The best sci-fi film never made: Also-rans take a bow We're obliged to all those readers who took the time to throw over their nominations for the best sci-fi film never made, and we're delighted to report that we've whittled the contenders down to a final 50. We simply waded through all your emails and comments and picked those titles which had received the most support. On …
OK, I'm a bit confused here... The second from last book "Who goes there?" is listed as being written by Bob Shaw. I asumed at firdt that this was the one that the classic movie "The thing from another world" was based upon, but that is credited to Don A Stuart, aka John W Campbell Jr. I can't find anything by that title credited to a Bob Shaw, so what gives?
Not only for not reading the article, but for the incorrect spelling of "poll" as in Polling or voting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poll
(Of course this could also be the pole which is actually a LART = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lart)
There are actually some pretty good bookson that list. Hopefully those on the final list will be awesome. Of course that doesn't mean any of them will actually become films - the Hollywoods suits are just that concerned about the story anymore, it's all about playing it safe by rehashing stories from the past.
I remember seeing a reference to Rocky XXXII in one film- can't recall what it was. I wouldn't bet against seeing that released one day, even if Stallone is dead and decaying.
"The Chrysalids", I remember reading that at school, back when teachers were still allowed to encourage students to think creatively, not just pump 'em full of facts and make them take exams to get government figures up to spec.
Anyway you know full well the second they made of those into films they would be massive abominations with way too much CGI and big named talent that has none to speak of!
for many, many years, before dear old Isaac (bog rest his overworked imagination) decided to go down the future history route, and tie all of his series together. Hardcore Asimov fans don't think of the later books as canon.
It was interesting to see how he did it while the books were being first published, but in hindsight, I think it would have been better keeping R. Daneel Olivaw out of the Foundation stories. It all feels a bit contrived now.
Still, I think that it could be good, but would end up a bit slow for the Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer generations.
I wish the BBC dramatisation of "Caves of Steel" still existed somewhere. If someone has it, they would be a real hero!
...and i thought Nevil Shute's "On The Beach" one of the most depressing books ever.. and it still managed to get made into a film, despite the lack of a happy ending. Still, a remake would probably include zombies and cannibalism, methinks , if made by hollywood..(. they certainly missed the point with "Watchmen"... No wonder Alan Moore gets p*ssed off)
oh I dunno... I thought the 1st Chronicles pretty good.. abit wordy and overlong in places but thats a matter of taste/ editing rather then a specific complaint about the writing.
The 2nd Chronicles OTH were an abomination that should never haveseen the light of day.... not unlike the Gap series.....
Not read much on that list but of those I have I tend to think they'd make pretty awful films...
The Kim Stanley Robinson "Mars" series would be sooooo monumentally plodding and uneventful on the big screen... and as for anything by William Gibson, be careful what you wish for, remember Johnny Mnemonic?
Should be onto a pretty safe bet with Philip K Dick though ;)
This is always followed with, "Hey, I could check it out at the library! Sweet!"
And then, "Oh, right, our library is utterly useless, and couldn't mail-order a book to save their lives."
I grew up with an awesome library, so having the only library in town be a complete waste of time is saddening... and also has put a severe dent in my reading. I'm now limited by budget, rather than check-out limit.
Thomas Covenant as sci-fi?! I think not. Hell, if that's sci-fi then I might as well have suggested Agatha Christie. Good job it got rejected early, for the person concerned not having RTFA, or indeed RTFbook.
Agreed that most of the books there are decent enough, but either
- aren't that good as fiction (step forward Heinlein, Clarke, Asimov, Bova and Robinson);
- are too damn long (Tad Williams, I'm looking at you)
- are too much of their time and wouldn't translate to today (Ubik)
- wouldn't work as films (The Difference Engine, Ubik, Out of the Silent Planet)
But if the Atrocity Archives isn't in the shortlist, Mr Flibble will be very unhappy...
abso-bloody-lutely!
FFS save us all from tripe, sub-sub-sub Tolkien, so-so low as not even to be a worthy part of a coal seam deep beneath a blackwell's basement while it still honours a single page of 'The Hobbit' lying obscured, discarded and unloved behind a mass of Social Science research. Not to mention its puerile, nauseating, whinging one-dimensional arsehole of a main character who somehow succeeds in making mycobacterium leprae an even worse horror than it is already... of course with this being Hollywood the Reg has saved us 10 TIMES from the horror of emerging from 'The Land' (I mean, FFS! What imagination!) with slashed wrists and neck burns, ankle deep in the mantraps intended to keep us in the Cinema. Yet alone the directors uncut (we stole the razorblades) 30 Bluray boxed set special edition!!
Hinterlands, Integral Trees, Have Spacesuit, Difference Engine, even Iceworld...those that haven't read this list should not be put off from their rejection.
But I agree, none of these would make compelling movies these days...either too depressing, intellectual, or simply already done in other ways.
But you didn't list Niven's "Protector", so I still have hope for my nomination... :-)
I'm disappointed in that some of Niven's collaborative works got mentioned while a lot of his works from the 70's and 80's did not. Personally I didn't really care for some of his collaborative works...
Niven created an alternative universe which could be made in to both a TV series as well as a series of movies. Protector fits in to Ringworld, Ringworld Engineers, etc...
'A world out of time' also ties in to his earlier works but some of his themes might be too adult for the mainstream audience.
Like others of his era, they use Science Fiction/Fantasy to explore the changes in their current society. (Like the episode of Star Trek where two guys have 1/2 of their face painted Black and the other white... only they are mirror images of themselves trying to question the issue of race... (Stuff like that....) )
So if you have to choose, try and find stories that are:
1) relevant to today's society and social issues.
2) have enough action to satisfy Hollywood.
3) have some bits of drama and comedy intermixed.
I mean there are literally 100's of great stories that could be adapted to tv and movies. Even a safe bet and much better than remaking movies that were done 20-30 years ago and even some of them were remakes of moves from the 20's, 30's and 40's.
I agree that Larry Niven's works would translate well.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
