUE THE HORROR THEME MUSIC - The Giant Prehistoric Virus Returns

Late Feb 2014.

French scientist find a giant 30,000 year old virus in permafrost, defrost it.  After 30,000 year this formerly extinct virus is alive again and infectious...

CUE THE HORROR THEME MUSIC...