Posted by Dean McMillan on March 23, 1999 at 17:17:10:
In Reply to: Moon Moth posted by Terry on March 23, 1999 at 13:38:15:
I vote MOON MOTH, for the very reasons you cite.
In deference to the author's alleged (and almost certainly true) aversion to Film (--though I wonder if it isn't more Television that so offends him?--) we must win his confidence. We've got to go through the fire, if we are to make it happen. And we can do this. (Yes we can.) By confronting the most demanding obstacles, then surmounting them:
Nothing less than we unpaid few working together in concert, grappling with the problem in its full complexity and SOLVING the blamed thing, will do.
As you suggest, the masks present difficulties. Whether we "leave the lower half of the face and large eyeholes" as every actor will insist, or opt for a more effects-intensive, possibly combination cgi/rotoscope-animated solution.
Ideally, the viewer will be acclimated rapidly. Led sure-footed to the film's otherworldly mechanisms, be they Greek chorus-like, operatic; whatever. And by some means, so suspending the viewer's disbelief that--by the time s/he next glimpses a naked face--it will have a shock value not unlike that prescribed as written. ...A puzzle worthy of our best efforts.
As I see it, the downside to THE LAST CASTLE is how to raise the money. No matter how you spell it, TLC would require tlc, if you catch my meaning. Which sorta rules this film out for all but George Lucas or James Cameron, had they eyes to see its virtues.
Anyone see THE DRAGON MASTERS teeming in termagant Technicolor?
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: : Now. As to MOON MOTH. Anyone? :)
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: An interesting choice. Everyone's favorite short story and mine as well - except The Last Castle, also an interesting idea.
: It's a little difficult to see a couple aspects of _TMM_ - the all important masks making actors faces into, well masks. Greek drama, noh theater, but the siver screen. Maybe we could leave the lower half of the face and large eyeholes, but complete masking sounds more interesting that it would look, I fear.
: Then there is the matter of inventing the instruments: ganga, zachinko, gomerpad, strappan, kiv and making them believable. Maybe, but I'd have trouble unless the picture were actually unintelligible at the point characters communicate and were subtitled. Still possible as proven occasionally in Star Wars.
: I think the trouble is that every Vance fan would turn up their collective noses at the realization - after we all went a dozen times each, but still Moon Moth would be a tough one to make come to life. Wonderful to imagine.
: But how about _The Last Castle_? You need some castle locations, Mek costumes or animatronic creatures, the Birds, some Phanes in costume, strutting lords and ladies. In fact quite medieval. Could be done with the leftovers of Shakespeare in Love plus Hearst Castle or Chillon or backlot Hollywood. Easier to do, but to capture the Vance language. No way. Still master stylinst such as Nabokov and Tolstoy would never have made it to film if the makers had let great language get in their road.
: We can dream though. _The Dying Earth_(maybe only the 1st 3 chapters for continuity), _The Star King_, _Palace of Love_, _Sail 25_ (now that wouldn't be too tough).