Five Books into Three Movies

[wayfriend]

Let me be the first to say ... Inconceivable!

I could see combining RS and FK into one movie. They overlap, and RS is small. Escaping the Amnion would be the climax of the first movie, fine.

After that ... what's the climax of the second movie? It HAS TO BE the escape from Billingsgate and the use of the singularity grenade. If that's not the climax of a movie, what is?

But that leaves too much for the final movie, right? Can the last two books be compressed into one movie?

[I'm Murrin]

I can see it working. Thinking back I really can't work out how Chaos and Order was the largest of the books, because it didn't really have that much happen in it, in terms of actual events.

[Farm Ur-Ted]

Let me be the first to say ... Inconceivable!

I could see combining RS and FK into one movie. They overlap, and RS is small. Escaping the Amnion would be the climax of the first movie, fine.

After that ... what's the climax of the second movie? It HAS TO BE the escape from Billingsgate and the use of the singularity grenade. If that's not the climax of a movie, what is?

But that leaves too much for the final movie, right? Can the last two books be compressed into one movie?

The singularity grenade was used in book 4 (and again in 5). Angus blew the snot out of Billingate by fussing around with it's nuclear reactor (or whatever was powering it).

I think you compress the first two; the RS could just occupy the first 20-30 min. I'm not really sure how you get 2 movies out of the last 3 books, though. I guess you'd compress the last two into one movie.

[Loredoctor]

I'd rather they tried than not at all.

[Sorus]

I think it could work, but it would work better as four movies.

[Waddley]

I think it would be best as a 10-15 episode mini series... but then again, I've always been a proponent of the mini series for book adaptions...

But like Lore said, I'll pretty much take what I can get.

[wayfriend]

The singularity grenade was used in book 4 (and again in 5). Angus blew the snot out of Billingate by fussing around with it's nuclear reactor (or whatever was powering it).

I guess I'm confused as to when exactly Angus used the singularity grenade to escape the asteroid belt. I thought it was pretty close after escaping Billingsgate. Wasn't it? I'm too far away from my last re-read to remember....

[Loredoctor]

The singularity grenade was used in book 4 (and again in 5). Angus blew the snot out of Billingate by fussing around with it's nuclear reactor (or whatever was powering it).

I guess I'm confused as to when exactly Angus used the singularity grenade to escape the asteroid belt. I thought it was pretty close after escaping Billingsgate. Wasn't it? I'm too far away from my last re-read to remember....

He used it near the end of C&O (the reason he blacked out).

[variol son]

Which was pretty close to the destruction of Billingate in terms of time - not much happens to Trumpet's crew between Billingate and the singularity. There's a lot of action back on Earth, and a bit of focus on Sorus etc that fills in the gaps.

[drew]

..They'd just have to leave a few GAPS in the story.

[variol son]

We all knew it was coming. *sigh*

The question then becomes of course, what do they leave out? They could combine all of A Dark and Hungry God Arises and Chaos and Order, and make the destruction of Billingate and the destruction of Beckman's lab the same event, and the climax of the second film. Then the last part of Chaos and Order could be woven into This Day All Gods Die to make film three.

[Avatar]

Sounds plausible Vs.

--A

[Farm Ur-Ted]

Maybe the best thing would be to combine the first 3 books into a movie, and then have dedicated movies for each of the last two. The ending of each of the last 3 books is so great, it would be a bummer to not have the flicks end that way. Each of those books ends with a major bang. Of course, the first movie would have to be 4 hours long, but I could dig it.

[I'm Murrin]

Even though there is no way it would work in a three-film format, I think The Real Story would really lend itself to a short, self-contained form, just like the novella; producing it in that form would also give the creators a chance to test the viability of a series of Gap film commercially--the project being dropped after the first would not then leave an unresolved ending, as it would with Forbidden Knowledge or A Dark and Hungry God Arises.

[Nav]

I think it could just about work as a trilogy. RS really sets the scene and there isn't much at all in it that you could use, indeed you'd want to make a lot out of what would be some very potent scenes in there so it could be a film in itself.

FK would present more of a problem, as it occurs over a period of months and that is hard to convey on screen. My gut feeling would be to have the 'RS' film ending with Morn escaping with Nick and Angus being taken away by Min Donner, then you would cut back to it just before Morn reveals her pregnancy to Nick and they change course for Enablement. This would cut out practically the entire rise and fall of Morn and Nick's relationship (but then that's a difficult thing to cover on screen), so you'd probably want to drop something into the first film to indicate that Nick isn't quite the knight in shining armour he'd have us believe. A little scene with him harshly casting aside Alba Parmute because of his desire for Morn would do it. From enablement the pace really picks up of course, so you could take it to Billingate quite quickly and have the second film finish with the destruction of Thanatos Minor.

Fitting in Angus' welding, his conversation with Warden and introducing Milos would not be easy without making the second film over-long, so I would have him turn up out of the blue on Billingate (from the audience's perspective) and then open the third film with a flashback to Angus' welding and conditioning. After the second film, the audience would be wondering how Angus became so kickass so it would be a good place to start. The hotel and self-mutilation scenes on Billingate would already have introduced Milos and given the audience enough detail of his character and motivation to justify his defection to the Amnion, the flashbacks would just strengthen opinions about him.

After the flashback, cut to the Thanatos Minor shockwave and Trumpet's escape to Valdor. Much of C&O is internalised, which makes it a prime candidate for compression. Trumpet would be in and out of Beckmann's lab fairly quickly, just stopping long enough for Sorus to do her stuff, and then picking up again with all the ships coming together on the edge of the field and then heading off to Earth for the final party.

The way the Gap is split between the politicians and the pawns would make it hard to write and I don't think it's possible to tell both sides of the story in full. I don't think Godsen Frik or Koina Hannish would even make it in and the GCES wouldn't be included in any detail (other than Sixten Vertigus, who would have his encounter with Min and then play a short put pivotal role later on). Holt would be introduced in quite an OTT manner early on with a couple of scenes with Warden and Norna to remind people of how crazy he is before returning towards the end and there likely wouldn't be time for the trip over to Calm Horizons, which means Vector gets to live!

[Usivius]

I agree with the mini-series idea.
However, I for one feel that books 3, 4 and 5 could easily be made in to two movies. Book 1 and 2 put in to one movie. There: 3.



(sorry, I am one of those very rare individuals who felt there was --- how can I say this without seeming flippant or discouteous --- 'filler' in books 3 and 4.)

[wayfriend]

I don't know about 'filler', but in all five books there is a lot of "head action" between small bits of live action. I mean, there's like a whole chapter which is just Hashi wondering what a message means. The problem that cursed Dune -- how to make a movie about what people are thinking.

[Holsety]

I don't know about 'filler', but in all five books there is a lot of "head action" between small bits of live action. I mean, there's like a whole chapter which is just Hashi wondering what a message means. The problem that cursed Dune -- how to make a movie about what people are thinking.

There's always the 'no movie' choice

The Gap has...way too much head thinking and such. I really don't think it'd lend itself to a longer movie, but w/e I suppose.

[ItisWritten]

I'm kind of late to the dance, but I've been salivating for a GAP movie since I read C&O--before This Day was even available. Which means I've been thinking far too much about adaptation.

What I envision would probably work better as a cable mini-series/event. Considering the success of slow-building shows like Lost and 24, 10-16 hours of GAP does not seem impossible.

Start just just about where The Real Story does: Morn walking in with Angus, and she sees Nick. Sets your trio firmly in the audiences mind. Flashback to Morn waking up with the zone implant. Gloss the worst stuff (we want an "R" not an NC-17), but we must see the ugly side of Angus, thus Morn becomes the damsel for Nick to rescue.

But I could go on forever. Cliff Notes version:

The Real Story can take 30 min (including the space duel between Bright Beauty and Captain's Fancy) or an hour, depending on the size of the screen it's made for. Let's assume movie.

FK fills most of the next 2 hours, including a few flashbacks to get Starmaster, UMCP, Gutbuster and Morn's mother (or it can wait until Sorus arrives), and Angus' past. The key to the first movie is the Amnion.

FK movie ends with Nick meeting the Bill and seeing Sorus.

D&H begins with Angus' welding, introduction of Holt and Warden, and Trumpet's arrival at Billingate. It ends with the destruction of Beckman's Lab.

This Day begins with the asteroid sequence. I like the idea of the big bang start to the 3rd movie. The rest is obvious. Of course, that's without a script, which will slash and rearrange backstory until it becomes SciFi's Earthsea . . . *wretching* Or worse, a space opera of no resemblance, but with the title Gap Into . . . ala I, Robot.

Which is why I like the leisurely take of the "season-long" series.