[net.movies] faithful SF films

dls@hocse.UUCP (04/20/84)

>From a friend of mine off the net:

	The BBC version of THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS (which recently ran on
	the Arts and Entertainment Channel) was a exceptionally faithful
	adaptation of Wyndham's novel.  Most SF films made from novels are
	not.  What are some films that HAVE been faithful to the original
	work (novel, short story, etc.)?  (Stick to SF, fantasy, or horror,
	please.)

	I am NOT talking about novelizations, nor am I asking for which
	films are 'best'.  IT HAPPENS EVERY SPRING is very accurate to the
	novel (I've been told), but it isn't particularly high-quality.

	Two suggestions are TERROR OF FRANKENSTEIN (a 1974 Swedish-Irish
	co-production) and the BBC version of COUNT DRACULA (with Louis
	Jourdan).  They each diverge somewhat from the original work but
	are closer than any other adaptation of each that I've seen.  I
	haven't read the book THINGS TO COME, but I would guess that the
	film might be faithful--Wells wrote the screenplay.  Has anyone
	read it who can tell me?

						Evelyn C. Leeper
						hocse!lznv!ecl

dls@hocse.UUCP (04/27/84)

Here is a response from another off-net friend of mine concerning
the orginal posting of SF films faithful to the novels.

>    ecl is a little confused about THINGS TO COME in its various forms.
>    There is a book called THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME by H. G. Wells.
>    It is non-fiction and is speculation about the future.  Wells then
>    wrote a screenplay for a story set in this future to be filmed by
>    Alexander Korda.  That was the film THINGS TO COME.  The screenplay
>    is also available, so there really is a book called THINGS TO COME,
>    but it is merely the screenplay of the film.  The film does diverge
>    from the screenplay occasionally, but in general they are pretty
>    close as one would expect.  The characters and the story of the
>    film do not appear in the book.  There is also a lousy Flash Gordon
>    imitation that had the gall to call itself H. G. WELLS' THE SHAPE
>    OF THINGS TO COME, but in spite of a character being named Cabal,
>    it has nothing to do with the earlier film or any book by Wells.
>    That film was made in Canada about 1979.
>					    Mark Leeper
>					    hocse!lznv!mrl

ntt@dciem.UUCP (Mark Brader) (05/04/84)

Just one further note of confusion about `Things to Come' vs.
`The Shape of Things to Come': The movie known here by the first
title was also released in Britain by the second one.

Mark Brader

rene@nlm-mcs.ARPA (Rene Steiner) (05/04/84)

One adaptation I thought they did a really good job with is Peter S.
Beagle's "The Last Unicorn". Most of the dialogue is straight out
of the book, and only a few points were left out (rare in an
adaptation). The animation isn't all that hot, but it follow the
original novel pretty faithfully. Now, if we could only get that
quality of faithfulness with the animation of "The Secret of NIMH"
(which really gutted the original story, for the worse, I think)!

				- rene
-- 
rene@nlm-mcs