Posted by Dave Rose on March 26, 1999 at 00:55:48:
In Reply to: Re:Plots/Movies posted by Dean McMillan on March 25, 1999 at 23:13:54:
My cynicism is prompted, in part, by my respect for Jack Vance's writing. It seems to me that, for a variety of reasons, any motion picture adaptation of Vance's work is bound to be less than satisfactory.
As for the below-referenced phrase "profit bound", yeah, that's a major part of the problem. If you want to write, paint, or sculpt, you can do pretty much as you please. If, on the other hand, you are asking a public corporation (whose board bears a fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders) for many tens of millions of dollars for production and marketing, you must be able to show that you have taken all of the relevant revenue maximization factors into account.
Would you be willing to tamper with Vance's work to reflect the exigencies of the marketplace? For example, like Apollon Zamp, toss in a lot of extraneous stunts, sight gags, and action sequences, so that foreign viewers, especially those from Lesser Developed Countries, "get" the film and go see it.
How about writing in some African-American characters, no matter how approprite or inappropriate, so as to attract the patronage of blacks, who make up a disproportionately large share of filmgoers?
As much as I'd like to see a well-made Vance picture, I'd hate to see the actual results of what would almost certainly eventuate if one were made.
Are you the guy who's going to ask Michael Eisner for a nine-figure sum to make and distribute an FX-laden picture featuring actors in face masks singing their dialog in an imaginary language? If so, you've got a lot more guts than me.
Seriously, it would seem that the only chance would be raising the money from a non-traditional source. The big-budget films "Mohammed, Messenger of God" and "Lion of the Desert" (AKA Omar Mukhtar) were financed by Libya, and "Inchon" was financed by the Rev. Moon. Good luck!
: Ouch, "the comittee" no less.
: This must be a sign, p'raps my cue to withdraw. And before this withering cynicism we should abandon hope, all who would tread a golden road.
: Nahhh, the Vance stories WILL be filmed, if not sooner, then later. (Let's just hope Jack is properly compensated.)
: It only remains to learn what profit bound, B-grade auteur & company of heathens will "do the honors." Of course, we who treasure the work shall have to face the consequences of our inaction. But what of that?
:
: : Ooh--ooh--Dave, I got it! We'll cast Vance movies pan- Twentieth Century, scouring the vast archives of the Akashic Record for the presences of whatever souls "the comittee" must requisition. For instance: Alan Ladd for Adam Reith and Sydney Greenstreet for Aila Woudiver! Ronald Coleman for Cugel the Clever, and Dweezil Zappa also for Cugel, in the obligatory flash-back scenes! Marie Dressler for Dame Waldrop and Christina Ricci for Gastel Etzwane! Jerry Reed for Eustace Chilke! And can you see this next one--Linda Tripp for Madame Zigonie! Oh the fun we'll have rumpling time and space to wrest from repose the voices and faces that make us remark: "Just so."