# You were excited that they announced an adaptation of \[insert book title\] but... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 1, 2011, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-excited-that-they-announced-an-adaptation-of-insert-book-title-but/590994 "2011-08-01T01:45:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2011, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-excited-that-they-announced-an-adaptation-of-insert-book-title-but/590994/61 "2011-08-08T20:52:05Z")
> [@FinnAgain](#): > > I’d just give up, Rik. IIRC Amanset thinks that Starship Troopers is a grand allegory for the evils of colonialism, or of the Israelis government, or fascism, or something. Wow, that wouldn’t be a completely unconnected swipe/personal attack from someone I haven’t interacted with in months? Shit, who’d have thunk it. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2011, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-excited-that-they-announced-an-adaptation-of-insert-book-title-but/590994/62 "2011-08-08T20:54:14Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > And he thinks it “ripped off” stuff that appeared in other works created long after RAH wrote the thing… You might want to reread what I wrote: “Coming up with some ideas that were routinely ripped off by better science fiction works, from book to film to video game, doesn’t make the original book any the more readable.” I accepted that he came up with some ideas that other books, films, games etc routinely ripped off/were inspired by. The difference was, those works were actually good. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2011, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-excited-that-they-announced-an-adaptation-of-insert-book-title-but/590994/63 "2011-08-08T21:00:01Z")
> [@Bob Ducca](#): > > Two fantastic \*\*Wally Lamb \*\*novels, \*\*\*I Know This Much is True \*\*\*and _She’s Come Undone_, have both had film adaptation talk over the years that seems to go nowhere. Last I heard, a director was attached and Matt Damon was up for the lead in IKTMIT but that was quite awhile ago, and I haven’t seen any new news. I remember that book. I’ve read it twice, once when it came out and then again several years later. It is very good. And Matt Damon would be a great choice to play Dominic/Thomas (don’t know how they’d pull off the identical twin thing though.) But it is a _damn_ long book. It covers a lot of ground, from the main characters’ childhood in the early 60s to their adult life in the '90s, and then on top of that there’s the Italian grandfather’s journal stuck right in the middle of the book, which not only tells of his life as an immigrant in the early 1900s but has flashbacks to _his_ childhood in Italy as well, and then _inside that journal_ there’s also the recollections of “The Monkey” (the Italian grandfather’s house servant) and flashbacks to _her_ childhood, and…and…and… It’s way too epic of a book to be captured in a movie. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2011, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-excited-that-they-announced-an-adaptation-of-insert-book-title-but/590994/64 "2011-08-08T21:06:28Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > You might want to reread what I wrote: > > “Coming up with some ideas that were routinely ripped off by better science fiction works, from book to film to video game, doesn’t make the original book any the more readable.” > > I accepted that he came up with some ideas that other books, films, games etc routinely ripped off/were inspired by. The difference was, those works were actually good. I think the problem here is that it is difficult to argue with any force that a book widely considered a classic that contained ideas that inspired many other writers and artists to copy bits of it is _objectively_ “fucking awful”. Sure, not to your taste. Tastes vary. Taste is subjective. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2011, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-excited-that-they-announced-an-adaptation-of-insert-book-title-but/590994/65 "2011-08-08T23:22:51Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > I think the problem here is that it is difficult to argue with any force that a book widely considered a classic that contained ideas that inspired many other writers and artists to copy bits of it is _objectively_ “fucking awful”. > > Sure, not to your taste. Tastes vary. Taste is subjective. Sure it is. He had some ideas regarding the mobile infantry (any modern ‘space marine’ idea is derived from it), but the story is dreadful. Unreadably so. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-excited-that-they-announced-an-adaptation-of-insert-book-title-but/590994/66 "2011-08-09T00:17:57Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > Sure it is. He had some ideas regarding the mobile infantry (any modern ‘space marine’ idea is derived from it), but the story is dreadful. Unreadably so. Except of course it’s not. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-excited-that-they-announced-an-adaptation-of-insert-book-title-but/590994/67 "2011-08-09T01:51:55Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > Except of course it’s not. Jake, China Town, etc… The story is one with so many fans that it beggars credulity to believe that it’s truly “unreadable”. That it is, by Amanset’s own claims, a wildly influential novel makes it absurd to claim it’s horrible. The issue is that Amanset personally dislikes the book, and does so largely because he’s constructed a highly flawed literary analysis of the book in which instead of a story about humanity versus a race of alien, intelligent, rapacious insects, it’s an allegory about fascism, colonialism, and the state of Israel. > [@amanset](#): > > Wow, that wouldn’t be a completely unconnected swipe/personal attack So… pointing out that you’ve stated that you believe that Starship Troopers is an allegory for fascism/colonialism/Israel is somehow a personal attack against you? Your own words attack you now? Really? And pointing out your mistaken literary analysis of a book, now, is unconnected to your continued discussion of that same book, now? If you insist. ---
**Author:** ![turner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/22d042/32.png) [@turner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/turner)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-excited-that-they-announced-an-adaptation-of-insert-book-title-but/590994/68 "2011-08-09T02:32:08Z")
> [@koeeoaddi](#): > > [A Soldier of the Great War](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/87985.A_Soldier_of_the_Great_War) used to have an IMDB page as a pending project, but now it’s gone. ☹ What a great book. I think Hollywood would mess it up though. They tend to make WWI movies more artsy and romantic ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-excited-that-they-announced-an-adaptation-of-insert-book-title-but/590994/69 "2011-08-09T02:48:19Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > I think the problem here is that it is difficult to argue with any force that a book widely considered a classic that contained ideas that inspired many other writers and artists to copy bits of it is _objectively_ “fucking awful”. > > Sure, not to your taste. Tastes vary. Taste is subjective. Charles Dickens and Jane Austen are widely regarded as excellent authors. They bore me to tears. If I have a choice between reading a free Jane Austen novel and paying to read another novel, I’ll pay, and be glad. Still, apparently many, many people love both writers. I’m not going to say that they’re awful writers. I’ll say that I don’t care for those two authors, even though they are very well regarded. And I loved \*Starship Troopers \*(the book). Heinlein tends to be preachy, but he can also really tell a story. Many science fiction themes were done first by Heinlein, and in some cases he STILL hasn’t been beat. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-excited-that-they-announced-an-adaptation-of-insert-book-title-but/590994/70 "2011-08-09T03:45:05Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > Charles Dickens and Jane Austen are widely regarded as excellent authors. They bore me to tears. If I have a choice between reading a free Jane Austen novel and paying to read another novel, I’ll pay, and be glad. That’s fine and understandable, of course. Different strokes and all that. I’d tend to agree with you, I find Dickens dry to the point of intellectual discomfort. But he was a good writer for his time, and I’d just choose to ignore his stuff instead of read it. Same deal for Austin. And, of course, military scifi adventure isn’t for everybody and some folks just won’t like Heinlein, but the pacing, verbiage, thematic content and plot development are all first rate, even if you don’t really agree with Heinlein’s point in the novel. De gustubus and such, but calling the book crap because someone doesn’t like it is a silly argument. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-excited-that-they-announced-an-adaptation-of-insert-book-title-but/590994/71 "2011-08-09T05:46:00Z")
I’ve heard rumors of Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse being made into a movie but I haven’t heard anything definite yet. The last I’ve heard is that there is going to be another Jack Ryan movie but not necessarily based on Clancy’s books. No word if it’s Harrison-Ryan or Affleck-Ryan but I’d be Affleck since he probably works for cheaper. In any case, Without Remorse could be awesome in the right hands. You’ve got a story of love, tragedy and revenge with a likeable hero who is also a serious badass. He’s also a Navy SEAL and they’re very popular right now. He kills a lot of scumbags in the book and it would easily translate to film. Even the decompression chamber sequence could be incredible if done right. It could be done House-style with CGI showing the damage being done to every part of his body or it could be done old-school with a desperate, bleeding bastard stuck in a tiny cage. Any which way it goes I think it would be a great movie in the hands of the right director. So where is it? As a fan of John Varley I don’t think he can ever be properly adapted to screen. Mammoth might work but Steel Beach or The Golden Globe is going to be harder. I have to defend I, Robot. It’s not a literal adaptation of the Asimov book. It’s a sci-fi thriller with Asimov’s ideas as background. The title is just for show. The producers didn’t decide “hey, let’s adapt this Asimov novel except let’s make the female lead a hot chick in leather pants! And let’s have the robots be deadly ass-kickers! And let’s throw in a kid who can’t stop swearing!” It’s like Die Hard 2. The original concept was a standalone film until someone pointed out the obvious- it was Die Hard in an airport. At that point a conscious decision was made to turn it into a Die Hard movie. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-excited-that-they-announced-an-adaptation-of-insert-book-title-but/590994/72 "2011-08-09T06:28:29Z")
> [@DWMarch](#): > > I have to defend I, Robot. It’s not a literal adaptation of the Asimov book. It’s a sci-fi thriller with Asimov’s ideas as background. The title is just for show. The producers didn’t decide “hey, let’s adapt this Asimov novel except let’s make the female lead a hot chick in leather pants! And let’s have the robots be deadly ass-kickers! And let’s throw in a kid who can’t stop swearing!” It’s like Die Hard 2. The original concept was a standalone film until someone pointed out the obvious- it was Die Hard in an airport. At that point a conscious decision was made to turn it into a Die Hard movie. I, Robot was like an Oscar contender if you put it next to Die Hard 2, but I get your analogy. I have always heard that the plot was basically written before someone found out they could get the rights from Asimov’s estate. ---
**Author:** ![Damfino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Damfino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damfino)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-excited-that-they-announced-an-adaptation-of-insert-book-title-but/590994/73 "2011-08-10T22:54:30Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Meh, the society in the novel _Starship Troopers_ doesn’t strike me as particularly fascist, or at least no more so than any nation with mandatory military service (the relevant example being Austria or Switzerland) - with a twist that in effect anyone can decline to perform such service (though they can cahnge their mind at any time), but then they don’t get the vote. > > The only element that vaguely annoys me is the pointless sexism, but given the time the book was written, it’s forgivable. Why _can’t_ women operate the power suits? If anything, being physically smaller might be advantageous. Heinlein anticipated technological changes, but not social ones. However he does mention that women are more effective as spaceship pilots and in fact the skipper of the _Rodger Young_ is “Hot Pilot” Yvette Daladrier. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-excited-that-they-announced-an-adaptation-of-insert-book-title-but/590994/74 "2011-08-10T23:30:02Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > Michael Moorcock’s _Elric_ (with David Bowie starring). Bowie is too old to be the lead in the more recently announced (and then killed via inaction) Universal optioning of the Elric series. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Woodhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Miss\_Woodhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Woodhouse)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-excited-that-they-announced-an-adaptation-of-insert-book-title-but/590994/75 "2011-08-11T01:59:55Z")
So is there a rule now that all book to movie adaptation threads must always devolve into a debate about _Starship Troopers_? I seem to have missed that memo. I would love to see _Ender’s Game_ actually make it to the big screen. One of these days we might actually see it happen. I stopped holding my breath for it years ago, though. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-excited-that-they-announced-an-adaptation-of-insert-book-title-but/590994/76 "2011-08-11T03:06:17Z")
> [@Miss\_Woodhouse](#): > > So is there a rule now that all book to movie adaptation threads must always devolve into a debate about _Starship Troopers_? Hey, I blame the folks who won’t let us retcon it out of existence. 😃 ---
**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:** [August 11, 2011, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-excited-that-they-announced-an-adaptation-of-insert-book-title-but/590994/77 "2011-08-11T03:17:57Z")
Ender’s Game would probably work a lot better as animation, rather than live action, since that gets around a lot of the difficulties with working with child actors. But that just brings in another difficulty, that of getting Americans (both studios and audiences) to take an animated movie that’s not a kids’ movie seriously. ---
**Author:** ![Wednesday\_Evening](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b2d939/32.png) [@Wednesday\_Evening](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wednesday_Evening)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-excited-that-they-announced-an-adaptation-of-insert-book-title-but/590994/78 "2011-08-11T19:37:25Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Once upon a time, the Pinis were talking about the upcoming **Elfquest** movie, and I was very interested. Ages and ages later, I’m less interested. I think the universe is waiting for me to become totally indifferent to the project before it will release the karma and allow it to exist. I’ve been following the **Elfquest** movie quest ever since the Pinis first announced it back in the 80s. A few years ago there were some new developments, and I believe there is now a screenplay, but development seems to have fizzled. Some fans recently made a pretty amazing [Elfquest trailer](http://elfquestfantrailer.com/), which seems to have created some new interest. I’m not holding my breath, though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-were-excited-that-they-announced-an-adaptation-of-insert-book-title-but/590994.md?page=3)