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Posted By: Exzarius Dec 18, 2004 - 04:25 pm

I've seen some topics here about turning books into movies, ie lord of the rings, however is there anyone here that writes fantasy specifically for film?

I feel that the depth and the vast amount of characters in our favorite fantasy books are too much for the "typical movie buff" (bah humbug) and that in order for these books to be made for film, too much has to be cut out, sometimes removing characters and making the film (I think) less of an experience than what the book was.

I’d like to see some fantasy movies that were MADE for film, from start to finish and not just an adaptation.

I’ve been working on a few fantasy screenplays, and want to know if anyone else does that? I know fantasy is possibly a genre best left to novels, but it would be nice to be able to see a good fantasy movie every once in a while.

Me out

Oh, I can’t help myself by the way, anyone read Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson?

Posted By: Queen Ehlana Dec 18, 2004 - 07:59 pm

I can't remember the guy's name, but there's a writer whose stories get filmed all the time... Jurassic Park, Timeline, etc... There must be others like him.

Posted By: Magus Dec 19, 2004 - 06:17 am

Michael Crichon is the one you're thinking of. He just published another book, The State of Fear, which is about the disaster's a global warming, which he believe to be no threat at all.

On that note: despite being dead, Philip K . Dick has more of his movie adapted per year then any other author, save Stephen King himself.

But, no, I can't really think of any, any good ones at least. Most films, and I meen of all kinds, nowadays are adapted from something-or-other, usually books but not always.

But it would be a nice thing to see. It would be interesting to see how something like that would measure up to the adapted films.

Posted By: Kevin Dec 20, 2004 - 11:14 am

I think the main problem with fantasy movies is that they cost too much to produce a good film. Most of them are flops because you either have an egotistic director or not enough funding. I personally don't mind adapted screenplays for fantasy, as I enjoy them for what they are, not what they aren't.

Posted By: Magus Dec 20, 2004 - 12:04 pm

Fantasy is usually, in my mind, best suited for book format. But you cannot deny when you come across an excellent fantasy film; few and far between and also usually based off of books. To me, it's usually funding, a severe shortage of it, and bad acting that do most films of this genre in. But directors are also a root cause of it.

Posted By: Gnollslayer Dec 20, 2004 - 05:05 pm

A lot of times, what is perceived as bad acting by audiences really is the director's fault. There are some directors who can get a good performance out of anybody, and some who can make even the best actors seem less skilled.

Posted By: Magus Dec 20, 2004 - 08:23 pm

True. Many times it is the director's fault. But, most of the time, I think it's simply bad acting. Most fantasy films are low budget and so usually can't afford decent actors.

Posted By: Exzarius Dec 21, 2004 - 03:31 am

the ones I write (try to write) are usually epic in scope and would cost more money than sense to make. But hey, you never know.

I'm REALLY hoping that since lord of the rings was so huge, that film companies will be on the lookout for more epic fantasy stories and make some good movies.

While we're on the topic, its the same with epic sci-fi. There just isn't many to go around anymore... there's the old star wars movies which are on the right idea, but now its just too much money and effort to make these kinds of films... which is a shame really. These are the two types of films that I would get excited about.

Anyone on this forum who like writing fantasy/sci-fi scripts? I do love writing books, but I like to try my hand in everything. At the moment screenplays seem to be my thing...

Well that my 2 cents for today

Posted By: manji Dec 21, 2004 - 07:10 am

Yes, scripting is a much more satisfying form of writing to me. I know that when i write the story it could be seen on screen or in a comic book, unlike writing where i know no matter what the story is never going to be seen as it should.

Posted By: Magus Dec 21, 2004 - 07:27 am

It can be seen as it should, you just have to pain the picture to what you want it to be.

I've tried some smaller, comedic scripts. A friend of mine and I wrote one for a school project on the fifth chapter of The Scarlet Letter and enacted by puppets. It was hillarious! I also wrote a script, in the script section now, when I was bored. I wrote the entire thing in Spanish and got my teacher to correct it. She could tell I stayed up late some Friday night when I was bored and wrote it. It was... interesting...

But you can have you script misrepresented the same way a boom can. You can fave hack directors, bad actors, too low of a budget, talentless composer or any number of other factors working against you.

But what you see is what you get. And I'd love to see more origional scripts out there, especially sci-fi and fantasy.

Posted By: manji Dec 21, 2004 - 07:53 am

I wouldn't put my scripts under fantasy or scifi. A hybrid of both, maybe. But i've never concentrated on the world too much. I've always liked exploring the relationship between the characters. And the first person to tell me that's the wrong GD way to write fantasy . . . well, fuchya.