Duncan on 30/5/2008 at 11:44
I'll still watch it. I have no shame. :erg:
(only on cheap $2 dvd night that is)
mothra on 30/5/2008 at 13:16
most of the people I know NEVER ever heard of the Tarkovski version or if they heard of it acutally NEVER watched it. maybe somebody will pick up the book or watch the old movie if this comes out and proofs (what I predict) to be shit.
apart from that......I wish them failure on all levels :ebil:
Rogue Keeper on 30/5/2008 at 13:29
Well, adaptation of Solaris with Clooney wasn't bad actually. But when I think about it, bad RP adaptation would hurt the original material so badly that people wouldn't be curious about it. If the adaptation was good, more people would be interested in the novel and that's a good thing.
The only thing I have against it is Travolta, we shall see how the script goes...
mothra on 30/5/2008 at 14:14
tarkovski's solaris and soderbergh's solaris have nothing in common. that's why it worked. let's hope for this one too because the orig.STALKER did not follow the book closely (just as Tarkovskis Solaris ommitted many things from the book). But like always I fear the "true to the original" adaptation technique by the US that so often turns books into bad movies 'cause the book was not meant to be experienced on film. taking liberties and finding the essence in it will be hard for any good director without repeating the old movie or using SF cliches. well, i don't have fear, STALKER is for me such an exceptional movie that nothing could taint that. NO commercial american director would have the balls to even remotely make an anti-climatic/anti-action movie like this.
D'Arcy on 30/5/2008 at 14:57
I bet we'll have lots of CGI effects, showing alien spacecrafts flying around and stuff.
I have the DVD of Tarkovski's version, and those are the images that I'll always associate with RP. But most likely, I'll still watch the new version too :p
Vivian on 30/5/2008 at 15:39
I've only read a dodgy fan translation on the web (for some reason book was hard to find until recently in UK, waiting for friend to finish his SF masterworks copy so I can re-read), but as far as I can recall a hollywood version of roadside picnic starring John Travolta would be an even worse idea than a hollywood version of I am legend starring Will Smith. I mean, hard-bitten, hard-drinking nihilistic sc-fi starring a pudgy and quite crazy scientologist? I bet he thinks the book is some kind of fucking thetan parable or something, the batshit cunt.
Muzman on 30/5/2008 at 16:24
Travolta as who though? If it's Red, then sure it'll be awful. But he could be some army asshole. That'd be fine.
The book has potential to be way more eventful than Tarkovsky's version. I wouldn't mind seeing choppers attacked by burning fluff (or was it burnt fuzz?) or crushed by mosquito mange. That'd be cool.
Don't really know how they're going to structure it though. Half the point of the book was the changes to the way the Zone is dealt with over time and the people involved. How it all goes from anarchic mess to more regimented control and how neither of them are much fun. I can't really see them doing that structure justice.
Rogue Keeper on 30/5/2008 at 16:42
Most likely it will be a real-time adventure trip following a standard dramatic mold, supplemented by two or three short pseudo-philosophical dialogues to please the critics. But even that can be done in style. Who's up for Black&White material? Not in the comic/music video style of Sin City, rather a neo-noir thing. But then questions arise : would it fit the theme, isn't neo-noir style profanated enough, would be a combo of BW/color picture a smart hommage to the visual style of Tarkovsky's Stalker or would it look like a cheap plagiarism... all depends on director.
Chuck on 30/5/2008 at 19:30
What's up with the size of Travolta's head? I swear it's twice the size it was back in the Kotter days.
