Martian Chronicles big budget movie from FOX
- Thread starter Temis the Vorta
- Start date
The Martian Chronicles would be hard to adapt as a film, since it's actually an anthology of very loosely connected tales against a more-or-less shared backdrop. Richard Matheson was able to do a reasonably good job adapting it as a 6-hour miniseries thirty years ago, by combining or substituting characters to give it a continuing cast, but the mini still had a very anthology-like flavor and a very large cast. What they say here about "a series of interlinked adventures" suggests they're trying something similar, but it'd be hard to make it work in a 2-hour feature film.
I'd imagine a theatrical film would be a loose or expanded adaptation of one story or, more likely, something completely unrelated that will have the title and author's name put on it for saleability (like, say I, Robot).
The concept would work so much better as a TV series.
Well, I, Robot was actually a pretty good way to make a movie based on an SF anthology. Rather than trying to combine the stories or something, they just crafted an original prequel set in approximately the same continuity, building on the overall ideas that tie the whole thing together rather than a specific set of events. The Young Susan Calvin Chronicles, as it were.
Not sure such an approach could work with The Martian Chronicles, though. Although in a way it almost sounds like a sequel, since it says the movie takes place after a global cataclysm.
Not sure such an approach could work with The Martian Chronicles, though. Although in a way it almost sounds like a sequel, since it says the movie takes place after a global cataclysm.
I'm sensing something very ID4ish
Not certain about this...would like it to be good, but the pedigree so far (the producer) gives me pause.
Yeah, not sure about this either due to the anthology aspect. If I remember right, only a few stories are connected in any way, mostly in the way of astronauts and generations of them. It would be difficult to make something that respects the stories.
I've loved this book since I first found it as a teenager and actually did enjoy most of the old old miniseries. However I am not sure how this would play out as a movie, its a hard format to bring to such a format.
I wish them luck with it, I just hope they don't stray too far away from the work the film will be based on, like I, Robot did. I liked the film I, Robot....it just wasn't the same.
Vons
I wish them luck with it, I just hope they don't stray too far away from the work the film will be based on, like I, Robot did. I liked the film I, Robot....it just wasn't the same.
Vons
Not only was it already a tv series:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080242/
some of the stories were in the Ray Bradbury Theatre series as well.
^Well, it was a TV miniseries. I think Temis was suggesting an ongoing series.
Or even a new miniseries. Or just get it on TV and see how many episodes the ratings will bear.
Eh... Isn't there a Disney/Pixar live action/CG (like Avatar) version of it already in the works? Or am I thinking about another property?
[aside] Use of the word "approximately" is very generous. It's really hard to find meaningful similarities between the film and the source material, beyond the fact that both have to do with robots. [/aside]
I think Ben Bova's Mars would make a better movie.
I wonder if this has anything to do with why the Total Recall remake is going to have Mars in it after all.
It likely would, and I loved that book for the realism it portrayed. Although something very much like it was already made as a miniseries called Race to Mars and I even feel it took some elements from it:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0824091/
You're thinking of John Carter of Mars.