Amazon is going to make a movie of Iain Banks’ Consider Phlebas. That’s going to be tough. Not only would I consider much of it impossible to film, but The Culture isn’t exactly capitalism-friendly, and it will be interesting to see how a mega-corp can develop a movie that is counter to its own ethos without mangling it.
Also, it’s kind of a downer of a story, don’t you know? There isn’t going to be a sequel or a series with the cocky, devil-may-care hero, and I don’t think they’ll sell many t-shirts or video games of Bora Horza Gobuchul.
At least they’re not trying to make Use of Weapons. I don’t think that one would be popular with the happy-clappy space hero crowd.
Wow. I’m thrilled that they’re going to try this, presumably with a big-budget (Amazon is doing this along with a very high budget Lord of the Rings series, and a probably high-budget Conan the Barbarian series). I hope they’ve got a good special effects group, because that is going to be so expensive to do right.
I love the works of Iain M. Banks, especially The Player of Games, but the very idea of rendering a Culture novel as a movie … tough! Does the Banks estate have any control over the result, or is Amazon free to tack a happy ending on Phlebas in which Horza goes forth to replenish the race of changers? Hmm.
Basically echoing previous comments.
Be interesting to see whether the section with The Eaters gets etiolated. Too gross.
HTML FAIL, sorry.
Oh Lord, it’s all spaceships and/or superheroes innit? I wish someone would do an adaptation of Banks’ The Bridge. Now that’s a story and a half.
Adapted by Dennis Kelley, who did that show from the UK, Utopia. Which was simultaneously invigorating, frustrating and disturbing. It was memorable at least, especially for something that didn’t appear to have a huge production budget.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcx-nf3kH_M
I’d have to give Bank’s material a go. I’d hate to miss out again like the Game of Thrones fad all the kids were on about at the family gatherings. I tried the first Game of Thrones book, couldn’t get into it. Fantasy hasn’t been appealing to me since the late 70’s. In the last ten years I can’t even sit down with much of anything fictional, except Cheney’s “A Personal and Political Memoir”. Which I read last year and was fiction at it absolute purest.
#6: The Wasp Factory. That would freak people right out.
Yeah, his SF was the straightforward, friendly side of his writing.
PZ @8: There was an opera, and a play.
I liked the book, but the most sympathetic character was the rabbit who attacks Frank.
Ah, there’s their out.
The Culture isn’t exactly capitalism-friendly, and it will be interesting to see how a mega-corp can develop a movie that is counter to its own ethos without mangling it.
There’s your answer: they’ll mangle it.
Or the Chairmaker. *shudders.
Banks fans may not know that the BBC produced a 4-episode min-series of The Crow Road, which is quite good.
There is also a fantastic hour-long interview programme with him and noted BBC journalist and presenter Kirsty Wark, from shortly before his death, which I think all of his fans would find extremely interesting, available in its entirety on YouTube: Iain Banks – Raw Spirit.
John Morales @4: Not to mention the opening scene.
PZ, actually, I think that the right would love Zakalwe, and probably complain that the script didn’t treat him fairly. What’s not to love? He uses anything as a weapon, even chairs, even those close to him. They’d probably see his unCultured, solo interference in small-planet affairs as entirely justified and unnecessarily hamstrung by the overly-socialist Culture. They’d see him as a tragic hero, rather than a tragic villain.
The worst thing about a UoW adaptation, though, would be the massive spoiler that would
leak outspontaneously erupt in the weeks before the release, and all the haters saying how it was such a lame “surprise” ending. (That’s assuming the adaptation would stay faithful to the plot, of course.)“….who was once handsome and tall as you”??
How would they depict the Idirans? Creatures with 3 legs? As I understand it, most CGI in ‘realistic’ looking movies (as opposed to strictly cartoonish things like Shrek) start with normal looking objects and people and tack stuff on – for example in ‘The Hobbits’ war scenes, orcs were human actors with CGI modifications, the ‘war elk’ was actually a horse that had horns and elkface tacked on, this is so the movements and action flows properly. I’ll bet they make the Idirans two legged just to make it all easier.
Of course the usual crowd will be complaining about too many feeeeemales and not enough white folks – even though there isn’t a Terran human in the whole story.
Player of Games seems like an easier starting point.
At least they have a tornado and fins (which are a bit like wings) to help them.
That Superman chap seems to manage by just sticking his arm up in the air !
anthonybarcellos, @ #2:
According to the press release: “The series will be adapted by Dennis Kelly (Utopia, Matilda) with Plan B Entertainment (World War Z, 12 Years a Slave, The Big Short, Moonlight, Feud) slated to produce and the Estate of Iain Banks attached as Executive Producer.”
PS – I watched an excerpt where a guy was trying to fight back but kept getting limbs removed by flying sharks. It was laugh out loud but a complete rip off of Monty Python’s Black Knight
I love “The Culture” series, but it always seems to me that there is always some terrible death scene in it, usually at the very end, which leaves me with the worst mental images. The Hydrogen Sonata really did not need the final scene of the Gzilt being killed in such inventive ways. Also, Matter and the death of the heroine. But overall amazing books. Can’t imagine they could be made into movies easily though.
Pretty much all of Banks’s books are downers, with the exception of The Bridge. That doesn’t mean I’m not a huge admirer of his writings.
I really wish they –anyone, really– would not attempt this, fan though I am of Banks’s work. I mean, they’re not going to be able to resist Star Wars-style space battles, with action happening at the speed of Sopwith Camels, are they? Which would just be such a betrayal of my absolute favorite bits of Culture novels, where a massive battle takes place on scales of AUs in fractions of a second, and in the aftermath any biological entities who happened to be along for he ride need to have explained to them what the hell just happened and where are all the enemy ships?
Banks was a master at this stuff, but his gift was wedded to the malleability of space and time in imaginative prose. Slow motion is not going to cut it.
And I have just been reminded that I recently picked up a second-hand copy of The Bridge and had forgotten about it. (Rather a glut of reading material at the moment.)
So, there’s a Banks I haven’t read waiting for me, yay!
I love all the Culture novels, Banks was a great writer. I’d say any Culture novel would present production difficulties IMO. Consider Phlebas wouldn’t be my first choice as a film adaptation of Banks work, my preference is toward Player of Games or Use of Weapons, but I’ll see it when it comes out.
I think all the Culture novels examine interesting psychological themes, and I’d enjoy a good adaptation of any of them. Just a suggestion for the producers though, if you want to attract the Game of Thrones fan cohort bring Inversions to the screen.