The previous post (\u201cHave I Got a Story for You\u201d) produced some stimulating comments and feedback (below in bold print):<\/p>\n
I think it just proves there\u2019s a ready market for good science fiction out there.\u00a0 Larry Niven\u2019s Known Space; David Weber\u2019s Honor Harrington stories; Niven and Pournelle with \u201cFootfall\u201d \u201cThe Mote in God\u2019s Eye\u201d and \u201cLucifer\u2019s Hammer.\u201d \u00a0The stories are already there.\u00a0 But apparently the powers that be want a different kind of story but for an audience that doesn\u2019t like science fiction!<\/p>\n
For adults all of the below comments give ideas that should easily be translatable to cinema or television series productions.\u00a0 The technical problems have long ago been conquered with computer generated imagery.\u00a0 The only problems are lack of imagination and ideological blindness.<\/p>\n
And the people who want the good stories are both young and old.\u00a0 I\u2019d love to be able to bring my grandkids to see age-appropriate science fiction that isn\u2019t just poorly disguised gender and racial grievance propaganda but actually tells a good story about people they can relate to.<\/p>\n
In the spirit of selecting something I could bring my grandchildren to (and enjoy myself!) I figure I\u2019ll throw out a couple of safe but entertaining choices.<\/p>\n
My first choice has some problems.\u00a0 The story premise has become dated based on the current state of the art in computing and thinking machines.\u00a0 It\u2019s Heinlein\u2019s \u201cStarman Jones.\u201d\u00a0 Max Jones\u2019s unusual rise through the ranks from stable boy to astrogator was predicated on his \u201ceidetic\u201d memory and abilities as a lightning calculator.\u00a0 Well, that would seem to be a kind of silly plotline today.\u00a0 Even the most phenomenal human mind cannot hope to compare with the speed and precision of a modern computer.\u00a0 So, some other skill will be needed to distinguish the young hero.\u00a0 The FTL process could be changed so that sensing the space warp is an individualistic skill that he happens to possess to an extreme degree.\u00a0 Or some other skill, whatever.<\/p>\n
But the rest of the storyline works fine for a book or a movie concept.\u00a0 Max and his mentor Sam can show their qualities on some lost planet in a star system far, far away.\u00a0 I think it would make a billion bucks.<\/p>\n
And even more apt Heinlein juvenile would be \u201cHave Spacesuit Will Travel.\u201d\u00a0 The protagonist Kip Russell goes through a collection of adventures that are ready made for the big screen.\u00a0 He\u2019s accidentally drawn into an interstellar police action between a galaxy-spanning civilization and a race of evil predators that have invaded our solar system with the intent of conquering humanity and using them as food.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s got FTL space travel, time travel and high adventure.\u00a0 It even has humanity put on trial in front of a galactic court to determine whether they deserve to exist.\u00a0 What\u2019s not to love.<\/p>\n
And of course, the Heinlein juveniles include at least a half dozen more stories that are highly qualified to be considered for the big screen.\u00a0 All it would take would be a director with a decent ear for dialog and a script writer who isn\u2019t totally woke.<\/p>\n
So, any of you guys aware of any recent science fiction that would be appropriate for adolescents and young adults?\u00a0 It\u2019s a bit more of a specialist niche but I\u2019m sure it exists out there.\u00a0 All that has to be done is look.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ed Brault<\/strong><\/p>\n I would love to see Larry Niven\u2019s Known Space stories and novels brought to the screen. Big, sweeping arcs like Ringworld Series, The Fleet of Worlds, or the epic Man-Kzin Wars; or smaller sets like the Gil Hamilton organlegger detective stories, or the individual novels that help flesh out the Known Space Universe: Becalmed in Hell, the Coldest Place, World of Ptaavs, A Gift from Earth, and especially, Protector, and the related Peace Corben novellas. These would probably be best done like The Expanse; a multi-year episodic TV drama.<\/strong><\/p>\n The biggest problem would be preventing the studio suits from doing a Disney on the stories. I would consider that an Organ-Bank-worthy crime!<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Abraham<\/strong><\/p>\n David Weber\u2019s Honor Harrington series would work well, even with a woman hero.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Tregonsee314<\/strong><\/p>\n I think Ringworld has been in development a couple times, most recently with Amazon\/MGM. It is Tough to get a large audience for it (especially as you move into Ringworld Engineers and later) as it wanders into hard R territory though one COULD limit that somewhat. It also would probably push limits of even current special effects for Kzin and Puppeteers. I love Protector it has the advantage that it sticks with a couple characters across its story. It probably would want to be a limited miniseries as it is a smidge too long (at 218 PG) to make a single two-hour movie, though you could perhaps time compress some parts and maybe get there. My own favorite for a series (or maybe 2 movie pair like the recent Dune) would be Niven and Pournelle\u2019s Footfall, if for no other reason than the final battle using Project Archangel.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n TomD<\/strong><\/p>\n Reply to\u00a0 Tregonsee314<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s been decades since I read Footfall, I really would like to reread that. Niven alone<\/strong><\/p>\n Niven and Pournelle put out so much. I still think Lucifer\u2019s Hammer<\/strong> was the absolute best of the type.<\/strong><\/p>\n Ahhh, but Ringworld made \u201creal\u201d and the Mote in Gods Eye\u2014\u2013<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Ed Brault<\/strong><\/p>\n Lucifer\u2019s Hammer: The surfer dude riding the tidal wave would be worth the price of admission!<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Tregonsee314<\/strong><\/p>\n So many attempts and so little success. Looking for successes I think the latest incarnation of Dune, although flawed in some aspects, was probably the most successful of the 3 (4 if you count the aborted Jodorowsky attempt). I think the Jackson Lord of the Rings was very good even without certain sections (sorry Tom Bombadil, you just aren’t central to the plot). The Expanse did middling well, though I lost track of it mid-2nd season.<\/strong><\/p>\n The failures are more plentiful. Jacksons Hobbit was a mess with unnecessary additional characters and subplots, even though the acting (Bilbo and Thorin especially) was superb. The Foundation series by Apple mangles the timeline (mostly because with the longer timeline there is no character continuity but for the shade of Hari Seldon) and adds wokish subplots all over the place. Effects were nice and Asimov having ONLY humans in Foundation\/ Robots universe simplifies that. All in all, it was a disappointment and I bailed after 3-4 episodes. I think it fell flat for the public because many of its ideas seemed like retreads (E.g. Trantor as a planet covered with civilization feels like warmed over Coruscant even though Trantor predates Coruscant by 20+ years and likely inspired Lucas). And Rings of Power? Mauling the lore of Tolkien to pander to a variety of subgroups combined with puerile 4th-grade fanboy scripts produced an utter catastrophe.<\/strong><\/p>\n Almost anything Sci-fi that Hollywood has done without a sci-fi novel or story at the heart is a mess. Hollywood seems to want to revert to the pre\u2013Star Wars Sci-fi where all is Dystopia and nuclear hellscape. That things might work out is anathema. Even the vaunted Federation of Star Trek has been being mauled with its hidden perfidy in Discovery and Picard. Not to say dark is bad. Babylon 5 was amazing (especially given the limitations of cost and mid 1990\u2019s special effects).<\/strong><\/p>\n What seems to matter most is that the primary vision for converting the Sci Fi to the screen needs to LOVE the material. JMS wrote much of B5 and was its director, Peter Jackson Adored Lord of The Rings and co-wrote the script, Denis Villeneuve is a Dune\/Herbert fanboi. Each loved the story in its original form and tried very hard to leave the original plot beats and characterizations in place, not bend them to tell their own story like Rings of Power or Foundation did.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The previous post (\u201cHave I Got a Story for You\u201d) produced some stimulating comments and feedback (below in bold print): I think it just proves<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4926,5,3776,3366,239,1263,4,243,1730,4833],"tags":[43,38,1355,44,265],"class_list":["post-33399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abraham","category-current-events","category-ed-brault","category-life-in-dunwich","category-movie-reviews","category-stuff-that-personally-interests-me-miscellaneous","category-sff","category-sff-movie-reviews","category-guest-contributor-tomd","category-tregonsee","tag-movie-review","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-sci-fi","tag-science-fiction"],"yoast_head":"\n