Conan Doyle's "The Lost World": still lacking a faithful adaptation

Re: Conan Doyle's "The Lost World": still lacking a faithful adaptatio

It's not as though the heroes go to the plateau with a mind to conquer any sentient species, or even to hunt dinosaurs per se, they're just looking for proof that the place exists. Along the way, they might shoot at a dino or two who tries to eat them, and they rescue members of their party from the kidnapping ape-men. Is all this really so nefarious?

 

Re: Conan Doyle's "The Lost World": still lacking a faithful adaptatio

Who said anything about "nefarious?" I'm talking about identification. It's a basic rule of filmmaking that you want the main characters to have attitudes that the audience can relate to and connect with. It's not about good vs. evil, it's about identification vs. alienation. I'm not saying it would be wrong to make a story about characters with such different attitudes from the audience, just that movie executives would find that approach undesirable for fear of limiting the size and interest of the audience. Therefore, the odds of a film like that being made are slim. Movies, especially FX-heavy movies, are expensive propositions; they therefore don't have the same freedom that books have to appeal to a niche audience.

 

Re: Conan Doyle's "The Lost World": still lacking a faithful adaptatio

The main character, Malone, wants to prove his manliness to the woman he loves. He's also interested in an adventure, as are the rest. None of them want to be eaten by dinosaurs. Are these not still popular sentiments?

 

Re: Conan Doyle's "The Lost World": still lacking a faithful adaptatio

... I take it from your silence that y'all agree.

 

Re: Conan Doyle's "The Lost World": still lacking a faithful adaptatio

Well, I just finished re-reading the book, and man does it hold up beautifully. While not greater than the Holmesian canon, it is better than any single one of Doyle's four Holmes novels.

A film adaptation would definitely be tricky, however. One big detail I hadn't recalled is that the "good" human tribe basically wages a genocidal war on the brutish ape-men. True, the latter thugs start it, but still. For a film adaptation, the ape-men would obviously need to be the aggressors, and the big battle a defensive one for the good guys.

As for retooling the plot and pace to spend a large amount of time with the tribesmen, there is the difficulty of the Europeans not speaking their language and vice versa. I haven't quite worked this out, but maybe a companion of Maple White got marooned there some years ago and taught the requisite hot tribal chick English....

 

Re: Conan Doyle's "The Lost World": still lacking a faithful adaptatio

I've never seen an adaptation I liked, but then again I can't read the book either.

This was what we would consider to be a science fiction story but is now firmly in the realm of fantasy. For some reason I can't get past that, and the entire concept of an "Inner Earth" world populated by dinosaurs and ape-men seem totally ridiculous to me.

I am aware that I suspend my disbelief at far more implausable things to some degree, but in this case I just can't get past it.

 

Re: Conan Doyle's "The Lost World": still lacking a faithful adaptatio

^^ At least it ain't underground.

And, for me, the time setting in large part justifies the liberties taken. Sure, "Maple White Land" would look ridiculous in a contemporary story, but a hundred or so years back, that's a different story.

 

Re: Conan Doyle's "The Lost World": still lacking a faithful adaptatio

I'm not familar with the book and it's something that I've always wanted to read but this version of it...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_World_(TV_series)

Was a guilty pleasure of mine originally because I thought Jennifer O'Dell was hot (which she is) but then I got swept up in the stories! I believe that it ended on a cliffhanger and was canceled. The wikipedia article has season four story ideas and proposals. I remember seeing a version that aired on Space here in Canada a couple of years ago and I recognized the actress who played Renee on "Earth Final Conflict" (I think her name is Jayne Heitmeyer) but never watched the whole thing.

 

Re: Conan Doyle's "The Lost World": still lacking a faithful adaptatio

^^ I just watched the first two episodes, which constituted a tv movie/pilot before the series proper began, and they were... well, interesting, I guess, as a fleeting curiosity. The writing is never above mediocre, and the actors are engaging without being particularly good. I wouldn't recommend it, nor would I watch any more of it, but it isn't boring or irritatingly bad, at least not yet. And apparently the series gets totally freakin' bonkers as it goes on, with European villages, time travel and other lunacy. Call it a cheesy pleasure if you like, but the hunt for a decent adaptation of the novel goes on...

 

Re: Conan Doyle's "The Lost World": still lacking a faithful adaptatio

^ Oh it gets plenty bonkers...wait until you hit what was the last episode!!! LOL

 

Re: Conan Doyle's "The Lost World": still lacking a faithful adaptatio

I think my vision of an adaptation is somewhat different to yours. One of the big themes in my vision of the story, should be that the dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals on the plateau have never seen humans before, so the native humans on the plateau should be removed in my idea of an adaptation (as should the ape-men, unless whoever's doing it can find a way to justify apes in South America).