# Can they make a good Heinlein Movie? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 15, 2005, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602 "2005-07-15T02:07:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2005, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602/81 "2005-07-17T16:59:19Z")
Hmm, [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernardo_de_la_Paz) has him as Bolivian. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2005, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602/82 "2005-07-17T22:17:14Z")
I got a chance to see and hear Charlese Theron in person yesterday. She would make a perfect Wyoh. Her new movie (Aeon Flux) highlights her ability to handle the role with aplomb. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2005, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602/83 "2005-07-17T22:25:38Z")
Has anybody mentioned Uma Thurman as Wyoh? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2005, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602/84 "2005-07-17T23:22:52Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > I got a chance to see and hear Charlese Theron in person yesterday. She would make a perfect Wyoh. Her new movie (Aeon Flux) highlights her ability to handle the role with aplomb. 😃 This is a good choice, Not old not young and very good looking. She can act and handle action. Uma I think is in the Category of a little old but not a bad choice. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2005, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602/85 "2005-07-17T23:53:03Z")
> [@jrfranchi](#): > > Uma I think is in the Category of a little old but not a bad choice. Yikes. Uma is 35. Is that “a little old” these days? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602/86 "2005-07-18T00:08:39Z")
> [@pinkfreud](#): > > Yikes. Uma is 35. Is that “a little old” these days? I apologize, she is younger than I thought. I last saw her in Stay Cool and she was looking a little old in that one. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602/87 "2005-07-18T19:02:40Z")
Who cares who plays the child Hazel Meade in _The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress_? The important thing is who would play the grandmother Hazel Meade Stone in _The Rolling Stones_! I would cast Maggie Smith. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602/88 "2005-07-18T19:41:26Z")
> [@](#): > > It’s not bad if you blow off one premise: the main character was a math wiz and became an astrogator because starships were piloted by people doing integral calculus in their heads because computers were too slow to do the math. Not quite; I just read this one. The pilots weren’t doing integral calculus in their heads; the computers were doing the integrals (though they had to be programmed in ones and zeroes). What the pilots were doing was thumbing through books of tables for the right figures to input. And Max’s special advantage was not math skill, but a perfect memory, with which he had memorized all the books of tables. Personally, I’d love to see a good Heinlein movie, but if they’re not going to do it right, I’d rather they didn’t do it at all. And if past experience is any indicator, they’re not going to do it right. That said, _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_ could be done well, but not if they made Mike a supernatural spectral manifestation and built a Ferris-wheel catapult. Manny should emphatically not be dumb, and should probably not be an action-hero type, but other than that, the role doesn’t strike me as particularly demanding. And I agree with **Green Bean** that there’s no compelling reason for the Prof to be male: One shouldn’t swap genders just for changes’ sake, but I don’t think competent actresses should be removed from the running. If we’re going to go that route, though, care should be taken that Prof is sufficiently older than Manny that there’s no question of romantic tension. And Hazel, if she showed up in a movie at all, would only be a nonspeaking character showing up in the background of a few scenes. Too many fanboys would not stand for her being cut entirely, but let’s face it, you have to make cuts for a movie, and hers is a very minor role. Just stick some ten year old redhead in as an extra, and we’ll figure it out. In general on the casting, I think that specific physical appearances are almost insignificant for _Mistress_. It is essential that the Loonies be of a wide variety of ethnicities, physical types, and mixes of the above. It is not at all essential that one particular character be white or black or hispanic or eastern European, or be short or tall or fat or thin. In fact, I think that slavish accuracy to exactly who looks like what would represent a greater departure from the spirit of the book than totally color-blind casting. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602/89 "2005-07-18T21:11:42Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Not quite; I just read this one. The pilots weren’t doing integral calculus in their heads; the computers were doing the integrals (though they had to be programmed in ones and zeroes). What the pilots were doing was thumbing through books of tables for the right figures to input. And Max’s special advantage was not math skill, but a perfect memory, with which he had memorized all the books of tables. Arg, you caught me. I was working from memory, and after I posted I went and pulled out my old copy of _Starman_. You’re right, they were looking up log tables and decimal-\>binary conversions; someone would input the figures in binary using switches, then read the answer off of lights in binary, then convert back to decimal. They could build a starship, but an Apple ][ was beyond their skill, I guess. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2005, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602/90 "2005-07-26T20:26:04Z")
I just started rereading “Moon is a Harsh Mistress”. It reminded me of being a kid, a slipping on my most confortable PJs fresh out the dryer. RAH was truly the master. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602.md?page=4)