Posted on 01/13/2005 1:41:37 PM PST by pabianice
OK, movie fans. First, there was the Wells novel, written in 1898 and astonishingly ahead of its time. Then, there was the first movie in 1953 -- also ahead of its time and very watchable for its effects, although Gene Barry was arguably not the best guy for the lead role. Now, we have the Speilberg remake, due out this summer.
The good news is that the film appears to try and recreate as much of the novel as possible, updating it from 1898 to 2005. The trailer looks like fun. And of course, CGI now lets a producer create visual effects undreamed of 50 years ago.
The bad news is varied. First, we have Speilberg, one of the great visual movie makers around but crippled with a political correctness that has turned most of his recent movies into dinner theater for the DNC. Tom Cruise takes the lead again, but he, too, is hot and cold and often seems unclear about a character's motivation. The, there is the tortured history of this remake, apparently set to have begun filming in 2001 but since re-re-re-written and had cast and crew changes. Such a history is, in Hollywood, usually a predictor of a really bad final product. Usually.
As noted in another thread, the recent remake of "Flight of the Phoenix" is notable only because it crashed and burned at the box office, returning just under $ 20 million on a $ 70 million+ investment to date.
We'll have to see what happens with "War."
Production sketch from remake of "WOTW."
Neither "Do you like our owl?" or the photo make any sense.
I watched the trailer. I get the "They're already here" part.
I didn't read that one, I said WOTW was a toss up because the movie was so different. I robot the movie is about as different as you can get from asimov's book.
Check out the URL in my reply #75.
Agreed. "AI" wasn't Spielberg's fault, he was dragged into it by that weirdo Kubrick. Spielberg did the best he could with the material he was given.
Yes, something did happen. He got tired of commercial success and little-to-no respect from his Hollyweird peers. Notice that all of his films were terrific action/adventure/comedy/horror types that were just genuine fun to watch and left you feeling like you had a really good time.
Then came "Schindler's List." Definitely a terrific movie, but he moved over into depressing adult material and, except for "The Lost World," he hasn't really come back. He wanted to win Oscars, and it almost seems that he lost his sense of fun and adventure along the way.
I predict another "Mars Attacks".
ACK. ACK ACK. ACK ACK ACK.
From Blade Runner.
It's been a while since I read it, but IIRC so much of the action is inside Ender's head that it might be hard to film well. Uplift War, on the other hand, would make one heck of a movie. Even with the horrific "gorilla warfare" pun. Startide could be good as well, though at the moment anything involving disastrous tidal waves probably isn't gonna go over well. :-)
Sorry, slightly rabid Brin fan here.
Thanks! What a great site. Just have to get some ballads by Robert Service! I never seem to have the time to really search the net as much as I like. I really appreciate it. Caught the Sci Fi category and have to check it out.
I still have mine, too. One of those albums I'll always keep.
Yep, I still have the old album. Loved Richard Burton's deep voice, loved the music, loved the cover to the album...
Thanks again. Ever since I was a teenager and read "The Creation of Sam McGee" I've been hooked.
I'm not necessarily a Harlan Ellison fan but the movie version of "A Boy and His Dog" was pretty good. It's hard to watch it now because I keep picturing Don Johnson in "Miami Vice." Of course, that was a short story. I think I envied Ellison's writing ability since we were close to the same age. But I didn't always care for the themes.
Hmm, I hope its good. But if any book needed the blockbuster production budget, that would be it.
I don't understand why they keep making remakes of movies everybody has seen a dozen times already.
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