Hollywood’s messy love affair with science fiction is documented beautifully in this overview of SF movies which either made it to the screen only after great developmental strife (Dune, Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four) or never made it at all (The Tourist, The Stars My Destination, The Six Million Dollar Man). Hughes did his homework for every title listed here, and dug up some fairly astonishing revelations about the life, death, and sometimes rebirth of a broad range of projects: comic book adaptations (Silver Surfer), versions of popular SF novels that remain in limbo (John Carter of Mars), original projects that turned into dead ends or were mangled beyond recognition (Supernova).
In every case there’s examples galore of how the movie industry works as hard as it can at every stage to make things as inefficient and committee-driven as possible; the behind-the-scenes story of the rewrites that just about killed the Outer Limits film is exemplary. Alejandro Jodorowsky's ill-fated attempt to bring Dune to the screen, with H.R. Giger as the art director, remains a favorite of mine; Giger, himself no stranger to having been ripped off repeatedly by moviemakers, sticks in a amused foreword as well. I also read with incredulity the way Stars My Destination, a perennial favorite novel of SF fans (me included) for generations, almost ended up being adapted by a reclusive millionaire beachcomber with a distinctively broken typewriter.
One major omission in my eyes: why no discussion of the many, many attempts to bring to screen Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land? God knows there are stories to be told: in one of them, related via Harlan Ellison, David Gerrold was many of the screenwriters brought on board at various points in an attempt to “lick” the project, and Gerrold swears he was fired for doing it right.But what there is here is so good, so thorough and so heartbreaking in its documentation of disaster that any SF fan reading it might well find themselves pining.
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Great review, as always!
This is one of the best books I've read--picked it up a couple of years ago and loved it.
It is a sad book to read at times, but then again, I suppose one has to realize that for every film made--even the ones that are absolute garbage--there are perhaps ten or twenty more that never get beyond pre-production or even a screenplay stage.
While I would love to see a film based on THE STARS, MY DESTINATION, I do understand the reluctance to tackle it. You can film the book up to the final twenty pages--and then, hell, how do you film THOSE? Kudos to Byron Priess and Howard Chaykin for their graphic novel adaptation, which was quite good and received Bester's blessing, even though, sadly, he did not live to see it completed.
My one beef with the book (actually just a minor quibble) is that in the chapter covering DUNE Hughes never mentions that Frank Herbert did like David Lynch's film version. Ellison recounts this in his own positive remarks about the film (found in the great book HARLAN ELLISON'S WATCHING).
One final, interesting note: there will be a comic series based on Kevin Smith's unfilmed script for THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN. It will be out later this year.
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Ellison had very good things to say about Lynch's "Dune", which kind of surprised me; I thought he would have ripped it in half and done the fandango on the pieces. But I see now what it is about it that he liked: it was an attempt to do something visionary and different -- the closest thing a mainstream director has come to creating something like Jodorowsky's own "Holy Mountain".
I would love to see Chaykin's GN reprinted. I saw a bit of it back when I was in high school, but copies of it are horribly scarce now. (Maybe it'll be digitally reissued; one can hope.) The look of it has shaped my subsequent re-readings of the book, and anyone who does get a movie version off the ground would be wise to look it up for inspiration!
I'm curious despite myself to see the GN adaptation of Smith's "6MDM", as the summary in the book was pretty intriguing.
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Very true--hearing Ellison praise DUNE (back in the 1990s on SCI FI BUZZ) was a shock to me. I liked the film myself, but never expected him to like it. He's certainly gutted several sacred cows of films, but has stood by others that many critics consigned to the hell of bad reviews (as far as I know, he's one of the only critics to defend Friedkin's (sic) SORCERER, and his reasons for why the critics hated that film are worth reading).
His response to Ebert's pick of DUNE as the "worst film of the year" is pure Ellison gold--he mentions the titles of some truly horrific films from that year, and closes with:
"In such a year of gasp, wheeze, pant, choke, gimme a sec to let my gorge settle, in such a year DUNE is the worst film!??!"
Now that's one phrase I'd love to post on some movie sites--just swap out DUNE for another title.
I was very, VERY lucky to find a copy of Chaykin's TSMD GN. A used bookstore near me had the "complete edition"--both parts together--and I snapped it up. This had to be close to (or over) ten years ago. And I also agree--the GN has shaped my own perceptions of the original novel (which I read afterwards) and it did show that TSMD can be adapted (or transferred) to another medium. A re-release would certainly be welcome, either traditional or digital or both.
Strangely enough, I read TSMD before reading AMERICAN FLAGG! but I can honestly say that the former made me a fan of Chaykin's works.
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