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Scifi Channel to Make Ringworld Miniseries
Snaller writes "The Sci Fi Channel has listed its programming for the upcomming year, it includes the Farscape miniseries already mentioned by Slashdot, it also includes a miniseries based the legendary scifi story by Larry Niven: Ringworld. In the far future 4 travelers crash on a ring around a sun in a distant system. Shall be interesting to see how they depict the Puppeteers."
TASP.. now there's something that should be interesting.
According to the article, they're making Le Guin's Earthsea, too!
I for one have been waiting anxiously for someone to do a movie or miniseries on Ringworld. Hopefully they'll treat it as well as they did the Dune books.
DeviantArt Page
NSFWConsidering the ringworld idea was one of the primary sci-fi influences of Halo, this should be pretty cool.
I'm looking forward to this series!
Not only that, this is a dupe from a month or two ago (and old news to boot).
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
let it be better that RiverWorld! I loved the book but SciFi's miniseries sucked, big time.
The dogcow says "Moof!"
Well, do you remember a few years ago? George Lucas made a movie called Episode One. Well they're thinking of using the actor who played Jar-Jar...
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
It's about time some one makes this. Too bad it really needs to be on an IMAX though.
Seeing as how Halo was inspired in part by Ringworld. Not bashing Halo. Bungie usually gleans a few ideas from books. There was a book mentioned (can't remember the title. Black something) that had several bits in it that were strikingly similar to the Myth series. Well, Myth 1 and 2. 3 was a stinking pile of shit and not made by Bungie. Even Marathon drew a few ideas from a book called, you guessed it, Marathon. And I'm off topic.
Well, a rendition of one, anyway:
/ br ain.html
8 94 803247/002-9348466-3390413?v=glance
http://students.biology.lsa.umich.edu/bio208_11
The image is taken from this book, which is definitely teh awesome:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0
Mikey-San
Karma: +Eleventy billion (mostly affected by watching Celebrity Jeopardy)
As long as they keep the whole sex bit out of the series, it should be very cool miniseries. RingWorld, Hyperion, and Ender's Game were the books I loved in High School. If they make the remaining two into mini-series I'll be very, very happy!
... the Discovery Channel will be releasing its new parody miniseries: Ringworm
I really had the hots for her in Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles...
My TASP comment was meant for you, so Take A Suck Pill.
My hopes for movie-making were brightened last night when I saw the movie adaptation of Stephen King's Dreamcatcher. Ok, they changed the ending, but the rest was pretty good for a two hour version of a 900 page tome it took me two weeks to read.
How are they going to talk about Rishasthra? (or in other words, inter-species sex, often done as part of diplomacy/trade agreements).
If the Battlestar Galactica two-parter was any indication, this will probably form the basis of the entire series.
Breakfast served all day!
Cutting off Jar-Jar's head with shadow-square wire works for me.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Please, anyone but SciFi! I am a die-hard SF fan, and I HATE the SciFi channel. They produce way too much crap. Except for Farscape associated with those gods among geeks, the Jim Henson Creature Shop, which they CANCELLED and only belatedly brought back in a limited capcity after the most vocal outcry against the cancelling of a show in my recollection. Bastards.
So now they want to trash the Ringworld eh? Who's next? John Varley? Bruce Sterling?
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
"THE MAN WITH THE SCREAMING BRAIN: When a upscale banker suffers a traumatic head injury, part of his brain is replaced with that of a street hustler. The movie will be written, directed and stars EVIL DEAD's Bruce Campbell. Shooting begins this spring. "
Come on, it's got Bruce Campbell. It must be good!
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
Also on that page was this:
...)
ALIEN APOCALYPSE: Another Bruce Campbell action fest, this time with Campbell playing a deep space explorer who returns to Earth years after leaving it, only to find the planet has been invaded by an alien race and mankind reduced to slaves. Campbell and his fellow astronauts try and mobilize a rebellion.
Aliens, an invasion and Bruce Campbell? They might aswell rename this 'Duke Nukem: The Movie'. Should be cool. (Tho knowing Sci-Fi
Now, of course, thanks to "Star Trek Enterprise" they will have to ennunciate clearly:
"KZINTI not Xindi!"
His book is obviously an unimaginative rip-off of Halo. ;)
Nooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ...and a Kzinti played by a muppet.
my response: Scream and leap.
Can't wait for some hot rishathra!!!
Think they'll get Jeri Ryan to play Halrloprillalar? Sexy!
A few people mentioned about Ringworld being an obvious ripoff of Halo, but I haven't seen anone mention the ripoff from Wing Commander.
C'mon, those Kzinti are obviously Kilrathi warmed over.
Disclaimer at the beginning to turn away the lost Tolkien fans who tuned in by mistake.
Sponsored by "Whisk" : ring around the collar, ring around the collar
Zone of Ringworld occupied by muppet mushroom-lizard things
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
... but again by the wrong people.
Wonder how they will do product placement?
IANAL, but I've seen actors play them on TV
Ringworld? Good lord, why? With its cookie-cutter characters and trite plot, the only thing it has going for it is its mildly interesting setting. Yes, the ideas of dyson spheres and artificial worlds are neat, but Niven does a terrible job at using them in a novel.
Instead of devising an interesting and meaningful story to occur within the setting, he instead makes the setting the story and throws in some hackneyed and stereotypical characters with an inane plot to act as placeholders. This doesn't make for very good sci-fi, in my opinion.
I'm sure this series will have plenty of good opportunities for fancy special effects, but that's really the only redeeming feature of Ringworld. It has zero literary value otherwise.
So my opinion, for what it's worth, is that it's about time someone tackled some good (i.e. older) Niven stuff, but I fear the SciFi Channel will try to lowball it like usual.
.nosig
We are being surveyed EVEN AS WE SPEAK!
Yow!! What do you have against Niven?
In the open scenes of Ringworld, Louis Wu travels around the Earth for his 200th birthday -- using transporter booths to jump to the next timezone and have a 48-hour long birthday party. In the very rare first edition of the book, he travels from West to East, which is the wrong direction. Later versions corrected this.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
You may not want to bother with the sequels.
Ringworld Engineers was almost as good as the original, maybe, but Ringworld Throne was a huge disappointment. I'm not the only one who gave up on it halfway through. It's almost like Niven let somebody else write some of it, or decided to fuse unrelated plots into one book, or something equally horrid. Just stay away.
After reading (half of it), I'll probably never read another Niven again.
I'd ask for other book recommendations - but somehow the Slashdot structure isn't very suitable for recommending stuff (books, MP3 players, whatever) and rating it on a regular basis, so we have to make do with a roundup story once or twice a year.
Homer: Urge to kill RISING, RISING...
After all, the ringworld is unstable.
Don't blame Jar-Jar on the actor. He played a part he was paid to play, he didn't design the offensive character or write the inane dialogue.
You are in a maze of twisted little posts, all alike.
Please see this one.
Apparently, a pair of ostriches. But.... maybe not.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Can't wait to see the museum on the Kzinti Homeworld. I want to see how they display a stuffed human. The only human ever to invade the Kzinti royal palace and who tried to kill all inside the compound. (It was a revenge thing) This was during the Man-Kzinti wars before Man became the victor. And I wonder what revelations will be made of the altered genome that causes all humans to turn into "Protectors" --Tnuctipun?-
Heh. "Meesa chosen by Hindmost because meesa clumsy. Also, Meesa bipolar."
I'm wondering exactly how much material from the books they're going to include.
The original Ringworld book doesn't really end with a tense climax. It's a satisfying ending for a book, but I think it would fall a bit flat in a movie/miniseries.
Ringworld Engineers ends with a good fight scene, but including that would mean they'd have to explain Pak Protectors and a lot of other things. I don't think that much material can be adequately handled in a four-hour miniseries.
Ringworld Throne just wasn't very good at all, so let's not go there.
And how faithful will they be to the books? Will they have the "invulnerable" General Products hull? Will they have the Slaver shotgun? Will they include the Puppeteer Fleet of Worlds?
This has so much potential to be great or awful.
TheFrood
If you say "I'll probably get modded down for this..." then I will mod you down.
It's about time some one makes this.
I've been hoping for this movie since I read the book in 1989.
I'm glad they waited until now, though, because I'm old enough to actually be in it.
Well, old enough to audition for it, anyway.
after the craptasm that DUNE was my heart quails at this news.
But what about Bubba HoTep? Bruce is getting a lot of work... Glad someone is:)
-----
Best line in the book.
"I have a variable sword.
I urge calm."
None of them can see the clouds; The polished wings don't care.
Can't tell if you're being a sarcastic troll, or genuinely confused. So I'll bite.
You're thinking of "The Integral Trees" - another Niven work. Not "Ringworld".
Despite the hoopla, "Waterworld" is an OK movie. Costner makes his Mad Max clone into an interestly ornery cuss, and Tripplehorn and Hopper do quite well as well.
How in hell's name was Jar-Jar offensive!?
Apart from the fact I found it offensive that George Lucas thought I might want to watch him on screen, of course.
Dude - Wrong book. That book was Integral Trees, not Ringworld. Both are good books though.
Thalasar
It will be interesting to me how they imagine and portray the scope of the Ringworld. All the great science-fiction that inspired me let me "see" things I'd never seen before. To see thousand-mile high walls, oceans the size of planets and the curve of the Ringworld in the sky would have to be mesmerizing.
-- Gary Goldberg KA3ZYW 301/249-6501 AIM:OgGreeb Digital Marketing Inc., Bowie, MD
senescent - old, senile
did you mean sentient??
None of them can see the clouds; The polished wings don't care.
You're thinking of "The Integral Trees" - another Niven work. Not "Ringworld".
This was like a show I saw when I was ten years old. There was this family living in a flying saucer. They had two robots: a tall gold one and a short one like a trash can. There was a Doctor, who always said "Dammit Jim" and insulted the robots all the time. They were running from bad silver robots with red eyes who were trying to kill them. Wish I could remember the name of that show.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
I wonder who's going to play Cortana.
Don't blame me, I voted for Durga.
Halo consisted mostly of shooting aliens on an artificial planet, while Ringworld consisted mostly of having sex with aliens on an artificial planet.
Eh, close enough.
Am I the only one who initially read this as "Scifi Channel to Make Ringwald Miniseries"?
I had these weird visions of "The Breakfast Club" but with Molly Ringwald and Emilio Estevez as the Borg.
You are thinking of Niven's "Integral Trees," which is indeed about people living in a gas torus in zero-g. And there was a "midget" (normal height to us) capable of wearing the space suit left behind by the original ship.
Ringworld is about a huge ring the size of a planetary orbit around a star, with people living on the inside of it. If you haven't read it, I suggest you do if you liked Integral Trees. Just don't read the last one in the series-- it's awful. The rest are fantastic.
Didn't BG get it's own series? or is that still up in the air. I sure hope SCI-FI runs it next season
Beyond Thunderdome is actually the third Mad Max movie. The Road Warrior is the second, but the first to be released in the US. Thunderdome is probably the worst of the three, though it did give us 'Two men enter one man leaves!'
I want Pak protectors!
Oh, wait. Those were in The Fifth Element. My bad.
REM Old programmers don't die. They just GOSUB without RETURN.
In an animated Star Trek episode. It's years since I saw that epsiode but I vaguely remember it being quite good and I think Niven was involved with writing the script.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
The Louis Wo character is over 200 years old.
Thanks for solving the speculation of who gets to play Louis. Keanu Reeves will get the part.
Just imagine "Shadow square wire: Wo."
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
- Unassimilatible.
Wrong book. You're thinking "Integral Trees" or maybe "smoke rings" (not sure if either title is right) But I remember the story you talk about.
AB HOC POSSUM VIDERE DOMUM TUUM
--Keeping the flame wars alive, one post at a time
The book was Integral Trees and IMO was the best book Niven has done. The trees actually rotated - the ends of the trees were funnel shaped to collect water and nutrients. The habitation was in a large gas cloud in orbit around a quiescent neutron star.
I'm sure that the spysics made no sense but it was a cool story anyway.
I hope they do a good job with this. Ringworld is one of my favorites.
"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everybody agrees that it is old enough to know better." - Unknown
Is that the same smoking guy who was being chased by talking gorillas? My favorite scene was when Dean Stockwell would always show up with a beeping PDA and tell him which planet he was about to randomly teleport to.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
"Meesa sound like little black sambo."
THAT'S HOW.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierson's_Puppeteer
I heard they were making a "Rendezvous With Rama" movie some time ago...but now I can't really find any reference to it at all. This was years ago that I heard they were making it, so far in fact they could have made a sequel to it by now.
If they do it right, this would be an interesting project also. As long as they don't "hollywoodize" the project as they so often do.
(BTW, I'm glad they didn't hollywoodize the LOTR movies. If they had, they would have consolidated Sauron and Saruman into one character, put in a female or black hobbit character to keep it PC, put in a smart-mouthed kid, and cut the 3 movies down to one.)
"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." - John Lennon.
You are probably thinking about his "integral tree".
Same kind of nerdiness exhibited by those who don't like T'Pol.
"There will be no sex on my SciFi show!" (Conan O'Brien nerd voice).
What is wrong with you? Maybe if a SciFi series appealed to the masses with a little sexuality, it might last a while.
The PC police believe that Jar Jar is an offensive caricature of black people (correction African-Americans). Similarly, the trade federation people were caricatures of Asians. And Watto was a Jewish stereotype.
Of course, all of this could be the result of George Lucas being a mere caricature of a good screenwriter.
Stanley Kubrick had the right idea about sex in movies. There is a sex scene in A clockwork Orange, but Kubrick fast-forwards through the thing for us.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
They left Amber off the list. I'd heard they had one in the works and I love amber...
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
How in hell's name was Jar-Jar offensive!?
Well if I was Jamaican I'd probably want to kill George Lucas for sticking that accent on him.
Why the Hell did I go and see that film? Does anyone remember 'Acting?'
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
that it doesn't turn out like riverworld.
Ringworld deserves far better treatment. I can totally see scifi fagging it up to turn it into some retarded adventure movie a la xena.
I don't even remember what the topic was, but at some panel at the Balticon/Worldcon many moons ago, a question was asked about Niven's Puppeteers, and as one panelist responded, Michael P Kube-McDowell (I think) started waving his arms around behind the speaker, opening and shutting his hands like puppeteer mouths. It was the oddest thing I have ever seen at a science fiction which, let's face it, is saying a lot.
Karma: T-rexcellent.
"Niven did an adaptation of his short story "The Soft Weapon" with Spock substituting for the Puppeteer."
They really missed a chance when they brought in the Xindi instead of the Kzinti. "Star Trek Enterprise" actually does take place around the time of Kzinti first contact in the Star Trek timeline.
And don't forget, Ringworld Fans, the new book, Ringworld's Children, comes out June 1!!! Woohoo!
:) )
It trails the children of Teela Brown and Seeker (Who it turns out was also the product of a "Breeding for Luck" selecting breeding project.), and what happens to them. (Before Teela turns into a Protector, and also explains why Protector-Teela wanted to lose the fight with Louis Wu!
Not to rehash a years-old argument (how did you miss it?), but Jar-Jar reminded some viewers of how Jamaicans and African Americans have been caricatured in popular entertainment (e.g. loping, dim-witted, exaggerated mouths, speaking pidgin English). Some of the other aliens in SW:TPM were bore some resemblance to racial stereotypes as well (e.g. the trade federation reps =~ Chinese, Anakin's master Watto =~ Jewish), leading to some spirited debates about the subject.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
"Yes, Yes, YES, Yeeeeeeeees!"
-=- Many seek good nights and lose good days.
My personal favorite is:
Louis Wu, I found your challenge verbose. In challenging a kzin, a simple scream of rage is sufficient. You scream and you leap.
--Speaker-to-Animals, "Ringworld"
Other good quotes (almost all of which belong to Speaker-to-Animals/Chmee):
If you can heat some bourbon, I can drink it. If you cannot heat it, I can still drink it.
--Speaker-to-Animals, "Ringworld"
Exercise is wonderful. I could sit and watch it all day.
--Louis Wu, "Ringworld"
A docile kzin. You sought to produce a docile kzin, Nessus. If you think you have produced a docile kzin, come and rejoin us.
--Speaker-to-Animals, "Ringworld'
It does not disturb me to play a god. It disturbs me to play a god badly.
--Speaker-to-Animals, "Ringworld"
To kidnap a kzin is probably a mistake.
--Chmeee, "The Ringworld Engineers"
Scars are like memories. We do not have them removed.
--Chmeee, "The Ringworld Engineers"
Hindmost: The easy way to find out is to accelerate until something happens.
Louis: I do not believe I heard a Pierson's puppeteer say that.
--"The Ringworld Engineers"
Chmeee: With such a weapon I could boil the Earth to vapor.
Louis Wu: Shut up.
Chmeee: It was a natural thought, Louis.
--"The Ringworld Engineers"
Chmeee: Furthermore, they [kzinti] of the Map of Earth have fulfilled an ancient daydream of my people.
Louis: Oh?
Chmeee: Conquering Earth, you idiot.
--"The Ringworld Engineers"
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
Can't wait!
Hope they use the grandure of the Titanic, mixed with the Fantasy of LOTRs.
I love the way SC-FI is in an endless loop with Reality.
Niven said he was swammped with people correcting the ring theory.
Regardless, its the stuff dreams are made of.
That was an adaptation of Larry Niven's Known Space story Soft Weapon. Spock playing a Puppeteer, hmm.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Hey!
This guy brings up a legitimate point. I don't think he deserves to be modded "troll."
I loved Ringworld back in the day; it was one of the first grown-up genre SF novels I read, and I flipped head over heels for it and Niven's other stuff. I read it and the other "Known Space" books many times.
Now, I wonder what the heck I was thinking. It's heavy on sense-of-wonder, but there really is not much to the story.
The setting itself turns out to be kind of shabby: Niven had to add all sorts of kludgy patches to keep the poor Ringworld together and viable. If your aim is to create lots of secure living space, you are far better off building lots of self-contained space habitats.
Looking back, I suspect I was blown away by the Big Thingness of it, and the intricate background material that added versimilitude. I know more about people now, and more about science and engineering too. Ringworld just doesn't cut it for me any more.
Before I'm accused of having "too small a mind" to appreciate it, go read another book I first read way back when but still respect: Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker.
That non-novel fictional future history is utterly lacking in interesting characters, but dang, talk about scale! Talk about scope! Star Maker details the rise and fall of galactic civilizations over a span of billions of years. There are battles involving mobile planets and nova bombs. Dozens of bizzare races. Water-filled artificial worlds full of aquatic sapients linked together with webs of nervous tissue. The good guys have something like the Prime Directive. Their big ultimate project runs so long that it is threatened by the heat death of the universe.
And, hey! This Stapledon guy? He INVENTED the Dyson Sphere . . . go ask Freeman Dyson*. The far-future super-civilizations in the book use enveloping spheres to gather every bit of sunlight from the few remaining stars.
Stefan
* Or, if you don't have his email address, go read Disturbing the Universe, where he directly credits Star Maker for the "sphere" idea.
I know, now we'll make him dumb as a brick, a horrible klutz, and give him a "life debt" so he feels compeled to serve white male humans.
Damn, you're right, what might those ultra liberal politically correct maniacs be smoking.
How will they depict a Puppeteer??
If they're smart, they'll do it with strings.
My father is a blogger.
Futz! TANJ!
SB
It's old. The more humans I meet, the more I like my cats. At least they are honest.
" know, now we'll make him dumb as a brick, a horrible klutz"
Maybe you are the racist. When you see an orange character who is dumb and clumsy, you think "Aha! Black man!"
That is like the show I saw on prime-time last year about some high-school kids who use glowing green rocks to fight vampires. One of the kids is really a super-powered space alien, but he keeps it secret.
If the creators of the miniseries do their homework, they'll take not of the fact that Niven describes a Puppeteers heads as resembling Cecil from the Beany and Cecil TV animation of the 1960's.
Rishathra! Rishathra! Rishathra!
Maybe it's time to make Ringworld into Square World.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Do NOT screw a puppeteer.
Yes, the two mouths with prehensile lips suggest all sorts of kinky possibilities, but if you make a "home run" you might end up with a hungry puppeteer larva inside of you, and man, you just know that that's not going to be a fun pregnancy.
Stefan
I find those comparisons laughable. I did not see Jar Jar and think "Oh he's just like some black guy".
Who in their right mind could make that sort of link? If anyone knows a real person who acts or speaks like Jar Jar then I'll find that very amusing.
Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials, an all around great book, has a great depiction of the puppeteers.
If Louis and Teela do the arm-wavy thing at the front of the ship, I am so out of there!
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Amen. Just dug it out, I'll re-readed this next week I think!
In much the same way that a rotting beaver is offensive.
I'm less interested in seeing a Puppeteer than I am in seeing a kzin. Maybe they should rent the team who did Sully in "Monsters, Inc."
In one of the early paperback printings of the Known Space books, the inside front and back covers had wonderfully detailed illustrations by Bonnie Dalzell, including skeletons of Known Space aliens, including Kzinti and Puppeteers. The Kzinti skeleton is particularly interesting. . .
g erous_creatures.htm
http://www.larryniven.org/images/ringworldart/dan
"You never met my kzin, Kchula-Rrit? I keep it as a pet."
Louis' tequila tried to go down the wrong way. [...]
The nearest kzin stood up.
Rich orange fur, with black markings over the eyes, covered what might have been a very fat tabby cat eight feet tall. The fat was muscle, smooth and powerful and oddly arranged over an equally odd skeleton. On hands like black leather gloves, sharpened and polished claws slid out of their sheaths.
A quarter of a ton of sentient carnivore stooped over the puppeteer and said, "Tell me now, why do you think that you can insult the Patriarch of Kzin and live?"
The puppeteer answered immediately, and without a tremor in its voice. "It was I who, on a world which circles Beta Lyrae, kicked a kzin called Chuft-Captain in the belly with my hind hoof, breaking three struts of his endoskeletal structure. I have need of a kzin of courage."
However, the White Star line would have been the laughingstock of the fleet due to the limited shapes available as GP hulls ("No.4 Hull - a transparent sphere a thousand feet in diameter").
Louis DeCapriwu: "I'm Kzin of the world!!!!
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
The setting itself turns out to be kind of shabby: Niven had to add all sorts of kludgy patches to keep the poor Ringworld together and viable. If your aim is to create lots of secure living space, you are far better off building lots of self-contained space habitats.
To be fair, the "kludgy patches" came in in the later books - after he'd had the flaws with the system pointed out to him by his readers. A lot of (IMHO) decent SciFi from the earlier part of this century is later shown to be flawed by scientific discoveries which weren't known at the time - but I don't really think this spoils the stories themselves.
Asimov's early stuff featured all sorts of assumptions based on current knowledge which turned out to be wrong (The Big Sun of Mercury, Oceans Of Venus to name but two), but the stories themselves are still relatively entertaining if you ignore the fact that their wrong.
Surely the whole point of SciFi is that a lot of the stuff it depicts is *fiction*. We all know there's no way to travel faster than light - but it's a staple part of most Sci Fi stories. Why point at the problems Niven didn't realise the Ringworld would have and use it as a reason to criticise the book?
Gentlemen, start your penguins
...well, I had tea with him at the Baltimore Worldcon about 6 years ago.
Oh, and Isaac Asimov wrote a personal limerick for me about having two penises.
LOL!
As I read your comment and spew my coffee all over the keyboard and monitors.
Ya, that's not the part I had in mind.
More like the tail end of the ship coming out of the water and that poor beggar that gets flipped by the propeller on the way down.
forward to the scene where the vampires make everybody uncontrollably horny and then suck their blood out. Now that's entertainment.
Check Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestials for a pix of a Pierson's Puppeteet.Let see how they do Speaker To Animals (C'hmee),A Kzin (8 ft tall organge cat with hands.(carnivore)
Geek Hillbilly
Not if it hit the anti-matter iceberg.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Sorry for the misspellings.I have been up for 72 hours (at work) and the connection is ssssslllloooowwww.
Geek Hillbilly
With Bruce Campbell as "Amon"...never mind.
I wonder how well SciFi will handle WHR?
FIRE!
I was just thinking that :)
Gentlemen, start your penguins
Discovers of the Slavers and co-losers of the Slaver-Tnuctipun War of a billion years ago.
Discoverers? I remember it that the Tnuctipun were the most gifted of the races that the Slavers enslaved, and that they connived and overthrew the Slavers in an extremely devastating war.
I would say that they discovered the Slavers the same way that West Africans discovered the antebellum Old South.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
(As the story goes, for those of you newer to Niven, it was commented that the Ringworld was large enough to contain one of everything, so when asked if there was a McDonalds there, Rick added a tiny pair of golden arches.)
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Niven, Card, and also Greg Bear. The Forge of God is in the works, with the superior Anvil of Stars also optioned.
I saw Bubba Hotep. I love Bruce Campbell's stuff, and I really, really wanted BH to be good, but it just wasn't. No plot, crummy special effects, and the direction stunk.
;-)
I'll still watch the next thing Bruce is in, though
I thought the Trade Federation were supposed to be French. They had a vaguely French like accent and looked like frogs. I never saw the Asian parallels myself.
As long as they release a DVD set, I'll be all about it.
/.) that there was supposed to be a Children of Dune. Ah. Bought it on amazon while typing this. I see it as a failure of marketing if I have to go looking for something...
The problem with the Sci-Fi channel is, my local cable company refuses to carry it. I think I can get it if I go with the expensive digital cable. Or maybe if I get a dish thing. Not going to happen. But I will buy the DVD set the minute it's available. I really like they way they did Dune. I heard rumors (here on
Anyway, I won't be seeing this on SciFi channel, but I'll sure buy the DVD.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
Actually, most people aware of Caribbean accents made the connection pretty quickly. I think you're a bit of an exception.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
rishathra with big hairy grass giant women
"I say, ol chap. Isn't that a Chinese gentleman over there making love to a haystack?"
I guess it is better than making whoopie with one of the gas giants from Ringworld's bean-growing regions.
Chronicles of Thomas Covenant was a good read. It is ,however, hard to find all six books.
I re-read it last year, and was quickly able to find the 2 or so missing books in used bookstores. Since there is a new series out this year, the older books will likely be re-released.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
While the names Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke are similar and share two letters, they are not of the same author. Asimov coined the Three (Four...Five...) Laws and the word "robotics" back in the Forties.
GTRacer
- Does the QRIO obey?
Defending IP by destroying access to it? That makes sense, RIAA/MPAA. Go to the corner until you can play nice!
Flattened faces and extremely polite language (even while being insulting) seem to be Asian caricatures... and I personally thought the accents sounded Asian.
The Philosophy of Liberty | lewrockwell.com
We know why Teela wanted to lose the fight. It was explained oerfectly well in Engineers. You know, when it actually happened.
Why do successful series always feel the need to go insert unneeded stories in the "gaps" between the same stories that made them successful? We don't need a day-to-day diary.
Following the events of Teela's children would be interesting, though.
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
Looking at the Dalzell illo and re-reading the description, I'm beginning to think that the Kzin seem more like a cross between rats and raccoons then cats.
They are definitely described as being (large) cats with rat-tails. The description "plains cats" is used in the stories. Their speech sounds like a catfight, and cat (esp. tiger) comparisons and references are found throughout.
A particular odd story in "The Man-Kzin Wars" has one end up in Victorian India, where it is called "Tiger-Man".
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Considering it's the SciFi channel, the Puppeteers, Kzin, and Pak Protectors will all, for some bogus reason, look like humans! It's got to be the cheesiest SF production system in the known world -- anything to save costs and avoid expensive sets and/or makeup.
So you're saying that Jar-Jar suffers from the same problem as Jessica Rabbit? ("I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way") -- hmmmm. I could almost buy that defense.
Anonymous Kev
Proudly posting as AC since 1997
(Finally got a dang account in 2004)
Oh please lord that rules over all that is Sci-Fi, please please don't let them butcher this the way they butchered Riverworld.
_______
2B1ASK1
I always pictured something like Zorak from Space Ghost, but with two heads.
from the book starship troopers .. oh wait .. no I'm still waiting.
"It's so convenient to have a system where everyone is a criminal" - A. Hitler
I feel I must protest the mangling of the English language, miniseries breaks the rules of English, ok I will gladly drop the hyphen from e-mail it looks silly anyway because 'e' is not a word, but dropping it from mini-series is a hyphen too far, furthermore miniseries seems like miseries
"backed up by physical features that resembeled that nationality"
Yeah. Jamaicans are orange, have metre-long tongues, leaflike ears, and eyes on STALKS. Looks like you are the dumb character to think that adds up to "black man".
Even if your analogy were true, did you ever see the movie? Jar Jar went to his homeland, his Jamaica, and guess what? No one else there talkied with like him. Jar Jar was odd even for Gungans.
or for that matter African African.
The message on the other side of this sig is false.
"Flattened faces and extremely polite language"
I just saw some Asians on TV last night. This description does not fit that cleric in Iraq named Sadr, that is for sure. His face is not flat and his tongue is anything but polite.
If anything, those trade guys were a stab at Republicans. One of them was named "Nute Gunray" a clear take-off on two names of famous/powerful Republicans. (what next? one named Bah Limbush?)
Maybe I wasn't out to look for reflections on stereotypes in the real world, just like George wasn't trying to create such reflections.
If people perceive themselves as stereotypes then good for them.
...you're joking? The hook-nosed desert merchant with the throaty voice and the constant urge to gamble wasn't Jewish?
The scheming Trade Federation guys with their ornate robes, towering hats, SLANTED EYES and choppy, guttural voices weren't Japanese stereotypes?
Jar-Jar even DRESSED like a Carib stereotype!
You're just an idiot.
I was so geeked when I saw the header for this article... Then I realized that it's referring to ringworld, as opposed to Terry Pratchet's wonderful Discworld series.
What a bummer. No Rincewind for me this year. 8(
Well they're thinking of using the actor who played Jar-Jar...
Problem is, he was rather expensive. And they keep harping on about how they are a poor little channel.
I know magic can be worked if you have the money, but do they have enough?
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
Jar Jar with two heads, auuugh!
Seriously, though, I seem to recall something mentioned in the books about the smallness of the puppeteer ears, something about evolution making sure they wouldn't get stuck anywhere or something. I could be wrong, it's not a bible to me or anything. Wouldn't be the first time they completely ignored the original book and just went on ahead anyway.
Sigs for Nerds. Sigs that Matter.
Hmmmmm... Quite a bit happens, and there is quite a bit of exposition needed to not completely confuse someone who hasn't read the book. 4 hours is going to be a bit cramped.
Wouldn't adapting one of his Known-Space short stories or novellas make for a better start? One of the Gil the ARM stories? Or maybe Protector or World of Ptavvs? (sp?)
Although I lost interest in Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda series somewhere in the third season, I couldn't help notice how many Niven creations had been incorporated, such as Kzin (Magog), Puppeteers (Vedrans) and even the fleet-of-worlds (Magog wold ship). I do recall Niven writing an animated Star Trek episode starring the Kzin. Other than that, I'm not familiar with the extent of their relationship. I remember reading Ringworld when I was 9 or 10, and Louis Wu's description of rishathra is forever burned in my mind. My parents thought it was good I should be reading such thick books at the time. Needless to say, I didn't discuss anything I read with them.
Did you even see the movie?
Please see this picture, and this one
The eyes were not slanted.This image especially shows the large, round liquid eyes.
Nute's rather tall. Even without the hat. Not exactly a Japanese stereotype.
The trade federation guys had smooth, oily voices. Remember how one sand "Imperial SEHHHnate"? Hardly choppy and gutteral.
Knobbly brows, jutting chins: how is this a Japanese physical stereotype?
Finally, see this one of the other guy, Rune Haako, with his Sleestak-like bugeyes. Have you actually seen a Japanese person?
I'm expecting groomed Chewbacca costumes.
The scheming Trade Federation guys with their ornate robes, towering hats
Sounds like cardinals and popes to me!
Cool beans, great news. I love Molly Ringwald!
At last. I have often opined to fellow fans of the Ringworld that someone ought to make a miniseries. They agree, then shrug their shoulders and say: Yeah, but what can you really do about it? I am ever so pleased to hear this news. The Ringworld seriess is, by far, one of my favourite science fiction franchises. I have read the books over, and over, and have thoroughly enjoyed them each time. Larry Niven is a great storyteller, and I am looking forward to this hitting the tube.
are a playable race in the "StarFleet Battles" paper-and-pencil combat system.
They prefered drones and small fighter ships to large captial ships.
Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
(Hey, she's less than a year OLDER than me, so get your mind out of the gutter.)
The art design of their costumes was very asian (specifically Chinese). And the "accent" was also like that of a chinese person who speaks english as a second language (I grew up in Hawaii, and live in San Francisco, so I can say so with at least some authority) These were my impressions on my very first viewing, before they had a chance to be colored by outside input.
Even if it isn't offensive, I still found it be silly, and even lazy.
Badda Bing! [rim shot]
I'll be here until Thursday... Try the veal...
Perhaps Azimov coined "robotics", but "robot" was first used in Rossum's Universal Robots, a play by Karel Capek. The word "robot" was supposedly coined by his brother, Josef.
"The Czech word robota means "drudgery" or "servitude"; a robotnik is a peasant or serf. Although the term today conjures up images of clanking metal contraptions, Capek's Robots (always capitalized) are more accurately the product of what we would now call genetic engineering."
Especially when we're talking made for tv movie. So much care has to be taken to only show parts of the body that the censors would be happy with that it always seems hokey and contrived. It's no less jarring than having black bars hovering over people.
Everything will be taken away from you.
So, will the next comment you write have better grammar, or will you discover more about grammar yourself? Don't worry, I don't think this spoils the comment itself ;-)
I suffer from attention surplus disorder.
At any rate, I may be desensatized to it by Heinlein, but I don't find Niven over the top in that department. Also, while I agree that everything you named is a cliche now I'm not sure how cliche they were back when he wrote it. I certainly think the puppeteers where original, especially when you take into account the irony of their cowardice given their immense power, and the way the puppeteer in the book was viewed by his fellow aliens back home. And really, a LOT of good books can be made to appear simple if their details are stripped away. Tolkein's books all start looking like simple "quest" plots. Star wars ditto. Really, it seems to be the case with most any author that puts the kind of thought and detail into the world of their books that authors like Niven and Tolkein do. In these books, the scenery is what makes the book interesting, not so much what happens. If you don't like those types of books, fine, but there are quite a few that do.
Almost the entire book has the tone of a child/teen who's teased, taunted and manipulated how how that child/teen strikes back. ... Columbine-like tragedy on planetary scale...
Have you actually read the book? Ender never "strikes back" violently because of any teasing, taunting, or manipulation -- at the worst, he twice acts violently in self-defense while he's in imminent danger (under assault).
The entire purpose of the lying and manipulation of Ender by the end of the book was to get around the fact that he couldn't act violently unless he had no choice -- the same empathy that allowed him to so well understand the buggers during battle would keep him from harming them. They had to trick him into thinking it was all a training exercise!
Where you get anything "Columbine-like" out of that I have no idea. Go reread the book and actually pay attention to it this time.
Oops, that should read physics, not spysics....
Preview button? What preview button?
Surely some one should be able to adapt these books into a series
... Miss Jolie perhaps?
More than enough material...
Who to play Angelina though
Hmmm
Help! help!, the termites are eating my DRAM!!!
(lights up the flamethrower and takes aim...)
Okay I'm sick and tired of this. Riverworld should not have been a movie. Ringworld should not be a movie. Neither should I-Robot or any other classic sci-fi that doesn't fit the TV or movie art medium. It's just WRONG!
1) Books are a completely different medium than visual media. The plot arc evolves differently, the medium expects people to be reading words to understand, and so much is lost in translation to the screen. I-Robot and Riverworld are/were completely mangled and have nothing to do with the book. Hell, call I-robot by another name and include references to the three laws belonging to Asimov and you've probably taken care of legalities and still won't lose any sales. The movie is geared towards average joe american who doesn't even know who Philip Hose Farmer or Isaac Asimov are... why the hell do we do this to ourselves? I have no doubt Ringworld will lose a lot of what made the books interesting.
2) Books can span huge timeframes, movies cannot (though if your lucky TV can and does, though they fuck it up more often than not because of the business). When you make something into a movie you most often destroy the plot and condense the material into a 2 hour timeslice.
3) A movie's climax is almost always at the end, except for your really way out avant gard film pieces. A books climax, especially for less mainstream novels, is all over the place. Classic novels from Asimov and Larry Niven don't act like a screenplay. There are rules to each medium and they don't fit well with each other.
4) Most modern mainstream novels read much like a screenplay. Okay, translate your John Grissom, Tom Clancy, and J.K. Rowling books, because hell when I read those, I think I'm reading a script. Take those and translate them, but Asimov wrote these for deep sci fi fans, not your occasional star trek trash novel fan. It's the wrong audience, and the movie is too expensive to make unless it's mainsteam, so don't make it!!
5) Go on how you want about LotR... currently I consider that the sole exception because Peter Jackson and his trio were the only people who wanted to attempt a real artistic translation, not a $50 hack job.
6) someone PLEASE come up with something new! I am Farscape, what the fuck ever, just give me something that was meant to be seen on TV or the big screen! Can all hollywood do is recycle?
My fuel is exhausted... I'm going to go beat my head against the wall now.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
Hey, I just love the icon Slashdot uses for these kinds of stories. Does anyone know where it's from? Does he have a name? If he doesn't have a name, we should name him.
The Diamond Age by Neil Stephenson, was and still is a great book, and would much more deserve to be on any screen than ringworld. /slashdoters+farkers=flashers
Now i dont want to bash ringworld, i`ve read it and loved it as a kid but now i think that something more substantial that covers more current and future earthy subjects of discution would be far, far more entertaining than some zero-g sex.
I dunno - check out the ones I wrote after that one :)
I do know I should have used "they're" - but I never seem to type the right thing when I'm going at speed. Hassle Malda for a spelling / grammar checker
Gentlemen, start your penguins
Great, except that Lucas didn't stick the accent on him. The actor - who is black - came up with the voice. Not Lucas.
For a moment there, I thought it said "Discworld".
The press release implies at least a little bit that it's going to mix together multiple books into one movie, which seems to be me a big mistake. Ringworld is a self-contained story and should be kept that way; including elements of the sequels is a pattern that the Scifi channel likes to do but doesn't bode well for making a quality miniseries.
Don't forget trade federation guys not being able to pronouce insurrection.
Ender's game (sic) is already being made into a movie...
Nooo! A wretched book for 10 year olds that Hollywood will make into an even worse movie. Another reason to hate the MPAA.
Heisenberg may have been here.
Cuase you know, that woud be a fun annunciation
Isn't Sci-Fi forgetting something? They announced last year that they were doing a Myst mini-series but it's since seemed to disappear (I have it from sources at Cyan and Ubi that the project's been backburnered at best) just wondered why noone seems to remember that, I'm guessing it probably got quietly forgotten around the time Ubi was prematurely killing Uru.
All the 1337 kiddies will be shouting on irc, "they toally copied halo!".
True genius is grasping a situation like a peice of fruit, and peircing it just right so that it drains dry.
Has anyone else played the Ringworld PC game? It was one of those graphical adventure games, like the King's Quest series. I remember having picked it up in one of those shovelware 10 game boxes years and years ago. I've never read the books, but the game was quite entertaining.
Louis looks in his early twenties, as noted by Nessus.
Speaker-to-Animals is his title. He's a junior ambassador to the human worlds.
Teela is 20. Dark hair. Slender. Looks like Paula Cerenkov. :-)
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
I think it was nearly 6 years ago that the Sci-Fi channel said they were going to do something with Roger Zelazny's Amber series.
Personally, I'd love to see this. But, I haven't heard anything about it since. *pout*
How in hell's name was Jar-Jar offensive!? ;)
Innocent Kids use Jar-Jar as masturbation toys!
Do not be alarmed. This is only a test.
Yes, I'm aware of that. It has no effect on the end result though - a race of idiots with Jamaican(-sounding) accents. And then all the Trade federation bad-guys definitely sounded Japanese to me.
There were plenty of black actors who were willing to play 'Uncle Tom' roles in earlier Hollywood movies that would seem overtly racist today.
But I don't like Star Wars anyway... I was just trying to be funny.
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
Now that SciFi has shown it's commitment to the miniseries-format adaptation of SciFi classics, I am waiting for the day they announce the first chapter of the Foundation series...
--- Donal, SysAdmin of The Brewers' Witch BBS
That is just like saying "Iowa has Iowans, not Americans". Or "Serbia has Serbs, not Slavs".
Here you go:
Iraq is located entirely within Asia. Therefore (except for immigrants), all Iraqis are Asians
Many Iraqis are Kurds. It is a large enough minority to show your implication of Iraq as Arab-only to be false
Arabs originated in Arabia, which, again, is 100% inside Asia. However, many Arabs live in northern Africa.
It is probably news to you also that Israel is an Asian nation. Turkey is too (only a small part of Turkey is European).
Therefore, if someone "looks or acts like an Asian", they could be like a Saudi, a Turk, a Persian, a Mongol, a Sri Lankan, or either Ariel Sharon or Yassir Arafat..... as well as someone who is Chinese or Japanese. It is very hard to stereotype such a wide range of cultures and appearances!
No you're just ignorant. I don't pay any attention to stereotypes - I leave those to people too small-minded to think about how people actually live.
But dipping momentarily into your little world of stereotypes, jsut to placate you, it isn't a Jewish stereotypical trait to gamble. Jar Jar didn't dress anything like a stereotypical person from the Carribean. The Trade Federation people did not have slanted eyes.
Maybe the British-accented Palpatine is a stereotypical British empire-builder eh?
How can people see so much crap in so little?
"How can people see so much crap in so little?"
You know, they have a point. Those little hub-cap headed robots at the race? They were short and had flat heads, just like Nicaraguans. How racist! Greedo? His long green snout is an obvious slam at Bangladeshis. Jabba the Hutt himself is clearly a jab at the average Wal-Mart customer (even the rednecks don't get spared attacks). What person who has not been to New York can't recognize the short smelly cloaked Jawa as representing that symbols homeless? That fat Gungan with the jowls (Boss Nass)? His strong resemblance to a typical Gypsy shows George Lucas' hatred for the Rom. Finally, C-3PO's naked appearance in these movies is an obvious dig at the African tribes that go without clothes.
The Tuscan Raiders? Clearly Lucas has been to Tuscany and has picked up on the stereotype of the people's unintelliglbe speech and habit of wearing heavy jewelry. The crooked droid-trader in the very first film? That is a reference to Peruvians and their reputations as being crooked desert merchants. Schmi Skywalker (Anakin's mother)? She is a stereotype of the unwed mother so hated by the Religious Right.
Lucas' mind is so filled with racist paranoia. We might as well call these films "The Return of the Klan"
I liked the concept of RingWorld and will be glad to see this movie.
However, there was something about Larry Niven's writing style that I just couldn't stand. I had to force myself to get through Ringworld. I have a copy of Ringworld Engineers that I have yet to pick up due to my dislike of his style.
As long as they don't rename it to "Duke Nukem Forever: The Movie"
And postpone it for all of the eternity. Then again, maybe that would be for the best.
Actually, a puppeteer's idea of melee is hiring someone big, smart, and talented to take care of the enemy while the puppeteer stays far, far away....perferably on a different planet. Remember, by definition, you only see insane puppeteers because a sane one would never come near an alien.
True, the first book is aimed at a younger mindset. I'm hoping it does good enough to have two sequels, so they can do Xenocide, the third book, that's probably the best one.