>> And, if Villeneuve is very smart, he and his collaborators will make Rama very different from its source material. <<
Then don’t make it. Leave it alone. Let someone who finds a way to make the source material work have their crack at it. But quit sh!++ing on the people who actually have original ideas.
He criticizes the book for lacking ten memorable characters; the book is about an expedition of three people.
I just hate it when a movie is made about a book that I like that is so far from the original that I can't watch the movie out of fear it will ruin my memory of the story. Rendezvous with Rama is such a great story that there is no reason to deviate from it. Not every movie needs to be a love story.