'Solaris' Screen Adaptation Forthcoming
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."
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.
There's a fan site re both "Solaris" movies:
http://www.k26.com/solaris/
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.
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.
"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. ;)
Region 2 is still in print
Region 1 is harder to find
Region 0 is out there