Movies inspired by written works
Robbie
While watching tv, I saw the description for the movie "Meet Dave"
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0765476/), and for some reason it reminded
me of the Piers Anthony short story "The Bridge".
(http://www.piers-anthony.com/bridge.html)
I only watched a few minutes of "Meet Dave" before I decided I didn't
like it, so I don't know much about it. However, I can't get the crazy
thought out of my head that the two are related. Did anyone else make
that connection?
Or are they just common plots that are otherwise unrelated? Is the basic
plot of "mini people try to save their world by coming to earth for
common materials which are instantly transported away" more common than
I think it is?
Out of curiosity, does anybody know any movies that are based on, or
inspired by written works, where it is not obvious or common knowledge
that the movie draws from said work? Does knowing this (and having read
the book/story) change the movie for you in any way? Good? Bad?
I'll lead things off with the movie "Demolition Man" being somewhat
inspired by "Catharsis Central" by Antony Alban. I'm pretty sure I
posted about Demolition/Catharsis a while back, but google groups search
is broken as usual, so I can't check. I don't think having read
Catharsis Central changed Demolition Man much, if any.
Mike Muth
> I might sound crazy with this, but what the hell.
> While watching tv, I saw the description for the movie "Meet Dave"
> (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0765476/), and for some reason it reminded
> me of the Piers Anthony short story "The Bridge".
> (http://www.piers-anthony.com/bridge.html)
>
> I only watched a few minutes of "Meet Dave" before I decided I didn't
> like it, so I don't know much about it. However, I can't get the crazy
> thought out of my head that the two are related. Did anyone else make
> that connection?
>
> Or are they just common plots that are otherwise unrelated? Is the basic
> plot of "mini people try to save their world by coming to earth for
> common materials which are instantly transported away" more common than
> I think it is?
>
> Out of curiosity, does anybody know any movies that are based on, or
> inspired by written works, where it is not obvious or common knowledge
> that the movie draws from said work? Does knowing this (and having read
> the book/story) change the movie for you in any way? Good? Bad?
I'd say that few people know that "Blade Runner" was loosely based on
"do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" Or, how about "Soylent Green"
being based on "Make Room, Make Room"?
Outside the realm of SF, "the Outlaw Josey Wales" was based on the book
"Gone to Texas".
I think it's probably fairly common for movies to be based upon books
without the general public's awareness.
How about the other way round? I'll give an example: Many people
think that "Starship Troopers" is based on RAH's novel of the same
name.
--
Mike
_I Eat Vegetarians: Cows are vegetarians, aren't they?_ ISBN:
978-0-615-22203-5 (kindle), 978-0-9841042-1-5 (.pdf) 978-0-9841042-0-8
(mobi)
Nicholas Waller
[...]
> Out of curiosity, does anybody know any movies that are based on, or
> inspired by written works, where it is not obvious or common knowledge
> that the movie draws from said work? Does knowing this (and having read
> the book/story) change the movie for you in any way? Good? Bad?
Not a written work as such - the Terry Gilliam movie 12 Monkeys was
based on the French short film (made mostly of photo stills) La Jetée.
I don't think Gilliam had seen it when he made his film, but he didn't
have to have done as he didn't write the Monkeys script. It should
have been common knowledge as, according to Wikipedia, Universal
Pictures openly acquired the rights to remake La Jetée as a full-
length film and the credits reflected this in some way, but presumably
not as many people had heard of (or seen) La Jetée as have heard of
the source material of more obvious adaptations like Batman or things
developed from Philip K Dick or HG Wells books.
I get the impression Dr Strangelove is generally thought of as a film
original, but Peter George's Red Alert is a/the source - Kubrick had
been looking for something in the area of nuclear danger, and the book
was brought to him and bought for him. Apparently there's no Dr
Strangelove character in the book, and also the book is not a black
comedy, two essential elements of anyone's memory of the movie, but
presumably there were enough similarities in plot and launch points
for ideas that if Kubrick hadn't credited the book it would have
looked dodgy.
--
Nick
Shawn Wilson
> Out of curiosity, does anybody know any movies that are based on, or
> inspired by written works, where it is not obvious or common knowledge
> that the movie draws from said work? Does knowing this (and having read
> the book/story) change the movie for you in any way? Good? Bad?
I may be alone in this, but Firefly/Serenity bears a *striking*
resemblance to the RPG 'Traveller'.
Kevin Reilly
> I may be alone in this, but Firefly/Serenity bears a *striking*
> resemblance to the RPG 'Traveller'.
You're not entirely alone. While I didn't make the immediate leap to
Traveller I did find much of Firefly reminding me of the Elite/Frontier
videogame universe, which was itself heavily influenced by Traveller.
--
Kev
__________________________________________________________________________
"Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say 'Hell' to someone who doesn't
care much about you." From a church bulletin
Will in New Haven
You aren't alone in that opinion. Gamers I know who played Traveller
extensively have always said that. I didn't play it that much but I
felt there was some resemblance.
--
Will in New Haven
Arthur
> On 1 July, 08:37, Robbie <nob...@example.invalid> wrote:
> [...]
>
> > Out of curiosity, does anybody know any movies that are based on, or
> > inspired by written works, where it is not obvious or common knowledge
> > that the movie draws from said work? Does knowing this (and having read
> > the book/story) change the movie for you in any way? Good? Bad?
> I get the impression Dr Strangelove is generally thought of as a film
> original, but Peter George's Red Alert is a/the source - Kubrick had
> been looking for something in the area of nuclear danger, and the book
> was brought to him and bought for him. Apparently there's no Dr
> Strangelove character in the book, and also the book is not a black
> comedy, two essential elements of anyone's memory of the movie, but
> presumably there were enough similarities in plot and launch points
> for ideas that if Kubrick hadn't credited the book it would have
> looked dodgy.
I think they were planning to do it straight originally, but decided
to make it a comedy (note that Fail Safe came out the same year as
Strangelove, The plots of the two movies have a lot in common). I
have Strangelove on DVD, in the extras they talk about all this but I
forget the details.
Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
news:20b22ad8-8eb4-4565...@b9g2000yqm.googlegroups.c
om:
Starting with a nebulous and variable definition of science.
--
Terry Austin
"Terry Austin: like the polio vaccine, only with more asshole."
-- David Bilek
Jesus forgives sinners, not criminals.
Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
news:cf076730-3f47-4acf...@a36g2000yqc.googlegroups.
com:
I've played Traveller a lot, and if you look dispassionately at the
game universe vs the show universe, there isn't much resemblance at
all.
But the characters on the show were *defininitely* player
characters in every respect. That show reminded me of every
roleplaying game I've ever been in, of any genre.
Shawn Wilson
<tausti...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> I may be alone in this, but Firefly/Serenity bears a *striking*
> >> resemblance to the RPG 'Traveller'.
>
> > You aren't alone in that opinion. Gamers I know who played
> > Traveller extensively have always said that. I didn't play it
> > that much but I felt there was some resemblance.
>
> I've played Traveller a lot, and if you look dispassionately at the
> game universe vs the show universe, there isn't much resemblance at
> all.
Except if you look at the main differences, they all seem to be
ridiculous nonsense serving no purpose but to 'make it different'.
The band of PCs on a tramp freighter is Traveller to the core. Battle
of Serenity Valley = Invasion of Earth. Browncoats = Solomani.
Colony worlds where the action takes place = Spinward Marches.
Imerials (whatever they called tham) = Imperials.
I mean, someone played Traveller and thought, "Hey, I could make a TV
sries out of this..."
Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
om:
> On Jul 1, 2:02�pm, Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
> <tausti...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> >> I may be alone in this, but Firefly/Serenity bears a
>> >> *striking* resemblance to the RPG 'Traveller'.
>>
>> > You aren't alone in that opinion. Gamers I know who played
>> > Traveller extensively have always said that. I didn't play it
>> > that much but I felt there was some resemblance.
>>
>> I've played Traveller a lot, and if you look dispassionately at
>> the game universe vs the show universe, there isn't much
>> resemblance at all.
>
>
>
>
> Except if you look at the main differences, they all seem to be
> ridiculous nonsense serving no purpose but to 'make it
> different'. The band of PCs on a tramp freighter is Traveller to
> the core.
A common setup throughout all kinds of fiction, actually, that
predates Traveller by centuries.
> Battle of Serenity Valley = Invasion of Earth.
> Browncoats = Solomani. Colony worlds where the action takes
> place = Spinward Marches. Imerials (whatever they called tham) =
> Imperials.
Protagonists who were on the losing side of a war are also a
univeral theme throughout all history.
>
> I mean, someone played Traveller and thought, "Hey, I could make
> a TV sries out of this..."
>
That's nice. If Firefly ripped off Traveller, than Traveller ripped
of thousands of other sources. Whoopie.
--
Terry Austin
Terry Austin: like the polio vaccine, only with more asshole. -
Steven L.
> Out of curiosity, does anybody know any movies that are based on, or
> inspired by written works, where it is not obvious or common knowledge
> that the movie draws from said work? Does knowing this (and having read
> the book/story) change the movie for you in any way? Good? Bad?
"Forbidden Planet" was loosely based on Shakespeare's "The Tempest." I
don't know if that was common knowledge in 1956 America--though when the
movie was released in Britain, the headlines there screamed "Shakespeare
In Space!"
--
Steven L.
Email: sdli...@earthlinkNOSPAM.net
Remove the NOSPAM before replying to me.
erilar
"Steven L." <sdli...@earthlink.net> wrote:
> "Forbidden Planet" was loosely based on Shakespeare's "The Tempest." I
> don't know if that was common knowledge in 1956 America--though when the
> movie was released in Britain, the headlines there screamed "Shakespeare
> In Space!"
Yes, I'd expect them to notice 8-)
And even more remotely, there are more modern TV shows and movies that
have borrowed from "Forgotten Planet" and thus from "The Tempest".
--
Mary Loomer Oliver (aka Erilar)
You can't reason with someone whose first line of argument is
that reason doesn't count. --Isaac Asimov
Erilar's Cave Annex: http://www.chibardun.net/~erilarlo�