i was looking here .in cinemas christmas 2003 it says. IMDB has nothing on it.
looks pretty cool, but how far along with this are they? i dont remember it being Finchers next film in the last article i read on him.
totally CGI environments with real actors. wooo.
i havent read the books either. any good?
I’ve only read the first and it was very good. I wonder if they can capture the mysterious feeling of the book. I hope they can.
You may have to wait a bit longer, paulberserker. According to this site, it’s 2006 (and counting). Shame, I really enjoyed the books.
Release Date (USA): 2006 (subject to change)
Production Status: In Preparation
Production Type: Theatrical Release
_
Cast: Morgan Freeman [T.B.A.]
booo! gives me time to check the books out though. what is it, a planet sized space station in space, they have to rendezvous with? sounds alright to me.
IIRC, more like a large asteroidy-sized craft. It’s been ages since I read the books, but I do remember enjoying them (especially if you like the other stuff he’s done).
And if it’s true that they’ve got Morgan Freeman on board, that’d be a plus too. Gravitas personified, IMO.
Rama, as I recall, is a spinning cylinder some 50KM long and 20KM in diameter. It is spotted and believed to be an asteroid until observers realize that its hull is smooth and it’s a perfect cylinder. So, they send a crew to dock with it and find out what it is.
And oh, the wonders they find…
It’s been a while since I read the books, but I enjoyed them very much. As long as you don’t need your sci-fi to be action-packed, they’re really good.
Actually I thought only the first one was really very, very good. I remenber the second one sucking and the third and fourth getting better gradually with the spiders/octopus whatever thingies being the most interesting thing in the sequels.
I fear if they film the first one they’ll spoil by placing unnecessary action at all the wrong places. And the captain will definetely NOT have two wives in the movie.
And since the author is Arther C.Clark, the science us fairly dependable. Great book, btw.
The first book Rendezvous with Rama, was by Arthur C. Clarke alone and won a Hugo the year it came out. It’s a great book, which I’ve re-read many times.
The three sequels Clarke co-authored with someone else (Stephen Baxter?), and I find them so annoying that I never read the third (I had hope, reading the first, that it would get better, and the maybe the second would be better than the first. But you can’t fool me three times.)
How much you want to bet that they Screw This One Up?
Clarke was pretty lucky with 2001 and, I maintain, 2010. But SF adaptations are generally pretty poor and/or unfaithful, and usually both. I think the Law of Averages will catch up with him.
The co-author is Gentry Lee.
What! No speedboat shoot-out on the Cylindrical Sea?
[Jedi wave]
There were no sequels to Rendezvous with Rama.
[Jedi wave]
I’d rather see Fountains of Paradise
Brian
Childhood’s End!
Morgan Freeman is Johnny Rama in Rendevous with Rama!
“We’ve got three minutes to rendevous with Rama!”
He’s a DC cop who doesn’t play by the rules, Johnny Rama!!
“Rama! That’s it, you’re off the case!”
It would be too much of a downer for Hollywood.
Unless, of course, they screw with the entire storyline to create a happy ending, but that would be even sadder.
<Mercurian leader> “Ha Ha!! Our plan is working to perfection!! Nothing can stop it now!!!”
<Mercurian lackey> “Sir!! The nuke has been defused! There’s someone out there!!”
<Mercurian leader> “RAAAAAAAAAAMAAAAAAAA!!!”
I liked the sequels… not as much as the original, of course, but I think Lee and Clarke work well together.
Lee’s work on it’s own can be kind of lacking, though…
Should be good as long as neither Michael Bay nor Joel Schumacher come within 200 feet.
I had the understanding that Lee did most of the writing and Clarke’s contribution was basically to check off “okay” at the top with a mango-stained hand. 
Sorry. I hated the sequels. Got about two-thirds through the third one and said, why am I bothering? and stopped.
As noted by Xerxes, the movie is in pre-production, and may or may not ever be made.* Morgan Freeman has pretty good taste, though (Dreamcatcher was a rare stumble), and as I recall he’s the one who actually bought the rights and is producing the film, so it’ll be fairly different from your typical Bruckheimer extravaganza.
*Some statistics off the top of my head: 50-70,000 spec scripts arrive in Hollywood each year. Of these, 2000 are optioned, and maybe 200 are bought outright. Another 50,000 treatments (short summaries) are commissioned, mostly for adapting existing material (novels, articles, games) or for fleshing out a pitch. Of these, 5-10,000 are turned into full-length scripts. Of these full-length scripts, half go into the rewrite grinder, in which anywhere from two to a hundred different writers take cracks at each one, generating on average half a dozen more full-length scripts. Out of the total 100-150,000 full-length scripts and derivative rewrites generated each year, maybe 1000-1500 actually get turned into movies, the majority of which go straight to video or television (or disappear), leaving maybe 300-400 to be released in cinemas. Note that this doesn’t count movies that arrive fully-formed on Hollywood’s doorstep from independent or foreign sources. The point is, just because David Fincher and Morgan Freeman say they’re making it is no guarantee that it’ll ever actually be made. Steven Spielberg said for years that Memoirs of a Geisha would be “the movie he makes after the next one,” and basically it’s never going to happen. They’ve finally given up on that one and are trying to recruit a new director. So with respect to Rendezvous with Rama, don’t get your hopes up.