Over the past ten weeks, I've looked at a mix of hits, misses, and cannonball caroms. What can we take away from the morass? Well, again, taking care of the original work plays an important part. How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is a sterling example of not only having the creator take part in the process but also finding the right people. In contrast, Johnny Mnemonic, shows what happens when the creator is left out of the loop. The former had Dr. Seuss involved at several levels, including producing and lyrics. The latter had an exec take the final product and recut it before sending it out to theatres.
Executive meddling can be an issue. Flash Gordon had producer Dino DiLaurentiis and his wife casting the leads and making deals for cross-promotions that could have torpedoed the movie. However, the director was able to cast for the supporting roles and brought in veterans who could hold their own and make the inexperienced lead look decent at the same time. Coupled with a kick-ass soundtrack by Queen, the movie survives as a cult classic. Sure, not a financial success, but the movie is remembered. Having the right people can save a movie.
As Steve pointed out, sometimes the best thing is finding the right fit for the work. A Game of Thrones definitely fit best as a TV series over a movie. There is just too much happening that is too important to cut. The build up of the threats and conflicts required the time that a weekly episodic format allows for. Likewise, the weekly format is working for Once Upon a Time, allowing for the mystery of the story to be built properly. As movies, both would lose far too much in the translation.
Sometimes, going from TV pilot to cinematic feature causes problems. Star Trek: The Motion Picture was originally the pilot to a second Star Trek series. However, the decision was made to turn the script into a full-fledged feature film. Unfortunately, this required the script to be extended. Most of the filler came from loving shots of the USS Enterprise, as the camera flew around and over her. Long shots became the order of the day, giving the movie a far slower pace than a pilot would have. Compare Star Trek: TMP to "Encounter at Farpoint", the pilot for Star Trek: The Next Generation. Both are cerebral, but "Farpoint" builds up the action through character interaction and twists while TMP relies more on lengthy approaches in space.
What about works where the creator is either long gone or a corporation? Where the work is part of a larger franchise? For this, I looked at three movies. Rookie of the Year adapted the game of baseball into a family narrative. The plays on the field were believable; in fact, there have been stranger in the game. The movie was faithful to the sport while telling its story. It is obvious that the writers, the cast, and the crew have been to a ballgame or two. The other two, however… Oi.
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra was, in short, a mess. It had several good scenes tied together with a plot a 3rd grader could find plotholes in. The promise of the opening scene – Cobra's assault on an US Army convoy – provided a glimpse of the potential that was never reached. Meanwhile, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li just really wasn't a Street Fighter movie. What happened? In the case of GI Joe, it looks like the license was available and was used with a quick script that did take into account the characters and groups but, well, forgot about cohesion. Chun Li, on the other hand, felt like an available script was taken and had the Street Fighter aspects grafted on. Both movies had potential never realized.
And that leaves Dungeons & Dragons. The movie had decent scenes and a decent plot, but completely fell apart during execution. It seemed to be suffering from having the wrong people involved. It missed on what made the game D&D interesting and didn't have many of the game's iconic monsters. Unfortunately, many studios decided that the takeaway was, "Don't make movies off tabletop RPGs".
Overall, again, respect for the creator and the work heads the list of how to make an adaptation successful. Followed, though, is making sure the adaptation is in the right format. The right format can get the work's full impact; the wrong one can mute it or draw out the impact to the point where it's not felt at all.
Next time, year-end round up.
RIM's execs have announced that they have slashed their salaries to $1 (assumed to be Canadian) after a year of disaster piled on top of disaster for the company. Delays in the Blackberry 10 smartphone and the low sales of the Playbook didn't help, either.
The slashing may be symbolic, but it could mean that the execs want to turn the company around. Playbook OS2.0 is in development and will be aimed at businesses already using Blackberries, and the new Blackberry is just waiting for energy efficient chips.
–Scott D
RIMpocalypse Update
Research in Motion's revenues are still falling. The lowered levels are blamed on poor sales of the Playbook and on an aging line of smartphones.
Smartphone, Smart Shoppers?
The use of smartphones by shoppers to do product research, price comparisons, and online sales are changing the retail landscape. It might not just be bookstores that will feel the crunch of online shopping.
Triple X'ed
A grab of domain names in the new .xxx TLD came from business and others trying to secure their names away from potential porn sites. Among those trying to prevent a tarnishing of their images include universities, Scouting, galleries, and multinational corporations. PETA has also snapped up their .xxx domain, but, well, given how they've advertised in the past, they probably want to put their purchase to use.
Another Steve Jobs Book to Come Out
The Zen of Steve Jobs by Caleb Melby will be a released as a graphic novel, focusing on when Jobs left Apple to found NeXT. It's a different way to produce a biography. Forbes has a four-page preview.
Google Buzz Gone
Alas, no link. Google did warn, but as of December 14 at 6pm EST (at least locally), Buzz was removed from Gmail. I already miss it.
–Scott D
China Still an iRisk to US Companies, Government
Geeks interested in security may find jobs with the news that at least 12 different Chinese hacking groups are responsible for cyberbreak-ins, stealing billions of dollars worth of data. In a related issue, there is the possibility that hacking could upset the supply of oil. Security geeks should see the demand for their services continue to grow.
Tech Industry Wants Canadian Goverment to Migrate to Cloud
Dave McDonald, CEO of Softchoice Corp. and the chair of the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) board of governors, feels that the Canadian Government should migrate to cloud computing or risk being "technologically incapacitated". Nice thought, but given the above and the nature of the data used by the government, the big question becomes, "How secure is it?"
Bell Runs Afoul of CRTC Regs
Related to the discussion of Tamara's news about the sale of MLSE, Bell has been found in breech of CRTC rules by limiting the streaming of NHL and NFL games to just Bell wireless subscribers. "Canadians shouldn't be forced to subscribe to a wireless service from a specific company to access their favourite content," said Konrad von Finckenstein, chair of the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission.
English to English Translation App
Tricolour Software of Newfoundland has developed a Newfoundland to English translatation app for the iPhone. The Whaddaya App allows users to enter the Newfoundland phrase to get a plain English explanation, with proceeds from the 99 cent app going towards a no-kill shelter. While this app has a humourous bent, it could be the forerunner of apps allowing visitors to understand local idioms, even if both the visitor and the local allegedly speak the same language.
Reading for Pleasure in Decline
Recent studies are showing that Ontario schoolchildren aren't reading for pleasure as much as in prior years. Normally, I would have passed on this for a news round up; however, an article in the November/December 2011 Scientific American Mind ("The Death of Preschool" by Paul Tullis, behind a paywall) shows a disturbing trend. The push for standardized testing may be working against getting an education.
–Scott D
More Phones Hacked
Okay, not quite so bad as the above would imply. However, the News of the World's phone hacking scandal has reached over 800 people whose phones have been hacked. Coupled with products such as the one from CarrierIQ, phone privacy should be a far more important issue than it currently is.
RIM's Anno Horribile Continues
The Indonesian government is threatening to cut Blackberry data services unless RIM provides state access to users' messages. RIM is trying to work with Indonesia's government, though, and has installed the mandatory filters.
–Scott D
The 80s were a turning point in media. Between the heyday of the music video, the breakout of shows like Miami Vice, and a new crop of writers. the approach to storytelling changed. One of the literary movements of the 80s was Cyberpunk, a mesh of man and machine in a distopian world where corporations have become monolithic and governments exist only at their pleasure*, where people outside pleasant society act as go betweens and expendable assets for the corporations and for the criminal organizations. The vanguard of cyberpunk was "Johnny Mnemonic", a short story written by William Gibson** and published in 1981 in Omni magazine.
The title character of "Johnny Mnemonic" was a data courier, with the equivalent of a hard drive*** implanted in his head. He ran into a problem with one client and had his bacon rescued by Molly Millions, a razorgirl with mirrorshade eyes and razors implanted under her fingernails. The criminal organization from whom the client stole the data now in Johnny's head wanted the data back and traces of it eliminated, sending a killer who had more replacement parts than original body to clean up. Johnny and Molly turned to Jones, a war vet dolphin with a smack addiction, to retrieve the passcode for the data and to the Lo-Teks, a anti-technology gang, for protection while sending a snippet of the data to the criminal group to get them to back off. The killer, meanwhile, has tracked the duo down and takes on Molly on the Killing Floor.
In 1995, Gibson worked with director Robert Longo to bring the story to the silver screen. Althought the original script was more an art film, desogned to be made for under two million, they pair went with Sony who saw the Internet as a potential draw. Sony provided $30 million. Several changes were made to the story. Because the character of Molly was already licensed out to another company, she was replaced with Jane. Unlike Molly, Jane was on her way down, having been infected with Nerve Attenuation Syndrome (NAS). The criminal organization was replaced by a pharmaceutical firm that had discovered a cure for NAS but wanted it buried because their treatment program would be more profitable.***** Johnny, played by Keanu Reeves, became the main mover in terms of plot and action, where as in the original short story, he directed the plot but left the heavy lifting for Molly.
With Gibson and Longo working together on the movie, what could go wrong?
Executive meddling. According to William Gibson himself, the movie was recut at the last moment by the American distributor, and recut badly. The flow fell off. There was some criticism of Keanu Reeves's acting ability, but, in retrospect, he managed to portray a man who had part of his brain removed and altered to become a data courier believably. Unlike How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Johnny Mnemonic didn't keep the creator in the loop at a crucial stage in editing, and the movie suffered as a result.
Next time, a summary.
* So, all we're missing today are USB ports in our heads.
** Other early cyberpunk works include /Neuromancer/ and /Mona Lisa Overdrive/.
*** I really hope IBM isn't going this route with racetrack memory.
**** Superconducting quantum interfence detectors.
***** Okay, cyberpunk waned because it started to look good compared to reality.
Online Freedom
India is the latest country asking social networks, including Google, Facebook, and Twitter, to remove offensive material. In this case, India is making the request to avoid having tensions stirred up as a result of controversial and offensive content. This will be a social issue that keeps popping up, sometimes in unexpected places.
Privacy Matters
Canada's privacy commissioner has said that consumers should always be able to opt out of tracking. There could be work in the future, either in writing a browser add-on that prevents data being tracked/forwarded or in showing the data being tracked. This may mean that companies like CarrierIQ will have to be careful of what data they track.
The Red Light (Web)District
The new .xxx domains are available. Filter writers now have a new spam detector, just like when .biz and .info came out. It's not going to make a difference; porn sites will just add the .xxx version of their web addresses along with the .com.
The Internet is for Reading
Author Margaret Atwood argues that the Internet, especially social media like Twitter, encourages reading and writing. While Twitter has a hard limit on total characters, other forms of social media (such as blogging ^.-) allows for a more unlimited span. The only way to improve reading is to read; and, the only way to improve writing is to write. And, well, you're reading this, right?
One-off App Becomes Hit
Autodsesk's Sketchbook app for iPhone and iPad has become a huge hit. While the income is a small percentage of the company's overall business, the apps have added more customers than ever. The lesson here is that a one-off could become a great way to introduce people to your product line.
Microsoft Steps Up
The App Wars are about to heat up. Microsoft is offering developers a larger piece of the pie in revenue for apps for smartphones and tablets. If a Windows app's revenue breaks $25 000, MS is offering 80% of the revenue, ahead of Apple's 70%.
–Scott D
Big Blue Is Off to the Race(track)s
Once in a while, IBM makes an announcement that reminds people that they're still around and still in the game. In 2008, IBM researches described "racetrack" computer memory, which promised to combine the storage capacity of hard drives with the speed of flash memory. A prototype has been unveiled, with the benefit of being made by standard chip making tools. Hardware geeks may want to send resumes to Big Blue – it looks like storage limits are going to drop when the kinks are ironed out.
iSpy?
A company known as CarrierIQ has made a splash. On the surface, its product seems simple – it monitors wireless network performance in real time using feedback from cell phones. The problem is the type of data captured. A security research determined that the program tracks such details as device manufacture and model, battery life, applications on the device, location of the device, keystrokes, and HTTP header information. If that data is not recorded and never used, no issue, right? Too bad there's people like those working for Rupert Murdoch, who had no problem hacking into the phone of a dead teen.
The ethics of using and abusing new technology need further developing, and could be an area of growth as smartphones become more integrated with daily lives.
Carriers using the software include Sprint (they claim to not look at the contents of messages), AT&T, and T-Mobile (both of whom only look at data to improve service). Companies not using CarrierIQ's software include Apple (after iOS5, so upgrade if you can), Nokia (not installed prior to shipment), and RIM.
Speaking of RIM:
A stampede that injuired dozens in Jakarta, Indonesia, on November 25 was caused by the demand for the release of the Blackberry Bold 9790. As a result, the head of RIM's Indonesia office, among four others, has been charged with negligence causing injury.
Meanwhile, two RIM execs have been let go due to their behaviour on a flight. The two men were drunk and had to be subdued by the entire crew on the flight from Beijing to Toronto. The flight was redirected to Vancouver.
Not sure if this will hurt RIM any further. Definitely not helping, though the demand for the new Blackberry could have been a positive sign if it weren't for the injuries.
–Scott D
The late and long missed Theodore Geisel madse a name for himself in the realm of children's publishing – Dr. Seuss. With an amazing sense and knowledge of the English language, he wrote many books that are still remembered and read today. In 1957, he wrote How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, showing how one person, the titular Grinch, discovered the true meaning of Christmas, the one beyond the superficial lights, presents, and food. Surprisingly (or perhaps not), the story avoided religious overtones, defining Christmas as what comes from inside.
In 1966, Geisel's production company, Cat in the Hat Productions, worked with MGM to adapt the story as a holiday special. The production team included Ted Geisel and veteran Warner Brothers animation director Chuck Jones*. The story was kept as is, with music to help fill the 25 minutes then needed for commercial television. Songs were added, with lyrics by Dr. Seuss and music by Albert Hague**. The main voice was provided by Boris Karloff***, providing a gravitas that isn't expected in a Christmas special. Not listed, but providing the male singing voice for the Grinch's theme is Thurl Ravenscroft****.
To say that How the Grinch Stole Christmas! has become a classic is an understatement. The timelessness of the original story along with Chuck Jones's deft handling of the material and utter care put into the work by the cast and crew. Having Dr. Seuss involved helped greatly, both as lyricist and producer. The animators took the illustrations from the book and brought them to life. Even the practice of animation reuse added, allowing the montage of the Grinch sneaking and stealing through Whoville to add humour and character development. The Grinch is another example of where having a staff that cares about the original helps with adapting. Another lyricist could have not had the ear that Dr. Seuss had for the language and joy of the scenes. Another narrator wouldn't have had the gravitas that Karloff provided. Unlike far too many Christmas specials, the Grinch doesn't depend on sentimentality, which helps it stand out even after forty-five years.
Next time, Cyberpunk hits the big screen
* Many many Bugs Bunny and Road Runner cartoons.
** Who would later be seen in the role of [Shorofsky] in the film and subsequent television adaptation of Fame.
*** Noted for playing Frankenstein's monster in many movies as well as being many more horror films.
**** Also known as Tony the Tiger, voicing the mascot until his death in 2005.
Reaching back, we find that I've already covered Street Fighter, focusing on the movie featuring Raul Julia in his last role. Instead of rewriting all the background, I'll just send you to re-read it if you want and then continue.
Done? Great!
The year 2009 had a glut of action movies. Not all of them lived up to the promise of the trailers. One such movie was Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li. The movie chronicles how the titular character grows from young girl to, well, street fighter. Essentially, an origins movie. Kristin Kreuk starred as the adult version of Chun Li as she struggled to find meaning after her father disappeared and her died. Her search took her to Bangkok to study under Gen, once a member of Bison's gang who now protected the downtrodden from the villain's schemes. He took Chun Li under his wing, teaching her new techniques and leading her to find a new balance and lose her anger*. In the meantime, Charlie Nash, an Interpol agent, also arrived in Bangkok to assist the local police, including Detective Maya Sunee of Gangland Homicide, in finding who was responsible for the deaths and beheadings of eight major gang leaders.** Nash had been on the trail of Bison for several years and is hoping to finally put him away. Despite having Chun Li narrate for most of the beginning, turning "show, don't tell" into "show and tell", the movie maintains a decent pace thriough the investigation by both Nash and Chun Li and has decent action sequences.
Overall, the movie worked as an action flick, something to watch in the heat of the summer in a cool, dark theatre with a large bag of popcorn and a soft drink of one's choice. So, why was there a problem?
It wasn't Street Fighter.
Oh, sure, it's there in the title: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li. Kristin Kreuk played Chun Li; it's even there in the credits. And she took on Bison, Balrog, and Vega.
But, if the audience wasn't told that who the characters were, who'd notice the difference? None of the characters were in the costumes from the video game. Unlike Street Fighter – The Movie, where everyone eventually wore the trademark costumes from the game, outside of one scene in Legend of Chun Li, they could have been called anything else. The one scene? Featured Chun Li with her hair in the same style as in the video game wearing a short blue dress as she seduced Bison's henchwoman***.
I dare say that if the movie didn't have the Street Fighter character names and links (a couple of scenes, really), the movie might have been better. Expectations would have been different. Change Shadaloo to a generic Triad, Tong or even the Russian mob, change Chun Li to Suki or Mei Lin, change Bison to Biyall, and the movie still holds together. It's as if an existing script was taken and modified to slap the Street Fighter name on to draw in more people. From a marketing perspective, this makes some sense. Action movies in the summer have a lot of competition. Adding a familiar name can get attention far easier and potentially far cheaper than putting in an effort to tweak the trailers to maximize interest. Problem is, slapping a known franchise name can backfire when the movie has a fairly generic plot and characters that could be renamed without affecting the story, the case with Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li.
So, the takeaway here is that if one wants to put the name of a franchise on a movie, the writing has to add recognizable elements from the franchise beyond just the names. This may fall under the concept of caring for a property. Slapping a name on a product is easy; making sure that the product reflects the name takes a bit more effort. Thus is the case of Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li. A decent action movie with baggage that added expectations it couldn't handle.
Next time, a holiday classic.
*Apparently, anger not only leads to hate but to distraction.
**Yeah, guess who ordered the killings.
***Yay, fanservice? The fight in the washroom was just as fanservice-y.
