# Ringworld -- The Movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 8, 2001, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ringworld-the-movie/86173 "2001-10-08T19:50:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![nerv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/85e7bf/32.png) [@nerv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nerv)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2001, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ringworld-the-movie/86173/21 "2001-10-09T16:39:35Z")
Look, you hafta remember that it takes half a dozen average movie-goers to equal the IQ of a brain-dead stoat. Simplify, simplify,simplify! Luis Wu is a struggling artist who wins a ticket home on the Starship Titanic during a game of Fizzbin. Nessus is an obnoxious upperclass Englishman wearing a wig, and everyone hates him (because English people are the only ones that it’s politically correcct to hate in movies). Speaker is a short, fat comic sidekick, with a catchphrase like “Whassap?” (Memo-see if any beer companies are interested in corporate sponsorship). The Ringworld is an ordinary, spherical world where everyone just happens to wear rings. The rest should be obvious. ---
**Author:** ![nerv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/85e7bf/32.png) [@nerv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nerv)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2001, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ringworld-the-movie/86173/22 "2001-10-09T16:48:44Z")
Look, you hafta remember that it takes half a dozen average movie-goers to equal the IQ of a brain-dead stoat. Simplify, simplify,simplify! Luis Wu is a struggling artist who wins a ticket home on the Starship Titanic during a game of Fizzbin. Nessus is an obnoxious upperclass Englishman wearing a wig, and everyone hates him (because English people are the only ones that it’s politically correcct to hate in movies). Speaker is a short, fat comic sidekick, with a catchphrase like “Whassap?” (Memo-see if any beer companies are interested in corporate sponsorship). The Ringworld is an ordinary, spherical world where everyone just happens to wear rings. The rest should be obvious. ---
**Author:** ![nerv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/85e7bf/32.png) [@nerv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nerv)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2001, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ringworld-the-movie/86173/23 "2001-10-09T16:51:13Z")
Oops! Had an "unable to access URL " message and resubmitted. Sorry! ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2001, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ringworld-the-movie/86173/24 "2001-10-09T17:58:05Z")
It took me awhile and a bit of Googling to remember who Roland Gift was. Now I remember him! You’re right: shave him bald, put a queue on him, and he’s Louis Wu in the flesh. I wonder if he can act? That aside, I’m sure I saw some blurb somewhere in my yesterday’s Googling that Chow-Yun Fat was a contender for the part. Now I’ll have to find that again and also look him up and see whoinhell he is. ::whimper:: I’m so behind the times . . . And Teela Brown is 20 years old, and a dark-haired Nordic. ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2001, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ringworld-the-movie/86173/25 "2001-10-10T09:38:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by G.B.H. Hornswoggler \* > \*\* > Are you seriously claiming that mixed-race people don’t exist now? Most Hollywood actors tend to be pretty clearly racially defined, true, but there are lots and lots of people in this world who look somewhere in between the major racial “types.” > \*\* No. I’m saying that Cameron won’t go to the trouble of throwing Wu’s big party scene with a bunch of people who won’t be recognized as ‘white,’ ‘black,’ ‘asian,’ ‘indian,’ etc… And on second thought, I’m remembering that Cameron likes to cast people who are relatively unknown. Terminator: who knew Arnold except for fans of real schlock films. Titanic: It took so long to produce that when Leo was cast his only acting experience had been on Who’s the Boss (or that show with Allan Thicke). So look around at failed TV shows to find the actors who fill the shoes of the Ringwalkers. ---
**Author:** ![GSV\_Consolation\_of\_Dreams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f1d935/32.png) [@GSV\_Consolation\_of\_Dreams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GSV_Consolation_of_Dreams)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2001, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ringworld-the-movie/86173/26 "2001-10-10T10:43:43Z")
Apparently this is a hoax or wishful thinking on someone’s part. According to AIC News at least: [http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?id=10437](http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?id=10437) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2001, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ringworld-the-movie/86173/27 "2001-10-10T13:09:43Z")
The source of the rumor was Larry Niven himself. He said his agent called him in the late evening on Friday, and it was important enough for him to return the call. So if the report is false, then Niven is making it up himself. > [@](#): > > Titanic: It took so long to produce that when Leo was cast his only acting experience had been on Who’s the Boss (or that show with Allan Thicke). Untrue. Leo had been in several movies at the time, including “Who’s Eating Gilbert Grape.” ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2001, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ringworld-the-movie/86173/28 "2001-10-10T16:27:01Z")
How about Yul Brynner? I haven’t seen him in anything recently! It would be a good revival for his career. Besides, he’s already done Westworld and Future World. This should be quite natural for him. [sub]What? What do you mean, dead? That’s perfect! He’ll look 200 years old. Oh just get a damn vacuum cleaner out and let him dance with it[/sub]. ---
**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:** [October 12, 2001, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ringworld-the-movie/86173/29 "2001-10-12T05:18:08Z")
Backstory shouldn’t really be much of a problem: Take GP hulls, for instance: I can describe all of their properties in 30 seconds. It’d be hard to work it in all at once, but I’m sure it could be done over the course of two hours. A lot of the other things mentioned by **Fenris** , I don’t think were in the book, at all. I’ve had the devil’s own time trying to find any of the other Known Space books. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2001, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ringworld-the-movie/86173/30 "2001-10-12T11:48:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chronos \* > \*\*A lot of the other things mentioned by **Fenris** , I don’t think were in the book, at all. I’ve had the devil’s own time trying to find any of the other Known Space books. \*\* They’re not in the book as such, but, for example, the whole “Tame Kzin” thing that motivates about a third of the book is meaningless without knowing about Outsiders, Hyperdrive, Starseed Lures and the Man-Kzin wars. Yeah, they could dumb it down and simply say that the Puppeteers helped the human side covertly, but for me, the backstory and big revelation about the starseed lures, et al was better than the frontstory. If you take away the backstory and discovery and revelations and history, there’s not much left but a setting and a “Go there and come back” plot. I’m not saying it can’t be done, but it’s gonna be _hard_. By the way, **Chronos** : I think most of Niven’s Known Space stuff is back in print, but in compilation editions like these:[here](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0345404483/qid=1002886369/sr=1-6/ref=br_lf_b_6/002-4209036-2326469), [here](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0345394801/qid=1002886369/sr=1-13/ref=br_lf_b_13/002-4209036-2326469), so if you’ve been searching for World of Ptavvs you’re not going to find it under that title. Or, if you want the originals, [http://www.bookfinder.com](http://www.bookfinder.com) is your friend (or, if you’re like me, your nemesis: “Curse you, Bookfinder! There’s another $50.00 gone!”) 🙂 Fenris [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ringworld-the-movie/86173.md?page=1)