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adaptations - generally good trend?

direstraits

direstraits

Well-Known Member
hi all...

i'm in the middle of _I Am Legend_ by Matheson, and suddenly wondered how great it would be if this turned into a film. Then it struck me - there are plenty of films being made today that are based of either books (tolkien, harry potter and stuff) or comics (x-men, spidey, LXG and FF and stuff) - material that we're in all probability familiar with.

my question is, do any of you feel like "geez, i've read the darn thing, why waste money seeing it?" do any of you every feel at one time or another that "damn the adaptation sucked!" and wish they hadn't somehow committed treason to your memory of the story?

don't get me wrong, i don't mind adaptations from anything, and as it is i enjoy plenty of book or comics adaptations (the other thread about stephen king novel adaptations really brought up some great movies esp. Shawshank; and who could forget the excellent LOTR?).

i'm just wondering if any of you think that with original movie scripts becoming scarcer (seems to me, anyway), it is ultimately a "good thing" to keep going into established material?

sometimes i just wish they bugger off and stop screwing with timeless gems. then some new zealander shows up and makes a small scale trilogy that just about had everyone going 'my preeeciouuussss!'

i'm just curious - be gentle with me! :eek:

ds

p.s. _I Am Legend_ is good. Very good. Almost didn't dare sleep last night.
 
I think this is something that's always happened (Troilus and Crisseda, the Odyssey) and always going to happen, and is in general worth a shot, because a good story is a good story.

What presses my buttons is the proliferation of crap remakes of brilliant movies, which seems more prevalent than ever because, let's face it, the original movie has a good rap, the script is written and just gets tweaked, and they just flash it up with car chases and sex--Alfie, The Italian Job, Psycho, Get Carter, etc. These movies do not need to be remade!

And what really kills me is that lots of people out in the new audience don't even know these are remakes of something much better. It's like Madonna covering American Pie. Give me a break.
 
The movies "28 Days Later" and "Dawn of the Dead" seem to be based on "I Am Legend". I fancy the first one and the second one is just plain hilarious! :D
Most of the time I like to watch adaptations because it's fun to look out for the differences between the book and the movie. The only problem is, that you know the ending. Unfortunatley a lot of adaptations are real crap.
 
bobbyburns said:
tell me about it. did you see that new dawn of the dead?

sucked ballz.
Click to expand...

I was laughing till I cried when this stupid girl went out to save the bloody dog!
 
heh, yeah I didn't feel anything for those characters. I thought the old one was brilliant.

day of the dead is still my favorite though.
 
I heard george romerro is going to film twilight of the dead, which will end the story, but with as much of an explanation to what caused the dead to return to life and start feasting as he gave in night of living dead. so it'll still be a mystery.
 
"I Am Legend" is giving a lot of explanations for the undead walking around but in a movie explanations don't matter that much. I'm looking forward to it.
 
wasn't it explained that there was no longer any room in hell, so the dead had to rise up and wander the earth?
 
I'm not sure. Wasn't that only some promotion sentence on the poster? I can't remeber anything serious about that in the movie.
 
bobbyburns said:
I heard george romerro is going to film twilight of the dead, which will end the story, but with as much of an explanation to what caused the dead to return to life and start feasting as he gave in night of living dead. so it'll still be a mystery.
Click to expand...


Yeah, well I heard that Cesar Romero is going to be the dead guy in "bobbyburns of the dead" which is being directed by Sofia Coppola's goldfish, Sniffles. What most people DON'T know is that Sniffles Coppola was the real-life inspiration behind the Frank Burns character in M*A*S*H.

Frankly Frank.
 
There are already two movies that are based on 'I Am Legend', 'TheLast Man on Earth' (L' Ultimo uomo della Terra) with Vincent Price and 'The Omega Man' with Charlton Heston. I haven't seen either of them yet so I don't know how faithful they are to the book.

I don't think that I've ever looked forward to seeing any of the books I've read being adapted to a movie. But it's still interesting for me to see the movies that already have been made and compare it to the book.

I don't think that original movie scripts are becoming scarcer. It seems to be the other way around to me. Most oldies that I see seem to be based on books.
 
novella said:
Yeah, well I heard that Cesar Romero is going to be the dead guy in "bobbyburns of the dead" which is being directed by Sofia Coppola's goldfish, Sniffles. What most people DON'T know is that Sniffles Coppola was the real-life inspiration behind the Frank Burns character in M*A*S*H.

Frankly Frank.
Click to expand...


I love/ adore/ worship M*A*S*H! Raider is quite cute and Hawkeye is a genius. :D :D :D
 
Charlton Heston sideshow

Wolhay said:
There are already two movies that are based on 'I Am Legend', 'TheLast Man on Earth' (L' Ultimo uomo della Terra) with Vincent Price and 'The Omega Man' with Charlton Heston.
Click to expand...

Yay!! Time for a Charlton Heston sideshow!!

Who can tell real from Memorex?? Which ones were said by Charlton playing himself, and which ones were said by his character??


“They’re making our food out of PEOPLE!”

“I've played three presidents, three saints and two geniuses - and that's probably enough for any man.”

“Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!”

“I can part the Red Sea, but I can’t part with you.”

“Political correctness is tyranny with manners.”

“A policeman’s job is only easy in a police state.”

Bonus question:

At Sotheby’s recent auction of celebrity undergarments, how much money was paid by a certain ex-oil executive politician for the costume worn by Charlton in Ben-Hur?
 
planetoftheapes.jpg


a planet where apes evolved from men?
 
Wolhay said:
There are already two movies that are based on 'I Am Legend', 'TheLast Man on Earth' (L' Ultimo uomo della Terra) with Vincent Price and 'The Omega Man' with Charlton Heston. I haven't seen either of them yet so I don't know how faithful they are to the book.
Click to expand...

I've seen The Omega Man and it's not much like the book at all. Instead of becoming vampires they all got some zombifying disease that means they look like crap and they don't like the sunlight. There's a bunch of uninfected kids that Charlton sets out to save that aren't in the book at all. Parts are the same, but mostly it's a film that took its inspiration from the book.

Haven't seen the other film, but would like to. I love Vincent Price. :D
 
Speaking of Charlton Heston - my dad looks JUST like him. Except that my dad has a beard, but other than that, just like him. My dad also looks like the guy from the Players brand rollies packet. Raven might know who I'm talking about ;)

ANYWAY, I think adaptations are great when they're done well. I wish they would have played adaptation movies in my highschool, it would have helped a lot more students get interested in history and literature. Would probably have prompted more students to read, as well. I know students were supposed to read, but many just weren't interested. A movie might have helped. I can't see that things would be much different now.
 
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