Dude; Dont go there

[RobertScorpio]

can you see any "theme" or "TOPIC matter" from a scifi book, or whatever, that would absolutely never get made because it would be far too controversal? Or, has our society matured (yeah right) far enough where any topic can be made into a movie with out causing social strife???

Rob

 

[3D Master]

Guy-personality wakes up in girl-body (or vice versa) and instead of a bunch of cheap gags we get to actually explore sex, sexuality, personality, and gender, and how a different gender body (and thus brain) influences this.

I don't see that made anytime soon. Gets way too uncomfortable in American society with homosexuality and such.

 

[Bishbot]

Guy-personality wakes up in girl-body (or vice versa) and instead of a bunch of cheap gags we get to actually explore sex, sexuality, personality, and gender, and how a different gender body (and thus brain) influences this.

I don't see that made anytime soon. Gets way too uncomfortable in American society with homosexuality and such.

Richard Morgan does it in his Takeshi Kovacs books, where bodies can be switched at will. He does it through the lense of hardcore action/noir, but the layers are there.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

A dsytopian future in which fundamentalist Islam has spread and most of the world lives under its control.

 

[3D Master]

Guy-personality wakes up in girl-body (or vice versa) and instead of a bunch of cheap gags we get to actually explore sex, sexuality, personality, and gender, and how a different gender body (and thus brain) influences this.

I don't see that made anytime soon. Gets way too uncomfortable in American society with homosexuality and such.

Richard Morgan does it in his Takeshi Kovacs books, where bodies can be switched at will. He does it through the lense of hardcore action/noir, but the layers are there.

I highly doubt it, as bodies that can be switched at will would mean they don't spend much time in the body - and thus not much influence of the brain is to be had. Done properly it would be long term exploration.

Also, the original poster mentioned themes, possibly from books that wouldn't be used. Not stated explicitly, I can't see this other than used in a movie or tv series - after all, if it's already in books, it's already there, there's no point in asking if will not be put to paper when they're already on the paper.

Thus giving a book as an example of how it is done, is then besides the point. The book you mentioned, would be exactly the book that wouldn't be turned into a movie or tv show.

 

[Mistral]

Guy-personality wakes up in girl-body (or vice versa) and instead of a bunch of cheap gags we get to actually explore sex, sexuality, personality, and gender, and how a different gender body (and thus brain) influences this.

I don't see that made anytime soon. Gets way too uncomfortable in American society with homosexuality and such.

I Will Fear No Evil by Robert Heinlein

A dsytopian future in which fundamentalist Islam has spread and most of the world lives under its control.

Caliphate by Tom Kratzman

I think the topics of Stranger In a Strange Land would make it Hollywood-verbotten. Exploring the human condition through a Christ-figure that advocates loving everyone regardless of gender in both emotional and physical senses-it would never fly.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

Caliphate by Tom Kratzman

Yes, it's been dealt with in books, but it would be too hot button to adapt into a movie. That's what we're discussing here after all.

 

[Myasishchev]

You won't see Michel Houellebecq works be made into Hollywood productions anytime soon, I think. Although brilliant, they are too sexual and too nihilistic.

That said, there are some European productions, which are absolutely worthless to me due to language barrier, inaccessibility in the States, and the fact that La Possibilité d'une île at least, directed by Houllebecq, is apparently godawful (described by a Swiss paper as "the possibility of a shipwreck"), probably because it was made by a drunken, lazy, antisocial French-Irishman.

I used to think there weren't many topics beyond the pale for written fiction. This is substantially true still, but there appear to be some limits by way of some states' poorly-drafted laws.

 

[RobertScorpio]

Caliphate by Tom Kratzman

Yes, it's been dealt with in books, but it would be too hot button to adapt into a movie. That's what we're discussing here after all.

You are so right. Could you imagine a movie that did to ISLAM what the DIVINCI CODE did to the Christian faith? I'm not even a believer, but even I can see the double-PC-standard..

Rob

 

[Rii]

Hollywood would probably be reluctant to adapt Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, what with The Good Guys™ flattening various bits of the United Sates.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress was developed as a movie about five years ago, but it didn't get off the ground. Tim Minear was hired to write the screenplay. Here's a report from when Minear first talked about the project:

Genre TV producer Tim Minear (Angel, Wonderfalls) told SCI FI Wire that he has been hired to write a screenplay adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's 1966 SF novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. The novel deals with a 2076 rebellion on a former penal colony on the moon and has been read as an allegory about libertarianism and its costs.

"I'm going to write the script," Minear, an avowed Heinlein fan, said in an interview. "My take on the story is to try to stay as close to Heinlein's politics and Heinlein's vision of the future that I can, while still taking the story and trying to make it into a movie. You know, that book is not a movie. There's a lot of very interesting talk about cells and sort of the anatomy of a revolution, which is not that interesting in a movie. But there are other elements."

Minear got hired to adapt the book when he set out to discover who held the rights to Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. That turned out to be producer David Heyman (the Harry Potter movies). Heyman and producer Mike Medavoy eventually hired Minear to adapt the other Heinlein work, Minear said.

Minear said that he wants to follow the example of Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, who adapted J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings for the screen. "Those are magnificently adapted screenplays," he said. "Things are moved around. Things are changed. Just like you would have to when you're adapting something that extensive. But really, really an impressive job of staying so close to ... Tolkien. ... Like, it smells the same as the novels."

 

[Rii]

^ Interesting, I hadn't heard about that. It's a pity it didn't get off the ground.

 

[zakkrusz]

Oh I can just see some poor suit trying to pitch:

Elfen Lied
Gantz
Ghost Talker's Daydream
Gunslinger Girl
Hell Girl
Koi Kaze
Mnemosyne
School Days
When They Cry


...to Hollywood movie executives! Probably safe to say they won't ever touch those with a ten foot pole due to various social, ethical, or religious issues/hang ups this country has.

 

[3D Master]

I know School Days, and that's it. How about a couple of summaries? After all, the question was not so much any other titles that can't be made into movies, but the themes that can't be done.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

A dsytopian future in which fundamentalist Islam has spread and most of the world lives under its control.

Caliphate by Tom Kratzman

Yes, it's been dealt with in books, but it would be too hot button to adapt into a movie. That's what we're discussing here after all.

You are so right. Could you imagine a movie that did to ISLAM what the DIVINCI CODE did to the Christian faith? I'm not even a believer, but even I can see the double-PC-standard..

And particularly anti-Catholic. Anti-Catholicism plays pretty well overseas because the Catholic Church tends to be a more predominant, monolithic force in a lot of foreign countries. It's more powerful, and thus a bigger target.

You can take on Catholicism or else demonize some generic, non-denominational, Bible-belt Fallwell stand-in. But I doubt anyone besides South Park has the guts to take on the Mormons.

As for Islam, you might be able to get away with a movie like that in the U.S. but it wouldn't be commercially viable because it would probably be banned in most of Europe for "inciting violence among the Muslim population" or some BS like that.

 

[zakkrusz]

I know School Days, and that's it. How about a couple of summaries? After all, the question was not so much any other titles that can't be made into movies, but the themes that can't be done.

Elfen Lied- Extreme ultraviolence (body parts being telekinetically ripped off ), lots of nudity, cruelty to animals, child abuse and molestation. A mass murderer who can kill with telekinesis escapes a labratory facility leaving a bloody mess in her wake. However, she's shot and develops another personality which is her polar oposite. She's unwittingly taken in by couple of college students who find her on a beach.

Gantz-Extreme Ultraviolence, sexual content. Big black ball finds people who died and forces them to participate in a sick game of life and death killing aliens. If they get enough "points" they get to live again, if not they die horribly....again. It's terrible and there's no reason to watch the series anyway.

Ghost Talker's Daydream- Sexual content (not so much the OVA but the manga since the main character's a professional dominatrix.) She also has the abillity to commune with spirits and has a side job as an exorcist.

Gunslinger Girl- An Italian government agency "saves" terminally ill or injured little girls on the verge of death and gives them second life as brainwashed cyborg assassins who do the government's dirty work.

Hell Girl-A group of demons runs The Hell Correspondence, a website for those who begrudge others. If the human agrees to the pact the demons torment the person on behalf of the "victim" and send them to hell, however, the price is the users soul will also fall to hell when they die. I mentioned it for the religious and moral issues it would bring up not to mention that not all the people who get sent to hell actually deserve it. Essentially, it's franchise full of hopelessness where the bad guys always win and justice is dead.

Koi Kaze- Deals with the issue of brother/sister incest.

Mnemosyne (aka Rin: Daughter of Mnemosyne)- Extreme violence and lots of sexual content, among other screwed up things. It's basically the adventures of an immortal female detective and her partner.

School Days- For a sweet high school romance triangle gone horribly wrong.

When They Cry (aka Higurashi no Naku Koroni)- For extreme bloody violence committed by children. Also graphic torture of old people and children. The story involves a student who transfers to a rural country town in Japan in the 80s. He makes new friends but soon discovers the town's bloody past and tries to dig deeper into it's mysteries, unfortunately it could cost him his life. The series is segmented into several chapters each with it's one seperate mystery.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

Based on those descriptions, I could see Hollywood making Gunslinger Girl (although perhaps making the girls a little older) and perhaps Hell Girl.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Gunslinger Girl- An Italian government agency "saves" terminally ill or injured little girls on the verge of death and gives them second life as brainwashed cyborg assassins who do the government's dirty work.

Hell Girl-A group of demons runs The Hell Correspondence, a website for those who begrudge others. If the human agrees to the pact the demons send the person to hell, however, the price is users soul will also fall to hell when they die. I mentioned for the religious and moral issues it would bring up not to mention that not all the people who get sent to hell actually deserve it. Essentially, it's franchise full of hopelessness where the bad guys always win and justice is dead.

Actually, I can totally see a Hollywood studio producing a movie based on that premise for Gunslinger Girl. It's got a little bit of Dollhouse, a little bit of Wanted, maybe a smidgen of The Bourne Identity...

And while I agree that Hell Girl is not sufficiently commercial for Hollywood, that's because it's too depressing, not because it's too controversial. Hollywood doesn't make depressing SF/F movies (except for A.I., Alien 3, Donnie Darko, & A Scanner Darkly).

 

[miraclefan]

I know School Days, and that's it. How about a couple of summaries? After all, the question was not so much any other titles that can't be made into movies, but the themes that can't be done.

Elfen Lied- Extreme ultraviolence (body parts being telekinetically ripped off ), lots of nudity, cruelty to animals, child abuse and molestation.

Gantz-Extreme Ultraviolence, sexual content.

Ghost Talker's Daydream- Sexual content (not so much the OVA but the manga since the main character's a professional dominatrix.)

Gunslinger Girl- An Italian government agency "saves" terminally ill or injured little girls on the verge of death and gives them second life as brainwashed cyborg assassins who do the government's dirty work.

Hell Girl-A group of demons runs The Hell Correspondence, a website for those who begrudge others. If the human agrees to the pact the demons send the person to hell, however, the price is users soul will also fall to hell when they die. I mentioned for the religious and moral issues it would bring up not to mention that not all the people who get sent to hell actually deserve it. Essentially, it's franchise full of hopelessness where the bad guys always win and justice is dead.

Koi Kaze- Deals with the issue of brother/sister incest.

Mnemosyne (aka Rin: Daughter of Mnemosyne)- Extreme violence and lots of sexual content, among other screwed up things.

School Days- For a sweet high school romance triangle gone horribly wrong.

When They Cry (aka Higurashi no Naku Koroni)- For extreme bloody violence committed by children. Also graphic torture of old people and children.

So far I've seen two series on your list, Hell Girl (BRILLIANT work I thought) and Gunslinger Girl which I thought was a Sad yet slightly disturbing work. Now I have to be honost I NEVER thought that WATCHMEN would ever be made just because of the content alone, but I was proven wrong. Now if there is ONE series from comic books that I just don't see being made is ALAN MOORE & NIEL GAIMANS MIRACLEMAN. It is rather ''tame'' in the first 8 issue's, but the further the sereis went it became a very mature, sexual & ULTRA-VIOLENT series by the time MOORE left off, and allowed Gaimen to finish the as of yet incomplete series! I don't see Holyweird ever turning this book in too a movie anytime soon( legal issue's aside)

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

Actually there's pretty much nothing that Hollywood wouldn't adapt because of extreme sex and violence in the source material. They'd simply tone the sex and violence down in the screen adaption. It's more thematic issues that would make them avoid certain adaptations altogether.