The Moon is a Harsh Mistress film adaptation (Robert A Heinlein)

[Tabitha]

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress film adaptation

It seems that Buffy/Angel/Firefly/Wonderfalls' Tim Minear is working on a screenplay adaptation of my favourite Heinlein book.

From www.scifi.com/scifiwire:

Minear To Adapt Moon

Genre TV producer Tim Minear (Angel, Wonderfalls) told SCI FI Wire that he has been hired to write a screenplay adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's 1966 SF novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. The novel deals with a 2076 rebellion on a former penal colony on the moon and has been read as an allegory about libertarianism and its costs.

"I'm going to write the script," Minear, an avowed Heinlein fan, said in an interview. "My take on the story is to try to stay as close to Heinlein's politics and Heinlein's vision of the future that I can, while still taking the story and trying to make it into a movie. You know, that book is not a movie. There's a lot of very interesting talk about cells and sort of the anatomy of a revolution, which is not that interesting in a movie. But there are other elements."

Minear got hired to adapt the book when he set out to discover who held the rights to Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. That turned out to be producer David Heyman (the Harry Potter movies). Heyman and producer Mike Medavoy eventually hired Minear to adapt the other Heinlein work, Minear said.

Minear said that he wants to follow the example of Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, who adapted J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings for the screen. "Those are magnificently adapted screenplays," he said. "Things are moved around. Things are changed. Just like you would have to when you're adapting something that extensive. But really, really an impressive job of staying so close to ... Tolkien. ... Like, it smells the same as the novels."

Moon is a Harsh Mistress is one of Heinlein's works that manages to balance Heinlein's socio-political commentary with some intense action and suspense quite evenly. I would like to see Minear pull this off, as I'd love to see this version of Heinlein's future brought to the screen. Have there been any other movie versions of his books apart from Starship Troopers (which, didn't really relate to the book at all)?

 

[Meepski]

Wow Tabitha, this is wonderful news! OK, not really news news, since I see that you posted this back in January, but still it is news to me.

I know nothing of Tim Minear, but that is an impressive lineup of shows that he has been associated with, and his comments on The Moon is a Harsh Mistress are reassuringly thoughtful. It's a challenging book to film, but Minear seems to be aiming accordingly high, and has the track record to back it up.

Does anybody have any more recent info on this?

I've heard that Have Spacesuit, Will Travel is being filmed, and of course there have been rumored productions of Stranger in a Strange Land for at least 30 years. His juveniles would I think make the best transition to the screen, and film-making technology has gotten to the point of making it feasible to do non-cheesy versions of them -- a la the Harry Potter films. Let's hope that this is the start of a trend. Maybe Hollywood will "discover" Heinlein the way they have Philip K. Dick.

And I refuse to concede that there was ever a "Starship Troopers" movie. What? ... I'm not listening! ... Not listening! ... Can't hear you! ...