The comments thread on a story I have been following, Three Square Meals, has commenters asking for a manga comic or animated movie version.
What story on SOL would you most like to see done in a visual medium (graphic novel/comic book, animated movie, live action movie), and which medium would you like to see it done in?
Lazlo's Jade Force of Misera as an Anime. Would make a good Manga as well. Then again, if Akira Kurosawa were still alive, I'd _love_ to see his treatment of it as live action.
I would love to see any of CMSIX's thrown back in time stories adapted to the big screen. Just my humble thoughts.
Of course a weekly tv show would work as well to expand and complete the story.
I would love to see any of CMSIX's thrown back in time stories adapted to the big screen.
As long as they don't make it like 'Land of the Lost'
As long as they don't make it like 'Land of the Lost'
Which one?
The original one, before everyone traveled back in time and changed it, wrecking history forever!
ED: Gateway - What Lies Beyond
the story was concluded this spring, about a security contractor working for a company called Quantum that went back to the stone age.
I thought the story itself was very well done, but sometimes the author got bogged down, in my opinion, in lots of details, such as how many deer were killed for food on each and every day.
I thought that could be glossed over in a visual medium such as a movie.
Another one that would make an excellent movie is Oz Ozzie's Australian Story.
As relevant now as when it was first written.
If Spielberg can do "Ready Player One," then I believe he can do justice to Random Writings' "The Private." Since "Starship Troopers" was made as what seemed to be before the script was finished because of the poor acting, then I think they can do that story well.
But then again Hollywood would probably throw $300 million at Michael Bay to bring "The Private" to life and while it would probably look great, the overall movie feel would be blah.
Since "Starship Troopers" was made
Yeah, it stayed SO true to the novel ... where's the POWER ARMOR? That movie was a complete abortion of what the novel was actually about.
I wrote a 24 page paper in my college science fiction class doing a comparison and contrast between Heinlein and 'Starship Troopers' versus Haldeman and 'The Forever War'. I presume that the professor or at least one of his assistants read the thing - I got an 'A' on it.
Yeah, it stayed SO true to the novel ... where's the POWER ARMOR? That movie was a complete abortion of what the novel was actually about.
From what I've read, the screen plays for the Starship Troopers movies where not written from Heinlein's books. However, because of the similarities in the title and certain plot elements, the studio negotiated a licensing agreement with Heinlein's estate.
Any similarities between 'Starship Troopers' the movie and Heinlein's 'Starship Troopers' are purely accidental.
Any similarities between 'Starship Troopers' the movie and Heinlein's 'Starship Troopers' are purely accidental.
Starship Troopers the book was initially published as a 2-part story and later as a book in 1959. Starship Troopers the movie is a 1997 movie that was made from a script called Bug Hunt at Outpost Nine.
Since the book and script are so similar, I would have to ask myself - Where did the script writer get the idea for the script? Perhaps, the similarities are not totally accidental.
I would have to ask myself - Where did the script writer get the idea for the script?
1. It is not beyond the realm of possibility for two people to independently come up with very similar ideas.
2. Possibly from the same place Heinlein got his idea from.
I've forgotten the specifics of Heinlein's book, so I would have to reread it to know how many similarities there are between the book and the movie.
I would not be surprised if the script writer came up with the idea separately, and I wouldn't be surprised if the script was inspired by the book. The greater the number of similarities, the more likely it is they are related.
The greater the number of similarities, the more likely it is they are related.
I've Never read Heinlein's book. (add to my to-do list)
However, as I understand it from what I've read comparing the two, beyond the title, the similarities are fairly superficial.
1. A general background setup of human society where you have to be a citizen to vote, and some form of national service (military being the preferred option) is required to become a citizen.
2 A alien an arthropod alien menace. From the comparisons I've read, Heinlein's aliens were arachnid (spiders) where the movie aliens are more insect.
because of the similarities in the title and certain plot elements, the studio negotiated a licensing agreement with Heinlein's estate.
Where the studio is at fault is the way they promoted the movie as being from the book - in short, Hollywood lied their posterior off again in an attempt to cash in on Heinlein's name.
Where the studio is at fault is the way they promoted the movie as being from the book
In a sense, that was deceptive. However, in another sense, once they had paid for a license from Heinlein's estate they were entitled to do so.
I would argue that the fault lies with Heinlein's heirs for giving the studio a license in the first place.
I would argue that the fault lies with Heinlein's heirs for giving the studio a license in the first place.
That would depend on how the studio sold the request to get the approval. I very much doubt they told the heirs they only wanted the name and were tossing the rest of the story.
That would depend on how the studio sold the request to get the approval.
No, it doesn't. If Heinlein's heirs were stupid enough to sign off on a license without demanding to read the script first, that's on them.
No, it doesn't. If Heinlein's heirs were stupid enough to sign off on a license without demanding to read the script first, that's on them.
That requires them to know there's a finished script on hand. The usual process is to approach someone and says, "We'd like to make a film based on your ..." so they can get the rights sorted out before they spend money on writing the script. There's many a case of fireworks between an author and the director where the contract allows the author artistic control of how the script is written and the film is made.
edit to add: It's unlikely they'd expect a script to be available to read before they signed.
That requires them to know there's a finished script on hand. The usual process is to approach someone and says, "We'd like to make a film based on your ..." so they can get the rights sorted out before they spend money on writing the script.
Yes, but that's not how it happened with Starship Troopers.
As Rep pointed out above, the movie was done from a script titled 'Bug Hunt at Outpost Nine.'.
The movie started filming under that name and someone at the studio later realized the similarities with Heinlein's novel and they sought a license to avoid a lawsuit. IIRC: It was Heinlein's heirs that insisted on the title change.
DS,
There's no evidence provided to show the heirs knew about or saw the script prior to signing. And even if there was, there's no justification for the studio to use Heinlein's name to promote the film the way they did when they knew it wasn't like his story. They milked his name, pure and simple.
There's no evidence provided to show the heirs knew about or saw the script prior to signing.
There's also no evidence provided that they did not.
And since the film was already in production when they were asked to sign anything, they should have known enough to ask.
Absent evidence that the studio actively lied to them about the status of the project, I will stick with the position that whether they knew or not, they should have known.
If they didn't know it's because they failed to do due diligence.
ETA: I simply can't accept as credible the scenario that the studio thought that they needed a license from the Heinlein estate to go ahead with the project but at the same time they were okay with obtaining that license by means of fraud.
I simply can't accept as credible the scenario that the studio thought that they needed a license from the Heinlein estate to go ahead with the project but at the same time they were okay with obtaining that license by means of fraud.
Remember you're talking about the same people who work hard to pressure actors to sign contracts for nett profit shares in the movie then work the account to always show a net loss on the film while their other companies involved in the marketing make huge profits.
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The movie started filming under that name and someone at the studio later realized the similarities with Heinlein's novel and they sought a license to avoid a lawsuit.
The second paragraph in the following is a quote from a statement made by Verhoeven about making the movie. See [5] in article.
The film started life as a script called Bug Hunt at Outpost Nine.[2] When similarities, especially the "bugs", were pointed out between this and the novel Starship Troopers, plans were made to license the rights to the book and tweak character names and circumstances to match. Verhoeven had never read the book, and attempted to read it for the film, but it made him "bored and depressed", so he read only a few chapters:
I stopped after two chapters because it was so boring,...It is really quite a bad book. I asked Ed Neumeier to tell me the story because I just couldn't read the thing. It's a very right-wing book.[5]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers_(film)#Background
The really interesting thing about the above is Verhoeven's statement. Namely, Verhoeven tried to read the book and gave up, so he asked Ed Neumier to tell him about the story (i.e., the book). That means Neumier, the script writer, was aware of Heinlien's book and its contents before he wrote the script.
If Neumier used the book as the basis for the script, it is likely that he changed the character's names and modified scenes. Then after obtaining the rights to the book, the studio tweaked the character names and circumstances of the script to match the book.
That means Neumier was aware of Heinlien's book and its contents before he wrote the script.
Not necessarily, it could be that Neumier read the book after the issue came up like Verhoeven just like Verhoeven tried to do.
Then after obtaining the rights to the book, the studio tweaked the character names and circumstances of the script to match the book.
In my opinion, there is no real evidence that the original script was in fact based on Heinlein's book and the studio would probably have been fine without the license from Heinlein's estate.
Copyright does not protect general story ideas.
The fact that they had to tweak story circumstances (plot elements) to match Heinlein's book only confirms for me that any resemblance between the original Bug Hunt script and Heinlein's Starship Troopers was very superficial and at a level of abstraction where there wouldn't have been any copyright violation.
What story on SOL would you most like to see done in a visual medium (graphic novel/comic book, animated movie, live action movie), and which medium would you like to see it done in?
I'm guilty of the reverse, I guess. I wrote a fanfic with some of the Batman ladies as what amounted to a script for a comic. I.e. heavy use of internal monologuing, including using it as a substitute for things that would just be in the narration in a normal prose story.
And then I just finished up a story where I went so hog wild with anime tropes that I included stuff like goofy long descriptive chapter titles, next episode previews, even theme songs!
What story on SOL would you most like to see done in a visual medium (graphic novel/comic book, animated movie, live action movie), and which medium would you like to see it done in?
Another idea for a perfect live action movie would be Refusenik's "Island Mine." Now THAT would be a great film and of course it also makes a great excuse for me to read it once again! Tee Hee!
Edit: Spelling. Thank you for the closeup Mr. Demille.
Another idea for a perfect lice action movie would be Refusenik's "Island Mine."
I don't like like lice action movies, they make my skin itch.
I don't like like lice action movies, they make my skin itch.
I'm willing to bet that the creators of the qwerty keyboard layout had no idea of the number of hilarious typos that would result. :P