What fantasy stories are should be done next on the big screen?

[Desdichado]

• Black Company (first three books).

Ooooh.... good call.

 

[EastCoast9]

As stated previously, alot of the Gemmell books would transfer very easily to cinema... plus, I love them! Personal picks would be the Waylander cycle and King beyond the gate, thought I suspect the Druss cycle would be an easier sell...

Tales of the Bard (by Michael Scott, I think??)

A series I read a long time ago, that I can't remember the name of, that was about a group of people sent back in time to prehistoric France, to find that two races already existed there in that time, which were the basis of the Celtic myths of the Tuatha de Dannan and the Fir Bolg. If anyone can tell me the name of the series I'll be eternally grateful!

The Orion series (people might be noticing a trend in my picks by now)

Anything based on the older cycles of Celtic Mythology (Nuada, Balor of the Evil Eye etc)

 

[Rykion]

Very seldom are the characters literally naked, if you read the books carefully. There's all kinds of instances where knife blows and whatnot are deflected by ornamentation and whatnot. Also, since ERB wrote from a somewhat Victorian point of view, "naked" very probably does not mean literally completely naked.

John Carter definitely showed up on Mars naked, as his transportation didn't bring his clothes. Here is the description of the first Green Martian warrior Carter sees moments after arriving "[he was] entirely unarmed and as naked as I, except for the ornaments strapped upon his head, limbs, and breast." His description of the Red Martian princess: "She was as destitute of clothes as the green Martians who accompanied her; indeed, save for her highly wrought ornaments she was entirely naked." Nakedness was not brought up in the way, or as often as, a modern writer probably would, but there is nothing in the writing to suggest they clothed themselves. The Red Martians have the technology to observe people on Earth and feel it strange that we feel the need to clothe ourselves.

I do agree that the slave-girl Leia look would work for women, and men chould have loin cloths and gold ornamentation, but that is an addition that doesn't exist in the books.

All quotes in this post are from Edgar Rice Burroughs' A Princess of Mars, save the opening quote from Joshua Dyal.

 

[Desdichado]

Thank you, I know my A Princess of Mars quotes very well. I said you had to read the books carefully to realize that for someone who was naked, there were an awful lot of mentions of clothing and ornaments on them that clearly indicated that they weren't naked in an NC-17 sense of the word. Several times "breast ornamentation" is mentioned on the women, and it's clear that it is fairly substantial breast ornamentation; it saves Sola's life when Sarkoja attempts to kill Dejah Thoris, for instance, and Sola jumps in between them. John Carter himself does an amazing amount of things with his "harness" that clearly indicates that it had plenty of cloth on it.

And, as I already said, the Victorian concept of nakedness does not actually imply complete nakedness. Just because ERB said naked doesn't mean he meant it in the same way as we take it now.

I do agree that the slave-girl Leia look would work for women, and men chould have loin cloths ang gold, but that is an addition that doesn't exist in the books.

No, it's not. ERB never explicitly describes what folks are wearing, although except in some exceptional circumstances, as in when John Carter first arrives on Barsoom, it is clear that they are wearing a fair amount of something because he's always mentioning a ton of harnesses and ornaments and capes and all kinds of things. Since the books are not clear on exactly what the characters wearing, you have to look beyond just the word "naked" and interpret from other clues internal to the text as well as the cultural frame of reference in which ERB lived and wrote.

I think both literally naked and slave-girl Princess Leia style "clothing" are both valid interpretations of what is written, and frankly, I think even even more substantial covering than that is not beyond what ERB might well have meant.

 

[Rykion]

No, it's not. ERB never explicitly describes what folks are wearing, although except in some exceptional circumstances, as in when John Carter first arrives on Barsoom, it is clear that they are wearing a fair amount of something because he's always mentioning a ton of harnesses and ornaments and capes and all kinds of things. Since the books are not clear on exactly what the characters wearing, you have to look beyond just the word "naked" and interpret from other clues internal to the text as well as the cultural frame of reference in which ERB lived and wrote.

Burroughs wrote for pulp magazines in the 1910's and started his own book publishing later. The pulps were full of stories where naked means naked, so it's not like he wrote in a time or from a source where it would have been totally taboo.

The Martians definitely wore a decent amount of ornamentation, but things like skirts or loin cloths aren't mentioned. They wore harnesses for their weapons and equipment, not as a covering because they were ashamed of nakedness. Martian society's difference in honor and shame were written to be very different from John Carter's society as a US southerner that served in the Civil War.

 

[Mean Eyed Cat]

My nominations:

The Scar by China Mieville
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Practical Demonkeeping by Christopher Moore

 

[Desdichado]

The Martians definitely wore a decent amount of ornamentation, but things like skirts or loin cloths aren't mentioned. They wore harnesses for their weapons and equipment, not as a covering because they were ashamed of nakedness. Martian society's difference in honor and shame were written to be very different from John Carter's society as a US southerner that served in the Civil War.

I won't deny that in my mind's eye, I most certainly do imagine the incomparable Dejah Thoris (to say nothing of Thuvia, Tara of Helium, Valla Dia, Llana of Gathol, and all of the other beautiful Martian women) as pretty much naked naked, and I wouldn't want it any other way. But I also still disagree that that's the only valid interpretation based on the text of the stories themselves.

And I'm sure we can both agree that if this is translated into a mainstream movie, the characters will spend very little time actually completely naked too...

 

[Rykion]

I won't deny that in my mind's eye, I most certainly do imagine the incomparable Dejah Thoris (to say nothing of Thuvia, Tara of Helium, Valla Dia, Llana of Gathol, and all of the other beautiful Martian women) as pretty much naked naked, and I wouldn't want it any other way. But I also still disagree that that's the only valid interpretation based on the text of the stories themselves.

And I'm sure we can both agree that if this is translated into a mainstream movie, the characters will spend very little time actually completely naked too...

I never said that it was the only valid interpretation, but I think being mostly naked, to the point of at least NC-17, is the most literal interpretation. Obviously, one of the strengths of books is that our imagination can fill in blanks, each in a way we prefer. I agree that any mainstream movie will definitely put clothes on the main characters, and I think that's a good thing as it opens the movies up to a wider audience.

I'm really hoping a good John Carter of Mars movie comes out, so that producers might actually spend money on projects based on good pulp writers. I was mostly dissapointed by the Conan movies, and some of Lovecraft's work could make great movies rather than the very bad B ones that have been released. A more visceral Tarzan movie would go over well with me too. Producers please note that Casper Van Dien is not a good choice to play Tarzan.

 

[EricNoah]

A Song of Ice And Fire... obviously! Hey, people said LotR was unfilmable... surely they can work something out for this?

I agree, but not for the big screen. I say a well planned-out and produced TV series that goes on for 3-4 years. Think LotR + Dynasty (or whatever other soap opera you want to add) ... The tangled relationships, the huge cast .... it's very TV-worthy.

 

[Rykion]

A Song of Fire and Ice definitely would be more easily done as a TV series. It would have to be done by HBO or another pay channel though to prevent major cuts from the material in the books.