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Any movie/tv series deals a possibility?

In the breaks in his writing schedule, David has promised to stop by and chat for a while!
Re: Any movie/tv series deals a possibility?
Post by Duckk   » Sun Aug 23, 2009 10:43 am

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IIRC, there was actual plans for an anime version of Mutineer's Moon, but nothing came out of it.

sgranada wrote:I think an anima / tv series would be the way to go. It would alow space for alot of elements without the need to try to compress all the honorverse in a couple hours which any movie would sort of have to do to satisfy an audience.
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Re: Any movie/tv series deals a possibility?
Post by AlexeiTimoshenko   » Thu Aug 27, 2009 6:03 pm

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Starfire would be a great setting for a tv series. There are a couple of great possibilities in that setting. One would be doing a series staring with the beginning of ISW-1 and conceivably going through the final defeat of the Rigelians in ISW-3. The other possibility would be to do ISW-4 with a Star Wars type beginning and maybe having a flasback epidode to show the first meeting of Ivan Antonov and Ktharra'Zarthan.

Both ideas have their advantages. ISW-4 has a more developed storyline, whereas ISW-1 through 3 would allow the first real presentation other than very short stories.
In fact one way to start the ISW-1 project would be a pair of tv miniseries. The first would be about humanities discovery of warp points and the founding of the TFG while the second would feature Howard Anderson as a young TFN officer culminating with the first battle of VX-134.
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Re: Any movie/tv series deals a possibility?
Post by MIchael_Ireland   » Fri Aug 28, 2009 10:18 am

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A movie would not be able to cover the back story and the plot.

I think a tv mini-series with about 5 one hour episodes per book- like North & South or the Winds of War for example, would have enough of a broad story arc (over time) to cover the events in Honor's life from her first spaceship command onwards and it would make it gripping- especially ending each episode on a plot cliffhanger!...

With a long tv series you can build and pace in the action alongside Honor's career development and the history of the Mantie/Peep war.

Other military series like Sharpe got away with individual 2 hour episodes for each book, as it was easier to place the main character in the historic napoleonic period, which most people have some understanding of already. This would not be true for Honor.


Michael.
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Re: People underestimate the difficulty of movies
Post by Terence29   » Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:14 am

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It takes a clear and compact story, and none of David Weber's books are compact. It takes a wide audience appeal, driven either by prior book sales, relevance of the story, or star power. And it takes a lot of money.

Mutineer's Moon is probably the best candidate, but the screenplay would be brutal. In essence, you would get the opening capture, backstory/training scenes in Dahak, return to Earth and death of family, meeting of refugees, one mutineer/refugee battle scene, then the final battle climax. That's it, everything else would have to go.

But it would have appeal if marketed right: ancient sentient spaceship, Von Daniken aspect, and evil ghoul-like pirates. If they could avoid putting smart-mouthed kids or cutesy animals in it, I would watch it.
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Re: Any movie/tv series deals a possibility?
Post by AlexeiTimoshenko   » Thu Sep 03, 2009 7:07 am

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Insurrection or Crusade both have relevance in today's world. Abuse of power by govenment in Insurrection, religeous war (jihad) in Crusade. Both books are maginally short enough to work as a movie but would be ideal for a tv miniseries. One good thing that the Starfire series has going for it is the lack of young kids/pets to distract the reader/viewer from the story.

On the other hand, if you want to attract young readers/viewers to David's stories you could do a CGI series just about treecats. Imagine a series where the protagonists are doing their best to hide their true intelligence from humanity and the slow change in attitude that takes place over the course of the Honor Harrington series.

One last possibily would be David's story Miles To Go in the Bolo setting. Lots of drama and a big action climax as Nike defends Santa Cruz from invasion by corrupt rebels. The opening teaser would be Nike being sent to Sants Cruz during the Quern wars, then it's rediscovery would be the scene after the opening credits.
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Re: Any movie/tv series deals a possibility?
Post by Glennon   » Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:34 pm

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You would have to break it up into a mini series also but "In Fury Born" would be great. You have an interesting main character and plenty of action. The battle that started as a trap would be killer to see. The addition of the Fury part way in the series would keep it interesting, also.
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Re: Any movie/tv series deals a possibility?
Post by Maxhenry   » Sat Sep 12, 2009 8:59 pm

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I vote for In Death Ground/The Shiva option as a series. I remember reading In Death ground and I could not put it down, is was such a gripping read.

Battlestar Galactica (which ended quite badly) shows that a well presented dramatic science fiction story can grab and keep an audience, and that such a show is economically feasible.

Let's hope.
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Re: Any movie/tv series deals a possibility?
Post by AlexeiTimoshenko   » Sun Sep 13, 2009 1:17 am

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IDG/Shiva Option have too many central characters to make a dramatic series feasible. The only real way to get everyone in that needs to be in would be an anthology. Both Crudade and Insurrection have far more managable casting requirements. Insurrection's the best bet as it only has one non human character which helps to lower the special effects budget. It also has some relevance given the current political climate. The parallels between the corporate worlds bloc/ big government leftists and the fringe worlds/ small government conservatives could be a ratings boost. Another point (and I may be a bit off on this) is that as far as the terrans go, in IDG/Shiva you have a fairly bland ethnic mix. Most of the major terran characters in those books seem to be either american or european. In Insurrection you have a far more diverse ethnic mix in the main characters particularly among the fringers. The Old Federation/Rim tends to be more British commonwealth but even there you have minorities having major if not central roles.
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Re: Any movie/tv series deals a possibility?
Post by boballab   » Tue Sep 15, 2009 10:02 am

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AlexeiTimoshenko wrote:IDG/Shiva Option have too many central characters to make a dramatic series feasible. The only real way to get everyone in that needs to be in would be an anthology. Both Crudade and Insurrection have far more managable casting requirements. Insurrection's the best bet as it only has one non human character which helps to lower the special effects budget. It also has some relevance given the current political climate. The parallels between the corporate worlds bloc/ big government leftists and the fringe worlds/ small government conservatives could be a ratings boost. Another point (and I may be a bit off on this) is that as far as the terrans go, in IDG/Shiva you have a fairly bland ethnic mix. Most of the major terran characters in those books seem to be either american or european. In Insurrection you have a far more diverse ethnic mix in the main characters particularly among the fringers. The Old Federation/Rim tends to be more British commonwealth but even there you have minorities having major if not central roles.


Well there was Adm Murakuma's two daughters both are of Asian descent on their fathers side. One was with Survey flotilla 19 that got "lost" and returned and later was some sort of liason between the TFN and the Star Union ships that went to free the Beliakans. There was also a General Mondesi who just by going by the name is probably black so could be from Europe/America or from the Caribean or from Africa. There was also a lot of Ships captains that had asian names ie a Captain Yu (Guess DW really likes that name). There was also a Ling Tian. Whoever just because the name is asian in origin doesn't mean they didn't also come from America. Remember America is a melting pot of cultures from around the world not just white European.
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Re: Any movie/tv series deals a possibility?
Post by AlexeiTimoshenko   » Tue Sep 15, 2009 10:36 pm

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I'm not discounting the various asian and middle eastern characters in IDG/Shiva. It's just that with the possible exception of Amos Chung, most of the other non caucasian characters have relatively minor roles. The major alliance commanders (those that don't effectively show up and die in their first battle) were all of european descent as were the bulk of the major staff officers. Raymond Prescott seemed to have the most diverse staff by far of the terran fleet commanders.

Contrast that with insurrection where you have multiple ethnic chinese having crucial roles for the republic and Ian Trevayne for the rim who's ancestors were from the British West Indies.

My other concern with IDG/Shiva is the sheer number of ships that were in the major battles. At least in Insurrection, with the exception of Zephrain and Zapata, you've got far more manageable numbers of combattants which wouldn't overwhem the average tv screen. Imagine trying to show the number of fighters and gunboats used at Home Hive Five on anything less than a full size movie screen. Even at Zapata the number of Republic fighters was in the high hundreds at most. The major combattants on each side at Zapata numbered in the dozens. Those numbers can be handled on TV as seen by numerous episodes of DS9 in seasons 6/7.

All things aside though, I think the best option for a TV series would be one based on the Treecats. Imagine Nimitz as a 41st cross between Bugs Bunny and the Tasmanian Devil. You have a highly intelligent protagonist who in addition to being a celery addict (what's up Honor?) but one who also loves other food such as rabbit and also is a 6 legged buzzsaw when he gets angry.
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