I am wetting myself right now.
Steve Carell and James Gandolfini are going to star in an HBO movie that takes a comedic look at a real life feud between rich rival paleontologists. It’s called Bone Wars.
Two rich guys are going to fuck each other over to dig up the most dinosaur bones.
This was apparently a real thing…
The Bone Wars, also known as the “Great Dinosaur Rush”, refers to a period of intense fossil speculation and discovery during the Gilded Age of American history, marked by a heated rivalry between Edward Drinker Cope (of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia) and Othniel Charles Marsh (of the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale). Each of the two paleontologists used underhanded methods to try to out-compete the other in the field, resorting to bribery, theft, and destruction of bones. Each scientist also attacked the other in scientific publications, seeking to ruin his credibility and have his funding cut off.
Their search for fossils led them west to rich bone beds in Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming. From 1877 to 1892, both paleontologists used their wealth and influence to finance their own expeditions and to procure services and dinosaur bones from fossil hunters. By the end of the Bone Wars, both men had exhausted their funds in the pursuit of paleontological supremacy.
“PALEONTOLOGICAL SUPREMACY”
This is The Prestige with rich white assholes of the gilded age making sport of digging up dinosaur bones. This is the most amazing new project I’ve heard about all year.
Granted, Carrell and Gandolfini were pretty much anti-funny in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, but I think that’s a poor frame of reference for a project as stunningly unique as this one, even if it is intended to be a comedy.
They’re looking for a writer, and I’ve got my fingers crossed they attract a damn good one.
Source | Deadline (via First Showing)