Buttmunker

Here's a concept that has never been thought of before - except once, but it wasn't a 25-year haitus, only a 2-year one (Cast Away) - begin filming on a character while he's young, and develop the character for the first hour or so...then half filming.

Then, resume 25 years later so we can actually see the character aged "for real," as opposed to pretending the character is old by using a wig and make-up.

It would be so radical - imagine this: maybe the first half of this supposed movie is already in the can!

cleaver

First thing that came to mind
http://imdb.com/title/tt0060371/
http://imdb.com/title/tt0109729/
Endless Summer 1 and 2

TheNightFlier

And imagine if the star gets hit by a bus.

DarthMarino

I think the gimmick of it would far outweigh any other benefits from it. Plenty of movies have different actors playing characters at different ages and they work beautifully.

basaro

I thought this thread was gonna be sarcastic about star wars

mijorico

As others have said, it's more of a gimmick than a concrete idea. It would only work in a documentary, if you think about it. It's pointless for a fictional story.

Although I do remember hearing that Tarantino was talking about shooting scenes with the actress who played Vivica Fox's daughter in Kill Bill for a sequel that she would star in as an adult. That was probably b.s., though. I haven't heard anything about it since.

It's a very risky idea, without much of a payoff. And can you imagine how much the filmmaker would want to tinker with the idea over that span of time? The thing would be reworked and rewritten 1000 times over, probably rendering the already shot footage unusable.

Big Dave

The whole Up series does this (British television series/documentary). It films the participants (at least the ones that don't drop out) every 7 years for presumably their whole life. They just released the 49 Up not long ago (so they are 49 years old). It is pretty interesting if not a bit repetitive, at least when watched over a couple days like I did.

NatrlBornThrllr

49-Up?

jeffkjoe

Quentin Tarantino said (maybe jokingly) that he would resume KILL BILL several years down the line, with Vivica A. Fox's DAUGHTER (as an adult) plotting revenge against Uma Thurman.

Groucho

Stanley Kubrick had this idea years ago, but he never followed through on it. It eventually became AI.

fargreg

Mark Savage is doing something similar.

"He’s three years into a seven-years-in-the-making fantasy feature for children, Tess’s Journey"

http://www.innersense.com.au/mif/savage.html

tophrman

Haha, my thoughts exactly.

Drexl

The Hustler and The Color of Money were 25 years apart with the same actor and character. The Godfather, Part III had the same actors playing their earlier roles later in life. I'm sure there are other examples of sequels picking up later.

For a single film, this sort of thing would probably have been difficult to do years ago, since they would have had to deal with preserving the negatives and there may have been issues with color timing different film stocks. Nowadays it would be much more feasible with digital video (or even just digital scanning of film) that won't degrade over time.

It would also be hard to get a studio to approve such a project, as the (financial) payoff would be so far into the future. It would have to be done independently.

The Bus

First thing that came to mind. He's filming 5-10 movie minutes per year for 20 years or so.

Dan Average

That sounds a lot like the Dimension project that Lars von Trier started in 1991 -- shoot three minutes per year for 33 years. Supposedly he even has a backup director in the event of his death. There aren't a whole lot of details out there, but apparently it stars a lot of von Trier's regulars and semi-regulars (Udo Kier, Jean-Marc Barr, Stellan Skarsgard) and von Trier once described it as a "whodunit" ("we don't know who done it yet, because we don't know who's alive in 20 years' time"). Katrin Cartlidge is also said to have shot some footage before her death, so that should be interesting (and at least a bit depressing) to see.

Numanoid

Whoops.

chase3001

Wasn't Coffee and Cigarettes filmed over 18 years by Jarmusch?

SuckaMC

The Limey did something very similar to what you describe.. yay General Zod

Supermallet

This is the first thing I thought of.

Coffee and Cigarettes was a compilation of several short films. Only a few were shot before the bulk of the picture. None of the shorts have anything to do with the others (aside from the theme of coffee and cigarettes).

The Limey utilized footage shot from earlier in a few of the actor's careers (I think Terence Stamp and Henry Fonda, specifically), but the early footage wasn't shot for The Limey. Soderbergh tailored his story to fit the earlier footage.

ytrez

Not exactly the same thing, but what about Antoine Doinel:

400 Blows - 1959
Love at 20 - 1962
Stolen Kisses - 1968
Love on the Run - 1969
Bed and Board - 1970

joeydaninja

We had a Filipino film where the guy took 20 years to make, because of budget constraints, and he also thought it would be cool. I guess you can call it art.

I think it's a grand idea, just for the fun of it.

Buttmunker

I never heard of those films - I will check them out.
Today I thought about the Harry Potter movies - same actors playing the same characters, from prepubescent to late teens.

Similarily, the same can be said for a TV series (ala Brady Bunch)...

BuddhaWake

how about scenes from a marriage and saraband by Bergman. 30 years apart.

Drop

I believe the Linklater film will be in production for 12 years total. It's also been called A Boy's Life. I think it follows a boy from the age of eight until he graduates high school.

Buttmunker

that sounds really cool! There's nothing about it under Linklater "trivia" or anything. Is there a site that documents this project?