Slashdot Mirror
"The Chronicles of Amber" and "The Forever War" For TV
DarkRabbit writes "i just noticed at the Futon Critic that the Sci-Fi channel announced April 2nd that amongst other popular pieces of fiction, Zelazney's "The Chronicles of Amber" and Haldeman's "The Forever War"
will be getting the mini-series treatment by them sometime in the next year. I'm sure their adaptions will be just as contentious here as was their version of "Dune." Oh, and "Tripping the Rift" arrives as an 'Edgy-South-Park-esque' half-hour cartoon series..."
Zelazney's "The Chronicles of Amber"
I sure hope they let Corwin keep his black and silver leisure suit. It goes so well with the sword.
And I also hope that Eric's beard is "moist" throughout the entire series, because that and the fact that Corwin hates getting little hairs down his shirt are quite possibly the most bizarre details included in the whole series.
--saint
"Never underestimate the power of a dark..."
Well I thought it was a great book, good story.
But I don't see how they could make it a miniseries.
You can't communicate the same sense of irrelevance on TV that you can in a book.
For me the fact that the characters felt so separated from the world, "They didn't know what they were fighting for".
This is a common concern in books & movies, and would be lost. (Enders game, he goes and spends a month in his boat, Armageddon, they go out for a wild party)
I just don't see it working.
They'll cut it out.
Forced sex & conscription? That will be good, might as well get the pleasure platoons out. (Moon has a harsh mistress - heinlein)
Star Ship Troopers was a decent book, but the movie just skipped all that "stuff" that didn't make a flashy movie.
Heck they didn't even have battle suits in it.
"Tripping the Rift" will be Sci Fi's first animated series. Produced by Cine Groupe and Film Roman, the show is about a misfit group of cabinmates aboard a spaceship. Created by Chuck Austen and Chris Moeller, the series "will have the kind of edgy feel that makes 'South Park' a hit on Comedy Central," said Hammer.
Will it have an animated piece of fecal matter called "captain's log"?
My God, how the heck will they get that on TV? The original animation had enough sexual innuendo to give any Conservative American a heart attack. Mind you, it had some excellent quotes:
Why don't you fight without using your faggot clown powers, son? -- Chode
Come on you lipstick wearing felch monkey! -- Chode
Never underestimate the power of a dark clown!! -- Darph Bobo
I'm looking forward to it!
Dr Fish
wasn't Forever Peace, but Forever Free.
Both very good books, IMHO.
Part of the feeling of irrelevance came from Joseph and Marygay's feeling of being stranded in time. ST:TNG touched on this topic one episode, though with a different treatment - the soldier who fought for a society, and is no longer able to return. In Forever War, the alienation is from cultural drift exaggerated by time dilation. In ST:TNG is was from the violence conditioning the people received in order to become soldiers.
Which brings us back to Forever Peace, in an odd way.
I also preferred the SciFi Dune miniseries to the old movie. I hope they do good treatments of both Forever War and Amber.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
In either case it will suck.
Compared to this one Lord of the Rings is a child's play. I just do not see how you can make the Courts of Chaos or the GhostWheel in a movie today. Even having the budget for all Star War flicks combined with the budget for Titanic and Independence Day.
I still get shudders remembering how did they vandalise Heinlein's "Starship Troupers". Dunno about Forever War but a miniseries on the Amber Chronicles will make that debacle seem like a work of high art by comparison...
Shudder... Shudder...
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
Wow, great! Forever war was a really good book. I also liked the sort of seqel, Forever Peace.
;P
I'm a fan of the spinoff show, Forever Knight
I first read the Chronicles of Amber in the 3rd grade. I did a book report on it. And one of those shoebox things (diorama?) My diorama was from the cover of the first (second?) book: Corwin, sword in one hand, bloody severed head of talking shadow cat in the other hand.
I can remember being puzzled why my third grade teacher kept asking me if anyone had tried to touch me in an uncomfortable way....
I hope that the Sci-Fi network keeps this up. Whatever one's opinions about particular TV adaptations, I think that it would be a very good idea for Sci-Fi network to make bringing classic SF literature to television as part of their mandate.
That's a lot better reason for the channel to exist than to show continuous repeats of the same old serieses.
Imagine Amber as a 2-hour mini-series. It is enough to cover the first *book*, maybe. If anyone had the feeling that Lord of the Rings was rushed, this will be ten times worse.
Then 'Forever War'. One word: Battlesuits. Certainly the special effects technology is up to showing them... but *you can't see the actor's face* in a battlesuit. My bet is they'll throw away any part the book which doesn't relate to combat action, and botch that by throwing away the suits. Result: a 'Starship Troopers' clone. Enough Said.
WHY can't the movie industry *build* on the great SF out there? Imagine "Snow Crash" done with the technology used for "Final Fantasy". Imagine Lord of the Rings as a *series* - say, 5 hours for each book. Imagine a production of "Bridge of Birds" on the same lines as "Princes Bride". I could go on for *hours*.
Maybe "we" ("the guild of paying movie-goers and ad-watchers") don't deserve any better. Even when a good production gets made (by accident or thanks to the courage of some producer), it tends to be a commercial flop.
Take for example the animation move done based on "The Last Unicorn" by Peter S. Beagle. Can you believe it? serious fantasy, in animation, not targeted at kids! In a word: a flop. You probably never even heard of it, but trust me, you won't regret seeing it, even if you've read the book.
BOOK. That's the answer, *read a good book*. Come to think of it... it doesn't have ads, it costs very favorably compared to a movie ticket, and you don't need Tivo to time-shift it!
Just been bought FW for by birthday. Not bad, some interesting stuff, but it didn't seem like great or anything. Just another Vietnam-era "fighting-a-pointless-war" thing, plus teenage male fantasy stuff with compulsory promiscuity. Interesting ideas in changing society over time, but nothing outstanding ("Brave New World" but gay).
Trouble is, most SF authors are good at coming up with ideas but crap at writing. Witness Clarke, Asimov, Bova, Bear (and Crichton just about makes SF too) - all got great ideas and concepts, but lousy execution.
Off the topic, anyone know anything about Laurence M Janifer? I've got his book "Survivor", and that seems pretty good - pretty well-written, decent characterisation, basically an intelligent SF action book. Anyone know what his other stuff is like? I reckon that kind of thing would translate pretty well to screen.
Grab.
Star Ship Troopers was a decent book, but the movie just skipped all that "stuff" that didn't make a flashy movie.
As was said at the time: "Starship troopers: Based on the back of a book by Robert A Heinlein"
Tales from behind the Lagom Curtain
The Amber Chronicles have been reprinted, as
_The Great Book of Amber : The Complete Amber
Chronicles_ [Eos (Trade); ISBN: 0380809060], which
has all 10 books in it.
Of course, I wish they'd done it as two separate
books for the Corwin and Merlin series, since I
think the former is *far* superior.
I do. I never had the opportunity to play it, though. It was one of those games which was text input only, a la the Infocom games, but had still images representing wherever you were.
There was also a tabletop roleplaying game, called Amber Diceless Roleplay, by the now-defunct (I think) Phage Press. Like the rules suggest, you played it without dice. I own the core rules - it was an interesting game, that I still hope to run sometime, after I find someone else who actually enjoyed the Amber books.