(September 30, 2023 at 10:53 pm)Ravenshire Wrote:

(September 30, 2023 at 10:10 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: I wouldn’t mind seeing Starship Troopers being remade into something that actually resembles the book.

Boru

I'd also like to see more original screenplays and fewer (much, much fewer) book adaptations. Books are, in general, a bad source for screenplays, and the longer the book, the worse the adaptation. Scripts typically run 50 pages to an hour of film. Stuffing a 350 page novel into a 130 minute production typically results in a travesty.

The adaptation of Stephen King's Misery is probably the best one, imo.

(September 30, 2023 at 11:19 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote:

(September 30, 2023 at 10:53 pm)Ravenshire Wrote: I'd also like to see more original screenplays and fewer (much, much fewer) book adaptations. Books are, in general, a bad source for screenplays, and the longer the book, the worse the adaptation. Scripts typically run 50 pages to an hour of film. Stuffing a 350 page novel into a 130 minute production typically results in a travesty.

The adaptation of Stephen King's Misery is probably the best one, imo.

Meh.

"The Shawshank Redemption," "Stand by Me," and "The Green Mile" were all better Stephen King adaptations than Misery. But, that's me. Of course, the first two were adaptations of short stories and the last was long enough to do the short, serialized novel justice. It helped that the casting of Green Mile was freakin' brilliant, pretty much from top to bottom, but especially Michael Clarke Duncan as John Coffey and Sam Rockwell as 'Wild Bill' Wharton.

Stephen King movies are good enough for passing the time, but I would not refer to any of them as spectacular.

(September 30, 2023 at 11:01 pm)Gawdzilla Sama Wrote: Like everything else, adaptions vary. I prefer a series for the harder material, but things like Harry Potter have been adapted effectively. Nothing is going to be perfect but sweeping denial isn't very perfect either.

I think novelists can be influenced by the contemporary film medium in how they conceive of scenes and descriptions, and, without having film adaptation explicit in mind when they wrote, they construct their novel in a more film like way,  with more emphasis on external observation, more formulaic or stylized depiction of inner mental pictures and deeper psychological depth, so as to make their novels more film like in the first place.    in my opinion, without casting aspersions on their literary qualities, harry potter series of novels are more film like to start with.

(September 30, 2023 at 11:49 pm)Foxaèr Wrote: Stephen King movies are good enough for passing the time, but I would not refer to any of them as spectacular.

Most Stephen King adaptations are hot garbage. The three I mentioned above are among the exceptions, not the rule.

Passion of the Christ porn where the only thing they moan is "Oh, sweet Jesus."

(October 1, 2023 at 12:01 am)Foxaèr Wrote: Passion of the Christ porn where the only thing they moan is "Oh, sweet Jesus."

pretty sure jesus was incel and a turn off in any porn.

Fu Manchu, I'm sure it was racist and maybe not even very good but, well, I like his hat.
I'm sure it could be made less racist and more evil whilst retaining the hat.

(September 30, 2023 at 11:54 pm)Anomalocaris Wrote:

(September 30, 2023 at 11:01 pm)Gawdzilla Sama Wrote: Like everything else, adaptions vary. I prefer a series for the harder material, but things like Harry Potter have been adapted effectively. Nothing is going to be perfect but sweeping denial isn't very perfect either.

I think novelists can be influenced by the contemporary film medium in how they conceive of scenes and descriptions, and, without having film adaptation explicit in mind when they wrote, they construct their novel in a more film like way,  with more emphasis on external observation, more formulaic or stylized depiction of inner mental pictures and deeper psychological depth, so as to make their novels more film like in the first place.    in my opinion, without casting aspersions on their literary qualities, harry potter series of novels are more film like to start with.

J.K. was a single Mum on the dole when she wrote the first HP. I'm not sure she aspired to have it made into a movie. Things did change afterwards, but when or how is not interesting to me. I read the books because my then wife wanted to be a children's librarian and needed an adult to argue about the books with. We bought two copies of each book as it came out after the second one so we wouldn't have to wait for the other to finish.

(September 30, 2023 at 11:54 pm)Anomalocaris Wrote:

(September 30, 2023 at 11:01 pm)Gawdzilla Sama Wrote: Like everything else, adaptions vary. I prefer a series for the harder material, but things like Harry Potter have been adapted effectively. Nothing is going to be perfect but sweeping denial isn't very perfect either.

I think novelists can be influenced by the contemporary film medium in how they conceive of scenes and descriptions, and, without having film adaptation explicit in mind when they wrote, they construct their novel in a more film like way,  with more emphasis on external observation, more formulaic or stylized depiction of inner mental pictures and deeper psychological depth, so as to make their novels more film like in the first place.    in my opinion, without casting aspersions on their literary qualities, harry potter series of novels are more film like to start with.

Here is the climactic battle of Dune, as written by Frank Herbert:

All this was as a frame for the target of the Emperor's pointing hand. Out of the sand haze came an orderly mass of flashing shapes -- great rising curves with crystal spokes that resolved into the gaping mouths of sandworms, a massed wall of them, each with troops of Fremen riding to the attack. They came in a hissing wedge, robes whipping in the wind as they cut through the melee on the plain.

Onward toward the Emperor's hutment they came while the House Sardaukar stood awed for the first time in their history by an onslaught their minds found difficult to accept.

But the figures leaping from the worm backs were men, and the blades flashing in that ominous yellow light were a thing the Sardaukar had been trained to face. They threw themselves into combat. And it was man to man on the plain of Arrakeen while a picked Sardaukar bodyguard pressed the Emperor back into the ship, sealed the door on him, and prepared to die at that door as part of his shield.

Remember that when you're a half hour into the same battle in the film version.