Possible movie

Phlebas would make the best film. Great action set-pieces and
opportunities for some wonderful effects sequences. Done right it
could be a fantastic, *intelligent* space-opera if the moral choices
of the protagonist and the rights/wrongs of the war are handled
properly.
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Paul D <pdduggan DeleteThis @hotmail.com> wrote:

> Phlebas would make the best film. Great action set-pieces and
> opportunities for some wonderful effects sequences. Done right it
> could be a fantastic, *intelligent* space-opera if the moral choices
> of the protagonist and the rights/wrongs of the war are handled
> properly.

It's an interesting question posed by the OP, because you first of all
have to filter out the ones that simply wouldn't make good films.
'Excession' would be a good example of that, despite its being probably
my favourite Culture novel. "Inversions" I'd catagorise as 'Impossible',
simply because it wouldn't make a good film (IMHO). It's a Culture
geek's book.


Once we've elimated the impossible (or effectively impossible to do
justice to) books, we're left with an "easy <----> hard" list.

I'd place "Player of Games" at the "Easy" end, as it's not a complicated
book. "Consider Phlebas" isn't easy, but probably falls in the
midsection. Certain portions (the attack on the Temple of Light) might
have to be lost as they effectively don't add much. "Look to Windward"
would, however, make a rather good sequel and probably could be done.

"Use of Weapons" would be tricky. Not because it's impossible to do
(think of a sort of sci-fi "Pulp Fiction") but because it would be hard
to do _well_.

"Matter" might be interesting. Again, large parts would have to be
altered/lost, but it's got 'screenplay' written all over it.

Jim
--
'Cloverfield' in nine words: "What is it?!" "We're gonna die!" BOOM!
Roll credits.

http://www.ursaminorbeta.co.uk http://twitter.com/greyareauk
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Francis Burton wrote:
> No, I haven't heard any rumours - sorry to disappoint! :-/

Bah.

> If not Matter, which of the other books could be adapted most
> successfully for the cinema? Would love to hear people's views!

Well, so far I've only read Phlebas, Player, Excession, Weapons, one
third of Feersum, and two thirds of Inversions. I think any Banks book
is going to be hard to convert into a screenplay, because he hides his
mysteries behind words. The words "white chair" is a mystery, curious
at first but horrifying in the revelation. How could you possibly
translate that into a visual? There are so many sections where you
just have no idea who is being written about, it's all just "he" or
"she" or "the <whatever>". If that's an actor on the screen, you have
to give away a lot more information.

If you want to see Banks done well on the big screen, then hope that
he writes something new specifically for that medium.

Phil Hibbs.
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