The Sword and Laser discussion

This is for Tom, who I know holds this title in high regard. It's also my favorite PKD title.

Ridley Scott is set to executive produce, along with Frank Spotnitz (Millennium, The X-Files, The Lone Gunmen). But... it is being produced for the Syfy network. So, take that into consideration. Still, with Scott in the EP seat maybe he can steer this boat in the right direction.

Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle to be adapted in to a mini-series

Done right, that story could be great as a miniseries; it's almost Game of Thrones-esque enough that I could see it working. Done how I think it'll be... Like the article said, Earthsea.

In the tradition of the adjustments in the Earthsea adaption, Syfy is going to make the US win against the Nazi's instead. They think that will make it better.

Except for Dune, which I marginally liked, I have not enjoyed any of Syfy's other adaptations. I would rather they just churn out those cheapie Mansquito and Dinocroc things.

This bothers me, as SyFy tends to do things on the cheap, but Ridley Scott has been talking about doing this for a long time. You never know, if this goes well, he might finally do The Forever War.

Matthew wrote: "You never know, if this goes well, he might finally do The Forever War."

Oh please god, no.

Trike wrote: "Except for Dune, which I marginally liked..."

Did you like it because of the deep hatred you have for the movie? I'm just curious if others had the same reaction that I did.

I'm reading this right now. I really like Dick's concepts but his characters are just lifeless for me. Does anyone else have this issue with his stories?

EvilElvi wrote: "Did you like it because of the deep hatred you have for the movie? I'm just curious if others had the same reaction that I did."

I do hate the original movie, but that's not why I sort of liked the miniseries. It seemed as if the series understood the characters better. I think the acting is a wash, with good performances in both, but the directing by Lynch was just so abysmal that it was as if he didn't understand the language of cinema at all. It is *exactly* the wrong way to use narration, spoonfeeding information that is better served by letting your world-class actors arch a brow or something.

On the one hand, the sets of the series were terrible and the movie's were beautiful. But at the end of the day I'm not there for the background. If you treat the series like a stage play -- which is essentially what it was -- then you can get into the story.

Overall I wasn't crazy about it, which is why I call it a "marginal like." It's as if I did a mental tally and the end result was a 52/48 split in favor of the series so it got a thumb's up on the pass/fail scale. I didn't feel the need to watch the sequel nor to ever view it again, but I didn't totally hate it.

Damning with faint praise, but there it is.

Kate wrote: "I'm reading this right now. I really like Dick's concepts but his characters are just lifeless for me. Does anyone else have this issue with his stories?"

Yes. I'm not a huge fan of his stuff. Dick's got some interesting ideas but you do sort of start holding the books at arm's length trying to not let the crazy infect you.

*adds Philip K. Dick to his reading list*

The Man in the High Castle is the only Dick novel I've read (read a few short stories). I thought the alternate history thing was quite fun (I guess at the time it was published that was quite a ground-breaking idea) but I kept expecting there to be some sort of point and there wasn't.

I didn't hate it but I didn't like it much.

Ridley Scott's been working on this adaptation of The Man in the High Castle since at least 2010, if not longer. Back in 2010, he was meant to be doing a 4-part miniseries for the BBC with Howard Brenton, but it appears that things have shifted around a little as to who would be providing the funding (SyFy instead of the BBC) and writing (Spotnitz instead of Brenton). But he seems to be filling in the same role and it seems to still be a co-production between Scott Free Films and Electric Shepherd Productions.

I saw the adaptation of Kate Mosse's Labyrinth earlier this week and it was pretty good. I enjoyed watching it, the script was good, the actors gave excelent performances for the most part, it was visually stunning. But, as Havenn't read the book yet, I don't know how faithful or not it was.

Louie wrote: "This is for Tom, who I know holds this title in high regard..

Tom still hasn't slected a Philip K. Dick story.
Maybe he's waiting for all of them to be made into movies.
Of course then you don't get to say,
"the book was sooo much better"
{But seriously. Thanks for that bit of news. Hopefully they'll do a good job on the series}

Paul wrote: " but I kept expecting there to be some sort of point and there wasn't."

Seemed to me like Dick had a lot to say about personal freedom, self respect, and the compromises we make in order to survive in our world.

As for flat characters -- Kate's comment above -- I'd have to agree. I read Dick for the ideas, not for his wonderful characterization (cuz it ain't).

If you haven't picked up yet and are interested Barnes & Noble has the ebook version of The Man in the High Castle at 1.99; posted yesterday, don't know how long it lasts
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/man-i...

Meh, Scott has also optioned Wool. If he ever got around to making half the shit he options I might care.

Kate wrote: "I'm reading this right now. I really like Dick's concepts but his characters are just lifeless for me. Does anyone else have this issue with his stories?"

i totally love his books... usually an everyday person involved in something deep. Trouble i had with Man in the High Castle was that there was no real ending, this happens in another of his books Eye in the Sky.

They are book fantastic books to read but no proper ending and he can write a great ending to a book, see UBIK.