Wolfe movies from short stories

The bulk of Wolfe's writing is either short-stories/novellas or multi-volume stories. Even Wizard Knight is way too long to do any justice with a movie. So if you really want a Wolfe movie, you should be looking to his shorter stuff. A lot (most?) of his short stuff is probably way too grim to be greenlighted as a movie, at least in the USA, but if you leave that aspect aside, here's a few stories I think you could get a good movie out of: When I Was Ming the Merciless War Beneath The Tree The Last Thrilling Wonder Story (would be panned as a rip-off of Stranger than Fiction) The HORARS of War (Blade Runner rip-off) And When They Appear (complete re-write of the ending would be mandatory, we'd just have to hope the screenwriter could come up with something good). Oh, and what's the name of the story about the three Disney robots at the end of the world? Any other ideas? Rostrum

Greetings: "The HORARS of War (Blade Runner rip-off)" If this is the one I'm thinking off...wasn't it written well before either the P.K. Dick tale, the Alan E. Nourse tale or the movie? FPK3

Greetings: "The HORARS of War (Blade Runner rip-off)" On the other hand, you might be saying (as you said in the previous title in your list) that it would be perceived as a BR rip-off. Would that be a problem? At least, if it were well done? I recall some adverts for "Children of Men" that say it is the "Blade Runner of the 21st Century" (kind of silly given when BR takes place...), so maybe the comparison would be a positive one. FPK3

Yeah, I was talking about how it would be received. The thing is, it's not duplicating the feel of Blade Runner (in fact it might look more like Predator or one of the last two Rambo movies) but the central high concept: is the protagonist a replicant or not? Then there could also be the Sixth Sense ripoff: The Other Dead Man. Actually, that could be an awesome movie. Pitch it as 2001 meets the Sixth Sense and you could probably get some serious $$$. I'd also think you could get a really good movie out of Ming the Mercilless, if you got a sufficiently creepy actor for Ming and framed it as cutting back and forth between the interview with Ming and the action in the experiment. Hollywood would probably require adding a third act where some of Ming's minons get free and rescue him and then the hero psychologist (who was opposed to the experiment from the beginning) defeats and kills him. Rostrum

On Thu, 12 Apr 2007 09:57:34 -0600, "Michael Straight" <mfstraight at gmail.com> said:

Not by Wolfe, but Howard Waldrop: "Heirs of the Perisphere." As for movies, I think the first third of FIFTH HEAD would make a good film, especially if directed by someone stylish like Christopher Nolan. It would start with the murder of Maitre by persons unknown, and then a prefect from Saint Croix could undertake to solve the case by looking at various of Cave Canem's denizens, each of whom might have a motive for killing Maitre: his two sons, his crippled scientist-sister, his robot progenitor, a disgruntled employee (prostitute) of or visitor (john) to the House at 666 Saltimbanque or even a visiting anthropologist from Earth. I'd also eliminate for ease of backstory the abo-Saint Anne connection and make the shapechangers native to Saint Croix. Only at the end would we learn of the cloning connection and its ramifications.

Oh, yes. Thanks. I think I must've been conflating it in my head with Three Fingers or something. Rostrum

My comments on GW movies and Music... I was strolling around the Bohemian Grove when someone noticed a copy of "Attending Daedalus" poking out of my gig bag (sorry for mis-attributing this book to Borski in an earlier post...got kids?..sleep much???...) Turns out it was Henry Kaiser who has done sound for some W Herzog films (Grizzly Man..)and some fine albums, and who is I'm sure the only Bohemian to explore different interpretations of GW's writing... Turns out there is a French production of "The Death of Dr Island" and so we tried to track the producers down to see if they needed music (Much of my work has been Bassed (pun intended) on Sf writers PK Dick, William Gibson and JG Ballard.) Alas, the music was already done but Henry and I have have plans to do a CD based on GW stories, themes and characters... Cheers Stuart Hamm Rex Lycanthrosaurus <lycanthrosaurus at fastmail.fm> wrote: On Thu, 12 Apr 2007 09:57:34 -0600, "Michael Straight" said:

Not by Wolfe, but Howard Waldrop: "Heirs of the Perisphere." As for movies, I think the first third of FIFTH HEAD would make a good film, especially if directed by someone stylish like Christopher Nolan. It would start with the murder of Maitre by persons unknown, and then a prefect from Saint Croix could undertake to solve the case by looking at various of Cave Canem's denizens, each of whom might have a motive for killing Maitre: his two sons, his crippled scientist-sister, his robot progenitor, a disgruntled employee (prostitute) of or visitor (john) to the House at 666 Saltimbanque or even a visiting anthropologist from Earth. I'd also eliminate for ease of backstory the abo-Saint Anne connection and make the shapechangers native to Saint Croix. Only at the end would we learn of the cloning connection and its ramifications.