Scifi Channel to Make Ringworld Miniseries

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Scifi Channel to Make Ringworld Miniseries

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday April 6, 2004 @05:02AM from the well-isn't-that-special dept.

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."

14 of 431 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

And Earthsea, too! by sabernar · 2004-04-06 05:03 · Score: 3, Informative

According to the article, they're making Le Guin's Earthsea, too!
1. Re:And Earthsea, too! by rayde · 2004-04-06 05:20 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  yes it's been mentioned
Interesting... by tallpole · 2004-04-06 05:04 · Score: 2, Informative

Considering 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!
1. Re:Interesting... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-04-06 05:47 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  No...it wasn't really influenced by Ringworld at all, according to one of the creators of Halo. The ring concept is pretty common throughout sci-fi. The ring in Halo is much smaller, it's around a planet instead of a star.
2. Re:Interesting... by cooter1pt2 · 2004-04-06 08:25 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  Larry Niven *created* the idea of a ringworld (not technically in the novel, but rather in his essay about artificial worlds, which I can't find the name of--it is usually found in his collection All the Myriad Ways), so in that sense anyone who uses the "ring concept" is being influenced by him. Of course, I don't think that the Halo ringworld works without massive antigravity....and the day/night cycles must be really weird, with it rotating around a planet and a sun and itself. But much more than Stoker created vampires or Asimov robots, Niven created the idea of ringworlds. He was really first. p.s. what's wrong with writing about rishathra? Are people so insecure that they can't imagine sex without ascribing perversions to their author?
3. Re:Interesting... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-04-06 10:00 · Score: 1, Informative
  
  He gets the credit for thinking up ringworlds, but it's really just a poor cousin to the Dyson sphere -- with the added disadvantage that, if I recall correctly, a ringworld is unstable while a Dyson sphere is stable (something Niven only picked up on after a bunch of fans sent him letters about it).
even better, The Screaming Brain by corbettw · 2004-04-06 05:09 · Score: 3, Informative

"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.
Re:Sweet! by KlomDark · 2004-04-06 05:15 · Score: 4, Informative

Ender's game is already being made into a movie by the same people as XMen2! :)
The original was OK, but by lightspawn · 2004-04-06 05:16 · Score: 3, Informative

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.
Re:Other Ripoff by Thanatopsis · 2004-04-06 05:17 · Score: 1, Informative

Ringworld a rip-off of Halo? LOLS! Dude Ringworld was first published in 1977, making it older than Microsoft and the XBoX by a number of years

--

Thalasar
Glad they waited! by CleverNickName · 2004-04-06 05:19 · Score: 4, Informative

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.
Re:Surely there are better stories... by spaceman+harris · 2004-04-06 05:38 · Score: 3, Informative

I'm sure this is flamebait but...

Ringworld: Nebula Award 1970 (Best Novel), Hugo Award 1971 (Best Novel), Locus Award 1970 (Best Novel), and the Australian Ditmar 1972 (Best Novel).

The setting certainly was important and sparked conferences, debates and papers (including some thoughts from Freeman Dyson).

But the characters and civilizations certainly were deep, this was the first in-depth look at the Kzinti who became the centre of many later novels written by other authors. There have been a series of (at least) ten novels on the time of the man-kzin wars, Poul Anderson anyone?

As for stereotypical characters:

-A two hunded year old Asian man who travels deep in to space every few decades when he gets bored.

-A female lead who is charmed by sucessive generations of fertility lotteries.

-A diplomat from a race of eight-foot Lion people.

-An emmisary from a race of herbivors who are fleeing the galaxy in a convoy of five planets that rotate around each other.

so cliche
Ringworld's Children by KlomDark · 2004-04-06 05:50 · Score: 3, Informative

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! :) )
Other Good Quotes by Valdrax · 2004-04-06 05:52 · Score: 4, Informative

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").