Best sci-fi films never made

[pokerfan]

The Register asked its readers to name the best science fiction books that haven't been turned into movies, and hundreds of nominations came in. Now the Register has whittled the list down to the 50 that got the most votes.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/04/19/sci_fi_poll

* Ace Trucking Co – John Wagner and Alan Grant
* Against a Dark Background – Iain M Banks
* Agent To The Stars – John Scalzi
* The Amtrak Wars – Patrick Tilley
* Anvil of Stars – Greg Bear
* The Ballad of Halo Jones – Alan Moore
* The Black Cloud – Sir Fred Hoyle
* The Caves of Steel – Isaac Asimov
* The Chanur Saga – CJ Cherryh
* Chasm City – Alastair Reynolds
* The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant – Stephen R Donaldson
* The Chrysalids – John Wyndham
* Citizen of the Galaxy – Robert A Heinlein
* Creatures of Light and Darkness – Roger Zelazny
* Daemon – Daniel Suarez
* The Dark Wheel – Robert Holdstock
* Desolation Road – Ian McDonald
* The Difference Engine – William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
* The Dispossessed – Ursula K Le Guin
* The Dosadi Experiment – Frank Herbert
* Earth – David Brin
* The Expendables – Edmund Cooper
* A Fall Of Moondust – Arthur C Clarke
* Feersum Endjinn – Iain M Banks
* The Fountains of Paradise – Arthur C Clarke
* Glory Road – Robert A Heinlein
* Hammer's Slammers – David Drake
* Have Spacesuit – Will travel – Robert A Heinlein
* Hinterlands – William Gibson
* Icerigger – Alan Dean Foster
* Inferno – Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
* The Integral Trees – Larry Niven
* The Invincible – Stanislaw Lem
* Kiln People – David Brin
* The Kraken Wakes – John Wyndham
* The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K Le Guin
* Liege Killer – Christopher Heinz
* Macroscope – Piers Anthony
* Mars – Ben Bova
* The Mars Trilogy – Kim Stanley Robinson
* Mindstar Rising – Peter F Hamilton
* Mockingbird – Walter Tevis
* Moving Mars – Greg Bear
* Mutineers' Moon – David Weber
* Nimbus – Alexander Jablokov
* The Number of the Beast – Robert A Heinlein
* Orbitsville – Bob Shaw
* Only Forward – Michael Marshall Smith
* Otherland – Tad Williams
* Out of the Silent Planet – CS Lewis
* Pandora's Star – Peter F Hamilton
* Planet of Adventure – Jack Vance
* Pushing Ice – Alastair Reynolds
* Revelation Space Saga – Alastair Reynolds
* Rocheworld – Robert L Forward
* Rogue Trooper – Gerry Finley-Day
* The Saga of the Well World – Jack L Chalker
* Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future – Mike Resnick
* The Sirens of Titan – Kurt Vonnegut, Jr
* The Skinner – Neal Asher
* Spinneret – Timothy Zahn
* Startide Rising – David Brin
* The Survivors – Tom Godwin
* Tales of Pirx the Pilot – Stanislaw Lem
* Time Enough for Love – Robert A Heinlein
* Timescape – Gregory Benford
* Transition – Iain M Banks
* A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah! – Harry Harrison
* Ubik – Philip K Dick
* The Uplift War – David Brin
* The Void Trilogy – Peter F Hamilton
* The Voyage of the Space Beagle – AE van Vogt
* Vurt – Jeff Noon
* Who Goes There? – Bob Shaw
* The Wreck of The River of Stars – Michael Flynn

[Tikki]

1. "The Butterfly Kid"....Chester Anderson.

Yes, it could be dated if made today....
But with the correct screenwriter/adaptor and director...could be a classic..

from the wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Butterfly_Kid


Tikki

[pokerfan]

2. I remember reading that

long time ago...

[dimbear]

3. Wow.. I would have sworn the Chrysalids was a movie and I'd seen it.

Which it ain't and I haven't. Trippy.

[friendly_iconoclast]

4. No "The Stars My Destination" AKA "Tiger, Tiger" by Alfred Bester?

Yes, it's from the Fifties- but it was the novel that the phrase "Widescreen Gothic" was coined for.

It reads like a collaboration between Poul Anderson and Sergio Leone. Gully Foyle is one of the great antiheroes of SF.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

7. I'd actually heard somewhere.........

that someone was trying to adapt "Stars, My Destination" for the screen. But, that was a few years ago.

[pokerfan]

10. Universal Pictures acquired the screen rights in 2006

according to Variety: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117940125?categoryid=1238&cs=1&query=stars+and+my+and+destination&display=stars+my+destination

[pokerfan]

8. One of my favorites

"The Stars My Destination is, after all, the perfect cyberpunk novel: it contains such cheerfully protocyber elements as multinational corporate intrigue; a dangerous, mysterious, hyperscientific McGuffin (PyrE); an amoral hero; a supercool thief-woman ..." ~ Neil Gaiman

[Frank Cannon]

18. Hells, yes. One of my favorite books ever.

"The Stars My Destination" is one of the very few books that starts out with a completely unsympathetic character on a completely irrational quest and has you fully rooting for him by the book's end. That is not an easy thing to pull off convincingly.

I seem to remember years ago that someone was going to try to do it as an anime. I don't know what happened to those plans.

[freshwest]

90. Got an audiobook of the first one I haven't listened to yet. I'll give it a try.

[JanMichael]

5. Doeas "American Gods" count?

If not it should. And it should be a movie too.

[CBGLuthier]

21. HBO is adapting it under Tom Hanks company

Could be good.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

6. Good ones on that list......

Some thoughts:

-I think Anvil of Stars would make a great movie.
-As a Herbert fan, I'd love to see The Dosadi Experiment movie, but I think its a way too esoteric of a story for mass consumption.
-The Difference Engine would fit well with the current Steampunk kick.
-Macroscope would look cool, but I believe it would go over most folks heads.
-Pandora's Star would have to be at least two movies.
-I'd rather slit my wrists than sit through two hours of Thomas Covenant's whinging.

:shrug:

edit: I'll not be happy until there is a Hyperion movie.

[XemaSab]

9. "Snow Crash" seems like an obvious pick

:shrug:

[Codeine]

13. So many cinematic scenes in that book.

The scene where Fido tears down the freeway is a great example;

"At first, the only trace that B-782 leaves of his passage is a dancing trail of sparks down the center of the franchise ghetto. But once he makes his way out onto a long straight piece of highway, he begins to leave further evidence: a spume of shattered blue safety glass spraying outward in parallel vanes from all four lanes of traffic as the windows and the windshields of the cars blow out of their frames, spraying into the air like rooster tails behind a speedboat."

[eppur_se_muova]

36. LOL! I visualized a lot of scenes in that book, very cinematically.

Pictured the skating pizza girl as a young lady of indirect acquaintance, who just looked the part. :)

[Swede]

11. That is a pretty cool list.

Wonder how they keep coming up with such scifi dreck movies?

[petronius]

12. Pretty much every David Drake book would make an awesome movie

Not so much a take a date-movie, but the explosions would be epic... :)

[cemaphonic]

14. The Iain Banks' choices seem odd to me

I think "Player of Games" and "Use of Weapons" would work a lot better.

[pokerfan]

28. Same with Niven

Nothing really wrong with their choices (Inferno and Integral Trees) but no Ringworld with its many sequels/prequels? It could easily be turned into a series of films.

KSR's Mars Trilogy probably won't see the big screen any time soon given the recent glut of Mars movies just a few years ago. Ah, didn't consider television: The Mars trilogy rights were at one point held by James Cameron, who planned a five-hour miniseries to be directed by Martha Coolidge, but he passed on the option. Later Gale Ann Hurd planned a similar mini-series for the Sci-Fi Channel, which also remained unproduced. Then, in October 2008, it was reported that AMC and Jonathan Hensleigh had teamed up and were planning to develop a television mini-series based on Red Mars.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_trilogy#Screen_adaptations

[CrownPrinceBandar]

47. I believe they'd have to combine the Ringworld books somehow....

Not enough action in the first book to really carry a whole film. I've been hoping for a Ringworld film since I first read the book back in the 80's. My choice for the natural Niven (and Jerry Pournelle) book/film adaptation would be "Footfall".

[pokerfan]

50. Footfall is probably doable with cgi these days

The imagery of 'baby elephant' stormtroopers hang-gliding into Kansas (?) would be mind-bending.

[Odin2005]

56. Oh I hope something comes of that!

[eppur_se_muova]

34. "Consider Phlebas" -- I'd much prefer it over "Use of Weapons". nt

[CrownPrinceBandar]

46. I am almost finished reading "Consider Phlebas"........

and I agree, it would make a great film. The destruction of the Orbital scene would be worth the price of admission.

[eppur_se_muova]

61. Niven spent a whole book admiring his Ringworld -- for Banks, it's just ONE setting

in a hugely rich novel.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

63. I'm loving it.......

I can't wait to dig into other Culture stories. Any suggestions?

Actually, Niven has spent four books admiring the Ringworld. The first two were the best, the other two sucked up the joint. Niven was a good concept guy, but as an author he left a bit to be desired. He was a good beginning point as a teenager reading sci-fi.

[eppur_se_muova]

74. I read them pretty much in order of publication ...

with the exception of Player of Games, which was out of print when I first discovered Banks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_series

In fact, I included Feersum Endjinn in order, even though it's not really a Culture novel.

I was disappointed in The Algebraist ... the plot and setting are as imaginative as ever, but the characters all talk like twenty- or thirty-somethings, particularly their expletives. Considering they're supposedly centuries-old members of an advanced culture, it comes across as jarring.

If you like happy endings, you might want to stay away from Matter. ;)

I haven't read Surface Detail yet.

Since the Culture novels weren't written as Pt.1, Pt.2, etc. it doesn't really matter what order you read them in, but it also means it's a good idea to take a break between any two of them ... the stories are sufficiently different from one another that you sort of need to 'reset' your expectations from one to another.

If you like the Culture novels, you might also enjoy Alastair Reynolds' work (check the list in the OP :) ). Chasm City is a branch off of the Revelation Space trilogy, and in some ways the best of the lot. I read RS, then CC, then the other two, which felt like a near-optimum sequence to me.

EDIT to get the correct misspelling of Fearsome Engine.

[mroscoe]

15. Sunshine

Anyone here seen Sunshine? It was a recent Sci-fi film that is definitely flawed, but was beautifully made.

[Dr. Strange]

25. Welcome to DU!

Sunshine is an incredible movie!

Spoiler alert if anyone hasn't seen it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMns4c-0sq0

[haele]

16. "Monday Begins on Saturday" by the Strugatski Brothers (1964)

The car of an average university student on a road trip before he begins his new beaurocratic programming job breaks down near the top-secret location of the "Scientific Research Institute of Sorcery and Wizardry" in Kruschev's Soviet Russia ...

If Kafka was a Sci-Fi nut with a sense of humor, this is what he'd write.

Haele

[krispos42]

17. There was a book... maybe by SM Stirling, maybe David Drake...

...about a group of Roman legionaries kidnapped from certain death by aliens and used as mercenaries. Basically, the various trade guilds in the galaxy (think a modern transnational corporation) sometimes get involved in trade with primitive cultures, and when things on those primitive planets go sour, the guilds used mercenaries to deal with opponents.

However, galactic law prevents them from using modern weapons on primitive planets, so the guilds need soldiers experienced with muscle-driven weapons to fight against similarly-equipped natives. One guild snatched a unit (maybe a cohort?) from certain death on Earth and then forced them to do the dirty work on several primitive planets, where the legionaries' superior training, tactics, and discipline reigned supreme. The Romans were then cryro-frozen until it was time for their next conflict.

So the author wrote a series of short stories based on this concept. IIRC, eventually the Romans overthrow the crew and force the wealthy merchant to drop them off back on 20th-century Earth.


I loaned that book to my brother. I'll have to get it back!

[DontBlameMe]

98. It was called Foreign Legions

It was a series of shorts set in the universe for Drake's story Ranks of Bronze. David Weber used the basic storyline and expanded it in his novel The Excalibur Alternative.

[Paradoxical]

19. 2001: A Space Odyssey is the greatest film ever made.

[Paradoxical]

23. Disregard this post. Misread the OP.

[wickerwoman]

20. Ender's Game seems like a natural,

except I'm sure Hollywood would cast all the kids from Cheaper by the Dozen and turn it into a screwball comedy.

Octavia Butler's Dawn has great tentacle porn crossover potential but try pitching that to a room full of Hollywood suits.

[pokerfan]

27. It's the the works and Card has a firm hand on the tiller

Orson Scott Card released the latest of his author-written screenplay adaptations to Warner Bros. in May 2003. David Benioff and D. B. Weiss were later signed to write a new script, working closely with director Wolfgang Petersen. Card later announced that he would be writing a new script not based on any previous one, including his own.

Following the departure of Petersen from the project and Card's self-described refusal to "condescend to green-screen Hollywood," Card announced in February 2009 that he had completed a script for Odd Lot Entertainment, and that they had begun assembling a production team. In September 2010 it was announced that Gavin Hood was attached to the project, serving as both screenwriter and director.

On January 28, 2011, it was reported that Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman would be producing the work and would begin presenting the script to prospective investors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ender%27s_Game#Film

[Common Sense Party]

29. I heard Card on a radio interview saying that previous movie projects

wanted to make Ender about 17 or 18, and wanted him to have a love interest. They had no interest in telling the original story. They wanted to make it some kind of Twilight in space.

[NewJeffCT]

31. I read some of his books many years ago

However, while I remember liking them, I remember little about them.

And, isn't he some radical right-winger, too?

[eppur_se_muova]

35. Very. Writes SF from a "Mormon worldview", as he calls it. nt

[dimbear]

39. That's a natural if you know early Mormon literature.

The church fathers were early advocates that there was intelligent life on the moon, and of course there's always the relationship of all humans with the planet Kolob.

[eppur_se_muova]

40. To my great relief, I don't. nt

[wickerwoman]

43. Yeah, he's a piece of work.

But his early stuff (Ender's Game and its sequel) are pretty mainstream.

[Frank Cannon]

59. Card is one of the biggest right-wing douchebags on Earth

But Ender's Game is undeniably a great book.

[PufPuf23]

22. I would add three:

Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrith - PK Dick
Santaroga Barrier - Herbert
Cat's Cradle - Vonnegut

[PVnRT]

24. Only one Scalzi book?

He's one of my favorite current writers. I know the Old Man's War series might be made into movies, but they're not yet.

[Orsino]

26. I keep hearing that Morgan Freeman is still pushing for Rendevous With Rama. n/t

[Odin2005]

57. ALL of the Rama books would make GREAT movies.

[Forkboy]

30. I wouldn't mind KSR's Mars Trilogy getting the HBO treatment.

[pokerfan]

32. Looks like it's going to be AMC

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_trilogy#Screen_adaptations

I would like to see a three season "maxi-series." One season per book. Maybe 12 eps per season...

[Forkboy]

51. Sadly there's been no news on that in years.

It's not worth doing if it's not going to be a serious work. Too many grand ideas to go sweeping things under the rug for a snug running time. :)

[freshwest]

33. Anyone ever seen these? They Live (1988), The Lathe of Heaven (1980) & Slaughterhouse Five (1972)?

[eppur_se_muova]

37. Slaughterhouse Five was a great film, even with the changes from the book ..

they managed not to change most of the important points, while presenting things very differently for the screen from what they had been in the book -- Vonnegut did not write for visual presentation, he wrote for readers. :)

Lathe was a UK film, was it not?

[freshwest]

38. No, it was a PBS adaption of an Ursula Le Guin book. It had an introduction by Bill Moyers.

It became a cult favorite and was used by PBS for fundraising for several years. I happened to catch one of those and videotaped it.

I recently digitized it after buying a copy from Amazon which had poorer quality than the one I made myself. There was a re-make that wasn't nearly as good.

It's not British, but most PBS stations were heavy into showing programs from the UK that would have never been seen otherwise. Here's a link with details on it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lathe_of_Heaven_%28film%29

Slaughterhouse 5 was one of my favorite books by Vonnegut and I haven't been able to get the 1972 version of the film yet.

[Kolesar]

42. Slaughterhouse Five is stunning, like All Quiet on the Western Front

Damn good antiwar film

[freshwest]

45. Some days you wake up and it feels like today's world, right here, just a little tidier.

I haven't seen 'All's Quiet On The Western Front,' but then, I didn't even watch 'Apocalypse Now,' another famous film.

One of the most eye-opening anti-war films for me was 'Catch-22' and 'Born on the Fourth of July.' Only Tom Cruise film I liked.

[Kolesar]

66. Those were two great films

Both released at times when America needed a jolt of skepticism.

[NewJeffCT]

94. I just watched "They Live" last week

One of the great lines in movie history, uttered by Rowdy Roddy Piper...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OImKPh6N_Lw

I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick some ass - and I'm all outta bubblegum.

[Kolesar]

41. The Stainless Steel Rat -- Harry Harrison

I would have cast Larry Linville as the Rat's boss.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

48. That would be my Harry Harrison pick.......

although "Bill, the Galactic Hero" could be fun.

[Kolesar]

64. I read "Bill the Galactic Hero" three times.

"Bill never realized that sex was what had done him in"

[kentauros]

53. It's been so long since I've read the series,

that I can't recall his description. Only that I always thought of him as short. So, how about Bob Hoskins or Ian Holm? :)

Who would play the Rat? Maybe Johnny Depp? :D

[Kolesar]

65. Kevin Kline as the Rat? eom

[Mz Pip]

44. Childhood's End.

it would have made a terrifc movie.

[kentauros]

54. It still would,

but there'd be a lot of people unfairly comparing it to Independence Day, due to the massive ships hanging low over the cities and not responding right away. Not that the story is anything like that "movie" but the visual is very similar...

[Odin2005]

49. KS Robinson's "Mars" trilogy.

[Forkboy]

52. My dream is to see the Martian Consititution spoken here on Earth.

The Constitution of Mars
Reproduced from Kim Stanley Robinson, The Martians (HarperCollins, 1999), with the permission of the author.

We the people of Mars have gathered here on Pavonis Mons in the year 2128 to write a constitution which will serve as a legal framework for an independent planetary government. We intend this constitution to be a flexible document subject to change over time in the light of experience and changing historical conditions, but assert here that we hope to establish a government that will forever uphold the following principles: the rule of law; the equality of all before the law; individual freedom of movement, association, and expression; freedom from political or economic tyranny; control of one's work life and the value thereof; communal stewardship of the planet's natural resources; and respect for the planet's primal heritage.


Article 1. Legislative Department
Section 1. The Legislative Bodies
The legislative body for Martian global issues will be a two-housed congress, consisting of a duma and a senate.
The duma will be composed of five hundred members, selected every m-year by a lottery drawn from a list of all Martian residents over ten m-years old. It will meet on Ls=0 and and Ls=180, every m-year, and stay in session for as long as necessary to complete its business.
The senate will be composed of one senator from each town or settlement on Mars with a population larger than five hundred people (changed by Amendment 22 to three thousand people), elected every two m-years, using an Australian ballot system. The senate will remain permanently in session, aside from breaks of no more than a month out of every twelve.

Section 2. Powers Granted to the Congress
The duma will elect the executive council's seven members, using an Australian ballot system.
The senate will elect one third of the members of the global environmental court, and one half of the members of the constitutional court, using an Australian ballot system.
The congress will pass laws enabling it to: lay and collect taxes equitably from the towns and settlements represented in the senate; to provide for the common defense of Mars; to regulate commerce on Mars, and with other worlds; to regulate immigration to Mars; to print money and regulate its value; to form a criminal court system; and to form a standing police and security group to enforce the laws and defend the commonwealth.
All laws passed by the congress shall be subject to review by the executive council; if the executive council vetoes a proposed law, the congress can override the veto with a two-thirds vote.
All laws passed by the congress shall also be subject to review by the constitutional and environmental courts, and a veto by these courts cannot be overridden, but shall be grounds for rewriting the law if the congress sees fit, after which the process of passing the law shall begin again.

Article 2. Executive Department

Section 1. The Executive Council
The executive council shall be formed of seven members, elected by the duma every two m-years. Executive council members must be Martian residents at the time of their election, and at least ten m-years old.
The executive council shall elect one of its members as council president, using an Australian ballot system. It shall also elect or appoint a reasonable number of officers needed to help perform its various functions.

Section 2. Powers of the Executive Council
The executive council shall command the global police and security force, in the defense of Mars, and in the upholding and enforcement of the constitution on Mars.
The executive council shall have the power, subject to the review and approval of the congress, to make treaties with Terran political and economic bodies (and the other political entities in the solar system, as stated in Amendment 15).
The executive council will elect or appoint one-third of the members of the environmental court, and one half of the members of the constitutional court.

Article Three. Judicial Department

Section 1. The global courts
There shall be two global courts, the environmental court and the constitutional court.
The environmental court shall consist of sixty-six members, one third elected by the senate, one third elected or appointed by the executive council, and one third elected by the vote of all Martian residents over ten m-years old. Individuals elected or appointed to the court shall hold their office for ten m-years.
The constitutional court shall consist of twelve members, half elected by the senate, half elected or appointed by the executive council. Court members shall hold their office for ten m-years.

Section 2. Powers Granted the Environmental Court
The environmental court shall have the power to review all laws passed by the congress for their impact on the Martian environment, and have the right to veto such laws without appeal if their environmental impact is judged unconstitutional; to appoint regional land commissions to monitor the activities of all Martian towns and settlements for their environmental impact; to make judgements in disputes between towns or settlements concerning environmental matters; and to regulate all land and water stewardship and tenure rights, which are to be written in conjunction with the congress, to replace or adapt Terran concepts of property for the Martian commonality.
The environmental court shall rule on all cases brought before it in accordance with concepts insuring a slow, stable, gradualist terraforming process, which terraforming will have among its goals a maximum air pressure of 350 millibars at six kilometers above the datum in the equatorial latitudes, this figure to be reviewed for revision every five m-years.

Section 3. Powers Granted the Constitutional Court
The constitutional court shall review all laws passed by the congress for their adherence to this constitution, and judge all local and regional cases submitted to it that it determines to concern significant global constitutional issues, or to impinge on the individual rights established in this constitution. Congressional and local laws it judges unconstitutional can be revised, and resubmitted to the court by the relevant legislative bodies.
The constitutional court shall oversee an economic commission of fifty members. The court shall appoint twenty members, all Martian residents of at least ten m-years of age, to terms of five m-years. The other thirty members shall be appointed or elected by guild cooperatives representing the various professions and trades practiced on Mars (provisional list appended). The economic commission shall submit for legislative approval a body of economic law and practices which will combine publicly owned not-for-profit basic services, and privately owned taxed for-profit enterprises; specify what the public services shall be and how they will be regulated; set legal size limits on all private enterprises; establish legal guidelines for private enterprises which insure that employees own their enterprises and the capital and profits associated with them; and oversee the welfare of a participatory, democratic economy.

Section 4. Reconciliation of the Two Courts
The executive council shall elect a reconciliation board, composed of five members of the environmental court and five members of the constitutional court, which shall mediate, arbitrate and reconcile any disputes, discrepancies or other conflicts between the judgments of the two global courts.

Article 4. The Global Government and the
Towns and Settlements

The towns, tented canyons, tented craters, and smaller settlements on Mars shall be semi-autonomous in relation to the global state and to each other.
Towns and settlements are free to establish their own local laws, political systems, and cultural practices, except where these laws, systems or practices would abrogate the individual rights guaranteed by this global constitution.
Citizens of each town and settlement shall be entitled to all the rights guaranteed in this constitution, and to all the rights of all the other towns and settlements.
Towns and settlements shall not form regional political alliances that would function as the equivalent of nation-states. Regional interests must be pursued and defended by occasional and temporary coordinated activities between towns and settlements.
No town or settlement shall practice physical or economic aggression on any other town and settlement. Disagreements between any two or several towns or settlements are to be resolved by arbitration or judicial ruling by the appropriate court.
The physical extent of local law established by any town or settlement shall be set by the land commission, in consultation with the towns and settlements affected by the judgment. Tented craters and canyons, and freestanding tent towns, have obvious physical boundaries that can function as the equivalent of "city limits," but these towns, as well as diffuse open-air settlements, have legitimate "spheres of influence" that will often overlap the spheres of influence of neighboring towns and settlements. The land inside these spheres of influence is not to be construed as "territory" owned by the towns and settlements, in keeping with the general withdrawal from Terran notions of sovereignty and property as such. Nevertheless all towns and settlements will have the legal right to consideration concerning all land use issues, including water rights, within their sphere of influence as established by the land commission.

Article 5. Individual Rights and Obligations

Section 1. Individual Rights:
Freedom of movement and assembly.
Religious freedom.
Freedom of speech.
Right to vote in global elections not to be abridged.
Right to legal counsel, timely trial, and habeus corpus.
Freedom from unreasonable search or seizure, double jeopardy, or involuntary self-incrimination.
Freedom from cruel or unusual punishments.
Right to choice of employment.
Right to the majority of the economic benefits of one's own labor, as calculated by formulas to be approved by the economic commission, but never less than 50 percent in any case.
Right to a meaningful part in the management of one's work.
Right to a minimum living wage for life.
Right to proper health care, including the body of practices known collectively as the "longevity treatment."

Section 2. Individual Obligations
The citizens of Mars shall, over the course of their lives, give one m-year of work to global service and the public good, such work to be defined by the economic commission, but never to be military or police work.
The right to own or bear lethal weapons is expressly denied to everyone on Mars, including police or riot control officers.

Article 6. The Land

Section 1. Terraforming Goals and Limits
The primal state of Mars shall have legal consideration, and shall not be altered except as part of a terraforming program dedicated to making the surface of the planet survivable by humans up to the six kilometer altitude contour. Above the six kilometer elevation the goal shall be to keep the surface as close to its primal condition as possible.
The air pressure of the atmosphere shall not exceed 350 millibars at six kilometers above the datum, in the equitorial latitudes (30 degrees north to 30 degrees south).
The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere shall not exceed ten millibars.
The sea level of Oceanus Borealis (the northern sea) shall not exceed the -1 kilometer contour.
The sea level of the Hellas Basin sea shall not exceed the datum.
Argyre Basin is to remain a dry basin.
Deliberate introduction of any and all species, natural or engineered, is to be approved by the environmental court's agencies, after review for environmental impacts on already existing biomes and ecologies.
No terraforming methods will be employed that release radiation to the land, groundwater or air of Mars.
No terraforming methods will be employed which are unstable and prone to rapid collapse, or that do violent damage to the Martian landscape, as determined by the environmental courts.

Article Seven. Amendments to this Constitution
Whenever two-thirds of the members of both houses of the legislature, or a majority of the voters in a majority of the towns and settlements of Mars, shall propose amendments to this constitution, the proposed amendment shall be put to a general global vote during the next scheduled global election, and shall require a supermajority of two-thirds to pass.


Article Eight. Ratification of the Constitution
After approval of the text of this constitution, point by point, by a majority vote of the representatives of the constitutional convention, the constitution as a whole shall be presented to all the people of Mars over 5 m-years old, for a vote of approval or disapproval, and if it receive a supermajority of two-thirds in approval, shall become the supreme law of the planet.

[Odin2005]

55. Thanks for that!

I am reminded of the scene where Desmond is whining to Nadia (or is it Maya?) about the constitution, which was being written, and says "We should rip this thing up as yell 'CONTINUE'!", and Nadia says "but that's what it DOES say!".

[Forkboy]

58. Man, I'd have to go back to say which of them it was.

I got into KSR with his "Three Californias" trilogy, and I liked them a lot, but not so much that I saw him as being any better than a host of other sci-fi writers. Then I came across Red Mars. The book left me slackjawed, to say the least. He never has a shortage of amazing ideas.

His novel The Years of Rice and Salt is the best novel I've ever read, imo. His amazing ideas would mix hard sci-fi with spirituality into a heady brew of awesomeness. I suspect I'll be reading The Years of Rice and Salt many times before I pass on. :)

[Cid_B]

60. Number of the Beast would be great .. but my God... the licensing problems...

Also, Heinlein is tough to translate to film.

[Iggo]

62. No 'Flash Gordon'? No 'Chronicles Of Riddick'?

This list blows!

[pokerfan]

67. Yeah

If only someone would make a Flash Gordon movie.... :eyes:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027623
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030138
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032475
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080745

or Chronicles Of Riddick: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0296572

[Iggo]

70. Whooo-boy! I read it too fast.

Thought it said "ever made".

:rofl:

[pokerfan]

71. lol

Iggo, http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=9670850&mesg_id=9671024">meet Paradoxical... Paradoxical, Iggo...

:hi:

[hifiguy]

68. I will go with "The Difference Engine"

which would be a mind-roasting film if done well, and Gibson's Neuromancer. Too bad he doesn't get royalties from all the cyberpunk writers who ripped off that visionary novel part and parcel.

And for animated/humor, Alan Moore's incredibly twisted "Adventures of D.R. and Quinch." The D.R. stands for "diminished responsibility."

[pokerfan]

72. Neuromancer

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1037220/">Neuromancer (2011)

:bounce:

[siligut]

80. That's what I was thinking, Inception was the psychological version

But it had none of the creative, social and sci-fi aspects of Neuromancer. I will be interested to see the film, if it actually gets made.

[shanti]

69. how about edgar rice burroughs, mars series?

loved reading those as a kid. also, on the list, the chronicles of thomas covenant the unbeliever. now that would be an awesome movie too!

[eppur_se_muova]

75. WARNING: Do not go back and re-read these as an adult.

Ignore this advice at your peril. I speak from experience.

[shanti]

84. too late!

got a wild hair and bought a few of the old ballentine pb's on ebay. i used to get lost in those books, tarzan too!

[freshwest]

88. Too late here, too. Downloaded audiobooks of these recently. Won't share it with the kids, though.

Along with a lot of Andre Norton, my favorite.

Next to Ursula K. Le Guin and Katherine Maclean.

[pokerfan]

76. 2009 direct to video version of Princess of Mars

with Traci Lords: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1531911

And John Carter of Mars is in post production: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401729

[shanti]

83. thanks!

never heard about them, so i put them both on my netflix instant queue.

[freshwest]

89. Wow, I had no idea... Now I'm concerned.

[eppur_se_muova]

73. Banks' "A Gift From The Culture" may be made into a film ...

In late 2009 it was announced that the story A Gift From the Culture was in the early stages of being adapted for the cinema by Dominic Murphy, the director of White Lightnin'.<4>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_State_of_the_Art

[YankeyMCC]

77. Nice surprise to see "The Wreck of The River of Stars" on the list

I agree it could be a powerful and fun movie in the right hands, which of course is always the tough part when talking about Hollywood films anyway.

And I agree the Robot and Empire and even Foundation stories would be good film material. I have to say much would have to change, they would be very different from the books in many details but the fundamental story, ideas and plots could make for really excellent films...again in the right hands.

Other suggestions:
"Learning the World" by Ken MacLeod
"Windup Girl" by Paolo Bacigalupi
"River of Gods" by Ian McDonald
"Revelation Space" by Alastair Reynolds as a series or "Chasm City" as a stand alone (actually that one alone might have to be a douology or trilogy)

Maybe "Hyperion" by Dan Simmons

[Taverner]

78. VALIS and RADIO FREE ALBEMUTH by Phillip K Dick

[Frank Cannon]

91. "Time Out of Joint" is another of PKD's that would be good.

Hell, the concept has been ripped off enough times (The Matrix, The Truman Show, etc., etc.), they might as well just make the original.

[n2doc]

79. I think "Sundiver" would be a better movie choice for Brin

Has the detective/thriller aspects as well as the needed tech elements.

"Rendezvous with Rama" by Clarke would be cool with the CGI they can do now.

As for Niven, maybe one of the "Long ARM of Gil Hamilton" books.

[kentauros]

81. I suppose I should be surprised that AE van Vogt is on that list at all,

but I never would have picked "Voyage of the Space Beagle" for a movie. Better would be "Slan", the "Null-A" series or "The Weapon Shops of Isher". Most science-fiction readers today don't appear know who he is or why his books are important.

At the same time, I seriously doubt very many of these movies will ever be made, except by independent movie-makers and not in this country. If Hollywood actually wanted movies that made you think, half of these would have been made by now and the rest would be in the works. I was really surprised when "Solaris" was remade, considering this anti-thinking attitude in Hollywood. They've redefined what Science Fiction means, and you can tell by comments to today's action-only sci-fi flicks on places like imdb. You'll also find people that hate science fiction because it requires them to think :eyes:

If we could bend the ears of the big-name directors and producers, the ones for whom the studios will listen, no matter what they want to do, then we will see these superior stories put to film :)

[Alexander]

82. Hyperion - Dan Simmons

[applegrove]

85. Minority Report is the on sci-fi film I have really, really liked.

[Ohio Joe]

86. No Haldeman?

The Forever War
All My Sins Remembered
There is no Darkness
Worlds trilogy

Good god, do none of you actually read any sci-fi?

[CrownPrinceBandar]

93. I think Ridley Scott is doing an adaptation of "The Forever War"...

http://io9.com/#!5506787/first-look-at-ridley-scotts-forever-war-movie

As of last year, its due out in 2013.

[TK421]

87. No novel, but the Transmetropolitan comic book series? I would LOVE to see that

made into a movie ( movies ) for anyone else who is familiar with this series...it would be several parts but the story is engrossing enough to garner attention for the entire series ( in parts, it was about nine books I believe )

[xchrom]

92. i'd love to see brin's books get done. and hyperion. nt

[mountainlion55]

95. larry niven

Lucifers Hammer would make an execellent flick.:woohoo:

[hedgehog]

96. Left hand of Darkness with

and

[ikri]

97. That's just the 50 also-rans

The final 50 are still to be announced before voting can commence.

I'm hoping to see Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy in there, though I doubt you could make it into anything less than a mini-series considering the length of the books.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

99. The Demolished Man

Starring F. Murray Abraham* as Ben Reich and Laurence Fishburne as Lincoln Powell. EDIT: Ian McKellen as Craye D'Courtney.

* Come on, he killed Moe Zart!

[RebelOne]

100. The original "The Thing From Outer Space" from the 1950s.

Best Sci-Fi film ever.

[cherokeeprogressive]

101. Robots and Empire. n/t