Douglas Adams, Narnia, and Trailers

A few interesting movie tidbits: Joel Greengrass writes "Final post-production has been completed on the long awaited documentary, 'Life, the Universe, and Douglas Adams.' Narrated by Neil Gaiman, the film is a tribute documentary about the life, loves, and passions, of the greatest sci fi comedy writer ever, Douglas Adams. The film will be available for sale on August 4 at douglasadams.com." Reader The_Shadows writes "Sci-fi Storm and Scfi.com's Scifi-wire are reporting that Walden Media exercised options for feature-length, big screen versions of the Chronicles of Narnia, by C. S. Lewis. They have also found an Emmy award winning writer (Ann Peacock) to adapt the most famous book, 'The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.'" And finally, there's an interesting piece about the process of turning a two-hour movie into a two-minute trailer.

Comments

2 minute movie trailers

[maddskillz]

Getting a movie to fit into two minutes shouldn't be too dificult, since it has already been proven you can get five books into a trilogy

Re:Squeezing

[Noofus]

The problem comes when you notice that the story line of the movie being promoted is so thin, that you got the entire story in the 150 seconds. I can think of many movies who's trailer started off convincing me to see the movie, but by the end have told me that I got the whole deal for free, while waiting for the feature.

The few times I ended up seeing a movie after determining its entire useful content was dumped into the trailer, I either walked out due to lameness, or just bitched about it to my movie-going companion the whole way home :)

Narnia

[Com2Kid]

Great series of books, I read The Magicians Nephew and The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe in second grade, excellent series. C.S. Lewis's science fiction books are also rather nice, though he has a rather nasty habit of starting a series well and then having each successive book get worse and worse (lucky if you can read through the third one. . . .) but it was years ago that I last read C. S. Lewis so my opinions may change should I read those books again.

Narnia has been banned from my local school district do to 'religious' content. Pisses me off, had it not been for Narnia there is a good chance that I would never have developed my love of reading. Liberals /can/ go to far at times. :

And what the hell is wrong with /books/ with religious content? Hell it is OK to read every body elses religiously derived fiction but just not Christian religiously derived fiction? It seems to me that if church and state are to be separate, then the state should not work their asses of concentrating on just isolating out any one particular religion! As it is the removal of Narnia was an obvious attempt at "see we are't being biased, look here, we are removing Christian inspired literature! Yeeesh. That IS called bias folks!!!

(By banned I mean it was banned from being read in the classroom as part of school work or assignments, students can still check them out from the Library of course, I mean they /are/ damn nearly classics and all. :-D )

I do think that some of C. S. Lewis's works should be mandatory reading though if just to show students that things do NOT have to be the way that they are. My word, people cannot even IMAGINE that schools used to not have as much fighting or sex in them! .... Ugh! People must be reminded that it IS possible to get through schooling without punching and fucking your way from one class to the next. :(

Adams

[Skyshadow]

When I read (on /.) that Adams had died, I pulled my leather-bound copy of Hitchhiker down off the shelf, flipped to a random page and started reading.

I happened to open to the bit where they go to see God's final message to his creation. I'm not normally a very emotional person, but when I was reading that I cried like a little kid. For a geek like me, Adams was my John Lennon -- hearing that there just wasn't going to be anymore stories made the world seem gray.

I wonder if the book made up from his notes is worthwhile, or if it'll just seem.. I dunno... wrong.

Re:The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy

[L. VeGas]

Being the funniest sci fi writer is roughly equivalent in status to being the best ballet dancer in Idaho.

Problem with publishers Rant.

[teamhasnoi]

Whoever here has read the Books of Narnia may be interested to know that the publishers in their 'infinite wisdom' :P have rearranged the series so "The Magican's Nephew" is the first book in the series. This is very annoying. Yes, I know that you can just read them in the original order, however, new readers of the series are denied CS Lewis's original vision through ignorance of the change. I fear this change will make it to the movie (plus a ton of Harry Potter-esqe BS that is incongruous with the story).

The series should stay the way it was written, not re-ordered by a focus group and committee. This is what leads to mediocre films, books, and music.

See also: Ren and Stimpy, The Simpsons, NSYNC & Britney (and their ilk), Dr. Pepper Red Fusion, New Coke, any Disney anything, Windows ME, ect.

I know repackaging "content" and the like is a fine way to make an extra buck when the bottom line needs a push and nobody wants to take a chance, but just leave it alone already!

Re:Problem with publishers Rant.

[xA40D]

I first read the Narnia books when I was about 10. They have to be the first books I ever read that I still read today.

When I first expressed an interest in the Narnia books I was told that The Magician's Nephew was the first. But as my Grandparent's copy had dissapeared I was given The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe first, and The Magician's Nephew second (when my constant moaning forced the purchase of a replacement copy). I then read the remainder in chronological order.

Some 20 years later I've just discovered the order I've always thought was correct was wrong. On reflection I'm sure that reading The Magician's Nephew second taught me something valuable about literature. When I discovered that there was a "correct" order I just knew I had to read them in that order.

A quick google lead to this link. Which indicates that there are actually 3 orders, the chronological order, the published order, and the written order. There is also some evidence presented that Lewis expressed a mild preference for the chronological order

So I suppose the "correct" order is the one you believe in. So I think I'm going to go back to thinking as The Magician's Nephew as the "second" book. And then I'll follow the written order.

More movies I'd like to see (done well) OT?

[teamhasnoi]

By John Christopher (Trilogy;) "The White Mountains" (1967), "The City of Gold and Lead" (1967), "The Pool of Fire" (1968). "The Lotus Caves" (1969).

The House with a Clock in Its Walls (The first book in the Lewis Barnavelt series) (1972) by John Bellairs

and Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles
The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron (got the Disney Treatment :( , The Castle of Llyr , Taran Wanderer , The High King .

Yeah, they're all 'adolescent' books, but all very good, and are worth finding. Besides, didn't everyone read 'The Hobbit' when they were 12?

That's a teaser, this is a trailer...

[isaac]

Take all the best parts of the movie. String them together in one 2-minute epileptic-seizure-inducing orgasm of light and sound, preferably with some modern rock/psuedo-metal song in the background. Stick your title on the end in a grunge or techno font along with "This movie has not yet been rated," and a release date between 6 months and a year into the future.

No, that's a teaser.

A trailer is where you start with some soothing an peaceful scene, when

[Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells"/Sam the Sham & the Pharoahs' "Louie Louie"/Smashmouth's "All-Star"]

starts playing and Don LaFontaine intones the words "In a world

[gone mad/where dreams come true/where shit happens]..."

and some fast paced cuts show the the audience that this movie is supposed to be

[scary/funny/action-packed].

Then Mr. Fontaine tells us about the "one

[man/woman/dog]

[brave/smart/stupid]

enough to

[fight for something/change everything/screw everything up]"

while we see our protagonist looking

[determined/happy/dumb as a sack of hammers].

Then a quick montage of the

[funniest/exploding-est/tear-jerking-est]

scenes interspersed with a voiceover telling us what

[A-list/B-list/C-list]

celebrities have top billing and that the movie is

[based on a book by somebody/based on a true story/based on an older, better movie/from the director of some other movie that made money],

then finally we get the title of the movie and a screenful of tiny text acknowledging all the people who got paid enough to feed a village in Botswana for a

[month/year/decade]

for their work on the film.

This is a standard part of any film school curriculum, you see. Job applications in Hollywood test you on this stuff.

-Isaac

Narnia movies

[Daimaou]

While I love movies and would go see this one, it is a little disappointing to see books like The Lord of the Rings and the Narnia series released as movies.

As a kid I remember reading the Hobbit. It was the first book I ever read outside of school assignments.

The words were hypnotic and the story almost intoxicating to me. It unleashed a power, which ignited my imagination in ways I had never known before. I couldn't put it down. Once I finished The Hobbit, I wanted, or rather needed, more. Dark corners of my mind had suddenly been flooded with wonder and excitement and I could not allow them to dim.

After The Hobbit, I read The Lord of the Rings and then the Narnia series and many other books.

The hobby of reading everything in sight is still with me today; and is not limited to fiction or fantasy. I firmly believe that I learned much more from reading books growing up than I ever did in school.

Books offered me so much it is beyond my capacity to describe the benefits. Movies, while entertaining, are not able to offer the same and it is for this reason I am disappointed. I think many children will see the movie and miss out on the thaumaturgic properties of literature.

Re:Narnia

[tshak]

Narnia has been banned from my local school district do to 'religious' content.

Although there was religious inspiration, there was no religious dogma. The same goes for LoTR. Both Lewis and Tolkien collaborated at times and both were known Christians. And what about Madeleine L'Engle? An incredible author with incredible books, also influenced by Christianity. Also, Atheism is just as much a world view as [Insert Religion Here]. All books are influenced by the authors worldview. The problem comes when these worldviews are taught as "The Right View" in a public school system. I don't think any of the mentioned books are selling a worldview of any sort. It's one thing to study a religious text in class, and then preach it as being the Truth. It's another to read a fictional story that is mearly influenced by the authors worldview.