goofyfish
06-04-02, 11:12 AM
The Sci-Fi Channel is going to be adapting Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld novels, first as a two-hour pilot movie, then as a weekly one-hour series. The novels are long-time favorites of mine, and I'd love to see them done well. TV is often a good medium for sci-fi and fantasy adaptations, because despite the lower budgets, you can schedule them as two-parters or miniseries and flesh them out a little more.
I haven't heard a lot about the production of this series yet, but from what I have heard, I'm not going to get my hopes up.
The Good: Executive produced by, and the pilot and some episodes directed by, Alex Proyas, the director of Dark City and The Crow. This material has a slightly different sensibility than his past work, but one never knows.
Sci-Fi seems to want to put their money where their mouth is; they did the Dune series and they have the rights to several other properties.
The novels and the concept lend themselves to a lot of possibilities if done by good writers.The Bad: No Sir Richard Francis Burton. His character is gone, replaced by (egads) an American shuttle astronaut named Jim Hale, played by the amazingly bland Brad Johnson. Why? Are American audiences unable to identify with an English explorer as the lead character? Is he just not interesting enough for a lead? (Puh-leeze.)
And, since there's no Burton, there's no Herman Goerring, either. The cast lists that I've seen list Alice Liddell and Sam Clemens (good!!!), as well as the alien, Monat; but not Joe Miller, King John or Pete Frigate.
Indications are that they want to, after establishing this world, have the series center around "the adventures that the team encounters while on 'an epic voyage up the river.'" OK, but is the mission as established in the books going to be the same? Is Burton . . . whoops, Hale :rolleyes: going to work his way up the River by committing suicide, or is that a not-ready-for-prime-time deal? Are we going to see the crew of the Not For Hire and its epic battles?
It would be better if it were produced on HBO or one of the other cable channels where they don't freak out about nudity and language (when the human race first awakens beside the River, everybody is naked, which is appropriate for a rebirth). I'm going to hope for the best, and expect the worst, and that way I might get a happy medium.
"You live your life. You die. You wake on the bank of a mile-wide river. You are
naked and 25 years old, but you remember dying, old and bed-ridden. Hundreds of
people, also dead, from every time of human history, awake around you.
You will never get sick, you will never age, and no child will ever be born to a
woman. The grail on your wrist will keep you fed, as long as a Grail Slaver doesn't
steal it and force you to work for your food.
All you brought from earth are your memories, your soul, and your sins.
You are a resurrectee on Resurrection Day, when every human who has ever lived
and died until 1983 has been reborn on the many million-mile banks of the Great River.
Welcome to the afterlife."
Peace.
I haven't heard a lot about the production of this series yet, but from what I have heard, I'm not going to get my hopes up.
The Good: Executive produced by, and the pilot and some episodes directed by, Alex Proyas, the director of Dark City and The Crow. This material has a slightly different sensibility than his past work, but one never knows.
Sci-Fi seems to want to put their money where their mouth is; they did the Dune series and they have the rights to several other properties.
The novels and the concept lend themselves to a lot of possibilities if done by good writers.The Bad: No Sir Richard Francis Burton. His character is gone, replaced by (egads) an American shuttle astronaut named Jim Hale, played by the amazingly bland Brad Johnson. Why? Are American audiences unable to identify with an English explorer as the lead character? Is he just not interesting enough for a lead? (Puh-leeze.)
And, since there's no Burton, there's no Herman Goerring, either. The cast lists that I've seen list Alice Liddell and Sam Clemens (good!!!), as well as the alien, Monat; but not Joe Miller, King John or Pete Frigate.
Indications are that they want to, after establishing this world, have the series center around "the adventures that the team encounters while on 'an epic voyage up the river.'" OK, but is the mission as established in the books going to be the same? Is Burton . . . whoops, Hale :rolleyes: going to work his way up the River by committing suicide, or is that a not-ready-for-prime-time deal? Are we going to see the crew of the Not For Hire and its epic battles?
It would be better if it were produced on HBO or one of the other cable channels where they don't freak out about nudity and language (when the human race first awakens beside the River, everybody is naked, which is appropriate for a rebirth). I'm going to hope for the best, and expect the worst, and that way I might get a happy medium.
"You live your life. You die. You wake on the bank of a mile-wide river. You are
naked and 25 years old, but you remember dying, old and bed-ridden. Hundreds of
people, also dead, from every time of human history, awake around you.
You will never get sick, you will never age, and no child will ever be born to a
woman. The grail on your wrist will keep you fed, as long as a Grail Slaver doesn't
steal it and force you to work for your food.
All you brought from earth are your memories, your soul, and your sins.
You are a resurrectee on Resurrection Day, when every human who has ever lived
and died until 1983 has been reborn on the many million-mile banks of the Great River.
Welcome to the afterlife."
Peace.