The first decade of the 21st century has seen more fantasy films released than possibly any decade has had since the 80s.
Including lots of literary adaptations.
Any books you would like to see get the big screen treatment?
Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
Oh, for science fiction I think the Poul Anderson Polysotechnic League books would make great movies.
For martial arts movies, I want to see The Laughing Sutra by Mark Salzman made into a movie.
Posted by Zalmoxis (Member # 2327) on :
Something by Gene Wolfe. Technically not fantasy, but still. I can already see in my mind the look and feel of Cereberus or the New Sun. Lots of slow tracking shots, colours that are lush yet decayed, etc.
It seems to me that it wouldn't be that hard to adapt one of Pratchett's novels esp. one of the City Guard ones. Of course who is going to fund a humorous fantasy mystery?
Posted by Zalmoxis (Member # 2327) on :
Oh, and it seems likes the Taltos novels (esp. the early ones) would be perfect for film. Short. Hard boiled. Cool technology. Repartee and violence. Crazy revelations. Beautiful people.
Posted by MyrddinFyre (Member # 2576) on :
The ones I can think of are either already being made, or are actually sci-fi when I think about it so don't count Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
SF fits. It's fantasy too...just fantasy with a hard or soft scientific basis. Posted by MyrddinFyre (Member # 2576) on :
Haha. Well it'd be fun to see the Otherland series as film, if not just because of all the different cool places and things in the Otherland. Also, Snow Crash, it reads like a really awesome sci fi flick. I'm so shallow *grin*
Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
Diana Wynne Jones novels.
I would do anything to be see those made- I mean in the "I would like to help" sense.
Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
Yes on Diana Wynne Jones novels.
Have there been any other adaptations besides Howl's Moving Castle?
Posted by FlyingCow (Member # 2150) on :
Brightness Falls from the Air, by James Tiptree Jr.
Shadow Moon, by George Lucas and Chris Claremont
Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Ill Met in Lankhmar, by Fritz Leiber
Snow Crash, by Neil Stephenson
Heir to the Empire/Dark Force Rising/Last Command by Timothy Zahn (but only if they are directed by someone other than George Lucas)
Some form of Elric movie based off of Michael Moorcock.
I'm sure more will come to me.
Posted by FlyingCow (Member # 2150) on :
The Hobbit, if it's directed by Peter Jackson.
Posted by Earendil18 (Member # 3180) on :
I second FlyingCow's "Thrawn Trilogy" vote.
Would like to see the following on the big screen, live action.
-His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman
-Fullmetal Alchemist manga and with a different name and highly Americanized. Possibly a better storyline, so maybe just loosely based but well done is what we'd be aiming for.
-The Dark Elf trilogy by R.A. Salvatore (not all his books, they get repetitive)
More will come to me too...
Posted by MyrddinFyre (Member # 2576) on :
Oh yes! Good Omens.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
Speaker for the Dead. I just reread it and am still reveling in its power.
The big problem would be that I have almost no interest in seeing Xenocide/CotM made into movies, so they'd have to do something to tie up the story, and that something would probably be horrible.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
Both Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett have commented on the agonies they experienced trying to get Good Omens produced in American cinema. In fact, the whole thing was so bad that Pratchett gave up on live-action movies altogether, and Gaiman actually withdrew from Hollywood for a few years. In fact, the colossal bungling of Good Omens is indirectly responsible for the creation of Mirrormask.
Pratchett has observed that American studio executives, even ones who've claimed to read the books, just don't get it. Even the inevitable "can't we set this in America somewhere, with American actors" bit wasn't what caught them by surprise; they came to Hollywood prepared to say "yes" to that one. But he was asked if it would be possible to remove the religious references from the script. And if we could get more shots of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse actually killing people. And so forth.
*shudder*
Posted by James Tiberius Kirk (Member # 2832) on :
The Miocene Arrow, maybe. It was the only one I read in the trilogy, but it was a pretty good read.
If it is done right it can be a good movie.
--j_k
Posted by erosomniac (Member # 6834) on :
I'd like to see a bunch of crappy sci-fi movies get remade into good ones.
The Bicentennial Man comes to mind first, followed closely by I, Robot. There's also a huge, huge lack of good movies based on cyberpunk fiction.
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
Good Omens by a british studio, or possibly Terry Gilliam if he's still up for it.
Posted by Gwen (Member # 9551) on :
Thirding Dianna Wynne Jones. Seconding His Dark Materials. (And with what they can do now with effects, I'm not even frightened to see what they'd do with Pan, like I was after seeing the first attempt at The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.) They're making Coraline, by Neil Gaiman, into a movie; likewise a certain book about a Mr. Norrell and a Mr. Strange. Farmer Giles of Ham would be an interesting movie. The Dark is Rising series, by Susan Cooper. Any book by Tamora Pierce would be a good movie if done right.
Posted by starLisa (Member # 8384) on :
Snow Crash! How cool would that be?
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. I'll take it live action or CGI. Or even whatever the style they're using for A Scanner Darkly is called.
I want to see Saltheart Foamfollower come to life.
Or Pamela Dean's Secret Country trilogy.
[ July 06, 2006, 08:33 AM: Message edited by: starLisa ]
Posted by Gwen (Member # 9551) on :
quote:Ender: The government let my parents conceive me because they hope to mold me into the ultimate military commander. Government: Ender, become the ultimate military commander and go defeat the buggers. (He does.) Ender Horror. I'm only nine years old, and I have already eradicated an entire species. I thought it was a game, but it was for real. I will fret about this in the sequels. THE END
Posted by MyrddinFyre (Member # 2576) on :
quote: The Dark is Rising series, by Susan Cooper.
I didn't mention that one, because they *are* being made into movies, or at least The Dark is Rising is Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
quote:Originally posted by Dagonee: Speaker for the Dead. I just reread it and am still reveling in its power.
The big problem would be that I have almost no interest in seeing Xenocide/CotM made into movies, so they'd have to do something to tie up the story, and that something would probably be horrible.
Second that!
I'd also like to see Wolf and Raven by Michael A. Stackpole made into a movie. It's from the Shadowrun universe.
Posted by ricree101 (Member # 7749) on :
Gwen, some of those really cracked me up. I especially liked the 2001: A Space Odyssey summary
quote: HAL I'm evil. (kills astronauts) Dave Bowman I must shut you down now, HAL. HAL Daisy, Daisy... Dave Bowman Now I must finish this mission alone. (STRANGE THINGS happen, and they MAKE SENSE.)
Reader Wow. I understand the movie now.
THE END
Posted by Evie3217 (Member # 5426) on :
I third the His Dark Materials Triology. I would absolutely love for that to become movies.
Posted by Strider (Member # 1807) on :
I always really loved the Fred Saberhagen Book of Swords series.
And there are like 11 books total in that series. It could probably do okay as a mini series.
Stephen King's The Eyes of the Dragon.
I'd also throw my vote in for the Thrawn Trilogy.
Posted by Puppy (Member # 6721) on :
quote:The first decade of the 21st century has seen more fantasy films released than possibly any decade has had since the 80s.
So basically, this decade has seen more fantasy movies than the nineties Posted by Puppy (Member # 6721) on :
Anyway, though, I wish there were a way to do The Song of Ice and Fire as a film ... but I think we'll just have to wait until high-quality special effects are cheap enough to do it as a long-running television series
The Taltos novels should be a video game. Grand Theft Auto meets Splinter Cell, but you have magical powers. Who could resist that?
Posted by kwsni (Member # 1831) on :
Robin Hobb's Farseer and Tawny Man books. I think there's too much court intriuge that would be boring to watch though. I really would love to see The Fool, though.
Ni!
Posted by erosomniac (Member # 6834) on :
quote:Originally posted by ricree101: Gwen, some of those really cracked me up. I especially liked the 2001: A Space Odyssey summary
quote: HAL I'm evil. (kills astronauts) Dave Bowman I must shut you down now, HAL. HAL Daisy, Daisy... Dave Bowman Now I must finish this mission alone. (STRANGE THINGS happen, and they MAKE SENSE.)
Reader Wow. I understand the movie now.
THE END
I hated every single one for books I enjoy.
Too bad I couldn't stop laughing at them anyway.
Posted by starLisa (Member # 8384) on :
quote:Originally posted by Strider: Stephen King's The Eyes of the Dragon.
The Talisman. Only it could never be done well.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
quote:armer Giles of Ham would be an interesting movie.
Oh, yeah, that would be good.
Could be a good traditional animation or live action.
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
quote:Originally posted by MyrddinFyre:
quote: The Dark is Rising series, by Susan Cooper.
I didn't mention that one, because they *are* being made into movies, or at least The Dark is Rising is
Details, Myr, details!
Posted by Tresopax (Member # 1063) on :
quote:I third the His Dark Materials Triology. I would absolutely love for that to become movies.
(And I can't wait to find out how the religious far right will react to this one....)
Posted by KarlEd (Member # 571) on :
I'd love to see Octavia Butler's Wild Seed done well. I think portraying the character of Doro would be a very big challenge cinematically. I'd love to see him played by a string of different actors throughout the movie, but that might be a tough sell. Also, some of the subject matter might be considered objectionable. I can't see doing it well and getting less than an R rating by today's standards.
Posted by Palliard (Member # 8109) on :
Movie need to have fairly cinematic elements, IMO. It's a visual medium, after all. (Plus I love period pieces and hate elves.) This would be better lent-to by some of the older oft-ignored pulp stuff:
Solomon Kane (Robt. E. Howard) would be an excellent candidate for a movie, particularly if you concentrated on the African storyline.
A more comedic approach could be had knitting together the stories of Zampras the thief and the unemployed headsman from Clark Ashton Smith's Hyperborean Cycle.
An even better choice, because it's fallen into the public domain so you wouldn't have to license it: Abe Merritt's The Moon Pool, arguably his best work.
Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
Tresopax, as I recall, it's not in The Golden Compass that Pullman lets lose the venom about how all Christianity and the inhabitants of Heaven itself are evil and/or stupid.
Nope. Unless they alter it, that stuff would come up in the sequels.
I really loved The Golden Compass. I didn't love the sequels. Does that make me a member of the religious far right?
Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
quote:Originally posted by Puppy:
quote:The first decade of the 21st century has seen more fantasy films released than possibly any decade has had since the 80s.
So basically, this decade has seen more fantasy movies than the nineties
Were they making more in pre-80s decades? The success of the late 70s original Star Wars movie seemed to lead to the 80s having more than its share of fantasy flicks than previous decades had.
Just my impression.
Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
quote:Originally posted by Elizabeth:
quote:Originally posted by MyrddinFyre:
quote: The Dark is Rising series, by Susan Cooper.
I didn't mention that one, because they *are* being made into movies, or at least The Dark is Rising is
Details, Myr, details!
Go to the Walden Media website. They have a page on The Dark is Rising movie. Not much solid info on it. Yet.
Posted by KarlEd (Member # 571) on :
I think Puppy's point was that there has only been one decade "since the 80s" besides the current one.
Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
I was saying the 80s was the decade which seemed to hold the record in the past, that's why I used the term "since the 80s". Until the...zeroes...the aughts...until the first decade of the 21st century completes itself, there's the chance the trend will dry up. 'S all I meant. Not that the ninties had mysteriously become multiple decades. Posted by Andrew W (Member # 4172) on :
I'm absolutely shocked that no one has yet mentioned David Gemmel. I would love to see any of his books made into films, though I think my favourite, 'Dark Moon', wouldn't work so well. However 'Winter Warriors' or possibly 'Echoes of the Great Song'. There are so many great ones it's hard to even choose an example without missing equally deserving titles.
And Robin Hobb, brilliant as she is, just wouldn't work as a film. Unless directed by some sort of genius. Nothing much actually happens in her books, it's her skill in the technical aspect of writing that makes them so good, rather than the filmic quality of the story. And who could properly recreate the Fool on screen?
AW
Posted by Destineer (Member # 821) on :
AMBER.
Posted by Puppy (Member # 6721) on :
Yeah, the last part of His Dark Materials really disappointed me, primarily because Pullman failed to put the same kind of development into his primary antagonists that he did into his heroes and early antagonists. I mean, seriously, what motivated the Metatron & Company to want everyone to live by arbitrary rules and be miserable? Absolutely nothing. Or nothing that was ever made clear to the reader.
It's almost as though Pullman was relying heavily on the assumption that, of course, everyone knows what incomprehensible jerks religious people are, and he shouldn't have to explain them. He CAN'T explain them. But they're bad, and in this book, these bad people control the universe and must be defeated.
It was extremely dissatisfying to me. Despite the fact that I loved the rest of the series.
Posted by Storm Saxon (Member # 3101) on :
John Varley's Gaea Trilogy would make incredible films.
I would love to see a serious attempt to capture The Sword in the Stone on film. Not sure it's really a book that can be captured by film, though.
Jack Faust would be pretty easy to do on film, I would think, and really neat to see.
Second the Otherland and Snow Crash recommendations.
I am not at all sure that The Song of Ice and Fire really can be captured well by film at present without sanitizing it for mass consumption, and thus losing a lot of what it is and what is integral to the world.
I don't agree that SF is " fantasy with a hard or soft scientific basis. Yeah, I know, we've all heard the Clarke maxim, and I grant that there is a grain of truth to the thought, however if you accept that SF (*not* sf) is extrapolation of what is, and that fantasy has no need to stay within those guidelines and can just say 'stuff exists because of magic', as that what magic is, then I think it's clear that SF which doesn't appear, on knowledgeable examination to be total bs is in many ways a lot harder to pull off than fantasy.
Fantasy: A magic word is said and a dragon pops into existence. Dragon can do whatever it wants as it is magic. No real explanation need really be given as to how the dragon appears. It's magic.
SF: We breed a dinosaur into existence from dino dna. Since dinos and dna are known quantities with known qualities, this forces the writer to be knowledgeable about dna, genetics and dinos and the problems inherent in bringing them into existence that must be dealt with in a 'real world' fashion.
Edited for really horrible brain fart
[ July 06, 2006, 08:34 PM: Message edited by: Storm Saxon ]
Posted by Gwen (Member # 9551) on :
The Dark is Rising is being made into a movie? By Walden Media? For movies alone, this is definitely the time to be alive.
I thought that the difference between science fiction and fantasy was that science fiction has rivets and fantasy has trees. Or that if science fiction does have trees, they are really the third life of an alien species on a planet far away and three thousand years in the future.
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
Kafka's Metamorphosis.
Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
I'm using the definition of fantasy as "Fictional things that (as far as we know) can not yet be done in the real world, or are impossible". Not the definition they use to divide the books in the bookstores and libraries.
I'm not going to say we'll NEVER grow our own dinos, but right now it's definitely a fantasy...one with a scientific basis, but still a fantasy. Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
quote:Originally posted by Puppy:
It's almost as though Pullman was relying heavily on the assumption that, of course, everyone knows what incomprehensible jerks religious people are, and he shouldn't have to explain them. He CAN'T explain them. But they're bad, and in this book, these bad people control the universe and must be defeated.
It was extremely dissatisfying to me. Despite the fact that I loved the rest of the series.
Reading Pullman's non-fiction essays on why he wrote the series, those seem to be his views on real world religious people: The epitome of all-that-is-bad-with-the-world.
So, they're the bad guys and deny everything good in life because they just are. Brain-washing bullies and power hungry tyrants...because they're religious so they are innately in the wrong just by being religious.
That said, I still think The Golden Compass is a book so imaginative, exciting, and plain cool that everyone should read it.
Posted by MightyCow (Member # 9253) on :
The Gunslinger series, although I imagine they'd manage to ruin them.
Any of Vernor Vinge's novels would make fantastic movies. Particularly A Fire Upon the Deep
I would also love to see Glen Cook's Black Company series, if they could make them dark and gritty and true to the books. They would probably be made too nice and too black and white. The moral ambiguity is so important.
Meiville's Perdido Street Station and The Scar would both be fabulous movies, and they're so dramatic and vibrantly written that I think even the most idiotic team could make them into fantastic movies.
Posted by Gecko (Member # 8160) on :
NEUROMANCER NEUROMANCER NEUROMANCER NEUROMANCER NEUROMANCER NEUROMANCER
Posted by c.t.t.n. (Member # 9509) on :
The Hobbit, the Hobbit, the Hobbit.
Robin McKinley's "the Blue Sword" and the other books in that trilogy.
Diane Duane's first two "So you Want to be a Wizard" books.
Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
Anything by Robin McKinley would be nice.
Posted by JLM (Member # 7800) on :
Two series I'd like to see:
Lloyd Alexander's "Prydain Chonicles"(Disney's "Black Cauldren" was Dreadful)
The "Incarnations of Immortality" series by Piers Anthony. Heck, you might even be able to make a parallel Bollywood version of "Weidling a Red Sword"
Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
Anything by Lloyd Alexander!
Posted by c.t.t.n. (Member # 9509) on :
Peter Jackson or the guy who made the most recent "harry potter" film would totally rock "the Prydain Chronicles". That would kick butt.
Posted by Gwen (Member # 9551) on :
Ooh, definitely Robin McKinley, Diane Duane, the Prydain Chronicles. Darn it, I made a list a while ago of all my favorite authors on my bookshelf (as opposed to favorite authors I haven't bought). A lot of them would make good movies.
Posted by starLisa (Member # 8384) on :
The Chronicles of Amber. Or World of Tiers. We should be coming up with casting for these as well.
The Dragonriders of Pern. Juliana Marguiles as Lessa.
Posted by Zalmoxis (Member # 2327) on :
If I had the funding and the right team, I would totally be interested in adapting Kafka's "Ein Landarzt" (A Country Doctor) for TV/film.
However, I think that I've lost interest* in my idea to adapt 5 F. Scott Fitzgerald stories (although that would totally be a series that PBS should do).
* I'm neither a filmmaker nor screenwriter so it's a bit arch for me to say that. However, a long time ago I wrote several screenplays with a friend and we filmed two of them and got them shown on Public Access. We also discovered that I'm not an actor. Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and Long Dark Teatime of the Soul.
Posted by Gwen (Member # 9551) on :
Those are examples of extremely good books that would make, at best, extremely confusing movies. Although no doubt extremely good ones, for those of us who appreciated the books. I doubt that the average moviegoer--or for that matter the average movie critic--will have a lot of patience for scenes that bear no connection to previous scenes, on the faith that all the threads will eventually come together and the Electric Monk will have a part to play eventually. But if we're allowing "remakes, done right" of movies already done, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is at the top of my list, right up there with I, Robot. (Come on, filmakers. Just because the author's dead doesn't mean you can make anything you want with the same title!) Oh, definitely Ella Enchanted, too. And this time, use the setting of the book, the characterizations of all the characters from the book, the storyline from the book, the cleverness of the main character from the book, the same political situation in the book, et cetera. In other words, the same title, some of the characters bearing vague resemblances to the book's characters, and the curse being pretty close to the same thing, does not a faithful adaptation make.
Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
Gail Carson Levine has written some other good books I'd love to see adapted.
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
quote:Originally posted by Zalmoxis: I haven't seen any of them.
Me neither! But thanks for the links, you Kafka nut, you!
Posted by Earendil18 (Member # 3180) on :
quote:Originally posted by Gwen: Those are examples of extremely good books that would make, at best, extremely confusing movies. Although no doubt extremely good ones, for those of us who appreciated the books. I doubt that the average moviegoer--or for that matter the average movie critic--will have a lot of patience for scenes that bear no connection to previous scenes, on the faith that all the threads will eventually come together and the Electric Monk will have a part to play eventually. But if we're allowing "remakes, done right" of movies already done, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is at the top of my list, right up there with I, Robot. (Come on, filmakers. Just because the author's dead doesn't mean you can make anything you want with the same title!)
From what I heard most of that movie was already layed out by the author before he died, there wasn't a lot of "editing" that went on.
Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
Madeleine L'Engle's Time Series.
Done right.
The made-for-tv-movie version of A Wrinkle in Time Disney produced a few years ago was so utterly wretched.
Posted by Palliard (Member # 8109) on :
The problem with these "book made into a movie" threads is that, if you looks at the books that were made into movies... so many of them were adapted beyond the point of recognition.
Really, to the point where you'd go, "OK, a couple of the characters names were similar, but WTF?"
Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
Yeah. Ever compare Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH to The Secret of NIMH? Totally different stories, totally different characters.
Posted by Samuel Bush (Member # 460) on :
Someone mentioned “The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.” Yes, definitely.
I would add to the list:
Homebody Enchantment Magic Street by Card
The Practice Effect by David Brin
Or if you don’t mind hard scifi then how about movies based on :
The Legacy of Herot by Niven, Pournelle, and Barns Bug Park by James P. Hogan The Two Faces of Tomorrow by James P. Hogan Friday by Heinlein (as long as Verhoeven and Neumeier are not allowed within a million miles of the production of it. Although, either Dina Meyer or Denise Richards could have the staring role.)
Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
Speaking of a film that will be hard to adapt: The option to produce a film version of Lord Foul's Bane, the first of Stephen R. Donaldson's The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant was sold a couple of years ago.
Selling an option basically means the author was paid to not let anyone else develop a movie based on it, not that the film will actually get made.
Still, I imagine it would be a nightmare. Not only is it arguably the weakest book in the series, but it contains the main character raping an innocent teenager.
I know that was part of the point: Covenant is a selfish prick who thinks he's hallucinating. Initially just doesn't care. And the event proved pivotal to every subsequent book, and in a way Covenant spent the second series trying to atone for it...but still. Not an easy thing to adapt for a film.
Posted by starLisa (Member # 8384) on :
quote:Originally posted by Samuel Bush: Friday by Heinlein (as long as Verhoeven and Neumeier are not allowed within a million miles of the production of it. Although, either Dina Meyer or Denise Richards could have the staring role.)
Dina Meyer, definitely. She'd be perfect for the role.
Posted by Jim-Me (Member # 6426) on :
quote:Originally posted by Tatiana: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and Long Dark Teatime of the Soul.
Funny that you mention this... I was just thinking this morning about how much I'd like to see Terry Gilliam produce and direct those two and came to this thread to post it, but you beat me to it.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
I was just reading Holistic Detective Agency last week (for the umpteenth time) and thinking how marvelous and how completely unpopular a movie it would make. Consider the resolution of the climax, which is -- at least in the novel -- a conversation with a poet that takes place off-screen and which is not even recounted. And WHY that conversation saves the world from destruction isn't even stated, so that even if you know the necessary trivia about Coleridge's writing process you still have to make a second mental leap to figure out what actually happened. Posted by Gwen (Member # 9551) on :
You actually tried to figure out what actually happened?
I have the philosophy when it comes to a book by Douglas Adams: enjoy the story, the characters, the ideas, and don't think too hard about the meaning. I mean, anybody whose answer to "the Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything" was 42 isn't writing for the sake of being understood.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
quote:And WHY that conversation saves the world from destruction isn't even stated, so that even if you know the necessary trivia about Coleridge's writing process you still have to make a second mental leap to figure out what actually happened.
Actually, if you could fill me in I'd really appreciate it.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
By removing the second half of Kubla Khan, they remove the specific triggers in that poem which caused Michael to fully submit to the ghost's control. He consequently successfully resists preventing the explosion at the last moment, being -- despite all his other faults -- still unwilling to destroy all life on Earth. This is also why Dirk comments that there are now "two of him," referring to the ghost; because the ghost was inside Michael and Michael was also at the ship when it blew up, Future-Ghost presumably was trapped back in the past along with Ghost-1 (created when the original alien died).
There are a number of other possible explanations that fit a few of the remaining facts, but this is the only one I've come up with that manages to account for and resolve all the paradoxes and other statements in the book. As to why they chose this particular way to stop Michael, as opposed to just teleporting the room a little closer to the ship and shooting him, or going back a little bit in time and thumping him on the head before he could kill the editor of Fathom, or anything like that, I can only assume that it was because Adams felt that this was more clever by half. And I suspect it also appealed to Adams' sense of humor to spike our organic soup with Michael Wednesday-Week. *slightly pained laugh*
Posted by Jim-Me (Member # 6426) on :
Now I have to read it again to see if I can answer Tom's "why"? because something inside of me is telling me I knew the answer to that, once...
Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
I realize I need to give more reasons for my choices. Mark Salzman's "The Laughing Sutra" would make a totally kick-ass martial arts movie, because it has great fight scenes, it's hilarious with a humor that is warm and inclusive, it has a wonderful fantasy element in the person of the 3000 year old Colonel Sun, who is modeled on the Monkey King from Chinese folklore. He is such a great character! He's often wry and grumpy but always loyal and smart, with deep insights into human nature and super-human martial arts skillz.
I love the juxtaposition between San Francisco 70s culture and that of the Chinese mainland at that time, as well as that of ancient China. Salzman is a master at poking gentle fun at everyone. He reminds me of Jane Austen in the tone of his humor. Imagine if she had written action adventure stories.
Probably my favorite scene is when Colonel Sun shows up at a longshoreman's bar near the San Francisco docks, with the intent to beat their best fighter in a boxing match. A ship's captain had given our heros free illegal passage to the U.S. if they would settle a grudge match by showing the bar owner that Chinese fighting is superior to that in the States. But when they arrive, instead of having regular Saturday night boxing matches, the bar has converted to dwarf tossing instead. Colonel Sun, from his perspective rooted firmly in ancient imperial China, sees this exercise as something very sinister, so he liberates the dwarf from his "evil captors" and proceeds to throw their champion all the way across the room and outside into the street. A huge brawl erupts. Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
Hmmm, I need to read the Dirk Gently books again. I don't remember most of what you guys are talking about, since I only read them once long ago. I just remember it all being very clever and tying all loose ends perfectly at the end, in unexpected but "just right" ways. I remember thinking that Adams' brilliance was exactly for this sort of thing. I like Dirk Gently even more than Hitchhikers.
Posted by Amilia (Member # 8912) on :
So I was just reading through a chat transcript with Stephen Fry, and someone asked him about a Dirk Gently movie. I thought you all might be interested in what he had to say about that.
quote:Stephen Fry: Well Robbie Stamp, an old mucker of DNA's who ran Digital Village with him and exec prodded HHGG wants to make it as a movie and has tentatively asked if I would be interested in either playing Dirk or writing-directing or all three, or both or any permutation thereof.... Am currently rereading DG with this in mind....
Someone else thinks Snow Crash should be a movie. Whee!
Posted by Shepherd (Member # 7380) on :
Two books that woud make fantastic movies would be 1) FITZGERALDS WAR (a mildly futuristic book in which the world reverts back to steam powered machnery, ships, zepelins, that kind of thing.) 2) VILLLAIN BY NECCESITY (arguably one of the funiest fantasy books I have ever read, it is escentially, what are the bad guys thinking after the end of LOTR, it reads like a very complicated D&D game, and is truly a fantastic read)
Posted by Jim-Me (Member # 6426) on :
I would go see a movie based on Snow Crash...
Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
I would disagree about the Villains By Necessity/Lord of the Rings thing. Evil wasn't completely eradicated by the end of LotR. One great evil was, but the world lost a lot of good things too. And even the good guys who got "happy" endings had a melancholy element or three stirred in.
In VBN -all- evil is eradicated save for a tiny band of misfit "villains"...and the world is in danger of becoming a Disney cartoon on crack.
And the villains are more sweet and vulnerable than evil. And the good guys all seem to be shallow hypocrites.
D&D is the better comparison you give to VBN. The author wrote the book as a parody of the way "good" and "evil" are portrayed in a typical D&D game.
[ July 14, 2006, 03:22 AM: Message edited by: Puffy Treat ]
Posted by Samuel Bush (Member # 460) on :
I'd like to see Heilein's "Glory Road" made into a movie and Harry Harrison's "Stainless Steel Rat" a TV series.
Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
quote:Originally posted by Earendil18:
quote:Originally posted by Gwen: Those are examples of extremely good books that would make, at best, extremely confusing movies. Although no doubt extremely good ones, for those of us who appreciated the books. I doubt that the average moviegoer--or for that matter the average movie critic--will have a lot of patience for scenes that bear no connection to previous scenes, on the faith that all the threads will eventually come together and the Electric Monk will have a part to play eventually. But if we're allowing "remakes, done right" of movies already done, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is at the top of my list, right up there with I, Robot. (Come on, filmakers. Just because the author's dead doesn't mean you can make anything you want with the same title!)
From what I heard most of that movie was already layed out by the author before he died, there wasn't a lot of "editing" that went on.
Which novie do you mean by "that movie"?
Because if you are talking about I, Robot, you are very much mistaken.
Posted by theamazeeaz (Member # 6970) on :
Ignoring your title and suggesting an SF book.
The Truth Machine, by James L. Halpern.
Haven't read it in years, by now, it's quite dated since the book attempts to reasonably predict the future starting in 1995 (like that Al Gore would be president in 2000). It's quite character driven and a good read- am I the only one who knows it?
Would a movie be doable- dunno.
Posted by Will B (Member # 7931) on :
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld
Posted by Jim-Me (Member # 6426) on :
I think she meant "Hitchhiker's Guide", which would be less wrong, but still wrong, there were some significant things in that movie that I can't see Adams putting in at all.
Posted by SenojRetep (Member # 8614) on :
quote:Originally posted by Icarus:
quote:Originally posted by Earendil18: From what I heard most of that movie was already layed out by the author before he died, there wasn't a lot of "editing" that went on.
Which novie do you mean by "that movie"?
Because if you are talking about I, Robot, you are very much mistaken.
I think he probably means Hitchhiker's Guide, which was largely written by Douglas Adams before his death <edit>and only slightly written by Douglas Adams after his death (haha)</edit>. However, the problems (or, at least, my problems) with the movie were less with the script and more with the execution.
Posted by Sterling (Member # 8096) on :
I agree on Zelazny's Amber. Or, say, Nine Princes and Guns of Avalon. Trying to do the whole thing- whew, would that get unwieldy.
I'd love to see Stephenson's Snow Crash or Cryptonomicon, if I thought they'd be done any justice. So much is in the exposition within the writing, I don't know if it could be done. Stephenson's books are often like talking to a very interesting, very intelligent friend with a ridiculous propensity to ramble.
Neuromancer was slated to be made into a movie way back around 1990 or so, and has apparently been in legal limbo ever since. Sorry, Gecko. I have to say, some of Gibson's later works might be easier to transition. (As long as they don't cast Keanu Reeves.)
The ending of S. King's Gunslinger disappointed me. Felt like a Konami videogame. (I'll explain that to anyone who doesn't mind spoilers.) It has a lot of rich material, though, and would probably make a good miniseries.
quote:Yeah, the last part of His Dark Materials really disappointed me, primarily because Pullman failed to put the same kind of development into his primary antagonists that he did into his heroes and early antagonists. I mean, seriously, what motivated the Metatron & Company to want everyone to live by arbitrary rules and be miserable? Absolutely nothing. Or nothing that was ever made clear to the reader.
I agree with others that Golden Compass creates a rich world that almost- almost!- makes it worth reading the rest of the trilogy.
But oh...
Pullman forgetting that his "prophecy" has already been fulfilled, and thus fulfilling it over and over again?
A culture that denies the existence of other worlds having a guided missile that can kill people on other worlds?!
A principal antagonist who changes sides for no apparent reason?
There's a lot of frustrations in Dark Materials, even if the atheist slant doesn't big you.
Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
I would like to see a comical and light-heartedly animated series of visual fables, based in semi-narration, detailing the Sallies of Trurl and Klaupacius in Stanislaw Lem's novel Cyberiad.
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