A D.C. Fontana Question

[Mysterion]

Looking through my copy of her novelization of The Questor Tapes, and noticed mention that Ballantine Books also published a novel by Fontana titled The Winds of Space. (This title is also mentioned in David Gerrold's non-fiction book The World of Star Trek as a possible series being worked on by Fontana in the early 1970s.)

Beyond the mention in The Questor Tapes, I can find nowhere any mention of The Winds of Space. (Yes. I tried Google.) Apparantly Ballantine jumped the gun on this as far as I can tell, unless it was published under another name and/or title.

Does anyone know of any interviews with, or articles about Fontana that mention this work?

Thanks in adavance.

 

[trevanian]

I am sorta sure it got mentioned again after the Gerrold book, possibly in an early STARLOG, but there sure as hell was no book that saw print.

Then again, how many books have you seen that say 'soon to be a major motion picture' on the cover that either never become a major anything or don't hit movie screens till the book is 30 printings and 10 years downstream from the announcement?

When FLETCH said soon to be on its cover in the 70s, I was thinking James Coburn if they went old, Tommy Lee Jones or Tim Thomerson if they went very new. By the time FLETCH went to movies it was the better part of a decade past.

 

[Greg Cox]

I am sorta sure it got mentioned again after the Gerrold book, possibly in an early STARLOG, but there sure as hell was no book that saw print.

Then again, how many books have you seen that say 'soon to be a major motion picture' on the cover that either never become a major anything or don't hit movie screens till the book is 30 printings and 10 years downstream from the announcement?

When FLETCH said soon to be on its cover in the 70s, I was thinking James Coburn if they went old, Tommy Lee Jones or Tim Thomerson if they went very new. By the time FLETCH went to movies it was the better part of a decade past.

Indeed, many books are optioned, but few are filmed. It's not uncommon for a book to be "Soon To Be A Major Motion Picture" for decades.

Anybody remember the movie versions of THE DEMOLISHED MAN, MANHATTAN GHOST STORY, SANTIAGO, or COLD WAR IN A COUNTRY GARDEN?

I've always felt you shouldn't hype the movie version on the book cover until the movie actually starts filming, but sometimes publishers get excited and jump the gun . . . .

And, getting back OT, occasionally books get announced that end up never being published, or finished, or even written!

 

[Therin of Andor]

The 1977 paperback version of "Dune" I had to read for a Literature essay (on water symbolism - shudder) had a large circle on it, "Soon to be a major motion picture". The movie didn't come till December 1984.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

And, getting back OT, occasionally books get announced that end up never being published, or finished, or even written!

Harlan Ellison used to list all sorts of vaporware in the bibliography in his published works.

 

[Greg Cox]

The 1977 paperback version of "Dune" I had to read for a Literature essay (on water symbolism - shudder) had a large circle on it, "Soon to be a major motion picture". The movie didn't come till December 1984.

Heck, I used to have a paperback edition of THE DEMOLISHED MAN from around the same era that featured a similar starburst--and I'm still waiting for the movie!

True story: I once acquired a suspense novel for Tor, in part because there was a Big Movie Version in the works. But years went by and production on the movie kept getting delayed. The book came out in hardcover, trade paper, mass-market and eventually went out of print while I was still waiting for the movie to happen. I finally gave up and reverted the rights back to the author.

And, you know, the movie still hasn't started filming . . . .

 

[trevanian]

The 1977 paperback version of "Dune" I had to read for a Literature essay (on water symbolism - shudder) had a large circle on it, "Soon to be a major motion picture". The movie didn't come till December 1984.

Yeah, but at least they did a ton of awesome concept art before that version collapsed. It'd be nice if they did a book of it like the Kubrick AI and NAPOLEON volumes.

 

[Christopher]

Thread bump with a purpose: I was just looking into this question myself (since I've just rewatched The Questor Tapes and reread the book, and am preparing a post about them for my blog), and I came across this scan of a 1972 newspaper article. Apparently The Winds of Space was a TV pilot of Fontana's creation. That supports Gerrold's mention of it in The World of ST. Since there's no mention of it on IMDb, it probably never got beyond development hell. Perhaps there was a plan for Del Rey to publish Fontana's novelization of her pilot script, but it fell through.

 

[Mysterion]

^^^^^
Thanks for the new info, Christopher! Very interesting. I guess this will remain a curious "what if?" sort of thing along with Gerrold's Star Wolf television series that seems unlikely to happen anytime soon, sadly.