Hacker Cinema
Empires of the Deep
Film
Directed by Michael French, Jonathan Lawrence, Scott Miller
For thousand of years, legends of beautiful mermaids have enchanted people from all over the globe. Their fascinating and mysterious world has always captured the imagination of humans. In film history, there hasn't been a single movie that has uncovered and explored this mystical world. What secrets lurk beneath the depths? And why do beautiful mermaids seduce human men?
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3 comments on Hacker News
The first story in this class that I read was Empires of the Deep - really amazed me on two fronts.
First, the way the economics of these endeavours are so flawed that even the most passionate creatives / sponsors can't viably get the finished or near-finished product out to paying customers.
Second, that this stuff doesn't get leaked more often - especially recent examples. Wikipedia also has a running list of abandoned films, though it looks to be US / Euro-centric. [1]
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empires_of_the_Deep (there's plenty of more interesting write-ups around the backstory)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_abandoned_and_unfinished_films
That's a bit cynical I think. I've read the first two of the Three Body problem series, and part of the delight is the way it highlights (by contrast) the various cultural assumptions made by the sci-fi authors I normally read (a weirdly large proportion of whom are Scottish). But comparison aside, it's a really good read.
Empires of the Deep[1] may break out of the cliche you speak of, but I haven't seen it (and it's unlikely any of us ever will). There was a superb story about the not-quite-making of this film on HN a few months ago[2]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empires_of_the_Deep [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11766319
Fascinating, but not surprising for anyone who's spent any time or done business in China. For more reading, an expat cast as an extra in this film kept a diary: http://beijingcream.com/2014/07/deep-trouble-on-the-set-of-empires-of-the-deep-part-1/