scary new world…film
by CJ | Apr 8, 2013 | Journal | 90 comments
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Books
- spoiler potential: caution: book questions.
- Bibliography
- Alliance-Union Guidebook
- Foreigner Guidebook.
- Foreigner Guidebook.
- Gene Wars Universe: Spoiler Alert
- The Map Room
- Book Discussion: all books: spoiler alert in effect…
- Fantasy books: Spoiler alert.
- About the Foreigner series: Spoiler alerts
- Foreigner Series: Spoiler Alerts: Page 2
- WHO’S WHO in Foreigner
Archives
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| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | |
I’ve always imagined Signy Mallory as similar to Sigourney Weaver, probably from Lt. Ellen Ripley in the Aliens films.
Claudia Black, who played Aeryn Sun in Farscape and played a role in the last two or three seasons of Stargate SG-1, could play a good Morgaine.
Max Pirkis? Midshipman Lord Blakeney from Master and Commander? — I think he also had a role in HBO’s Rome series. — But I haven’t seen him as an adult actor. Still, he came off believably well for me in M&C, so possibly he’d do well as Vanye.
I tend to view books as very separate from movie adaptations, unless the book is a novelization after the fact of the movie. To me, you always get more from the original books. But sometimes, movies do a good job, considered as their own, separate vehicle.
I’d expect a movie would boost book sales. There’s generally a new cover done to tie the movie and book in the public’s mind, a new printing / new edition. So people would get a chance to read the books for the first time, or reread.
I’d love to see Claudia as Morgaine!
Ah, been watching syfy all night, and have to snicker at Jaime Murray with white hair… she’s GETTING white hair in the new series they’ve got coming out-‘Defiance’
Now I have to go find some books I haven’t read in YEARS so I can figure out who would work! (sneaking off)
Fully jazzed about the effort, and as William Goldman (augustly referenced in this discussion) famously said, “No one knows anything in Hollywood.” If nothing else comes of this production, I hope there will be a greater awareness in the industry of CJ’s work and its potential.
The power in the Morgaine stories, to me, comes from the glimpsed profundity and horror the Gates really represent, and the intensity with which the protagonists experience the pains of their chosen missions: Morgaine’s quest, Vanye’s fealty.
The thing is, these roles are the Holy Grail of Hollywood: potential Best Actor performances. The woman who ably brings Morgaine to life will be as A-list as Helen Mirren or Angelina Jolie if it comes off right. What pro of a certain age could resist that? And if the Morgaine film(s) work, there’s Signy and Bet and Pyanfar and so many other strong females waiting to be portrayed. As for Vanye, his role could make a household name of an actor making the vault from TV to features.
As for VFX, the true art was always to enhance the film invisibly, with only the astounding visible – dinosaurs, flying carpets, bursting dams. VFX if done thoughtfully could solidify a shooting location into a Gate world with added detail. The black hole at the tip of Morgaine’s sword and its amazing local gravitic effects could become a signature shot, like the Millenium Falcon’s hyperdrive jump. One could imagine a shop like Tippett Studios conferring with Caltech about atmospheric and topographic effects of local spacetime warping. (The audience would just goggle at oak trees, mounted cavalry, boulders, bowmen and screaming bystanders twisting like taffy in the air, as the demon vortex inhaled everything in visual range save Morgaine and Vanye…)
The Falcon’s “signature” hyperdrive jump effect was invented by John Carpenter in Dark Star.
Phil Brown
One of the problems with casting Morgaine is that she is incredibly old, but if I recall correctly, LOOKS to be 20-ish, and relatively attractive. Which leaves out a lot of seasoned actors, or else requires someone who is young-looking.
Hmm… what about Jessica Alba? Trying to picture her with white hair.
No one has mentioned Angelia Jolie as Morgaine? She’s not how I imagine Morgaine but with a white wig she’d be pretty wicked (and she can actually act when she wants). Heath Ledger would have been good as Vanye, but how about the boy who was Simon in Nanny McPhee? How did he grow up? He would be young enough. I’d hate to see Vanye played by a 30 year old – it would lose the innocence and vulnerability.
Too pretty, too shallow. Remember Morgiane and Vanye are travelling all the time between gates in what to us might be described as a medieval environment, living in and off the land or primitive or post apocalyptic environments. They should show the effects. Her hair might be white, but it would also be rough (getting washed only occasionally with whatever rough (tallow?)soap is at hand) and kept short. No makeup, not even the best kind, i.e. unnoticable.
We’re talking Hollywood. Realism is not what people want to see when they go to the movies. I’d expect closer to Ladyhawke than Braveheart. Much the same way that the people in the Walking Dead manage to stay clean-shaven, with neat hair, despite the fact that I have no idea what they are doing for water.
Oh, right! You mean like making Cherenkov radiation in a reactor pool yellow in the original James Bond movie, “Dr. No”? Or the modem tones in “War Games”? Or the afore mentioned opening title scene from STNG? Some of us do appreciate realism and attention to detail.
They actually rub “Sexy Dirt” on the stars of the Walking Dead to give them a dirty appearance, but yes, they do have a false dirtiness quality to them.
Hah! Never heard it referred to quite like that, but LOL, that’s great! (Really gave me a good laugh, and my conscious doesn’t want to admit my subconscious liked it that much.) *laugh* So needed that. Thanks!
OT: There’s a nice article in The Atlantic commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of SF writer Cordwainer Smith. As with Margaret Thatcher, people either tend to love him or hate him. (I’m in the former category.)
There are some excellent comments below the article, including a couple by his daughter. She says, “In our family ‘normal’ was often said with a slight sneer!”
Remembering Cordwainer Smith: Full-Time Sci-Fi Author, Part-Time Earthling
Nobody’s science fiction education is complete without reading Scanners Live In Vain, which, by the way, CG now permits to be made into a film.
I read his stories as a child when they came out and they had a great effect on me.
Phil Brown
If you build it, they will come…
http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/04/cj-cherryh-morgaine-cycle-movie#comments
Nuts, you beat me to the draw, podner. Can’t let “prolific and beloved” author pass without endorsement.
OT, but is there a translation of “Gods infelicitous!” into Atevi anywhere (or Tabini’s magnificent “Gods infelicitous and blasphemous!”?) Ditto “Gods felicitous.” Inquiring fangirls want to know. CJ?
O yes. There are times I’d like to drop something appropriate like that into conversation or commentary, but I end up having to settle for some of the choicer Chinese maledictions the crew of the Serenity has used.
http://www.toplessrobot.com/2010/11/fireflys_15_best_uses_of_chinese_profanity.php
Often I use the Hawaiian “O ye four hundred thousand gods and goddesses! O the five ledges of the pit!”
Male leads (had some more thoughts) – Jensen Ackles or Jared Padaleki, who star in Supernatural, where they get to play cursed (essentially) brothers on a mission to stop the Apocalypse. Which they started. So, they have some experience already with playing characters who are put into similar moral situations as Vanye. And they have both done episodes where they have to play multiple parts (sometimes as past/future selves, sometimes good/evil versions), in case you want to do one actor playing both Vanye and Roh.
@philosopher77 I remember being impressed with Die Hard because the hero STAYED wounded from scene to scene!
What gets me is, I would dearly love to see many of CJ’s books in video form, but there’s much that’s internal and much that is not what the major studios tend to go for or produce, certainly not without being altered, sometimes too drastically.
CJ’s aliens could be done with a mix of CGI graphics, prosthetics, or animatronics and muppetry, depending on the aliens in question. For the latter, see Farscape, Dark Crystal, and Yoda in the Empire Strikes Back. See Also the Creature Shop, the firm who created the live and animatronic / muppet practical effects for many of Farscape’s (and other series’) aliens. See also Dominar Rygel XVI, voiced by the late Jonathan Hardy.
One notes Jessica Alba and Jenson (Jensen?) Ackles played together in Jim Cameron’s Dark Angel TV series. (Ackles played a good X-5, Alec and a villain, a very bad-guy villain, Ben, not the series male lead Logan.) Jessica Alba played Max, the female lead. — I’m partial, I really liked Dark Angel.
The lady who played H.G. Wells in Warehouse 13 has done a fine job. I could see her as Morgaine. She can play smart, athletic, good, bad, or anti-hero.
Aiden Turner, who played Kili in An Unexpected Journey.
For Morgaine, Jennifer Lawrence. Not an obvious choice, but one thing I’ve noticed from her pictures is that she is always believable in whatever role she has. And she can do tough and cold.
Lawrence is a wee bit young. But she’s taken on some heavy roles in her short career, so who knows?
I have not been on this blog for quite a while, and have just finished reading the entire thread. This possibility has me pumped! This is a really big opportunity not only for our beloved Cj, but for all fans of QUALITY Science Fiction. Wouldn’t it be nice to go to a couple movies each year by Name authors whose work has been treated with proper, er, reverence, and with appropriate production values? We can all be BIG WINNERS! But right now, with the producer shopping this property around to studios for funding, the more noise we make, the better. I am surprised that so few fans have actually posted on either of the two major links below.
http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/04/cj-cherryh-morgaine-cycle-movie#comments
and
http://variety.com/2013/film/news/fantasy-book-series-the-morgaine-stories-set-for-bigscreen-adaptation-1200334198/comment-page-1/#comment-11058
Show your support for Cj, and quality Science Fiction by posting wonderful, effusive praise for Cj and this project on these links! If anyone knows of more sites that are even borderline appropriate, please let us all know. If you have a FB page, please post these articles on your Timeline with your own (joyful!) comments. C’mon folks – this is Cj and SF we are promoting here! Cj, can I get an AMEN! What else can we do to help?
Just comment in the comment spots and say nice things, hopefully. I’m quite astonished by the speed with which this is proliferated through these media sites….
Show your support for CJ! Here are a few more:
http://blog.newsok.com/bamsblog/2013/04/10/screen-rights-optioned-for-oklahoma-bred-author-cj-cherryhs-morgaine-stories/
http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/26733/aaron-magnani-to-produce-morgaine-series
http://www.fandompost.com/2013/04/09/morgaine-cycle-books-getting-theatrical-adaptation/
http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=102653
Another candidate for Morgaine — Olivia Wilde.