Amazon to adapt Iain M. Banks "Consider Phlebas" (Culture series) for TV

Cafe Society
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http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2333693

Sounds exciting! I’m a big fan of the Culture series.

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I imagine they are going to play it straight as a space opera instead of an ironic space opera like it should be.

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I hope they do a better and more faithful adaptation than Netflix did for Altered Carbon; I’ll be watching.

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Consider Phlebas is my least favorite Culture novel but I really hope the show does well because I’d love to see adaptations of Player of Games and Use of Weapons.

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I noticed Amazon publicising this, I’ve pretty much stopped watching TV but a good adaptation of The Culture could start me watching it again, or at least buying the box-set. I do feel though that it would be really difficult to capture the spirit of Bank’s novels on screen, though I’m willing to be pleasantly surprised.

That said they definitely won’t get the look of the ships right. :wink:

Granted its been a long time since I read it but what in particular was ironic about the story? Well apart from it being told from the POV of the opposition I suppose.

Agreed, I do feel that Consider Phlebas is very different in tone and feel from the later Culture novels, he was still kind of fleshing things out in that one. Personal favourites are Excession and Use of Weapons, I do feel ‘Look to Windward’ would be one of the easier novels to adapt, it basically being a story of love, loss and revenge after all.

Also I don’t know if it was Bank’s intention but the Culture and the Idirans seemed to have a parallel with the Western and the Islamic worlds, I wonder if they’ll explore that aspect. I kind of hope they don’t because I’m tired of heavy-handed preaching and in-your-face symbolism in modern television fiction, subtly done is fine but that’s rarely the case.

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I want to see them attempt Excession, given that half the main characters only communicate with each other over space-IRC.

Consider Phlebas and Player of Games are relatively straightforward to adapt I reckon, but Use of Weapons is a bit more of a challenge to make work on TV.