New Figure Skating Drama on Netflix (EDIT: no longer starring Emma Roberts)

[skatesindreams]

Yep @mag, like I said, a veritable smorgasbord of untapped dramatic figure skating storylines await a bold and talented screenwriter.

I would like to see Jennifer Cormeaux's books turned into a series. Her writing is great.

Agreed!
As stated upthread, in the right hands, Elena and Anton's story would make an excellent film.

 

[VGThuy]

I would love a Netflix/Hulu/Amazon miniseries based on The Second Mark chronicling the childhoods, development, and maturing and training in preparation of the 2002 Olympics with all the background stories, sacrifice, suffering, hardship, highs, showing the complication of a pair relationship and their coaches and feds, etc. of Berezhnaya/Sikharulidze, Sale/Pelletier, and Shen/Zhao with then the fallout of the judges’ scandal how all the hard work and lifelong sacrifice and hardship were undermined and treated glibly by the powers that be playing backroom politicks. I’d end it on 2003 Worlds S/Z LP like the book and then an epilogue about how it created the IJS. I think there’s a lot of fun a filmmaker can have with playing around with the cinematography for all three stories and such giving each team a distinctive look back home only to have it thrown away in a bright neutral ultra HD sports look during international competitions where all three teams meet.

 

[DreamsofBliss]

I would love a Netflix/Hulu/Amazon miniseries based on The Second Mark chronicling the childhoods, development, and maturing and training in preparation of the 2002 Olympics with all the background stories, sacrifice, suffering, hardship, highs, showing the complication of a pair relationship and their coaches and feds, etc. of Berezhnaya/Sikharulidze, Sale/Pelletier, and Shen/Zhao with then the fallout of the judges’ scandal how all the hard work and lifelong sacrifice and hardship were undermined and treated glibly by the powers that be playing backroom politicks. I’d end it on 2003 Worlds S/Z LP like the book and then an epilogue about how it created the IJS. I think there’s a lot of fun a filmmaker can have with playing around with the cinematography for all three stories and such giving each team a distinctive look back home only to have it thrown away in a bright neutral ultra HD sports look during international competitions where all three teams meet.

This would be amazing! The Second Mark is such an incredible read and the stories are all very compelling leading up to such a dramatic event. And yeah, the ending with Worlds 2003 would be perfect. Would LOVE to see this. How can we make it happen lol.

 

[dramagrrl]

How have I never heard of this?? Has anyone seen it?

 

[Willin]

@dramagrrl All I know is Elise Freezer is in it. She was also in a commercial that aired during the Olympics. She's the young blond girl with short hair in the early bits of the trailer. Before the movie came out she promoted it on instagram but now it seems her instagram's private. Hopefully she's not getting any negative attention from it.

 

[Sylvia]

@dramagrrl, here's an article about Ice The Movie: http://figureskatersonline.com/news...s-about-ice-her-movie-by-skaters-for-skaters/

 

[MacMadame]

Wasn't that Canadian tv movie about a real-life Canadian Ladies champion? Tracy Wainman?

 

[dramagrrl]

Wasn't that Canadian tv movie about a real-life Canadian Ladies champion? Tracy Wainman?

Skate!/Blades of Courage was obviously loosely inspired by Tracy Wainman's rise and fall from fame, but it wasn't meant to be "based on a true story" or a direct docudrama of her life.

 

[misskarne]

How have I never heard of this?? Has anyone seen it?

Yes, it was mostly okay. A cute little story, if somewhat unrealistic. It did make great pains to highlight how hard and how long and how expensive it is to make it to the top.

Admittedly, I was very ill when I bought it and watched it...

They filmed it in Colorado Springs, so the scenery is familiar. Max has a 2-second non-speaking cameo and the list of background skaters in the credits could make it a fun "spot the skater" game if nothing else.

 

[Winnipeg]

Couldn't they have at least made her an ice dancer?!

Not as exciting to watch as pairs for most?

 

[Winnipeg]

I recall a skating mom (of a singles skater) once said to me "people only go into pairs because they cannot make it in singles."

 

[Wyliefan]

Not as exciting to watch as pairs for most?

I wonder. The every-four-years fans got so into V/M, you'd think they might have tried to play off that.

 

[screech]

I recall a skating mom (of a singles skater) once said to me "people only go into pairs because they cannot make it in singles."

Which is absolutely true in some cases, but in others... I myself was a singles skater, but when I did summer training at Mariposa when I was 13/14, I was 'recruited' to take off-ice lift classes, and told that I should go back after Canadians (when many couples split up) because I was the right body type for a female pairs skater, and was working on my triples.
I was interested, and I loved the lift classes (though I elbowed the coach in the nose when I freaked out mid-air when we tried a twist for the first time) but at that time my parents didn't want me living away from home, so it never happened. I still sometimes wonder 'what if?'

I hope Emma Roberts is really working on her skating skills, and is taking lift classes as well. I don't want to see a super close zoom in of her face when she's in the air, making it clear she isn't doing the actual elements.

Also, I wonder if they're going to use the current judging system, or use 6.0 for the show, since that's what movies like to do...

 

[jenniferlyon]

I was slyly referencing AshWag... There are a lot of real-life inspirations that can serve as the basis for a jumping off point, and not a literal depiction of specific life stories.

Oh yeah, I knew you were talking about Ashwags. I did get some inspiration from her and other mature skaters, such as Carolina Kostner. When I first started writing skating fiction in 1997, the idea of a 24-year-old competing at the elite senior level for the first time would have been too far-out. That was the Tara-and-Michelle era where a female skater was considered "old" before she reached her twenties.

(Note: My character isn't SKATING for the first time. That would be too unrealistic.)

 

[PrincessAlica]

I just saw a Canadian movie about a figure skater that got cancer. It was terribly sad. there was also a little romance, but it definitely made me cry. It was based on a true story. If Gracie's comeback is successful, they should definitely make a movie about that!

 

[pETEs (Sasha Fan)]

The Plushenko and Yagudin rivalry! Come on! The two men who hated each other so much that they drove the sport to technical heights they had never before dreamed of just to beat each other! It's perfect!

THIS needs to happen for Ryan Murphy's "Feud" upcoming season!

 

[dramagrrl]

I just saw a Canadian movie about a figure skater that got cancer. It was terribly sad. there was also a little romance, but it definitely made me cry. It was based on a true story.

I haven't seen it, but I read about this movie last year. It is called Kiss and Cry and is based on the real-life story of Carly Allison, a figure skater who died of cancer in her teens. Her best friend, Sarah Fisher, played the role of Carly in the movie. Canadian singer-songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk played her mother.

 

[aftershocks]

Would LOVE to see this. How can we make it happen lol.

I don't know. But it's been proven that when joining together it is possible for fs fans to help pull for some things to happen, including our backing of Aliona & Bruno to be enabled to compete. And I heard recently that fs fans pushed for the allowing of Autumn Classic to be widely available via livestream (not just in Canada).

 

[screech]

Blades of Glory was mentioned earlier in the thread, and I'd had no idea that actress Busy Phillips helped come up with the story! Apparently she talks about it in her new book (which was just released). From ET:

One of the most revelatory career-related anecdotes in Philipps’ book is the story of how she co-wrote Blades of Glory
...

The actress recalls the moment she and then-boyfriend Craig Cox came up with the idea for the film -- while she was shooting White Chicks in Vancouver and watching endless amounts of ice skating on TV -- and recounts how she and Cox broke down the outline and drafted the script with his brother, Jeff, even writing in a love interest role for Philipps to play. Then, the brothers dropped her name from the script and sold it without her.

“I had a hard time recovering,” Philipps writes. “It wasn’t the script. It was that I’d been so easily thrown out, like trash. I was in the way of their success, I guess? Collateral damage. And in order for them to do this insanely sh**ty thing to me, they vilified me and told me I was crazy. The story became that I was the one who had tried to STEAL ideas from them, that I was ALWAYS just looking out for myself. THEY had come up with this AMAZING STORY, and I was the less-than-talented girlfriend trying to glom on to their talent and carve out a piece for myself. A piece that I didn’t deserve. I had a hard time figuring out what was real.”
...

At the after-party for the Blades of Glory premiere, Philipps recalls getting a bit of absolution for the debacle from a no-nonsense Saturday Night Live alum. “Amy Poehler grabbed me. ‘Girl,’ she said. ‘Seth Meyers told me the story of what those dudes did. F**K ‘EM! You rock and are so talented. Come here! Sit at our table!!”

Amy Poehler!!

 

[aftershocks]

"'I had a hard time recovering,' Philipps writes. 'It wasn’t the script. It was that I’d been so easily thrown out, like trash. I was in the way of their success, I guess? Collateral damage. And in order for them to do this insanely sh**ty thing to me, they vilified me and told me I was crazy.'"

Wow, such lousy, dog-eat-dog a*holes. Kudos to Amy Poehler!!!

 

[screech]

"'I had a hard time recovering,' Philipps writes. 'It wasn’t the script. It was that I’d been so easily thrown out, like trash. I was in the way of their success, I guess? Collateral damage. And in order for them to do this insanely sh**ty thing to me, they vilified me and told me I was crazy.'"

Wow, such lousy, dog-eat-dog a*holes. Kudos to Amy Poehler!!!

Yep! I always knew she was awesome.
And huge kudos to Seth Meyers (who I don't think had anything to do with the movie?) too for filling people in on the bullshit!

 

[Winnipeg]

Didn't Lipinski star in a skating movie?

 

[MacMadame]

Didn't Lipinski star in a skating movie?

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0211426/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_12

 

[AxelAnnie]

Didn't Lipinski star in a skating movie?

Nope. She was in a few episodes of 7th Heaven

 

[MacMadame]

Nope. She was in a few episodes of 7th Heaven

Nope. She was in a movie called Ice Angel. See my imdb link above for more details, if interested.

 

[lurkz2]

I've been playing around with a new skating novel, but I haven't yet figured out the ending. It's a family drama, not a romance, although the main character does have an ex-boyfriend and a newer love interest. She's 24, which means she is supposed to be an adult. But so far, she doesn't act much like one.

I was slyly referencing AshWag... There are a lot of real-life inspirations that can serve as the basis for a jumping off point, and not a literal depiction of specific life stories.

AshWag was also the first one who came to my mind given the description

 

[Skittl1321]

Maybe she can’t do that many jumps and that’s why she decided to do pairs because it is less of them. Wasn’t the same reasoning in Cutting Edge? He was too blind to play hockey but not blind enough to pair skate.

The reason for the girl skating pairs though was that she was always skating pairs. It wasn't that she couldn't cut it in singles. (There's even a line about her inability to get along with others "should have made you a singles skater.")

 

[MacMadame]

And the guy had lost peripheral vision which is necessary in a team sport that moves an object around the field but not necessary at all when skating a set routine on ice.

The reason Pairs do less jumps and not all the hardest is not because they suck at jumping. It's because jumping in sync with a second person is freaking HARD! So this idea that Pairs is for failed jumpers is flawed IMO.

 

[hanca]

And the guy had lost peripheral vision which is necessary in a team sport that moves an object around the field but not necessary at all when skating a set routine on ice.

The reason Pairs do less jumps and not all the hardest is not because they suck at jumping. It's because jumping in sync with a second person is freaking HARD! So this idea that Pairs is for failed jumpers is flawed IMO.

In Gordeeva’s book she wrote something about never being the strongest skater, but that it didn’t matter because coaches had a different plan for her. So the thinking at that time was that who is not a strong at jumping would go to pairs.

 

[VGThuy]

Things are different now though with pairs attempting triple Lutzes and what-not. I always though Pair skaters were the most daredevil skaters of the bunch. Observing some top pairs skaters, especially the ladies, made me think they were some of the toughest athletes ever.