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Syd
Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 2:42 am Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
Now that the Narnia novels and Lord of the Rings are being successfully adapted, I'd like to see Lloyd Alexander's Prydain novels adapted properly. Disney did The Black Cauldron a few years ago and blew it.

I don't think The Dark Is Rising series has ever been adapted and I think it would be great. The main problem would be that volumes 1 (Over Sea Under Stone) and 3 (Greenwich) has different protagonists than volumes 2 (The Dark Is Rising) and 4 (The Grey King). If I remember, the two strands come together in volume 5.

Patricia McKillip regularly comed out with elegantly written fantasies that are richly envisioned. Song for the Basilisk, In the Forest of Serre and The Tower at Stony Wood come to mind. I'm not sure how commercial they'd be.

Diana Wynne Jones wrote Howl's Moving Castle, which Miyazaki adapted, not entirely successfully. The one I would really like to see adapted is Charmed Life, which seems like it would translate naturally to the screen. The Spellcoats, may not be filmable, although it is an amazing book. It would probably require a Miyazaki to do it properly.

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mo_flixx
Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 3:36 am Reply with quote
Joined: 30 May 2004 Posts: 12533
A number of years ago, I used to think that doing science fiction adaptations was the "kiss of death," but time has proved me wrong.
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bocce
Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 4:52 am Reply with quote
Joined: 24 May 2004 Posts: 2428
i've always wished for film adaptations of some of j. p. donleavy's work...

THE GINGER MAN and A SINGULAR MAN have already been adapted to the theater (by donleavy, himself) but i'm afraid they're a little dated now for today's audiences.

also, john kennedy toole's A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES might have been fun with the right ignatius j. reilly but that doesn't seem to be in the cards and has , too, propably passed its prime.
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Joe Vitus
Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 5:37 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston
Isn't Will Ferrell supposed to be starring in a movie version?

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bocce
Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 6:06 am Reply with quote
Joined: 24 May 2004 Posts: 2428
no, production was cancelled...
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dlhavard
Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 9:17 am Reply with quote
Joined: 24 May 2004 Posts: 1352 Location: Detroit (where the slow are run over)
Quote:
A number of years ago, I used to think that doing science fiction adaptations was the "kiss of death," but time has proved me wrong.


I think as long as they aren't "star driven" - Cosner in The Postman and Waterworld come to mind - they can be quite good.

I loved Arnold in both of the Philip Dick adaptations and Ford in Bladerunner - SIGH!

I liked "I, Robot" with Will Smith - although it was NOTHING like Asimov's book "Caves of Steel". I, Robot was actually a pretty good story.

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jeremy
Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 10:06 am Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 6794 Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
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A film adaptation of the first part of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials entitled His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass, is slated for release in 2007 by New Line Cinema, the company behind the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, and will be directed by Anand Tucker. The film will take the title of Northern Lights in the UK. The original director, Chris Weitz, announced his resignation from that position on December 15, 2004. Comments by Weitz in an interview prior to his departure from the project suggested that its film treatment might minimize the explicitly religious character of The Authority so as to avoid offending some viewers. Weitz remains listed as a screenwriter, but with Tucker's appointment on August 8th, 2005, it is unclear to what degree the movie screenplay will continue to follow Weitz's treatment. As of 2006, the film is in pre-production, and actors have not been cast. They hope to find unknown British actors for the roles of Lyra and Will, and hope to stay as true to the book as possible.

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dlhavard
Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 10:34 am Reply with quote
Joined: 24 May 2004 Posts: 1352 Location: Detroit (where the slow are run over)
It's funny, I loved the first book, liked the second, and could never get into the third of the series. It was like playing a video game - over and over and over.

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Joe Vitus
Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 12:32 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston
bocce wrote:
no, production was cancelled...


In truth, I'm relieved.

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bocce
Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 2:49 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 24 May 2004 Posts: 2428
Joe Vitus wrote:
bocce wrote:
no, production was cancelled...
In truth, I'm relieved.


why would you care one way or the other? if you didn't care for the book, no one would be twisting your arm to see the film. on the other hand, lots of people found the book amusing and would have welcomed an adaptation to film.

these are the kind of off the cuff comments (like rod's about oliver stone) that i find really irritating...
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billyweeds
Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 3:57 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City
bocce wrote:
Joe Vitus wrote:
bocce wrote:
no, production was cancelled...
In truth, I'm relieved.


why would you care one way or the other? if you didn't care for the book, no one would be twisting your arm to see the film. on the other hand, lots of people found the book amusing and would have welcomed an adaptation to film.

these are the kind of off the cuff comments (like rod's about oliver stone) that i find really irritating...


The way I interpreted Joe's remark was this: he likes the book and was dreading the almost inevitably horrendous film adaptation--not because he would have to see it, but because many people would and would have their perception of the unread novel perverted by the screen version.

If I'm wrong, sobeit, but if I'm right--well, this interpretation just seems so obvious.
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Joe Vitus
Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 5:24 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston
Billy pretty much nailed it. Will Ferrell just seemed so wrong for Ignatious. Maybe, maybe Jack Black? Or even better, Philip Seymour Hoffman.

I'm not crazy about the book, I mean, it isn't a favorite of mine, but it is one of the more impressive/important novels of the 20th century. It's nice that people still encounter the book as a book, and not as a DVD rental.

Frankly, it's hard for me to enter into a conversation about novels that haven't been filmed, because I'd generally prefer they weren't. I'm not against movie adaptations period, but it's nice to think there are some occaisions where you have to open up the pages of a book to find out what everyone's talking about. Most 20th century novels don't adapt well to the screen, maybe because they so largely take place within the conciousness of the character or characters. One of the major reasons Gatsby has never been successfully filmed (and they've tried and tried and tried). People mention Catcher in the Rye. Does anyone really want to see a movie of that? The whole empahsis isn't on what happens (which is fairly mundane), but on how Holden perceives it. That's the key to the novel, why so many people have taken it to heart. Take away that controlling voice, that perspective, and what are you left with? Reducing it to a document of the exterior activities would take the heart out of the thing.

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Melody
Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 5:28 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 2242 Location: TX
Either A Confederacy of Dunces is cursed, or it's just downright one of the most difficult novels to adapt in the last 25 years, which is how long it's been optioned. Writers such as Stephen Fry, Harold Ramis, Mary Beth Henley, and most recently, Steven Soderbergh have written adaptations. Soderbergh was trying to work out a deal with Miramax, but when Miramax disappeared, so did the deal.

Apparently, Soderbergh is still attached, as are Drew Barrymore, Mos Def and director David Gordon Green.

http://www.thebookstandard.com/bookstandard/news/hollywood/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000865382

I hate the idea of Will Ferrell as Ignatius. PSH, maybe. Optimally, I say you get a virtual unknown, someone who can do the Nawlins accent and who's a slovenly curmudgeon naturally, without need of makeup or fat suit. Those two ingredients are essential to sell Ignatius' character.

And what better time to shoot in New Orleans? Downtown will be virtually deserted now that it's post-Mardi Gras; dirt and devastation are rampant; and the economy could use the boost of a major Hollywood (or major indie) film production.

I'd love to see a director like Mary Harron or George Clooney take a stab at it. Both of them have adapted strange literary works brilliantly -- Harron with American Psycho, Clooney with Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.

I'm telling you, if they'd just leave it to me, I could get it all straightened out.

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Joe Vitus
Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 5:48 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston
Melody wrote:
Optimally, I say you get a virtual unknown, someone who can do the Nawlins accent and who's a slovenly curmudgeon naturally, without need of makeup or fat suit. Those two ingredients are essential to sell Ignatius' character.


Yes, yes, yes.

Quote:
And what better time to shoot in New Orleans? Downtown will be virtually deserted now that it's post-Mardi Gras; dirt and devastation are rampant; and the economy could use the boost of a major Hollywood (or major indie) film production.


Great point.

Quote:
I'd love to see a director like Mary Harron or George Clooney take a stab at it. Both of them have adapted strange literary works brilliantly -- Harron with American Psycho, Clooney with Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.

I'm telling you, if they'd just leave it to me, I could get it all straightened out.


I'd trust you with it.

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Joe Vitus
Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 5:57 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston
Thanks for the link, by the way. I'm not a big John Belushi fan, but the idea of his playing Ignatious is intriguing, as is the casting of Richard Pryor.

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