What's new

"Old Man's War" coming to film! (1 Viewer)

DaveF

Moderator
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2001
Messages
28,687
Location
Catfisch Cinema
Real Name
Dave
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2011/02/23/hey-ever-wondered-if-there-would-ever-be-an-old-mans-war-movie/ The fantastic sci-fi book Old Man's War by the terrific author John Scalzi is coming to film! It's early. Producer and screenwriter are known, but that's it.
 

Edwin-S

Premium
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Aug 20, 2000
Messages
10,000
I've never read the book or even heard of it. It looks like Wolfgang Petersen is attached to the project. If he directs, I wonder which Petersen will show up? The one that directed the stellar Das Boot or the one that directed the shitfest Poseidon
 

DaveF

Moderator
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2001
Messages
28,687
Location
Catfisch Cinema
Real Name
Dave
Scalzi has commented, in his blog, that he's having worked as a film critic in various forms for a number of years, he's understands the risks of film conversions. And he held out for a good producer and likes Petersen's work.


I'm sure Scalzi wouldn't come out say that this is bound to be terrible and Petersen will ruin it...but from reading his blog, I don't think he'd be publicly optimistic if he was concerned about his book being ruined.


I'm cautiously optimistic. I love the book. And even I can think of two obvious, and standard, narrative frameworks to capture the story. They could go military sci-fi, and tell the war story. It can be taken as the travelogue movie -- that's what I like most about it, is the "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" aspect, where I'm given a tour of the galaxy.


I hope they capture the emotion of the main character. What killed "Transformers" for me is they lost the pathos of the incredible beings having lost their home and now fighting for a new one. Old Man's War could be a bog-standard, big-effects sci-fi movie and become like the dreadful Starship Troopers, losing everything good about the movie. If they can keep the essence of Old Man's War, it should be good, no matter how they adapt it.
 

DaveF

Moderator
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2001
Messages
28,687
Location
Catfisch Cinema
Real Name
Dave
Originally Posted by Edwin-S

I've never read the book or even heard of it. It looks like Wolfgang Petersen is attached to the project. If he directs, I wonder which Petersen will show up? The one that directed the stellar Das Boot or the one that directed the shitfest Poseidon

If you like reading sci-fi, I highly recommend it. More importantly, so does Adam, I see :)


It's been compared to "Forever War", if you're familiar with that. They are different stories, different themes, but share some concepts.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Articles

Forum statistics

Threads
356,815
Messages
5,123,805
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top