An Actress to play Honor Harrington

Hi Dreamrider,

RFC has pointed out that while many fans can point out lots of things wrong with LotR, most will also say it was still quite a ride overall.

The following is an oft repeated message for those who haven't reviewed the thread from the beginning; you wise souls, you.

C.S. Forrester wrote screenplays for Hollywood for decades, with the understanding he'd write the screenplays for all of his books made into movies.

He wound up having more of his books made into movies during his lifetime than any other author.

If you haven't read the Hornblower series, especially the first 3 books totaling over 800 pages that the 1951 movie with Gregory Peck etc; I think you'd have trouble finding a hundred pages in the movie, with lots of major series characters simply gone.

Get used to the limits of Hollywood magic.

L


[quote="dreamrider"][quote="Kater"]*quote="dreamrider"*
BTW, Evergreen said at LAST Honorcon that there will not be any serious cast recruiting until there was a director on contract, because the director's vision and preferences will be key to the casting.

dreamrider*quote*

But shouldn't you pick a director who shares the "vision" with David Weber.

She/He should at least have read the earlier novels and the last too (to know where it is headed).

I am not convinced that we get a "true to the books" film. For simplicity I think some plot lines will be shortened and merged. Maybe the Republic of Havens turn into teh peoples republic will have already happened in the movie universe. Maybe we will see in the opening scenes Saint Just planning and ordering the "Grayson" mission. So you early plant him as THE main opponent of the (possible) series

My only hope is that the movie is not "JAcksonized" like the LOTR where they dropped important plot (acceptable if you want to do a series that does not become too long) but invented new stuff instead (NEVER acceptable to purists - Elves ad Helms Deep or Frodo in OSgiliath - Yuck))


It may be to early to really expect ""confirmed" details, but nonetheless its fun in itself to speculate [/quote]

To paraphrase a Wise Man (or perhaps a Mad Wizard) who happens to be very involved in this project (and already credited as an executive producer):

You cannot make an 350 page, 100,000 word novel into a 120 page (~20,000 word) screenplay without doing a little cutting, condensing, and combining...of scenes, exposition, AND CHARACTERS.

It will NOT all be in there, folks. THEY will not all be in there. David knows it, accepts it, is trying to guide it - a little. Get your minds wrapped around it now, and you will die happier.

dreamrider[/quote]

The remarks about LotR were not mine.

That was Kater, to which I responded - in much the same tone as Lyonheart.

Actually, I LOVE the screenwriting for LotR. They had an impossible job, and did it well with minimum lost of the spirit and scope of the novels.

dreamrider

dreamrider wrote:The remarks about LotR were not mine.

That was Kater, to which I responded - in much the same tone as Lyonheart.

Actually, I LOVE the screenwriting for LotR. They had an impossible job, and did it well with minimum lost of the spirit and scope of the novels.

dreamrider

I stand to my words about LoTR

And I hope I was not misunderstood about Honors movie.

I expect that NOT all details of a book will be in a movie and I expect that plotlines/Characters will be dropped/merged/shortened.

All this is welcome

NOT welcome are plot changing things that are NOT necessary.

Example LOTR - Frodo at Osgiliath - Faramir making up his mind happened in Henneth Annun. As Henneth Annun was already in the movie it was COMPLETELY unnecessary to drag Frodo to Osgiliath.

Example 2 LotR Elves at Helms Deep - invention of the movie - no value for the plot - the book had Arwen sending the Dunedain of the North to the South.

Sorry but I get emotional by the treatment one of my favourite books got

That said - I hope Honor gets the treatment she deserves.

Lana Parrilla.

Dame Estelle Matsuko.

GIMME.

*whimpering noises of longing*

Hmmm...

If I was casting Honor Harrington I would look pretty hard at Uma Thurman.

She's tall, put her her in a black wig and she could pull it off.

And she's not too shabby with a Hattori Hanzo Katana either.

This was brought up before, so I'll repeat the common rule of thumb for scripts: one script page (which has a lot less words than a novel's page) equals one minute of screen time. So for a 100-minute movie figure around a 100-page script.

Don't bet on the director being lock-step faithful to the book even if he/she has read it and is a fan too. Look what Peter Jackson did to the LOTR--he turned it (or boiled it down) into a battle-heavy action-adventure movie, something Tolkien most assuredly would NOT have approved of. So, we could end up with a Guardians Of The Galaxy-like comic-action version of HOTQ.

Kater, I love PJ's LOTR films, but "upon furthur review", he and his cowriters did indeed take some serious liberties with Tolkien's story. One of the biggest was turning the Army Of The Dead in ROTH into the Invincible Green Wave O' Death. Now, something had to be done to bring that battle to an end (and of all three books of LOTR, ROTK most definitely deserves the title of "unfilmable"), but that method was a huge letdown and a real cheap way out of the corner PJ and Co. got themselves into.

It would have been far better to have had eliminated (or greatly scale down) the Helm's Deep battle in TTT (something Tolkien himself suggested should be done in a letter about an earlier aborted attempt at a LOTR film adaptation, as a detested any emphasis and glorification of violence in a film version) and then move the whole Shelob encounter into TTT to serve as it's climax. Then there would have been room in ROTK to allow the battle of Pellenor Fields to play out as written (where the AOTD merely just scared away the corsairs of Umber and that was it).

mateau wrote:Hmmm...

If I was casting Honor Harrington I would look pretty hard at Uma Thurman.

She's tall, put her her in a black wig and she could pull it off.

And she's not too shabby with a Hattori Hanzo Katana either.

She's also 44 years old, while Honor is a biological 25 or so.

Her daughter (aged 16) is closer to Honor's appearance, but I don't know if Maya Thurman-Hawke has her mother's acting talent, but she'd be a much better choice.

So a few comments on these last three posts:

Maya Thurman-Hawke: too Kris Longknife (which is a bad thing).

Uma Thurman: too pricy, old, Caucasian (pick any three).

Lana Parrilla: "longing" you say; is that what it's called these days?


Parilla would make a better Honor than Thurman: less Caucasian, less old, less pricy (albeit maybe not by enough) ... height would have to be waved, but other than that.

She doesn't strike me as a Matsuko though, insufficiently Asian.

roseandheather wrote:Lana Parrilla.

Dame Estelle Matsuko.

GIMME.

*whimpering noises of longing*

~*~

Weird Harold wrote:

mateau wrote:Hmmm...

If I was casting Honor Harrington I would look pretty hard at Uma Thurman.

She's tall, put her her in a black wig and she could pull it off.

And she's not too shabby with a Hattori Hanzo Katana either.

She's also 44 years old, while Honor is a biological 25 or so.

Her daughter (aged 16) is closer to Honor's appearance, but I don't know if Maya Thurman-Hawke has her mother's acting talent, but she'd be a much better choice.

hvb wrote:So a few comments on these last three posts:

Maya Thurman-Hawke: too Kris Longknife (which is a bad thing).

Uma Thurman: too pricy, old, Caucasian (pick any three).

Lana Parrilla: "longing" you say; is that what it's called these days?


Parilla would make a better Honor than Thurman: less Caucasian, less old, less pricy (albeit maybe not by enough) ... height would have to be waved, but other than that.

She doesn't strike me as a Matsuko though, insufficiently Asian.

...Lana's not Asian enough for Dame Estelle, but she is for Honor? I'm sorry, have you taken leave of your senses?

Besides, Lana is too... mature to play Honor. (I will not say old, because that woman could put supermodels to shame, but Honor looks like she's in her mid-twenties, and Lana's 37.)

But it doesn't matter, because the more I see of Lana, the more I'm desperate to see her play Eloise. Yeah, yeah, coloring, whatever, who gives a shit? That's why wigs were invented. She has exactly the right combination of chilly authority, appealing vulnerability, warmth, nuance, and that goddamn blinding smile to pull off my President.

My... physical inclinations toward Ms Parrilla and her supernova-quality smile and body and... everything else are entirely beside the point.

Weird Harold wrote:

mateau wrote:Hmmm...

If I was casting Honor Harrington I would look pretty hard at Uma Thurman.

She's tall, put her her in a black wig and she could pull it off.

And she's not too shabby with a Hattori Hanzo Katana either.

She's also 44 years old, while Honor is a biological 25 or so.

Her daughter (aged 16) is closer to Honor's appearance, but I don't know if Maya Thurman-Hawke has her mother's acting talent, but she'd be a much better choice.

Hollywood magic = make-up.

An older actress is much more comfortable in her skin and moves differently. And 44 is easy to age down.

Maybe she is "pricey" why should that really matter. Pricey = box office draw. Age is huge issue in Hollywood. Why shouldn't an actress get a part based on merit rather than just because she's the current "soup d'jour"? Thurman comes with an edge thanks to Kill Bill, that would make her believable as a 40th century warrior.

But if David Weber can't find an actress then the film never gets made. And he seems to be hung up on the height and build.

Besides I am sick and tired of seeing beautiful people on tv and in the movies. The world is not populated with beautiful people. That is one the the things that makes British film and television so good: real people. Not Barbie and Ken dolls.

Reading through some of these posts I get a sense that folks want this to be "Bay Watch in Space". This doesn't need to devolve into Annika Hansen running around in a skin-suit playing a debugged borg. That was one of the most rediculous characters ever developed, but she was fun to watch. And she kept the show on the air.

And maybe that is the solution. Go the to UK and Europe for actors. British actors would be especially dialed in to a Monarchy and would be believable in playing roles requireing natural deference. I think a British accent would do well in selling a nobility.

Of course there is always Gabrielle Reece who is 6'3". Or is she too California surfer? Somehow I don't see her playing in a space opera.