World Enough and Time

I so agree with you about David Tennant as Miles. If only he was about twenty years younger

And he doesn't even have a son. There must be someone else there like him....

No. Maybe not.

I want to see the Amelia Peabody books on film, too.

That would be good!

I have most of the casting down pat for that one, too [g].

So - ? Share!

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mmegaera.livejournal.com

Well, sort of [g]. My concept of Emerson at the time of Crocodile on the Sandbank is a composite -- looks like Brendan Fraser, sounds like Brian Blessed [g].

Ioan Gruffudd for the adult Ramses, and Kate Winslet for the adult Nefret.

Amelia still stymies me. Emma Thompson would be brilliant so far as personality, acting ability, etc., go, but she doesn't look enough like her. Other than that I can't think of anyone.

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looks like Brendan Fraser, sounds like Brian Blessed [g].

I'm having fun picturing that.

Kate Winslet for the adult Nefret.

Nice. I've never been much of a Kate Winslet fan (holding a grudge for Titanic) but I'm coming to like her.

Emma Thompson would be brilliant so far as personality, acting ability, etc., go, but she doesn't look enough like her.

I like Emma Thompson a lot. Hmm.

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mmegaera.livejournal.com

The thing about Kate Winslet is that she is almost a dead ringer for what I think Nefret looks like. Have you seen Branagh's four-hour Hamlet? She was brilliant as Ophelia in that (and I saw her in that before I saw her in Titanic, and since Titanic wasn't her fault [g] I'm willing to forgive her for that).

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Yes - I loved Branagh's Hamlet and I liked the Winslet Ophelia. Problem is, I's already seen Titanic and the horror of my boredom has stayed with me.

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topgeargirl2.livejournal.com

I would like to see the Gun Seller as a movie.

But i think Hugh Laurie said something once about writing the script for it.

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So it might happen!

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mzlizzy.livejournal.com

I'm all for seeing Georgette Heyer on screen! However I'd go for Devil's Cub. I could see Depp as Avon's son before I could see him as Avon.

Can't you see him lounging in the coach on the way to the party? I can.

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I'd go for Devil's Cub. I could see Depp as Avon's son before I could see him as Avon.

I would love to see both. Either one.

Can't you see him lounging in the coach on the way to the party?

Perfectly!

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atheneunknown.livejournal.com

I myself would LOVE to see Anne Rices Mayfair Witch series done. Though after what they did to the other books, I dunno.

The first movie would be like 14 hours long though because it chronicles about 200 years of the past family ties.

But it would be so worth it.

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LOVE to see Anne Rices Mayfair Witch series done.

That would be... interesting. A good director. If they cast it right. Yes.

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sollersuk.livejournal.com

The biggest problem with film versions of books is length. You have a couple of hours to tell a story that can have a lot of intricacy, so things have to be lost; not just subplots and minor characters, but often quite important bits. I've never seen a really satisfactory film version of a book, though if one has the elbow-room of a television series, it can be another matter - the (I think joint British/Australian) version of "The Day of the Triffids" is excellent.

Short stories need some padding, and sometimes it shows. Novella length is perfect. Unfortunately, this isn't a very popular length for published work.

So I would say that there isn't a single book that I would want to see filmed.

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The biggest problem with film versions of books is length.

Yes. Sometimes we have to postulate a series of movies, like with The Lord of the Rings. A cut-down version of Dunnett would be unthinkable.

I've never seen a really satisfactory film version of a book,

I have, but it's rare.

though if one has the elbow-room of a television series, it can be another matter - the (I think joint British/Australian) version of "The Day of the Triffids" is excellent.

I haven't seen that, but I've seen some good miniseries based on books. Jane Eyre is an example - it made several terrible movies, but at least one very good miniseries.

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I've often been disappointed with film adaptations of books I like, but sometimes books I dislike can be improved. I think the film of L P Hartley's The Hireling (http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0070180/usercomments-4) was better than the sentimental melodrama of the book: in the film, no-one dies, and it's more about the psychological damage done by WW1 to all its survivors. (And Peter gets his shirt off.)

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I haven't read or seen The Hireling but that's the way I felt about The Go-Between. I'm reminding myself to watch The Hireling, which I've been intending to do since the time it came out - I liked the trailers at the time.

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It's superb. I'm just baffled by some comments and reviews other people have made on it: how can they discuss a film set c. 1920, with the 2 male leads an ex-sergeant-major and an ex-captain, without mentioning the war?!

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I can't imagine. (I'd insert my Passchendaele icon here if I still had it up!)

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Especially given that it's clear that both men are psychological/emotional casualties of war. The Sergeant-Major hasn't adjusted to civilian life, and is obsessive and violent, while the young officer is also in difficulties, as per this exchange with the heroine, when she asks him about his war experience:
Helen: Was it very bad?
[Hugh doesn't answer; his expression is hard to read in the darkness of the car]
Helen: Well, you're back now.
Hugh: Am I? Sometimes I wonder…

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Oh, good dialogue!

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And of course, he just looks so young and vulnerable... but you know has come through 4 years of absolute hell.

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Interesting circumstances. And the background for some very good fiction.

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Indeed. And the film also has a very open ending, which would allow for fic.

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Definitely!

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I've just noticed your Silhouette icon! Gorgeous! (Grumbles bitterly about her and her girlfriend being killed off!)

– Well, I would have been very upset if they'd stuck to the book with The Hireling. Do not kill off the eye-candy is one of my tenets.

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Grumbles bitterly about her and her girlfriend being killed off!

Except for Veidt, Silhouette and her girlfriend were my favourite characters in the movie.

Do not kill off the eye-candy is one of my tenets.

I approve of that - Watchmen should have listened.

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I agree about the girls! (Still not sure about Veidt.)

Mind, it's a superhero movie… Maybe it was staged, so they could go undercover? There's always a get-out clause in films of this kind!

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I like that explanation. After all, no one in comics is every permanently dead.

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Exactly! I see no reason to assume the worst. Given her background (she's Austrian Jewish), maybe she's gone on a top secret mission hunting down fugitive Nazis?

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Very plausibly! Or under cover elsewhere because she wouldn't like the way US society went after the Keene Act.

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Indeed. I certainly suspect she's gone back to Europe.

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Tempts me to write fanfic telling her story. If I had time. Which I don't. I like the idea, though.

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Tilda Swinton in In Viriconium.

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Oooh...! Nice thought.

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She'd be ideal casting as Audsley King: androgynous and slender.

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I love watching her anyway.

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I adore her as Orlando!

(BTW: on that time-period, have you seen my thread on the purported Shakespeare portrait? I thought it might appeal to you!)

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Yes, absolutely! Very interesting.

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All good choices. Here: Dreamsnake by Vonda McIntyre. Go back in time about fifteen years and let Dana Delaney play Snake. Or, such a thought, present-day and cast Gina Torres. It would be brilliant either way. As for producer or director -- can't say! Someone inspired by the novel must be the one to do it, though. (Hm. That didn't work so well for either Earthsea or The Dark Is Rising, did it?)

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That didn't work so well for either Earthsea or The Dark Is Rising, did it?

Shudder. Not at all.

But I like your ideas about casting.

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But I like your ideas about casting.

Heh. Thank you.

Gina Torres was on an episode of La Femme Nikita about ten years ago, playing a totally unscrupulous sort who enjoyed torturing people in a certain interesting semi-participatory way. She was magnificent. Also in the episode was the singer/entertainer who had fronted a band called Adam and the Ants -- he left the band and called himself Adam Ant. This episode was filmed less than a year before I saw in the news that he had been taken into custody for his own protection, after behaving weirdly at a pub somewhere, including disrobing in front of people as if he didn't see them there. His character in the episode was totally unlikeable. But it was a good episode, pretty indicative of what the series strove to achieve. Someday, I'll get them all on DVD. (First, Doctor Who fourth season....)

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I just read the Wikipedia article on Adam Ant; interesting.

I have mixed feelings about La Femme Nikita. Saw an episode or two and thought they were good, but I have such reservations about the premise (a woman being forced to do something, rather than choosing to do it) that I don't much like it.

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Oh, gad, yes. That entire show was S/M of the non-consensual sort. I both loathed it and couldn't stop watching it. Alas, what does that say about me? [heh]

I was captivated by the character named Michael. As the seasons progressed, the actor (Roy Dupuis) turned his character into something elegant and dangerous, and on top of that he was physically delicious. He ended up having a very odd way of delivering dialogue: at the end of something he said, he'd drop his jaw a little tiny bit, thus opening his mouth for no real apparent reason at all. And he did it all the time. Every time he spoke. And he walked like someone trained in ballet; and he ended up wearing only tights-like trousers or leggings. All very, very subtle, never calling the audience's attention to it.

Apart from that, I was deeply in crush over one of the two people in charge, Madeline. She was ... very scary. But lovely. And so in balance.

Yeah. Weird show. I also hated their very premise: an invisible organization that fights terrorism by using the terrorists' own methods. Ugh! how repulsive. But the character interplay... mesmerizing.

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That entire show was S/M of the non-consensual sort. I both loathed it and couldn't stop watching it. Alas, what does that say about me? [heh]

Okay, now you make it sound like fun. [g] Maybe I'll try watching it again. Others are trying to get me to watch Supernatural, if I can get over the squicky bits.

Lots of people were captivated by Michael, if he was the one played by Roy Dupuis. Wonderful actor.

an invisible organization that fights terrorism by using the terrorists' own methods. Ugh! how repulsive.

Scary and repulsive but oddly plausible. After all, it's what we've seen happening.

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