The best script in science fiction
songohan
study.
Thanks.
Skip Press
"songohan" <fan...@tuttilamer.it> wrote:
>Which is the best science fistion script of all time? I'd like to have it to
>study.
Just pure sci-fi, Forbidden Planet gets my vote, even if it was based on
The Tempest.
Lately, I'd go with Blade Runner.
--
Never underestimate the power of bad ideas. They must be refuted again and again.
-- Lew Rockwell, Jr.
All the best,
Skip Press, the Duke of URL
Hollywood and Somewhat Important News at
http://home.earthlink.net/~skippress/
Janek Czekaj
fistion then that is 'Naked Android Babes of Betelgeuse'!
"Skip Press" <skippress...@mac.com> wrote in message
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Joseph R Abbott
one to study if you are looking for a mainstream action-type sci-fi,
and its easy to find online. But there arent a lot of unique or new
sci-fi "ideas" in Aliens. It's pretty familair material, strung
together in an exciting way. 12 Monkeys might be a good one to study
because it introduces unique concepts. Other classics you should study
might be Back to the Future, Star Wars, E.T, Terminator, etc.
Joseph Abbott
http://www.pachanko.com/
Screenplays, Short SF, Comics
"songohan" <fan...@tuttilamer.it> wrote in message news:<AWBC8.35880$5k4.7...@twister2.libero.it>...
Janek Czekaj
watch after my tea and crumpets - and I don't think it is something
film-makers should aim for in their audience :-)
"Joseph R Abbott" <jab...@iprimus.ca> wrote in message
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Robert Kronitis
Accept no substitute.
R.
"songohan" <fan...@tuttilamer.it> wrote in message
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Richard Milton
> Which is the best science fistion script of all time? I'd like to have it
to study.
You haven't said "best" in what way. The best
from the point of view of story structure in IMO
is "Back to the future".
Best monster = Alien
Best Dystopia = Blade Runner/Metropolis
Most scary = It (the remake)
Most imaginative = Star Wars
Most exciting - Star Wars
Richard
Tom Wood
> > Which is the best science fistion script of all time? I'd like to have
it to
> > study.
The Matrix is a good read, available online too.
Bladerunner
TW
new...@virtual.com
<richard...@virgin.net> wrote:
>songohan wrote
>
>> Which is the best science fistion script of all time? I'd like to have it
>to study.
>
>You haven't said "best" in what way. The best
>from the point of view of story structure in IMO
>is "Back to the future".
Without a doubt. My vote too.
Doug
Just a virtual guy... in a virtual world.
Joseph R Abbott
> 12 Monkeys always makes me feel physically sick - not something I want to
> watch after my tea and crumpets - and I don't think it is something
> film-makers should aim for in their audience :-)
I dont think reading the script would make you sick. If you start to
feel woozy just close your eyes and count to 10.
It's a good script to read because of how it deals with the exposition
(sometimes tricky in sci-fi), and the way it uses structure to fit the
time travel story.
Another movie i just thought of you need to study: Apollo 13. They
don't even get to the moon, but somehow it doesn't matter.
Maj. Bushteaser
--
Steve Richer
http://www3.sympatico.ca/sricher/home.htm
PhD in Depravity
"songohan" <fan...@tuttilamer.it> wrote in message
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new...@virtual.com
<sri...@NOsympaticoSPAM.ca> wrote:
>I love Contact myself.
>
>--
>Steve Richer
Steve -
I watched "Contact" again the other night. I was surprised that I
liked it even more than the first time I'd seen it.
Pretty cool movie.
nmstevens
> study.
> Thanks.
I think that my vote would have to split between the feature -- five
million years to earth, but really to the original television serial
from which it was adapted, "Quatermass and the Pit" -- although the
ending of the TV serial is, perhaps a bit lackluster, visually, by
comparison (for obvious reasons). Either one, from a writing
standpoint is a truly brilliant and original work of science fiction.
NMS
Joseph R Abbott
a Japanese cartoon series that came to America in 1963.
new...@virtual.com wrote in message news:<3cdc6d47...@allnews.nbnet.nb.ca>...
Richard Milton
> I think that my vote would have to split between the feature -- five
> million years to earth, but really to the original television serial
> from which it was adapted, "Quatermass and the Pit" -- although the
> ending of the TV serial is, perhaps a bit lackluster, visually, by
> comparison (for obvious reasons). Either one, from a writing
> standpoint is a truly brilliant and original work of science fiction.
"5 million years to earth" was the US title under which Hammer Films's
"Quatermass and the pit" was released in the US. Nigel Neale's earlier
"The Quatermass Experiment" (filmed with Brian Donleavy) was the
original TV serial. I still remember watching it on TV as a child and
hiding behind the sofa.
There was one specially chilling moment in "Quatermass II" which is a
pure intellectual realisation. The earth has been bombarded by hollow
meteorites about a foot long and Quatermass sets his lab team to
examine one. His assistant reconstructs the appearance of a
meteorite before entering the earth's atmosphere -- it is clearly
artificial.
Richard
Maj. Bushteaser
found I still loved the movie more than the source novel (except when they
go in space; the purpose is clear in the book).
--
Steve Richer
http://www3.sympatico.ca/sricher/home.htm
PhD in Depravity
<new...@virtual.com> wrote in message
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D C
----------
Logan's Run was good, the script better than the film.
How's the Panavision woman? Also could you send me pictures of
naked Italian women?
nmstevens
Ah, my dear sir, you are confusing two of three different projects,
all that originated as TV serials and ultimately became movies.
The first, "The Quatermass Experiment" which was made, by Hammer Films
into the Quatermass X-periment (to capitalize on the British X
certificate at the time) starring Brian Donlevy and was release in
America as "The Creeping Unknown".
The Second, "Quatermass II" was remade as a feature by Hammer in 1957,
also with Brian Donlevy, and was released in the U.S. as "Enemy From
Space" (also, by the way, a wonderful science fiction film, in the
vein of "Invasion of the Bodysnatchers" and one that gave me
nightmares for years).
But the third serial, and I think, the best of the three, was
"Quatermass and the Pit" -- and, interestingly enough, while the
serial upon which it was based was produced in 1958, the Hammer Film
(of the same title in the UK, renamed "5 million years to Earth in the
U.S.") starring Andrew Keir, wasn't produced until 1967.
There was a fourth Quatermass serial, "The Quatermass Conclusion" --
I've only seen a compilation movie, not the whole thing, but by the
time it came out, frankly, I think its time had passed.
Anyone seen "The Stone Tapes" -- I've heard wonderful things about it.
NMS
new...@virtual.com
<sri...@NOsympaticoSPAM.ca> wrote:
>Me too, I love it more every time I see it. I read the book afterwards and
>found I still loved the movie more than the source novel (except when they
>go in space; the purpose is clear in the book).
>
>--
>Steve Richer
I'll have to give it a read sometime, Steve.
nmstevens
Okay, so I just read this message a second time and I realize that I
mistakenly assumed that you thought that Quatermass and the Pit and
Quatermass II were the same serial. So shoot me. Kick me in the pants.
Big frigging deal. Just walk all over me. So I'm not perfect. Fine.
And while we're at it -- I'll tell you the moment that sent me running
from "Quatermass II" -- Quatermass and some of the good guys have been
barricaded in one of the domes in the processing plants and they've
started to flood the dome containing the alien life forms with oxygen
(deadly to it) and the bad guys have managed to convince some of the
workers, who don't really know what's going on, to come out. And
Quatermass is sure that they're about to be taken over -- and all of a
sudden they hear these hideous screams echoing down the pipes coming
from the alien dome.
Then the pressure on the pipe goes up and the pipe bursts -- the pipe
that's been feeding oxygen into the enemy dome. And something starts
dripping out of the pipe. It's blood. The aliens have used the bodies
of the workers to jam the pipe -- blocked it with "human pulp."
That impressed me when I was a kid.
NMS
spam]@world.std.com Blair P. Houghton
>Carl Sagan's novel "Contact" is actually based on Astroboy episode #2,
>a Japanese cartoon series that came to America in 1963.
I heard it was "The Hidden Fortress."
--Blair
"God I hate myself sometimes."
Richard Milton
> And while we're at it -- I'll tell you the moment that sent me running
> from "Quatermass II" -- Quatermass and some of the good guys have been
> barricaded in one of the domes in the processing plants and they've
> started to flood the dome containing the alien life forms with oxygen
> (deadly to it) and the bad guys have managed to convince some of the
> workers, who don't really know what's going on, to come out. And
> Quatermass is sure that they're about to be taken over -- and all of a
> sudden they hear these hideous screams echoing down the pipes coming
> from the alien dome.
>
> Then the pressure on the pipe goes up and the pipe bursts -- the pipe
> that's been feeding oxygen into the enemy dome. And something starts
> dripping out of the pipe. It's blood. The aliens have used the bodies
> of the workers to jam the pipe -- blocked it with "human pulp."
>
> That impressed me when I was a kid.
Yes, that same moment of horror stayed with me, too. It was the moment
we realise the aliens have no concern at all for human life so everyone
on the planet is expendable.
Re your other post - I recall seeing The Stone Tapes as a TV programme.
But I don't know if it's been filmed for cinema (It's not listed in
Halliwell's
Guide). The idea was that the ghosts haunting the haunted house are
in fact acoustic recordings impressed on the fabric of the building when
it was new and somehow susceptible and replayed by a unique set of
acoustic triggers in the present day.
This reminds me of a suggestion that was made by an archaeologist
about 40 years ago which I've always found intruiging. Clay pots have
been turned on potter's wheels for millennia. The potter runs his finger
or a tool down the pot while it is rotating and the ridges formed are then
fixed by firing. It's probable that sounds in the potter's vicinity are
transmitted through the finger/tool and recorded in the clay although
obviously with a very low signal to noise ratio. If a sufficiently
discriminating amplifier and filter system could be devised,
some of these ambient sounds could probably be recovered (dogs
barking, children shouting, perhaps even adults talking) from dates
back as far as the stone age from prehistoric pots. Kind of Jurassic
Park for sounds.
Richard
Skip Press
"Richard Milton" <richard...@virgin.net> wrote:
>This reminds me of a suggestion that was made by an archaeologist
>about 40 years ago which I've always found intruiging. Clay pots have
>been turned on potter's wheels for millennia. The potter runs his finger
>or a tool down the pot while it is rotating and the ridges formed are then
>fixed by firing. It's probable that sounds in the potter's vicinity are
>transmitted through the finger/tool and recorded in the clay although
>obviously with a very low signal to noise ratio. If a sufficiently
>discriminating amplifier and filter system could be devised,
>some of these ambient sounds could probably be recovered (dogs
>barking, children shouting, perhaps even adults talking) from dates
>back as far as the stone age from prehistoric pots. Kind of Jurassic
>Park for sounds.
Do you really want to hear some old Greek bastard say "Fuck off,
Democritus, she's mine!" ?
--
I always start writing with a clean piece of paper
and a dirty mind.
-- Patrick Dennis
Joseph R Abbott
> Joseph R Abbott <jab...@iprimus.ca> wrote:
> >Carl Sagan's novel "Contact" is actually based on Astroboy episode #2,
> >a Japanese cartoon series that came to America in 1963.
>
> I heard it was "The Hidden Fortress."
Contact has a lot more in common with Astroboy #2, than Star Wars has
with the Hidden Fortress. Theres no spaceships in the hidden fortress,
for example, its not even sci-fi.
Astroboy #2 is the story of a scientists first contact with an alien
being. They communicate by radiowaves and decided to exchange
technologies. The alien sends the scientist plans for a machine and
tells the scientist to build it, but he doesnt say what it will do.
The scientist will have to build it and see.
Clearly Contact is a direct copy of this story line. There is a
difference between being inspired by an idea, and directly ripping it
off. Carl Sagan directly ripped off astroboy.
Of course, George Lucas did directly ripped off people, namely Jack
Kirby, Doc Smith, amd whoever wrote those flash gordon serials.
Jacques E. Bouchard
news:323991a7.02051...@posting.google.com:
> blair[no spam]@world.std.com (Blair P. Houghton) wrote in message
> news:<GvyyA...@world.std.com>...
>> Joseph R Abbott <jab...@iprimus.ca> wrote:
>> >Carl Sagan's novel "Contact" is actually based on Astroboy episode
>> >#2, a Japanese cartoon series that came to America in 1963.
>>
>> I heard it was "The Hidden Fortress."
>
> Contact has a lot more in common with Astroboy #2, than Star Wars has
> with the Hidden Fortress. Theres no spaceships in the hidden fortress,
> for example, its not even sci-fi.
>
> Astroboy #2 is the story of a scientists first contact with an alien
> being. They communicate by radiowaves and decided to exchange
> technologies. The alien sends the scientist plans for a machine and
> tells the scientist to build it, but he doesnt say what it will do.
> The scientist will have to build it and see.
"This Island Earth".
jaybee
Alex Fink
> >Carl Sagan's novel "Contact" is actually based on Astroboy episode #2,
> >a Japanese cartoon series that came to America in 1963.
>
> I heard it was "The Hidden Fortress."
A little of both. Astroboy was voiced by Toshiro Mifune.
The American version was Charles Bronson.
Alex, I swear. No, really.
...
Hercule Platini
>
> This reminds me of a suggestion that was made by an archaeologist
> about 40 years ago which I've always found intruiging. Clay pots have
> been turned on potter's wheels for millennia. The potter runs his finger
> or a tool down the pot while it is rotating and the ridges formed are then
> fixed by firing. It's probable that sounds in the potter's vicinity are
> transmitted through the finger/tool and recorded in the clay although
> obviously with a very low signal to noise ratio. If a sufficiently
> discriminating amplifier and filter system could be devised,
> some of these ambient sounds could probably be recovered (dogs
> barking, children shouting, perhaps even adults talking) from dates
> back as far as the stone age from prehistoric pots. Kind of Jurassic
> Park for sounds.
There was an X-Files episode which utilised this; the one where Mulder and
Scully were being played in a movie by Tea Leoni and Garry Shandling (or the
other way around). In that show, the pot was one that was made in the
presence of Jesus, and it was rumoured to actually contain a recording of
His voice.
--
Richard Street - stre...@btinternetAARDVARK.com
nmstevens
Man, I always wanted to build me one of them interociters. I still
have hopes that one day one of those Metaluna catalogues (printed on
flexible metal, not paper) will show up at my doorstep.
NMS
Scott P
wrote:
>Which is the best science fistion script of all time? I'd like to have it to
>study.
>Thanks.
>
There have been many excellent examples already given but here's one I
haven't seen posted yet: Gattaca.
Good use of sci-fi concepts.
Scott
Joseph R Abbott
> There have been many excellent examples already given but here's one I
> haven't seen posted yet: Gattaca.
>
> Good use of sci-fi concepts.
I didnt mention Gattaca because I feel the pace is too slow, the
ending too predictable, and it hardly even scratched the surface of
the issues it was dealing with. It's far too plodding and watered down
to be considered one of the best.
MwsReader
> Most scary = It (the remake)
Did you mean the remake of "The Thing"?
If you were talking about "It! The Terror From Beyond Space," the
remake of that one was called "Aliens"...
(You didn't mean the King thing, did you? Or perhaps you were
talking about Clara Bow's most famous film...)
Ken
Richard Milton
> Richard Milton wrote:
>
> > Most scary = It (the remake)
>
> Did you mean the remake of "The Thing"?
> If you were talking about "It! The Terror From Beyond Space," the
> remake of that one was called "Aliens"...
I must have nodded off for a moment -- yes, I meant
The Thing. I thought the special effects were horrifying
(although come to think of it there would some pretty
good moments in the original too -- the men spreading
out around the dark shape under the ice.)
> (You didn't mean the King thing, did you? Or perhaps you were
> talking about Clara Bow's most famous film...)
That was pretty scary, certainly.
Richard
nmstevens
> MwsReader wrote
>
> > Richard Milton wrote:
> >
> > > Most scary = It (the remake)
> >
> > Did you mean the remake of "The Thing"?
> > If you were talking about "It! The Terror From Beyond Space," the
> > remake of that one was called "Aliens"...
>
> I must have nodded off for a moment -- yes, I meant
> The Thing. I thought the special effects were horrifying
> (although come to think of it there would some pretty
> good moments in the original too -- the men spreading
> out around the dark shape under the ice.)
Looking for a script with great "action movie" dialogue, the original
"Thing" probably qualifies in that respect too -- wonderful fast-paced
overlapping dialogue, great minor characters, little running gags ("I
think you're right, sir.") Some great scare moments -- the moment when
they open the barricaded door and see the Thing standing right there
--
Uncredited direction by Howard Hawks. Uncredited screenplay by Ben
Hecht.
Pretty good credits for a science fiction film and it shows.
Hardboiled SF.
NMS