Movies

I am soooo Happy! :p

I just don't expect them to fuck it up. It sounds like a good idea, doing a series per book. The only thing that'll annoy me, as always, is how they'll re-release all the books and all my philistine mates will make out that they actually took heed of my recommendations.

Spoilers: I hope they get a big enough budget to make the Dragon's look cool. And I hope they don't miss out any of the infantocide that makes the story oh-so gruesome in the first place. Bran's fall etc.
 
Martin recently updated his website reassuring both sides of the fence: (1) he's gonna check that they don't fuck it up; (2) he's not gonna take time away from finishing the series.

While I sort of believe 2 might be true, I'm pessimistic about HBO doing something satisfying with the material. They can't afford Rome (which is getting canceled for this reason), they certainly can't afford dragons and ice walls and larger-than-life CGI battles. Even if they could, they're bound to cut the number of characters at least by half (else... let me introduce to you the 12,000 relatives of Lord Frey), and pick actors unfit for the role for the remainder.

So, despite the inevitable thrill, I'm not too pleased. I'm also not too pleased the decision has been made now when Martin still has time to fuck up the last two books himself just by changing them to better fit the small screen, instead of my imagination.
 
rahvin said:
So, despite the inevitable thrill, I'm not too pleased. I'm also not too pleased the decision has been made now when Martin still has time to fuck up the last two books himself just by changing them to better fit the small screen, instead of my imagination.
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This is a fear I think all will share. I'm sure Martin has already planned how the series will end, but depending on audience responses and such, HBO will probably start urging him to make changes, at least in the final novel.

After seeing lord of the rings I really hoped they'd eventually give Song of Ice and Fire a similar treatment, but it's definately going to lose something being made for TV. The scale, the budget, the actors... It's all going to be a few steps down from where Lord of the Rings was at.

Now you know it's just a matter of time until Hobb gets an offer. And I wonder what the legalities of making David Gemmel's works into films would be. He only died last year if I'm not mistaken, and yet 'Legend' would probably make one of the best fantasy epics ever... if made correctly of course.
 
rahvin said:
I'm pessimistic about HBO doing something satisfying with the material. They can't afford Rome (which is getting canceled for this reason), they certainly can't afford dragons and ice walls and larger-than-life CGI battles.
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ROME just isn't that popular. You know, I watched Season 1, now started with Season 2, it's OK, but I'm not too crazy about it, like many viewers. So, it's a sad fact, but with production of that scale it was a miss this time.
 
Not being a big fan of LotR (anymore), I was able to watch the three movies mildly entertained by the action while laughing hard about the contrived dialogue that made everyone sound as if they had been refused a role in Wuthering Heights and were still holding a grudge for it. Despite the immense amount of work Tolkien put into writing it, LotR reads like a fable and was transformed into one on the big screen.

Martin's is quite another kind of fantasy and I'm partly satisfied with the fact that he claims the future writers of the series "get it", because I take it to mean that they understand they're not to turn this into one big eye-candy monster of shiny armor and stilted comments about valor just before some enormous CGI white wolf kills the upteenth wildling.

But there are still plot points it's extremely hard to work around that could prove deadly for the series, even early on. For instance, we all know how hard it is to find a child actor that's not instantly grating on your nerves, and we need something like ten here. Raise the age to recruit a bunch of teenagers and you come down with the Harry Potter syndrome, i.e. they're bound to look like Lindsay Lohan and Elisha Cuthbert by the time the plot requires them to have their "flowering".

Another issue: you're going to have to show flashbacks of events including the siege of Storm's End, Aerys setting random people on fire, dragons burning down Harrenhal, the battle at the Trident.

@plintus: I suppose saying not many people liked it is almost always a piece of data you have to compare with how much it costs to produce an episode. I read that the costs for Rome were stellar, possibly more than any ratings could justify. I'm afraid that HBO might jump into the investment for ASoIaF and only decide after season one that many viewers could only turn into enough viewers by divine intervention, for the amount of money dropped in the project.

As a side note, I didn't particularly like Rome either: historical reconstructions are clumsy nine times out of ten, when not outright naive. Hopefully some entirely made-up material will be less subject to factual errors.
 
I think you hit the nail on the head Rahv. The child actor bit is the one thing that scares me. I'm sure they'll have no problem at all casting the Lannister clan (which intrigues me... the whole brother/sister thing... how they'll deal with that in a show...), but House Stark was always my favorite, and probably will be the most difficult to cast.

I'm hoping they won't have to cut too much out. I figure you could always threaten them. "Oh, you have too many characters and subplots? Hrm... I guess we could always do another series. Here, I'll just pick up this phone and call Jordan... Ah, ok, back to work I see. Good. Next time I really will call..."

~kov.
 
i never read martin's work but i can completely follow you about the cringing when something you love is fucked up. i'm holding my breath because in 2 weeks hannibal rising will be out - thomas harris did exactly what rahvin is fearing about martin's future books, he wrote a novel that is entirely subpar and reads like an extension of a screenplay that was written in 30 days to start with (and he had us fans wait for seven years). from the few stills i've seen, the movie looks appealing, and the director seems to have made a good choice picking gaspard ulliel as a lead - although i'm not sure if i'm ready for two hours of a pretty boy from france playing hannibal lecter, i might self-destroy during the film.

anyway, tonight i saw bobby. i love political movies and movies about recent history - this is the first one that did not disappoint me in a while. it's not that great, and as a keen reader of kennedy biographies i have the impression that the sanctification of rfk was far-fetched to say the least, but damn historical accuracy in this specific case: contrary to, say, oliver stone's effort on 9/11, the film was inspiring, well directed, and it had a couple of videoclip-like sequences that were truly amazing.

oh, and hear, hear: i say that the whole mood of the film is a big test run for the mood that should be behind the obama 08 bid. i invite the americans on the board to watch the movie and tell me if i'm right - for example, the excerpts from dr. king and kennedy himself speaking to the nation convey the same feeling that i expect to have from the obama camp. the fact that the cast is comprised entirely of huge superstars (demi moore, elijah wood, sharon stone, martin sheen, christian slater, harry belafonte, you've seen his/her face a million times and they're going to be in this movie... we get to see anthony fucking hopkins for heaven's sake, even if he's not american) is a sign that probably a certain part of the film industry is throwing their weight behind the obama-reconciliation-bridging of gaps-end to war-renaissance vibe. or maybe i'm just seeing things.
 
I saw "Rocky Balboa" today (had a free ticket, wouldn't have paid for it). It was mindless crap, but rather entertaining at that. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone except the likes of plintus. :p

Siren said:
Do watch Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance as soon as you can!
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I'm trying - I just canceled my delayed order and instead bought it cheap from an auction-site. It should arrive here early next week (although I'll probably have to wait till next weekend before watching it).

And you need to watch Oldboy. :cool:

-Villain
 
Villain said:
I saw "Rocky Balboa" today (had a free ticket, wouldn't have paid for it). It was mindless crap, but rather entertaining at that. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone except the likes of plintus. :p
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One of the episodes of Rocky Balboa was shot across from my door (where he's talking to his son about doing small local fights; literally; months before I walked by Stallone without realizing it was him, when he was on the location scouting) - I couldn't get home, cuz they blocked the road while shooting - I had to use back door. And next day we left for Hollywood.

Unlike you, I don't fall for a movie I wouldn't like with a free ticket. I will see Rocky Balboa on DVD only cuz it was shot on streets of Philadelphia in my neighbourhood - I haven't seen a Rocky film in my life.
 
@bp: i never want to see hostel again. it scared me half to death, because of the sheer realism.
 
Blitzkrieg Pajo said:
First half porn, second half horror?
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Exactly. It's mindless macabre. It's a terrible side to human nature, but porn and horror appeals to us. Right now, not to me, but at the time it did. I enjoyed it. It's such a "guy" movie. Get together with your mates have some beers and pretend you are men... Hell don't pretend! Adore the gore! You are man... You are men!

The only time I find violence in movies distasteful is if it's done in a glorified way (or a way that's just for entertainment's sake) and it's based on real events... such as in Karla... that film could quite easily be a fictional psychological thriller. It doesn't approach the subject tastefully enough, and it must be really hard on the families of the victims.
 
I saw Ripleys Game yesterday, well, the first 50 minutes of it. Despite having Malkowich playing the main character, this movie fucking sucks.

Tonight Im going to watch The 25th Hour, to level things up. :)
 
i was just verbally abused by a friend to whom i recommended 'bobby' :lol:
apparently, the sequences i found moving irritated him for their lack of realism. eh well...
 
Seinfeld

Re-watching season 5. Can't handle any otehr sitcom, but keep returning to this one. All contemporary shit is no match for it.

Started watching Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance.

I happen to like it way, much better than Old Boy. It's not entertaining at all (in a sense of a Hollywood blockbuster), but totally watchable, and has some "stuff", which Villain, being so (seemingly) deep fella, likes to blather about, in it.

I will return when I get past opening credits.
 
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