Dan Simmons' 'Hyperion' Saga Set to Film!
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, Warner Brothers, Fandom, Scripts
Now here's something exciting. I don't know if any of you have read Dan Simmons' Hyperion series, but it's terrific, intricate science-fiction. Today we got word that Warner Bros. has greenlit a single-film adaptation of the first two books (Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion). It's to be written by Trevor Sands, about whom we know very little except that he is apparently working on a number of different sci-fi projects in various stages of development.Making the two novels into one movie makes sense in a way, since they really comprise one story and the ending of Hyperion is an enormous cliffhanger. On the other hand, the books are so huge in scope and contain so many different perspectives (Simmons claims to have been inspired by The Canterbury Tales) that they seem better suited for a season of a TV show with each episode focusing on a different character. According to the Variety piece, Sands plans to take "a selective approach to the two novels' multiple points of view in a way that manage[s] to coherently and unconfusingly tell the story." Uh, I guess we'll see about that.
If you click through to Variety, be warned that their plot description is woefully inadequate. In particular, their deadpan reference to "a monster called the Shrike, which impales people on metal trees" is the rough equivalent of describing HAL 9000 as "a computer that locks people out of spaceships" -- accurate, but pointlessly so. The nature of the Shrike is a whole lot more interesting than that. How well a "selective approach" to the novels can convey that remains to be seen.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-03-2008 @ 12:13PM
elenion said...
Oh no! I don't see how they can possibly squish those 2 excellent books into one movie. It would be as bad as if they did that to LOTR. Don't have very high hopes for this.
Reply
4-03-2008 @ 12:30PM
Eugene Novikov said...
>>>>>It would be as bad as if they did that to LOTR.
Dear God, I hope not quite.
4-03-2008 @ 12:17PM
Jenga said...
awww crap. I always wanted to make this or be involved in it.
Reply
4-03-2008 @ 9:22PM
steveo said...
1 movie means this will be about the most disappointing adaptation ever. Each one of the two is considered to be in the top echelon of FICTION books (not just sci-fi), and each have won multiple awards.
Imagine if they combined all 7 of the Harry Potter books into one 90 minute film and you have an idea of the amount of detail (and the amount of compression and thus increase in suckitude) in just one of these two novels.
Reply
4-04-2008 @ 3:39AM
Michael said...
Since Simmons novels are among my favorite works of literature (and I teach literature for a living), I am certainly apprehensive about any potential adaptation, particularly one that will reduce two enormous novels into a 2-3 hour movie. I'm guessing the project's screwed from the get-go.
Having said that, there is one way to do it. Yes, it will gut the story of all its complexity, but it will make narrative sense: focus on Sol Weintraub and his daughter exclusively to start with (the first act) and let the chaos that engulfs the universe in the second novel take up the bulk of the other two acts. Those who have read the works--what do you think?
Reply
4-05-2008 @ 10:27AM
steveo said...
I would say that since they are just doing the first 2 books they should focus on The Consul. Or maaaaybe Brawne to get a murder/mystery feel.
But the very discussion of this point shows how sucky this movie will be if it crams the 2 books into one movie. Really there should be 3 films.
4-06-2008 @ 11:27AM
davea47 said...
Funny - I just started reading through the four Hyperion books after they had been on my mind for a while. Deep into "Fall," I don't think this can be done at all. The film would not even come remotely close to the book experiences, and potentially undermine the works. I wonder why Simmons is letting it happen?
4-28-2008 @ 11:26PM
Bob Campbell said...
I had a chance to see Simmons at a book signing in Boulder a few years ago. IIRC, it was when Ilium came out.
At that signing he did mention that he had either been speaking to, or had actually sold the rights to ... Scorsese or Coppolla - I forget which. Seemed very promising at the time!
Unfortunately, he must have sold the rights, and once it's in the Hollywood system, there may not be much he can do about it (depends on how he sold the rights).
There is absolutely no way you could cram both those books into one movie. The second two - maaaaybe, but not the fir two.
Which is silly to me because Hollywood's been all about the sequels and franchises for a while now. Why not have the first movie be a giant cliffhanger? The second 'Back To The Future' was. The first two LoTR movies were. The last HP movie will be. And frankly, Spiderman 3 should've been split in two with the cliffhanger of Parker being the 'bad boy'.
If I had my druthers, though, I'd rather see Phases of Gravity made into a movie first. I love that book.