TV/Movies Megathread

[celedhring]

Also, slightly disappointed that Del Toro doesn't direct a single episode. He has been circling Lovecraft all his life, but it never happens.

He's been rumoured since forever to want to do a film version of "At the Mountains of Madness", which would be spectacular, but it seems it'll never get done.

Yeah, that project has been around forever, and given that in the past he's had enough juice to pull it off if he wanted, makes me think it's no longer one of his priorities.

Last I can find is that he's pitched the project to Netflix. Will see. As you say, it could be amazing.

[celedhring]

This makes me think... which one do you think is the best Lovecraft adaptation? I always thought that Lovecraft is nearly impossible to adapt to the screen, because his stories happen so much inside the protagonists' minds. Can't think of any that's succeeded on that regard (haven't seen the Cage version of Color out of Space).

There's that "Call of Cthulhu" fan movie shot as a 1920s silent film that's a pretty fun artifact though.

[The Larch]

This makes me think... which one do you think is the best Lovecraft adaptation? I always thought that Lovecraft is nearly impossible to adapt to the screen, because his stories happen so much inside the protagonists' minds. Can't think of any that's succeeded on that regard (haven't seen the Cage version of Color out of Space).

There's that "Call of Cthulhu" fan movie shot as a 1920s silent film that's a pretty fun artifact though.

It's not strictly a Lovecraft adaptation, but Carpenter's "In the mouth of madness" is great, and very much on that vein, with some Stephen King sprinkled in.

[celedhring]

Yeah, the best Lovecraftian movies are movies that aren't straight adaptations of Lovecraft stories but still realize the cosmic horror concept he originated. Stuff like The Thing (also from Carpenter). My favorite of recent years has been "Annihilation".

[Berkut]

I really do not understand why things like the Wheel of Time and Lord of the Rings have such mediocre writing.

It isn't money, right? These things have absolutely insane budgets. Surely paying the best writers is no obstacle.

[HVC]

I have to think it's a prestige thing? None of the good writers want to do it because it's "only" a fantasy tv show?


Or the money can be the issue. It gets big enough that execs weigh in and it becomes a writing by committee thing?

[Sheilbh]

I think it's different in books and get this is very broad but with genre adaptations, I think they're quite plotty. There's a lot of x needs to go to y for z to happen. I think that's a constraint.

I also think source material and fandoms can be a challenge. On the one hand I think you have to like the source material - I think you need to get why people care. But you also need to be able to diverge (often radically) if it makes it work better as an adaptation/film.

Also there is good fantasy fiction out there but I think the general quality is lower than other genre fiction like sci-fi, spy novels, crime etc. That's a particular risk if you then have a fear about jumping off and making changes to make it work as TV.

[Grey Fox]

Since the recent LOTR show, I've started to think that the problem is not writing. It's the editing.

[viper37]

Since the recent LOTR show, I've started to think that the problem is not writing. It's the editing.

Writing too was a problem.

[Duque de Bragança]

This makes me think... which one do you think is the best Lovecraft adaptation? I always thought that Lovecraft is nearly impossible to adapt to the screen, because his stories happen so much inside the protagonists' minds. Can't think of any that's succeeded on that regard (haven't seen the Cage version of Color out of Space).

No love for Stuart Gordon's Dagon? Is it because it's considered a "Spanish" movie? 
It's an adaptation of The Shadow over Innsmouth however, despite the title.
Re-Animator ?

Carpenter's The Thing takes a lot inspiration from Mountains of Madness than the claimed source.

[celedhring]

Dagon is awful. Not a fan of Re-Animator either. Just never got into Stuart Gordon, really. Too schlocky.

[garbon]

Lovecraft would also be a case of pretty terrible source material as it is poorly written.

[Sheilbh]

OMG - a Joanna Hogg gothic ghost story mainly acted by Tilda

[The Larch]

Dagon is awful. Not a fan of Re-Animator either. Just never got into Stuart Gordon, really. Too schlocky.

Dagon was made pretty close to where I live. 

And yes, it's quite bad, to think that it was Paco Rabal's last film...

Those films only take Lovecraft as an excuse for gore and schlock, not really faithful adaptations.

[celedhring]

I really do not understand why things like the Wheel of Time and Lord of the Rings have such mediocre writing.

It isn't money, right? These things have absolutely insane budgets. Surely paying the best writers is no obstacle.

RoP had two novice showrunners, but Amazon surrounded them with veterans from good shows. So yeah, money is not a problem.

My personal theory is that stuff like RoP or Wheel of Time are very action-adventure oriented, and we really don't have many examples of this kind of show working on TV. Not saying that it can't be done, just that it's a relatively new genre (the Marvel and Star Wars shows are in the same category, and they have been wildly uneven). GoT had a very strong drama foundation which is something that TV has done very well for many years. It is very character-centric.