Why Has No one in Hollywood Tried to adapt any of Banks Culture Novels ?

BAYLOR said:
A happy ending would have ruined the story which something that Hollywood is good at.
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I agree wholeheartedly with you. Earlier Rodders said they didn't think Banks would want his books to get the Hollywood treatment, but he was in fact the opposite. His actual words were: "As long as they have the the fight under the hovercraft and the ship crashing into the ice wall I don't mind if everyone skips off into the sunset hand-in-hand at the end."
 
Dave Barsby said:
I agree wholeheartedly with you. Earlier Rodders said they didn't think Banks would want his books to get the Hollywood treatment, but he was in fact the opposite. His actual words were: "As long as they have the the fight under the hovercraft and the ship crashing into the ice wall I don't mind if everyone skips off into the sunset hand-in-hand at the end."
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Hollywood executives and even some producers and directors are incapable of recognizing a good story when it's handed to them . They think they can do it better .
 
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BAYLOR said:
Hollywood executives and even some producers and directors are incapable of recognizing a good story when it's handed to them . They think they can do it better .
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A good book rarely makes a good movie without significant rewrites. Banks' novels are probably too long and complex to adapt easily, without cutting out a fair amount.
 
Edward M. Grant said:
A good book rarely makes a good movie without significant rewrites. Banks' novels are probably too long and complex to adapt easily, without cutting out a fair amount.
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Maybe a tv series then ?:)
 
To be honest, the only way to translate them to screen intact would be if they were almost inaccessible to newcomers. They're too complex. and largely introspective to get right, and a Hollywood treatment would leave you with something akin to Legend of the Seeker, so devoid of anything relatable to the source material it would be a shell for some vapid monomyth story.
 
Several Culture books, especially Use of Weapons, would not work in a different medium. Phlebas could, but only if you either discard a lot of subtlety or turn it into a miniseries with a LOT of exposition.

Has anyone seen the movie versions of the Crow Road and Complicity?
 
RX-79G said:
Several Culture books, especially Use of Weapons, would not work in a different medium. Phlebas could, but only if you either discard a lot of subtlety or turn it into a miniseries with a LOT of exposition.

Has anyone seen the movie versions of the Crow Road and Complicity?
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The Crow Road BBC mini series was quite well done, I thought. Haven't seen Complicity though, any good?
 
I've got Complicity. Just comes across as barely more than your average TV movie
 
I wasn't that taken with Crow Road, either. I love the book, but the series is more like an after school special. The characters read edgier than become. The main character reads like Case in Neuromancer, but seems like the boyfriend in Modern Family when put on TV.
 
I must confess that I’m rather pleased to read this. I don’t think movies or T.V. Could do Banks Justice.
 
Rodders said:
I must confess that I’m rather pleased to read this. I don’t think movies or T.V. Could do Banks Justice.
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I think a limited tv series could do Banks Justice.
 
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