New Films, New Options, New Rumours....

[pyan]

Just what the title says - snippets you may have seen regarding interesting developments in the SF/F/Horror genres.


Keep it short and snappy, please: a long discussion should have a dedicated thread.

[pyan]

Paramount has recently taken out an option on the movie rights for Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles...

http://www.scifimoviepage.com/upcomi...hronicles.html

[dask]

I read quite a while ago that Mel Gibson bought the rights to Fahrenheit 451. Ray Bradbury sounded really excited about it and so was I but then after a decade or more I haven't heard a thing. Anyone know anything?

[pyan]

Did he think that Gibson would make a better job of it than Truffaut did? Odd...

Fahrenheit 451 (1966)

[dask]

Yeah, I think so, at least with regards to special effects.

[Dave]

I thought the 1966 film a little monochrome, dull and slow actually. I'd like a new film to bring out the similarity of the ear shells to people today obliviously walking around listening to ipods and talking on the phone while simultaneously trying to be served in shops or crossing the road; and the full 4-wall screen TV and celebrity soap culture compared to our reality TV/famous for a 15 minutes/talentless singer search/ Z-list celebrity minutiae obsessed culture and a curious drive towards larger and larger TV screens in front living rooms. Obviously, keep in the book burning and the underground groups trying to memorise them; though Bradbury had no way of knowing about Project Gutenberg.

[Metryq]

Dask wrote: Yeah, I think so, at least with regards to special effects.

Better special effects should never be the excuse for a "remake." Directors at any given time know what they have to work with and make adjustments. I've seen too many "because the special effects are better now" remakes where the writer/director sat on those technical laurels and left any other artistic considerations by the wayside. Tron Legacy, for example, told a slightly different story (allegedly a sequel) and dropped lots of allusions to the first film, but it is obvious that the makers didn't "get" the original. The sequel was paint-by-numbers without a hint of the multi-faceted allegory of the original.

Originally Posted by Dave

though Bradbury had no way of knowing about Project Gutenberg.

There's a "zeitgeist" to many stories—even ones depicting the future—that should be maintained, otherwise the identity of a story may be lost. Granted, Truffaut's take on Fahrenheit 451 was not a literal translation from page to screen, but we've seen the pitfalls of that approach.

The problem with updating the technology in Fahrenheit 451 is that it will begin to look too much like Orwell's 1984. Heinlein's The Puppet Masters was brought to screen in a paint-by-numbers fashion, and it ended up looking like a remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Maintaining just one thread from the book—such as the role reversal between father and son—would have made all the difference. Besides, Pixar's Wall•E already spoofed the "zoned out zombies" talking to each other through video when they are physically elbow to elbow.

While we're at it, maybe we should change the title to Celsius 232 to make it more international? Another problem with changing the technology to reflect today's world, then having to fight backwards to maintain certain aspects of the book, is that aspects of the allegory may be lost. For example, merely preserving the books, a la Project Gutenberg, has been done in everything from the Foundation stories to Lost Horizon. Having people memorize the books has many facets: the mind is the last refuge of freedom even in the most crushing fascism, and the people know the books and are mindful of them; the books become alive. One can preserve history in books, but if one does not read them and know them—well, you know the old adage about history repeating itself.

Remakers should be very careful about tossing what appears to be superficial detail.

[Metryq]

Originally Posted by Dave

I thought the 1966 film a little monochrome, dull and slow actually.

Exactly! It made the whole world look a bit like an asylum for simpletons, didn't it?

[pyan]

Here's the new trailer for John Carter, based on the character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and boy, it's a doozie, as they say...




(Spot the Led Zeppelin riff!)

[TL Rese]

Originally Posted by pyan

Here's the new trailer for John Carter, based on the character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and boy, it's a doozie, as they say...

(Spot the Led Zeppelin riff!)

i just saw this trailer! i thought it looked great and am definitely going to see it. - yea, it looks reminiscent of avatar, but i guess that's where the special effects technology is nowadays.

i've never read any of the carter novels and was wondering if the trailer looks like it's going to be a good adaptation? is this supposed to be an adaptation of "princess of mars"?

[Foxbat]

Originally Posted by pyan

Here's the new trailer for John Carter, based on the character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and boy, it's a doozie, as they say...
(Spot the Led Zeppelin riff!)

This looks good. As for that riff, I hear it cropping up all over the place at the moment. Jimmy P must be getting a few extra royalty payments

[Moonbat]

Wow john carter looks cool, is it from a book?

I'm still looking forward to at the mountains of madness.

[pyan]

First official trailer for Men in Black 3:

[Moonbat]

Josh Brolin as a young Tommy Lee Jones, brilliant casting

[Metryq]

MIB3, a perfect example of series sci-fi rule number 5: you know the writers have run out of ideas when time travel or alternate universes are introduced.