Tomorrow I'll take my re-tooled Ashtanga Primary Series into the shop (Tracy) for a checkup. I've just barely got something passable stitched together with paper clips and duct tape after the one year layoff. But it's gotta go back on the road sooner or later, and tomorrow's the day. I may report Tracy's prognosis on it here in this gamespace. Or not. Doesn't matter.
I never had much use for Buddhism. Though I studied it a lot, even learned Tibetan language at Harvard for one intensive year, in the end it leaves me cold, just like all the other big phony organized religions (except I do have a bit of a soft spot for Jainism, since they are super kindly towards animals). The only supernatural entity that interests me is Shiva Nataraj - Lord of the Dance. However, there are two cool artistic works that have arisen from, or are related to, Buddhism.
Number One, the novel Siddhartha by Hesse. Strictly speaking not part of the Buddhist religion in any way, but (supposed) historical Buddha Gautama features as a character and the whole things touches on Buddhist themes.
Number Two, the 8-volume manga graphic novel of the historical (semi-fictionalized) life of Gautama by Osamu Tezuka. That is really magnificent work (and as a bonus features lots of commentary on human-animal relations).
What somebody needs to do, and this would be a great Hollywood project that could make a ton of money not to mention acclaim and prestige etc. is to make the ultimate animated feature film of Siddhartha. I've mentioned this before in Tabby Ashtanga blog, but no action has been taken. It's true there's a fairly recent (2004) Thai animated version of the historical legend of the Buddha. But that, graphically charming though it is, remains a parable or catechism for religious indoctrination of children. Just like all the Jesus movies out there.
Whereas if somebody were to do real justice to the Hesse novel, it would be wild, exciting, mysterious, bizarre, awesome. Not offer any answers, just immerse you in the mystery and weirdness.
And to do it justice, the indispensable element would be the soundtrack. Just as important as the narrative content, we'd need to get rights to the latest great world-music trancified Hindu kirtan chants. I refer of course to stuff by Jai Uttal, Krishna Das, Donna De Lory, and Deva Premal. Those extended psychedelic chant tracks would set the atmospherics which the graphics would only enhance.
So the sequence would go something like this:
Opening scene: The proud, beautiful Brahman youth S, bathing at sunrise at the river by the boats, then walking back to his home. He passes forest scenes with animals visible through the leafy shadows. And town scenes where blacksmiths and other busy shops clank with pre-industrial production noise, that sometimes amost totally obscures the music track but always under the "red dust" of this world, the beat of the music track would still be barely discernible and would always re-emerge strongly as S passes quietly by each tableau, walking his way. The sound track for this opening "walk" scene would be Jai Uttal's Maha Deva chant (about 10 minutes).
Then there's something good from Deva Premal, title escapes me at the moment, that would exactly suit as the soundtrack for the Samana phase, where S abuses and tortures himself with physical austerities in the forest for years. We could do some great dark work on that phase.
Then we need a good sound line for S's meeting with the actual Buddha. Gotta think about that one.
Another soundtracked scene would be when S has done with his Sannyassin phase, no longer a Samana, and has met and rejected the Buddha, and has given up on all the spiritual search, and comes to town and first sees the half-naked sexy girl drawing water, who places one foot on the other while staring at him, but he passes her by and sees the beautiful courtesan Kamala, in her sedan chair and their eyes meet. The soundtrack for this extended sequence would be Donna DeLory's Om Nama Shivaya - sung with her passionate female voice (Madonna's main backup vocalist in live concerts) and its hot rhythmic beat. A hymn to Shiva, the wild god of power and ecstasy.
Then the dramatic and spiritual climax to the movie would be the scene where S has been through absolutely everything and lost it all, he's just a bum of a ferryboat oarsman, and he gazes in the water and suddenly understand Non-dual awakening. The river immerses him and he becomes the river (rivers are also symbolized in the wild tangled hippie hair of Shiva Nataraj). And the soundtrack for this extended segment must obviously be Jai Uttal's ultimate masterpiece, Nataraj.
Then something from Deva Premal for the closing credits.
If the animation were really super highest quality, with lots of mysterious, dark, psychedelic yet surrealistically credible hyper-real imagery and colors, this could be the most powerful animation movie ever made - even though there really isn't any action in the story at all. No car chases, and not even one single explosion.
I figure we're talking 20 million USD for overall budget, including animation, soundtrack rights, novel rights (or rights to the English translation if the original German has gone public domain already), world class voice talent, and so on. Naturally I would have to retain full creative control over the entire project.
My brother is in the business, hobnobs with all kinds of industry players, big wheels, movers, shakers. I need to put him onto this. If only I could get him to return my calls and emails (Hollywood is a cold town, ahaha).