Sunday, June 21, 2009

Martian Princess

What the heck is wrong with me? Why did it take me this long to read Burrough's A Princess of Mars? I mean that's nuts, right? Excellent book. Sure, there's maybe too much stuff come the end of it, but it certainly doesn't get boring.

Now, it occurs to me that Hollywood is trying to make their version of it. And it's a work which is in the public domain in the United States. So why don't we come up with our own script for it?

Right. 12-foot high creatures with 6 arms. I say let's do it anyway.

Adapting it will be a bit of a trick. I suppose that's always the case of going from novel to feature film. I think the reality is that John Carter has to do just one big thing (other than getting the girl). Just one of -- overthrowing a couple kingdoms and restoring the terraformer and leading armies and navies and air forces etc etc. Just one of those things. Of course, the terraformer plot is very similar to Total Recall isn't it? It's amazing how much stuff was influenced by this book. From Star Wars to Dune even.

Has anybody noticed that we don't really ever find out what happens to Sola?


Cunningham said...

While the copyright is now in the public domain, the trademark characters and so forth are still held by ERB, Inc.

But I have ideas...oh yes. Ideas.

And yes, it is shameful you're only NOW reading this book. This series was the reason I joined the SF Book Club when I was 14.

Andrew Bellware said...

Look, it's no shame to own up to one's own literary imperfections! ;-) I read Dune when I was 14, I just had no idea about the Martian princess...