Movies in 2011.

[Vaiti]

All good memories must be throughly violated.

[Ingmar]

If there's any Coen Brothers sequel that could work, I guess it is that one?

[ghost]

I was kindof hoping for Fargo 2. 

[Merusk]

I was kindof hoping for Fargo 2. 

The woodchipper wanted too much.

[ghost]

Hah.  If they do another Lebowski I hope they don't fuck up the overall feel.  I absolutely loved the first one, as I'm sure a lot of others around here did too. 

[Velorath]

I guess nobody saw the update the same day that link was posted, with a rep from the Coens saying there is no Big Lebowski 2 in the works.  Which I guess makes the project about as substantial as most of the other movies mentioned in this thread.  The thread topic should be changed to "Movies someone mentioned in an interview that aren't actually being made right now".

[VainEldritch]

Bioshock..?

I'd have said BioForge would have made a far better movie candidate.

[Merusk]

Relevant to movies that will never release:

http://www.cracked.com/article_19012_5-hollywood-secrets-that-explain-why-so-many-movies-suck_p1.html

[ghost]

I'm not sure why #5 is true.  There are so many good books out there dying to get made into movies.  Ender's game, for example, would be a great movie and probably very relevant politically. 

[Abagadro]

I'm not sure why #5 is true.  There are so many good books out there dying to get made into movies.  Ender's game, for example, would be a great movie and probably very relevant politically. 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1731141/


It's been "in development" for like 20 years.

[ghost]

You'd think these people don't like making money.  It's not like they're trying to make Battlefield Earth into a movie.  Nerds would come out in droves for any number of these classic sci fi books. 

[Merusk]

See: Number 4.

Also, you just summoned WUA to rant about things nerds on the internet like vs. things normal people like.  See: Serenity

[ghost]

See: Number 4.

Yeah, I got that part as I moved along.  But #5 by itself shouldn't be a hold up.  I would love to hear some WUA ranting. 

[Johny Cee]

You'd think these people don't like making money.  It's not like they're trying to make Battlefield Earth into a movie.  Nerds would come out in droves for any number of these classic sci fi books. 

Nerds don't go to movies.  Just ask Serenity, Scott Pilgrim, any Dune adaption, etc. etc. etc.

And no, Harry Potter and LotR aren't nerdy.  Both have sold hundreds of millions of copies, and are beloved by people who will never touch another fantasy book ever.


Also, I think Ender's Game is unfilmable without ruining it.  I mean...  it's about a bunch of 8 to 10 year olds who commit genocide.

[Johny Cee]

See: Number 4.

Also, you just summoned WUA to rant about things nerds on the internet like vs. things normal people like.  See: Serenity

 

[ghost]

I mean...  it's about a bunch of 8 to 10 year olds who commit genocide.

Why would this be unfilmable? 

Anyway, Ender's Game is just an example.  There's plenty of good regular fiction out there as well.  There shouldn't be a lack of good stories to tell. 

[Sir T]

Because children are sweetness and innocence. Or see half the episodes of the latter half of Star Trek the next Generation.

[ghost]

Ah.  I see.  Maybe so.

[Johny Cee]

I mean...  it's about a bunch of 8 to 10 year olds who commit genocide.

Why would this be unfilmable? 

Anyway, Ender's Game is just an example.  There's plenty of good regular fiction out there as well.  There shouldn't be a lack of good stories to tell. 

Do you really need me to explain that?  Who is going to watch that, really?  I mean, 7 or 8 year old Ender kicks multiple other 7 or 8 year old children to death.  That's before he murders an entire species.  Ender is basically Clausewitz as an 8 year old.


Plenty of good fiction gets made into film/TV.  We know it as the mid-brow Oscar bait, or critically acclaimed premium/basic cable tv series.  

What you really mean to say is "how come big budget effects films are all Lowest Common Denominator and mediocre?"  Said question really answers itself.

We can hope that, as technology and effects work advances, the cost of doing a niche appeal movies becomes more feasible.

[ghost]

Do you really need me to explain that?  Who is going to watch that, really?  I mean, 7 or 8 year old Ender kicks multiple other 7 or 8 year old children to death.  That's before he murders an entire species.  Ender is basically Clausewitz as an 8 year old.

I wasn't trying to prod you into an argument.  I just didn't know if you meant only because of this reason or if there were some technical reasons otherwise, e.g. like Dune, that would make it a problem.  As far as who would watch it-  it's a very popular book, even amongst the non-science fiction types.  It might do better than you expect. 

[Johny Cee]

Because children are sweetness and innocence. Or see half the episodes of the latter half of Star Trek the next Generation.

Children of that age are innocent, self-absorbed, amoral little bastards... who can still be sweet, sometimes.  


No.  The problem is that some things that work on the written page fail as a visual work.  No one wants to see small children who are still supposed to be sympathetic do that.  Lolita is an interesting book, but no one ones to see a simulated pedophiliac relationship on screen.

It's the same reason why we have dozens of movies where we have a sexual disorder portrayed as some version of sex addiction/nymphomania, and none where the hero is afflicted with chronic masturbation or an attraction to their own fecal matter or <insert another hideous example here>.  

[Simond]

I mean...  it's about a bunch of 8 to 10 year olds who commit genocide.

Why would this be unfilmable? 

Anyway, Ender's Game is just an example.  There's plenty of good regular fiction out there as well.  There shouldn't be a lack of good stories to tell. 

Do you really need me to explain that?  Who is going to watch that, really?  I mean, 7 or 8 year old Ender kicks multiple other 7 or 8 year old children to death.  That's before he murders an entire species.  Ender is basically Clausewitz as an 8 year old.

Nah, he's Hitler. No, really.

[Johny Cee]

I mean...  it's about a bunch of 8 to 10 year olds who commit genocide.

Why would this be unfilmable? 

Anyway, Ender's Game is just an example.  There's plenty of good regular fiction out there as well.  There shouldn't be a lack of good stories to tell. 

Do you really need me to explain that?  Who is going to watch that, really?  I mean, 7 or 8 year old Ender kicks multiple other 7 or 8 year old children to death.  That's before he murders an entire species.  Ender is basically Clausewitz as an 8 year old.

Nah, he's Hitler. No, really.

Ugh, Hitler comparison.

Ender is more Bomber Harris.

[Sir T]

Do you really need me to explain that?  Who is going to watch that, really?  I mean, 7 or 8 year old Ender kicks multiple other 7 or 8 year old children to death.  That's before he murders an entire species.  Ender is basically Clausewitz as an 8 year old.

Nah, he's Hitler. No, really.
[/quote]

Could have been worse. Could have been Wesley Crusher.

[Johny Cee]

Do you really need me to explain that?  Who is going to watch that, really?  I mean, 7 or 8 year old Ender kicks multiple other 7 or 8 year old children to death.  That's before he murders an entire species.  Ender is basically Clausewitz as an 8 year old.

I wasn't trying to prod you into an argument.  I just didn't know if you meant only because of this reason or if there were some technical reasons otherwise, e.g. like Dune, that would make it a problem.  As far as who would watch it-  it's a very popular book, even amongst the non-science fiction types.  It might do better than you expect. 

There are technical reasons, since significant portions of the action is supposed to be the zero gee game or the MMO-thing.

Realistically, it's difficult enough to find one or two good child actors (hence why Dakota Fanning was in everything for a while).  You would need to find a pile of decent child actors and film FAST at an age where any of your kids could go through a growth spurt and cause issues.


The fact is, if Ender's Game were made into a movie:
1.  Young children would be replaced by emo 20-somethings playing 15 year olds.
2.  Bean would turn into the female love interest.
3.  The game would likely turn into something resembling the game in Starship Troopers.
4.  To beef up the action scenes, the "kids" would now actually pilot the ships to get lasers and explosions and whatnot.
5.  Either the military or the buggers would become Snidely Whiplash, card carrying Villains.
6.  Ender's assaults would become justified beatings of bullies (who would survive) rather than insane overreactions.


As much as I love the film version of Shawshank, I still hate the fact that they changed what happened to Andy's rapist.  In the novella, it's never confirmed but Andy pays/bribes/manipulates other inmates into crippling his rapist.  In the film, to keep Andy sympathetic, it's the mad dog prison guard that beats the guy into a wheelchair.

[ghost]

They usually change stories in the film from book transition.  Children of Men is another example of changing a lot of little things that in my opinion didn't damage the overall story too badly.  Bladerunner was changed quite a bit from the base story.  There were a lot of changes in the Dune movie.  Okay, Dune is a super shitty example . 

Anyway, simply changing the story line a bit doesn't make it a bad translation into the film medium.  And I'm convinced that if they can do Brokeback Mountain with gay cowboys the US can handle a little xenocide of some aliens performed by little kids.  If anything, I could see them changing it to where Ender had no idea that they were fighting the buggers, either then or in the future, thus making them mostly inculpable for their actions.   

[Paelos]

Anyway, simply changing the story line a bit doesn't make it a bad translation into the film medium.   

Jurassic Park always stands out to me as the best example of a good translation. They changed many things, but didn't lose the essence or soul of the book. I think in many ways I like the portrayal of Hammond better in the movie as a deluded grandfather who tosses cash around more than the money-grubbing soul-sucker who ends up dead in the book. They also sort of gloss over the fact that dinosaurs are breeding in the movie while that was all BFD in the book.

The lawyer still gets eaten though. Good stuff.

[Merusk]

Nah, he's Hitler. No, really.

 

Someone's got Hitler on the brain.

[Ironwood]

Hmmm.

[bhodi]

The fact is, if Ender's Game were made into a movie:
1.  Young children would be replaced by emo 20-somethings playing 15 year olds.
2.  Bean would turn into the female love interest.
3.  The game would likely turn into something resembling the game in Starship Troopers.
4.  To beef up the action scenes, the "kids" would now actually pilot the ships to get lasers and explosions and whatnot.
5.  Either the military or the buggers would become Snidely Whiplash, card carrying Villains.
6.  Ender's assaults would become justified beatings of bullies (who would survive) rather than insane overreactions.

Interesting that you say this, because at least the first two are explicitly said by Card in a post-book comment on the audiobook version of the later books of the ender/bean series (I'd have to go back and re-listen to figure out which). He explained that hollywood continues to try and sneak the first in, specifically by using words like "around" and "within 4 years of". He's holding firm and refuses to endorse any movie that would destroy the book in that fashion. At the time, he was tentatively optimistic about this new movie.

[Ironwood]

Speaking as a fan (well, until I read the Hitler piece) I think any attempt at a movie of Enders Game would be an utter fucking disaster from start to finish.

No.

Just Don't.

Hey, does anyone remember Petra wandering around the barracks naked ?  I think that'd TOTALLY be kept in the movie.

 

 

[ghost]

It would be pretty difficult to have her wear a tank top or some such. 

[Ironwood]

Hey, maybe he could tickle Stillson into submission and give Bonzo Madrid a wee noogie or a purple nurple.

 

[ghost]

I suspect they could alter the story just a bit and avoid that little problem too. 

[Ironwood]