Re: re: filmed, splendor

Steve, I'd love to see a good version of CLAY'S ARK...

Anyway, you should remember that your description of
BLADE RUNNER is only possible because of a Hollywood 
condensation/editing process that removed the entire
subplot (about half of the "plot" formal) of DO
ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?, its source-text...a
thing that some enterprising capitalist, no doubt,
could easily manage with a Delany text or two (and
maybe even in a way that Delany might like as well as
Dick did). 

(Also, while Sir Ralph of the Hand may or not be
"right," his tone sounds a bit too angry for my usual
expectations for polite conversation--especially the
line about "enjoy your dream world"--what's up with
that, Ralph?  Dog eat your ___________?)

Rob

--- Steve M <[email protected]> wrote:

> I don't think I've ever agreed with Ralph Dumain
> here before, but on 
> this I agree completely.
> 
> None of Delany's books and stories are high-concept
> enough for 
> Hollywood. That is, there is no single plot you can
> summarize into 
> one sentence, like "super-strong androids want to be
> human and must 
> be stopped"--which gives you Blade Runner.
> 
> And yet I admit I would be intrigued by an anime
> version of The Star 
> Pit, if it were done by the creators of Cowboy
> Bebop. And if David 
> Cronenberg wanted to direct "Triton," I'd be
> intrigued, because his 
> cinematic obsession with the problematic
> relationship between the 
> body, bodily integrity, the self, gender, and how
> our mapping to the 
> social roles we play is always imprecise, intersects
> nicely with the 
> concerns of the book, and he would resist the
> temptation (and studio 
> pressure) to turn Bron into a likable hero and give
> her a happy 
> ending.
> 
> But more likely an option to film one of Delany's
> books would be 
> picked up by a hack like Brett Ratner or Soderburgh,
> or someone 
> totally unable to connect with the intricate and
> important ways that 
> intelligence, talent, race, gender, class and
> sexuality play through 
> all of Delany's novels (e.g., Spielberg or
> Carpenter). It is only by 
> directly addressing that specificity that you can
> get to the 
> universal.
> 
> Long before anyone even tries to make any film
> version of Delany, I 
> suspect someone in Hollywood will discover Octavia
> Butler, and we'll 
> see first "Fledgling", then the Parable Books (with
> some other title) 
> and then Clay's Ark, and then the Lilith's Brood
> series, all much 
> more translatable into Hollywood terms than anything
> in Delany's 
> canon.
> 
> 
> At 1:38 PM -0400 5/30/07, Ralph Dumain 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?
> >
> >
> >
> >== Posted to delany-list, hosted at yahoo groups ==
> >== A mailing list for the discussion of the works
> of Samuel R. Delany. ==
> >Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
> 
> 



       
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