Saturday, December 6, 2008

Hollywood Remakes Science Fiction Classics II

So if Hollywood should be making "new" movies instead of re-hashing "old" content, the question naturally arises as to what stories are "ripe" for being made into a movie(s). Below are some suggestions. Each of these series consists of 3 or more books (except for Smith), so Hollywood should be able to get a log of mileage out of them.

1. C.J. Cherryh - Downbelow Series.

2. Jack Chalker - Well World Series and Soul Rider Series.

3. Jack Vance - The Dying Earth Series, The Demon Princes Series, Alastor Series

4. A. Bertram Chandler - The Rim World Series

5. Cordwainer Smith - The Rediscovery of Man

Several years ago, I did attend a discussion where Orson Scott Card talked about the studios wanting to make Ender's Game into a movie. Evidently that fell through due to artistic differences. Card believed that the changes proposed by Hollywood would diminish his story. Clearly we need to protect the integrity of any stories that are brought the big screen.

As an aside, Jack Vance should receive the Noble prize for literature.

Any more suggestions?

3 comments:

Sonya said...

I think I would be highly skeptical of any Cordwainer Smith material being made into movies. I don't know if it would translate as well as some others. Vance, however could work if they approached it with dignity. Making a LOTR-esque or even 10th kingdomsish approach rather than turning it into just another fantasy movie. I wasn't that pleased by the animation in Narnia. Some of the creatures looked really silly to me. Esp the centaurs.

sidenote: http://assets.comics.com/dyn/str_strip/000000000/00000000/0000000/200000/60000/4000/600/264695/264695.full.gif
I don't know how to post a link properly here, so cut and paste.

Steve R. said...

Vance, I think would be easy to do as it would not require much in the way of special effects (The Demon Princes Series, Alastor Series). (His fantasy would be very difficult.) The complexity of Vance will be in the script and in creating very artistic sets with lots of exquisite detail.

Also Vance's characters can be very "cold". Joss Whedon "borrowed" this concept in the series Serenity when the character Mal killed the bad guy by kicking him into the jet engine. Normally, the Hollywood line is that the hero saves the bad guy who becomes grateful. NOT with Vance!

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon comes to mind as a movie style for Vance. Kill Bill also comes to mind, but it would have to be toned down quite a bit. Actually Demon Princes Series is very similar to Kill Bill since it is about revenge.
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You are correct that Smith would be much more difficult. Like Vance the script would be very important in creating a vibrant culture. I wonder if animation, as was done in Final Fantasy,the Spirits Within would work?

Sonya said...

I always click the little "email followup comments to: " button when I comment.
I haven't read a lot of vance so I was basing just on the Green Pearl series. There aren't a lot of flashy special effects that I recall, but as far as story it is fairly serious so would have to be treated as such bc the characters are pretty unique.
Yeah, vance is a cold blooded author at times.