The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress coming to theatres?

[lazarus]

Hmmm....

I don't see how this could make a good film at all. What makes it a good novel just simply won't translate, IMO. We'll see, though.

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-main.html?2004-01/20/13.00.film

"Genre TV producer Tim Minear (Angel, Wonderfalls) told SCI FI Wire that he has been hired to write a screenplay adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's 1966 SF novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. The novel deals with a 2076 rebellion on a former penal colony on the moon and has been read as an allegory about libertarianism and its costs."

[SheilaT]

1. The problem with the Heinlein books

that have been turned into films (Puppet Masters and Storm Troopers) is that the makers, including the director, producer, and writers of screenplay, clearly don't know science fiction in general and Heinlein's works in particular. So far they've taken the ones that are most easily turned into a typical Hollywood film with lots of violence and emphasized that part, rather than the actual story underneath. In Puppet Masters they went for the gross-out, rather than thoughtfully adapting that book to the now in which we live, which is very different from the one Heinlein envisioned.

I've been complaining for years that the people who make science fiction movies certainly know how to do so, but know almost nothing about science fiction. There are a lot of books and stories out there that would make great movies if done right. Time for the Stars and Tunnel in the Sky have great possibilities. How about the Asimov book The End of Eternity. I would LOVE to see that one on the big screen.

The many time travel novels out there have a lot of potential. I don't really understand why the Science Fiction Channel doesn't do a lot of this, especially adapting the novels of the "golden age".

Sigh.

[pmbryant]

5. Got to agree with you about 'The End of Eternity'

That would be a fabulous film if done right. It's been years since I've read that or any of Asimov's fiction, but perhaps it is time to change that.

:D

--Peter

[11 Bravo]

6. Time for the Stars was a GREAT book.

My Grandfather hooked me on Heinlein when I was about 12 and that was the first book of his that I ever read.

[Love Bug]

7. I agree with you about SciFi channel

Lots of great books out there that would make wonderful movies or miniseries instead of recycling stuff like "Tremors."

To give credit: SciFi did do alright with "Dune." I hope they stay away from the horror stuff and do the Foundation series, for one.

[forgethell]

2. I hope that

they are more faithful to Heinlein's ideas than Starship Troopers was. the very first science-fiction book that I ever read. Hooked me for life, and they turned it into fascist nonsense. Of course, some liberals,leftists, and progressives have always thought that Starship Troopers was fascisist, but this is only on a very shallow reading. I don't agree with a lot of what Heinlein had to say, in this book, and others, but it was a far deeper book than what Hollywood saw.

[Zero Gravitas]

3. Starship troopers

ST might not have been a good adpatation of the book, but it was a good satire of the US's fascist tendacies, esp. as portrayed in jingositic war/action movies.

[forgethell]

4. Nah, it was just a mess n/t

[Enraged_Ape]

8. Starship Troopers always gets a bum rap

I was a fan of the book as a kid, and I can't say that I was completely endeared to the movie. But I could see that Verhoven made a very clever parody of fascist war politics, as well as the right-wing media that fuels (and is fueled) by it. The "newsbreaks" in Starship Troopers are identical to present-day FAUX news coverage. (Do you want to know more?)