Cool News
Ridley Scott And Leonardo DiCaprio Look Towards Their BRAVE NEW WORLD...
Merrick here...
I haven't heard how this'll play into Ridley's development of ALIEN 5, PEOPLE 0 (or whatever it's name is), but it looks like Ridely Scott is inching closer to taking on an adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s BRAVE NEW WORLD (HERE
) with Leonardo DiCaprio.
The director who helmed “Blade Runner” will take on one of the most highly regarded dystopian works of literature, Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.”
The project has been set up at Universal, where Scott will produce the project with an eye to direct. His sometimes collaborator Leonardo DiCaprio, meanwhile, will produce with an eye to star.
The studio has brought on “Apocalypto” scribe Farhad Safinia to pen the script; he’s expected to begin working shortly.
...says Steven Zeitchik over art THR's RiskyBusinesBlog.
This project has been mumbled about for some time now, so such news doesn't come as a complete surprise. This information does, however, suggest the duo's eventual interpretation of Huxley’s work is looking a bit more likely.
For those unfamiliar with the piece, a detailed synopsis can be located HERE.
BRAVE NEW WORLD was previously adapted as a 1980 TV movie starring 2001's Keir Dullea, which looked something like this:
...and as a TV movie in 1998 starring Leonard Nimoy.
The project has been set up at Universal, where Scott will produce the project with an eye to direct. His sometimes collaborator Leonardo DiCaprio, meanwhile, will produce with an eye to star.
The studio has brought on “Apocalypto” scribe Farhad Safinia to pen the script; he’s expected to begin working shortly.
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It's "toward." -- Signed, Copy editor.
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They'd better not fuck this up.
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I'm just saying, the girls love them goth love struck vampires...
eol -
He has way too many projects on his plate. He was better in his past, he collaborates with the same guy for most of his films. See where I'm getting at? Anyways, one at a time Ridley. Preferably Alien after Robin Hood.
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Has Obama been notified that this film is going into development? Someone needs to send the white house an email about this fishy story.
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Where he has 2 or 3 projects announced in one week.
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I get it. It's because Obama is steering us toward a homogeneous culture where individual freedoms no longer exist, right?
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has never convincingly played an adult, although he did come close in the Blood Diamond. He's just an eternal teen and it undermines films he's in.
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he's most wooden actor in movies now.
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that's why Orwell's 1984 no longer gets read in university lit classes. the parallels to Obama's regime are too striking. Go ahead, reread that book sometime. It's eerie.
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Use of "towards" is a fully acceptable form of "toward".
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go see Revolutionary Road or Blood Diamond. That should shut you up.
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I'm liking this idea. If only we could go back and erase the two previous disasters. By the way, Jabb...towards is a word; it is the more commonly British addition of the "S" that might have thrown you off. Americans prefer the shortened "toward." But keep up being a snobbish, ignorant prick.
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Agreed. Should have waited until Leo was 40 maybe 50 years old to do the Aviator. Would have been a more convincing performance.
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I love how we just spent eight years of an administration lying us into a war of choice with Iraq/Eastasia, setting up a system of trial-less detentions, and actually maintaining an illegal Room 101-style torture regime, and Obama -- who's been in office all of 6 months -- is somehow the Orwellian parallel.
Honestly, you mouth-breathing nimrods need to turn off the FOX News, grow the fuck up, and get out more. -
Interpret it any way you like. But you can't have a project developed that is focused on society and governments role in controlling it with out some comparision to current day control. No?
http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/08/gop-senator-white-house-encroaching-on-first-amendment.html
“I am not aware of any precedent for a President asking American citizens to report their fellow citizens to the White House for pure political speech that is deemed ‘fishy’ or otherwise inimical to the White House’s political interests,” Cornyn writes
“I can only imagine the level of justifiable outrage had your predecessor asked Americans to forward emails critical of his policies to the White House. I suspect that you would have been leading the charge in condemning such a program -- and I would have been at your side denouncing such heavy-handed government action.”
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The use of vulgarities in a debate is the sure sign that someone has lost said debate.
Problem with Mostholy's argument is that Bush isn't in office (and weirdly never became that dictator that everyone claimed he would become) instead, Obama is President.
Films and Books will always have a relevance towards the people who are currently holding control over society and the time of viewing or reading.
Yea, I used "towards" on purpose. -
that we are all just batteries for the machines and that there is no spoon. You telling me that's not true and that it's all Obama's fault. That Aldous Huxley prophesied Obama's Brave New World!That's fucking awesome! I love this site!
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That is all
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Not George Bush's regime. Pssh.
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Read this book when I was around 10-12, and have always loved it. Personally, I always preferred it to 1984, and I definitely trust Ridley Scott to deliver the goods. I'm still not the biggest fan of DiCaprio despite how many good to great movies he's in, but I have faith. They'd better not fuck us on this.
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on Mostholy, but here goes:
First, which administration is Big Brother? Which administration is trying to tell you what you can and can't eat, where you should and shot not go on vacation, what banks should fail and which should succeed? What administration took over two of the three auto companies as well as half of Wall Street? What administration is asking people to spy on each other? What administration uses scare tactics to push through legislation that fails to solve the crises they purported to address? The stimulus was supposed to rebound the economy and create millions of jobs; instead the economy has reached Depression levels and unemployment is Carter-esque. Instead of giving money back to voters and consumers to reinvest in the economy, which administration spent 3 Trillion Dollars of money we don't have? In the middle of a recession, which, by the way, began in 2006 when Congress was taken over by Democrats? -
Again, grow up. I used the word fuck in a sentence, you write like English isn't your first language. Let's call it even.
And, if you're really going to cite John "None of your civil liberties matter much after you're dead" Cornyn as some great defender of the first amendment, we're not having a debate, because there's no real point in indulging that kind of ignorance.
I'd recommend finding a new news portal besides Drudge and extracting your head from your ass, in whichever order you choose. (Oh, noes. Another vulgarity. Ah well, I'd rather be vulgar than stupid.) -
I don't know if it sucks or not as I've never seen it, but it's bound to get taken down now. And then no one will see it.
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Whereas Brave New World only works if it's bright and appealing. The whole point is you have this magnificent, functional society and then some filthy douchebag comes along and is like "What about Shakespeare and love and being angry at shit?" and ruins it all. Then the sheep-like audience/reader nods their head in agreement with the "message" of the story and pats themselves on the back for being "individual" enough to agree with absolutely everyone else in the Western world that a planned society is a bad idea.
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For turning this story into another drawn-out political debate. Its NOT NEEDED.
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I'll take it under advisement (I'll put it in the same file as the suggestions I get from my relatives who think the world will end in 2012, and my friends who think the Bush admin were behind the Sept. 11 attacks).
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BNW is immensely political and full of social commentary. The prevalence of an ultra-sexualized culture, the lack of any objective moral standard, it's all part of a socio-political agenda in the novel. Have you read it?
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...I'm reminded how much analog video sucked. Long live digital!
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I know folks like you are inimical to things like facts. But:
* The Wall St. bailout passed on Dubya's watch. Perhaps you remember Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson?
* The PATRIOT Act, retroactive immunity for warrantless NSA wiretaps, and sundry other Orwellian bills of the Dubya era were passed using mostly scare tactics.
* The stimulus is meant to work over 18 months. We're 6 months in. Recent reports seem to suggest the downturn is easing. (Try reading today's paper: http://bit.ly/KzFKE)
* How do you think we got these ridiculous deficits in the first place? I'll give you a hint -- It starts with an R and ends with an Eagan. Who's the only prez in modern times to submit balanced budgets and actually pull off a budget surplus? Starts with a C, ends with a Linton.) What prez racked up the biggest deficits in US History? Starts with a B...
I'd fisk the rest of your idiocies as well, but there's no point arguing with a pig. You just get dirty, and the pig loves it. So, have fun being a moron, I guess.
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I'll eat my hat.
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Instead of turning this into an Obama-Slamathon. I have not read the novel, but I am familiar with it. My problem with your posts are that, aside from the first joke, they have nothing to do with the story and instead are just aimed at making this yet another political yelling spree. And of course, you will do so without admitting any faults of the previous administration, won't you? If you're going to go down this route, AT LEAST have the decency to mention how Bush started the mess Obama is continuing.
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Aug 06, 2009 12:10:56 PM CDT
After reading it, this talkback is fucking full of fail
by tokyo_drifter
What's so bad about the White House looking to squash apparent disinformation that's spread about the administration? We're just getting over eight years of one that called questioning them unpatriotic, and brushed it off without even explaining their actions. Keeping the public in the dark while they did whatever, and this gets more apparent daily, the fuck they wanted? What's so bad about wanting to set the fucking record straight? It's not Big Brother, it's called A THINKING FUCKING LEADER, YOU NITWITS.
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Scott better still be making that, or i will fucking kill someone.
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You want to see Obama as an Orwellian type dictator but yet the Patriot Act, illegal wiretaps, and illegal detentions at Guantanamo Bay were all under Bush.....riiiiiight. PS ever fucking hear of the ACLU, they are the ones trying to defend your fucking individual rights...last time I checked they were pretty far left...fucking right wing morons
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Ridley + Sci Fi = Greatness
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leo putting on a shaky funny voice is not great acting.
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The Leonard Nimoy version was perfect, and can't really be improved on that much.
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Weird. I thought I had linked ABC News actually, but somehow Mostholy read that as Drudge Report, yet I'm the "moron" & "nimrod" that needs to wake the "fuck" up.
I at least don't have to invent fiction to make a point.
Bush is not President anymore, Obama is. If a film or book comes out that is critical of Government control over society, most sane people look to the current Government as the parallel, not a past Government. Yet all Government is Government, and the current Administration is proving that everyday they retain power.
Mostholy made the mistake assuming that since I referenced Obama in some muted negative light, I must be some "moronic nimrod" "right-winger".
I didn't realize that being concerned with the reach of Government Control forces someone into a specific category other than "concerned citizen".
Who knew that when I was concerned about the reach of the Bush Administration that I was a "Moronic Nimrod Rightwinger", most "right-wingers" at the time were labeling me as a "moronic left-winger".
Party loyalists are ever so entertaining. -
when he crushed the Constitution and solidified a centralized government. It intensified with T.R. and Wilson who began a foreign policy of intervention, and it really took hold with the New Deal and government control over production and interference in market forces and monetary policy. Bush was nothing more than a good old fashioned National Socialist...Obama takes his cues from Marx as filtered through European Socialism. Two sides of the same rotten fucking coin we've been flipping for over a hundred years. So stop looking to blame the GOP or the DNC and blame yourselves for the fucking mess this country, indeed the world is in...while you got fat, happy,ignorant and bought into the lie of Democracy and the Two part system...the politicians slipped the knife against your throats and only now do you notice. Fools.
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definitely apropos that the man who brought 1984 to the big screen is now handling the book that Orwell was ripping off in the first place.
kinda like how Spielberg is doing Tintin, which is the main source of inspiration behind all the Raiders flicks (besides those old saturday morning adventure serials, of coarse.) -
I.e. *not* dystopic. Huxley's future society isn't the Nazi-like terror state of Orwell's 1984 or, say, Moore's V FOR VENDETTA. That's the point.
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First, yes, the bank bailout happened under Bush, as did No Child Left Behind and the Farm Bill, massive spending bills all. I'm a fiscal conservative in addition to being socially and diplomatically conservative, so all the government spending and intervention in the economy is anathema to me. But Obama has floored the spending. Bush never spent $3 Trillion in 3 months. As for the Patriot Act, have there ever been concrete, documented instances of torture and domestic spying the likes of which was forecasted by Orwell? Some terrorists, who blow up women and children for having different religious view than them, and send children out to blow themselves up, got waterboarded for information that stopped further terrorism. Forgive me if I don't shed a tear for human scum. And FYI, members of our own military undergo waterboarding to prepare them for the possibility of capture and torture, so it can't be too horrific. Besides, no one know exactly what happened/happens at Gitmo, so to use speculation as evidence is not critical thinking. Fox News. Well, I don't watch FoxNews. Ever. And as often as you use Foxnews as evidence of my colsemindedness and intolerance, does that allow me to speculate on how often you read the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, watch CNN, ABC, NBS, CBS, 60 Minutes, or listen to NPR?
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Aug 06, 2009 12:44:10 PM CDT
spector / spastic, please shut the fuck up!
by nerd_rage_retard_strength
you idiots need to go listen to rush limbaugh so you can get your heads filled up with more bullshit and stay the hell away from these talkbacks. this is a geek movie site and not a platform for your ignorant political ideas. people like you are destroying this country so, please fuck off.
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Ask anyone that's tried it. Or are you like that conservative talk-radio host who arrogantly said the exact same things? Until he tried it, didn't come close to lasting longer than an average person, and immediately sputtered out "Yes, its torture."
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Oh, I geuss Nerd_Rage takes his hall monitor job very seriously.
Geek/Sci-Fi films never have sociopolitical relevance that should bve discussed?
I always thought that was what made sci-fi more intriguing, that it held more weight as a genre. Especially properties that were intended to create such dialogue like Brave New World was/is supposed to.
Does anyone think Ridley Scott, or anyone else for that matter, would be making this film if it didn't have modern relevance? -
Aug 06, 2009 12:53:24 PM CDT
Brave New World is so preachy, it's perfect for DiCaprio.
by royston lodge
The thing about Brave New World is that it wouldn't necessarily be a 'dystopian' novel if the author didn't say it was. Take the "savage" and the "preserve" out of the story, and what about the society is so "dystopian". No war. No poverty. No unhappiness. Even the dissenters are kept happy and rewarded with an even better life - who cares if they're separated from the general public?
DiCaprio suits this kind of story. "Everything about this society seems perfect, but trust me it's really really awful. No, really it is." -
I agree that maybe if Leo was older, the performance would have been a bit more believable. They're showing the Aviator on German TV tonight. Wonder if I'll like it better in German.
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Ok liberal idiots...the main difference between Bush's invasion of privacy and Obama's is that Bush was spying on people who he thought were going to kill Americans! he locked up foreign combatants in Gitmo...Obama is spying on AMERICANS who have a different political view than him...he is going after dissidents...say what you want about W. but he NEVER! NEVER! went after protesters and called them a Mob...Bush took it like a man...but people go after Obama's illconceived healthcare plan and all of a sudden they are a mob controlled by the republicans...talk about dividing the nation...you all hated Bush for what he did overseas, Obama is doing it here at home...sorry I care more about Americans than I do about foreigners
and Nerd_Rage_Retard_Strength...your name says it all...I'll be impressed if you even know what my name references...WITHOUT googling it
p.s. name all the innocent people who were victims of the patriot act? -
...would name their kid Aldous?
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When it comes to invading and destroying our personal freedoms, intent does not matter. There is no difference, its wrong all the way around. It sets a dangerous precedent. That's why.
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discussion is one thing. regurgitating right wing propaganda that you heard on fox news is a waste of everyones time, including your own. these talkbacks are a place for geeks to bitch and whine about who's being cast as John Carter of Mars. Rush's talkbacks are for regurgitation of right wing political views. (no, i am not left wing or right wing. i fucking hate politics.)
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Where did I regurgitate "right wing propaganda" or reference "FOX News"?
Seriously?
So you hate politics yet force people you disagree with into a specific political category?
I'll wait here while you link my "propaganda" and "Fox News" links. -
i don't care what your name refers too. but, i do know that it refers to something you learned in your freshman year at community college. you say "bush takes it like a man". i bet he did. he took it like a man from dick cheney, standing behind him with his pants around his ankles.
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1. Ridley Scott didn't "bring 1984 to the big screen," Michael Radford did. Though Scott did use some 1984ish imagery for a commercial once.
2. How come when somebody mentions something negative about Obama, everybody has to freak out and say, "Well, what about Bush?" What about him? He's not president anymore, get over it. Nobody was talking about him, and bringing him up is a straw man to get people away from the original point.
Obama seems to be getting a Maggie Lizer for whatever reason. Everybody keeps saying, "Just give him a chance, let it all work out, he's only been president for half a year..." What happened to the "question everything" of the last administration? Or any other administration, for that matter? You can't have it both ways. -
Congratulations, that is perhaps the most obscure pop culture reference I've ever seen, ever.
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here is the link: fox.com. you pretty much repeat the shit they say on a daily basis. so anything on that site applies. btw, i love how in two different posts on this thread you absolve bush of any wrong doing by saying that "he's not president anymore". so, the fact that our current president inherited all of bush's fuck ups makes it his fault? you are silly.
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Raskolnikov is the main character from Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment".
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i truly had no idea so many hardcore right wing people visited this site. yikes. this site is a bastion of ignorance of so many varieties
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I believe pple bring up Bush bc those attacking Obama for a specific issue didn't seem to do the same thing when Bush was doing it, and so it smacks of hypocrisy. Or they suggest Obama is starting something when in reality it was Bush who started it. All others are probably doing what you suggested and using Bush as a "your mamma" style comeback.
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Huh?
Seriously dude, what? That's your argument? So my making the point that Barack Obama is the current President is evidence of absolving Bush of any wrong doing?
I get it now, your screen name is code, your actually Charles Cheswick. -
my name does say it all. it describes you to a tee. do you think that making a "crime and punishment" reference makes you appear to be more intelligent?
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you are slow. your saying that the fact that bush is not president anymore means that all of the problems that bush created are actually obama's fault, because he is currently president. that is dumb logic.
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yes, you win. in this country, the ignorant and thick headed always win. thats why bush was pres for 8 years. you probably would have voted him in for a third term if you could have.
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Problem is, I never absolved Bush of any wrong doing. In fact, if you actually read through the posts, you may actually come to the opposite conclusion. Who would be slow?
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Actaully, never voted for Bush. Which is why your comments are hilarious.
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BLOOD MERIDIAN is no longer in Scott's hands. It is now being written and directed by Todd Field (IN THE BEDROOM and LITTLE CHILDREN).
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I blame you.
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I guess not; I try to check this site everyday. Well, Todd Field's a good dramatic director (and a great piano player in Eyes Wide Shut), so I'm interested to see how he'll handle it.
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annnnnnnnd... I'm out.
Good luck changing each other's minds, everyone. -
i read them. and i am now dumber for having done so.
"Bush is not President anymore, Obama is. If a film or book comes out that is critical of Government control over society, most sane people look to the current Government as the parallel, not a past Government."
"Problem with Mostholy's argument is that Bush isn't in office (and weirdly never became that dictator that everyone claimed he would become) instead, Obama is President."
those are from your post, genius. and they are ignorant statements. i like to deal in reality, not semantics. -
I don't believe AICN covered it but I know that CHUD did. It was announced several months ago but apparently it went largely unnoticed by everyone but the trades.In a way, I'm thankful Field is developing it because I don't think the story is suited for a mainstream/epic bloat feel that I'm sure Scott would have brought to the table.
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Wish he still had his column.
Damn you CHUD *shakes fist*. -
because i have a life. time to get back to it. i concede defeat, spastic jedi has convinced me that bush rules and obama drools.
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Shame about that column.
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I haven't read the novel, but based on what I've heard, I'm sure Ridley would have made it an epic whereas Field will concentrate more on the drama.
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Just cause journos can't get their shit straight doesn't mean he doesn't get shit done.
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Very "Logan's Run".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuiaT0nX9ls -
"In America it's bling bling, but out here it's bling bang". Delivered in that amazing South African accent....how could it not fail? Piece of shit. Leo is a decent actor (much better than Bale at least) but his recent tough-guy roles have been unconvincing.
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well no...but I thought all liberals are well read intellectuals like you are trying to portray...you're smarter than everyone else right? I don't agree with you politically so I am ruining the country? Do I have that right?...sorry but I tolerate your opinion even though I couldn't disagree more...I don't say you're ruining the country...but don't try and classify your fellow citizens as lower than you or less worthy of an opinion because that shit is dangerous and that's how problems start...and please don't report me to the White House. :)
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Well, I think the novel can best be described as a gothic horror western. It truly is one of the most disturbing and graphic books I've ever read. To bring it to the bigscreen is a real challenge because the book is essentially riddled with sickening violence. There are also long, descriptive passages that meditate on the most hellish of acts and conditions.Have you read any of Cormac McCarthy's work?My thoughts on Scott were that he would recreate the "world" and conditions as described in the book. However, I felt that he would be inclined to shy away from the violence (some of it strangely important) and would end up stylizing some of the shots/scenes as say in GLADIATOR.Field, on the other hand, may have a bit more freedom in terms of what kind of movie he will make. He's got the ear for the drama as well as a knack for creating some really sudden and shocking violence.
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It may work as lit, but a movie adaptation is unnecessary.
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Unemployment decreased until 1980, when it rose to its highest level since the depression in 1982. Then and 2009 are the highest unemployment rates since the great depression.
And I wish Bush had had another year on his term, or McCain had won.. then there would be no way to blame the squandering economy on anyone but him. However, he got out in the nick of time, and whoever got elected President is left to shoulder the blame. -
Scariest thing I've ever read. While 1984 didn't age well as the picture of a possible future, Brave New world seems more real and real every day. But it needs massive rewrites to work as a film.
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Hmm, let's see...
Unemployment is LESS than predicted as of today.
Auto industry sees huge increase due to CFC.
Stock market has not seen a percentage increase like this EVER, and my portfolio is kicking ass.
Obama is not taking this chop job editing bullshit and asking for leads to anyone who posts that crap. Crap that, if you posted about a private individual, s/he could sue you into a refrigerator box under an overpass.
Iraq is chilling out.
Afghanistan is heating up because we are finally giving it the attention is should have had from the beginning.
And finally, it is the JOB of the government to step in and fix shit when it totally craps the bed. That is its JOB you fucking 'tards. If it didn't do its job, the US would have utterly collapsed a few months back. Even W realized that and tried to do a little bit of something before his "exit stage left, nyuk nyuk nyuk".
Or, I'm all wrong. Obama is the reincarnation of Marx, Antichrist, bringer of 2012 doom, steeler of all your monies, freedoms, ammunitions, climate monies, all with the help of his arch angle Al Gore and the global cabal known as the IPCC.
We're doomed. :-/ -
Just like you can blame the recession Bush inherited on the Republican House and Senate Clinton had to contend with in his last two lame duck years, you can also put blame on the current situation on the Democrat House and Senate that Bush had to contend with during his last two lame duck years. Remember, it was Barney Frank and congressional Democrats that fought Bush on regulating Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, yet in the end, it would have helped.
I'm not comparing Presidents, rather comparing the two other branches of government they had to deal with at their time of departure. (I didn't vote for either Bush nor Clinton)
Most times, it's the Prez that takes the heat regardless of what is being signed into law by other lawmakers, but that's part of holding that office. You get the praise for something good, and you get the flak for something bad, regardless if you had any actual impact on either. -
Well done. I was going to jump in but I get enough political discussion over at huffingtonpost where I also post regularly. I come here for movies. Besides, you did very well without my help.
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I'm excited by Scott's involvement; not sure about DiCaprio's. If they try to let DiCaprio play Bernard Marx... This film will be made of Fail. Marx is the only truly interesting/conflicted character in the originaql piece; DiCaprio just doesn't have the chops to play the role well. Now, he could easily handle Thomas or any of the vapid, Soma-happy male characters... But not Marx!
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http://www.huxley.net/
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From the role of John The Savage; he would be laughable as hell trying to play a self-taught intelligent man!
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...of my favorite book. That NBC TV-movie ten years ago was absolutely appalling.
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1984 portrays a horrifying worls in which the government is burning books and eliminating words so as to stifle independent thought. Brave New World portrays an even MORE horrifying world in which people have no desire to read said books, and are bred so as to be almost incapable of an independent thought. For all of its 1980-eraq spandex-and-smooth-backgrounds chintziness, the Keir Dullea version stayed VERy close to preserving the book's structure and narrative. The Nimoy version tried to be hip & ironic... Two concepts which were completely alien to the source material.
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The ending of the original was ABSOLUTELY perfect and should not be tampered with!!!
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Aug 06, 2009 3:06:14 PM CDT
"Ridely Scott is [...] closer to taking on an adaptation of [...
by asimovlives
"Ridely Scott"? He's he? Some new guy making movies?
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So many projects attatched to his name, he should follow Miike's example and make 5 movies every year. I wouldn't complain. But the guy is like 72 now, he should think of his health.
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...Neil Postman, who actually wrote what you just copy&pasted from Wikipedia. Yeesh.
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What's Eating Gilbert Grape, for which he was nominated for an oscar for best supporting role at the age of 18.
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Aldous Huxley died the day Kennedy was assassinated. 22nd November 1963. Not really relevant, but kind of interesting.
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Portaits a future where society is dumbified by watching dumb stupid movies to make them complacent cows. You know, just like today, when audiences and critics and movie geeks get unquestionably complacent by watching dumb movies like Jar Jar Abram's Dawson Trek. Aldous Huxley was extremely prescient.
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Wchih means his death went completly unnoticed by the public.
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Must have been an unusual and interesting meeting day at the pearly gates.
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Sounds like a talkback handle.
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corporations and their political cronies pay people to sabotage town hall meetings and stifle free, democratic debate?
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He did imagined a world where all movies we as dumb and make people dumb as Jar Jar Abram's Dawson Trek. audous Huxley called those movies "feelies", because those movies only affect at the emotional level and nothing else. Like Jar Jar Abram's Dawson Trek.
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Don'y doubt it... But that same sentiment has been expressed (probably almost verbatim) in almost every compare/contrast essay on the major dystopian works (it's even in the Monarch notes, as I recall)... I'm actually paraphrasing Rev. Cornelius Ryan, my 11th grade English Literature teacher. But yeah, it's probably in Wiki somewhere...
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That was the only cool thing Huxley predicted.
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But nowhere near cut-and-pasted. Besides, Postman probably doesn't fat-finger as badly as I do.
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a book was written about their hypothetical meeting and discussion, not exactly at the pearly gates, but after death. You should check it out.
http://tinyurl.com/2pdxoq -
Aldous - from old German, meaning 'old', and has been in use since the middle ages. There ya go!
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Never read any McCarthy, though I'd been wanting to read The Road for the past few years.
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I only learned of that book's existence after posting my post. Funny coincidence that, but it's not unexpected that soemone would take that and made a literary work of that. Still, as coincidences goes, the death of this 3 important and well known people at the same day is truly an amazing thing.
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Didn't you?
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One of the very few movies to be released this year that i have a good feeling about it. That and Moon and District 9. Hapily for me, as a Sf junkie, it's good to know that 3 of the bes movies this year are from the genre. Thankfully so, as SF has been handled quite a terrible card this year thanks to the stupid retard blockbusters already released.
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...it's more of a dramatic fable. I felt a little deflated by the trailer for the film but I remain hopeful that Hillcoat managed to pull off a good adaption.D.Vader - do yourself a favor and pick up THE ROAD. Give BLOOD MERIDIAN a shot if you feel like a double dose of depressing. :)
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I don't remember anything that happened in it. Why was it so great?
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The 80's went with him. Sad day.
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But as Im a misanthropic fuck who believes the future will be some hellish, anarchic wasteland, I'm afraid it might scare me into building a shack in the woods and stockpiling weapons. Blood Meridian sounds good though. I just can't imagine how the violence can be so wretchedly off-putting; I'm curiously drawn to it because of that.
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And could Aldous have predicted that he'd be discussed in the same forum as Lindsay Lohan? Not so prescient I think!
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Aug 06, 2009 4:29:37 PM CDT
According to Fox News the end of America is coming soon.
by orionsangels
Unless we do something about it. The all anti-obama news station. Which revolves around questioning everything obama and dems do. Now as much as I hate Sean Hannity, I can respect him. Because straight off the bat he's telling you where he's coming from. We know he's from the extreme right and hates the left. We expect it from him. It's the others on Fox News I can't stand, Fox and Friends, Glenn Beck, O Reilly. Who pretend to be something they're not, fair and balanced being one of them. 90% of the guest on Fox News are anti-obama. Let's not forget MSNBC. Which is the opposite of Fox News. Whatever happend to just reporting the news. When did this country become so divided among parties? I remember when Jimmy Carter was president. Even if you weren't from his party. You respected the man as your president. The same thing can be said about President Reagan. Now it's my party or the highway! My beliefs or the highway. I hope the president fails because he doesn't believe in my policies. It's shit talk like that which bring a country down.
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Where do you find the time?
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heart attack during his morning run
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Great book...incredibly accurate in it's description of the future. Can't wait to see what Scott does with the material.
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I hope the movie has the child sex depicted in the book. Let's hope that blight of an NC-17 rating is abolished before the film comes out, so there will be no hindrance to beautiful, eight-year-old on eight-year-old action!
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Wasn't he Cliff's dad on the Cosby Show?
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Aug 06, 2009 4:48:04 PM CDT
WILL BOUNCE DO A FLASHMOB TRIBUTE DANCE FOR JOHN HUGHES?
by bringingsexyback
I love those!
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BNW is more complex than most of the dystopias you will find. Both the right and the left could find aspects to highlight and be offended by.
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You are aware that the Patriot Act, warrantless wire-tapping, email intercept, millitary tribunals, rendition, state-secret, etc are all still happening, right? The "constitution-shredding" Bush policies have been quietly embraced by Obama, not to mention other idiotic Bush programs like "No Child Left Behind" and the "Defense of Marriage Act". Don't fear though...I'm sure Michael Moore, Robert Redford, Paul Haggis et al. are all busy developing films critical of Obama's incorporation of Bush policy.
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Pity Scott isn't doing this any more, as he always wanted to do a Western. But it would (and probably still will be) NC-17 material, assuming no punches are pulled. I could imagine something of the tone of John Hillcoat's The Proposition, although more stylized. I guess we can toss Tripoli away as another one of Scott's unrealized projects, too. I really wish he'd stop making boring (and boring looking) contemporary thrillers or dramas, and get back to creating stylized worlds, be they sci-fi, historical, or westerns, and take on only projects that allow him to display his strengths.
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that NBC atrocity. I doubt the "writer" of that awful movie had even read BRAVE NEW WORLD.
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that NBC atrocity. I doubt the "writer" of that awful movie had even read BRAVE NEW WORLD.
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Agreed. Although the Bush Admin never did this before: http://tinyurl.com/ktjk7e
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I think audiences can finally grok it after all these years...
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BRAVE NEW WORLD is more about his own time, the 1930s. Promiscuity, mass production, powerful governments, killing machines etc. That what he predicted has already come so true (he was a sociologist) proves BNW is superior to 1984. Here in the UK it looks like the law is about to change in favor of "assisted suicide", or euthanasia. In the Brave New World there are no old folks, since they're too expensive to look after, and what's the use of keeping them around, anyways?
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He still hopes to do one someday. While interning there, I did coverage on a script that was pretty bad. Glad he didn't start developing it.
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done to death
Guess this version will have kung-fu and zombies to spice it up
This was a good read in grade school, makes a boring as fuck movie though -
is a handful of brain collapsed retards holding up the delusion that somehow the Obama administration is like Big Brother..yeh go on fuckwads, keep telling us how night is now day.
We can see for ourselves just fine. -
when Rupert Murdoch discovered a neat trick he learnt in Britain with his newspapers there...feed the sheep what they want.
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When the fuck are we going to get an updated adaptation of "Nineteen Eighty-Four," fer Chrissakes? I still have blue balls from Tim Robbins' proposed film version a few years back. In the right hands that could make a hell of a film. Um...again.
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especially the neocons, (which I call the neotzis, for I am THAT clever!) but I have to say it was Bill Clinton that named his database of political opponents "Big Brother" I don't think Obama's in on any of the Illuminatti shit though. Not only was he NOT in Skull and Bones, he didn't even go to Yale. Psssh. Like anyone from Harvard could start a brave new world!
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like someone said above, he's an eternal teen, and always looks it no matter how 'grown up' the roles.
and yes, the o'reilly fanbase are idiots. obama is noble. and socialized medicine works great in france. i'm living in asia, and even from here i can see middle americans are backward retards. -
...this one may be a bitch to adapt.
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Anyone want to talk about the film or the book or....?
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Any story on AICN seems to be an excuse for ignorant political trolling. BNW isn't a political book. The issues it deals with are sociological and ethical ones, not political ones.
We're talking about a society that worships Henry Ford (one of the few great unrecognised literary swipes at religion), is genetically engineered to be perfectly stratified and spends its leisure time watching porn in sensory-feedback machines. How does that in any way relate to Bush wiretapping phones or Obama spending money to combat a recession? The problem with such uninformed debate is that everything invariable has to be shrunk down to what the debaters know, and so every AICN talkback about politics degenerates into "my internet source told me this" "but Bush did this!" "don't you remember Reagan?!", or even worse into "I hate politics but here's why everything sucks". It's ironic that people keep bringing up 1984 here, because a book written in 1940s England should quite obviously NOT be about 21st century US party politics. Orwell's novel is a how-to guide for authoritarianism, but its point is not that any particular policy (the oft misconstrued Big Brother, Newspeak etc.) is analogous to Ingsoc, but that the ignorance of the kind on display in these talkbacks is so easily manipulated by that kind of malevolence.
Back on-topic, the real question of Ridley Scott making BNW is whether he can stir up the right kind of debate with the film. Idiots from both sides of politics will try to win cheap political points by arguing about collectivism or social engineering or gender roles or whatever, but the real question that needs to be discussed is the ending. If Scott's successful, there should be a more serious debate about the role of the outsider in society. The Brave New World is perfect, with no crime, no aspiration, no want of anything, but John and his mother's experience suggest that the cost of perfection is too high. If there wasn't so little intelligence around here I'd say that that would lead to some interesting and challenging debate. -
yeah, but what's your stand? GOP or obama? :)
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Almost tempted to wade into the political bullshit here (yet again) but resisted. Your post puts a fine point on the angle of Huxley's book and also how talkbackers reduce everything down to their narrow band of their own political spectrum knowing shit about the source material or history. ESPECIALLY history.
I don't know your politics...we may differ greatly... but I sense your frustration in thinking maybe some larger themes of the book could be discussed beyond silly political caricatures. That's like turning on a c-span book review but finding the cartoon channel instead.
I still find occasional sport in coming here and going into the fray with many of the ass clowns here. Knowing the folly of it all going in is a help. -
Umm, according to whom? Isn't that the entire thrust of the novel? That sociological and physiological parameters of "perfection" aren't enough? That there is a spiritual, moral element to life and culture? That the Savage's protest against the pleasure-worshiping society decries the argument for perfection?
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...is that the sort of message that a Hollywood movie is likely to endorse? Not to veer into political waters again, but stipulating that people would understand such a message, would they be interested in it? And would it be accurately transmitted in the movie?
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"Umm, according to whom? Isn't that the entire thrust of the novel? That sociological and physiological parameters of "perfection" aren't enough? That there is a spiritual, moral element to life and culture? That the Savage's protest against the pleasure-worshiping society decries the argument for perfection?"
If you'll just read the rest of my sentence, that's exactly what I was talking about. It's definitely hard to argue against - the earthly pleasures are all accounted for, the disadvantaged are actually conditioned to enjoy their lot in life, and there's nothing at all sinister about the whole thing. And yet we instinctively react against the Brave New World. The ethical debate about "the freedom to feel pain" is pretty interesting.
As to whether a wide audience could grasp that, I don't think there's any reason why not. Audiences seemed to 'get' the free will arguments in The Matrix (even if that film had action scenes to soften the blow) and if the focus remains on John's reaction to the society it should be pretty blatant. I think the beauty of the novel is that such a complex ethical dilemma is portrayed so succinctly. -
...taking a second to adjust his package as he walked by? Ha. Ha, ha, ha. And ha.
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The difference between "toward" and "towards" is entirely dialectal. Toward is more common in American English while towards is the predominant form in British English.
Both forms are grammatically correct. -
and get back doing scifi. He was born for that genre.
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If Harlan Ellison or Brain Aldiss had writen The Road, nobody would had bat an eyelid that the book was SF. Becasue the book was writen by McComarc, a man more well known for writing modern westerns, people are hard to pick on the book as if it belongs to the Sf genre. It is SF. It is his only SF book, but nontheless, it is SF. Same thing with 1984. Those are SF books. Their allegorical nature of those books do not exclude their being in the SF genre.As for Blood Meridian, as i'm reading it, i don't think that to call it depressing in the right word. Harsh and unforgiving, yes. I think that for a story to be depressing, one would need to feel amy sort of empathy for the protagonists. But in Blood Meridian, all the protagonists are a bunch of unredeamable psychotic shits, with the major protagonist, The Kid, hardly being the best of the bunch. They are very interesting characters, yes, but there's nothing sympathetic or nice about them which make one feel depressed for their fates.
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Nor did Huxley attempt to do so. He slyly namedrops big political figures throughout and he still examines the State. It is a World State and a Totalitarian State so it is not an easy parallel but it is firmly in the realm of the Political even though it is far removed from today's pointscoring partisan party politics. Which do indeed get brought up with alarming regularity any time a Movie appears that seems to have ANY political or societal critique within.(or even just hinted at)
Yes, his vision hardly corresponds with a glib left or right reading that some will attempt to force upon it, nor was it meant to. It is complex. But it still deals with ideas that are firmly in the realm of politics and always will be. -
Nothing else matters.
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Couldn't be more pleased :) Granted I'm still peeved about an Emmerich directed Foundation and a Peter Berg directed Dune, but this is definitely a welcome surprise!
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on youtube. Both are rather touching in their own way. The 1980 version is very literal, and is enjoyable in its campiness and sincerity.
The '96 version avoids the camp factor, and makes several smart choices. Still, isn't enough narrative thrust/conflict.
I think this will be a difficult work to adapt, and I hpe they make many departures from the book. Flesh out the story and characters. there also has to be more conflict than the simple "fish out of water" story. Would love to see Mustafa as a smart, devious woman, actively manipulating the principals against some threat to her control or society. -
Bravo sir, for the great post at 10:31:57 PM.
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I'd see a Ridley Scott BRAVE NEW WORLD. I bet it'll be fuckin' great.
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Hmm, let's see... Unemployment is MUCH LESS than predicted as of yesterday. Auto industry sees huge increase due to CFC. Stock market has not seen a percentage increase like this EVER, and my portfolio is kicking ass (I know, trailer trash have no idea what a portfolio even is). Obama is not taking this chop job editing bullshit and asking for leads to anyone who posts that crap. Crap that, if you posted about a private individual, s/he could sue you into a refrigerator box under an overpass. Iraq is chilling out. Afghanistan is heating up because we are finally giving it the attention is should have had from the beginning, and the Taliban leader was just killed off. And finally, it is the JOB of the government to step in and fix shit when it totally craps the bed. That is its JOB you fucking 'tards. If it didn't do its job, the US would have utterly collapsed a few months back. Even W realized that and tried to do a little bit of something before his "exit stage left, nyuk nyuk nyuk". Or, I'm all wrong. Obama is the reincarnation of Marx, Antichrist, bringer of 2012 doom, steeler of all your monies, freedoms, ammunitions, climate monies, all with the help of his arch angle Al Gore and the global cabal known as the IPCC. We're doomed. :-/
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Huxley's thesis is that the forces of "progress" would ultimately have to remake Man, and debase him, in order to make him "fit" into industrial society and mass culture. [I'm not saying I agree with his thesis, but it's a very important one and he translated it into fiction better than just about anyone else with a similar thesis.] And Huxley, like any speculative writer would, tried to imagine the means that would be used to actually alter, warp and debase Man, and did so to the limit of the scientific knowledge available at that time. But history has moved on, and science has moved on. The TV movie version was a little "jokey" about it, and made it an in-joke about the world of television, but TV culture is in fact one means of debasing Man psychologically that Huxley didn't know about. Direct genetic engineering [rather than "alcohol in the artificial womb" or what have you] is another. And Huxley did not foresee [as Orwell did] the ways in which total surveillance and total control would themselves act to diminish the human spirit. So to update Huxley's thesis to modern conditions, you'd have to alter the world he constructed slightly to include things like these. I also think that since we have CGI available, the movie has to be made UNFLINCHINGLY - the Deltas and Gammas have literally been made subhuman to fit into their social role, and the director cannot shrink from depicting that without losing some of the real horror of the story. The handicapped activist groups would howl, but if everyone depicted on screen is a handsome LA or Vancouver extra, you aren't really telling this story. The Deltas and Gammas have to look like hideous mongoloid dwarfs, alternating between blind subservience, naked sensualism, and inarticulate rage, depending on the situation. The real horror of the story occurs in two moments: the moment when the Savage tries to "free" the lower social classes, and they turn on him like enraged apes; and the moment when the Savage has tried to go into hiding, and the Alphas come out to observe him because they find his anguish at their world of horrors amusing. You can't really communicate those two moments unless you show exactly how horrible the manipulation of humanity has been.
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This one is like a punch to the gut.
http://tinyurl.com/l46w2c -
Well, I can certainly see why some people would be quick to call THE ROAD sci-fi = a post-apocalyptic setting. But I think that is a modern convenience considering the manner of the story and the style in which McCarthy tells it. To me, it's a fable but you can choose to call it whatever you want. It makes no difference to me.As for BLOOD MERIDIAN, finish reading the book and THEN tell everybody about how it makes you feel. No one said anything about feeling sympathy for any of the characters. Especially the Kid. To say that every single character in the book is a bloodlusting, unredeamable psycho is just stating the obvious.
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But I agree, the way the story is told, it nearly approaches myth. Still, post-apocalyptic tales are more or less always in the realm of the speculative, as in future, as in 'speculative future' -- arguably the defining nature of sci-fi. Any stories that tread these paths will be identified as at least having sci-fi elements. But, yeah, I see what you are saying.
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I really liked the tone of your post. Too bad you couldn't help yourself from refraining from posting that retard version of my nick. I hope in the future you can be completly civilized next time you post replies for me. Said that, i really enjoyed your last post, at least the text.
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Post-apocalypse scenarios are hallmakrs and part of the Sf genre. You have a post-apocalypse story, it is SF. The Road Is a SF story. A SF story that is also a fable, a traveler's story, a survivalist story, an horror story, a paternal love story, an allegory, etc, etc, etc... Sf is a genre that embraces all other manners of literary and story styles and genres. SF might be the genre most welcome to become an hybrid with every other genre there is. It's one of the greatest beauties of the Sf genre, it's plasticity, and one of the reanos it's my favorite genre.As for Blood Meridian, i already have the end of the novel spoiled. In fact, i already read the end chapter, which i found posted in it's entirely in some website some time ago. It was becasue i read that that i recided to buy the book and read it whole. So, i already know how the book ends, and still, i say the book is harsh, unrelentless, bleak and uncompromising, but i wouldn't call it depressing, not ebcause there is no bad things happening to good people. In fac,t there might be some measure of morality in the ending, because that prick The Kid gets in the end a fate which migth very well measure up what he has done and who he is. It's like as if The Judge became the personification of nature, of natural law, of natural justice, which dispensed punishment to the psychotic fuck who is the protagonist of the story.
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Any Mad Max movie is SF, even if there is no lazer beams and space ships. The Mad Max saga is Sf because both of it's futuristic setting (aka, it's set in the future) and because of it's post-apocalyptic setting. Post-Apocalyptic does not imply SF, post-apocalyptic IS SF!
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Aug 07, 2009 1:21:46 PM CDT
Since "Post-Apocalyptic" is inherrently a speculative future sce
by mr. nice gaius
...I will concede the point.Regarding BLOOD MERIDIAN, it's a shame that you read the final chapter before actually reading the rest of the book. I think you really did yourself a disservice there and it appears to have clouded your perception a bit. Your assumption that there might be "some measure of morality in the ending" because the Kid gets it in the end is completely wrong. (In fact, morality is something that does not exist in the story despite the initial hope that the Kid just might turn out to be a hero of sorts - he does not.) This is in direct relation to the nature of the Judge who is NOT the personification of law or justice. In fact, one would say that he is the exact polar opposite. And his relationship with the Kid is more complicated than you might think (to say nothing of how he relates to Glanton and the rest of the gang).When you finish the book I think you'll see what I mean.
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Try not to be so fucking ignorant.
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Aug 07, 2009 3:50:54 PM CDT
I agree with the scifi element, similar to Texas Chainsaw Massac
by takingscorpioscalls
Which also has a scifi element with the sun flares credit sequence alluding to strange happenings because of it.
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I'm not sure I agree with everyone here about what science fiction entails. I like to take a much more literal definition of the genre, because otherwise, as AsimovLives noted, the genre becomes ridiculously broad. What's the point of genre as a classifying media by genre if you can hyphenate it so much? I know it's not the standard modern understanding of the term, but I prefer science fiction to actually have some science in it. I guess that's what's considered hard sci-fi, but I don't really see the point of calling something sci-fi unless it actually does what it says on the tin. So to my mind Star Wars is more fantasy than sci-fi and The Road isn't sci-fi in the slightest (the cause of the apocalypse isn't mentioned, really alluded to at all, and is ultimately irrelevant to the story about The Man and The Boy).
When it comes down to it, I think sci-fi, like action, or comedy, or tragedy is mostly just useful as a label or shorthand, so it's not all that important, but that's my thoughts on the subject.
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