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The Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made by David Hughes

  • 18-07-2012 9:48am
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 520 ✭✭✭


    Yesterday, I was browsing through our book collection and came across a book I bought in 03; The Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made by David Hughes.

    What was interesting about it is that a lot of the movies featured in the book have now been made and some quite close to the original ideas.

    Here is list of some of them featured in the book.
    Supernova (Dead Star)
    I am legend
    The Watchmen
    Fantastic Four
    Silver Surfer
    Superman lives
    Thunderbirds
    Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy
    Terminator 3
    Avatar
    Spiderman
    Aliens V Predators
    Predators

    It is bit dated at this stage but there are still some great stories about how the first attempts didn't go so well or how certain directors tried and failed to get some sequels and new projects off the ground. Also, there are still some cool projects that have yet to see the light of day.

    With an interesting forward by H.R. Giger, I would still recommend it a good read.

    images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTCT5ob2dXo1qoREcZJPbkxGip78k_RSp5a7hC6UmXJ9E_CIuAlRLI21pontQ


Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,828 ✭✭✭bullvine


    I would have loved a proper version of I Am Legend, the film totally defeated the concept of the book in which the undead are terrified of Neville, in a role reversal and why he is indeed such a legend to the Vamps. One of the first lines of the book went something like "Last night I killed Six of them"

    Will Smith's Neville was the opposite, I barely remember him killing a Vamp in the film. He seemed to be always running from them.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 944 ✭✭✭loremolis


    bullvine wrote: »
    I would have loved a proper version of I Am Legend, the film totally defeated the concept of the book in which the undead are terrified of Neville, in a role reversal and why he is indeed such a legend to the Vamps. One of the first lines of the book went something like "Last night I killed Six of them"

    Will Smith's Neville was the opposite, I barely remember him killing a Vamp in the film. He seemed to be always running from them.

    Thanks OP, I'll have a look at that.

    I recently read the I am Legend book and was surprised how different it was from the Will Smith film.

    I haven't seen the version with Charlton Heston, so maybe they wanted to do something different with the re-make.

    However, if taken on their own, the book was good and so was the film.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 142 ✭✭marknine


    bullvine wrote: »
    I would have loved a proper version of I Am Legend, the film totally defeated the concept of the book in which the undead are terrified of Neville, in a role reversal and why he is indeed such a legend to the Vamps. One of the first lines of the book went something like "Last night I killed Six of them"

    Will Smith's Neville was the opposite, I barely remember him killing a Vamp in the film. He seemed to be always running from them.

    I am legend is a remake of a fantastic film called "The Omega man" made in 1971 with Charlton Heston. There was talk in the late 1980's that Schwarzenegger was to star in a remake. I have not read the book, but I feel very left out. In most cases, the book is way better than the film.
    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067525/


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,566 ✭✭✭Funglegunk


    Yeah the I Am Legend book is much, much scarier than the film. The monsters in it can talk and can remember their lives before the pandemic. I remember one bit where his former next door neighbour is standing on his lawn screaming his name. Way scarier than the 'when I scream my mouth opens unnaturally wide' monsters in the film, which are a really annoying cliché in films now.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 22,559 ✭✭✭✭AnonoBoy


    marknine wrote: »
    I am legend is a remake of a fantastic film called "The Omega man" made in 1971 with Charlton Heston.

    I don't know if you could call it a remake as such - rather it's another film based on the same source material - someone should really make a version that sticks to the ending of the book.
    It's where the title feckin' comes from!


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,857 ✭✭✭indough


    The Omega Man is such a strange film, a product of its time and which is probably best described as a vampsploitation flick. The monsters in it are more like crackheads than anything else and it has possibly one of the most absurd and needlessly offensive endings in cinema history. Its good for all the wrong reasons, but it's still nothing like the source material really (which is good but kind of overrated anyway).


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 142 ✭✭marknine


    Funglegunk wrote: »
    Yeah the I Am Legend book is much, much scarier than the film. The monsters in it can talk and can remember their lives before the pandemic. I remember one bit where his former next door neighbour is standing on his lawn screaming his name. Way scarier than the 'when I scream my mouth opens unnaturally wide' monsters in the film, which are a really annoying cliché in films now.

    I will be on the look out for the book


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,566 ✭✭✭Funglegunk


    AnonoBoy wrote: »
    I don't know if you could call it a remake as such - rather it's another film based on the same source material - someone should really make a version that sticks to the ending of the book.

    There was an alternate ending for the Will Smith film that stuck to the book ending a bit more closely. Apparently it confused the hell out of movie-goers at test screenings, so was changed.

    Just to add to the original topic, there was a pretty interesting script floating around for Alien 3 that got close to being made. It had a wooden planet in it.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 22,559 ✭✭✭✭AnonoBoy


    Funglegunk wrote: »
    There was an alternate ending for the Will Smith film that stuck to the book ending a bit more closely. Apparently it confused the hell out of movie-goers at test screenings, so was changed.

    I watched it, it's not really that close to the ending of the book.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 485 ✭✭Boo Radley


    Funglegunk wrote: »
    Just to add to the original topic, there was a pretty interesting script floating around for Alien 3 that got close to being made. It had a wooden planet in it.

    That was a cracking read. It would be sweet if Ward's vision made it to the big screen in some shape or form eventually.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    I'm looking forward to the extended cut of Prometheus, hoping against hope that it will make more sense... MUCH more sense.

    +1 for a proper version of I Am Legend. I think what is holding it back is that
    Hollywood probably won't go for a big budget film where the protagonist is actually the villain. Too risky.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,828 ✭✭✭bullvine


    Funglegunk wrote: »
    Yeah the I Am Legend book is much, much scarier than the film. The monsters in it can talk and can remember their lives before the pandemic. I remember one bit where his former next door neighbour is standing on his lawn screaming his name. Way scarier than the 'when I scream my mouth opens unnaturally wide' monsters in the film, which are a really annoying cliché in films now.

    I dont read that many books but I did read I am legend 15 years ago in anticipation of the Schwarzenegger/Scott film, which I think would have been something to behold.

    That scene you mention in the book is so frightening and creepy, can you imagine being in your house and creatures outside squeling your name throughout the night.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 30,308 ✭✭✭✭.ak


    Galvasean wrote: »
    I'm looking forward to the extended cut of Prometheus, hoping against hope that it will make more sense... MUCH more sense.

    I wouldn't bank on it. Didn't Scott recently talk about the idea of another film already in planning to explain / flesh out the story? I reckon the extended cut would just be full of sequences that don't add to the story by might add to the general cinematography and whatnot.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,828 ✭✭✭bullvine


    Boo Radley wrote: »
    That was a cracking read. It would be sweet if Ward's vision made it to the big screen in some shape or form eventually.

    Just read it, what an amazing concept, didnt realise the wooden planet that I'd heard of was actually a wooden satellite, I was expected something like Endor.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,592 ✭✭✭✭Dont be at yourself


    I still can't get my head around the Will Smith adaptation of I Am Legend. Every single deviation from the book made the film immeasurably worse. Why replace the vampires with mindless monsters, and screw around with the ending?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 485 ✭✭Boo Radley


    bullvine wrote: »
    Just read it, what an amazing concept, didnt realise the wooden planet that I'd heard of was actually a wooden satellite, I was expected something like Endor.

    I was oblivious to the whole 'wooden planet' idea until reading that. It sounds pretty interesting as a concept.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 520 ✭✭✭KenSwee


    Boo Radley wrote: »
    That was a cracking read. It would be sweet if Ward's vision made it to the big screen in some shape or form eventually.


    Yes it's all in there. Pretty rocky road for Alien 3.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 829 ✭✭✭OldeCinemaSoz


    silent running

    ssshhh......

    ;)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 23 north cider


    " i am legend" on sale in chapters bookshop on parnell street, dublin for €4.99.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 142 ✭✭marknine


    " i am legend" on sale in chapters bookshop on parnell street, dublin for €4.99.

    Thanks for that


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,513 ✭✭✭Ray Palmer


    That list is terrible.
    No mention of older scifii movies. Soylent Green is a cracker and Primer one of the best recent movies. Moon was excellent.

    Terminator 3 is a terrible movie as was silver surfer


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 485 ✭✭Boo Radley


    Ray Palmer wrote: »
    That list is terrible.
    No mention of older scifii movies. Soylent Green is a cracker and Primer one of the best recent movies. Moon was excellent.

    Terminator 3 is a terrible movie as was silver surfer

    Are you sure you read the title of the thread correctly and the OP?


  • Site Banned Posts: 1,856 ✭✭✭paddy kerins


    Ray Palmer wrote: »
    That list is terrible.
    No mention of older scifii movies. Soylent Green is a cracker and Primer one of the best recent movies. Moon was excellent.

    Terminator 3 is a terrible movie as was silver surfer

    I think you might have missed a word


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,513 ✭✭✭Ray Palmer


    Ray Palmer wrote: »
    That list is terrible.
    No mention of older scifii movies. Soylent Green is a cracker and Primer one of the best recent movies. Moon was excellent.

    Terminator 3 is a terrible movie as was silver surfer

    I think you might have missed a word
    Just relised my bad


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    What a difference an N makes...

    Cracked.com also have 10 suggestions:
    http://www.cracked.com/article_15631_the-10-best-sci-fi-films-never-made.html


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 829 ✭✭✭OldeCinemaSoz


    " i am legend" on sale in chapters bookshop on parnell street, dublin for €4.99.

    are they still going? used to remember the one on abby street.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,407 ✭✭✭Cardinal Richelieu


    are they still going? used to remember the one on abby street.

    Yes, it actually was in a couple of places in Abbey Street then moved to Parnell Street beside Tesco and opposite the end of Moore Street.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 829 ✭✭✭OldeCinemaSoz


    Yes, it actually was in a couple of places in Abbey Street then moved to Parnell Street beside Tesco and opposite the end of Moore Street.

    have the TV3 psychos sent you that one?!?!

    :p

    "My mistake...three coffins!!!"


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 682 ✭✭✭Phony Scott


    There is a more up to date version of the book on Amazon. Anyway I bought it years ago and it is a great read. The one i found the most interesting was the story behind Dead Star (which sounded brilliant) ended up being Supernova (also known as a big pile of poo).

    51iYr4RGj3L.jpg

    I bought a follow-up book called Tales From Development Hell and it isn't as interesting, but still well worth a read. This book came out in 2003 but got updated this year, with a mention of the latest Batman in the section on Batman Year One.

    51RlDUIr-TL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg


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