Posted by Travis in Adaptations, Director, In the Works, Science Fiction | 3 comments
Scott Derrickson will direct ‘Hyperion’ adaptation
Scott Derrickson (The Day the Earth Stood Still) has been selected to helm the Warner Bros feature-film adaptation of the ‘Hyperion’ books by Dan Simmons. The script will be written by Trevor Sands.
Story is set in the distant future, as a space war threatens Hyperion, a planet known for the Time Tombs — large artifacts that can move through time and are guarded by a gruesome monster called the Shrike. — Variety
Now, here’s another example of what NOT to do when turning a book into a movie… This project will apparently take two science-fiction novels, “Hyperion” and “The Fall of Hyperion” and combine them (aka, cram) them into one feature-length movie. Not a good move, but it is a good way to piss off fans of the novels. Then again, I doubt they really care.
[source: Variety]
Well, this is bound to be shit.
I have no doubt that investors will clamor to have “more of that robot-thing,” and so Derrickson and Sands will just bend over backwards to have as much badass Shrike action as possible, thus touching upon very little of the depth of either novel.
If they are going to do something like that, then they had just as well jettison most of either novel’s core material and just go all out sci-fi horror and focus on the Shrike, which is one of the genre’s most vicious characters.
Wow, what a wasted opportunity. Hopefully it never gets made now.
This book is really more "Canterbury Tales" than a monster movie. I heard Simmons talk about how they are thinking of putting the character's stories on the DVD or in comic book form and I just about plotzed. Yeesh.