A BEAUTIFUL DAY FOR SCIENCE FICTION

Faricazy

RIDLEY SCOTT IS ATTACHED TO DIRECT THE ADAPTATION OF THE FOREVER WAR.

The Forever War is an absolutely brilliant book by Joe Haldeman. Everyone should read it. It's easily one of my favorite sci fi books.

Article:

This news definitely came out of nowhere! The legendary Ridley Scott, known for saying "sci-fi films are as dead as westerns", is apparently back with not one, but two sci-fi projects. Fox 2000 has acquired the rights to Joe Haldeman's 1974 novel "The Forever War" and has Ridley Scott attached to direct. Scott's future has become one hell of a mess with this announcement and even I'm left scratching my head in confusion. Variety claims that this adaptation of "The Forever War" was meant to be Ridley's follow-up to Alien (in 1979) and Blade Runner (in 1982). For the last few months we've been reporting that an adaptation of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World would be his sci-fi return, but apparently we were wrong!
In a previous interview in June, Ridley revealed that he was planning to return to sci-fi. "I am going to do one. I waited for a book for 20 years and I have got the book." A few days later, the news hit about Huxley's Brave New World, and we put two-and-two together and thought Brave New World was the book he was talking about. But Variety now says "rights complications delayed his plans for more than two decades" surrounding "The Forever War." Which would make this the film he was talking about at that time. Does all that make any sense? This just goes to show how information can get quite convoluted, but according to Variety, Scott plans to direct "The Forever War" before he gets to "Brave New World."
"I first pursued 'Forever War' 25 years ago, and the book has only grown more timely and relevant since," Scott told Variety. "It's a science-fiction epic, a bit of The Odyssey by way of Blade Runner, built upon a brilliant, disorienting premise." That premise that he speaks of revolves around a soldier who battles an enemy in deep space for only a few months, only to return home to a planet he doesn’t recognize some 20 years later. "Haldeman originally wrote this novel as an allegory of the Vietnam war, told through the eyes of a reluctant soldier caught up in a battle that never seemed to end, while the world he left behind changed drastically," says a reviewer on Amazon. Apparently the war he is fighting in lasts 700 years, while he only ages 10. Very interesting concept. No screenwriter for this adaptation has been announced yet.

Brave New World would be cool and all, but this came out of nowhere and I'm fucking ecstatic. I can't wait to see what comes of this.

Shoggoth

HOLY SHIT THAT IS AMAZING.

Seriously

Oh great, another book I should read.

It's like, going to take me years to read all the good books.

NAND NOR

Hollywood should make an adaptation of 1984 starring Will Smith as Big Brother.

Nogs

i have NO IDEA what this is.

but if it is anything like the Never Ending Story, you can count me in.

Blake T

I saw Body of Lies two days ago.

Ridley Scott Directed that.

I quite liked it.

Except for the ending, but that's what the director was going for I think.

Centipede Damascus

NAND NOR wrote: »

Hollywood should make an adaptation of 1984 starring Will Smith as Big Brother.

is this some sort of joke you got from somewhere else

Faricazy

Blaket....you've seen Blade Runner....right?

gurusloth

Nogs wrote: »

i have NO IDEA what this is.

but if it is anything like the Never Ending Story, you can count me in.

no, it's not really like that at all

vsove

As it is Ridley Scott directing, it will be worth watching.

I can't believe, though, that he was in any way associated with that horrible made-for-TV 'update' of the Andromeda Strain.

It was the worst thing I've ever watched.

Faricazy

Nogs wrote: »

i have NO IDEA what this is.

but if it is anything like the Never Ending Story, you can count me in.

it says SCI FI in big capital letters

what is wrong with you

Centipede Damascus

Blackhawk Down was a great movie

Nogs

well then, i don't know what the fuck

Urian

I don't care about the book.

I care that Ridley is returning to Sci-Fi.

I'm going to start masturbating.

Blake T

Faricazy wrote: »

Blaket....you've seen Blade Runner....right?

Yes, but you know, I haven't seen it in the past two days.

Rampant Entity

Centipede Damascus wrote: »

Blackhawk Down was a great movie

OH GOD FUCK YES WE NEED THE SCI-FI EQUIVALENT OF THIS YES

Faricazy

the breakdown of my excitement:

ridley scott is a damn good director

ridley scott is an amazing sci-fi director

ridley scott seems to be really, really into this book and wants to do it proper justice

Rampant Entity

Fuck though, I am going to have to buy this book now.

And I've wasted enough money already this month.

vsove

Even though it's apparently cool to hate it nowadays, Gladiator remains one of my favourite films of all time. And I can't think of anything that Scott's actually directed (as opposed to simply been attached to in some random capacity) that hasn't been worthwhile on some level.

So this will be awesome.

Urian

Oh fuck the premise and concept sounds so good. This is going to be the best movie of the beginning of the next decade.

Also I don't know who hates Gladiator but they are retarded. It's a phenominal movie.

Rampant Entity

What about Matchstick Men? That movie was pretty craptacular.

vsove

Rampant Entity wrote: »

What about Matchstick Men? That movie was pretty craptacular.

Well, I never saw that one.

So that would be the exception, then.

Blake T

vsove wrote: »

Even though it's apparently cool to hate it nowadays, Gladiator remains one of my favourite films of all time. And I can't think of anything that Scott's actually directed (as opposed to simply been attached to in some random capacity) that hasn't been worthwhile on some level.

So this will be awesome.

I didn't hate it, I just didn't think it was Oscar worthy.

It was enjoyable don't get me wrong, but I kinda viewed it as I did Body of Lies, a good movie with fantastic direction but nothing more than that.

Faricazy

While the book does have pretty amazing descriptions of war (Haldeman served in vietnam and got shot even, which fueled the realism in his books), it's really more about how the main character deals with issues of loss and isolation and god just read the book guys, it's one of the hallmarks of the golden age of sci fi, READ IT

Urian

Hannibal and G.I. Jane are the only legitimately bad movies Ridley Scott has ever made.

see317

Man, I can't wait to read the nerd-rage about any tiny deviation from the novel.

That's the best part of any Sci-fi movie.

Faricazy

Rampant Entity wrote: »

What about Matchstick Men? That movie was pretty craptacular.

No it wasn't. Great performances from everyone involved. I think it's the last good Nic Cage role, he's been doing shit since then.

gurusloth

premise of movie

aliens and humans are at war, but the area that they battle in is so far away, the humans have to travel at near light speed to get there in any reasonable amount of time, and even then, it takes a long ass time

the fighters on the ships, since they are traveling so fast, do not experience time normally, it seems to go by much faster (due to Einstein's relativity crap - I do not really understand it, go look it up). Thus they get to the battles, fight, and then come back, and like 50 years have gone by.

The story is told through the eyes of one fighter who goes out and comes back several times, each trip lasting longer than the last, and how the public view of the war and the people at home change while he is away.

hope this helps

vsove

Blaket wrote: »

vsove wrote: »

Even though it's apparently cool to hate it nowadays, Gladiator remains one of my favourite films of all time. And I can't think of anything that Scott's actually directed (as opposed to simply been attached to in some random capacity) that hasn't been worthwhile on some level.

So this will be awesome.

I didn't hate it, I just didn't think it was Oscar worthy.

It was enjoyable don't get me wrong, but I kinda viewed it as I did Body of Lies, a good movie with fantastic direction but nothing more than that.

Which is certainly a valid point of view, and I wouldn't hold it up as some kind of objective example of amazing cinema. Just for me, at the age where I first saw Gladiator, it was pretty incredibly done.

However, as you said, it had fantastic direction, and that's what the crux of my argument was. Scott (aside from, apparently, Matchstick Men) has always had an excellent ability to direct films and I'm hoping this will be no different.

Faricazy

the progress of technology is also tackled in a really fascinating manner

Urian

fari you are giving me a boner

Faricazy

8-)

Blake T

Yeah ok, you guys have started to raise my boner about this movie now.

DJ Eebs

man this book sounds pretty rad, I'll have to check it out

Agent Cooper

gurusloth wrote: »

premise of movie

aliens and humans are at war, but the area that they battle in is so far away, the humans have to travel at near light speed to get there in any reasonable amount of time, and even then, it takes a long ass time

the fighters on the ships, since they are traveling so fast, do not experience time normally, it seems to go by much faster (due to Einstein's relativity crap - I do not really understand it, go look it up). Thus they get to the battles, fight, and then come back, and like 50 years have gone by.

The story is told through the eyes of one fighter who goes out and comes back several times, each trip lasting longer than the last, and how the public view of the war and the people at home change while he is away.

hope this helps

if they're that far away

why are they fighting

Pony

also

everyone ends up gay

because the government starts encouraging and eventually mandating homosexuality to control population

Seriously

Agent Cooper wrote: »

gurusloth wrote: »

premise of movie

aliens and humans are at war, but the area that they battle in is so far away, the humans have to travel at near light speed to get there in any reasonable amount of time, and even then, it takes a long ass time

the fighters on the ships, since they are traveling so fast, do not experience time normally, it seems to go by much faster (due to Einstein's relativity crap - I do not really understand it, go look it up). Thus they get to the battles, fight, and then come back, and like 50 years have gone by.

The story is told through the eyes of one fighter who goes out and comes back several times, each trip lasting longer than the last, and how the public view of the war and the people at home change while he is away.

hope this helps

if they're that far away

why are they fighting

Look,

Faricazy

Agent Cooper wrote: »

gurusloth wrote: »

premise of movie

aliens and humans are at war, but the area that they battle in is so far away, the humans have to travel at near light speed to get there in any reasonable amount of time, and even then, it takes a long ass time

the fighters on the ships, since they are traveling so fast, do not experience time normally, it seems to go by much faster (due to Einstein's relativity crap - I do not really understand it, go look it up). Thus they get to the battles, fight, and then come back, and like 50 years have gone by.

The story is told through the eyes of one fighter who goes out and comes back several times, each trip lasting longer than the last, and how the public view of the war and the people at home change while he is away.

hope this helps

if they're that far away

why are they fighting

slight spoiler

basically the aliens are first discovered when they blow a human colonist ship to hell, and retaliatory forces are sent out. it goes back and forth after that.

see317

Agent Cooper wrote: »

gurusloth wrote: »

premise of movie

aliens and humans are at war, but the area that they battle in is so far away, the humans have to travel at near light speed to get there in any reasonable amount of time, and even then, it takes a long ass time

the fighters on the ships, since they are traveling so fast, do not experience time normally, it seems to go by much faster (due to Einstein's relativity crap - I do not really understand it, go look it up). Thus they get to the battles, fight, and then come back, and like 50 years have gone by.

The story is told through the eyes of one fighter who goes out and comes back several times, each trip lasting longer than the last, and how the public view of the war and the people at home change while he is away.

hope this helps

if they're that far away

why are they fighting

a miscommunication during first contact.
Really.
It's all jsut a huge fucking mistake and the dude doesn't find out until the very end.

Faricazy

pony that is a spoiler spoiler

gurusloth

there are actually a few books in this series, if I remember correctly, but this is the first one

I didn't read the other ones though