Riverworld on Sci-Fi this Saturday (1 Viewer)

[Phil Florian]

Howdy,
This movie totally came out of no where for me! I am surprised it hasn't had more talk on here prior to airing. This is one my favorite books (in a decent series...it loses steam for me in the 3rd and 4th book). They are adapted the two best of the series...To Your Scattered Bodies Go and The Fabulous Riverboat. Like another great property (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) they are ditching some characters in favor of something more akin to Brad Johnson's acting ability...a no-name US Astronaut. Okay, who needs Sir Richard Burton? Who needs Sam Clemens? Gah! One of the main selling points of the books was the mix of historical figures interacting but that seems to be lost on the producers of this show. I am going to watch it but my hopes are fairly low. I am glad that Sci-Fi is adapting cool works of Science Fiction but I wish they would take a bit more time to adapt it with accuracy in mind. True, they would have to throw some things out or make changes that would make for good television but replacing a cool historical figure for the generic action hero does little to endear it to the audience it is being written for, I would assume. I mean, other than fans of the book or fans of alternate history, who is going to watch it?

Gah! ( he says, as he sets PVR to record the damn thing...)


Phil

 

[Vickie_M]

THANK YOU!!!! I knew this was coming, but didn't know when, and had pretty much forgotten about it.

I hope it's good I hope it's good I hope it's good I hope...

 

[Ivan Lindenfeld]

CHalk me up as another fan of the books, particularly the first two. I watch 6FU but SciFi replays stuff often, so I'll catch it at some point.

WIthout the historical figures it has the potential to sucketh. We shall see.

 

[Quentin]

That's really lame sounding. How could they drop Burton? Or Clemens?? There's gotta be a million actors who can do Clemens, and with LXG coming I would think the Allan Quartermain-like Burton would be a big and fascinating hit.

Oh well...I'll just re-read the books!

 

[Steve Enemark]

No historical figures? Er...what's the point, then?

 

[Phil Florian]

Looking at the IMDB, apparently there is a character named Sam, so maybe Sam Clemens IS involved. There is also an Alice Liddel the main character in Alice in Wonderland. I guess that is okay so far, but replacing Burton still stings. The pedigree of the production team isn't sounding hopeful, either, but I will give it a chance anyway. I guess the previews look like they are making the movie out to be an action film and not so much of a quest type of film. Also, it is being done in two hours vs. a mini-series approach. I wish they could have done at least two nights or even three. The books are chock full of stuff that would have been fun to see. I am not seeing how TWO novels can be condensed into one two hour television show. Maybe this is a potential pilot for a TV show? The setting would make for nice weekly television, I would think. Each week, the intrepid heroes would encounter new challenges both with the creators of Riverworld and its various inhabitants. Hitler this week. Next week, Khan. A week after that, slavery. After that, more uberplot, etc. etc. That would be cool. Would be relatively inexpensive to film. Each of the sites on the river are exactly the same in terms of natural setting. Beach surrounded by cliffs with the large mushroom rocks and the giant trees. What people do with their spaces would change, but the basic set up wouldn't. The only difference would be a revolving cast list. Hmmm... (calls agent)


Phil

 

[Wayne W]

I really enjoyed "To Your Scattered Bodies Go", but I just can't see this book working in a two hour TV movie (Let alone two books from the series). And I really can't see it being worth the time with the change in characters. Not to mention the fact that I'm NEVER watching the DREN that is Sci-Fi channel ever again. I really wanted to see Taken, but I opted to wait for the DVD set.

Farscape rules!

Frell the SciFi Channel!

 

[Phil Florian]

This line of opposition makes no sense to me. "I won't watch the Sci Fi programming because my favorite show was cancelled even though I pay for the channel monthly. Instead, I will show them by paying to purchase/rent the DVD of their miniseries later." Odd. "Frell" SciFi, indeed.


Phil

 

[Steve Berger]

For me Phil Farmer is a local author (all of my copies of his books have his autograph); so the local newspaper did a couple of articles last Sunday. Too long to quote and they don't have them posted ( pjstar.com ) but Farmer's initial comment was "horrible" . The movie doesn't seem to have a lot of similarities to the books according to the author of one of the articles (Steve Tarter). It looks like they picked characters that didn't appear in the books so that they could write their own "stories" to better suit their idea of TV SciFi. I gues I'll know more tomorrow.

 

[Wayne W]

For me it's I don't watch the Sci-Fi channel because everything on it besides Farscape is shit. When they do put something on that sounds good they fuck it up somehow.

 

[Vlad D]

Just finished watching. Wasn't at all like the books. They kept some key elements, but it was pretty much a totally different story. It's been many years since I read the books, 1985 to be exact. I remember because I got a D on a physics exam because I couldn't stop reading long enough to get any studying done. Anyway, my memory is a bit hazy but I don't recall the Nero character.

What was the deal with Mali's outfit? Everybody else is wearing the same blue shirt and black pants they found in the canisters, yet she has on a tiny "hoochie" dress.

Overall, I thought it was ok, but I expected much more. Looks like it's going to be a series. Lets see where they go with it.

 

[RobertR]

I thought it was pretty bad. Sam Clemens WAS in it, but the omission of Richard Burton was glaring. They also left out the concept that you could die in Riverworld and immediately come back. And I had a hard time accepting Nero as an uber-gladiator. A botched job.

 

[Vlad D]

They also left out the concept that you could die in Riverworld and immediately come back.

Yeah, that was a very important concept in the book. But it looks like they kind of alluded to that at the very end when they showed Nero in the bubble again in the water.

 

[Roberto Carlo]

And I had a hard time accepting Nero as an uber-gladiator.

Agreed. While I enjoyed it, there were these occasional glaring errors that I found distracting.

One, there are no Commanders in the USAF. An O-5 is a Lt. Colonel. Actually, a 53-year-old astronauts is probably at least a full colonel, if not a general.
This mistake is pure sloppiness.

When Hale told Nero that he "brought down the Empire," or words to the effect, well, the Empire reached its apogee 40 years after Nero's death. What was that about?

OTOH, I thought that Alice was adorable and I liked the Sam character.

One last thing: am I supposed to understand that the Richard Burton referred to in these threads is the actor and former husband of Elizabeth Taylor?

 

[RobertR]

am I supposed to understand that the Richard Burton referred to in these threads is the actor and former husband of Elizabeth Taylor?

No. Sir Richard Burton was a 19th century British explorer:

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/exp...b/burton.shtml

 

[Phil Florian]

Sir Richard Francis Burton is an english explorer and writer from the 19th century. I think he found the source of the Nile (and thus a cool character for Riverworld, no?). He did a ton more, but I am not up on his history. Now, since Riverworld has ALL of humanity on its banks, we can assume the husband of Elizabeth Taylor is also there, but he is not the focus of the story.


Phil

 

[Phil Florian]

Whoops! Simultaneous posting!

His is a better response. Has a link!

Phil

 

[William-R]

was this the film actor kevin smith died in ??

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

was this the film actor kevin smith died in ??

No, that was Warriors of Virtue 2 or whatever the hell they're calling it.

 

[Vlad D]

How did he die?