Posted on: May 5th, 2009 Mastodon’s Latest A Feature Film?
I don’t normally tend to delve into the music world here on GKS, as that’s a whole other beast, but this little musical morsel wet my appetite enough and is pretty relevant to the type of thing we’re all about.
If you’re not aware of the band Mastodon, you should be. They are hands down the most important band working today and are defining and reshaping genres with their latest album, a most amazing opus called Crack the Skye.
You can read an article I wrote about this masterpiece and the band’s greatness over at our favorite site, Forces of Geek.
Now, the album itself is, for all intents and purposes, a concept album; meaning from the first track to the last, a story is told with a constant narrative. It’s incredibly fascinating and fun and could honestly translate well into a film.
Which is what was talked about over at Billboard – the possibility of a Crack the Skye feature…?
Apparently Brann Dailor, the band’s drummer (and responsible for the album’s story/lyrics) has hammered out a screenplay based on the album, with an unnamed director. The article also says that more than one director has expressed interest.
This is amazing news, if it ever becomes a reality, for the album and it’s story is incredibly cool. A film based on the story would be unlike anything we’d ever seen before, and I can only imagine having Mastodon score the beast – listen to the album for yourself and tell me it wouldn’t make for an epic score.
Crack the Skye’s story, according to Brann Dailor on the album’s Wikipedia entry is:
There is a paraplegic and the only way that he can go anywhere is if he astral travels. He goes out of his body, into outer space and a bit like Icarus, he goes too close to the sun, burning off the golden umbilical cord that is attached to his solar plexus. So he is in outer space and he is lost, he gets sucked into a wormhole, he ends up in the spirit realm and he talks to spirits telling them that he is not really dead. So they send him to the Russian cult, they use him in a divination and they find out his problem. They decide they are going to help him. They put his soul inside Rasputin’s body. Rasputin goes to usurp the czar and he is murdered. The two souls fly out of Rasputin’s body through the crack in the sky(e) and Rasputin is the wise man that is trying to lead the child home to his body because his parents have discovered him by now and think that he is dead. Rasputin needs to get him back into his body before it’s too late. But they end up running into the Devil along the way and the Devil tries to steal their souls and bring them down…there are some obstacles along the way.
Tell me that wouldn’t be an awesome film if done right; I imagine it capturing the tone of Hellboy mixed with Lord of the Rings meets Donnie Darko. Oh how Guillermo Del Toro is made for a project like this.
But for now it’s merely poop shoot, and I doubt anything will happen soon if at all on a Crack the Skye film; but a boy can dream.
Want a taste of what the film could hold? Check out the video for the albums lead single, Divinations. This is utterly epic.
So what are your thoughts – have you heard the album? Yay or nay? What about films based on albums in general?
2 Responses to “Mastodon’s Latest A Feature Film?”
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Jon Stephens Says:
May 6th, 2009 at 10:13 amYES!!! Mastadon is one of my favorite bands, and Crack the skye was simply amazing. I doubt this movie will ever happen, but I would definitely pay to see it if it ever gets made.
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Jon Stephens Says:
May 6th, 2009 at 10:15 amoops, I meant Mastodon.