http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=info&gid=63101744523

Poor bloke has worked really hard, but Hollywood keeps turning it down. Time to DIY)”

The question is why has Hollywood turned it down. One of the best movies of the 1990s was “Gettysburg” which was a reenactors dream was not made by Hollywood. either he is not really serious, or he just barking up the wrong tree!

Get Tony Hopkins over here, announce he wants to make a movie about the Merthyr Rising and needs volunteers to help him make it. Watch it get made quick-smart, for very little budget. And just because it’s made on location with a load of unemployed Dowlais people, doesn’t mean it can’t be commercially viable or *shock* a GOOD movie.

(and if anyone reading this from the entertainment industry wants to help make the Glyndwr movie happen, get in touch with Gaz over on this Facebook group:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=info&gid=63101744523

Poor bloke has worked really hard, but Hollywood keeps turning it down. Time to DIY)

“I love the idea of a film of the Merthyr Rising – one of the (several) great moments in Merthyr history. Who’s up for a whip round?”

Which was the point I was making. Just matter of someone coordinating it. It can be done. But as my dear old Mam says: “You just have to take your ae in hand and get on with it”. With right people and some help from that media school in Newport it could be done.

Just think of it an epic launched here on Wales Home.org! If Ross Perot could do it on Larry King Live when he launched his presidential career…

I love the idea of a film of the Merthyr Rising – one of the (several) great moments in Merthyr history. Who’s up for a whip round?

-Yes, I agree. This would appeal to both the US and UK markets, and others as well. I would enjoy seeing this.

I have myself been looking through YouTube for footage of the Welsh Guards and other Welsh military units. Gotta love YouTube!

Al has a good idea about Owain Glyndwr. Personally I believe that the second coming will happen before Owain becomes a subject for Hollywood.

So why not make a people’s movie about the great man? This could be done – something that the college at Newport could work on. If we are celebrate our own heroes in film, then we might as well do it ourselves.

Meanwhile I found this interesting dispatch about an engagement which involved the Royal Welsh Fusileers and the US Marines during the Boxer rebellion.

“TIENTSIN, CHINA, July 10, 1900.

SIR: I have the honor to report that there will be an attack made on the east and north of Tientsin City (Chinese) to-morrow morning. The expedition starts at 1 o’clock a.m. I have command of the marines and will parade with and direct the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, occupying the head of the column and the right of the firing line.

These dispositions may, of course, be changed by the arrival of Colonel Meade with the rest of the battalion.

I have arranged to relieve the Centurion men and marines in charge of the railroad station to-morrow. This place is a very hot corner, and I shall use only the men I now have, as they are thoroughly accustomed to the shelling and “sniping.”

My report of yesterday was sent to the second in command, as I was not aware of the arrival of the commander in chief.

I take the liberty of sending you the copies of two letters received by me concerning the part taken by my men in yesterday’s fight. I hope, sir, that these men may be mentioned to our Government. They have done magnificent work since the 20th of June. To-day there is not a man on the sick list except the wounded. Yesterday their fire discipline was the admiration of all nations, and their admirable fire directed against the enemy kept down the Chinese rifleman so that all the trains, artillery and baggage, were permitted to pass over an exposed bridge without one casualty.

If the shelling from the Chinese guns continues as bad as yesterday I shall be obliged to move my men. My barracks have been hit three times, and the compounds on either side are plowed up with shells. The quarters I have reserved for the Ninth Infantry are out of the line of fire.

We expect to have the four 4-inch guns from the Terrible in position to-day. These guns use the lydite shells.

Very respectfully,”

“Why are there not more “British” oriented war movies? I would suggest that there is little international market for them, unless specifically produced within Britain for a domestic UK audience. This is in part because of the population of the US, which dominates the film industry.”

The uprising at Qala-i-Jangi, one of the bloodiest and most protracted engagements of the war in Afghanistan, would make a great British war movie… and it would cater to an American audience. The Special Boat Service, along with U.S. Special Forces, fought for eight grueling days against well-armed Taliban prisoners on the verge of breaking out from the Qala-i-Jangi fortress. Incredibly, you can watch footage of the SBS using GPMG’s to beat back attempts by the prisoners to overrun the Northern Alliance’s positions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rm0gBx1NAko

The uprising was sparked when CIA personnel threatened to kill prisoners while they were interrogating them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Jones_(VC)

Not at all. I have that from those who were involved. Filmakers, just like musicians or novelists or any other artist in the Republic get major taxbreaks on their work. Which means making a sizeably larger profit than they would in the UK.

I’m sure the horse riders came in handy though,