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Upcoming Film Based On Arthur C. Clarke Story

Posted by Zonk on from the should-have-taken-the-skyhook dept.

SoyChemist writes "The Wired Science blog has production stills and a story about a side project that several Industrial Light and Magic employees have been working on. They are producing the short story Maelstrom II as an independent film. The entire thing was shot in front of a bluescreen, so all of the sets and props will be CGI. The lone actor, Chuck Marra, plays a guy that hitches a ride on an electromagnetically launched freight capsule from the moon to earth. When the nuclear reactor that powers the catapult fails, he is thrown into space, but not far enough to escape lunar gravity — leading to an Apollo 13 style rescue mission. The original story was written by Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey."

15 of 131 comments (clear)

  1. Great Quote for His Interview by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He hopes to visit the great author at his home in Sri Lanka, unveil the completed film, and interview him about the future of humanity in space. I am reminded of a great quote I once heard about from him that would be quite applicable to the above interview:

    There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum. - Arthur C. Clarke I don't know why but my favorite Arthur C. Clarke novel would have to be Childhood's End. In my opinion, there's something more poetic about the style he used for that than there is for any of his other work. Of course, I find myself sliding into more and more bizarre novels these days ... possibly the reason why I haven't seen this adapted into a movie is it's not fit for public consumption (or something that can doom a film in the states, Christian acceptance).

    I love independent films and I've got high hopes for this--if anyone could do up an amazing indie film, it'd be ILM. More importantly, I hope this opens up the door a little more for indie films to debut in regular theatres but unfortunately, I'd have to travel pretty far to find a theatre playing something like this and I live in D.C.!

    That said, he is a great author though from what I've read about him as a man, he is rumoured to be a bit pompous--but you know, he is credited with being the first to conceive a geostationary communications satellite so maybe he deserves to have a movie made for him and his ego stroked a little? :-)
    --
    My work here is dung.
    1. Re:Great Quote for His Interview by ashitaka · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I don't know why but my favorite Arthur C. Clarke novel would have to be Childhood's End.

      Childhood's End would be good but unfortunately the "huge ships settle over all major cities on earth" imagery has been stolen by Independence Day. And yes, a highly-evolved race saying "religion is a common primitive response in dual-parent species" would not go down too well in modern America. (Maybe that wasn't in Childhood's End)

      A more timely adaptation might be The Fountains of Paradise. Space Elevators, yes.

      --
      If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
    2. Re:Great Quote for His Interview by DerekLyons · · Score: 3, Informative

      I don't know why but my favorite Arthur C. Clarke novel would have to be Childhood's End. ... possibly the reason why I haven't seen this adapted into a movie is it's not fit for public consumption (or something that can doom a film in the states, Christian acceptance).

      Or it could be simply that the story won't translate well into film.
       
      Among other things - it's really two or three connected stories told serially within one set of covers. This is the same problem that haunted Dune for decades (for example). Another problem is that Sir Arthur simply won't leave Sri Lanka, which renders collaboration difficult. Yet another problem is that 'popular' (film) sci-fi has tended for decades towards 'space opera' and lightweight sophmoric 'philosophy/morals' and steered away from deep issues and complex tales. (LOTR could safely (partially) ignore the issue of complexity because that series has what Sir Arthur lacks, a large and vocal fanbase.)
       
      And the issue of fanbase may be the real key - for whatever reason, among the Masters of SF, Sir Arthur remains largely obscure. He's known for 2001, but many fen know little more than that. He simply isn't read very much. (This may be because his main output over the last twenty years has been a series of simply wretched collaborations.)
    3. Re:Great Quote for His Interview by xtracto · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Personally I prefer Mr. Isaac Asimov, his Robot short stories (some of them in the I, Robot book), his Foundation Trilogy and other books are the ones that made me an avid reader. Oh, and he invented (coined?) the term "Robotics".

      Oh and Asimov and Clarke used to play saying each that the other was a better Science Fiction writer.

      Of course, I believe Mr. Clarke is more popular.

      --
      Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
  2. Who? by glwtta · · Score: 5, Funny

    The original story was written by Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

    Oh, that Arthur C. Clarke.

    --
    sic transit gloria mundi
    1. Re:Who? by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 5, Funny

      The original story was written by Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

      Oh, that Arthur C. Clarke.

      Remember, any sufficiently advanced sarcasm is indistinguishable from offtopic.
      --
      No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
  3. Rendezvous with Rama by nacturation · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm still waiting for Rendezvous with Rama to come out. They used to have some info up at the domain name, which is registered by Revelations Entertainment and was supposed to be sponsored by Intel. If the IMDB page is accurate, this might be coming out in a few years... but it's been simmering for about a decade so who knows how accurate that is.

    --
    Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
    1. Re:Rendezvous with Rama by raddan · · Score: 4, Informative

      If someone actually does do Rendezvous with Rama, they'd better do it right. The thing about that book-- and the thing that has always made me love Clarke's writing-- is that it captures the wonder and fear in an almost palpable way. But the fear part is hard for movie people to get right. It's the fear of the unknown. Not the fear of some big, drooling monster like Hollywood loves to put in the films. Rendezvous with Rama captured the weirdness of an alien species, and to my knowledge, Arthur C. Clarke is the only writer, next to Stanislaw Lem, who toys with the idea that actually communicating with aliens may not be possible.

      Kubrick has made one of the only true sci-fi films in my mind-- 2001: A Space Odyssey. Rama would have to do something similar. Definitely a hard sell, but those kinds of films have staying power.

  4. Isn't this a lose-lose by jeffmeden · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Does anyone else see this as a lose-lose for these budding filmmakers? If the project is a success, ILM will own any distribution rights to it, since it was made with company resources. Meanwhile, these guys spent undoubtedly countless nights and weekends working on it, without pay. What will they have to show for it but a spot in the credits?

    1. Re:Isn't this a lose-lose by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Sounds more like a win-win to me. If it's not a commercial success, these guys will still have a completed project to add to their demo reels and resumes, which didn't cost anything financially. If it is a commercial success, they'll have made a ton of money for ILM. ILM is known for being among the coolest places to work in the FX industry, and it will probably get them some nice bonuses and brownie points, as well as the elusive prize of a successful film for their resumes and demo reels.

      --
      Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
  5. lol by Dunbal · · Score: 5, Funny

    The entire thing was shot in front of a bluescreen

          As if I really care which OS they used...

          oh, wait...

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    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    1. Re:lol by Dunbal · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'm used to it. It's the puppies. I get a lot less mod points since I got the sig about the puppies. I guess I'll have to bump it up to eight.

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      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  6. Re:This is slashdot. by jandrese · · Score: 3, Funny

    If they hadn't put that bit at the end the first comment would have been something like: "Would it KILL you to tell me who you're talking about? I actually had to use Google! Slashdot sucks!"

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    I read the internet for the articles.
  7. Re:This is slashdot. by Fallingcow · · Score: 3, Funny

    That usually happens when they have a headline like, "gPySQLbird 1.0.4 released", then talk about how great it is, without ever saying what the hell it does or comparing it to some better-known, similar project or product that might give us a hint.

    Then, they have an article about a guy who almost certainly makes anyone's top-5 list of best sci-fi authors 1950-present, and they feel like they have to explain it. He's one of a handful of sci-fi authors that even non-sci-fi fans usually know.

    Weird.

  8. Apollo13-style rescue mission? by donour · · Score: 3, Informative

    There was no rescue for Apollo 13. They had to figure out how to get home safely just by following the directions of the crew on the ground. Thank goodness, they had Tom Hanks. :-p