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I can't wait until Ender's Game is finally made into a movie and I hope it will do well enough to earn several sequels.
But which book outside the Enderverse would make the best film?
Most would probably vote for the Alvin series. I vote Treasure Box.
I read it a few months ago as it was one of the few Card books I hadn't read. Despite its differences from his other books I love, I thought it was almost written like a screenplay and could make an excellent movie.
Pastwatch may the the book I would most like see made into a movie.
Posts: 11 | Registered: Jun 2009
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Enchantment is OSCs book that would be most easily and effectively adapted to movie format.
If well executed, "Enchantment" could make a real blockbuster movie that would become of classic. It doesn't have any of the major problems with adaptation to movie format that his other books have.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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I agree that Enchantment could work. I think Lost Boys could work quite well too.
I don't see it for the Alvin series. IMO, there's too much happening inside the characters' heads that you couldn't portray on screen (like Alvin trying to heal his own leg, or find the shape of the millstone). Voice over narration would be too cumbersome and just showing the external view of such events would make it seem like arbitrary magic.
Posts: 4287 | Registered: Mar 2005
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I think a lot of that is doable (though I havent read alvin in awhile).
I'm not sure what you mean by arbitrary magic or how it would feel that way, and I think some oral narration could give the movie an oral folklore flavor--it worked in "The Assassination of Jesse James"; the story in Alvin is narrated by a real person anyway (by Arthur Stuart, I think).
I also think you could get very atmospheric with the cinematography in Alvin.
Finally, I guess I'll add that most people like the comic book.
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For Alvin healing his own leg (and several other 'magic' sequences), it seems to me you could show his doodlebug, um, doodling around.
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Yeah, I would take a 'camera' -- just some CGI stuff -- zooming around inside the body to find and repair.
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I love the Alvinverse and think it could be done on film, but think its very poorly suited for a movie. It could make a good TV series, with perhaps a season for each book. But there is simply too much to the story to fit even "Seventh Son" into a neat 2 hour movie. The backstory alone is pretty complicated with the alternative timeline, knacks, doodlebugs, and torches.
Any book has to be cut and cut dramatically for a movie, and I'm not seeing any way to cut Seventh Son that wouldn't make the story kind of incoherent.
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I'd like to see the Worthing Chronicles made into a movie. The concept of a society slipping into stagnation due to the leaders sleeping for centuries, etc sounds interesting.
Probably wouldn't be a very good action flic though.
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the way TV has been producing movie-quality shows over the last few years, I'd love to see Alvin made into a series.
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I love Alvin Maker, but I agree the story's a bit too big. I don't know how well I could handle all the cuts they'd have to make.
Enchantment would be pretty awesome, though. Maybe Wyrms as well (though the ending part would be quite disturbing).
Posts: 132 | Registered: Feb 2009
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Enchantment would be a great movie. I think OSC said it would be impossible, though, because it would be too much like Enchanted. Is that what that Disney movie is called?
Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
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I think 7th son would be the easiest to make into a movie because you do have the "natural narrator".
Following 7th son I was originally going to say Enchantment, because it also seems like it could be adapted. The thing is, Enchantment would have to be one of those 3 hour films if you really wanted to maintain the true story line.
Someone else mentioned Treasurebox, and I think that would probably be a pretty easy thing to make into a movie, as would Homebody. However, I don't think either would be truly magnificent movies. They'd be ok - but the things that make them better than your "run of the mill" horror wouldn't really translate all that well into film. The same is true of "Lost Boys". You'd have to get rid of most of the sub-plots and pretty much run the movie along the short story line. The thing is the, "Wow, he was a ghost all along" ploy has already been done in film. Even though the book is not a copy cat, the movie would FEEL like one.
What about "Angles". I know it's just a short story, but I think that would be a pretty cool movie!
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quote: The thing is the, "Wow, he was a ghost all along" ploy has already been done in film. Even though the book is not a copy cat, the movie would FEEL like one.
This is another one OSC mentioned, I think. He can't make Lost Boys because of Sixth Sense.
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Despite both plots involve a romance between a modern man and ancient princess and an evil witch determined to destroy them, Enchantment is a VERY DIFFERENT story from Enchanted. They'd probably want to change the title if they adapted it for film so people wouldn't be confused, but Enchanted is a comedic parody on Disney animated musicals while Enchantment is a much more adult (though with plenty of humor in it) Russian folklore/time travel epic romance.
If Hollywood can (and with financial success) pump out year after year romantic comedies, music biopics, horror movies, historical war epics, and disaster films that usually have very little deviation from the core cliches and formulas of their respective genres, then there's plenty of room for both Enchanted and Enchantment to exist. I think the differences in tone and subject matter would be different enough even in the trailers for people not to get too hung up on some surface similarities. Just change the title and problem solved.
Posts: 132 | Registered: Feb 2009
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quote:Originally posted by daventor: Despite both plots involve a romance between a modern man and ancient princess and an evil witch determined to destroy them, Enchantment is a VERY DIFFERENT story from Enchanted. They'd probably want to change the title if they adapted it for film so people wouldn't be confused, but Enchanted is a comedic parody on Disney animated musicals while Enchantment is a much more adult (though with plenty of humor in it) Russian folklore/time travel epic romance.
If Hollywood can (and with financial success) pump out year after year romantic comedies, music biopics, horror movies, historical war epics, and disaster films that usually have very little deviation from the core cliches and formulas of their respective genres, then there's plenty of room for both Enchanted and Enchantment to exist. I think the differences in tone and subject matter would be different enough even in the trailers for people not to get too hung up on some surface similarities. Just change the title and problem solved.
See, that was my thought too. Can anyone think of a reason why this wouldn't work? Baba Yaga would be a lot of fun to watch.
Posts: 3354 | Registered: May 2005
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The only thing I think is that it would have to be pretty long to get in all the good stuff. The audio version, for example, is broken into three parts on audible, and they follow some pretty natural story line breaks.
****SPOILER WARNING*****
Part 1: Ivan grows up with image of mysterious princess so goes back to find her, only to have to go through a "Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" experience - only not so pleasant.
Part 2: Ivan brings Princess "back to the future", and we go through the whole culture shock sequence again. We also deal with the jilted Fiance and find out that Mother, indeed, knows best.
Part 3: The Showdown! In so many ways this is almost anti-climactic in the book, but it would have to be a major part of the movie. This is the stuff to get the guys in the door - lots of fire, gory battle, etc.
I'm thinking each part would take almost an hour to really do right. Thus, you'd have a monster of a film. It's been done before, of course, and done successfully - but it's hard to pull off.
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quote:Originally posted by nawglan: I'd like to see the Worthing Chronicles made into a movie. The concept of a society slipping into stagnation due to the leaders sleeping for centuries, etc sounds interesting.
Probably wouldn't be a very good action flic though.
I think the Worthing Saga would be better as a TV series. You could have the planet of worthing be the main story and have flashbacks to capitol. Best of Both worlds. It'd kinda be like LOST.
Posts: 113 | Registered: Sep 2005
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I think that most novels would work better as either a TV series or mini-series. It varies, but a good rule of thumb is that a movie is about as long as a short story. Most novels are many times larger than that.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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Yeah, I think mini-series are the best form for adaptation. You get the time needed to develop the characters and do the plot, but (unlike tv series) you actually have to keep the plot moving forward because there is a set time for ending at the beginning; you don't keep dragging out conflicts and almost-but-never-quite realized romantic relationships till you kill what made the whole concept cool in the first place.
On a side note, this is main flaw I find in TV series; even my favorite ones aren't entirely immune [Smallville totally went off the deep end; Lost has been marred somewhat by this; even Burn Notice has dragged a little bit sometimes for me]. It's the only possible bright side to Firefly being canceled so early on. It never had time to be anything but fresh and awesome.
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quote:Originally posted by mr_porteiro_head: I think that most novels would work better as either a TV series or mini-series. It varies, but a good rule of thumb is that a movie is about as long as a short story. Most novels are many times larger than that.
quote:Originally posted by InsertPunHere: I think Treason would have some awesome visuals.
I was thinking this would make the best movie. Great action, good plot, crazy 'science' and nazi references. How could it go wrong?
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and empire would be easy on cg cause it takes place in almost real time(not the way distent futrue)
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I think worthing would be great as a trilogy!
That book varies so much at parts I'm sure finding 3 cohesive stories would certainly be possible.
but really, to me pastwatch looks as if it was designed to be a movie. There's action, mystery, awesome examination of cultures, time travel, and a little historical content. I'm surprised someon like JJ Abrams hasn't tried to filmify it.
And for length purposes they would edit out the more boring and unimportant Columbus bits and some of the personal plotlines that were great in the story, but would just make the film tedious.
My thoughts. -LT
Posts: 856 | Registered: Jun 2007
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Blayne Bradley
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posted
The Ender Quartet+Exile would make a great TV series with Ender's game as a miniseries.
posted
Homebody would be a pretty straight forward adaptation I think, and make a pretty good movie, but they would have to add a few more odd occurrences in the house.
And I agree about Enchantment being a great candidate, and that if done right it would turn into a real classic romance movie.
Posts: 2332 | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by InsertPunHere: I think Treason would have some awesome visuals.
I was thinking this would make the best movie. Great action, good plot, crazy 'science' and nazi references. How could it go wrong?
I always saw Treason being a miniseries on the scifi channel or something, seems like it might be a kind of long movie if done right. Still it might work, and I'd definitely go see it.
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Blayne Bradley
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posted
Of course I still stand that all of Crads work would work perfectly 101% in anime format.
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quote:Originally posted by Blayne Bradley: Of course I still stand that all of Crads work would work perfectly 101% in anime format.
I agree 100%. There are plenty of anime shows out there that are very serious and deal with adult issues. The entire Ender saga would be amazing as an anime. Treason would work very well too. Wyrms would be a good 13 episode anime as well. Even Pastwatch would work, although it would remind me a lot of Noein.
There are a few that wouldn't work very well though, such as Magic Street and Women of Genesis.
Perhaps Mr. Card should look into this, as most of his novels would be hits in Japan in that format.
Look at what Miyazaki did with "Howl's Moving Castle." It was a children's book in England, and Miyazaki did an amazing job in making that film. I can only imagine what would happen if he made Ender's Game. Most of Miyazaki's films revolve around children or young adults anyways, and there is a feel to his films that is unlike any other. He really knows how to capture the feel of what it is like to be a child.
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