SF movies you'd like to see

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styrgwillidar said:
“Lord of Light” by Roger Zelazny
“Doorways in the Sand” also by Zelazny
“This Immortal” by Zelazny

A fun series for comedy sci-fi movies based on the multi-verse theory would be the “Myth” series by Robert Asprin

“Foundation” Trilogy by Asimov (I know there were more in the series but they felt like-add ons)
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Well, they almost filmed “Lord of Light” back in 1979…

The CIA bought the film rights and established a fake film crew to infiltrate Iran and free a group of American diplomats who were hiding out in the Canadian embassy from Iranian militants. The film “Argo” was based on the incident (they called the notional film “Argo” within the movie instead of “Lord of Light”).

The CIA even hired comic book legend Jack Kirby to do the storyboards for the “Lord of Light” film as backstopping to show the Iranian government. There was a brief cameo by Michael Parks (whom I watched as a kid in “Then Came Bronson”) as Kirby in the “Argo” film.
 
Arizona_Mike said:
Well, they almost filmed “Lord of Light” back in 1979…

The CIA bought the film rights and established a fake film crew to infiltrate Iran and free a group of American diplomats who were hiding out in the Canadian embassy from Iranian militants. The film “Argo” was based on the incident (they called the notional film “Argo” within the movie instead of “Lord of Light”).

The CIA even hired comic book legend Jack Kirby to do the storyboards for the “Lord of Light” film as backstopping to show the Iranian government. There was a brief cameo by Michael Parks (whom I watched as a kid in “Then Came Bronson”) as Kirby in the “Argo” film.
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Did Jack ‘the King’ Kirby know it was a CIA operation and not a real movie?
 
tomarin said:
Did Jack ‘the King’ Kirby know it was a CIA operation and not a real movie?
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I’m not sure. But as he was both a Jew and a patriot who fought in WWII under Patton, I would have felt sure that he would have kept the secret.

Did you ever hear the story of how he wound up as a guest on the Johnny Carson show?
 
Arizona_Mike said:
I’m not sure. But as he was both a Jew and a patriot who fought in WWII under Patton, I would have felt sure that he would have kept the secret.

Did you ever hear the story of how he wound up as a guest on the Johnny Carson show?
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No, I haven’t. Do enlighten.
 
tomarin said:
No, I haven’t. Do enlighten.
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In the 1970s Johnny Carson was doing a sketch where he needed a pair of 3D glasses, so the prop department got them out of an old Jack Kirby 3D comic they found. On the side of the cardboard glasses, 'JACK KIRBY - KING OF THE COMICS!" was printed. After doing the sketch, Carson noted what it said and thought it meant “comics” like “comedians” and started rifling on “Who’s Jack Kirby? Why’s he saying he’s King of the Comics, I’ve never heard of him!”

Kirby saw the bit and was apparently mortified and became very depressed about being attacked on the Carson show. Someone who knew Kirby got in contact with Carson’s producer, Freddie Cordova, who explained who he was to Carson. Carson felt terrible about what he said, so they invited Jack Kirby on to appear, and billed him as “Jack Kirby, the King of the Comics”. Kirby, smoking his trademark cigar, appeared and looked pretty happy as he chatted with Carson about the comic book industry after Carson explained the situation and apologized to him.

It was a graceful way for Carson and Cordova to deal with the situation and make amends to Kirby.
 
Arizona_Mike said:
Well, they almost filmed “Lord of Light” back in 1979…

The CIA bought the film rights and established a fake film crew to infiltrate Iran and free a group of American diplomats who were hiding out in the Canadian embassy from Iranian militants. The film “Argo” was based on the incident (they called the notional film “Argo” within the movie instead of “Lord of Light”).

The CIA even hired comic book legend Jack Kirby to do the storyboards for the “Lord of Light” film as backstopping to show the Iranian government. There was a brief cameo by Michael Parks (whom I watched as a kid in “Then Came Bronson”) as Kirby in the “Argo” film.
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Never heard that. Wonder if the CIA still owns the film rights.
 
Mentioning the late Roger Zelazny, I wouldn’t mind an AMC series on the Amber Chronicles
 
styrgwillidar said:
“Foundation” Trilogy by Asimov (I know there were more in the series but they felt like-add ons)
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Very little of Asimov’s work has been made into film. There is “I, Robot” which incorporated some of his robot themes, such as “the 3 Laws”. Pretty good film, but only moderately dependent on Asimov.

There also was a low budget film, “Nightfall” made in 2000, based on his classic 1941 short story, which some voted as the best SF short story in the first half of the 1900s. The story is great, but the film was atrocious! Read the reviews on IMDB.

Having loved the short story, I rented the video and begged my wife and kids to watch with me, what I expected to be a classic. It took me years to regain my credibility. In an essay practically dictated by him on his deathbed, he denied anything to do with that turkey.

But why is so little of his Sci Fi recorded on film? He tends to be very cerebral, plots revolve around nuances of reason, development of complex characters, weighing one ethical or logical alternative against another, ethical, logical alternative. Ironically, this is the kind of material that television writers were looking for in the 1950s, though they had little budgets. TV today, like movies today, depends on special effects, simplistic characters, instant gratification of the viewers’ senses and emotions, and no complexity.
 
commenter said:
Very little of Asimov’s work has been made into film. There is “I, Robot” which incorporated some of his robot themes, such as “the 3 Laws”. Pretty good film, but only moderately dependent on Asimov.

There also was a low budget film, “Nightfall” made in 2000, based on his classic 1941 short story, which some voted as the best SF short story in the first half of the 1900s. The story is great, but the film was atrocious! Read the reviews on IMDB.

Having loved the short story, I rented the video and begged my wife and kids to watch with me, what I expected to be a classic. It took me years to regain my credibility. In an essay practically dictated by him on his deathbed, he denied anything to do with that turkey.

But why is so little of his Sci Fi recorded on film? He tends to be very cerebral, plots revolve around nuances of reason, development of complex characters, weighing one ethical or logical alternative against another, ethical, logical alternative. Ironically, this is the kind of material that television writers were looking for in the 1950s, though they had little budgets. TV today, like movies today, depends on special effects, simplistic characters, instant gratification of the viewers’ senses and emotions, and no complexity.
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How much complexity do you expect in 2-3h on screen?

ICXC NIKA
 
Lion_of_Narnia said:
Mentioning the late Roger Zelazny, I wouldn’t mind an AMC series on the Amber Chronicles
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That series drew me in from the first line and scene with Corwin waking up in the hospital. Still re-read it occasionally. “It was starting to end…”

Didn’t like the second series based on Corwin’s son as much as the first since there was so much more emphasis on magic vice the multi-verse. Just seemed to conflict with the first series. Made it far more to the fantasy side of things.
 
GEddie said:
How much complexity do you expect in 2-3h on screen?

ICXC NIKA
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TCM recently showed the film versions of Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, made around 65 years or so ago, for the movie theater.

Have you ever seen the dramas they used to show on TV in the 1950s? Some are now lost, but some survive on kinescope. Some were 90 minutes long.
 
commenter said:
Very little of Asimov’s work has been made into film. There is “I, Robot” which incorporated some of his robot themes, such as “the 3 Laws”. Pretty good film, but only moderately dependent on Asimov.

There also was a low budget film, “Nightfall” made in 2000, based on his classic 1941 short story, which some voted as the best SF short story in the first half of the 1900s. The story is great, but the film was atrocious! Read the reviews on IMDB.

Having loved the short story, I rented the video and begged my wife and kids to watch with me, what I expected to be a classic. It took me years to regain my credibility. In an essay practically dictated by him on his deathbed, he denied anything to do with that turkey.

But why is so little of his Sci Fi recorded on film? He tends to be very cerebral, plots revolve around nuances of reason, development of complex characters, weighing one ethical or logical alternative against another, ethical, logical alternative. Ironically, this is the kind of material that television writers were looking for in the 1950s, though they had little budgets. TV today, like movies today, depends on special effects, simplistic characters, instant gratification of the viewers’ senses and emotions, and no complexity.
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There was also The Bicentennial Man, starring Robin Williams.

His “The Caves of Steel” would be a good movie.
 
styrgwillidar said:
Never heard that. Wonder if the CIA still owns the film rights.
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I ran across a 1 page article from 1980 a while back about how they were about to make a film version of the film in Jim Steranko’s MediaScene magazine. I had to read it a couple of times to realize they were referring (unknowingly) to the CIA covert operation.

If you haven’t seen the movie, John Goodman plays John Chambers, the Academy Award winning (for Planet of the Apes) make-up artist who sometimes assisted the CIA in making disguises to help exfiltrate personnel, and who helped set up the “Lord of Light” film production to help the CIA.

Chambers, who passed away, was also a guy who loved a good prank. There are persistent rumors that he was the one who made the Bigfoot costume that was used in the 16mm film of Bigfoot walking through the forest that we’ve all seen. He denied it before his death, but other makeup artists claim that he acknowledged it to them. He was one of the few makeup artists at the time with the talent and skill to make such a costume at the time. He is supposed to have repurposed two alien costumes he made for the “Lost in Space” TV show to make the costume.
 
Ben Bova’s The Starcrossed. It’s a satirical novel about a TV network about to go bankrupt because they were slow to convert to 3D format. They launch a series The Starcrossed, a pace-opera version of Romeo and Juliet that is so bad it picks up a following among SF fandom.

Question is whether to make a series or a movie. The book is largely about corrupt network execs, crazy SF authors (Harlan Ellison), &c. I think Mr Bova had some bad experiences in Hollywood.
 
How about EWTN runs a series Catholics in Space to deal with theological issues of space travel.
Are replicated bread and wine valid for Holy Communion? Are Trills culpable for acts committed while under the influence of previous life personalities – could a Catholic even become a Trill?
Is using a transporter suicide? You are destroyed at one point and reassembled (one hopes) at the other end.
Would founding colonists on a new planet be allowed to use rescued “snowflake babies” to ensure genetic diversity?

What if there is no FTL drive. Then every planet will probably have a Primate (de facto Pope) out of communication with Rome for years or decades at a time.

Of course, one doesn’t even have to leave Earth. What if procreation is licensed and you can’t get a license w/o submitting to genetic “counseling”.
 
didymus said:
Ben Bova’s The Starcrossed. It’s a satirical novel about a TV network about to go bankrupt because they were slow to convert to 3D format. They launch a series The Starcrossed, a pace-opera version of Romeo and Juliet that is so bad it picks up a following among SF fandom.

Question is whether to make a series or a movie. The book is largely about corrupt network execs, crazy SF authors (Harlan Ellison), &c. I think Mr Bova had some bad experiences in Hollywood.
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I think Bova wrote that based loosely on his and Harlan’s experiences while working on the 1974 Canadian TV series The Starlost, with Keir Dullea.
 
tomarin said:
What is the mote in God’s eye, anyway?
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Whoa, explaining that briefly…

Interstellar civilization, 1000 years in the future. Colony of New Caledonia. During a period of interstellar civil war and dark ages, the isolated colony looks up to the night sky up at the Coal Sack nebula where they see a red giant which has yellow sun companion–and the yellow sun has gone green–coherent light green, as in massive laser complex from a star system not known to have ANY human civilization. After decades of green, the laser light goes out, the colony is rediscovered, and then 200 years later, an alien light-sail probe enters the New Caledonion solar system

Anyway, the Nebula sort looks like a human head, the red giant is the “eye” and the companion, yellow or green, is the speck or “mote”
 
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