Realising Sci-Fi Novels w/ Modern Film-Making Techniques?

caitsith01 asks: "Like many of you I recently downloaded and watched the full-length Matrix Reloaded trailer . The glorious special effects contained therein caused me to reflect on how, up until very recently, it would have been impossible to effectively realize many great science fiction novels on film. In many instances, the sheer grandeur of what is described and the inherent difficulty in representing complex future technologies realistically would be nearly impossible to overcome without using computer-aided special effects. A case in point are the novels of William Gibson: apart from the lamentable Johnny Mnemonic and the little known New Rose Hotel (both based on Gibson short stories rather than novels) there have been no major films based on his work. With today's computer generated effects Gibson's descriptions of cyberspace and future technologies in Neuromancer and Count Zero could finally be presented in visual form. What other sci-fi novels would you like to see turned into movies with the benefit of modern special effects? Before the flaming about how plot and characters are more important than eye candy starts, perhaps you should take some time to reflect on how far we've come."

Comments

It's not the effects, man

[Glass of Water]

Blade Runner was great, by Ridley Scott, as adapted from "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" by Philip K. Dick. Not too many advanced special effects, just good acting, a good concept, and a good story. These days, it's becoming too much about the effects and they start to all look the same. To me, the original Star Wars looks ten times better than the new ones. THat's because they actually BUILT the sets and the robots/aliens.