Kevin's Watch

dlbpharmd wrote:Hey! Where are those pics we were promised?

Yeah, I want pics too! PLEASE!

I can't speak for Nav or Gart, but my pics have been delayed by my computer being brought almost to a standstill by a sudden influx of almost unshiftable viruses. I'll post them as soon as I have the means.

Hey, if I don't remember this quite correctly please forgive me ...

At Foyle Book Shop in London, Stephen Donaldon mentioned big PAINTINGS, done for the people pitching the "Covenant" movies, designed to communicate how excellent a film of Lord Fouls Bane can be - the first being a painting of REVELSTONE.

Now Stephen said he has himself a picture of Revelstone in his mind, and this picture by a movie artist was bigger, better, and stunning (hey I don't remember his words - but he was expressing being WOWed by it!!!). And he said they'd done another picture with Covenant and DROOL in KIRIL THRENDOR, which he said was "almost as good".

Hey, this excites me just thinking about it!

I get the impression that now - after the Lord of the Rings - that he is much cooler about the idea of a movie being made, and he's very pleased that the people working to get it together are fans.

I guess everyone of us knows now that a good movie (and even and excellent movie) CAN be made out of a book of epic fantasy, so the prospect is now a very much happier one.

He's very cool about it "having to be somewhat different (from the book)" - he of course understands that they're very different mediums.

He sounded rather excited about it, I think!

And he's very happy about "finding money on the ground"!

I would be very excited to see a Covenant movie made with the integrity and quality of the Lord of the Rings ( and why not now even better? ). The Lord of the Rings movie certainly never spoiled anything for me! I thought it was a delight! And it don't change the book for me at all!

Wow, now I want to see some of those paintings for myself!

If I had to guess, I'd say the pictures mentioned are story boards or the like. Very cool. The chances of a movie seem pretty good.

Indeed.

CovenantJr wrote:they're putting together a beautifully painted storyboard

What killed me about LOTR is that FOTR had a good deal of the characterization and interactions that were part of the book... But TTT was just too focused on the siege. ROTK was in between, but TTT really dropped the ball in my opinion.

I hope the people working on these movies (should they ever actually happen) don't get caught up in cool fight scenes and forget about the deep wounds those conflicts inflicted on the characters.

I totally agree with your points, Believer. TTT left me cold as well. I felt the Matrix sequels were also guilty of focusing too much on "cool fight scenes" to the detriment of the story.

If the people behind the Covenant movie are intending to have three films corresponding to the three books of the original trilogy, then I will be especially worried about The Illearth War, since I consider it the best book of the three. I value the importance of making a good first impression, so yes, they should certainly come out blazing with Lord Foul's Bane. But can they avoid "dropping the ball" with TIW? There are more than enough bad sequels out there to learn good lessons from. The pitfalls are clearly marked, so there's really no excuse for these Covenant movie folks to fall into one.

I know, I'm getting ahead of myself. Just examining the possibilities, that's all.

Well, my problem with the two Matrix sequels was the heavy-handedness of the philosophy. I'm not sure philosophy can be discussed well in movies. Either it's a surface treatment, like in Matrix 1, or it gets boring, like in 2 and 3.

I think philosophy in movies needs to be demonstrated and lived, not discussed, to be effective. It's the way SRD treats philosophy in his novels... The characters don't talk about it too much, except in the course of living it. Like Lord Mhoram and his discovery of how to channel the power of desecration into something good.

Anyway...

And I agree as well, Believer and Matrixman!

I was awed by FOTR and bored by TTT. FOTR struck me as movie history! And then the theatrical cut of TTT was, frankly, an utter MESS.

And then when I saw the full length version, I thought, hey, this is actually not a bad film!

And ROTK did perk things up as well, and my favorite bits were Pippin's bits (my favorite character in books and films) and I was thrilled with the lighting of the beacons sequence.

But it was never scary to me again, like the Riders were in the first film. When are they going to learn that CGI is JUST NOT SCARY!!!

I was very much looking forward to being terrified by the Dead, and it just didn't happen. The effects were great, yet I felt no fear AT ALL!!

I think the points made about pitfalls to be avoided in a Covenenant adaptation are spot on.

Healthsense aside, I think the Covenant books will be easy to adapt. They are so much about people.

Yeah...very much about people...but so much of it is internal in the books, t'll be a challenge; not an insurmountable challenge, but a challenge all the same...better be someone good directing.

Gart stealthily uploaded his two photos. They're in the Motley Crew - one of me, one of Nav. More to follow from me, I promise. Damn viruses.

Can you provide a link or tell us what page(s) they are on? Dial-up is too damn slow to go through page by page.

Here you go. Large and slightly dark pictures from our extensive stay in Starbucks. I appear to be looking down and chuckling

Navarino: kevinswatch.ihugny.com/phpBB2/album_see.php?id=471

Me: kevinswatch.ihugny.com/phpBB2/album_see.php?id=470

Hmm, not the most flattering photo of me I've ever seen.

Anyway, here are my few snaps. Unfortunately I don't have the photo of SRD himself.

CJ with something in his eye.


CJ & Gart outside Starbuck's.


You don't have to be mad to get a street in Manchester named after you, but it helps.


My rather ancient copy of LFB...


...signed by SRD (my left thumb not included).

dlbpharmd wrote:Can you provide a link or tell us what page(s) they are on? Dial-up is too damn slow to go through page by page.

Category: Motley Crew; Sort by: Time; Order: Descending.

Hmm, not the most flattering photo of me I've ever seen.

What you said, doubled - if ever there was a day when I should've remembered my d*mn contact lenses that was it. Ah well...as I've always said, I don't photograph well.

Nor do I, it seems. I don't know why I appear to be sneering outside Starbucks. Oh well. The computer's fixed, so I'll upload mine tonight.

Nav wrote:CJ with something in his eye.

I know I appear to be scratching my head gormlessly, but I really did have something in my eye!

Nice pictures, guys!

Yay!!! Those are great!