Elusive Paladin on 24/10/2009 at 06:17
(
http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/10/22/iain-m-banks-sci-fi-phenomenon-the-culture-headed-to-the-big-screen/) Source
I've been both dreading and anticipating this moment ever since I read "Consider Phlebas". "Excession" convinced me that the universe was essentially unfilmable, so it kinda makes sense that they'd pick a short story first. Not the best Culture story imo, but could be a good intro to the universe. However, if they decide to drop the whole "I was a woman and now I'm a gay man" thing I'll be most unimpressed. At-will gender switching is touted in several of the books as a neat bonus to the Culture; if they're willing to cut that, then there's no way the more egregious future-facts will survive. GSV
Meatfucker would be replaced by
Kittencuddler. The address-names would be cut "for time". Plots like the one in "Matter" have no hope.
I guess I should give them the benefit of the doubt, but I have a bad feeling about this.
PeeperStorm on 24/10/2009 at 07:03
Look on the bright side: Maybe they'll start with this easy one, and before you know it they'll have worked their way up to Use of Weapons with the narrative order and flashbacks intact. :rolleyes:
Aerothorn on 24/10/2009 at 09:05
Use of Weapons would have to be a miniseries, not a film, and....yeah, it would hurt my brain.
Awesome that they choose a (relatively) straightforward short story, though - in the USA they'd jump straight to adapting whichever novel was most popular and butcher the hell out of it.
Of course, it's gonna be kind of weird when it ends up Culture citizens all have British accents, but that's film adaptation for you.
Fringe on 24/10/2009 at 15:00
Even if the adaptation utterly butchers a story, it will be worth seeing if it can just get the scale of the Culture right.
Vivian on 24/10/2009 at 15:58
Strange choice. I would have thought The Player of Games would make the most sense as a film, with it's relatively straightforward, clancy-ish (ish) plot and (gasp) happy ending. And it's fucking awesome. Oh well, culture movies, yay! Now can we have the incredible sci-fi RPG that the culture was born to be made into?
Aerothorn on 24/10/2009 at 19:28
I think the advantage of this story is that it, due to it's small scale relative to the books, it will be a lot cheaper to make. Though obviously it still has to have SOME budget, if only for all the air traffic and skyline.
Namdrol on 25/10/2009 at 15:25
I'd like to see Inversions given the film treatment but I guess it would lose too much.
It would be difficult to translate Vosill's and DeWar's back story in the subtle barley hinted manner that the book manages to.
