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Will we ever see [I]The Demolished Man[/I] on the screen?

TimCallahan

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T
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From the wikipedia article on The Demolished Man:

Since reading the novel as a young man, director Brian de Palma has considered adapting it for film.[15][16] Lack of financing has long since kept the film unproduced.
The Demolished Man was adapted for German radio by RIAS Berlin in 1973 under the title Demolition. Demolition was the first radio drama recorded with the dummy head recording method.[17]

So, I'm wondering, what with all the eye candy films out there these days, will we ever see a cinematic version of The Demolished Man?
 
We can only hope. :cool:

Of course, there is a mother load of stories from the Second Golden Age waiting to mined stolen once Hollywood recognizes that there were authors other than Phil Dick during that period.
 
De Palma has not had a hit in a long time,so it makes it problematical if it can get greenlighted with De Palma as director.
It's a great Sci Fi Novel,and one of most sucessful attempts to meld the Sci Fi and Mystery genres (probably because Bester wrote quite a bit of detective fictions for the pulps before going full time Science Fiction) but it is one of a number of Sci Fi classics that have become permanent residents of Development Hell.
"Rendezvous with Rama" and "Stranger In A Strange Land" has also been optioned by just about every studio in Hollywood at some point (TOm Hanks was invovled at one point) but no studio has ever actually pulled the trigger on them.
 
I am, by and large, hostile to making film versions of novels: the pictures in the books are better. I’m also somewhat wary of the reverse – writing the novel version of a film. Words often cannot convey what a single image can. It’s years since I read The Demolished Man and can barely remember the plot, but I’m not sure that it would survive translation.

About the only example I can think of where a book and a film can stand either together or alone is Terry Gilliam’s Jabberwocky. But both of these derive from Lewis Carroll in his 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There.

The one having IMHO the worst of both worlds is Hardy’s Cowboys for Christ: chapters which read like short film scenes and a rip-off plot which really doesn’t work.
 
dudalb said:
De Palma has not had a hit in a long time,so it makes it problematical if it can get greenlighted with De Palma as director.
It's a great Sci Fi Novel,and one of most sucessful attempts to meld the Sci Fi and Mystery genres (probably because Bester wrote quite a bit of detective fictions for the pulps before going full time Science Fiction) but it is one of a number of Sci Fi classics that have become permanent residents of Development Hell.
"Rendezvous with Rama" and "Stranger In A Strange Land" has also been optioned by just about every studio in Hollywood at some point (TOm Hanks was invovled at one point) but no studio has ever actually pulled the trigger on them.
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Considering particularly the director's cut - which eliminates, among other things, the annoying voice-over by Harrison Ford - Ridley Scott's Blade Runner indicates to me that he could do justice to The Demolished Man. I realize some might object that Blade Runner was a far cry from Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, but, frankly, I think the movie was better.
 
dudalb said:
"Rendezvous with Rama" and "Stranger In A Strange Land" has also been optioned by just about every studio in Hollywood at some point (TOm Hanks was invovled at one point) but no studio has ever actually pulled the trigger on them.
Click to expand...

My view of Stranger is that it cannot be filmed, and remotely resemble what Heinlein was trying to do in in the novel. The religion and sex would be removed and what is left is only a mildly interesting fish out of water story.

ETA: And see what has been done to Heinlein novels that have been filmed.

Norm
 
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"My view of Stranger is that it cannot be filmed, and remotely resemble what Heinlein was trying to do in in the novel" Probably correct in that. It would be like Bakshi's version of Lord of the Rings. Oh the horror. On the other hand, something might be done with the Rolling Stones. Stone family chronicles maybe?
 
I'd like to see a good movie of Glory Road or Extro.

Tiger, Tiger might be ok too.
 
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Trivia time: Perhaps Bester's single most famous piece of writing is this:

"In Brightest Day,In Darkest NIght, No Evil Shall Escape My Sight..."
Yup, when he was working for DC comics in the early 40's (as did a great many writers for the pulp magazines) Bester created and wrote the Golden Age Green Lantern series.
The Green Lantern Oath he created was one of the few carry overs from the GOlden Age Lantern when DC revived the series with a Sci Fi bent in 1959.
 
I'd love to see them tap into the great stuff from the Golden age.
But instead of just taking the story and then using what we perceive as future science/technology as atmosphere, but do their best to include the vision of the author, (like how Heinlein was writing about moving roads and rockets for interstellar travel).
 
fuelair said:
Yep, 1988 and 2000 (IMDB confirms...
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I read some of the reviews from IMDb, plus the ratings (1988 - 2.5, 2000 3.0) and am thankful that I had never heard of these versions, much less watched them. I mean a decent big budget version. Surely it should not be that hard to do?

Then again, Hollywood's ability to turn Asimov, Heinlein, Herbert and even ERB stories into toast is pretty well known.

Norm
 
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TimCallahan said:
Considering particularly the director's cut - which eliminates, among other things, the annoying voice-over by Harrison Ford - Ridley Scott's Blade Runner indicates to me that he could do justice to The Demolished Man. I realize some might object that Blade Runner was a far cry from Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, but, frankly, I think the movie was better.
Click to expand...

More recently he directed Prometheus, so you may want to reconsider. :)
 
I beg of you, don't watch the 1988 "Nightfall." They added horrible things that weren't in the original story, and they changed the ending.
 
Scott Haley said:
I beg of you, don't watch the 1988 "Nightfall." They added horrible things that weren't in the original story, and they changed the ending.
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I disagree with that statement.... It implies that some of the rest of the story was there. There were some similarities between the two.

*) planet going to go dark
*) there's a cult involved
*) I think one or some of the lead characters name were the same
*) Title was the same

Other than that, not so much. #1 on my list of worst non-camp movies seen in release.
 
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