Scene from Sci-Fi story you'd love to see on film

I for one am itching to see the Lying Bastard's first approach to the Ringworld (from, um... Ringworld).

I know that SciFi is planning a miniseries based on the book, and that SciFi adaptations generally blow chunks, but just the thought of being able to see that scene outside of my head sends shivers down my back..wait..nope. It's a stroke. Oh, well...

Oh, and Rama would rock as well. Actually, I'd thought that Fincher was no longer associated with the project (too lazy to hunt down the link right now). Much as I've come to appreciate his work, though, I don't know how well he would have done Grand And Stately anyway... In any case, the project has been in Development Hell for many a year now, so I'm not holding my breath.

Oh, and I'm still bitter that NO ONE has done Dune with ornithopters whose wings actually FLAP (which is kinda what "ornithopter" means, after all!)...amid my many other gripes about the brutalizing which that novel has received in the hands of SciFi (or the Film maker Who Must Not Be Named, and his 1985 abomination). Grr.

Department of Redundancy Department

NOTIFY: Y  | REPLY  | REPLY WITH QUOTE  | PERMALINK  | TOP  | HOME

Hmmmm. A couple of immediate examples come to mind from Iain M. Banks' Culture novels:

From Consider Phlebas: The demolition of Vavatch Orbital by the General Systems Vehicle Eschatologist. Also the running fight between the crew of the Clear Air Turbulence and the Idirans in the tunnels of the Command System.

From The Player of Games: The game of Azad being played. Also, the conclusion of the final game between Gurgeh and Nicosar.

From Use of Weapons: The interview between the protagonist and the Ethnarch Kerian, at the very beginning of the book. (Nothing inherently "SF-movie" about this scene, it's just very well-written and I'd enjoy seeing it translated to film.)

From other authors:

From Heinlein's Starship Troopers: The combat drop of the Mobile Infantry in their powered armour. (From a film version not made by people who despised the book, and which doesn't get rid of the powered armour.)

From C. J. Cherryh's Hellburner: The test-flight of the rider-ship prototype at the end of the book.

NOTIFY: Y  | REPLY  | REPLY WITH QUOTE  | PERMALINK  | TOP  | HOME

from Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land:
1. The scene where the police/feds come to Jubal's estate to arrest Valentine Michael Smith.
2. The first summit between government officials and V.M. Smith (whom Jubal states should be considered a representative of Mars).

Both of these scenes are more dramatic than they are fodder for huge special f/x but any director who can pull off the same level of tension that Heinlein does in the book would be a genius in my mind.

from Zelazny's Nine Prines in Amber: I would love to see what modern special f/x artists could do with the main character's first walk from our reality (shadow Earth) to Amber.


mattro

NOTIFY: N  | REPLY  | REPLY WITH QUOTE  | PERMALINK  | TOP  | HOME

Speaking of Amber... I always wanted to see the battle between Corwin and Eric in The Guns of Avalon when Corwin returns to Amber with rifles... I just thought that would be a great scene. Also for soundtrack you could have Metallica's King Nothing playing in the background.

NOTIFY: Y  | REPLY  | REPLY WITH QUOTE  | PERMALINK  | TOP  | HOME

Nice picks, Hjermsted. I just reread Stranger in a Strange Land and I'll definitely second both those scenes. Of course, the lech in me thinks that there are some other scenes from the book that would like nice on the big screen - but that would probably lead to an NC17 rating .

I'd also love to see how someone would render the equipment from the Hammer's Slammers series of stories by David Drake.

I shaved off my beard for you, devil woman!

NOTIFY: Y  | REPLY  | REPLY WITH QUOTE  | PERMALINK  | TOP  | HOME

Quote:

---

Originally posted by NoRuddinWay:
Speaking of Amber... I always wanted to see the battle between Corwin and Eric in The Guns of Avalon when Corwin returns to Amber with rifles... I just thought that would be a great scene. Also for soundtrack you could have Metallica's King Nothing playing in the background.

---

Good thought, except that particular battle isn't between Corwin and Eric -- it's supposed to be, but there's this little invasion from the black road that gets in the way...

At any rate, there are definitely some bits of Amber I'd love to see onscreen. Particularly, the descent of the Faiella-bionin stairway to Rebma in Nine Princes in Amber (Rebma itself would be a fun challenge for the F/X folks), and I'd love to see Random's whole abortive attempt to rescue Brand from the tower, as described at the beginning of Sign of the Unicorn. (I'm in the middle of rereading the books for the first time in a long while, so this is all fresh in my mind.)

NOTIFY: Y  | REPLY  | REPLY WITH QUOTE  | PERMALINK  | TOP  | HOME

Scenes I want to see:

(1) Almost anything from Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series (why didn't they start filming it years back when Michael J. Fox was a little younger and could suit the role ...), but especially the Quaddies from the Prequel, Falling Free.

(2) 20,000 leagues under the sea, with the same ship and Nemo as in LXG ... lovely CGI stuff.

(3) Slipping into the semi-fantasy genre for a moment, The Jerusalem Man series by David Gemmell, especially the re-sinking of the Titanic.

(4) Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter (Mars) series, with multi-armed martians, etc.

NOTIFY: Y  | REPLY  | REPLY WITH QUOTE  | PERMALINK  | TOP  | HOME