Saturday 23 July 2016

"He Looks Like..."

SM Stirling, Island In The Sea Of Time (New York, 1998).

Police Chief Jared Cofflin meets Coast Guard Lieutenant William Walker and thinks:

"He looks like... what's that guy's name... Redford, yeah." (p. 23)

In a film proposal or screen treatment, to state that a character resembles a known actor is to suggest that that actor should play that character. Is that what is going on here?

Film Ideas
I previously discussed how to film particular works by Poul Anderson. How about SM Stirling's? Conquistador, The Peshawar Lancers and The Sky People would be spectacular. As with 1984, an authentic dramatization of the Draka History would be horrific. However, the series is a dystopia and dystopias are as valid as utopias, comedies, tragedies etc. I would not like to see all the torture and indeed think that it would be wrong to show it in graphic detail. However, we need to be informed that such things happen in fiction and in reality.

How did we get from Redford to the Draka? Let's get back to the temporally displaced Nantucket...

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

William Walker must have reminded Jared Coffin of Robert Redford when the actor was MUCH younger. Even in 1998 Redford was already in his sixties (he will be 80 next month). I am assuming Walker was in his early twenties at the beginning of ISLAND IN THE SEA OF TIME.

I agree, any cinematic adaptations of the Draka books will have to tone down the sadism and depravity of the Draka. It would be simply too horrific for films to go into detail.

It might be easiest, in some ways, to film CONQUISTADOR, because much of such a work could be filmed in contemporary settings.

Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

He was thinking of Robert Reford at about this age: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/474x/bb/b4/17/bbb417fe52d79c82951cd259ed9434c5.jpg

Sean M. Brooks said...

Dear Mr. Stirling,

And thinking of William Walker looking much like the young Robert Redford in TALL STORY is appropriate.

Sean