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'Rendezvous With Rama' - The Movie
DesignMerc writes: "2003 is the posted release date for the movie version of Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama. It's being produced by Revelations Entertainment with David Fincher directing (Fight Club, Seven, Alien 3) and Morgan Freeman as part of the cast. There are production sketches at their Web site." Nothing too meaty here yet - mostly concept art.
And why has the message I'm replying to been mod'ed as -1?? Seems relatively on-topic to me.
I'd do it, but have no idea where to start, being a telecommunication programmer rather than a graphics programmer.
I never thought of it being done that way - cool! :)
This was an excellent book (the rest were, OK). Its a VERY visual experience. Everything is large, no, HUGE. With current CGI they can do it justice. I just hope they dont bugger it up.
Moebius! FANTASTIC! The movie will look GREAT!!!
Too bad Stanley Kubrik is dead, though... :(
(When are they gonna do the INCAL series in film???)
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I first heard about this movie at the end of 97. It was originally intended to come out December 31st, 1999! So this movie has been on hold for 2-3 years now. I don't expect it anytime soon. Which is a shame, as this would probably be my most anticipated movie of all time, and hopefully my most favorite movie of all time. The rama series, all 4 books, has been my favorite since I read the first one 15 years ago when I was like 7 or 8. I've have both the commodore game and the myst-like one. Both sucked at conveying the books, but they both weren't bad. My biggest worry is that the movie will try to target the mainstream audience. Most people (99%) would not get the concepts in the book. They would wonder why the aliens don't start shooting at the humans and attacking earth. I would like it to be as true to the book as you can make a movie, and sell like sh*t in the box office. that would be the best =)
Nicodemus
Part of the Second American Revolution!
The movie could go into all the details of how wipe deletes data irrecoverably from hard drives, the Perl implementation of the Solitaire crypto, the way the window manager and keyboard were hacked to prevent shoulder surfing while the protagonist was in prison...
Hell, If that's not a mass-appeal blockbuster, I don't know what is!
(Okay, I'm done being sarcastic for the moment.)
Part of the Second American Revolution!
Sorry if I am hammering away on what may turn out to be a very nice film but we have to wait *2* freaking years before we *may* see this! I really don't care right now. Tell me when it is 2 *months* from the screen and then I will get excited.
Personally I am sick of hype for 2 years and then a final product that rarely stands a chance of standing on its own legs because of the "press machine".
P/.
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What, me worry?
Nope.
Fincher did do The Game, however he had nothing to do with Alien. He worked on Alien 3, as noted above. It would have been difficult for him to contribute to the original film, considering he was 17 when it was released (1979).
Still not convinced? Check here: http://www.davidfincher.net
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Someone else may have mentioned this, but the design of the website and the language suggests that its not really being made as much as they're desperate for investors, too bad considering this is definitely one of Clarke's better books, would make a damn fine movie
Monty Plourd
IIRC, the spider biots looked like big basketballs with three eyes sitting on top of 3 legs, with three whiplike arms (I kind of visualized them like the way that the two extra squid tentacles are).
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
It wasn't an ornithopter, it was a flycycle.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Warning: Teaser
In the case of Rama, I would definately recommend people read the book before watching the movie. If we're lucky, then state-of-the-art graphics should prove to be an expidition. The complaint that the movie might ruin one's imagination is halfway offset by the several pictures within the books. I'm curious to see what was so awe inspiring about "New York City". But I can't wait to see the cynlindrical sea; Just imagine sitting on a boat with an entire ocean above and all around you, including waves...
-Michael
-Michael
*gleeful cackles*
Rendezvous may be one of my favorite SF books ever. The imagery (which might turn out really well in a movie), the mystery, the adventure... damn, the man can write.
The sequels, however, are most disappointing. While there are interesting concepts - like the octospiders - the rest of the saga as a whole is an unpleasant read. The mystery is essentially shattered, and not, in my opinion, very well. I think it has something to do with Gentry Lee's involvement. My theory is that Arthur C Clarke writes a good SF novel and gives the manuscript to Gentry Lee, who takes out all the best parts and puts in weird sex. String, mysterious powder, and a man "screaming like a jungle animal" have no place in a series with such a spectacular beginning. (also see Cradle for this phenomenon)
I think Rendezvous will translate well into cinema. It was very much, to me, a book about this one concept, about the author's vision. That is a thing which can do well as a movie. Some authors have most of their strength in the writing itself (Terry Pratchett comes to mind), and those authors' books would make inferior movies. But Rendezvous With Rama is all about the alien spaceship... and that chilling final line.
I just hope they don't try to make any book-based sequels...
PS: Clarke's Imperial Earth is also a fascinating read. You'll be playing with those little puzzle pieces for days...
-J
Karma: T-rexcellent.
Maybe it'll also usher in a new "millenium" of spelling errors and powerpoint presentations!
While the original book was very good, they got worse as time went by. The last two were just plain horrible. I'd see a movie based on the first book, but I hope someone has the sense to spare us all the horror of any sequels.
While I wish them luck with this project, the book did not seem to lend itself to the big sreen in my mind.
In my opinion, Asmimov's Foundation series would translate to the screen more easily. I'd love to see this on the big screen. Has anyone heard any rumors about this? At the very least, it would make a great mini-series.
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Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
*pat pat pat*
That's nice. You run along to your "real" science fiction authors, and leave the "mere sociologists" to those of us who appreciate it.
Here's a gentle history lesson for you. Sociology mixed with possible future advancements is what science fiction (now quite often--and in my mind more correctly--refered to as speculative fiction)
has ALWAYS been about. Good SF, anyways. Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, Varley (hey, he's not that old!), le Guinn, and yes, Bear too. I haven't read anything by Neal Stephenson (yet!) so I can't comment, but I quit reading W. Gibson after his third novel proved to be just as second rate as the first two.
If you're looking for whiz-bang Sci-Fi, go back and watch the Matrix again. Don't pay attention to the story, though--you might find that there (surprisingly) actually is one.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
Critics panned the movie? Apparently critics are idiots.
:-) Ironically, A.C. Clarke himself called it 'the only science fiction movie ever made.' That was within the last decade or so.
<p>It's a very good adaptation of the book. In the few places where it's not 100% faithful, it's been changed to work well on the screen. Definitely worth seeing! In fact, that movie was the second date with the woman who eventually became my wife. (yes, she's a bit weird too
<p>Back to Harlan Ellison for a moment, he also wrote a brilliant screenplay for Asimov's "I, Robot" which sadly will probably never get made. THAT movie would change the mind of our original poster about the 'old sociologists.'
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
If they'll change the ending. The ending was very anti-climatic. Clarke made the anticlimax work well, but there's danger of it not carrying over well in movie form. Will they change it?
Maybe the state's highest function is to grind out insoluble problems. (Zelazny, Hall of Mirrors)
On the one hand I have the same dread most people do when one of their favorite books is going to be turned into a movie. Especially since Clarke's books in general, and Rendezvouz With Rama in particular, are more thoughtful than action-packed. Hopefully they don't try to throw in anything that wasn't in the book.
On the other hand, 2001: A Space Odyssey was in my opinion the greatest movie of all time. So who knows, this one might turn out halfway decent.
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Does anybody else remember the computer game? I never played it, but I heard it was good?
Tell me what makes you so afraid
Of all those people you say you hate
Morgan Freeman is a nice addition. It's been so long since I read the Rama series that I'm not sure who he'll be playing but you can't really go wrong with him in a movie. It's like casting Kevin Spacey. You know you'll get a good performance.
It does tend to make you wonder what Stanley Kubrick would have done with it though.
Didn't the spider-type robots have 3 legs in the book? The artist drew one with 6. I hope this isn't an indication of how faithful the rest of the production is going to be. This was one of my favorite sci-fi books of all time and I'd hate to see it mulched into unrecognizability by Hollywood. ("Mr. Fincher, we marketing droids think that it's important to have a six-year-old boy and a dog in the cast. And can this take place in Altoona instead of outer space?")
Ok, I went to the Reveleations Ent. site (the producers of Rama (yay!) and I was glancing throuh their other upcoming projects (including "The Day no Pigs Would Die", and EXCELLENT book I might add) and Morgan fricken Freeman is in EVERY ONE! does he own this production house? seems odd to me... Anyway, just wondering if any one knows just how involved Freeman is in the project (i.e. getting it off the ground) As for a sequel, I hope they do them all, the Rama series is a powerful commentary on (wo)man's ego.
I am become Troll, destroyer of threads
but, sin duda Garden of Rama is the real winner of the series, partly because of its greater relevance to This Modern World of Ours. Rendez-vous is infused with all the tensions and militaristic reactions of the US-USSR Cold War era, which doesn't necessarily make it irrelevant; but it does make Garden of Rama a more important portrait of "spaceship earth 2000", especially as pertains to racial, religious, and economic conflict. it tells us something about ourselves, and i find this type of fiction much more interesting than, say, Ringworld, whose popularity puzzles me. yeah, it's a great big world with lots of mystery and potential, but the first book never did enough with that potential to make me care -- the "Luck of Teela Brown" twist was quite clever, but on the whole Louis was a little to swashbuckling for me.
i mean, any five-year-old can come up with fantastic landscapes and jarring, surreal plot twists. if all i was after was mere stimulation of my imagination, i can put down the book, stare out the window, unfocus my eyes, and do it myself.
anyway, it doesn't matter that much, because i think the other Rama books would be impossible to film. although come to think of it, they could make a great B5/DS9-type series. [i always liked DS9 more than TNG for the same reasons discussed above -- plus there wasn't enough conflict on TNG. aside from Dr. Pulaski, who got axed quickly, everybody pretty much sat around waiting for Geordi to tachyon-ize the Main Deflector for the zillionth time, while they spent the hour sucking Picard's Ethical Cock].
that's why whenever these admittedly excellent sf books get made into movies i just don't go. the subtextual nuances that make characters interesting or enlightening don't translate to the screen, and the parts that do are boring.
same thing with the upcoming LOTR. oh sure, Bakshi's rotoscope version may not do much for the modern audience, but his commitment to the spirit and literary merit of Tolkien's work cannot be denied. Check out this recent Interview from the Onion to see what i mean: but i generally don't even understand the need to make a movie out of everything. it's the same thing as liking both Mocha Almond Fudge ice cream and Meat Lovers pizza -- and then thinking it would necessarily be tasty to pick the almonds out and throw them onto the cheese along with spicy sausage, pepperoni, romano cheese, tomato sauce, and hunks of carmelized fudge, then sticking it in the oven to bake. [there are certain to be a few who claim to like chunky, coffee-flavored pizza, but i think you get the idea].
although our instincts may tell us otherwise, two goods do not always make a "gooder".
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Hollywood, Television, has become the dream machine. We need to take that back; each of us is a Dream Machine
You will see one other before Rendezvous With Rama, tough. As previously posted on Slashdot here, the movie based on Final Fantasy will be there soon (release in 2001). They seemed to have focused a lot on the characters' faces (see the amazing wrinkles animation on the web site). So maybe Rendezvous won't be so bad in 2003.
First Dune, then Ender's Game, now this -- I'm silently elated. Hard sci-fi movies are like evangelism for geeks. I mean, it would be better if everyone thought like Stanley Kubrick did and realized that rockets don't make any sound in outer space (2001), but I know we can't have everything.
Anyone else know of other plans to start bringing "real" science fiction to the silver screen? I'd love to compile the definitive list.
I just re-read all of the Known Space novels, and I think that a movie would waste it.
But one thing that might work would be a television series - one season involving everything from early exploration and failed Mars missions, The Belt, the Slaver, Protector, Gift from Earth, a Kzin war (not too heavy on this) and the purchase of Hyperdrive. Beowulf Schaefer stories, the introduction to Louis Wu, and then follow up with two movies - Ringworld, Ringworld Engineers, and leave it at that!
A nice thing about the series is that it could build up the known space stories for everybody who hasn't read the series.
I agree that Rama will turn out to be a cool film, but The Known Space stories would make an even better television series.
I donate all spillover Karma to the charity of my choice... Ada was still a babe despite what people may say...
"Nothing too meaty here yet - mostly concept art."
Taco intended this as a comment about the site, but it works even better as a comment about the book. Rama (especially the sequels, but even the first book) is the main reason I've stopped reading Clarke. Think about it, what's the plot: Some people explore a big can in space. No conflict. There's mystery, but the solution isn't given so no drama there. No characterization. Nothing except pure "Ooohh" factor.
On the other hand, if the purpose is to attract crowds with special effects, I have to admit there's nothing in Rama that will get in the way of that...
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MailOne
Non-meta-modded "Overrated" mods are killing Slashdot
(Hey Ryan! Here's your proof!)
Kid, the fact that your attention span is too short for Clarke - and probably Heinlein, Asimov, Dick, Lem, and the century's other great writers of science/speculative fiction - is no reason to assume that Snow Crash (or whichever of Stephenson's urban dystopia stroke books is your favorite) is automatically better.
And what the hell is wrong with being a sociologist? At least such authors actually examine the human condition and comment on it, rather than the three-bong-hit gadget inventors who seem as though they must spend all day saying, "DUDE! Wouldn't it be so cool if, like, you could be on the Internet, like with swords and shit?"
<rant>
What is it with people who can't get their heads around fiction that moves at a more contemplative pace, or doesn't involve swords, guns, virtual reality, martial arts gurus, and oh-so-boringly-stereotyped, lone-wolf-with-a-cheesy-Jungian-dark-side male protagonists? I thought reading was supposed to encourage deep critical thinking, but more and more it just seems to be encouraging the TV generation in their degenerate mental habits.
</rant>
Anyway, if it's what you enjoy, get out the Vaseline and cue up Johnny Mnemonic and New Rose Hotel in your DVD player, kiddo - because that's the kind of crap cinema that comes from the flash-heavy sci-fi you think is so much better than the "old school" you like to dis.
Call me back when they produce something as interesting as 2001
OK,
- B
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http://www.bradheintz.com/
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I have never once seen satisfactory blending between digital and real environments and the integration of actors.. only in Titan A.E. have I seen realistic environments created this way, and that was a cartoon!
Even the slightest falsehood in lighting, texture or movement destroys the experience and makes me long evern more for the day when a fantastic, alien environment can truly be created digitally.
Goat sex free since 2001
Doesn't the promo say CGI actors? If one is good enough, why not all? I suspect this project may be overreaching itself. Or may not even be well-formed yet, much less baked, as it seems to consist of some softfocus airbrush work at the moment.
Brackets contain world's first nanosig, highly magnified:[.]
Am I the only one that apreciated the last three books more than the first one?
The first book was independent of the last three. Clarke wrote Rendevous first not even planning on writing sequels, but still leaving the door open by adding at the last minute 'The Ramans do everything in threes.' as the closing line. While being technical, the first book was empty, it was the final three that brought real human character to the series.
Because they chose only to produce the first book, we will now have great CG shots, but not enough plot to keep most interested.
I would love to see the insect creatures and their mana melons or the octo creatures that communicate with color more than the vast empty landscapes. The story of the self-destruction of the human colony is the real story here, finding a giant spacecraft and studying it is rather mundane for sci-fi. Scientist studying an immense metallic tube isn't as exciting as sex, violence, aliens and of course, the big tube.
Read the books. (except for the first one, i didn't like it
... but procrastination pays off now.
On the other hand why has no one yet made a movie of Ringworld? Rama was the most complicated thing I could imaging until my concepts and mind were blown by Ringworld (Actual I read book #2 first - Ringworld Engineers).
I heard once that there was a plan to make it into a movie back in the early 80's but it would require so much CGI (Like 2/3's of the movie) but at the time, the technology was not there, and the cost was too high.
But now, the CGI part could probably be done in someone's home. The main cost would now be the normal filming parts.
Other interesting tidbits concerning Jean Giraud: Has worked on Fifth Element, Willow and (gah!) The Masters of the Universe movie. He is also an uncredited contributor to Blade Runner. ( see His Bio )
Close collaborator with Alejandro Jodorowsky, they were the original team that were hired to produce the Dune movie instead of David Lynch. Jodorowsky is one of France's more "exotic" author, known for his work in disturbing movies and phenomenal comic book writing. Jean Giraud has also done work with Marvel Comics on some Silver Surfer albums/issues.
If any of you is interested in comic books as art, you will be fascinated with Giraud's portofolio. Go visit this site
Well, if they'd thought about it, they would have put up three mirrors.
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Here be Dragons
That would be oooooh so much easier than, say, finding the book at half.com or even gasp your local meatspace used book store or even shudder library.
Actually, like all of Clarke's books (the ones really written by him, I mean, as opposed to the ones ghostwritten for him like all the Rama sequels) Rendezvous is very fast paced, almost clipped, with minimal characterization and each short chapter punctuated with a Clarkeian "twist." If a gamer would enjoy any book of such a length at all, this would be the one.
Brackets contain world's first nanosig, highly magnified:[.]
Moebius? I'd hate to see how long this movie is going to be...
Hey, I think I just saw that part... Only in mirror image!
Dancin Santa
I mean, c'mon, you expect me to believe that the same guy directed both Fight Club and Alien 3?
Born Jean Giraud, he is most famous in Europe for his Western character, Blueberry, whose exploits Giraud signs with his given name. Blueberry still appears in various ongoing series of graphic novels.
In the US, however, Giraud is most widely-known by the pseudonym Moebius. He is the author of many popular comics stories in the science fiction genre, including the Arzach series, as well as The Airtight Garage, which was used as the inspiration for the video arcade in San Francisco's Sony Metreon entertainment center.
Moebius has also done production design work on some science fiction films, including Alien, Tron, and The Abyss. The latter was a rotten movie, but it had a visually interesting version of what alien spacecraft and technology might look like. Should work well for Rama.
See? You can learn something new every day.
Breakfast served all day!