Article here (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090407/tv_nm/us_scifi;_ylt=AhgFeBNgYvX2Ns8CyZX.hFdxFb8C)
Additional article (http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/03/sci-fi-phantom-riverworld-alice.html)
Short version: two (make that three) new Sci-Fi channel (I refuse to use the new name) movies aimed at ongoing series have been annoucend.
Riverworld might be good. I remember the miniseries a while back and it was a good watch, though it did feel like the start of a series. Apparently they're trying again, with a series in mind. Tahmoh Penikett (Helo from BSG) and Alan Cummings are cast.
The Phantom... THIS one I worry about, especially after what happened with Flash Gordon. I WANT to like it, but it's way to early to tell anything on this one. Title character's casting is someon I'm not familiar with.
Alice is going to be a revamp a la "Tin Man". Tin Man was...well I thought it was kinda meh. Still, we'll see I guess.
Public domain ftl. :banghead:
SciFi movies usually fail. That Dune movie was halfway decent, but not many others have been non-terrible. I did like Riverworld to an extent, is this a sequel to that or an all-new thing?
The Riverworld books are some of my all-time favorites, but I don't think they're very well suited for a movie or tv series. A planet full of characters from different times and places requires a lot of backstory, which is a lot easier to do in prose than in video. As one of those articles points out, everyone is resurrected in their prime of life, and none of them will be wearing recognizable period dress. So you're going to have a 20-something in a loincloth stroll up and say, "Howdy, my name's Samuel Clemens. And this other 20-something fella in a loincloth is Herman Goering, and that 20-something fella in a loincloth with the big nose is Cyrano de Bergerac. Pleased t'meet ya." It kind of loses something in the translation. Plus, it's visually pretty monotonous. Besides the lack of variety in wardrobe, they spend a lot of time sailing up and down identical stretches of river, at least till the end of the story (which I assume they'll be in no hurry to get to). They're going to have to take a lot of liberties to make it filmable, I'm afraid.
If you're going to make a movie from Farmer's work, why not go for the World of Tiers instead? Plenty of action, a more manageable number of characters, lots of weird locales and freaky monsters. I'd love to see that.
Regarding The Phantom, I'm not familiar with the actor playing the lead, either. But I really hope Sandrine Holt won't be playing Diana Palmer. She's too exotic looking for the part.
Riverworld I think will bomb. That movie or mini-series they made with Brad Johnson was BORING, so I don't see any possible way to make it work as a series.