Necroscope Movies

symboybot

Will some of the 16 or 17 books in the series "Necroscope" by Brian Lumley ever be made into horror movies? Hope so. It would be a singularly gruesome and morbid collection, that's for sure.:eek:

Black Sheep

Considering that there's been a glut of supernatural detective type shows over the past few years on TV (Angel / The Night Stalker / Moonlight / The Ghost Whisperer ... I'm forgetting others) I would say a 'Necroscope' adaption actually wouldn't that bizarre an idea, it would obviously have more of a horror / espionage bent.

However, the series is quite dated at this point in terms of setting. I haven't read it in a few years, but aren't the early books pretty much set during the Cold War? It could be updated handily enough though.

I do recall coming across comic book adaptions of some of the 'Vampire world' Necroscope books in a second-hand book shop, and they looked quite interesting. It is a strong enough concept that it probably would make for a good series in a few mediums.

symboybot

Yes, I have seen some of the comic versions. This series begains in the cold war era (circa 1978-2000), but I do not think it would be "dated" to make a series of movies that starts then and progressively works its way forward, even if it never got to current day times. Not every work of fiction needs to be "updated" to make it relevent, entertaining, or inspiring. I don't think we would negate Bram Stoker's "Dracula" by calling it dated even though it took place near the turn of the previous century (1893). If we insisted everything be modern and current a lot of great books would never get made into movies.
Given today's standards regarding the dipiction of tortuer, pain, and gore I hesitate to think how explicit the movies made from these books might become. I, personally would want such movies to be true to the books, but I wouldn't want them to cross over that fine line that is that gratuitous voyeuristic celebration of torture depicted in the "Saw" series movies. I guess the strong story line would help to mitigate the necessary gore as a valid part of the horror genre.

Black Sheep

Not every work of fiction needs to be "updated" to make it relevent, entertaining, or inspiring. I don't think we would negate Bram Stoker's "Dracula" by calling it dated even though it took place near the turn of the previous century (1893). If we insisted everything be modern and current a lot of great books would never get made into movies.

Ah, I like period pieces as much as the next man.

The point I was making is that I would hazard a guess that given that its not integral to the premise anyway they might figure a contemporary setting would be cheaper (no need to get the clothes, cars, architecture etc. correct) and maybe easier for some of the audience to engage with...

As far as the gore and horror element goes: I guess if they can show 'Angel' with edits at midday on Syfy they could manage something. More speculation, but they'd undoubtedly do a 'lite' version of the horror in 'Necroscope' anyway... No point in making a gorefest that has to be shown at odd timeslots and appeals only to a minority of horror fans.

symboybot

I agree they could tone down the gore a little, but not the horror of the tranformational powers of the wamphyri with psudeopods growing out of them complete with eyes and mouths everywhere before your eyes and then penetrating into the bodies of human beings - that's essential.
As to the period not being integral to the premise, I'm afraid I have to respectfully disagree. The whole series is premised upon the cold war mentality and how the Soviet e-branch used the services of a Necromancer who got their secrets from the dead by torturing their bodies and handling and abusing their remains including tasting them and desecrating them, whereas the British E-branch can obtain information from the dead by employing a one of a kind Necroscope (Harry Keogh) who can talk to the dead and is beloved by the dead because he helps talks to them and comforts them in their totally isolated state, and eventually makes it possible for them to communicate with other members of the dead ("the great majority"). The incessant competition between the Soviet and British E branches and their attempts to destroy each other are an integral part of the plot. The cold war, and in particular, Ronald Reagan's threats to create a "star wars" missile defence leads the Soviets to try to create their own forcefield covering the entire Soviet Union which would destroy any missiles that entered air space over the Soviet Union. This leads to a critical horrific accident which creates a "grey hole" between earth and another planet in another universe which is inhabited by the Wamphri who suddenly can come through this "gate" and threatens to turn the entire earth into vampires or their slaves, endentured to the Wampyri (the end of human civilization as we know it). I think the cold war is a critical ingredient in the developement of this series. Without the insane mutually assured destruction (MAD) of the cold war, much of this would not have happened. I'm not saying they couldn't invent new circumstances to create a somewhat similar situation, but I feel the cold war was critical to the premise of this series. Just sayin' ;-)

Black Sheep

Perhaps you're right. Total authenticity might be the way to go...

Producers are known for respecting source material of course. :pac:

spooky donkey

you can be sure they would make it more revelent to todays audiences and thus offending the hard core fan boys who wanted it word for word. its the way of the movie world.

symboybot

Count me as a fan boy, but as far as word for word, forget it. There are 17 volumes! ;-)

Paddy Samurai

I would love to see Necroscope as a series,a la HBO (Rome,deadwood,game of thrones,Band of brothers etc).Book one in the series would need a 3hr+ film on its own IMO,to make it half decent and tell the story properly.