Rendezvous with Rama...at the Box Office!

[prinCZess]

That's right folks, according to The Hollywood Reporter (which may or may-not be reliable, I do not know), there's the initial rumblings of Arthur C. Clarke's second(?) most well-known navel-gazey, spacey, floaty, series coming to the silver screen. Previously, it seems none other than Morgan Freeman owned the rights for such a thing, and now it seems to have been picked-up and be getting produced (maybe? What little is here looks very early) by 'Alcon Entertainment'--who didn't ring any bells for me off the top of my head, but whose logo I recognized upon lookup:

Spoiler

The big news the Hollywood Reporter breaks being that the slated director for the movie is none other than Denis Villainovue Villanovu Villinoveaux Vielainoveuaoux...The same director who did Dune and Blade Runner 2049...So we can at least be assured that the Ramans will have produced a cylinder ship full of brutalist architecture and bare concrete...Even if that might not make much sense with all the biology they integrated into their technology...

Denis Villeneuve Tackling Adaptation of Sci-Fi Classic ‘Rendezvous With Rama’ (Exclusive)

Alcon Entertainment and Morgan Freeman's Revelations Entertainment are behind the feature.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

Anyone have any thoughts?
It has, admittedly, been many years since I read the Rama series (or...most of it), and I mostly remember one of the sequels that featured bird-aliens and direct human-alien interaction. So I might not be best for commenting on how they can adapt the book when I only vaguely recall it. Still, seems like it'd be a challenge. Though one I'd be curious of, because the nature of the story alone would force any film to be done very...differently. Even in 'Space Odyssey' there was HAL to present a threat and antagonist (book and movie), I remember being pretty bored with 'Rendezvous with Rama' when I was younger because there wasn't much for that kind of conflict and everything was more the Clarke-adored introspective descriptions and mental monologues on some piece of alien design or the like.

Going to the wiki...I guess there IS an attempted nuking of the cylinder by humans who are afeared of alien business, so I suppose that would get used. But I must admit I do not recall that being anything like a major focus of the book.

I would be concerned anyone could pull it off. 2001: A Space Odyssey would be the closest comparison. Can Denis Villainovue Villanovu Villinoveaux Vielainoveuaoux that guy match directorial chops with Stanley Kubrick?
For that matter, will he? This is early enough that it seems quite possible there'll be director changes and whatnot in the long production process...Unless Morgan Freeman has had it as a quiet passion-project I assume there's not even a script or anything like that yet. So this is all pretty early, up-in-the-air stuff.

Still...I find the idea interesting at least. Even if the execution is questionable. I know it was really cool to see friends I have who aren't into sci-fi really get their curiosity piques by Dune, and if a film of Rendezvous with Rama could do that and garner that same interest in Clarke's writing...Well, it'd be an accomplishment.

 

[Captain X]

Not going to lie - I kind of held out hope that I could talk one of the big anime studios into doing an adaptation. I mean, the book specifically brings up the effect null gravity had on large breasts, so I thought that'd be right up their alley.

 

[ATP]

Not going to lie - I kind of held out hope that I could talk one of the big anime studios into doing an adaptation. I mean, the book specifically brings up the effect null gravity had on large breasts, so I thought that'd be right up their alley.

Then why nobody in Japan do not made it yet? they love big boobs.

 

[Bear Ribs]

I find myself of the opinion that this will go terribly. Part of the problem is the big reveal at the end of the series...

Spoiler

The Ramas were made by God Almighty because he needed to run scientific tests on Creation to figure out how to make it all praise himself for some reason.

There's just no making that work in the current times. On the other hand it was pretty trash to begin with and, I felt, a disservice to the series so cutting that out entirely might be an improvement.

Before it pulls its head into its own navel with that crap in Rama Revealed, Rendevous with Rama was a bit more of a sci-fi piece but it suffers acutely from not being so much a story as a treatise on how the coriolis effect would work and what gravity is like for something like Rama. There's no real villain, suspense and danger are extremely limited, and there's a lot of sensawonda without much actual plot to it. That's fine for the book and especially when it was written but we have plenty of spectacle today and the fantastic pictures drawn by the words wouldn't be impressive on the big screen after the likes of Avengers and Avatar. It would have to be heavily rewritten and I'm not sure much of the original feel would be left by then.

 

[Captain X]

I've only ever read the first two, and as I understand it, Clarke only actually wrote the first one, and you could really tell because of the difference between the first and the second one. So if it was me, I'd pretend none of the other books exist.

 

[Bear Ribs]

I've only ever read the first two, and as I understand it, Clarke only actually wrote the first one, and you could really tell because of the difference between the first and the second one. So if it was me, I'd pretend none of the other books exist.

I wasn't aware of that but thinking on it, it makes perfect sense. That would explain why Garden of Rama and Rama Revealed basically go off the deep end into dystopian politics and religion and quit paying any attention to how the science of Rama worked.