Dune, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and His Dark Materials each have both a feature film and a TV series (the situation with The Girl... is slightly more complicated but that does not matter here);
The Chronicles Of Narnia has a feature film series, two live action TV series, an animated TV film and stage and radio dramatizations.
Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization could certainly be adapted for screen at least twice although I think that a single feature film is not long enough for adequate dramatization of an entire novel - unless it was a very short and focused novel which, e.g., Mirkheim is not. Serialization, whether on a small or a large screen, would be necessary.
I would not want plot elements to be changed but there remains much scope for visual and interpretive differences. When Polonius solemnly agrees in quick succession with three contradictory statements by Hamlet, is Hamlet exposing Polonius as a yes man or is Polonius responding sarcastically to Hamlet's mental ramblings? Similarly, van Rijn's oratory could be shown as evincing different responses from his auditors. And extraterrestrial species like Diomedeans could be presented very differently while at the same time respecting Anderson's descriptions.
We would enjoy comparing not only the stories with their adaptations but also the adaptations with each other.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And of course there's the Harry Potter movies! Albeit, not having read the books, I can't give an opinion on how faithful those films were to the Potter books.
I have argued before that a filmed version of Anderson's "The Game of Glory" might be way of learning how to make movies based on the Technic series. And I think "The Game of Glory" could be filmed in a single feature length movie. And I agree none of Anderson's Technic novels could be treated like that--serialization would be necessary. Two feature length films would probably en enough for WE CLAIM THESE STARS.
Ad astra! Sean
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