Stoppard's Dark Materials script was reportedly scrapped. (Alliteration!) Chris Weitz is directing and, it sounds like, writing.
Though it's entirely possible he'll incorporate Stoppard's script into whatever he's doing.
Gunn: You saying popping mama threw you a beating? Lorne: Kid Vicious did the heavy lifting. Cordy just mwah-ha-ha'd at us.
'Underneath'
Buffista Movies 3: Panned and Scanned
A place to talk about movies--Old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
Strega - Sep 29, 2004 3:43:57 pm PDT #4279 of 10001
Katie M - Sep 29, 2004 4:04:44 pm PDT #4280 of 10001
I was charmed (albeit somewhat perplexed) by the fannish sensibility of many of the music choices -- it's like the director was trying to vid Canada. --loligo on the Olympic Opening Ceremonies
The second half of Two Towers (the book) didn't really interest me until I was somewhere in my 20s--that's when the whole Frodo/Sam storyline really started to resonate with me. Before then, my favorite part of the whole trilogy was the first half of TTT; I loved the Ents and the whole royal intrigue at Edoras (I was also a complete Eomer fangirl at the age of 15, whereas Aragorn was a real bore, IMO).
Ha! Kathy is me. Except I didn't feel strongly about Eomer vs. Aragorn.
ETA: Oh, and I have to admit my very favorite part was Moria, with the Barrow-Downs coming in a close second. But for multiple chapters, the first half of TTT was it.
Angus G - Sep 29, 2004 5:15:03 pm PDT #4281 of 10001
Roguish Laird
Great movies from great books: David Lean's Great Expectations, Kubrick's Clockwork Orange, really there are plenty.
That Jane Campion Portrait of a Lady certainly is excrutiatingly bad, although I don't loathe it quite as much as The Piano which could possibly be my least favourite film of all time.
Kathy A - Sep 29, 2004 5:30:46 pm PDT #4282 of 10001
We're very stretchy. - Connie Neil
A great movie from a decent novella--The Shawshank Redemption. Although I do think that, since they have less plot that have to be stripped away for the film version, short stories and novellas probably have an edge when it comes to adaptation.
evil jimi - Sep 29, 2004 8:02:51 pm PDT #4283 of 10001
Lurching from one disaster to the next.
Name-calling is so for the non-LOTR enhanced. Just cast gentle aspersions at upbringing and sensibility, and smile sadly.
Hah! I bow to your greater wisdom, JS.
But--but--The Last Starfighter as a musical? Without Robert Preston? How cruel.
I know. The irony is particularly cruel.
So I've been told. Doesn't make the LoTR books any less boring to me. But I do appreciate that other people, people who's taste I completely respect, view them as classics. There's plenty of other great books out there for me to read and love.
Okay, so I drop you down a notch to slightly loony. I wouldn't go so far as to call the books great literature but I enjoyed them enough that I've read them over a dozen times and will read them again before I die (unless I'm hit by a bus on the way to work tonight). My problem with the movies is that I found all the pre- and post-release hype to be specious. The moment I saw that Jackson had turned Merry and Pippin into bumbling fools, I realised that the truth was the opposite of the hype. Jackson showed a total disrespect for the source material and had redefined the meaning of "faithful".
Yeah, I know, what more could I expect from Hollywood. I guess Merry and Pippin were Jackson's "wise retard" and "magical negro".
§ ita § - Sep 29, 2004 8:04:51 pm PDT #4284 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
I guess Merry and Pippin were Jackson's "wise retard" and "magical negro".
Magical Negroes don't get redeemed. Merry and Pippin managed to pull that off.
Mr. Broom - Sep 29, 2004 8:13:07 pm PDT #4285 of 10001
"When I look at people that I would like to feel have been a mentor or an inspiring kind of archetype of what I'd love to see my career eventually be mentioned as a footnote for in the same paragraph, it would be, like, Bowie." ~Trent Reznor
The bumbling part was to show character growth; by the end of the trilogy they're both seasoned warriors, confident and strong. They're bumbling at first, maybe a little, but brave. They just don't know how to fight. I thought the way he handled that was particularly inspired.
evil jimi - Sep 29, 2004 8:28:14 pm PDT #4286 of 10001
Lurching from one disaster to the next.
Magical Negroes don't get redeemed.
See! See! Jackson can't even respect the Magical Negro!
The bumbling part was to show character growth...
Yeah but Jackson also managed to undermine Gandalf at the same time. No way would a hobbit--young or old--steal one of Gandalf's fireworks; they were too respectful and afraid of the Wizard. Tolkein also gave the characters growth by ultimately giving them direction and purpose but from the very beginning they were intelligent and had basic common sense.
Anyway, this is a tired old argument and I know you're all sick of hearing it. I respect that the majority likes the movies, so I'll just sit in a corner and grumble quietly to myself. Sorta like Gollum but without the CGI.
evil jimi - Sep 29, 2004 8:30:23 pm PDT #4287 of 10001
Lurching from one disaster to the next.
Oh and to change the topic: Shaun of the Dead is set loose on the Aussie cinema screens next week! w00t!
Jim - Sep 30, 2004 12:53:51 am PDT #4288 of 10001
Ficht nicht mit Der Raketemensch!
From the description above, it sounds similar to Eco's Foucault's Pendulum, only without a sense of irony.
It's Foucalt's Pendulum rewritten by a moron. It's abysmal.
THe english Patient: Great book made into a good movie because they had the bottle to ditch a lot of (good) stuff and focus on one throughline. There are at least 2 other stories in the book you could make into equally good films.