Marwencol - a New Hollywood movie about Mark Hogancamp: Welcome To Marwen

For those of you who may or may not know who Mark Hogancamp is, there is a new movie coming out starring Steve Carell and directed by Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump). Mark built an entire 1/6th World War II town in his back yard after a brutal attack on April 8, 2000 nearly killed him, and stole his memories. His story is both tragic and inspirational. Prior to this new movie, there was a 2010 documentary about him. Take a few moments to familiarize yourself with his story and his creation by following the link below:

http://marwencol.com

You can watch the entire 2010 documentary here:

https://hdvix.com/movie/marwencol-2010-10214/

And here is a link to a preview of the new Hollywood film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6dy7xQ8NeE

(Shout out to Bad Wolf-787 for bringing this new movie to my attention)

Oh man, you beat me to it! I was going to post this too! I've been fascinated by Hogancamp's story for years, and was so surprised when I heard about the new movie. I think the trailer looks really good, and I'm very excited to see it. I will admit, I'm really curious about how Hogancamp feels about the movie's portrayal of him. With Zemeckis directing it, I feel like he's in good hands, but man, considering what happened to him, I just really hope it's handled respectfully. That said, I hope he also got a fat payday, and is joyfully spending it on 1/6 stuff.

OMG...! A movie about 1/6th! Maybe after this movie, 1/6th will find new hobbyists!
I don't know who Mark Hogancamp is, but a 1/6th hobbyist having a movie made of him, I guess he just accended to IMMORTALITY!
I'll watch this movie with someone who thinks me collecting 1/6th is a waste of money. I'll collect Mark Hogancamp's action figure if it's made too!

Thank you Stryker2011 for posting this, I think this movie will be amazing and I will be looking forward to watching it.

Looks pretty interesting. Thanks for sharing the info and links.

Can't wait to see that movie, it could have the depth and impact of Forrest Gump! I just watched again the documentary, unbelievable talent and dedication, that is highly inspirationnal!

Thanks for sharing!

Very cool. Something wonderful grew out of a terrible tragedy. Would love to visit and see his stuff in person.

I was able to see the documentary when first released at the Windsor Film festival, I had high hopes it would bring attention to our hobby. After seeing it my hopes kind of faded.

I wrote a review on OSW here....

https://www.onesixthwarriors.com/forum/sixth-scale-action-figure-news-reviews-and-discussion-/501935-merwencol-just-saw-my-review-spoiler-alert.html?highlight=

I hope this movie which looks cool through the preview doesn't go to deep....as the audience was laughing pretty much though out the show I was at...due to the "barbies" he used. I think if he had used Triad or Cy Girls it might not have looked as "weird" as one movie goer put it after the show.

Now the timing of this might actually be decent as I think society has moved forward in their acceptance of others...at least I hope so otherwise our little hobby will get labeled again as "weirdos playing with dolls"....

Thanks for the link and your review, Crusader.

This movie is already out. I heard that it bombed. Who else watched it? Is it really not good?

brassco wrote:This movie is already out. I heard that it bombed. Who else watched it? Is it really not good?

This is like an episode of the Twilight Zone, I was just reading reviews of the Hollywood movie last night. Like minds, I guess..,

Sadly, I never saw the Hollywood movie, but from the reviews I read, I think the problem with the movie is that the majority of the people that went to see it were either expecting it to be more about his struggles with recovering from the brutal attack, were distracted by the combination of real people being portrayed as “dolls”, and didn’t quite understand the metaphor, or that his building of this 1/6 scale world was his way of coping. Since I haven’t seen it, it’s hard to say if it was handled correctly, but of those people who did see it (and had actually seen the original 2010 documentary), most preferred the documentary. I checked last night, and it says the Hollywood movie is available on Netflix, and if it is, I’ll probably give it a chance. Maybe our crowd (collectors and bashers of 1/6, that is) will appreciate it more as a novelty...

Oh noes, that's so sad that it wasn't well received....a relative of mine brought this to my attention a while ago, as they were aware of my hobby and thought I would find it interesting. I watched the trailer and actually got quite excited.... as someone who participates in 1/6 customizing largely as a form of personal therapy, I found the whole scenario quite relatable. But I was simultaneously concerned that people would get the wrong impression from it, or that the mere existence of a movie about it would unintentionally trivialize the whole thing, or depict it as just this one man's strange quirky interest. Sorry to hear that many did indeed seem to miss the point of it and that it wasn't perhaps an 'accurate' portrayal of 1/6 world. Though of course some people in this hobby DO use Barbies, and that's not inherently a negative thing. But I can see how it would come across to a 'general' audience. :/

I wouldn’t worry too much about what general audiences think. If you’re interested in seeing it, you should do so. I would also recommend the actual documentary (Marwencol) if you’re interested in a more “accurate” depiction.

Aww, yeah, of course... I will seek out both, eventually! Thanks for bringing attention to the actual documentary, as I hadn't been aware of it. : )

Oh thanks for reminding me about this movie! I remember a long time ago there was news about the man who used toys to cope with the trauma of being in war. It was quite interesting. Now I shall see if I can watch the movie. It's quite relatable, that's why I keep writing little fun stories for my toys, it's an escape from reality

I saw it this weekend, and if it can push some of you to watch it, I found it veeeeeeery veeeeeeeeery good.

First of all the magic from the duo Zemeckis/Silvestri still works perfectly, between the visual and the soundtrack it's as emotional and touching as Forrest Gump was, the story telling is clever, it could have been a gorgeous scenario if it wasn't a real story.

Add Steve Carrell which is on top of his art once again, funny, touching, authentic... It's a pleasure to watch him, what a great choice to play Mark Hogancamp.

Now I do agree the subject of mental disease and doll/figure collecting might not drag the masses to the theaters (even more if you add Mark's female shoes fetish lol).

Glad to hear it worked for you! I really want to see it!

And lol, well... Quentin Tarantino has a pretty obvious female foot / shoe fetish , and that doesn’t seem to stop people watching his movies

Good to know, blackpool. I had it in my Best Buy cart yesterday, but held off. Now I think I’ll take the plunge.

Just for the dolls and figures you should all give it a go, some dioramas are awesome in the movie, and the constant mix of real actors and figure size sequences works perfectly, the SFX are really good (even more knowing the movie had a 40M budget only)

I saw the movie last night and it was awesome! I especially loved the animated toys segments of the movie! It's so cool to watch them run around with their articulation points showing lol! Since I only vaguely remember about the real life story from some news report a very long time ago, the movie felt fresh and informed me of the actual situation that happened.

The story was really very interesting. Man gets attacked by a bunch of guys, gets traumatized, takes up hobby of taking pictures of toys and making stories with them as a coping mechanism. There were other ways which the attack affected him but in a negative way which I found to be very sad.

There was also a theme of loneliness near the very end that really was quite painful to watch. I think it's something that lonely people can relate to a lot.

Overall, I really enjoyed this movie, most especially the animated toy scenes. It's quite an interesting mix of joy and sadness.

Oh my, that does sound painful....and something I can indeed relate to.

Indeed, I didn't want to go too far in describing the movie but it is definitely a drama, I will again compare it to forrest gump because the two characters have that loneliness in common, both as a result of mental disorders or fragility at least... So yes some scenes will bring a tear or make the throat dry.

Added to this I didn't remember either about the negative impact of his agression in the documentary, what happened to him caused a lot of phobias and traumas, some of which affected him in a very negative way...

Well, if you think about it, if it wasn't for forums like this one... we'd ALL be kind of lonely. This is not a hobby well-received by "normal" people. We would be considered Dorks and Losers by most "responsible" adults. It's not until people see (assuming they are willing) the level of detail that goes into this little hobby of ours, that people might be able to see how cool it is. And yes, I have to admit, this is also very much a therapeutic hobby for me, as I would assume it is for many; not just a chance to relive our long-lost innocence and childhood. What Mark Hogancamp went through, however, was/is probably much worse than many people have gone through, and that he found a way to deal with it through his massive diorama and action figures is inspiring. I'm looking forward to seeing the Steve Carrell movie more and more, but it won't be available to me until April 9th when the blu-ray finally arrives.

I have mild autism and have spent my whole life trying to find a way to earn a living without too much interactivity with other people. I'm currently working in retail sales, which is not healthy for a severe introvert, but I needed a job in a hurry when my second child was born, and because autistics can't bare change, I'm still there. This hobby has helped me to earn a little side income, which has let me cut back the hours of my sales job, which has helped my stress levels enormously. This hobby is also very therapeutic, which has helped even further with stress. Right now I'm 50 years old and am in perfect health, so it seems that I've finally found the right balance.

Looking forward to seeing this movie. Steve Carell always does good work.

Well, I've managed to watch the movie...and here's my review:

Movie Title: Welcome to Marwen

Parent's guide:
Nudity : Yes (breasts shown)
Violence : torturing scenes, war battle scenes, fighting scenes, character severed from the waist, spike thru stomach, blood...
Sexual References : Queer mentioned, Sexualization of dolls and women in general.
Profanity : Yes
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking : Yes
Verdict : Definitely not for kids!

Quote worthy :
Nicol: Close your eyes...I have a surprise for you.
Hogie : You know I can't close my eyes...I'm a doll!

Mark Hogancamp has his hobby taken to a whole new level...he built a town for it! Directed by Robert Zemeckis, this is warm hearted movie, I think, only 1/6th hobbyists will truly enjoy. I've been dreaming of making a motion picture using some of my collections...but how do i get my budget of 40m dollars?? Maybe lesser, without using famous actors or director...but still a good 10m, i reckoned, if i wanted top CGI like those depicted in the show. Phicen should commission film makers to produce at least one movie with their figures...

If fairy tales can't happen in real life...at least it does in 1/6th...