Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 20:00:46 -0400
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>,
 WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: "Science Fiction Double Feature"
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

At 8/27/2007 06:54 PM, Stan wrote:
> > >The record is mixed on written SF making it into film. ENEMY MINE:
> > >Hugo-winning story, ENEMY MINE, the forgettable film.John Varley's
>
>Actually, I rather enjoyed 'Enemy Mine'.=20

Me too...I thought Mr. Gossett, Jr. did a fine job as an alien.

> > >AIR RAID became MILLENNIUM, a so-so film. And lest we forget:
> > >STARSHIP TROOPERS.
> >
> > The RAH fans start foaming at the mouth over that.
>
>Well, what did you expect when they hired a director that was convinced=20
>Heinlein was a facist?

And when they dropped the powered armor for cost reasons?  That was
one of the best things in the book!  They also lost all the subtle
stuff about boys becoming men, responsibility and leadership,
etc..  It turned into a simple bug hunt with a love interest on the side.

Keep in mind that SST was a juvenile, not really intended for
adults...the movie was similar.

>films that were so bad John Norman has sworn he will never sign another deal
>with a movie company. Even hard-core GOR fans barfed at them.

I had friends who ran Star Trek cons for 10 years.  One published a
very popular fanzine for years.  The name on the account they used to
pay the rent on the group house they rented while in college was
based on some obscure Trek trivia.  At the con every year they called
Gene Rodenberry and asked when the movie was coming out.  Got the
picture?  Ok, so when the movie did come out, and we all went to see
it, I noticed several of them dozing off during the eternal V'ger
flyby scene.  When you can bore such serious fans into a snooze at a
movie they've been waiting for for 10 years, you desperately need at
least a re-edit...

Lynn Marie Stevens did that re-edit BTW.  Ended up with a 60 minute
film that was a riot...it was called, "Star Wreck - Commotion
Picture", or words to that effect.  She was 17 at the time, and
wanting to go to film school.  I hope she made it...she's our only hope... ;-)

My name for the first film is, "Star Trek - The Motionless Picture
(Where Nomad Has Gone Before)".

> > Good film from book? =C2=A0BLADERUNNER was very good film (YMMV), vaguely
> > based on PKDs "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep".
>
>How about 'Serenity'? I thought that was well done.

Was Serenity based on a book?  I know it's the movie conclusion of
the series Firefly, but I didn't know it started as a book.  Firefly
was already cancelled before I heard of it, so maybe that's not surprising.

I liked the series, and the movie, though I would have preferred that
they get their astronomical terminology right (calling a large solar
system a galaxy)...that mistake made it seem like just another bad SF
show very early on, and it had to overcome that for me.  Sort of like
the original Battlestar Gallactica when they'd start shouting that
the Cylons were at 20 microns and closing....I wanted to tell them to
turn on the windshield wipers and scrape them off...

>And the SciFi Channel=20
>version of "Riverworld", "Dune" and "Children of Dune" were not all
>that bad either.

Agreed...though they didn't finish Riverworld.  Looked like the pilot
for a series that never made it to me.  It was refreshing seeing them
do the opening scene as written though, rather than having everyone
appear in modern bathing suits.

>On the other hand, there are a LOT of good novels that are begging for feat=
>ure=20
>film treatment. "The Apocalypse Troll" by David Weber is one and "The City=
>=20
>and the Stars" by Arthur C. Clark is another. Using modern CGI, either one =
>of=20
>them would not be too expensive to make and are great space operas.

Heck, how about the Lensman series??

David Drake's "The Sharp End" struck me as being perfect for a movie
the whole time I was reading it...there's not too much to fit into a
110 page script, it's visual in many places, and the general plot
outline (mercs hired to help settle a dispute between drug gangs)
won't be too hard for Joe Sixpack to follow.  The final scenes, where
the 100 ton hover-tanks show up, is perfect for GGI.

Of course, if they *did* make it into a movie, they'd completely lose
any subtle ideas and add a ton of plasma canon fights that were never
in the book...maybe we should wait until technology lets us do the
entire thing in a home computer, special effects, actors,
everything.  Shouldn't be much longer...

>All this means there is some hope on the horizon, but it is NOT with the ma=
>jor=20
>studios as they are all way too paranoid and run by accountants to take any=
>risks.

We won't see good adaptations until they are done by people who love
the original works, and until movies aren't made by committee.  See
above for what it will take.  Until then they will look like Mona
Lisas done by house painters.

>If any one has been watching the wide variety of Star Wars student videos t=
>hat=20
>have come out in the past few years, we have the talent, imagination and=20
>tools... just need to get the dang attorneys and accountants out of the way=
>and let them produce.

Exactly the right way to go about it...and the easiest way to get
those folks out of the picture is to quit making fan knockoffs of
blockbuster hits and start getting them to make original works based
on their own stories, so there's no legal encumbrance over IP issues.

-- Mike B.
--

"In the end more than they wanted freedom, they wanted security. When the
  Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give
  to them, when the freedom they wished for was freedom from
  responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free."

                                                -- Edward Gibbon