First of all I’m pleased to say the Plot Twist Generator is clearly in Beta.  In fact, after a few more additions, it’s farther along than I expected.  I can’t say it’s the best, but it’s pretty decent.  I’ll probably give it one more stab, check the feedback, expand some of the data, then call it done for now.

Then a break before I do something damned silly.  And yes, I have a generator in mind, with a few extras . . .

Next, the Way With Worlds book should go to pre-readers next week.  I got a bit behind due to work, so I’m making a serious, insane effort to finish editing round 2.  I really want to get this right for all of my readers.  I’m also letting the pre-readers sit on it for two months so they can take their time.

That’s it here.  Be sure to check Scott’s latest as he’s delving deep into great stuff on remakes, and let us know how you’re doing in the comments!

– Steve

NBC has announced a remake of the Eighties series, Hart to Hart, with a twist. The original, airing from 1979 to 1984, starred Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers as Jonathan and Jennifer Hart, a rich married couple whose hobby was fighting crime. Lionel Stander co-starred as the Harts’ butler and chauffeur. The twist? The new Hart to Hart will be a gay couple, Jonathan Hart and Dan Hartman*, a by-the-book attorney and a free-wheeling journalist, who fight crime.

With just the announcement, there’s some notable differences already. First, the new series has crime fighting part of the couple’s day job. In the original, as I mentioned, it was more a hobby or a side effect of their careers and wealth. The original Harts were independently wealthy, letting them go to wherever needed because they owned their own jet. Hart and Hartman may not have the mobility, but they will have more exposure to local crimes because of their jobs. Second, the wealth factor. Jonathan and Jennifer were rich. Jonathan and Dan should be comfortable enough to purchase or at least expense items, but unless either come from a wealthy family, there’s no butler. For the third difference, the obvious elephant in the room, Hart and Hartman are gay. Really, that shouldn’t be a problem, but with Kim Davis in the news the past few weeks, count on people complaining that there are gays on their TV.

The question, though, is why remake Hart to Hart instead of creating a new series?

Pros
Name recognition. Hart to Hart still rings a bell for the older audience and has a good ring to it. The name should pull in viewers who are curious.

Age. The last first-run episode aired over thirty years ago. The series is old enough and and has been off the air long enough that intimate familiarity is lacking. Hart to Hart also doesn’t have the same level of syndication as any of the Star Trek series. This lack of familiarity will let writers focus on the new characters without necessarily causing moments of, “But that’s not what Jonathan would do!”

What a twist! With same-sex marriage a huge topic over the past few years, coupled with the US Supreme Court overturning state level bans against those marriages, the series gains a new level of freshness. The younger audience, the people who poll very favourable to same-sex marriage, will appreciate the approach.

Cons
In name only. There are a number of key changes to the premise, as mentioned above. Changing the couple from opposite- to same-sex isn’t a problem, removing the wealth and thus one of TV’s better supporting role is. Again, if one of the pair is wealthy, the butler can remain, but nothing in the article mentioned anything about wealth. There is also nothing said about whether Hart and Hartman are married, though I have thoughts to share below about that.

It’s not its own work. This is the flip side of name recognition, above. The series can become a mainstream hit, showing a couple working together, living together, fighting crime, with the only difference being that they’re both men. But it’ll be known as a remake. Shouldn’t a ground breaking show be its own thing?

A few things I’d do with the show, which may or may not be planned already include working in the marriage and making sure the characters feel real instead of stereotypes. With the marriage, have it as a subplot through the first season. Hart and Hartman keep trying to get the wedding planned, but they keep getting sidetracked by investigations. Jonathan and Jennifer were an established married couple, having a few years of wedded bliss behind them; Jonathan and Dan don’t have that luxury because of legalities**. Given my druthers, I’d change Jonathan Hart to John Soul and change the title to Hartman & Soul, but I don’t work for a network.

If the show is successful, this could open up some older series to be remade with gay couples. Picture Simon & Simon*** remade, with the brothers turned into a gay couple who are private investigators; or McMillan and Wife as a lesbian couple, one being the commissioner of the San Francisco Police Department.

Jokes aside, I do hope the series does well, assuming it makes it to air. Quality work needs to be encouraged.
* Er, so shound’t the series really be called Hart to Hartman?
** Depending on the state. Set the series in California, and they could have been married since 2008.
*** If the Internet was around like today when Simon & Simon aired, the amount of Simcest fanfics would overwhelm the Supernatural Wincest fics.

So I did a huge update on Way With Worlds this weekend.  About 80+ pages edited.  I’m actually pretty pleased with it – I think I was being a bit harsh on some of the less well-written areas.  A lot of it is pretty good.

I’m going to try and get it to pre-readers next week – which gives me a two month break while my pre-readers go over it.  Mostly I want to have a review conceptual review more than anything else – the grammar and spelling will be the domain of my editor.  Grammar and spelling can be edited – its getting the actual concepts right that’s important since that’s kind of the goal.  Worldbuilding isn’t exactly a science, and I want to make sure my modest contribution to it is clear and helpful.

It’s also still huge – 462 pages at the last count and probably be about 500 pages with formatting.  This is gonna be a hefty one, but should be worth it – plus it’ll make a great gift!

• Steve

Watership Down began as a tale told by Richard Adams to his daughters on car trips. The girls insisted that he write down the epic rabbit tale. In 1972, the novel was released by a small British publisher, Rex Collings, who couldn’t pay an advance but did get the novel out for review. A second edition was released in 1973, with an American edition coming out in 1974.

The story itself is about an epic journey of rabbits escaping their doomed home to found a new warren. Adams kept the narrative at the rabbits’ level, not explaining anything that the rabbits wouldn’t be able to understand. He even created a vocabulary and a creation myth for his rabbits. The locations in the novel came from the trips with his daughters and still exist. The title itself comes from the actual Watership Down in the UK.

The popularity of the book led Martin Rosen to try to adapt the work as a film. Early proposals included the use of puppets for the rabbits, but Rosen wanted to remain faithful. The result, he wound up not being just the writer, but the director and producer of the film, with no expierence as either, working on an animated feature.

The movie starts with the rabbits’ creation myth. Frith, the creator and sun god, created the sky, the stars, the world, and the world’s inhabitants. The first rabbit, El-ahrairah, and his descendants started to out-graze the other creations. Frith tried to warn El-ahrairah, but the first rabbit would not listen. Frith gave the other animals gifts, turning some into cats, dogs, hawks, and weasels who would prey on the rabbits. El-ahrairah ran and hid, but Frith found him and presented his gifts to the first rabbit – speed, listening, and cunning. El-ahrairah became a trickster. The animation of the myth is reminiscent of the art of ancient civilizations.

The art style changes to a more traditional look, though still rich, as the story starts. Two rabbits, Hazel and his brother Fiver*, are out eating and talking. Fiver, the runt of his litter, is nervous, moreso than most rabbits. He is psychic, a seer, though he can’t always understand the meaning of his visions. What he has seen is a blood red soaking into the warren, dooming the rabbits living there. The animation for Fiver’s visions is done in another style, powerful, overwhelming, and forboding. Fiver tells his brother, who believes him. Hazel tries to tell the Chief Rabbit about the oncoming doom. The Chief Rabbit dismisses the brothers; it is May, mating season, and moving the entire warren would be a huge upheaval over something the little rabbit is vague about.

Hazel, though, believes his brother. He organizes a number of other rabbits to leave the warren. The Chief Rabbit’s Owsla, the warren’s defense force, tries to stop the escape. One of the Owsla, Captain Holly, appears in front of Hazel’s band to take them into custody. A former Owsla officer, Bigwig, interferes, attacking Holly. Outnumbered, Holly runs off to get reinforcements. Hazel takes the opportunity to escape with his small band. Not every rabbit who tried to escape did, but Hazel has a core group, including Bigwig, Blackberry, Violet, the kit Pipkin, Silver, and Dandelion. As they leave, a sign that the rabbits can’t understand but the audience can shows that the are will be developed.

The rabbits run into the woods, avoiding a badger. Several obstacles are in their way, including a collie loose in the woods and a river that needs to be crossed. Bigwig suggests that the rabbits who can’t swim remain behind to fend for themselves but Hazel refuses to leave anyone behind. Blackberry finds a plank of wood that Pipkin and Fiver can sit on, with other rabbits pushing with their noses to get them across the river.

The journey is long and restless. Hazel presses the small band to keep going, trying to get distance between them and their doomed warren. Danger is always lurking; Violet gets nabbed by a hawk to never be seen again. Some of the rabbits start calling Hazel “Hazel-rah”, or “Chief Hazel”, though to tease. Hazel, though, is the leader of the band.

A potential sanctuary is found when the band meets with Cowslip, who offers the rabbits an empty burrow in his warren. The warren feels empty to the travellers and Fiver has a bad feeling about the place, like there’s a deception that he can’t quite pierce. Some of the rabbits note that the warren smells like man and press Cowslip for an explanation. Cowslip is evasive, but does offer flayrah (carrots) to the newcomers. His fellows, though, avoid talking to Hazel’s band. Fiver, overcome with nerves, runs away. Hazel follows to find out why, as does Bigwig. The former-Owsla is tired of the predictions of death and doom, and heads off to tell the other rabbits. He never makes it back. Bigwig gets caught in a snare. His fellows work to dig the peg holding the snare out, but it’s almost too late. Figuring out that Cowslip is using them to find and trip snares, the band leaves.

Fiver has another vision, this time of the new home. It is high atop a hill, where there are no men and no predators, where they can see anything approaching. The journey continues, but now with a goal. The band passes through a farm**. While the other rabbits rest, Hazel takes Pipkin to explore. They avoid the guard dog, remaining quiet as it sleeps. In the barn, they find a hutch filled with rabbits. Hazel talks with one of the hutch rabbits, a doe named Clover, but Pipkin spots a cat. The rabbits run, causing the cat to give chase and the dog to bark, and escape.

The journey continues. As they pass through a farmer’s field, Bigwig hears a voice calling his name. Fearing it is the Black Rabbit***, Bigwig cowers behind the others but knows that if the Black Rabbit calls, he must follow. However, it is Holly, wounded and exhausted, the sole survivor of the old warren. The former Owsla captain utters a single word, “Efrafrans” before collapsing unconscious. When he recovers, he tells the others what happened; men came with machines, filling in the burrows, trapping rabbits underground.

In another warren, a young doe named Hyzenthlay tries to point out to her Chief Rabbit, General Woundwort, that the conditions are overcrowded. There are too many rabbits in the warren. The rabbits can only go out at certain times, based on a mark placed on them. Woundwart refuses and, once the young doe is out of earshot, orders Captain Campion, the head of the warren’s Owsla, to keep an eye on her.

Back in Hazel’s band, Fiver finds the hill he saw in his vision, Watership Down. The band climbs up the hill where they find a tree providing space for new burrows. The band settles in. During this time, they discover that they have a neighbour. A seagull, Kehaar, has been injured by a cat and needs to heal. The gull and the rabbits overcome a language barrier, and Kehaar is nursed back to health.

Hazel discovers a new problem. While his fellow rabbits are safe, the warren is still doomed. Not one doe came with them. Even Kehaar notices the problem. Hazel convinces the gull to look for does, though he makes sure that Kehaar belives that it was his idea. The gull, his wings now healed, flies off in search. When he doesn’t return, the rabbits assume that he’s gone back to the “big water” he calls home. Hazel has a second plan, though.

Remembering Clover back at the farm, Hazel takes a few rabbits with him to break her and her hutchmates out. Eating through the hutch’s latches takes too long and the rabbits are discovered by both the cat and the dog. The dog sends up the alarm, getting the farmers out of bed. The men see the hutch open and the wild rabbits and shoot. Hazel is hit. The other rabbits return to the warren to give Fiver the bad news.

Fiver, though, has another vision telling him that Hazel survived. He follows his vision back down to the farm and finds his brother in a culvert. Kehaar returns, finding the psychic rabbit, and explains about the “little black stones” (shotgun pellets) in Hiver’s haunch. The gull removes the black stones, letting the rabbit brothers return to their warren.

Back at the warren, Kehaar tells Hazel about Efrafa, General Woundwart’s warren. Holly adds to the information, telling Hazel about the General’s tyrannical rule. As he recovers, Hazel comes up with a plan. Once healed, Hazel leads a raiding party, heading to Efrafa. Bigwig is sent to infiltrate the warren and gets appointed to Woundwart’s Owsla. While in Efrafa, Bigwig talks to several rabbits unhappy with the warren. One, Blackavar, was caught outside when he wasn’t supposed to and had his ears ripped before being set as an example to others. Bigwig also finds Hyzenthlay; he tries to convince the doe to leave with him. Hyzenthlay, like Fiver, is a seer, and sees the truth in what Bigwig tells her.

Outside, Hazel prepares for the great escape. He needs to get the rabbits past the iron bridge (a railway overpass) and down the river. Hazel finds a boat and remembers how the wood plank got Fiver and Pipkin across. He sends Kehaar to Bigwig to finalize the plans. Bigwig arranges the escape for sunset. Woundwart, though, is informed of Bigwig’s conversation with the bird, but not of the context. Even so, the General is suspcious and has his Owsla keep tabs on the big rabbit.

Sunset arrives. Bigwig leads a group of rabbits to the iron bridge, but Kehaar is nowhere to be found. Woundwart, with a wide patrol out to find the strangers, gives chase, catching up at the iron bridge. He and Bigwig fight. The clash is brief and ends when Kehaar swoops in at the General, giving Bigwig time to get the escaping rabbits away from the bridge and down towards the river. Hazel gets the escapees on the boat, but in the time it takes to chew through the rope holding it in place, Woundwart catches up. Bigwig delays the General long enough for the boat to get underway.

Hazel’s band, now much larger with the escapees, has a short breather before Woundwart catches up again. He heads out to meet with the General to negotiate, but Woundwart’s terms – return the escapees or death – are non-negotiable. Woundwart also wants Bigwig, the rabbit who dared to betray him. Hazel returns to the warrent and orders the burrows’ entrances plugged. Woundwart’s soldiers begin digging. Fiver falls into another trance and starts moaning about a dog loose in the woods. Hazel remembers the collie at the beginning of the trip and has an idea. He takes three of the fastest runners back to the farm.

With Hazel gone, the other rabbits hunker down, waiting for Woundwart’s soldiers to dig in. One of the entrances is re-opened, allowing the General inside. The twists and turns in the warren allow the defenders to attack from hiding, which is what Blackaver does to Woundwart. The General shows no mercy and kills the escapee before going deeper. He finds Pipkin and other kits and moves in. Bigwig emerges from the dirt and fights Woundwart for the third time.

At the farm, Hazel chews through the rope acting as the dog’s leash. The first runner takes off, getting the dog to give chase. The runners are spaced out; as one rabbit tires, another can take over leading the dog back to the warren. However, Hazel gets attacked by the cat. The cat holds him under her claws, waiting to finish the rabbit. Fortunately, the cat’s owner arrives to scold her.

The last runner, Hyzenthlay, arrives back at the warren, the dog still giving chase. She hides, but Woundwart’s soldiers are briefly surprised. One calls out a warning, but the dog kills the soldiers. Woundwart emerges from the warren, not believing that a dog could be dangerous. Seeing the dog, the general attacks. His body is never found and the General becomes a rabbit legend, a bogeyman to warn young kits.

The movie ends with the lderly Chief Hazel in a field watching over his warren. The Black Rabbit calls, inviting Hazel to join his Owlsa. Hazel follows, leaving his body behind, knowing that his warren will be safe.

As mentioned above, Martin Rosen wanted to adapt the book. His goal was to be as faithful as possible. However, the main challenge he faced was taking a 400+ page novel and condensing it into a 92 minute movie. Even animated, it isn’t possible to get the entire novel in. Rosen, though, managed to get to the core of the novel, the exodus from the doomed warren to Watership Down. He took pains to get details correct, even to the point of sending people to the locations in the novel to get photographs. The area hasn’t changed much since 1972 and even since 1978. The number of rabbits escaping the doomed warren was reduced, making it easier to keep track of which rabbit was which. In the novel, two rabbits, Holly and Bluebell, survived the destruction of the original warren, while only Holly survived in the film.

Minor changes aside, the core of the story remains. The story is still told from the rabbit’s eye view, and each character is recongizable – clever Hazel, nervous Fiver, and brave Bigwig. Rosen’s desire and effort to maintain the story comes through. Watership Down is a good example of being able to get to the heart of a novel without losing anything in the translation to film.
* The names both in the novel and in the movie are translated from Rabbit. The book goes into more details. Fiver gets his name because he was the fifth born, when rabbits can only count up to four; in rabbit, his name is “Little Thousand”.
** Nuthanger Farm, another real location.
*** The god of the moon and darkness, seen as a death god by rabbits.

Hey gang, just so you know the Plot Twist Generator has had some updates.  I’m going through suggestions to tweak it and feel like it just crossed over into being “really kind of functional.”  I appreciate the feedback and have much more to include.

– Steve

Came off of a busy well, so the update is I’ve been collecting feedback on the Plot Twist generator – and have a pretty healthy list.  So when things calm down a bit, back at it.  I think I got a pretty good amount.

Sorry this is tacking so long, but a few projects at work took precedence.

Some of our authors are a bit on hiatus due to other challenges as well.  The joy of end of summer and start of fall . . .

• Steve

And the update is – not much of an update.  Having some busy times at work that won’t slow down until next week.  That means no more updates to the Plot Twist Generator for a week or two.  But I got a lot of ideas from folks, so it will come . . .

• Steve

The History of Adaptations
Twenties
Thirties
Forties
Fifties
Sixties
Seventies
Eighties

Welcome to the history of adaptations. I’ve been looking at the top movies of each decade, analysing them to see which ones were original and which ones were adaptations, and of the adaptations, what the source material was. I’m using the compiled list at Filmsite.org as a base. Last time, the Eighties turned out to be a complete reversal of the Fifties, with only three movies adapted from other works. Granted, the Eighties were known for sequelitis, but the continuing stories came from an original work.

The Nineties saw the introduction of the the biggest game changer to date, access of Internet to the masses. Prior, only government sites and universities provided email and access to Usenet newsgroups with their accounts. Companies like AOL, CompuServe, and GEnie brought the Internet to the home user. The Eternal September began the day AOL provided access to Usenet in September 1993. Compared to today, Internet access was slow and not very user friendly. Speeds were measured in bits. Downloads took days. Usenet, however, allowed people to talk about a wide variety of topics*.

Sequelitis continued, with varying qualities. Disney animation returned in force, having gone through lean years in the Seventies and Eighties. The disaster film made a brief comeback, though the genre succumbed to weak blockbusters that were more effect than story Computer generated graphics became affordable and reliable enough for regular use, allowing for shots that would be impossible to film using a practical effect. The advent of CGI effects allowed the disaster movie to return, with natural disasters replacing airplane disasters**.

As mentioned with the Eighties, there is a barometer of popularity. “Weird Al” Yankovic is still writing songs parodying movies. The different now is that the songs are coming out far closer to the movie than before. “Jurassic Park” and “Gump” both were released after the titular movies were. The cover of the 1993 album, Alapalooza, parodied the posters for Jurassic Park. “The Saga Begins“, though, was written before the release of The Phantom Menace and came shortly afterwards. Weird Al used Internet rumour, trailers, and other information to write the song in time for the movie’s release.

The top movies of the decade, by year:
1990
Home Alone – original. The antics of Macauley Culkins’ Kevin had people returning to see the movie multiple times during the Christmas movie season.

1991
Terminator 2: Judgment Day – a sequel to 1984’s The Terminator.  Terminator 2 continued the story of the future war between man and machine, with humanity on the losing side.

1992
Aladdin – adaptation of the Arabian tale.  Aladdin was Disney’s comeback movie but almost lost a nomination for best screenplay due to the improv of Robin Williams as the genie.

1993
Jurassic Park – adaptated from the Michael Crichton novel of the same name.  Jurassic Park is one of the last movies to remain in theatres for over a year from release. The success of the movie has made it more difficult for other dinosaur films to succeed because of heightened expectations.

1994
Forrest Gump – adaptated from the 1986 novel by Winston Groom of the same name.
The Lion King – original but influenced by both the Biblical Moses and by William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. While Aladdin was a huge hit for Disney, The Lion King is considered the start of the Disney Renaissance.

1995
Toy Story – original. Pixar didn’t specifically base the story on the toys used.
Batman Forever – sequel to the 1989 adaptation, Batman and its sequel, Batman Returns.

1996
Independence Day – original. Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin came up with the story while promoting Stargate. Independence Day combined the disaster movie with science fiction.
Twister – original. Part of the disaster genre’s resurgence. Twister was the first movie released on DVD.

1997
Titanic – original, using the sinking of the RMS Titanic as the backdrop for a doomed romance.
Men in Black – adaptation, based on the comic, The Men in Black, by Lowell Cunningham and published by Aircel.

1998
Saving Private Ryan – original, based on the D-Day invasion of Omaha Beach by American forces.
Armageddon – original. Armageddon is one of two releases dealing with asteroid strikes, with Deep Impact having been released two and half months prior.

1999
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace – sequel, well, prequel to the 1977 movie, Star Wars.
The Sixth Sense – original. M. Night Shamalyan made his mark with this film with a then-unexpected twist.
Toy Story 2 – sequel to the 1995 animated film, Toy Story. Pixar’s reputation was cemented with the sequel.

Of the movies above, nine are original, two are sequels to original works, one is a prequel to an original work, four are adaptations, and one is a sequel to an adaptation. I have counted sequels as original works for this series. However, sequels of adaptations add a new problem. This isn’t the first decade to have such a film. Demetrius and the Gladiators from the Fifties was the first and was counted separately. Batman Forever will be counted separately as well.

The Star Wars prequel presents a new conundrum. It has been sixteen years since Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, so is The Phantom Menance a sequel or a reboot? Return of the Jedi was the end of the original story, at least on film. The Phantom Menace introduces new characters and shows one returning character at a much younger age. For purposes of tallying the numbers, The Phantom Menace will be treated as a reboot, thus an adaptation. These decisions will get less and less clear-cut in coming decades.

With those rulings, that makes eleven original, five adaptations, and one sequel to an adaptation. The percentage of original films drops, but the majority of popular movies for the Nineties are still original works, continuing the reversal started in the Eighties. Of the adaptations, there are two based on novels, one reboot of a movie, one adaptation of a legend, and one adaptation of a comic book. There is a variety of original works, which reflects the variety shown in the popular movies. That’s now two decades in a row where the originals finally outnumber the adaptations.
* It is best not to contemplate the variety. The hierarchy was fairly broad, but for those who were into topics that couldn’t get a large base for support, the alt.* hierarchy existed.
** There may never be another airplane disaster film. Airplane! is too well known, to he point where Sharknado 2 opened with an homage to the film. Airplane! has entered the pop culture subconscious to the point where the gags are known even if the source isn’t.