There are aliens!

Actually, it's my least favorite King.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Ah, right. I'd like to add 2010 to that list then.

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This is not an idea to be tossed aside lightly - it should be thrown with great force

I think "Footfall" is nothing special. The only things that distinguish it from zillion other alien invasion stories are the number of protagonists and the level of detail (and the resulting heft). Remove the details -- which is necessary to fit it into a movie, -- and you have an entirely linear run-of-the-mill story. Just the kind Hollywood loves!

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Fiction has to be plausible. Reality is under no such constraint.

Greg Bear's "EON". I've read that "The Forge of God"/"Anvil of Stars" and "Darwin's Radio"/"Darwin's Children" have been optioned.

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" The universe is running away
I heard it on the news just the other day
There's this new stuff called dark energy
We can't measure and we can't see..." - from Jimmy Buffett's What if the hokey pokey is all it really is about?

I understand what you are saying Ilya - I cant' speak for anyone else, but it might be nice to see a well made, semi-scientific alien invasion movie, and Footfall might have a chance, at least based on the book. It is almost surprising that someone in Hollywood hasn't made it; certainly the Fithp would not be a challenge for current special effects. Some of the story is probably a little dated now, like Cold-War stuff with the Russians, but it might be interesting to update it to the current world.

It might even be better as a mini-series of TV, if you spent the money on the effects, you could really get into some of the alien psychology stuff.

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

One Earth, One Sky - IYA 2009
All moderation in purple

Yes, it was on Radio 4

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If our brains were simple enough for us to understand, we'd be so simple we couldn't

QQR

"Footfall" - Baby elephants from outer space!! Yeah! I love it already! :-)

BTW, what ever happened to the Ender's Game movie?

Um, was that sarcasm?

Ugh...no...stop...don't... They couldn't. No way to touch that one and not completely garbling the crap out of it. For starters, Ender killing the other team leader will likely be dropped, even though its one of the key elements to how he grows, and the part with his brother and sister playing political pundit via hacked accounts is vomitously Disney. I never could take it seriously. RTS video gamer saves humanity? Oh no no no, please, just don't...

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The last time I felt a warm fuzzy feeling, I was informed by my doctor that it was just gas.

Thank you sir! The short story was truly great, especially for the era...The Sand Pebbles was also one of the best....However I have a new suggestion to add to this fine thread...Phillip Jose Farmer's classic short story; "The Jungle Rot Kid on the Nod..." (If Tarzan was written by William Burroughs instead of Edgar Rice Burroughs.....)

Dale in Ala

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"Ad astra per aspera"

So any scenes involving space flight would lumped together in a chapter titled "Naked Launch"?

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What about Star Smashers Of The Galaxy Rangers or The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison?

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency or The Long Dark Tea-time Of The Soul by Douglas Adams?

Films of Patrick Tilley's Amtrak Wars series might also be interesting.

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I offer a complete and utter retraction. The imputation was totally without basis in fact, was in no way fair comment and was motivated purely by malice. I deeply regret any distress that my comments may have caused you or your family, and I hereby undertake not to repeat any such slander at any time in the future.

'A Canticle for Liebowitz' by Walter Miller. While some might object to the religious overtones, the characters are very richly drawn.

'The Listeners' by James Gunn. At first glance it's just 'Contact' warmed over, but the thrust of the story seems, to me, to be quite different.

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If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers.

Wonderful story, but I also wonder if it might be a little dated and how well it could be updated post-Cold War.

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

One Earth, One Sky - IYA 2009
All moderation in purple

Absolutely! Is it just me or does anyone else think Johnny Depp would make a great Dirk Gently?

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This is not an idea to be tossed aside lightly - it should be thrown with great force

Any William Gibson novel. Preferably Neuromancer.

Also, Halflife could make a good movie or animation. I know it's not a book, but it's still cool.

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There are few left who
Stare at the skies with wonder
Wishing to know more;
The clouds still drift by above
But the eyes below are blind.
--Laura Lundberg

Check out my writing, maybe.

As much as I would like to see Star Smashes made. I am not sure how Hollywood would handle some of the themes. Maybe off Hollywood, English perhaps could turm it into a worthwhile project, but I dont think mainstream Hollywood can do it

I've been waiting for someone to come up with that. Also, how about "The Sparrow" by Maria Doria Russell?

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"Everybody's playing the Game
But nobody's rules are the same
Nobody's on nobody's side." (Tim Rice)
No matter how strong, or brave, or pure of heart you may be; sometimes the dragon wins!

My first reaction to this is, no way!

I'm not sure why. I think it's got to be someone who initially seems normal but whose weirdness shows through gradually.

Ah, I've got a concrete reason.

In the second book, Dirk Gently realises he's going to be four hours late for an appointment. His first reaction is to go into a panic and try to get there as quickly as possible. But then he stops and thinks about it. He thinks, which is better, arrive four hours late in a panicky, flustered state? Or arrive four hours and five minutes late, but in a calm state?

Johnny Depp wouldn't have that problem. He'd just think, Oh look, I'm four hours late. Oh well, I am so smooth I can talk my way out of the problem.

Meanwhile, I have an idea for an SF film that would be brilliant, and need virtually no special effects. It's Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg. I see it being done in the style of, say, Finding Forrester. It could be updated, but it would be nicer if it was set in the sixties and seventies. It would almost certainly need voice-over narration to make it clear that David Selig is telepathic, but that his ability is becoming increasingly unreliable in his middle age.

Of course, a lot of people would say it wasn't science fiction because it doesn't have aliens and ray guns, but what the hey.

So, I would like to see StarTrek go away and Fred Saberhagen's Berserker universe get a shot at a series and movie. I like popcorn!

http://www.berserker.com/FredsBerserkers.html

I'd love to see his swords get a series too!

THE TWELVE SWORDS
http://www.berserker.com/info_swdprop.htm

Roger Zelaney's Chronicles of Amber would be fun as well
http://zelazny.corrupt.net/amber.html

John Carter of Mars (2009)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401729/

Rendezvous with Rama (2009)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0134933/

Next (2007)
Which Philip K. Dick story is this movie based on?
The Golden Man

1. John Carter of Mars (2009)
2. Deathrace 3000 (2008)
3. Deathlok (2008)
4. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2008)
5. Untitled Philip K. Dick Biopic (2008)
6. Terminator 4 (2008)
7. Fahrenheit 451 (2007)
8. Duke Nukem Forever (2007) (VG)
9. Logan's Run (2007)
10. The Giver (2007)
11. The Boy from Out of This World (2007)
12. I'll Believe You (2007)
13. Babylon 5: The Lost Tales - Voices in the Dark (2007) (V)
14. Sanctuary (2007) (TV)
15. 2095 (2007)
16. Highlander: Vengeance (2007) (V)
17. Intergalactic Combat (2007)
18. Próxima (2007)
19. The Rapture (2007) (V)
20. Gutlump (2007) (V)
21. Freezer Burn (2007)
22. Human Nature (2007)
http://www.imdb.com/keyword/sci-fi/?sort=date

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I've always loved the title.

Johnny Depp is too thin to be Dirk Gently.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Dragonriders of Pern (2008)

Quote:
Here's what I've heard! So we'll probably be hearing more in the not so distant future. Yeah! Various websites have stated a 2008 release, but it's the movie business and it's going to take some time to do and to do it right (otherwise McCaffrey wouldn't have signed the deal with them). So just believe that it IS coming and hopefully soon!

======
Pern Heads To Big Screen

Anne McCaffrey's best-selling and long-running SF book series The Dragonriders of Pern will be adapted for the big screen by Canadian production company Copperheart Entertainment, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Copperheart, which was behind the 2005 Oscar-winning animated short Ryan, has optioned the 19-book series, which began with Dragonflight in 1968. The books are best known for having humans ride dragons with which they telepathically bond. With Dragonflight, McCaffrey became the first woman ever to win a Hugo Award for fiction, and she is one of the 2006 inductees into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.

Copperheart, run by Steve Hoban, also has produced the Imax 3-D movie Cyberworld.

Pern nearly came to TV in a 2001 series for The WB from Battlestar Galactica creator Ronald D. Moore, but the network pulled the plug on the pilot after Moore refused to make changes to the Pern mythos that he thought would harm its integrity.

Source(s):
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/news/sfw_news_2...
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/fil...
http://www.copperheart.ca/

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I'll second The Mote in God's Eye, and Ringworld et.al. as a short miniseries, and The Forever War.

I've always thought Miller's "A Canticle for Leibowitz" would be great if it was done sort of like The Name of the Rose.

Clement's Mission of Gravity would be interesting, but I don't think viewers could relate to such alien looking main characters.
Poul Anderson's Tau Zero might be interesting

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Sue ikki
mi hatenu yume no
hotsure kana---Choko
(This final scene, I
I will not see to the end.
My dream is fraying.)

Wasn't Dirk Gently modelled on Stephen Fry?

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There is a growing tendancy to think of Man as a rational, thinking being, which is absurd.- Marvin the Martian.

It's gotten to the point where careful investigation is needed just to tell parody from reality. I think that means reality is broken.- Noclevername.

Let me also second "Canticle". In the right hands, it could be truly magnificent...

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"Call me old-fashioned, but I think fire is magic. And it scares me a lot."

--The State

yuzuha mentioned 'Tau Zero', and I wish I had thought of it. Granted that cyclic universes seem to be ruled out, who really cares if the story is good? As Ted Sturgeon wrote, to hell with the science if it isn't good fiction.

The only problem I can think of is that much of the power in Poul Anderson's best stories comes from his writing in what I call the High Style: a slightly archaic use of words and phrasing that give some passages almost Biblical overtones. Near the climax of Tau Zero he wrote, for instance:

As far as humanity was concerned, or the most swiftly computing and reacting of machines, she fought a hurricane-but such a hurricane as had not been known since last the stars were melted together and hammered afresh.


I think A Canticle for Liebowitz could be adapted extremely well, given a good screenwriter (offers quick prayer, crosses self). Just to see and hear Abbot Zerchi's admonition to the group leaving on the starship before Armageddon would be worth it:

“Remember this Earth. Never forget her, but–never come back....If you ever come back you might meet the Archangel at the east end of earth, guarding her passes with a sword of flame...”

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If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers.

Never read Canticle, but looking at it on Wikipedia, I don't think it would be well suited for cinema. A television miniseries would be more appropriate, especially since it is effectively three separate but linked narratives.

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There is a growing tendancy to think of Man as a rational, thinking being, which is absurd.- Marvin the Martian.

It's gotten to the point where careful investigation is needed just to tell parody from reality. I think that means reality is broken.- Noclevername.

WarGames, anyone? Actually, as a kid oh so long ago, I liked that movie.

How about David Brin's Startide Rising, but without making it into a Seaquest DSV-type laugh fest?

Vonnegut's Player Piano could make a good movie... or Galapagos. There are a lot of great colorful characters in most of his novels, and there are a lot of character actors working today that would fit the parts. An enterprising director/producer/script-writer could use the recurring characters and themes in Vonnegut's novels to make a series of films. Kurt's still alive, of course, and who knows if he'd be amenable to such a thing.

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pax et veritas

I quite liked the Slaughter House V adaptation.

Oh & I watched Wargames yet again not so long ago & still enjoyed it for what it was.
W.H.O.P.P.E.R. heh heh

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N6MAA10816
Faber '62 ΔTX
Are you a Bright?

I usually just say "Here go again" when I hear Hollywood is going to abuse another of my favorite books. But I would like to see someone try tackling Jack Chalker's Well World books.

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Never let the facts get in the way of a good story, people want to be entertained.