In 1912, Edgar R. Burroughs’ first novel, A Princess of Mars was published, introducing a new character into the world of pulp fiction. John Carter, formerly of Virginia, was trying to escape Apaches when he stumbled upon a device that sent him to the Red Planet, Mars. John Carter of Mars would go on to have eleven adventures, and Burroughs would introduce other characters, such as Tarzan of the Apes.
A century later, Disney released an adaption of A Princess of Mars, simply called John Carter. Directed by Andrew Stanton of Pixar*, the movie caught the flavour of the original story, placing John Carter into an alien world. The movie showed where many now-familar cliches and tropes, used everywhere from the Star Wars saga to Superman and The Justice League, came from. Stanton’s success at Pixar allowed him to make sure that the Green Martians came to life as more than just CGI objects.
By all rights, the movie should be a successful summer action blockbuster. The film takes great care in adapting Burroughs’ story to fit the the format and modern sensibilities. However, box office returns aren’t as high as expected.
The movie’s problems start in the offices of Disney. Between the start of production of John Carter and its release, there was a turnover of executives. With John Carter being greenlit by the outgoing exec, the new one started doing everything possible to show why the one leaving had to go. Executive meddling, once again, rears its head in the lack of respect of a property. How can a movie be derailed?
First, renaming. While A Princess of Mars from Disney’s studios would draw in an audience expecting something completely different, the title John Carter of Mars would allow movie-goers to know what property the movie is based on, especially the target audience. Instead, though, the movie is just called John Carter, ensuring it would get lost in the shuffle.**
Next, timing. The movie is lush, filmed in 3-D, and obviously meant to be released in the summer, when some of the target audience is no longer in class. Instead, the movie came out in March, before the March Break for elementary and secondary schools and after the Study Break for university students. And, despite summer-like weather*** in the eastern part of North America**** mid-March, it’s not summer when people have the time to head into a dark theatre during the day to catch a break from the heat.
Finally, marketing. Specifically, the lack of marketing. The advertising campaign can be described as lack-luster. Unusually for a big-budget Disney film, there were no tie-in campaigns. The trailers that were released did nothing to get people excited about the movie.
As an adaptation, John Carter was successful. The respect the cast and crew had for the work shows in the final product. However, as a release, the movie was sabotaged by internal politics.
Next time, a look a superhero adaptations.
* He directed Finding Nemo and WALL-E and was one of the executive producers of Ratatouille, Partly Cloudy, and Up.
** The film makers, though, did get a dig in by ending the movie with the title “John Carter of Mars” on screen.
*** March 21, 2011, Ottawa had a high of 27 degrees Celcius and a humdex reading of 30 degrees; something normally seen in June.
**** I do feel sorry the people of Alberta and Saskatchewan who received more winter on the first day of Spring.
Facebook is warning employers about demanding passwords. The social networking site is also threatening legal action over the demands. However, employment lawyers are saying that it’s not illegal to ask. Mind, giving over the password is a breach of Facebook’s terms of service. If job applicants have information in their profile that’s not available publicly that’s verboten to ask at an interview, the interviewer could also be violating employment laws. Of course, check your local laws. In Alberta, British Columbia, and Quebec, such password requests are privacy violations. In Ontario, not so much.
–ScottD
I have a backlog of articles to get through, but this is starting to make the rounds. More and more companies and government agencies are asking people they interview to hand over their Facebook user ID and password. Others are asking interviewees to login during the interview so the company/government reps can look around the account. With social media becoming a preferred way to keep in touch with others and companies getting aware, expect social media intrusion to increase.
Um, surprise?
This summer is starting to shape up to be the Summer of Adaptations*. Several movies based on old TV shows and even board games are heading to theatres already, plus sequels and even adaptation of novels.
A quick preview
First, Battleship, based on Hasbro’s game of fleet destruction. One of the trailers even points the connection out in the first words used. Aliens arrive on Earth to turn two fleets into personal weapons of war. Either the scriptwriter got meta or desperate. Sadly, the trailer didn’t include the classic line, “You sank my battleship!” The movie could be a fun popcorn outing held back by the connection to the existing property.
Next, John Carter, which is already out. Disney’s adaptation of Edgar R. Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars was released at a bizarre time for what would normally be and should have been a summer release. A shake up at Disney may have doomed John Carter, with a new exec doing everything possible to tank an out-going exec’s project. The movie deserves better, though a full review and analysis is forthcoming.
The 21 Jump Street movie continues a disturbing trend of taking a popular-in-its-day TV series and turning it into a comedy. The original 21 Jump Street starred Johnny Depp as a cop going undercover at a high school. The movie adaptation has Tatum Channing and Jonah Hill going undercover, with the movie aiming for laughs. That worked oh so well for Starsky & Hutch and Land of the Lost.
Season two of A Song of Ice and Fire is due out in April. HBO signed for a second season after one episode. The first season showed the strength of the team adapting A Game of Thrones and the difficulties that traditional broadcasters face when competing with cable stations.
The Dark Shadows adaptation by Tim Burton is being filmed. The original series was a supernatural soap opera, featuring the trials and tribulations of vampire Barnabas Collins. Tim Burton’s version, though, will turn it into a comedy. Given Burton’s past work, most likely a dark comedy. I expect the movie to be successful at the box office, even if it isn’t faithful to the original.
Wrath of the Titans is the sequel to 2010’s remake of Clash of the Titans. Both movies can be thought of remakes of Ray Harryhausen’s Clash of the Titans, which was a showcase for the best stop-motion animation. The 2010 version** turned the stop-motion into CGI, then had 3-D technology retrofitted, and was a decent action movie. Wrath will follow the heroics of Perseus and is being filmed for a 3-D presentation. I expect the movie to have a decent success, though not record setting at the box office.
The Three Stooges is probably the oddest adaptation to hit the screens this year. The original Stooges made their name through a series of shorts before getting full-length films. The adaptation will have Sean Hayes, Will Sasso, and Chris Diamantopoulos as Larry, Moe, and Curly with the setting moved to the current year. This… yeah, hard to tell how the movie will do. It will have to walk a fine line; it has to keep fans of the Three Stooges happy with the portrayal while still bringing in a modern audience. It’s a movie to keep an eye on.***
Again, I’ll toss it out to you. What adaptations are you looking forward to seeing? What ones are making you cringe?
Next week, something will be here.
* Add reverberation as needed.
** A full analysis is planned.
*** Before it starts poking.
Stuff that came up today, mainly. Not really part of the main series, but relates. Not filler, either, otherwise I’d have held on to it.
First up, Hunger Games news. The screenwriter, Simon Beaufoy, is already working on adapting Catching Fire, the second book in the series. He is working with Suzanne Collins, the author, on what needs to be kept and what can be dropped for time reasons. His goal is to make sure that the fans are satisfied with the final result. Once again, respecting the original work and the fans is showing up. Whether the movies are successful remains to be seen, though LiT will have a report.
Next, the trailer for Battleship is out. The movie looks decent enough, but might do better without being tied to the game. It could go the route of Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li or it could be another G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.
Speaking of G.I. Joe, there’s a sequel coming. G.I. Joe: Retaliation will star Bruce Willis and Dwayne Johnson.
Jean Giraud, known to the world as Moebius, has passed away at 73. Moebius was an influence on many artists in the comics industry and worked with Stan Lee in 1988 for a two-part Silver Surfer story. Giraud also worked on Alien, Tron, and The Abyss.
Do not refresh the page. This is the page you are looking for. The expected column is delayed. In the meantime, enjoy the following filler-ing replacement.
Last week in Off Track, I listed several works that I felt shouldn’t be redone. This time, I look at shows that are possibly long overdue for a remake.
Starlost*
Starlost was one of the first Canadian science fiction TV series. It failed. At the time it was made, Canadian writers and directors had no idea of what to do with science fiction. Those who did tended to head to the US where there were publishers and studios with a semblance of clue. Glen-Warren Studios of Toronto, Ontario, however, did not. There’s a longer explanation of what happened in Harlan Ellison’s Phoenix Without Ashes on just how badly things went. Short version – the Canadians involved couldn’t see past the studio walls. The result was a low budget mess that had plot holes bigger than the Ark. However, it had potential.**
Since Starlost was first aired, many things have changed. Cameras have improved. Special effects have improved. Canadian studios have learned a lot about both making TV series and doing science fiction.*** The approach to writing TV scripts has gone from episodic with reset button to ongoing with development. And, people may have forgotten about the original. The only thing stopping a remake is Ellison himself – he may just want to wash his hands of the entire original mess and forget it ever happened.
Max Headroom
A dystopia where televisions have no off button, where news channels run 24/7 and manipulate events for ratings. Turns out, today isn’t as smog-ridden as the original show expected. Doesn’t mean that biting commentary about how corporate news media works isn’t needed. Shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report have demonstrated how broken news reporting has gotten. Turning the issue into a drama would bring the problems to light to a larger audience. Modern technology alone will let the titular character get to more places, and computer graphics have come a long way since Max Headroom first aired.
The question becomes, who would dare? A specialty channel, like HBO or A&E, could present the remake without question, but the show needs to be seen by a larger audience, something that the traditional broadcast networks could provide. One the other side of that coin, would Fox really air something that calls their news department’s behaviour into question? Would any of the traditional broadcasters give the show a chance to survive if ratings weren’t stellar out of the gate?
Shadowrun
A lot of the hard work in developing a series, beyond selling it, is creating the setting. Shadowrun, a tabletop RPG that crosses cyberpunk with Tolkein-style fantasy, has a lot of the setting creation already done, across four editions and multiple setting books. Many of the setting books, past and present, have minimal game mechanics and focus on the flavour of the game world. All that a creative team would need to do is come up with the characters while being mindful of the setting. What could make the series difficult to make is the cost of special effects. Between the various subspecies of humanity and the effects of magic, the production budget would have to either work around limitations (the mage needs to hold back on spellcasting and conjuring) or plan ahead (no trolls or dwarves in the core cast). Still, the setting is broad enough to allow numerous style of campaigns; there should be plenty of room for a creative team to get at least a mini-series out of the game.
So, what do you suggest? What do you think is overdue to be remade?
Next time, something may be here.****
* That rumbling sound you hear? Harlan Ellison just exploded in a rage.
** I watched the show as a pre-teen. I could tell it was a cheap Canadian show, despite not having seen that much to compare the show with. But, elements were still chilling, including the computer counting down the time before the Ark was destroyed.
*** Ever wonder why many planets look like British Columbia? 🙂
**** It’ll be a surprise!
Last week, I mentioned Google offering cash prizes if anyone could hack Chrome. Hackers in Vancouver managed to find two previously unknown holes at an IT security conference. The CEO of Vupen Security, one of the winners in the Pwn2Own contest, mentioned the difficulty of finding the security holes. This was the first time Chrome was successfully hacked in the contest’s five years.
It’s been a week, so things have built up again. Bill C-30 is starting to wane with the Robocalls Scandal and the return of the omnibus crime bill. Here’s the rest of the news:
Didn’t Take Long
After three months of .xxx domains, ten complaints of cybersquatting have been filed. Among the complainants are banks, jewellery stores, and an online store. All of this could be foreseen, really – it’s not new. Similar happened after .info and .biz came out.
Small ISPs Look for Relief
Smaller Canadian ISPs are looking to overturn a ruling that would allow Bell and Rogers to charge by capacity. Capacity-based tariffs allow the larger ISPs to charge per megabyte and would replace a flat-fee. However, the Canadian Network Operators Consortium says the pricing is excessive.
House of Commons to Probe Anonymous
Calling Anonymous’ missive a threat on the life of Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, the Speaker has directed Parliament to investigate. Experts, however, say that finding members of Anonymous would be difficult at best.
RIM Expected to Disappoint According to BMO
BMO Capital Markets is expecting RIM’s revenue and market share to disappoint in the coming quarters. RIM’s Blackberry 10 is expected out in the latter half of the year. However, a lack of clarity on the launch prompted BMO to be disappointed.
Cloud Jobs
Cloud Computing is expected to add 70 000 jobs to the Canadian economy. Many of the jobs are expected to be in non-IT fields, such as administration, marketing, and even plumbing and carpentry. Vancouver and Toronto are expected to pick up about a third of the jobs, but the impact will be felt across the country. Takeaway: get in early on cloud adoption.
PCs Dead Says Microsoft Exec
Ray Ozzie believes the world has moved beyond the personal computer. Ozzie succeeded Bill Gates as Microsoft’s tech visionary and believes that tablets and smartphones will do the bulk of personal data crunching due to their wireless nature.
Ford to Mail Software Updates
To keep their cars’ onboard computer up to date, Ford will be mailing USB sticks with upgrades. Owners of 2011 or 2012 model year vehicles with MyFord Touch infotainment and control systems should expect the updates in the mail. The need to keep vehicular computers up to date could lead to a new avenue of research and design.
Canadians Number One Online
Canadians spent an average of 45.3 hours online in the last quarter of 2011. This beats the US (38.6 hours), the UK (35.4) and South Korea (30.0). The study shows that Canadians spend a good portion of those hours on social media. This goes a long way explaining the resistance to moves by Bell and Rogers to restrict online usage.
Playbooks Outsell iPads
During the last week of February, RIM’s Playbook outsold Apple’s iPad. The combination of price cuts and the release of Playbook OS2.0 with the imminent announcement of the iPad3 may have allowed RIM to surpass Apple.
Watson Goes Into Finance
IBM’s Watson will help Citigroup improve banking. Watson, best known for its impressive win on Jeopardy, will be helping improve the accuracy and speed of decisions and assisting on retirement plans. IBM keeps creeping under the radar, but could have a huge impact here.
Scholastic Enters eBook Field
Scholastic is developing Storia, an app containing 1300 books in the publisher’s library. Series like Clifford, the Big Red Dog will be available in digital format for the first time. Storia is the first major ebook reader for children’s books, a field that has been neglected for the most part.
More C-30 Fallout
A Manitoba judge ruled that Public Safety Minister Vic Toews should be allowed to know who looked at his divorce records. The records, which are available to the public, were tweeted by @Vikileaks30 after Bill C-30 was first introduced. It might be considered an abuse for many many individuals to go to the court house and request a copy of the records.
Defection Via YouTube
The Syrian deputy oil minister announced his defection via YouTube. The video was recorded from an undisclosed location. This may be the first time online social media was used to announce a defection.
— Scott D
Apologies again for missing last week and for not having the announced column. This week is another intermittant side look as I gas up more columns.
Filler up?
Right, so, after *mumble* weeks of looking at various adaptations, reboots, and remakes and trying to determine what worked and what didn’t, it’s time to look at whether such beasts should be done. To further that, I offer my list of works that probably should not be redone.
M*A*S*H
Don’t get me wrong. M*A*S*H was a great TV series, introducing elements to the sitcom format that no one had thought of before. And, it was an adaptation of an adaptation. However, M*A*S*H came from the Vietnam War era and was very much anti-war. To do well, there’d have to be an unpopular war going on. While there are still troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan, neither military mission can really be called unpopular, not to the degree the Vietnam War was. However, a spiritual successor was made – Canwest-Global/ABC’s Combat Hospital. However, Combat Hospital was very much a drama. M*A*S*H maintained an element of comedy, in part to be able to contrast the horror of war and the seriousness of the operating room. If any network is able to do a proper remake, though, I expect one of the cable channels, such as HBO or Showtime. Just expect to see a lot more of the doctors and nurses than you did on CBS.
Cheers
Cheers has a different issue. It’s not so much that it’d be difficult to recreate the series; after all, it was set in a bar for most of its run with very little happening elsewhere. It’s the relationships between the characters that sets the bar high. Cheers was very much a character-driven series. Each person that came into the bar had different backgrounds and drives (or lack thereof). Recreating that may just get people to watch Cheers reruns instead. However, Cheers is a great example of how to do character-driven plots. The effort remaking the show may be better spent just creating a new series, even if it’s set in a bar.
Plan 9 From Outer Space
It seems like a good idea. Take a horrible movie, fix the script, add a decent budget, and poof! Great movie with a big audience. Except, no. Fans of Ed Wood watch his movies in part because he keeps trying, no matter how bad his movies are or how much they’re panned by critics. Plan 9, with all its problems, including the death of Bela Legosi, still has charms. Sometimes, people watch a bad movie for the fun of it. Remaking Plan 9 to be good would lose the movie’s charm.
The Princess Bride
A charming movie on its own, a lot of the charm came from the cast. A shot-for-shot remake would work out to be advertising for the original movie, much like the Psycho remake was. Changing the chemistry, though, would destroy the heart of the movie. The Princess Bride worked because of a combination of story, script, and casting that came together to be more than the sum of the parts. It would be difficult to to recreate that combination.
So, good readers, what works do you feel shouldn’t be remade and why?
