Oolite Bulletins

Rendezvous with Rama for me...

Cheers,

Drew.

I went for 'The Mote in God's Eye'.
I noticed that 'The Dark Wheel' was in the list of nominations that didn't make the final poll.

I'm kind of glad that a lot of books I'm fond of have never been made into movies. So often the attempts to do so end up being so far from the original that even the fact that they share the same name is a bit of a tragedy.

Enders Game for me. I have read that book 5 times, and I pick it up and read it again every two years or so. My second choice would The Mote in Gods Eye. Strange but brilliant book. But there were a lot of really good books on that list, and some I haven't read. So I copied the list for my next Amazon order.

Aaahhh! That's so hard!

But in the end I'd have to go with the book/series that inspired me to write Sci-Fi when I was a kid - Lensman series by Doc Smith (my dad gave me "Galactic Patrol" to read when I was 9 - and I spent a lot of years staring at things and people trying to move them/read their minds! (and a lot of years hunting down pretty much anything else the Doc wrote!))

From a cinematic point of view, Drew’s probably right… ‘Rendezvous with Rama’ would look really good on screen. For credible aliens, it’s either the Moties or the Grendel in ‘The Legacy of Heorot’… both involving Niven and Pournelle (and Barnes in ‘The Legacy of Heorot’).

As a second choice, I’d go for ‘Consider Phlebus’.

Who cares about credible aliens? I want weird ones, hence A Fire Upon the Deep. The tines, done well, would be amazing on screen (and it wouldn’t be the best SF film never made if it wasn’t done well, now would it?). And the skroderiders, of course; what film wouldn’t benefit from absent-minded pot plants on skateboards?

Hyperion was tempting; it would have some nice visuals (and a lot of horrible ones), but I think it would become much shallower as a screenplay, even if done well. Besides, its structure demands to be made as a miniseries rather than a film.

I considered Eon, but again I think it’s better as a book. Of course, a lot of books are. And a lot of old classics would be victims of their own success.

I’m dreading the film of The Forever War (in 3D gimmickvision!) — it could easily become another Starship Troopers, and deserves it far less than Heinlein’s festering pool of pus did — but hey, Ridley Scott might not screw it up.

Having read Ahruman's post I may have changed my mind (as I've not voted!) - Lensman would make a great/Epic mini-series but probably not a great film...

Consider Phlebus - would be a good choice (from an actual self contained, sensible length film).

Having read most of the books on the list - if done well, I would go see them all, problem is, most of them, by their very nature, wouldn't/couldn't be done well...

From Wikipedia: In 2008, Ron Howard's Imagine Entertainment and Universal Pictures began negotiations with the author's estate for rights to film the Lensman series. The negotiations are for an 18-month renewable option.[4] At the WonderCon convention in San Francisco in February 2008, J. Michael Straczynski, the creator of Babylon 5, confirmed that Howard had acquired the rights and also hinted that he was involved in the project as well.[5] On 17 June 2008, Straczynski wrote that he had begun work on the project.[6]

Wow, that could very well be one of my Dad's bookshelves! I reckon I've read 18 of them, and recognise the titles of a fair few others, which isn't bad considering the vast majority were written before I was born.

I agree with Ganelon - I can't see many of these actually working as films. Although I could see 'Neuromancer' having worked as a film, albeit one made in the 80s...

Neuromancer could maybe have worked, back in the 80s. Now I think it would end up being more like The Matrix:Rehashed

Eon, I fear they'd want to "dumb down for the masses" to the point where it would be little but some eye candy.

El Viejo wrote:

From Wikipedia: In 2008, Ron Howard's Imagine Entertainment and Universal Pictures began negotiations with the author's estate for rights to film the Lensman series. The negotiations are for an 18-month renewable option.[4] At the WonderCon convention in San Francisco in February 2008, J. Michael Straczynski, the creator of Babylon 5, confirmed that Howard had acquired the rights and also hinted that he was involved in the project as well.[5] On 17 June 2008, Straczynski wrote that he had begun work on the project.[6]

There's an Anime version of most of Galactic Patrol with a little bit of 2nd Stage Lensman thrown in for good measure out-there somewhere, I saw it at a Convention once...

And the WP page indicates they'll have to have at least 2 renegotiations since then!

Of the complete list, I would've voted for Alastair Reynolds' Chasm City, but of the nominees I did pick up Isaac Asimov's Foundation because that's the book/series that got me into sci-fi as a kid.

I ended up voting for The Atrocity Archives, as it looks like I won't be getting At the Mountains of Madness any time soon.

One SF short story that I think would make a great film, given recent/current events, would be "Mozart in Mirrorshades" by Bruce Sterling and Lewis Shiner.