re: filmed, splendor

I mostly agree.  I don't think the big budget studios would touch Delany, and even if they did, the results would likely be so watered down and de-fanged of all serious political import that they'd hardly be worth seeing.  On the other hand, there have been some smaller budget indie "sci-fi" films like Donnie Darko, Primer, and even 28 Days Later (the first one) that used inventive yet (relatively) inexpensive special effects, and were able to get produced and find an audience. And given the release of The Polymath (and its meager success thus far)  it's not unreasonable to think some industry folks might be fishing around for a film idea from his work.   We'll see what happens.  
   
  Nevertheless, like others have stated here, I also remain ambivalent about seeing film versions of his writing since so much of my fascination with Delany's work resides in his skillfull use of the written word.  But if a film adaptation happens in his lifetime and he can make some loot off of it and live a little more comfortably, then I'm all for it.     
   
  

Ralph Dumain <[email protected]> wrote:
          But Soderbergh's remake of "Solaris" was a piece of shit.

The whole thrust of movie sci fi--which is all shit including The Matrix, 
is to produce multimillion dollar high tech special effects blockbusters 
with insipid content. These people are not going to try to do justice to 
Delany even if they would touch him. Maybe back in the more freewheeling 
'70s, but the big money boys are out to produce conformism, not the 
subversion of accepted ways of thought.

But go on and enjoy your dream world.

At 10:10 AM 5/30/2007 -0500, Jon Olsen wrote:
>I don't know. I think many of the short stories could work as films.
>I would also love to see Babel-17 or the Fall of the Towers filmed.
>As much as I'd like to resurrect Andrei Tarkovsky from the grave and
>have him produce his own version of "Dhalgren" in Russian or
>something... I'm sure it's not going to happen.
>
>Maybe we can get Soderbergh to do it. YEAH! Soderbergh has enough
>clout to make an insane-o epic nonlinear masterpiece. He could get
>some of the big stars he's always working with to be in it, too. I'd
>pay cash money to see a three way bisexual lovefest in a burned out
>scorpion nest between Matt Damon--I'm supposing in this scenario that
>he plays Kidd, you know, just because they'd need a bankable name to
>get producers to pony up for the flick--and two others. As I believe
>the kids say these days, "Hawt".
>
>And yeah, I want _Splendor and Misery_ just as badly. You know, I
>know there's perfectly valid reasons (like that stuff about the Thor
>Power decision I remember reading one time) for why books don't get
>finished and published.
>
>But let's just play with this for a moment: in a long long career of
>writing challenging texts, looping difficult, complex texts and
>intertexts and ouroboros texts, what if a writer wanted to create the
>greatest metatext of all time? How might he do it? Couldn't he create
>a wonderful work that has an almost cliffhanger ending, announce the
>sequel, wait, publish a few supposed lines from the sequel in a
>review somewhere, and wait ten more years, publish a *new, different
>book* and go on with his life? Occasionally mention it in interviews
>when asked. That sort of thing. Now we in the audience all have a
>wonderful inventory: the most evocative title in ages, a deep
>unsatisfied longing, a hint of what is there, and our speculations.
>This book is already written in our minds, inasmuch as it is
>*unwritten* in reality. If he passes before it's finished, I'm going
>to just assume that's what he intended all along!
>
>Shouldn't we just mail him a check for $12.95 or something?



         

       
---------------------------------
Be a better Globetrotter. Get better travel answers from someone who knows.
Yahoo! Answers - Check it out.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



== Posted to delany-list, hosted at yahoo groups ==
== A mailing list for the discussion of the works of Samuel R. Delany. == 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/delany-list/

<*> Your email settings:
    Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/delany-list/join
    (Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
    mailto:[email protected] 
    mailto:[email protected]

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    [email protected]

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/