This all sounds very tentative, but am cautiously optimistic that it’s at least on some producer’s radar. Although what it will look like on the other end of Hollywood…
So, casting choices, anyone?
Man, Universal Studios optioned this nearly a decade ago. I wonder how many tries there have been at scripts?
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: There is no way to make a good movie out of this book. There are, unfortunately, a great many ways to make a terrible movie out of it.
And I’ll say again that it could make the greatest sf movie of all time - despite there being so many ways for it to go wrong.
The recent “Predestination” was encouraging in that respect.
I agree that it can easily go bad. But I’ve wanted to se this filmed for some time. It has a killer opening.
as I’ve observed before, I can’t help wondering if the folks who made Event Horizon were thinking about The Stars My Destination, or originally started out wanting to film it. They had that Burning Man thing in it that recalls the climax of Bester’s book. And THAT, unfortunately, is one of the ways they could royally screw up this book -to-film.
And a killer trailer. Open with the questions. Frame the content around Foyle’s four answers.
This is Sad But True. Now, a mini-series on SHO or HBO- yeah!
Same with the Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
Has there ever been a great movie made from a classic, great, book? The closest I can think of was the original “Day the Earth Stood Still.” There have been some really good movies made from obscure stories, and mediocre or bad movies made from great stories.
The Demolished Man might work out better - I can find an announcement of a movie, but no real movie of it.
On my list to reread now. It’s been a while. Like 45 years.
Jackons Lord of the Rings.
Howls Moving Castle
To Kill a Mockingbird
Princess Bride.
Maltese Falcon.
No Country for Old Men
Sophie’s Choice
Mystic River
The *Count of Monte Christo *will always have great movie potential, in whatever guise. It’s a pretty classic tale. I think TSMD could make a great movie, although I’d prefer a mini-series, so they can flesh out the world and build some suspense.
It’s odd – I was just thinking that I’ve never seen a TV/movie about a standard SF scenario – the populated solar system. Says here “Syfy” is making a series based on Leviathan Wakes. And a series based on another stock SF trope: the generation ship.
The millennium is at hand.
And as far as casting goes, Bruce Willis is Foyle. I can see him with the stigmata now. In fact, he already played the role, in 12 Monkeys. But too old, I guess.
Nah. Christian Bale. We’re in the Bale decade. No slightly offbeat film with a hardass, strange character can be made without it being played by Christian Bale.
Willis was last decade. And too nicey-nice around the edges. Foyle is, as Harry Harrison put it in a memorable passage, “Just as a spider is a perfect spider and a vampire bat a perfect vampire bad, [he] was a perfect freewheeling bastard.”
ETA: No, I have not confused authors there. I know The Stars My Destination was written by Steve Jobs.
I’d go with Christian Bale. Only thing is, he’d actually get his face tattooed.
Speaking of which (tattooed faces), damn you, Heath Ledger! Where are you when we need you? No soft edges there.
A very odd thing to write. The Day the Earth Stood Still isn’t based on a book. It’s adapted, very freely, from Harry Bates’ short story Farewell to the Master. It’s not particularly faithful to it, which is all to the good. The story is a short bit with a “twist” ending. The movie is superior in every way.
Restricting ourselves to science fiction, there have been quite a few great films inspired by short stories:
2001; a Space Odyssey (based on Arthur C. Clarke’s The Sentinel, although he later wrote a novel)
The Thing – both versions (not the recent one of that name, though), both based on John W. Campbell’s Who Goes There?. The 1982 Carpenter version, with a Bill Lancaster script is much more faithful, but the Howard Hawks/Christian Nyby version is definitely classic
For longer works, there’s
**A Clockwork Orange
Dr. Strangelove** 9based on Peter George’s Red Alert, although he later rewrote it as a book closer to the film
**The Andromeda Strain
The Terminal Man** – probably not “classics”, but better than Crichton’s later stuff
this Island Earth – this has “classic” status as a film, although (despite my Dopername), it’s a pretty awful film, all things considered. The book isn’t all that great. either, and it peters out before the end, but the opening portion, based on the Raymond F. Jones short story The Alien Machine, is great. The version of it in the movie (Cal Meacham builds an Interociter!) is but a pale shadow of the story.
Cloud Atlas – I’m still blown away by this film, even after reading the book.
Of course, I could easily make a list of short stories mucked up or bloated out of shape when turned into film (Nightfall – TWICE!, Mimic, The Space Frame), and a long list of SF books REALLY badly filmed (most Jules Verne and H. G. wells adaptations, I, Robot, Starship Troopers, The Puppet Masters…)
Sticking to SF, two greats …
Frankenstein
Blade Runner
And perhaps …
The Invisible Man
1984
War of the Worlds?
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Things to Come (well, I like it!)
When I first read “The Stars My Destination” back in the 70s, for no good reason I always pictured Gully Foyle as looking like Charles Bronson. Bronson, at the time, was doing movies like Rider on the Rain where he played some pretty disagreeable protagonists. Bronson is, alas, dead and gone.
Who plays such roles now? There’s your Gully Foyle.
Close, but too bulky and round-faced. I would have to think of a known person, but I saw Foyle as huge, square-faced, rough and seamed, curled dark hair. Kim Coates has approximately the right look but is too small. Maybe the actor who plays The Hound.
ETA: No, nevermind. Of course. :smack: Tom Cruise!
(There would be a smiley here but for all the movies fupped uck by casting him against type and good sense.)
One of my fave books from my youth.
Even a low quality flick will still be good enough to get me to see it.
Then, I’ll come here and complain.