And if I go around with you, you know that I get messed up, too

[venta]

No.... no... nooooooo.

This probably isn't going to be good, is it?

http://www.bureau42.com/view/11398/snow-crash-es-onto-film

(To clarify: I don't really know who Joe Cornish is. People keep saying he did Attack the Block, but that doesn't mean anything to me. Oh, and, er, apparently he's the Joe of Adam and Joe. That surprised me.

I just can't currently conceive of a film version of Snow Crash which doesn't suck.)

Comments

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Attack the Block was a surprisingly good film. Emphasis on the surprising. It has a terrible premise and yet the result is a rather charming little action movie.

Snow Crash does seem as though it's going to need a lot of cuts to fit, but I still have some hope it could end up watchable. My main concern is that it probably wanted to be released before The Matrix, because it's going to struggle not to look a bit derivative in places.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Whereas I can see the Matrix-a-like risks (see above) I'm not sure it needs to look like a cheap rip-off. The Metaverse is very different to the Matrix - people know they're in it, they willingly engage with it, they don't typically totally lose the thread of what's happening to their real-body when they're in it. The Metaverse was created by its own users (or some of them) rather than some despotic alien culture, is distinguishable from reality, and can't kill you. Sure there are also similarities, but I think there's enough fundamental difference in the premise that a film could be made that seemed different.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Agreed on all points. Mainly I was thinking of the Kendo stuff, which is inevitably going to be a big deal because it's a film and big, visually striking fights are very film-friendly.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Although you could do a nice, visually-striking job of cutting back and forth between him sword-fighting and jumping about on a shipping container wielding a crowbar :)

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

That would rock! OK, tell you what, you can direct it instead. :-)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Also... from a personal point of view, I'm not sure "watchable" is good enough.

V for Vendetta was (apparently) a pretty good and watchable film. Didn't mean I was happy with it ;)

In fact, I'm just coming to the conclusion I should never watch films based on books I like. They make me bitey.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Hehe! Yup, there's no way it'll be as good as the book.

This never bothers me. After all, there are no films as good as my favourite books, so that would be setting the bar unreasonably high!

[venta.livejournal.com]

It does bother me, though I concede quite irrationally. Especially when the resulting film is so unlike the book that I wonder why they bothered (The Eagle (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1034389/), I'm looking at you).

Go ahead and make films - watchable or otherwise - but think of your own damn plots! Stop taking my books, ripping their entrails out, and hanging a dessicated mask-wearing husk on a cinema screen!

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

Unless you're Blade Runner?

[venta.livejournal.com]

I dunno. I enjoyed Blade Runner, but then it was so incredibly unlike the book I barely registered that it was based thereon :) Also, I am not that attached to the book.

However, even there I did get mildly annoyed by things that had been cut out - it was quite odd to base the are-you-a-real-human test on scenarios like "A friend gives you a leather wallet..." without ever explaining why leather is supposed to provoke an extreme reaction. Or indeed that it is supposed to provoke an extreme reaction.

So yes, I think the summary is that Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is not one of *my* books :)