Cool News
THE TRIPODS TRILOGY...
Hey folks, Harry here and just to let you know that we care... We've been following up on your request for information about THE TRIPODS TRILOGY. Here's what we've been able to find out...
THE TRIPODS TRILOGY- consists of three novels- THE WHITE MOUNTAINS, THE CITY OF
GOLD AND LEAD, and THE POOL OF FIRE. Books by John Christopher (real name Sam
Youd). They were partially produced as 6-8 (?) hour miniseries for BBC in early
1980's.
STORY- Starts out in what looks like Middle Ages England. Young
Will Parker is distressed by how dull his life is, and worried about losing his
friend in the morning when he turns sixteen and undergoes the "Capping"
ceremony. Huh? Next day a twenty foot metal space ship with three legs comes
into town and takes his pal away, returning him with a metal cap in his head.
This is not the past. It is a future in which the mysterious ships came, and
kicked our ass. Now every adult is capped at 16 so that they offer no
resistance to the Tripods. Will meets a babbling derelict (victim of bad
capping) who turns out to be in disguise; he tells him of a resistance movement
off in the White Mountains (what we call France) and one night Will, and his
younger cousin, set off to find this fabled place. Along the way they have
adventures (including one in a fairy tale castle that has revived feudalism, and
one in an abandoned Paris) hook up with another partner Jean Paul (no one speaks
French so he becomes Beanpole) find and later join the resistance. Very STAR
WARS, although written 10 years before it.
An article in Variety about this a whiles back led
to the interest of Frank Darabont. Due to some unfortunate haggling with Frank's people, it led to the production wasting a year and the company was forced to telling him he wouldn't be working on the project. The plan now is
for Graham Yost (Speed, Mission to Mars, Earth to Moon) to take a crack at it.
In very active development at Touchstone Pictures
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Wow, I've never commented on talkback before and now I get to be first 8) A friend and I both read the book series several years ago and we thought it was great. I still have one of the books (I lost 2 somehow 8( ). To see that Touchstone is turning it into a a production is just awesome, now I can't wait.
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This news sounds great. This is what it's all about. Even if you aren't a major Star Wars fan the special effects developments that have come about as a result of it will make just about any of those great novels from such authors as Issaac Asmov (Foundation series), Arthur C. Clarke (Rendevous with Rama), Frederik Poul (Gateway Series), Heinlein (Stranger In A Strange Land), Poul Anderson, Greg Bear, Kim Stanley Robinson, Harry Turtledove, and countless others all available on screen. This is what I want to see those books I stayed up all night reading when I was a wee lad... the classics of sci fi realized before our very eyes. No doubt you will have the occasion money grubbing movies like Mummy, Armageddon, Titanic, ID4, and let us not forget WWW. But in between these cash cow duds will be more and more quality stories with believability that will transend Star Wars. Everyone loves a great saga and I welcome any story that challenges Star Wars because I know it could be better. I think I'll go get the books and watch the movie before it comes out in my head.
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I cannot wait, the movie is going to follow the book! Beanpole, fallen cities, capping, & TRIPODS... Joy overload
Keep us informed -
Great news! These books were the first SF I read, and for sure among the biggest reasons I'm in that fieldf now. I was just thinking the other day that I couldn't wait until my sons were old enough to get them turned on to The White Mountains.
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There was also a little known prequel book to the series that takes place at the time when the aliens invade. The best out of the series in my opinion. This would be an excellent starting point for the American viewer who have had no exposure to this outstanding series.
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Man, this was my favorite set of books in elementary school. I even did an elaborate shadow puppet "play" production of this story in the 4th grade. It definitely fueled my imagination.
I hope they do a decent job on this. I get so much frustration when I see great literature turned to crap on the screen - which I fear is what will happen to fahrenheit 451...
Anyways, how's about someone doing a movie encapsulating some good Poe stories. That's be nice.
over, Unger. -
Yes, there is a prequel to the Tripods trilogy. I imagine many of you missed it like I did because it was published a bit later when I was "too old for kids' sci-fi." It's called something like, When the Tripods Came.
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LOTR, now Tripods! I'm reliving my childhood. What's next Anne McCaffrey's Pern books? A Wrinkle in Time?
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The BBC series was pretty good, although with their usual scheduling skill it was against the then most popular UK soap. The ratings were dreadful, and the series was cancelled before Pool of Fire was made.
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I can still remember reading these books in the sixth grade, and I loved 'em then, and I hope that studios take this idea seriously. I would be sorely disappointed to find out that the only way to see these stories is the craptacular BBC versions, with typically bad BBC sets.
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Actually, I thought the BBS series was pretty good, considering what the budget must have been (maybe that's the problem with all BBS shows?) :).....Anyway, I had read the books in high school and fell in love with them. NEVER saw or heard of this prequel story; I'll HAVE to start scouring for it! But in any case the series came on a local non-PBS Houston channel when I was a freshman in college and I taped all 13 episodes of an est.
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Anyone else remember the long-running comic-strip adaptation of these books in "Boy's Life" magazine? It was the only interesting part of the "acclaimed journal of Boy Scouting" for me. Can't wait to see these books visualized on the big screen. And nobody's allowed to make "A Wrinkle in Time"..that's MY dream project!
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I read this when I was in grade school, and I must say it was great. I'm suprised it's taken this long. I hope it works out.
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this sounds excellent i remember seeing the BBC version when i was a kid and i can still remember how creepy it was i disagree with the guy who said that the BBC version was crap it was made like 20 years ago on budget which wouldnt pay the laundry bill of a star today does the SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN or BUCK RODGERS still have impressive looking effects? That said i'd love to see a film made pity about darabont leaving the project though. Great news about the LORD OF THE RINGS casting as well- if it doesnt turn out to be bullshit
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The BBC ran this is as a show (series of 30 minute episodes) back in the early 80's, and boy, did they mak it look cheap and tacky, which would frankly be a compliment to the acting. One actor, who was French managed to convery far more life in his character in English!
Provided the BBC series is used to show how NOT to make this, it could be a really fun project. -
Yeah back in H.S. I had my underwear yanked over my head and I've never been the same since. Oh wait that's a "Capper"... never mind.
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I stumbled across the Tripods totally by Accident when my local PBS station ran the episodes one summer in 30 min a day until they ran out of shows.
I found all his books at the local library, the three mentioned here and then as well others by him. I highly recommend them if you enjoyed his Tripod trilogy. There is also a 'prequel' but I can't remember the title of the book. It explains how the 'Tripods' showed up and how they took over. Very freaky.
His books all follow a similar theme, a few young teens help save the world. One book had a disease ravage the US aging people quickly, except for a few teens...etc. Very good reading though. -
...was as a comic serial in mid-80s Boys Life. Excellent series!
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Man, I was just thinking about that Tripod serial. That thing ran for YEARS. IT must have been at least six. I would love to see a collection of those strips. So is this going to be one movie over the three books or just a movie of the first book?
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Dammit...somebody beat me to it, but I thought I'd be reading about Milton Berle, Forrest Tucker and Roddy McDowell...wish I had their "problem"!!
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Yes we know the BBc underfunds its sci-fi dept but the Tripod series WAS really good. It followed the books really closely and because you only actually saw the Tripods once in a while the "fear" you had for them was just right. the second (or was it the third series) where Will was sent into one of the Tripod cities did sort of fall into BBc crappy set cindrome, but the creatures were great. The prquel book was called DAY OF THE TRIPODS and the cover had a tripod with an RAF TORNADO being destoryed on it, if that helps anybody. A choccy bar to anyone who can remember what the loyal Tripod secret police wrer called? Check back later.
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It was about 8 months ago that I went back and read the whole trilogy in one night... ah, brought back memories from many years ago.
In any case, I too was first exposed to the Pool of Fire serial in Boy's Life... then I went to the library and bought up a ton of Boy's Life with the serials and almost had a complete set. Of course, before I did that, I had gone and gotton the books and read those.
I also made a diorama of the scene of Will getting grabbed by the tripod with legos and alluminum foil for school.
Unfortunately, my cat pissed in the box I had them all in so I had to throw them out. =-(
Years later I got the prequel in a children's sci-fi book club I belonged to. Personally, I thought it sucked. Of course, I haven't read it in years, but that's the impression I came away with.
In any case, it'd be great to see the White Mountain on the big screen. -
... try *twenty-five* half-hour episodes (~25 mins). That's twelve and a half hours of television. Incredible! (If only we had as much time to adapt Tolkien ...) There's a nifty page on the books and TV show here: http://www.gnelson.demon.co.uk/Tripods.html (Harry, when can we start posting html?)
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...because of the chronic hard-on I have. This trilogy sounds really dumb, especially since it *is* a ripoff of Star Wars. That's bullshit about it being written before Goiter-boy Lucas wrote his Journal of the Whills. I know for a fact that the discovery of Youd's manuscript was a hoax. The guy saw Star Wars, went home and had a wet dream about three-legged robots that penatrated his anus, and he wrote these "novels". Wake up and smell the shit y'all are shovelin'! Even us Arkansasiams know whut's whut!
Love, Bill Clinton -
oh, well! you suckers have already proven that you'll forgive my philandering, so I guess you'll forgive that. By the way, I've put the Cigarette Smoking Man in charge of the military, so don't be surprised if we all die tomorrow.
Love,
Bill Clinton -
"The Tripods" is one of my favorite TV series of all time! I love the BBC adaption: I have the 1st season (the first 13 episodes) on video, but I DON'T have the 2nd season. If anyone out there has the 2nd season on tape, I would be willing to pay you if you'd make me a copy! ::Anyway, long live the Tripods::
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Honestly, I didn't think anyone else had heard of these books. When I read them in junior high, they were my favorite books of all time - until LOTR in 8th grade. To see a film made of them is sweet. LOTR, the Tripods, now somebody make the Wrinkle in Time series and Xanth and my childhood's all wrapped up...
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I hated it on the B.B.C., who should have a high court injunction against them, forbidding ANY future attempt at producing ANY sci-fi ever again !
...........and that's all I got to say about THAT ! -
it's interesting someone brought up war of the worlds here as the BBC was originally planned to be a war of the worlds TV series. remember in the original book the alien craft in WotW had three mechanical legs. the BBC ran into legal difficulties and thus had to switch the series to tripods - the models had already been made.
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God I hope they don't screw this up. I used to love reading these kind of books as a child. They were wonderful for the imagination. Ranks up there with Willy Wonka books, anything Raul Dahl, and of course, Lord of the Rings.
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I never expected this! I loved it when I found it at a school library. I couldent get enough! Now I am geting to see it as a movie! WAHOO! Yippie!
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This is completly orginal! Trust me. This was made BEFORE Star Wars. Remember, star wars took parts of ALOT of diffrent books and TV shows.
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I have some parts of the BBC
series and it was really enchantment. The music has been
very impressive and the tripods
aswell. It was a real saga and every part had its surprises. You
(or maybe not *YOU* because you
have no fantasy) could imagine
to be one of the heroes. This series had a story i mean, not a collection of effects. A film doesn't need many effects - it needs an atmosphere which The Tripods have. The effects weren't bad anyways.
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