I’m not sure this would be a good one. I just don’t see any new direction to take the movie in, and it really doesn’t need a remake. It’s still pretty darn good even without cool SFX. And seriously, do we need another disaster movie?
**Celluloid ** jam. The film was pre-cell phone :-).
And I read both books as well. What does that make me, 9 or 10?
I read both books too. I remember how in the first novel that they used books for some kind of insulation in the construction of the US craft. Now they could haul along a million times as much information, on computer disks or something.
Also in the book, when everyone was working on the craft, and they were starting to run out of certain foodstuffs, on character was telling another about one worker, a woman, who had a fit because she couldn’t have an olive. But he explains it sympathetically, “It wasn’t that she wanted an olive so muchk is was just that there would never be any more.”
no No NO!
Then something went wrong
for Fay Wray and King Kong
They got caught in a celluloid jam
And at a deadly pace
It came from outer space
And this is how the message ran…
then later…
And when worlds collide
said George Pal to his bride
I’m gonna give you
some te-rrible thrills…
You’re welcome.
This was going to be my question. I recall seeing the movie and saying “OK. So where are the black people?” Bad luck, not winning the lottery.
“WASTE ANYTHING BUT TIME”
Here’s two of us. I read them reprinted (Dover Books, was it?) in a single volume which I borrowed from the high school library 36 years ago.
Sigh. 36 years …
Apparently there are enough of us to form our own club. Apparently I’ve misplaced my copy of When Worlds Collide but still have the seldom-read sequel After Worlds Collide. Very descriptive titles.
For years I’ve said that this would be a good choice for a movie – not exactly a remake of the 1951 movie, but a new filmed version of the 1933 novel. In fact, if I were making it, I might set it in 1933.
Now, for my sins, I’m handed Stephen Effin’ Sommers. Even though he’s done almost nothing but crap up 'til now, maybe he’ll somehow come up with a work of genius, or at least a competent screenplay. Not holding my breath.
I want my money back for Van Helsing.
I’m sure it’ll give me some terrible thrills.
No, wait, I misspoke. I’m sure it’ll be terrible.
Hmm. With Beckinsale starring and Sommers writing and directing, this thing has the potential to be half as good as Underworldd. Which means it’ll cause eye cancer.
If they use the Powerman5000 song as the theme song, I’ll watch it, if for no other reason 
Well, I wasn’t really that fond of When Worlds Collide in the first place. Despite Robert Bloch praising it as one of the few true science fiction films (writing circa 1960), Arthuir C. Clarke pegged it pretty well in his review when it came out. (Stupidity about astrophysicists disagreeing over celestial dynamics, the idiocy of changing “Bronson Beta” in the book to “Zyra”, the final painting that looks like “off-color Disney rather than vintage Bonestell”)
And, again, you got Sommers doing this. I love Sommers’ movies – they’re perfect and unrepentant modern Bad Movies. There’s no other way to describe them. High production value, good special effect Bad Movies. I watched Van Helsing recently with Pepper Mill, and it was a delight to watch her reaction every time the script did something ludicrous, like a wonderful anachronism, or a real;ly stupid snippet of dialogue, or stretching credulity to the brink in order to shoehoen in some element of the plot line. You don’t go to a Stephen Sommers movie to see imaginative sciwence fiction/horror/fantasy, or good writing, or nostalgia – you go to see how far out things are going to get and what he thinks he’s going to get away with next. Oriental-style martial arts in Pharaohnic Egypt? sure! A monk acting like James Bond’s quartermaster Q in the 19th century Vatican? Why not?
God knows what he’d do to Balmer and Wylie’s book, but I’d be there to see.
Of course, maybe they could do their other book, "The Disappearance ".
:smack:
I’ve heard that song about 150 times.
I get you, but here’s an idea – how about keeping the production values and special effects, and using a decent freakin’ script? 'Cause I’ve noticed that good movies are really entertaining.
Neat idea! Or their other other book, Gladiator. (I think that actually was filmed once, but not that well.)
Balmer had nothing to do with The Disappearance or Gladiator – both were by Wylie alone.
George Pal, who gave us Destination Moon, Conquest of Space, The Time Machine and others was working on adapting [BThe Disappearance** when he died. The magazine Cinefantastue published the production sketches. It was surprisingly racy, and would’ve made an interesting flick.