Kevin's Watch

Posted: **Fri Dec 31, 2004 9:29 pm**

I hope JohnOrloff doesn't mind me pulling his post out of "The First Movie" poll topic. But I thought more people might see it in its own topic.

JohnOrloff wrote:So listen, I have been lurking here recently, and noticed everyone is leaping to conclusions.

The Hollywood Reporter article was, as Stephen Donaldson said, " both premature and misleading" (as well as kooky-- where they got "Saturn", we'll never know).

It is a fact that Mark Gordon (producer of "Saving Private Ryan", "The Patriot") and Peter Winther (prodcuer of "Independence Day", "The Patriot") and myself (writer of "Band of Brothers"), are attempting to figure out how to make a movie out of TCTC.

Peter and I have each been fans of the books for over 20 years-- and we take the respnsibity seriously. We are not going to re-invent them, nor are we going to change them in any major way. We LOVE these books.

Film IS, however, a different medium than literature, and as such, things must be adapted. For example, as some one else mentioned, to shoot LFB as written, would in itself require about 8 hours of film. So we will have to in the least, shorten...

We have every hope to stay as true to the book, and Mr. Donaldson's vision, as possible. In fact, I hope that Mr. Donaldson will be very involved in this adaption. I am sure at some point he will tire of my phone-calls to come.

I of course understand your nervousness and trepidation.

I don't know if any of you saw "Band of Brothers". It was an adaptation that was extremely faithful to the source (in this case the real men more than the book). We even got some criticism as TOO faithful to the truth (for comparison, take a look at "Pearl Harbor"). I take the responsibilty of TCTC with the same level of seriousness.

And Mark Gordon is no slouch, having been nominated for an Oscar for "Ryan". And Peter's understanding of effects is gigantic-- and his passion for, and knowledge of, the material matches anyone's on this site.

There is still a huge hurdle to get past though-- namely, finding a studio willing to develop the project. That is why the article in the Reporter was premature. And this is, given the nature of TC as a character, not a no-brainer.

So, everyone calm down.

I don't think it appropriate at this time to have a full blown conversation at this site, though once we go forward, I hope that can change-- I think Peter Jackson was very right to include other fans in the process. TCTC is not mine, it is OURS.

But I will tell you this-- our plan at this moment is to do LFB alone as the first film. The Chronicles are MUCH too rich to try to stuff into one or two films. So we'll start at the beginning-- a good place to start, no?

Breathing easier I hope?

Posted: **Fri Dec 31, 2004 9:44 pm**

WOW!!

I can't wait to see it developed!!

Hmmmm ... wonder what will be finished first - the movie or the complete Last Chronicles!!

Posted: **Fri Dec 31, 2004 9:57 pm**

Thank you John, I think we'll all sleep better tonight.

Posted: **Fri Dec 31, 2004 10:04 pm**

Thanks for that, Myste!

Posted: **Fri Dec 31, 2004 10:41 pm**

Thanks, Myste - you're right, I would not have seen that post.

Posted: **Sat Jan 01, 2005 6:03 am**

If John returns I would be interested in news of his adaptation of Bradbury's Martian Chronicles. Is that project finished?

If so what next?

But back to the chronicles, there have always been a number of issues that we have seen as difficult to translate cinematically. There is much internal dialogue and personal history surrounding the rape of Lena. It will be a difficult scene to give justice to imo.

TC's battles premature emasculation and abject surrender to the demands of managing his disease .. in the quest for survival .. all which leads to a potentially venomous and destructive undercurrent of bitterness and anger.

All these issues will take great skill to depict in cinematic form. Donaldson develops his character over chapters .. enabling the reader to empathise with the plight of this character and secure some compassion for Covenant's inactions, actions and scurrilous behavior.

I have faith in your ability to master these challenges but recognise that it is not without significant challenge.

Indeed .. good luck .. and please keep us posted.

cheers

Posted: **Sat Jan 01, 2005 9:02 am**

Thanks, Myste! And thanks to Mr. Orloff for responding to us fans here! That was very considerate of him.

Posted: **Sun Jan 02, 2005 3:12 pm**

It appears that there really is no movie at this point to discuss at all, and likely wouldn't be for at least another year. That's only if a studio is found.

If a movie is done, I hope it is only for Lord Foul's Bane and that a series of movies is planned in advance to do at least the first three books. Already it would have to be shortened just to do LFB, and I hope they wouldn't be dumb enough to try and just make one movie out of the first three books.

Tom

Posted: **Sun Jan 02, 2005 4:00 pm**

With CGI the special effects would be able to be created to cover this movie. However like SRD satted before, he's not sure how the movie would work with all the internal conflict that Covenant goes thru.

Posted: **Sun Jan 02, 2005 10:25 pm**

Tom wrote:It appears that there really is no movie at this point to discuss at all, and likely wouldn't be for at least another year. That's only if a studio is found.

If a movie is done, I hope it is only for Lord Foul's Bane and that a series of movies is planned in advance to do at least the first three books. Already it would have to be shortened just to do LFB, and I hope they wouldn't be dumb enough to try and just make one movie out of the first three books.

Tom

Orloff stated that he intends to do LFB.

Posted: **Mon Jan 03, 2005 1:10 am**

this is all so exciting and not a little intriguing!

I do hope this guy comes back to tell us more .. of any developments and discuss the chronicles.

its all so cool!

Posted: **Mon Jan 03, 2005 1:16 am**

I bet he has visited before. I mean, he and the producers are all fans - surely they would have heard of the great KW?

Posted: **Mon Jan 03, 2005 3:02 am**

Shoot, how could he stay away from our scintilating conversations?

Posted: **Mon Jan 03, 2005 6:01 am**

Loremaster wrote:I bet he has visited before. I mean, he and the producers are all fans - surely they would have heard of the great KW?

The great what? Klondike Warmachine?-jay

Posted: **Mon Jan 03, 2005 6:12 am**

kevinswatch wrote:
Loremaster wrote:I bet he has visited before. I mean, he and the producers are all fans - surely they would have heard of the great KW?
The great what? Klondike Warmachine?-jay

LOL

Sorry, I meant Kevin's Watch

Posted: **Mon Jan 03, 2005 9:33 am**

So I take it that the movie at this point in time is vaporware? It's not necessarily a bad thing - I have often wondered how someone could successfully translate the TCTC books into a film and make it stick. There is way too much introspection and subtle drama that would not make it into a film that anyone would want to watch.

Just my $0.02... maybe it's better as our (the reader) imagination...

Posted: **Mon Jan 03, 2005 9:43 am**

Thrilling and exciting. And it is good to know that they will at least heed our worries and opinions; it's another question of course what can and what cannot be adapted.
Now the speculation on casting can liven up:-) I have my vote still on Daniel Day-Lewis for TC:-)

Posted: **Mon Jan 03, 2005 1:42 pm**

Of course, people said the same thing about the books -- so I wonder if the movie really needs to strip all that out.

I think the difficulty is that it's hard to do introspection without either voiceovers or turning it into dialogue, both of which can be problematic.

I think one way to shed some good light on TC's attitude is to start with some of the scenes from the leprosarium... Either the person who was all stumps and made him wretch, or the smile lady from TIW. And have the doctor talking about VSEs and how TC needs to keep his life hopeless. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes, like the beginning of FOTR

Except it'd be a depressing opening rather than a cool battle scene.

Posted: **Mon Jan 03, 2005 2:52 pm**

((sky))

What about starting with a scene where TC is moving all the not-safe furniture in his house to the garage or something, and rearranging the furniture that he decides to keep around? Then cut to him shaving with the straight razor....Giving no hint that he's a leper, just shots of him doing the stuff TC always does... not spending a lot of camera time on his face...This'd give time for the credits. Then we watch him go out the front door for the walk into town... Then, we gets into town, we could see shots of people's reactions to him, and realize that apart from having a bizarre impulse to rearrange his furniture and shave with a straight razor, there's something strange about this guy...

Sorry JohnOrloff, we don't mean to tell you your job! It's just fun to speculate and play around with it ourselves!

Posted: **Mon Jan 03, 2005 7:41 pm**

I love your idea, Myste... building the suspense. That's great.

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