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Burrough's Martian Tales Optioned

Posted by Hemos on from the do-it-and-do-it-well dept.

shagrat writes "One of my favorite series of books has been optioned by Paramount. It would be produced by those that created 'The Mummy'. I'm not sure how that makes me feel."

3 of 169 comments (clear)

  1. How do you option public domain? by wahay · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I was certain these books were in the public domain. You can download them off project gutenberg. Why is a studio paying good money to 'option' them? Perhaps they'd pay me for my permission to option Hamlet.....

  2. Current technology by Kargan · · Score: 3, Interesting

    //Jacks told Daily Variety that three of the best-known books (which include "Gods of Mars" and "The Warlord of Mars") are likely to be made into films of a scope "akin to 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'Star Wars,' but were impossible to make before, because CGI (computer technology) wasn't there."//

    So, bearing this statement in mind, are there any stories out there which still cannot be effectively made into movies due to lack of technology?

    --
    Palaces, barricades, threats, meet promises
  3. Optioned long ago by animator Bob Clampett! by StefanJ · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Remember, folks, that options don't always pan out.

    Sometimes treatments get made. Sometimes scripts get written. Sometimes the projects go into "pre-production," which I suspect is Hollywoodese for "We're trying to line up the funding!"

    I am pretty sure I remember the ERB Mars books being optioned about twenty years back . . . vague recollections from Starlog, which seemed to specialize in drool-spewing stories about upcoming movies.

    Perhaps my title isn't totally accurate. An actual option may not have been involved. I do know that Bob Clampett, creator of "Beany and Cecil" and one of the deranged guys behind the Warner Bros. cartoons, made animated-pencil-sketch segments of ERB Mars characters.

    I saw stills of some of these . . . a guy riding a six-legged beastie (thark?). Kind of stylish and simple, not the lurid Frazetta type art that people seem to envision when ERB stories are mentioned.

    So. Don't get your hopes up. Even if it gets made, don't get your hopes up. It could be turned into kiddie toy fodder.

    My advice: Go hunt up the books. It is about time they were reprinted anyway.

    Stefan