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'Solaris' Screen Adaptation Forthcoming

Posted by Hemos on from the shine-on-your-bright-sun dept.

Jooly Rodney writes "No, not the operating system, the sci-fi novel by Stanislaw Lem, long considered to be a classic of the genre. Apple's movie trailer site features a teaser trailer, and IMDb has George Clooney and Natascha McElhone as the leads Kelvin and Rheya."

9 of 185 comments (clear)

  1. Trailer showing before Minority Report by Greyjack · · Score: 3, Informative

    They're running the trailer before showings of Minority Report (at least, they were yesterday at the matinee I went to). Only names mentioned in the trailer were James Cameron, Steven Soderbergh, and George Clooney.

    Needless to say, those three names along with some beautiful deep-space type footage definitely piqued my interest.

  2. Question by theRhinoceros · · Score: 2, Informative

    I saw the trailer last night waiting for "Minority Report" to start. To call this a trailer is a bit of an overstatement, it's just a slow pull-out shot starting from some oddly mixing waves(?) on the surface of a star/planet going all the way out until a rotating spacecraft (reminiscent of the space station in 2001) comes into frame. Then it informs you that George Clooney stars. That's it. Not very informative at all.

    This may seem like a dumb question in retrospect, but the CGI was not the best I had ever seen, which leads me to this query: is this an animated film of some sort? I haven't seen any information on any of the usual sites I read about this movie.

  3. 'Solaris' Screen Adaptation Forthcoming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    There's a fan site re both "Solaris" movies:
    http://www.k26.com/solaris/

  4. Lem's Site by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative
    Stanislav Lem's Web site also mentions this forthcoming event unequivocally calling it a remake. Here is what the site says about the original motion picture by Andrew Tarkovsky:
    The first film based on Lem's "Solaris" was produced in 1972 by the legendary Russian film director Vladimir Tarkovsky. However the task of filming Lem's great vision turned out to be a serious problem - and not only an artistic challenge. Communist authorities demanded numerous changes of the original screenplay that drastically distorted the plot and even disturbed the internal structure of the film. Nevertheless the film was awarded the special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and was described as "the most intelligent and insightful film in the history of science fiction movies".
  5. Re:it will... by Lemmy+Caution · · Score: 3, Informative
    It may be better. Tarkovsky himself was not fond of his own version of the film - he made it in order to get funding for his other films. Stalker is a better film.

    In light of Soderburgh's career, Solaris, with its anxious, looming regret for the failures of relationships past and poignant sense of human limitation, is an ideal film for him.

  6. Re:Another one? by roman_mir · · Score: 2, Informative

    Classic you say? Do you know that Stanislav Lem himself was sick from that movie? Basically he wrote a book about incredible wonders that can be found in the universe and how interesting it must be to go and search for such things. In the Russian movie (I saw it a few times back in USSR) the director is trying to display how horrible and scary it is to go to space. Basically that was the main problem with the movie, except, of-course for the very slow style and very basic setup.

    --
    You can't handle the truth.
  7. Remember Event Horizon by alphaseven · · Score: 3, Informative
    Paul Anderson's (Mortal Kombat) Event Horizon (1997) was a loose remake Solaris.

    I'm in the minority that I liked Event Horizon. Still with Hollywood now making an adaptation of Red Dragon when Manhunter was a perfectly good film, you have to wonder what the memory span of film producers are.

  8. Re:Another one? by j_hirny · · Score: 3, Informative

    "And to answer the poster below, maybe Lem didn't like the film, but I bet he wouldn't like some brash American remake either. I'm sorry, but at least Tarkovsky turned the novel (or ideas contained therein) into something worth watching and learning from, rather than a sloppy piece of entertainment-action."

    Well, he actually ignores it. As it is written here:

    Interviewer: This (new "Solaris") movie is going to be produced by James Cameron, the director of "Titanic".

    Lem: I don't know, although it's quite possible that Cameron will make it. You know, I don't care about it a lot. The more the Americans are engaged in any project, the less the author has to say. Still, the idea that now some forty scriptwriters work over my novel doesn't bring me a lot of satisfaction. For the time being I am not even allowed to look into the scenario. But I wouldn't like to do it, as I am afraid that after reading it I'd be really angry. Also, what can you find interesting:

    I: Solaris by Tarkowski is the most famous adaptation of any of your novels, although it's quite far from the original novel. Philosophical debates became more stressed than the dialogue between astronauts and the ocean.

    Lem: Situation is very delicate. Although I have a lot of respect for Tarkowski's movies I hate this one. I tried to presuade Tarkowski from his odd ideas for exactly six weeks. The scenario missed the novel too much. Tarkowski created Kelvin's family, he added some terrible aunts and uncles, which were removed after my rant.

    Hope it helps. And feel free to correct my English. ;)

  9. Re:Solaris on DVD by Phil+Wilkins · · Score: 3, Informative

    Region 2 is still in print

    Region 1 is harder to find

    Region 0 is out there