Sci-Fi Fans?

[KiltedCodeWarrior]

...Back to kilts & SF, who should play LL (kilted, of course) in a movie version of Heinlein's
Time Enough For Love or Methuselah's Children? (like that will ever happen)

Wow Jerry, what a thought provoking question! It is a very unique role and the wrong person would ruin it for anyone with a familiarity with books.

Based on just a little reflection, I would have to propose Harrison Ford. I actually though he would have made a good lead for the Da Vinci Code as well. He is somewhat versatile and I think portrays the right blend of avoiding conflict when he can, but able to handle it if necessary.

And actually Sir Sean comes to mind, but he seems too large to me for the part, both for his prior roles and his physical appearance. But he would be good!

[Zardoz]

Best and worst movies from novels......

Keeping in the Heinlein theme; I thought Starship Troopers, while not being that much like the book, captured the spirit of it and was quite entertaining.

Puppet Masters is the best Heinlein adaption to date though.

The worst; Battlefield Earth! Not only an injustice to a great novel, but a crappy movie on every level.

[KiltedCodeWarrior]

Best and worst movies from novels......

Keeping in the Heinliein theme; I thought Starship Troopers, while not being that much like the book, captured the spirit of it and was quite entertaining.

Puppet Masters is the best Heinlein adaption to date though.

The worst; Battlefield Earth! Not only an injustice to a great novel, but a crappy movie on every level.

Zardoz, I agree with you on Starship Troopers. Not exactly like the book, but true to the book.

Puppet Masters was good enough, but just did not really draw in the audience that much IMO. It could have been better filmed, although I can not fault their dedication to the book. I just was not impressed by the movie itself.

[Panache]

Here's a poll for all of you science fiction fans:

What are the Best and Worst film adaptations of a major novel or story?
My nominations...Worst: I, Robot -stole the Good Doctor A's title, a few character names, and nothing else

Best: "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (1953 Disney). A straight blow by blow translation would have been unappealing. The screen writer took all the elements and fashioned a wonderful adventure that captures the spirit of the Jules Verne novel without being dragged down by it's episodic nature and lack of a cathartic ending. It added the issues of nuclear power to a generation still trying to comprehend the complex questions that entering the atomic age warranted.


Worst: "I, Robot". I was excited about a movie version of I, Robot. I really liked the series. Crossing a detective story and science fiction (and making it work) takes a lot of imagination and talent. The fact that each story has to hold to the "The Laws of Robotics" makes them that much more brilliant. As for the movie... I read a couple of reviews online and in the papers and was very disappointed. One reviewer wrote something along the lines of : ... in the credits the movie says "inspired by the works of Isaac Asimov." it should have read "With apologies to the works of Isaac Asimov". Needless to say, I didn't bother to watch it. But I still think that it rates as the worst movie adaptation of a science fiction classic.

Cheers

[Zardoz]

Okay, who are some of the other favorite authors? Mine include:

Larry Niven
Poul Anderson
Roger Zelazny
Elizabeth Moon
Robert Forward

and, especially, Philip José Farmer (think Riverworld and World of Tiers series)

Ditto on Farmer and Niven,
Also:
Jerry Pournelle
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Walter John Willaims
Orson Scott Card (Ender Series)
Kim Stanley Robinson (Mars Trilogy, best SF series since Foundation)
Issac Asimov
John Brunner
L.Ron Hubbard
Kurt Vonnegut
Joe Halderman
Dean Koonze

Speaking of 'I Robot' while not like the book, I thought the movie was very entertaining just the same. I thought another Asimov adaption, "Bicentennial Man" was much better at portraying the themes of the 'Robot' books, and a good film too.

[Caradoc]

Based on just a little reflection, I would have to propose Harrison Ford.
(snip)
And actually Sir Sean comes to mind, but he seems too large to me for the part, both for his prior roles and his physical appearance. But he would be good!

Harrison Ford and Sean Connery are both far too old to be Lazarus Long.

He's supposed to be somewhere in his mid-30s, and with a corn-fed hayseed accent. "He likes to pretend he's just a farmboy with manure between his toes," as said in "The Cat Who Walks Through Walls."

Heath Ledger might be able to pull it off - in a few more years. He needs some additional maturity.

[Caradoc]

Speaking of 'I Robot' while not like the book, I thought the movie was very entertaining just the same. I thought another Asimov adaption, 'Millenium Man' was much better at portraying the themes of the 'Robot' books, and a good film too.

Do you mean "Bicentennial Man?"

I liked it. Both the novella and the movie.

The worst; Battlefield Earth! Not only an injustice to a great novel, but a crappy movie on every level.

There was no saving "Battlefield Earth." The entire book was dreck to begin with, and there's nowhere they could have gone with it to make it remotely entertaining. The entire storyline of "Battlefield Earth" reads just like the back story for Scientology, down to the fact that the alien overlords are called "Psychlos," and Scientology hates psychiatrists. (Oh, and the aliens have an "upper class" of overlords called "catrists" - see any more parallels?)

[Zardoz]

Back to kilts & SF, who should play LL (kilted, of course) in a movie version of Heinlein's
Time Enough For Love or Methuselah's Children? (like that will ever happen)

No idea! But Alica Witt can play his twin Clone/Daughters!
as much as I like Redheads, I'd love that movie! I'm sure it will get made right after Stranger in a Strange Land! (like that will ever happen)

[Zardoz]

Do you mean "Bicentennial Man?"

I liked it. Both the novella and the movie.



There was no saving "Battlefield Earth." The entire book was dreck to begin with, and there's nowhere they could have gone with it to make it remotely entertaining. The entire storyline of "Battlefield Earth" reads just like the back story for Scientology, down to the fact that the alien overlords are called "Psychlos," and Scientology hates psychiatrists. (Oh, and the aliens have an "upper class" of overlords called "catrists" - see any more parallels?)

Yeah that's what I meant, "Bicentennial Man" great book and movie!

I gotta say though, I found Battlefield Earth to be very entertaining, it's a SF satire in many ways. Yeah its got a lot of Scientology concepts in it, and although I agree about the psychiatrists, it didn't make me want to get my engrams cleared or anything! I found it overall very entertaining and funny.

One of my fave writers now, Orson Scott Card puts a lot of Mormon themes in some of his work, no big deal. Since you don't seem to care for L.Ron, I won't recomend his "Mission Earth" dekology, one story spread out over 10 4-500 page volumes!

[Iolaus]

Here's a poll for all of you science fiction fans:

What are the Best and Worst film adaptations of a major novel or story?
My nominations:

Best: Blade Runner -really captured Phil Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

Maybe so, but what I went to see was, I thought, the movie adaptation of "Blade Runner" by William S. Burroughs, and I was very disappointed!

I-Robot was a decent enough film, but it wasn't Asimovs story; in fact, it wasn't even I-Robots world!

Another pet peeve of mine is Beast Master; They kept the animal team working with a human, but placed it into a Conan/Swords-n-Sorcery type world, instead of Norton's Sci-Fi universe of a post interstellar war that had left Earth a blue cinder, with surviving Earth veterans settling elsewhere.

...and the story wasn't even similar - the original was all about alien holdouts from the war!